D-day back to Sydney!
Today I did some more last minute shopping.
I packed my bags had a shower a big breakfast then checked out of the HI around 11 am putting my luggage into day storage.
Pouring with rain I then walked with a fellow hosteller Gemma or "Gamma Ray" as people call her to a another hostel The Cambie International. It is cheaper then the HI Downtown Vancouver but I can see this would be another party central hostel and there is no lift! I hope she can manage to lift her heavy suitcase up the flights of stairs. Now I know why it is cheaper less facilities on site but they have a huge pub with good hearty all day breakfasts. I wouldn't stay there but a group of guys and girls love it there and have all moved there - one of the guys Louie keeps referring to the HI as "Rehab" - I still have no idea why - he says it is too quiet.
After saying good bye to them, I had a walk around the Hostel and up Gastown stopping on the way to buy some famous Bacon Caramel Chocolate Bars from my favourite sandwich place "Meat & Bread" . It will be interesting to see how they taste this time round as they have changed manufacturers.
After my purchase I took some photos of the Steam Clock in Gastown. Apparently one of the other guys Kyle took some photos of the clock just a few days ago when it was vandalised - someone had smashed one of the glass panels.
The steam clock @ Gastown - still looking good for its age although it did have a facelift a few years ago - no sign of vandalism - just tourists taking photos round it
Scienceworld exterior which was the original Expo 86 site. Pushed for time on my last day in Canada I decided not to go in as entry fee was quite expensive. No discounts for hostel members.
The exterior and interior of Costco under the Sadium Chinatown skytrain station - I visited on my last day in Vancouver with my expired membership card from Australia just for Leon!
Onto finding some snacks and gifts then onto Stadium Chinatown to T & T for some Chinese quinoa whole wheat bread. Next back on the skytrain back to Main Street Scienceworld - pushed for time to see Scienceworld I spent my time going to Costco with my expired membership card. Oops got off at the wrong stop. Back on the skytrain to Stadium Chinatown where Costco is located. At Costco there is always free sampling - uh oh I am not feeling so good!
Back to the Hostel. Good time to leave as signs on doors indicated the stairways will be blocked off for renovations and the laundry will be unavailable during these renovations. First the lift was out of order now the stairs are! What happens if the lift is out of order again during the stairways renovation - hostellers staying on the 2nd 3rd and 4th floors will be all stuck and that would be about 80% of everyone staying there!
This morning I overheard that there was asbestos in the stairways - does that mean I have been exposed to this not only for the past 4 weeks but every year I have been staying there? No wonder I have been having problems breathing.
Onto the airport at 4.30 pm by Yellow Cab taxi. Checked in at the rather large set of Qantas counters went through security (the worst part) then to Gate D54 for Qantas flight QF76 due to depart at 8 pm. On time with clear weather. The plane is waiting outside the gate for a very full load of passengers tonight.
Less then 1 hour before I board the plane for the 15 hour long haul flight direct back to Sydney.
TBC.....
End of another far too long holiday - back to work the day after I arrive back in Sydney. Dont forget you lose 2 days!
My flight from inside the gate lounge - very old Qantas plane named "Longreach" which has flown millions of km - time to retire this plane soon - please replace this long haul flight with one of its new Dreamliners! You can feel its age seated inside it - rattling and shaking making it a really noisy long haul approximately 15 hour flight home.
15 hours , 3 movies, a sleep and a special meal request stuff up (non lactose does not mean vegetarian nor does it mean vegan - Get it right Qantas, Air Canada has! ) later, I am back in Sydney.
Just landed back in Sydney Airport awaiting baggage claim. This could take a while ie the good old FILO! - local time 6.55 am on Wednesday 31st January 2018 . Plane only delayed about 10 - 15 minutes.
1 hour to collect my main suitcase and ski bag before clearing the "Nothing to declare" gates. But not without an old lady and Chinese man holding up the queue for ages delaying my exit to my shuttle bus waiting for me. They had lost their epassport tickets or gone to the wrong exit!
Hard to believe I am back in Sydney Finally!
