So what do you do on Christmas day when you have no family or friends in the country? You go skiing of course!!
After spending Christmas eve talking to our various family members on skype (since the time difference is quite large) we were faced with a whole day of free time to entertain ourselves. We had subleted a lovely little apartment right in the heart of the city from a lady who was going away to visit her family for the holidays. The hostel was getting too expensive, so we agreed to take the place for a few weeks whilst we were deciding what to do. In between, we stayed briefly in a 27th floor apartment, which had one of the most amazing views ever!
Well we set off down the street in our snow gear for Grouse Mountain....yep, thats right, down the street. The public transport connects direct to the mountain so without even leaving zone 2 you can be on the slopes in about an hour. I must say it feels pretty strange to be wandering among the skyscrapers with a snowboard in tow, but nevertheless, it is pretty damn cool.
So first we make our way to the train station....
Then a short trip across the harbour on the seabus....
Then a regular bus, and finally up the hill on an enormous aerial tramway. What an eclectic ride!
We were delighted to find that the rest of the city had families to spend the day with, so we got the entire mountain to ourselves, not a lift que in sight and fresh powder falling all the while. What a day!
I am really loving how close things are to the city. Within minutes walk of the city centre, you can be on beautiful beaches, or in the middle of thick cedar forest and beautiful lakes. Ski slopes, hiking trails and canyons with roaring waterfalls are only a short bus trip away too. The locals seem to appreciate it too, even the city busses have mountain bike racks on the front!
NYE was probably the most crazy and random I have ever had! Starting our evening at home with our flatmate and some buddies of his, we had more than enough Jäger’s, scotch’s and beers to get in the right mood, then when they headed out to club we decided that we would have to go out and find our own party. Since nobody had invited us to one yet, we begun knocking on random doors wherever we could hear good music....what a great idea! We met some Polish people who were great fun, and visited a Bulgarian/Ukranian party which had the best food ever! Then it was off to the infamous Granville St where there was quite a street party going on.
We partied the night away there, the pictures tell the story beautifully, especially as I can’t.... I have no memory of anything past about 12:30! We definitely had a good time though, I know because I was hung over for two days!
We didn’t seem to be having much luck getting Pharma work in Vancouver (probably the time of year) so we decided it was time for plan B....Head for the snow and just have fun! When we came to Canada we had decided that the only place we did not want to live was Whistler, too expensive and touristy we figured. So where do you think we leased a house? Whistler of course! Several mates are up here and we managed to score a VERY reasonably priced apartment here, so we decided that we would take advantage of the labour shortage. The resort is hosting the Olympics in 2010 so there is a lot of construction workers here that have taken up a lot of the available accommodation, leaving a big shortage of resort staff. So far, I am glad we did. It is a pretty groovy place, and the locals mostly seem to be pretty down to earth, even if they do live in multi-million dollar chalet’s! Every time I look out the window, I have to kick myself, it really is amazing to be totally immersed in the wild. Stuff just happens up here, the other day a bobcat wandered into a shop and sat down behind the counter! Needless to say the customers and staff made a hasty exit! Our neighbour told us that if you leave stuff like hamburger wrappers in the car, bears will often smash through the window to get at it. I am glad that they are hibernating at the moment! Even the rubbish dump has bear-proof trash compactors! Getting used to waking up in the middle of the night to the crunch and grind of mini avalanches falling from the roof. After spending about an hour clearing my front steps this morning, I was a little disappointed to hear ‘that’ sound and turn to see a torrent of ice and snow cascade down onto the path leaving a four foot high pile of snow blocking our doorway again. I gave up in defeat after that, it is my flatmates turn to shovel I reckon. I have lived in snowy areas before, but this is just unbelievable, the sheer amount of snow is mind boggling. We have a base of about 2.3 metres already and it is still falling, I am running out of places to shovel it.
Getting around is interesting too, the bus system is very good, but when the snow comes down, it is traffic mayhem. It is a queasy feeling to be fishtailing down the road in a commuter bus, missing other traffic by inches, or not, as the case may be. Justine has already been involved in a bus crash on her way to work!
I bought my season pass today. Even if I can’t see out the lounge windows at the moment due to a seven foot pile of snow in the way, it is good to know that every inch I have to shovel off the front path is another inch up on the mountain. I can’t wait to get up there tomorrow!
