My Dream Trip!!!!

So a little background to begin with...after my first trip abroad to visit family when I was 17, I realised that I may want to see something of the world. The original two places on this list were New Zealand and Western Canada. I'm not too sure what it is that speaks to me about these places but for 8 years they remained at the top of my destination wish list- in fact, they are still there!

In between my first few trips abroad I would always find time at home to research British Colombia and Alberta in the hopes of one day seeing it for myself. In 2010 my ex and I even began planning a trip across to Vancouver together but after a couple of weeks of planning we were told we couldn't get the time off together that we wanted. Needless to say that while this was a disappointment, it didn't deter me at all. If anything it spurred me on to not only get out there but to do it in the truest way to myself.

I already knew in my heart how I wanted to do it but finding the courage to do so would take another few years... Fast forward to early 2013...

I began toying with the idea of doing Canada on my own after my Egypt trip in 2012 but it wasn't until March that I began making actual decisions about it. I had put off travelling for so many years because I was too afraid to go it alone but I finally decided that if I waited to find someone to go with, then I would never go anywhere.

Best decision Ever!!!

Over the years I had considered many different ways of exploring the provinces; from escorted tours to greyhound buses; renting a car to using the trains. But the one option that had always stuck with me was to use the Moose travel network: a mutliday type of hop on /hop off tour bus.

This type of tour was a whole new experience for me so it's probably a good thing that I decided to jump right in the deep end, so to speak! I booked the flights and soon started planning where I wanted to hop off on tour. Given my time limitations I orginally picked Banff as my one stop. After all, Banff was as close to Calgary as I would get while on the tour and the Calgary Stampede was the main reason I had picked this time of the year to visit Canada. But as a last miniute decison before leaving home, I also decided to shorten my time in Banff so I could hop off briefly in Jasper as well.

And because this is me, and I can be a bit of a control freak, I planned most everything else before I left too. This included where I was staying while off the bus, what I wanted to do and even how to get about in certain places. What can I say, im both a wimp and a control freak!

So anyway heres how I spent the next 3 1/2 weeks of my life.........

Friday 28th June 2013, London to Vancouver (Yep thats right guys, I flew out on my birthday! Spoilt or what ?)

So my day actually started at 3am when I had to get up to leave home for Gatwick. Suprisingly I remained pretty calm and only began to get really nervous after passing through security. Luckily I managed to keep my mind blank and before I knew it I was on the Air Transat plane, with the 9hr flight passing quickly as i became engrossed watching different movies, . I dont really remember which except that the last one was Argo- I remembered this because we started our desent 15 minutes from the end!

On arrival the airport seemed extremly quiet and I was glad as it made it easy to navigate. The line to passport control took almost an hour but I didnt mind particulary as it gave me time to adjust and think through my next move... it also didnt hurt that when I got up front, my control guy was extremly easy on the eyes and friendly too!

On exiting YVR I made my way to the skytrain and found that once onboard, that too was fairly quiet, making my journey into downtown pretty smooth. Once off the train I found my B & B a lot closer than what I thought it would be and I soon found myself checked in and in my very small but workable room. I had a quick bite to eat but didnt dare stay still for too long as with the time difference it was only early afternoon there and I didnt want to sleep the day away.

I headed towards Stanley Park, which was about a 25 minute walk away and once I reached the edge of it I made my way onto the 8.8km seawall. I got lost a couple of times detouring off towards the totem poles and the aqaurium before eventually finding my way back to the path. I walked under the Lions Gate bridge which is pretty impressive from below, and passed the Siwash Rock. I stopped not far on from here for a rest as the day was starting to catch up with me and I soon got asked to take a ladys picture while she struck a yoga pose- I have to admit it looked fantastic with her awesome hippie vibe and with North Vancouver behind her!

I did eventually make it all around the sea wall before heading back to my B&B which I didnt think was too bad going. But by this time I had been up for over 24hrs straight so despite it barley being 9pm, it was well past my bedtime as far as I was concerned!

Saturday 29th June 2013, Vancouver

My free day in Vancouver had been planned early on. You see, off the coast of British Coloumbia are 2 resident Orca pods. Having always been intriqued by these beautiful creatures I knew I wanted to try to see them in their natural habbitat. So after much debate, I booked a tour with Wild Whale Tours which is based on Granville Island and has very good reviews both in the company and their respect for these animals.

At 9am I found myslef walking down Granville Street which was almost completly deserted apart from the homeless and one or two tourists. It was an odd experience as I knew granville street was known to be anything but quiet in the evenings but this did give me a good chance to look at their 'Starwalk'- A version similar to hollywoods starwalk, this has the names of local entertainers who made good and I did manage to spot Bryan Adams' star.

A little while later while crossing the bridge and estimating that despite the relativly early hour that the temputure was already around 20c, I realised I had left my sunlotion back at the B&B! Typical of me and knowing that I was spending a day on the water meant that I had to replace it before joining my tour. I stopped in a couple of supermarkets/ shops. One of which was 'no frills' which was great....if not a little too like work at home!!! I eventually caved and bought some lotion in a corner shop as I didnt want to waste more time on something so trival, but jeez Canada is expensive for the weirdest things!

Once I found my way to Granville ( after the bridge I had to double back on myself...) I found the office housing Wild whales and signed my waivers before being told I had time to wander if I wanted to. So off I went and explored the different shops and markets. Granville is a very odd place. Charming but odd. There are many different specialty shops as well as many differnet food stands.