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This is the beginning of my life in Canada. This was the first time that I have lived out of home and it was in a country that I had never been to before in my life. It was going to be an interesting experience.

Day 1: (Very long Sunday)

• When we arrived at the airport we found the right terminal and checked in my bags to my flight. Then we made our way to the departure gate, what came after was truly hard. One of the things that I find so difficult is goodbyes, I can’t deal with goodbyes. Today did feel like one of the hardest days of my life so far.
• My flight to Vancouver took an approximate total of around 17 hours with a two-hour stopover in Los Angeles. Overall it was a good flight without much turbulence. However, I could barely sleep a wink because I had a child kicking my elbow most of the night.
• I went through immigration and it took me a while to get through to get the working holiday visa, but I got it with ease. I honestly thought it would be a lot harder to get the visa but it was very straight forward.
• Today I met up with Nate, a friend whom I met on my last Contiki in Eastern Europe. I hadn’t seen in several months since he came to Melbourne.
• We stayed at a hotel called The Sylvia Hotel. It was in a nice quiet area called English Bay, it was between downtown and Stanley Park.
• We walked around the city toward Canada place and then got a perfect view of all Downtown Vancouver. Walking around there on a Sunday afternoon was quite relaxing.
• Afterwards, we got some dinner and then bought a few drinks and headed back to the hotel to sleep.

Day 2:

• Today we woke up to meet Jeremy another one of my friends whom I made when I was on Contiki in Europe, I hadn’t seen him since the Contiki had ended.
• We then left our bags at the Sylvia hotel. So that we could explore more of Downtown with ease. Because who can be bothered lugging around 20 kilos of luggage.
• When we were able to we checked into the Airbnb. It was an amazing apartment in south Vancouver. For the next few nights, I would have to sleep on the couch. But surprisingly it was rather comfortable.
• Later that night we met up with one of Jeremy’s friends that he had made on one of his previous Contiki’s. They showed us around to the best places to eat and drink in Vancouver. They also told us the best places to avoid if we could.

Day 3:

• I had an interview with for a job and I managed to secure the job before I travelled out of the city. IT was into a small industrial area of Burnaby about 40 minutes by public transport from Downtown. My idea was that I have a job to come back to after I finish the road trip with Nate and Jeremy. Although I never actually wanted to do that job because the job reviews were not the greatest. (I never actually went and worked that job because I didn’t like the idea of it).
• We booked some electric bikes and then we rode around Stanley Park. I will book these bikes in the future if I do not have my own bike by then. We first stopped off at this little section that had an assortment of different totem poles. They were interesting to actually be able to see them in person.

• The bikes allowed us to see the entirety of Stanley Park with ease. While we were going around we made sure to stop and take photos in all of the best spots.

Day 4:

• We went to Vancouver Island today to visit the city of Victoria. To get there we had to catch a ferry from Twassenn. The ferry took about an hour and a half and only cost $15 one way.
• We landed about an hour north of Victoria and had to catch the bus all the way down which took about an hour or so. We went through Sydney.
• When we arrived in Victoria we went to a pub immediately because we were both thirsty and hungry.
• Afterwards, we walked down to the closest park to have a nice wander through it. It was larger than we had thought but we got to see a lot of roaming peacocks. There was also a 50m totem pole.
• From there we made our way to the government buildings. We arrived too late so we did not have time to get a tour to go through them.

• We also wanted to go to Butchart Gardens but were unable to. We would have wanted to spend a lot of time there as the gardens were filled with many smaller gardens.
• But after that we decided just to relax in front of the Canada sign and eat ice cream before we made the trip back to our accommodation.

Day 5:

• We met up with one of Nates cousins who is living over in Vancouver at the moment and she showed us a little more of the city.
• She took us to the Capilano suspension bridge and it was absolutely gorgeous
• In the Capilano Park, there was also a tree walk and a cliff walk, you got to see the whole valley from different angles.

• In the end, we were all quite tired from our several long days in a row. After we had a late lunch with Nate’s cousin we went back to the accommodation. that night was just spent relaxing in the Airbnb and watching movies all night long.

Day 6:

• Today was the day that we went to pick up our transportation, which is a Kia. We were very lucky to get this car because it is bigger than the other car we would have been getting. I especially was lucky because for me it wasn’t going to be so cramped in the back.
• We left Vancouver and made our way up to whistler. The main weird thing about the drive was driving on the right-hand side of the road which just overall felt wrong.
• On our way out of Vancouver, we stopped at this forest that was called Lynn Park. We got to see another small suspension bridge and then walk amongst the pine trees along a little wooden path. The best part is that it is only a short drive from downtown and we got to have the immense forest feel while still being in civilisation.

• Along the way, we stopped at the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish. Luckily we didn’t have to climb up because it would have been a very long way to climb.

• We made it to our accommodation in Whistler and it was rather cozy but good all the same. This time I got one of the bedrooms and a whole queen bed all to myself.
• That night we went into Whistler village for dinner at an Irish pub and met up with one of Jeremy’s other Contiki friend.

Day 7:

• We tried to have breakfast at this roadhouse across from our accommodation but it being the weekend we would’ve had to wait a fair old while in order to get a table and we were starving so we made our way back into the village.
• We spent the morning exploring the village of Whistler. It was expanded for the winter Olympics many years prior and has been an attraction of BC ever since. IT is lively all year round with snow activities during winter. Then with bike riding during the summer.
• That day we went to this train wreck that was in the middle of nowhere. It was obviously one of the old lines that went through there and has just never been moved. But it was really awesome to see something like that after the long walk we had to do to get to it.

• After we had visited that we went back to the apartment for a short while before we met up with Jeremy’s friend again. This time we headed to some waterfalls called Brandywine Falls. After a nice and easy walk, we reached the falls and they were gorgeous because they poured out into a massive gorge.

• After we had visited the falls we headed back into the village to get dinner and then have a few nice drinks. It was a nice chill night after that, just drinking and talking before heading back to the apartment to relax further.