So much to do today and should be back at work tomorrow!
What I will miss about Canada is not just the adventures I went on but also the people I met from around the world and the funny things they said and did.
"You Germs Are Everywhere!" - one in particular - Phillip an 18 year old German - this was his first trip overseas - arrives in the communal kitchen with a can of baked beans. He was going to open the can and empty it's contents into a bowl to heat it up in the microwave. He reads the instructions on the tin and says to me "It says to put in the microwave for 1 - 11 minutes" - I advise him "that's 1 - 1 1/2 minutes not 1 - 11 minutes" before he realised he had misread it and corrected himself and attempts to hush me from telling all his friends. Next he tries to find a can opener but could not find one in the draws so he is directed to the bench mounted one. He has trouble using it so in steps Leon a fellow Aussie to help him. I hear a lot of clanking and banging with hits and misses. "How many guys does it take to open a can of baked beans?" Finally they manage to open the can and when I saw the can's lid upright I thought they had made a hole in the middle of the lid - a closer look showed just a circular mark on the lid and not an actual hole. As a joke I said to Louie that I should have placed the tin in the microwave! Apparently Louie actually once did this when he was younger.
On another occasion Phillip decides to go and find a local supermarket and do some grocery shopping. He didn't go to the closest supermarket which was the Independent on Davie Street, he walks all the way to the Safeway at the bottom of Robson Street a good 20 minute walk away. He then empties his groceries on the island bench in the communal kitchen. Some potatoes some onions some cheese and some stewing beef - what the? "Where are the vegetables?" I asked him. His response "potatos". I then asked him "Do you realise that the meat you purchased has to be cooked for a very long time ie slow cooked?" He did not realise that he had purchased the incorrect cut of meat. He thought it was a type of steak for frying. In steps Louie ( unsure where Louie is from but he refers to himself as a political refugee) to help him make dinner - he starts by frying the stewing steak adding oil and lots of dried herbs to flavour the meat. Once the process starts he advises Philip to watch it and that it will take 40 minutes to cook and become tender and leaves Philip to continue watching the meat until cooked. 20 minutes into the frying process Philip asks me if he can leave it to have a cigarette - I advise him with a flat "No! - you can't just leave your cooking!" Not quite 40 minutes later Philip empties the meat and potatoes onto a plate and a tray. We sit at the communal tables in the dining room - it looks ok and Leon has a taste - it is not tough but the herbs looked a little burnt because they were dry not fresh herbs used. Philip eats most of it so it must have been ok. It looked so oily and a bit dark.
A few weeks later towards the end of my stay Philip arrives in the communal kitchen again this time with a packet of instant noodles he had just purchased. There are just some staples that guys just like to eat while travelling - instant noodles steak and potatos and loads of pasta of all types. So Philip starts to read the instructs on how to cook the instant noodles on the packet. First he has trouble opening the packet's outer plastic wrap so I did it for him as this did require nail power. Next he reads - open the lid half way and take out the 2 sachets inside - ok so he opens the lid half way and then I instruct him to take out the 2 sachets - I explain to him that one is the condiments which you open and pour into the noodles before adding the water and the other is the flavoring sauce you add later. Ok done but next is what intrigued me. The instructions say to add 240 ml of water. I advise Philip to grab a green mug and fill it up to about the top of the handle which is approximately 240 mls. Philip then asks me "hot or cold water?" My response was "It is up to you - it is going in the microwave anyway!" I left him after this point but just before I left I checked that the lid was not a foil top one - no all good. Next day I checked the kitchen's microwave to ensure he had not caused an explosion - all good. After telling me that not all instant noodles are the same around the world - I just had to check. I wonder what he did with the second sachet of flavouring sauce!
