Wow, it´s only been 20 days since i left home and what an up and down experience Ive had. The excitemant and fun of exploring new lands mixed with the emotional rollercoater that has been my relationship with Cordelia over the past few weeks.
So after Vancouver Island we returned to the main land for 4 nights staying at a youth hostel in the middle of the city. It was overcast, and about 6 degrees for most of the time, with peroids of rain and a smattering of sunshine. The 4 days are a bit of a blur, where we managed to sample a lot of fast food (bufflo wings, pizza, tacos, burritos) and putine, which is supposed to be a traditional Canadian dish, but really its just fries soaked in gravy and cheese and damn it was good.
Also, one day as we were walking, almost everywhere you could smell weed. Everyone who smoked did so openly in the street. So i approached one group of stoners and asked them if they knew where to get some (sorry Mum and Dad) They gave me direstions to a street further dwon town, and a shop that had a bulldog as its logo. I went back to my room and googled the address. The results came back with a website that was dedicated to growing, selling and obtaining weed in Vancouver. Surprisingly the instructions given to me in the street where repeated over and over in comments on the site. So, after grabbing some cash, I headed out on what was about a 10 block trip. I found the store easily, so I entered and asked. The place was a cafe where you could smoke but not buy. The girls behind the desk ummd and ahhd when i asked, probably cos they didnt trust me, and said that I should be able to find some just by walking around. As i exited I saw an ATM and remembered a comment on the website. If I stood at the machine with cash in hand, someone would approach me, So i did. Five seconds later the blck tinted door right next to the machine opens up and a head pops out ¨Yo, you after some thing?¨ ¨Yea, some buds¨ i replied. ¨Come in¨ I slipped ion quietly getting a closer look at the door man. He had wild eyes, pale, pock marked skin, gaunt features and missing 3 of his top front teeth. He directed me to the first door on the right. Entering, there was a middle aged man sitting next to what looked like 3 pounds of buds and a small electronic scale. He asked how much? I said fifty. He reaches in to one bag and starts piling it on til his scale reads fifty. I grabs a snap lock bag, pours in the contents of the scale, seals it, hands it over, I give him cash and he says have a nice day with a very sincere smile. As i walk out i walk past the doorman whos quoting Dave Chappelle ¨I Rick James bitch¨ to which I reply ¨Ill stamp my feet on yo couch¨ which rouses a gap toothed smile as I exit. And it was that easy, and I got the equivalent of what you´d get for $100 in NZ. So i happily marched back to the hostel, stopping to buy some flowers for Cordelia along the way. I tell her the whole story and she is gob smacked, and very impressed with my ability to search out contraband. It´s from this point that the rest of our time here gets a bit blurry, the reason obvious.
That night we go on a pub crawl organised by the hostel. For some reason they´ve got a deal going with a place called The Bourbon Bar. It´s a country and western bar, whose patrons wear checkered shirts, cowboy hats and boots even though theres not a horse, ranch or rodeo with in miles of the city. But they did have a mechanical bull. So after a session and a few pints I gotr the balls up to have a go. The machine goes up to level 5, and increases in halves, starting at level 2. The easy levels feel like a gentle lope, it´s pretty easy up until Lv 4. By this time Ive got the crowd behind me, cheering loudly as the bull begins to buck. I´m caught up in he atmosphere, Im riding like a pro, I start slapping the fake bull on the arse. Lv 4.5, same again, Im unstoppable, , the crowd getting louder and ooooing as I almost come off, but I survive. Last level and half the bar is crowded around the ring as I take grip of the saddle and give the man the signal. Im doing great, 1 sec 2 sec 3 sec, still going strong, 4 sec 5 sec 6 sec, then the bull seems to go in four diretions at the same time, 7 secs, I´m in mid air, landing on my head on the soft mats. I get up and throw my hands up to the loud applause of the gathered crowd. Cordelia gives me a big kiss as I exit the ring waling tall and Proud. We are about to move on to the next bar (theres only 2 bars on this pub crawl. LAME!) and as I walk out of the bar, I keel over and almost fall. My hips, pelvis and crotch are aching and its hard to walk. Its like the bull was riding me I try to sit down but that sore too, so I try too walk it off. I find that walking like a cowboy hurts less, so