When the American media fails you, find your own European journalists.

I’m typing this on the Chicago-DC train, about 2 hours our of DC. Again, there’s no wifi on the train, so if you are reading this, we’ve made it to DC and are in our hotel.

One of the things I’m finding so far on this trip is that the American media focuses on local issues first, with national issues covered second. Local news is completely irrelevant to us, to be honest. And while it’s interesting to hear what is happening nationally, it’s very difficult to find out what is happening in the rest of the world, because international events are covered only insofar as they relate to the US. It’s not just TV – we’re currently on the Chicago-DC overnight train, and having just thumbed through the complimentary copy of ‘USA Today’, there is a single news story that emanates from outside the US, which is something about plans to make the UK House of Lords elected. While that was an interesting story, we want more!

One of the things that happens on overnight rail travel is meals are served in ‘community seating’ style. Tables seat 4, so if you are travelling with 3 other friends, you can always sit together. But because Cathy and I are 2, this means we’re always paired up with 2 other random people from the train. Some conversations so far have been interesting while others have been completely inane (and it’s a struggle sometimes to keep up the pretence of conversation), but last night we were paired with a couple of journalists from French TV who are doing a story on the ‘swing States’ between Chicago and DC gauging attitudes of the electorate as to who they will vote for, and why (they may have also picked Chicago as the starting point given that’s where the current President is from). Their conclusions as of last night was that there’s no way Obama can lose given his opponent, but one of the reasons they gave was they thought it would be a backward step for the nation to reject its first African-American president after only a single term given the paradigm shift it was to elect him in the first place. We mentioned the Australian context, which they found interesting: you’d think a nation electing its first female PM would be cause to celebrate – it’s a similar watershed – but apparently not.

Conversation was so interesting that we were the last ones to leave the dining car and almost had to be forcibly ejected by the frustrated army general who’s running the kitchen on this train. One of the interesting things they said was that Americans they’d been interviewing were surprised that French/European television was so interested in what they thought – clearly showing these people’s lack of understanding  that the decisions they make do change the world, a suspicion I’d hitherto suspected but hadn’t had confirmed. Anyway, it was great to hear what was happening in the EU as well as the rest of the world, from a European focus. Just walked back from the café car to notice them interviewing some random about his thoughts on Obama and the election. Will definitely have to keep an eye out for this piece online when it is complete – they said it would be screened late August, and would be posted to Youtube about the same time.

Before we left Chicago, Cathy bet me that this train would be late. The agreed stakes are $50, and if the train is on time, I win, and if it’s late, Cathy wins. She was generous enough to grant me 50 minutes grace (i.e. if the train is less than 50 minutes late, it’s ‘on time’ and I win), but we’re ahead of schedule right now (about 2 hours out of DC) so I think my money is safe.

As I type, my arm keeps going a little bit numb. These bunks are SO narrow – marginally narrower than on the previous train, I think, and the marginal difference was the difference between a good night’s sleep and not. Consequently it was difficult to sleep last night, and what little sleep I got was from being scrunched up in a ball (I think my arm got more sleep than I did). But it wasn’t just the bunk that stopped me sleeping, it was also the noisy people in adjacent cabins who just wouldn’t shut up. I’m sure it’ll go away once we get to DC and start walking.

Cathy said she just saw her first Confederate flag from out the window. Yes, Virginia; Maryland is the South.

hidey-hey ...

We got in late last night. There wasn't much open in town (Sunday night) apart from a late night sports bar across the toad. A snack and a nightcap, and we were back in the room.

I slept far too late this morning, but we still managed to make the most of our one and only day in Chicago. I'll say this. The buildings here, in the downtown area, are not overrated. The architecture is spectacular. I don't know enough about town planning to say whether the buildings complimented each other or not - maybe each building is trying to out-do its neighbour? - but the buildings themselves, as stand-alones, are incredible.

We spent half of the day at the art gallery. Won't say too much other than I saw this classic piece of 20th century American painting that I never thought I'd see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawks . We also saw a fair amount of the downtown lakefront area - so hard to believe that the lakes freeze over in winter when it was about 30C today.

We spent half an hour in a post office, which sucked, but besides that, we had a cocktail or two 27 floors up, and a Mexican dinner, then Cathy beat me 2-1 in a best-of-three world challenge at ten pin bowling.

Back in the room now. Cathy has a couple of things planned for tomorrow, then in the afternoon we again venture forth on Amtrak for the overnighter to DC.

'...how often do the trains go by?'

If your response to that witty reference to Chicago trains from ‘The Blues Brothers’ was ‘ah, so often you won’t even notice’, I’d assume you were referring strictly to urban transit. The correct answer, in terms of interstate traffic, is NOT ANYWHERE NEAR BLOODY OFTEN ENOUGH.

Below are a couple of notes I wrote on the train (no wifi).