"The Adventures Of Leon & Lise" - finding a place to live in Vancouver while you are on a working holiday can be daunting. Rent is very high in Vancouver and wages low. It is relatively easy to find a job particularly in the retail and hospitality industries in Vancouver in comparison to finding a place to live. The basic wage is around CAN$11 per hour pre tax and other deductions. When I did my working holiday it was around CAN$7 and that was over 2 decades ago so progress is slow. So Leon and Lise use Craig's List to look for a place to live - Craig's List seems to be the norm - I still don't understand why as it is full of scam advertisements especially in the rental and job sections. So Leon went with Lise to check out a room in an apartment. Too good to be true - there were stonners maniquins and a wild rabbit freely running around and pooping everywhere involved. Leon let the tenants know exactly what he thought about the apartment for rent - unfit for living in due to unhygenic conditions - were the tennants actually squatters looking to scam desperate tourists seeking long term accommodation? Both Leon and Lise ended up staying temporarily at Airbnb accommodation. Lise is now at a more permanent form of accommodation. When I organised to meet up with them at Metrotown with Clare, they decided to make a stop at the Sears Department store that had gone into administration and finally closed all its remaining stores in Canada on Sunday 14th January 2018. All that was left for sale were shop fittings and fixtures. While Leon and Lise were there they found some headless white mannequins for sale and decided to put their heads on the maniquins and take selfies as homage to their house hunting adventures. Little did they realise the photos they took were actually a piece of history - "the end of a shopping era". I would upload the photos but I can't remember where the photos are. Found on Facebook messenger refer below :
Then there was the time where Lise and I tried to play a joke on Leon with my stuffed possum. I asked Lise to check if Leon was in the library before I entered it at the hostel. Before I entered I placed my stuff possum in my puffer jacket arranging it so it looked real and walked in pretending to pat it saying to Leon "Look what I found?"He didn't quite fall for it and added that he was going to buy a stuffed animal and play a joke on someone else with it!
I took Lise to Lyn Canyon to see the suspension bridge during my stay. Lise kept wanting to turn back because every water fountain we walked past was shut off even the tap to fill up the dog's water bowl was shut off during the winter. We ended up as far as Rice Lake but did not complete even half of the short hike around the circuit. I had to push Lise onto the next viewing point around the Rice Lake circuit which was only a few hundred meters away and I could hear and see people from our first stop on the lake's circuit. So off we went and so glad I did as the view off the wharf by the lake was spectacular - an anglers paradise and the mist hovering above the lake gave a mystical mountain feeling. Imagine the serenity complete with background pan pipe music which I was describing as ancient Chinese music playing. One crazy Chinese angler was flicking his line and rod constantly and I advised Lise that I would meet her on the other side of the wharf by walking the long way round. Lise took the direct route past the numerous anglers along the wharf including the crazy Chinese angler who Lise realised was constantly flicking his rod and line with disregard to others around him. Lise then advises me that maybe my idea of taking the long way round was the safer option - yep I wasn't going to get hit in the face by the crazy Chinese angler!
"Tangible Verses Intangibles" - it is amazing what generation Y get up to on their smart phones and it is not just social media. Another hosteller (alias Gamma Ray and who reminds me of a Spice Girl) I met on my travels was into investing in cyrtocurrencies and Netflix. Bitcoin Litcoin Eutherium (see I can't even spell it!) and Netflix are just some of the online investments this traveller invested her money in. So far crytocurrency has made her some pocket money but overall she has made a loss. I am more of a bricks and mortar investor myself but she seemed to think crytocurrencies was the way to go and Netflix well this company is about to launch something that will make the price of Netflix investments skyrocket apparently
( information all legit no insider trading here) - the same thing can't be said for investments in crytocurrencies which,shortly after I arrived back in Sydney, plummeted. There is still a chance they can recover as they haven't crashed yet. Then there was the thief of crytocurrency incident overseas recently. Gen Y risk takers.
Gamma Ray is friends with Lazy Eye Louie who loves his big breakfasts, beer and loves to give everyone a backrub, Roofer Kyle (what happens in Whistler stays in Whistler) with his reference to come down kits and who loves his milk and drinks it by the litre and another Germ carpenter Lukas who in general is a good cook and loves his vegetables by the truck load as well as his huge Stanley thermos full of extra strong tea - they all know Leon and friends.
