We'd been waiting on the highway of Lake Louise for over two hours, and
it was beginning to seem like we weren't going to get a hitch. Realising we'd been a
bit ambitious in thinking some kind stranger was going to let us tag along on
their 4 hour drive up north, we started trudging back towards the town, to
catch that $150 bus we had tried so hard to avoid. Cars continued to
carelessly drive by, so as we walked I forlornly stuck my thumb out, wishing it
was my middle finger. Suddenly, a car pulled up next to us, and a smiley
Chinese couple jumped out and start shouting something about Jasper. Without
waiting to hear any more, we were piling our rucksacks into the boot and
jumping cheerfully into the backseat of their snazzy hire car. We were on our
way!
Jasper
Pulling up at our campground
after an amazing 6 hour drive up north (stopping at every scenic spot along the way – thank you couple from Beijing), we immediately set up camp and headed out
for a celebratory meal. Walking back in the pitch black to our campsite, every
shadow began to look like one of the many bears we knew were out there, and as
soon as someone raised the issue of potential alien invasions we vowed never to
make this long walk in the dark again. Jasper and its surroundings were
amazing, and we continued to get lucky hitching to and from the town, the
highlight being riding at high speed in the back of some students’ truck.
Picking up our second rental car of the trip (and making a pact not to break it
this time), we decided after a few days to move to an even sunnier spot:
Kelowna.
Spotting two more bears, a moose,
and even more amazing scenery on the drive down, we arrived in Kelowna excited
and ready to drink. Starting our first day with a spot of parasailing and many
a wine tour (because apparently we shit money now), we all agreed that Kelowna
is a pretty perfect place to relax in. Deciding to leave our slightly weird
trailer park campsite behind ($1 for five minutes in the shower, disgraceful) Verity
and I agreed we’d take it in turns to drive to Vancouver and see if we could make
it all the way in a day, whilst keeping the rental car fully intact.
Vancouver
Having never couchsurfed before, we
were pretty nervous. Arriving at our temporary new home, the door was opened by
a guy about our age, and in my panicked state I started spieling about how I’d
spoken to someone called Quinn about us staying there. Turns out the person I
was word vomiting at was in fact Quinn himself (not a great start) and he
showed us a hole in the ceiling, leading to the loft we would be staying in
(yes, the loft). Trying not to get hysterical at the weirdness of the situation juxtaposed to how calm and relaxed Quinn seemed to be, we decided to head out
and do some sightseeing and deal with the whole couchsurfing thing later. As we
left I bumped into a German girl who said she’d been staying there for ten days
(!), so it soon became clear we weren’t their only surfers. We went into the
city, ate some sushi, and came back around midnight, worried about what
we might be returning to. Walking down their road, we could already smell the
weed. Upon arrival, we were faced with about eight international faces,
including the four Canadians that actually live there. The record player was
playin’, and everyone was high as fuck. They told us about themselves,
hilarious stories about their work as T.V. extras and how they always do sneaky
thumbs up in every scene, in the hope that one of their friends will one day call them up saying they’d spotted them onscreen. But their most impressive feat is
that in three months, they have never said no to a couchsurfing request. Whilst
we stayed at Quinn’s, we met more people than we had the whole time travelling,
as each day there was always someone new crashing there, from the three
Australians camping in the garden to the numerous Italians crashing in the
basement. One of Quinn’s housemates even had a camper van in the front garden,
which they use to hide their surfers when they have inspections. These guys were
officially the coolest, most chilled people I had ever met, and staying at
Quinn’s was fast becoming an adventure I was totally on board with…
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