I'M HERE!!!!

Well I arrived! After exploring Vancouver for 3 days, I headed up to Whistler via the Greyhound and have now moved into my new room - Ravenscrest West!

Where to begin hey.. well let's start with Vancouver. I arrived at the Samesun Hostel around 10am on Monday morning and my room wasn't ready as yet so I headed off to explore the city! Now if you haven't been to Van then I try and imagine Sydney! The awesome thing about Vancouver though is that you've got the city, the mountains, and the harbour all in sight and at your doorstep! It's the perfect photo (if the weather is being kind to you anyway)!

I knew I only had a few days to see as much as I could so I walked, and I walked, and I walked! I walked the four corners of Vancouver and tried to see as much as possible! I went to gastown (Vancouver's version of Newtown minus the yuppies) and saw the steam clock. It was at this point that a homeless man managed to get $2 out of me in return for a photo of me beside the clock!

Stanley Park was another major attraction - this is where I went squirrel spotting, saw the famous totem poles, and hired a bike for $12 and rode around the park for a few hours. It was only after this ride that I will be forever greatful for my Cervelo!

When my time was up in Vancouver, I caught a taxi to the greyhound station at 7am in the morning (it is still dark at that hour in Vancouver) and hit the road, Whistler bound! Mum told me to look at the scenery but I hadn't slept much in 3 days due to both jet lag and paper thin walls in a hostel, so I'll admit that I did sleep for half the bus trip. The part that I did see however was simply snowy roads! As I was on a coach heading up an iced road, I was perfectly fine with sleeping the trip away as it somewhat resembled the road to Mt Hutt!

Keltie picked me up from Whistler and drove me to my humble abode, Ravenscrest West, perched on the lovely Blueberry Hill, 1km out of the village! After meeting my new roomies, 3 of which are aussies, 2 from the UK, and 2 from Norway, I quickly leant the house rules and to lock my door at night as Phil and Josh proceeded to drag me out of bed at 2am on my first night whilst they were heavily under the influence!

Friday the 25th brought my first day skiing in Whistler and what can I say... EPIC!!!! I feel like a beginner again as the powder is so deep and so unknown to me that I was leaning back the whole day and felt like I should be water skiing! At one point I was so deep in powder that I lost a ski 2metres up the mountain and each step I took to attempt to retrieve it, I got buried in waist deep powder! As all my housemates were below laughing, I had to wait for a stranger to ski past and I embarrassingly asked for his assistance!

So as a result of the amazing skiing and awesome atmosphere, I've decided that I'm going to make use of this working/holiday and only work part time (yes much to Glenno's disgust)! The snow is too good to look at every day whilst working so I'm going to really emphasise the 'holiday' portion of this trip and live it up! And as work is rather scarce over here until mid-late December, I'm off to do some more skiing, more drinking, and have some more adventures

Until next time :)

xx