Good bye Canada...Good bye North America

So tonight is my last night in Canada and North America. It's been 23 weeks since I left England, spent 11 weeks and 2 days in the States and 11 weeks 6 days in Canada (by the time I leave tomorrow). My American visa would have expired in 2 and a half weeks anyway, so I'm not leaving the continent much shorter than what I originally planned. So my next stop will be Hong Kong, I leave Vancouver airport tomorrow early afternoon and after a 12 hour flight I will be in Shanghai, then a flight onto Hong Kong.

Went into Vancouver today and picked up a few bits including my foreign currencies:

That's my last $110 Canadian. But just so you know, $100 Canadian gets you (roughly for each country):

• $100 American
• $750 Hong Kong (The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC))
• ฿3,000 Thai Baht
• And ₫1,500,000 (Yes 1 and a half million) Vietnamese dong

I was unable to get any money for Laos. So anyway, after a long weekend in Hong Kong, I will be heading to Vietnam to do my Asia tour which includes Laos and Thailand. Before staying in Thailand for a little while, then flying into Brisbane, Australia next month - that's right I actually have a plan, WITH DATES! And I'll be meeting Danny G from back home (the first mate from back home that I'll be seeing since Ryan and Katie left me in Washington 3 and a half months ago).

I won't really put any more photos of my last few days, I only have some photos of my ferry ride back to the mainland and some more photos of Vancouver

So anyway, I didn't do it when a left Jasper, but I suppose I should do it now: Big thank yous....Thank you to Sheryl (my manger's manager at Fairmont Stores), the first and only Canadian I knew when I crossed the US/Canadian border back in November. Thanks to Courtney for getting me through them "great" days at work...some of them really were the best, and thanks for all them truly Canadian meals. Thanks to all the staff at the Grizz for all your help at the start, especially Rob, you were amazing dude. Thanks to Cory, Keegan, Stacey and Mark for the house parties...so many epic flip cup moments of glory....not too many moments of beer pong glory for me. Also thanks to James, Shaifa, MmmattFigueirraa, Blaire and Matt for hosting too. Thank you Kim for the more then entertaining nights (I know how that sounds, but if you know Kim, you know what I mean). Thanks Steph for my free coffee (I got it in the end). Nice one to Jeff, Chad, Nick for the snowboarding adventures. Thank you Milan for being sane, it helps in a place like Jasper. Thank you Karly for my drawing, I still have it, and it will go up when I get to Oz. Thanks Laura O for making my 6 minutes walk home a lot longer. Thanks to my Wifey, Kayla, my best distraction. Thanks Laura for the long talks and the epic late night dances outside A cabin...it will be summer soon! Thanks Dan for everything dude, and for planning the whole Alberta road trip, sweet sweet times. Cheers Bryony too for having an English contact, and thanks for the hook up with your brother. And shout out to big gay Tom, awesome times, looking forward to seeing you again next month. Sorry to Jenna, I wasn't trying to mess you around, and thanks for trying to help, shame I didn't get to see you again before I left. Thanks Cassie and Caighlah for inviting me to Ottawa and David, Wanda (hope you enjoyed your time away), Tyler, Josh, Corey and everyone else in Ottawa, twas an awesome week. Thanks to Becca for taking all my time back in the bean, the very cheap breakfasts and for inviting me to the Island, and Mary, Wally and Emily for putting up with me. Thanks also to Sara for housing us for a couple of nights and Chris, Justine and Canadian Cam for my two trips down to Victoria. Thanks finally to Eleni and Katie for the random house that you found for me to stay in for my last few days in Canada (that's no joke, their staying in a random house...it's legit, but random). Finally thanks to Sophie back in STA Southampton for helping me sort all my Asia trip in such a short time. Thanks to anyone else I've forgotten to mention, don't take it personally, there's a lot of people to thank.

Hope to see you all again at some point.

So long Tim Hortons, you were great (in Canada, not the States (you suck there)), but you're no Dunkin' Donuts. And so long root beer.

Another typical day for Mr Sheen.

OK, so my body's still on Ottawa time, and I'm finally on Vancouver Island (which is three hours behind Ottawa). This is the first day I aint seen snow in over two months, this is also the first time I've seen rain in over two months!

My journey here didn't quite go as planned. I blame me and Becca and a lack of planning...as in, there was none. I left Ottawa yesterday with no problem (and I got to watch the end of "The Social Network" on my flight), and got to Vancouver last night, with no problems....getting the ferry proved to be the problem. After riding the SkyTrain all over Vancouver, and being told the original ferry I wanted to get stopped running at 9, by Becca (at 10:10), so before getting the bus to Horseshoe Bay, I tried to get to the other ferry terminal (Tsawwassen) which would leave for the Island at 10:45...great, now the SkyTrains don't wanna work...looks like I'm spending the night in Vancouver. Now I wanted to be cheap and get to the Island as early as possible, so I decided that I'd just leave my stuff in the Samesun Hostel (where I stayed last time I was in Vancouver) and pull an all nighter, and just try and hit bars until as late as I could. Sweet plan, bars are open till 4 in Vancouver....shame that they only serve alcohol till 2....I drunk a lot of water last night! I don't ever remember pulling an all nighter that sober EVER!