now i know why they are bow legged. A few more pints at the second bar mutes the pain. The next bar is more my style. Theres 2 rooms, one house, one hiphop. and it´s really fun. Cordelia and I had a great time dancing and people watching. From the black crowd in the hiphop room to the white crowd in the house room, all the posturing and and interations are the same as in NZ. The black guys are all blinged out with gold chains and huge meddalions, while the blcok women wear low cut tops and apple bottom jeans. The white crowd is a little more subdued with everyone doing what passes for dancing with the exception of a few. Overall a fun night which ened with me and Cordelia going to Mega Pizza and eating bufflo wings with ranch dressing and pepperoni pizza. YUM
In the moring, I felt like Id had a baby. I could hardly walk to the toilet and groaned with every movement. The day was a right off for me. Cordelia managed to go to the gym and visit her ex flatmate, and also grab some sorely neede fresh veges. The grocer was right next door to her old flat, and the owner had developed a cruch on her while shed been livng there. Whan she came back she said that the owner had already sized me up from the one night I satyed there when I arrived.He even gave her his card, which said that his title was ´President´ of his non existant union. That evening after yummy fresh sald, I managed to hobble out fora short walk and session, but thats about it. The next night we went and had dinner at a great taco place, everything was really fresh. Did you know that traditional tacos are soft? I didnt, and now you do. Afterwards we went to a standup comedy show. There were four acts, · guys one girl. I was a bit high so I dont remember much of the show, but there was one joke. It was about weed being a ateway drug and 99 percent of heroine addicts stared using weed before they used heroine. But what if they aligned heroine use with something else like....eating cheese. You could safelt say that 99 persnt of heroine addicts probably ate cheese before they started using heroine, so therefore cheese must be a gateway drug. Overall a lot of the jokes were aimed at Canadians, so I didnt understyand, and my injuries were making it really hard to sit still and on top of that I was boiling because I´d worn thermals for the cold weather outside, but it was super warm inside. I know. I was being a bit pathetic.
Sunday was spent visiting a used book store for things to read while lounging on a hot Cuban beach while drinking mojitos and smoking a cigar. I ended up with a couple of books on tai chi and kung fu, plus 2 sci fi novels to satisfy my inner nerd. The local ´drug´ store provide all the 1st world comforts we knew would be lacking in Cuba, from soap, shampoo, bug spray, sun screen and some basic first aid. I cant remeber how I spent that arvo, cos I got high, but that night after dinner it suddenly hit me that I had this big bag of weed and I was leaving the next day. So after dinner, on the walk back, i slipped it to a guy busking on his guitar. Wow, guys, you are amazing was the reply I think. My good deed for the day waas done.
Packed and ready we headed to Toronto for a 1 night night stop over on the way to Varadero, Cuba. We satyed with Cordelia´s mum´s friends Dina and Aviva, who are a lovely jewish lesbian couple. Aviva is a rabbi and professor at the local university, and Dina is heavily involved in work with the community. These two where abosolutly lovely, they made me feel right at home in their beautiful place with their rascally little dog Rufus. Dinner was fantastic, with fish, chicken and heaps of veges, which was wellcome after all the crap wed been eating. And get this. This is how lovely they were. After dinner, at about 1030pm, Dina took us to Wallmart to buy snorkelling gear for Cuba!! Then at the crack off dawn we were up and and packed ready to head to Cuba, mojitos, cigars and glorious sunshine.
Thats all for now everyone. Sorry for any spelling mistakes and bad punctuation, Cuban computers are setup wah differently. Obviously through all this, there were lots of talking, tears, and hugs and more tears as we tried to sort out whats happened between Cordelia and I. We´ve alreay spent 6 days in Varadero, which I will update you with later, but at the moment Im in Trindad de Cuba, and Cordelia is in Havana. We´re spending this time apart with the intention that we will meet in Havana at the start of May and see how we feel. Fingers crossed. Sorry again Mum and Dad about the weed, it´s been a hard time, and Happy birthday for the 14th and 16th. And also thanks everyone for the words of love and encouragement. Both Cordelia and I appreciate it all and return it ten fold
Til next time
Kava
Chur
