When you wake up as you please, stay out with no worries of work tomorrow and have a total of ZERO commitments each day, it does not matter whether it is Friday or Monday.
Re-reading that, it sounds like a pretty lazy, apathetic attitude. I am still an "early-riser" by the standards of other backpackers. I will usually wake up at 7:30am (plus 10 minutes for every beer consumed the night prior).
Yesterday I woke up with no plans, as I do most days and just went with it. I ended up on Salt Spring Island (1 hour bus, 35 minute ferry, 30 minute bus) with four German guys. How that came to be isn't a very interesting story, so we'll skip that. We left at 10am in the morning, and after waiting for buses/ferry + travel time, we arrived in the "city" area of the island at approximately 2pm. We stocked up on some m for fuel and set out looking for the highest point on the island. We were sad to hear that it would take us too long to get up the top, and we had to catch a ferry back to Victoria, so we settled for a nice hike up another mountain, which in the end, was more spectacular than what any of us originally anticipated.
Team Germany at the top!
It was a wet hike, but it was awesome fun. We reached the top, took our happy snaps, refuelled with some fruit and made our way down the slippery mountain.
After spending the majority of the day on our ass either waiting for public transport, or being on public transport, we all agreed that it was worth it... See?
There was a trivia night at the hostel that evening, so a lot of the guests took part in some silly categories of questions (McDonalds, human anatomy, 90s television, geography, etc...). I abandoned team Germany (which was flourishing! They had about 9 people, maybe more on their team) and I joined team America! It was me and two American girls. We came fourth in the end, but that didn't matter, I don't need to prove my intellect to a bunch of drunk travellers. After the quiz, the two American girls, Max my German roomie and I went down the road to the Crickety Wicket (where the AFL and Rugby League was on!)
Turns out the two girls both do not eat meat (one was full Vegan) and Max does not eat meat either, so it was a table of Vege heads discussing topics from modern day food to the war on terror. The night finished at approximately 2:30am, great!
I rolled out of bed at 8:30am this morning. I had planned to meet my friend Kim in the kitchen area at 10am, but I wanted to detoxify and have my breakfast first. I ended up chatting to a lady from Brisbane who was a graphic designer, now a farm worker (hated the corporate world!). In the end, the 3 of us went towards Beacon Hill Park, and then to "the beach". I had been on my first day in Victoria, but it was a sunny day and I wanted to head towards the beach, and Noeleen (the Aussie) wanted to head towards the park.
I had a blast exploring the park/rocky beach on my first day, by myself. But being there again to share the experience and have others to have fun with, made the second time round even more fun.
And this time I had someone to take my photos for me!
We (well I had a blast) playing next to the ocean, amongst the rocks. It was then lunch time and I made a big plate of veggies and beans, yummy. The rest of the arvo has been very rainy and I did some washing with Max and Eike. I also booked a nights accomodation in Seattle... Oh yeah, did I forget to mention I am going back to AMERICA!!! Tomorrow morning I am finally checking out of the hostel (although, I could stay there for another 6 weeks) and catching a ferry across the boarder to Seattle. Yippeeeee, the adventure continues...
"To venture is to risk death, not to venture is to have died already."
I'm in Starbucks right now, wanted to get out of all the noise and write an update. I am off to have dinner (I feel like an omelete) and then maybe a glass of red wine. I don't think it will be a late night, although it is Friday, the hostel is FULL and people are already starting to get drunk. No thanks.
Sayonara!