I managed to stay there till 4 this morning (thank you to all at Roxy's Burgers, down Granville street, especially as I didn't even spend a single penny in there), then picked up my stuff from the hostel, then headed to MacDonald's for an hour, where I drunk my iced Mocha and read the paper (I can't believe Torres has actually gone to Chelsea, fair play). Got on my bus at 5:30 from Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay, then got my ferry at 6:30 to Nanaimo (or Departure Bay). Best mess up ever, I'm so glad I got to arrive on Vancouver Island through the day.

So anyway, I'm currently with Becca, who's passed out, staying in Sara's (and friend's) house in Nanaimo. I haven't slept since I woke up in Ottawa yesterday, I could probably go on, but we're having a party tonight, and I know my body, I will be fine today and probably tonight, but I will suffer tomorrow (and just sleep through) if I don't! But before I do get a couple of hours shut-eye, here's MY day in pictures:

Parliament building in Ottawa, Ontario, Thursday about midday (GMT -5)

I remember when they were just 10p

Goodbye Ottawa

Listening to Pink Floyd's "I wish you were here" at this point....so good!

So many police out at 3 in the morning...we only saw them arresting one guy though!?!?!

Yep!

Vancouver at 5:20 on Friday morning (GMT -8) (this morning)

Sunrise..well, sorta!?

The Island...about 8 this morning (Friday)

It was so windy on that "Sun" deck, but so worth it. Thank you Pink Floyd for randomly coming on my MP3 player and making the situation better yet again!

It's gone midday here now, so I've been up for about 29 hours now....only one thing to do...PARTY!!!! (but maybe SOME sleep first).

...Right no, the chipmunks theme tune has just come on and Sara's just said she's meeting us in a n hour...I will get some sleep...shower later, after food!

Groundhog Day

Can a wood chuck chuck wood!? More than likely, I dunno!?! But apparently a groundhog in Ontario couldn’t see it’s own Shadow today and this means that winter is coming to an end here. Shame that this is my last full day here, so it doesn’t really make too much difference to me.


So I’ve been in Ottawa just shy of a week now, staying with the Keenans. And I cannot lie, I’m having a great time here, kinda thinking a week isn’t long enough (even if the Keenans have had enough of me)…everyone, and I mean everyone has been great here (except for the creep who wanted to use my accent to help him talk to girls…I wouldn’t mind doing it usually, but if you’re just gonna stand and stare at them by the dance floor…well, sorry mate but you are a lost cause…in life as a whole!). But overall, Canadians are great!

So, anyway the last time I saw the Cassie and Caighalh was their last night in Jasper back at the end of December…good times:


So it was definitely good to see them both at Ottawa airport last Thursday when I arrived there at midnight. I’m just glad that they showed up, I’d’ve defiantly left me at the airport.

Been a pretty chilled out week, think I’ve caught up on most the sleep that I lost out on in Jasper (not missing work AT ALL). I’ve ice skated along the longest skating rink in the world, the Rideau Cannel, all 7.8Km of it…and back again, Twas a bit crowded, but still good fun…..only in Canada. A Sunday afternoon skate through a major city seems a lot more novel to me then a Sunday afternoon walk through the woods. Beaver Tails taste pretty good (just a pastry), kinda just covered in sugar and lemon (kinda like a pre-mature pancake day)…I some how still have all my teeth (cos there was a lot of sugar on that thing). Been out to a few local Ottawa bars (don’t worry Mum I wasn’t gonna drink on Saturday night….but…well Cassie’s friends were really nice to me)! Didn’t get to watch Saints loose to Man U on Saturday cos Local Heroes DID NOT have Setanta sports, although they led as to believe that they did! And we defiantly didn’t go bowling this week either, I’m pretty sure that I would’ve remembered it if we did!

$9 beer + TIP...Yeah right!?!?!

We also headed (slightly) over the providence boarder to Quebec on Monday to go to the Museum of civilization (not because we are cival, but because we need to learn how to be civil).

Whale bones

Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario, taken from Quebec

Concentrate

Faster...Faster!!!!

Crossing the bride back from Quebec to Ontario (kinda the same as Oregon and Washington) 

And, if you really thought that the Adam and Eve story was real, sorry but the Native’s believe in the Sky Woman:





So FYI – it snows it Ottawa and the snow’s coming down quite a lot today. Had to shovel today, fun for me – a choir for them! Kinda wishing I didn’t send all my snow gear to Vancouver Island so early!













Last night in Ottawa tonight. Think It’ll just be a (fairly) chilled out evening with Cassie, Caighlah, and their friends here (although Caighlah “just feels like being loud right now”). Heading off to the airport tomorrow evening to fly back to Vancouver (hopefully Air Canada still have "’The Social Network’ on their flights, it wasn’t an amazing film, but I enjoyed it and I wanna see the last twenty minutes of it) to meet up with Becca and Sara tomorrow evening on Vancouver Island. But before I go, big thank you to Dave, Wanda, Tyler, Cassie, Caighlah, Cory and Josh for having me here this week. I’ve had an awesome time. And I hope you have a great birthday tomorrow Wanda…and I really hope you decide where you wanna go.



Although, Caighlah is “now over her loud phase, and wants the tranquillity of it all, and is over the hump”…so tonight could go either way really.

I still can’t really use the internet cos the Keenans’ bill is pretty expensive for January. But I did just wanna post this online quick!

And some things just don't change:

I'm a week away from being gone from England for five months and I have now covered 2 countries and 11 States/Providences since leaving home.