Cowboys, Canadians & Crazy American Children

Hi all, So I'm back in Vancouver but I feel like I've been all over the place in the week since I last blogged. I was in Victoria the last time I wrote - such a great city! I ended up staying 3 nights in Victoria. The hostel was much fun with open mic nights, other live music and lots of people around to talk to (although I don't think I really got any sleep!). Thursday saw me set of on the self-guided walks of the city. It was great to see so many different parts of the city including the oldest chinatown in Canada, Fishermans wharf (complete with float houses), the beautiful gardens of the Empress Hotel and the fun of downtown around the wharf. Whilst I was doing this wandering I found a little kayaking tour place so i booked myself in for the following morning. This was one of the best things I've done so far! Brad and I headed out through the harbour to the islands just outside of Victoria. We saw seals (within a metre of the boats), lots of other wildlife and ended up at the first lighthouse in Victoria. It was such a beautiful morning which I followed with fish and chips and and ice cream at Fishermans Wharf - heaven! The next day I headed off early on the bus to Tofino which is meant to be the surf capital of BC - you could not pay me enough to get in that water though - 7 degrees!!! They are all crazy up here I swear! I spent 2 nights in Tofino with an epic day of bike riding in between (the lady at the rental place said it was an easy ride - 60kms later I was one very tired little aussie kid!!!). Lots of beaches and rainforest which was awesome to see! Highlight from Tofino though had to be sitting in the pub on the wharf having dinner while watching two eagles try to steal fish from a sea lion right in front. The sea lion was doing a pretty good job though and I dont think the eagles (or the gigantic seagulls for that matter) managed to get anything! Absolutely exhausted but happy I headed back to Vancouver to be reunited with Katie's couch on Monday night. Since then I have just been trying to recuperate. Played beach volleyball on Tuesday with a group of people that I met at the bus stop in Tofino which was awesome fun (I don't think I contributed much talent though, sadly...). They were all super excited to introduce me to new Canadian food I hadn't tried yet and we managed to knock poutine, perogies, crab cakes, yam fries and wings off the list of must-trys... As we speak I'm making Banoffee Pie for Katie and her friends to try when we head out on a boat into the harbour this arvo to take advantage of the (finally) increasing temps (tough life, I know!) and then I only have one day left in Van. I'm heading over to Quebec City on Saturday, followed by Montreal and Toronto before I finally head back into the states on the 2nd. So you're all caught up now... Next installment coming soon!!! Big love, Z