*

We are currently (Saturday 7/7, lunchtime) on the Amtrak train from Seattle to Chicago. Train was supposed to leave from Seattle mid-afternoon yesterday, but it’s been ridiculously hot here lately, and there was a derailment somewhere in Montana (presumably through warped rails) which meant we had to join the train in Spokane by road (note to Cathy’s and my parents – there’s no wifi on the train, so I’m typing this in a Word document which I’ll put on the blog when we get to Chicago – so if you’re reading this, it means we made it to Chicago OK). A 5 hour coach ride from one side of Washington (the State, not the city: confusing, I know) to Spokane station meant we made the train about 4 hours before departure. We were lucky – some buses from Seattle went straight to Spokane whereas others made all the stops, which would have taken about 8 hours. We were doubly lucky – Amtrak generously refunded us about $1.75 each for the fact we had to get a bus for part of the journey. And we were triply lucky - being in sleeper class meant we could get straight on the train from the coach – apparently everyone else had to wait, not sure why. As we got on board the train, the steward said it would be about 3 hours before we moved, but invited us to help ourselves to free complimentary champagne. They ought to know better than to put an Australian in charge of alcohol distribution. Anyway, we settled in to our roomette, we drank champagne, Cathy thrashed me at chess, then it was time for bed.

Didn’t think I’d sleep all that well given the cabins here are smaller than on the Canadian trains. But I slept like a log – I’m really getting used to the feeling of a moving train as I fall asleep. The bunk is so close to the roof that if I woke up in the middle of the night and tried to sit bolt upright, I’d probably break my neck, so I’ll have to remember not to do that tonight. Might leave myself a note, but since you’re reading this after we’ve actually arrived at our destination, you can rest assured I’m still all in one piece. Also the bunk is so skinny there’s a harness to keep me in place and stop me falling out of the bunk. All part of the adventure, and it didn’t affect my ability to sleep at all.

We keep passing these tiny towns – as I type, we’re stopped at a place called Shelby, in MT, which could be Montana or Minnesota – Cathy just corrected me, it’s Montana – so confusing, can’t the Americans spring for a third letter on their State IDs? – which looks to me to be an agricultural community in long decline. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in places like these. They look dead, but there must be people here – looking out the window, there are ten times as many cars as there are people.  I imagine these towns are kept on life support through massive farm subsidies, but I wonder if it might be best to rip off the bandaid once and for all (term of the day is ‘structural adjustment’) rather than just stringing them along. Then again, food security is an emerging geo-political issue, so maybe (like in most things) I’m talking out of my arse.

We’ll keep passing these tiny towns at a fairly leisurely pace for the next day or so. On this trip, which takes about 47 hours (including the omnibus prologue) if we’re on time, we left Washington (the State) to pass through Idaho, Montana (where we currently are), North Dakota (Coen Bros fans: the train stops at Fargo overnight, but it’ll be 2.10am and I’m not getting up), Minnesota, Wisconsin (I’ll wave to Fonzie, Richie, Laverne and Shirley), and finally Illinois, which is where Chicago is. And while there are bushfires around the place (I’m expecting it to be pushing 40 degrees when we get to Chicago), I don’t think the train goes anywhere near them (refer earlier note: if you’re reading this, we made it to Chicago).

Seattle was nice. Was sunny and warm while we were there, which was contrary to all expectations. Apparently it had done nothing but rain for weeks prior, so everyone in the town was out and about, visiting the famous markets (as were we). Renea would have loved the punk rock exhibition we saw there, which included a famous guitar and a famous jumper from a famous film clip made by a famous band from Seattle. Also saw a science fiction exhibition where I nearly had to mop Cathy up off the floor a number of times (Star Trek stuff; don’t ask, I wouldn’t know the details). Also, while sitting in a lovely park we shared a piece of BBQed corn on the cob which was hotter than the sun and melted our faces. We also had what was billed as the best martini in the world – Fred Astaire in a glass, apparently. I wasn’t quite sure after the first one, so I had to have a second. Just to verify, of course. We didn’t go up the Space Needle as I’m a wuss, and we didn’t see Bill Gates or Frasier.

It seems strange to be working on uni stuff while on this trip. I’m going to miss 5 weeks of lectures so I need to be reading ahead. It’s OK, I’m coping (I think). So far, there’s plenty of travel time to read and write, as should be clearly self-evident.

Not sure what we plan to do in Chicago, to be honest. Maybe some quality time at the gym, for me – if there’s one in the hotel. Apparently there’s a Walter Burley Griffin district, so as any good Canberran would do, we plan to look it up. But to be honest, there’s not all that much about Chicago that interests me. No matter, we’re only there for 2 nights anyway; maybe my impression will change once we arrive. We had breakkie with a couple of people from Chicago and while they mentioned a number of things we could do, I hadn’t heard of any of them. I think we’re going to this city mainly because it’s where this train terminates; really no other reason. Will probably end up going to the Chicago Art Gallery – having been to the VAG, we should also go to the CAG.

I’m finding Americans to be very nice, kind, polite, friendly people (my impression of THAT might change as we get closer to New York) who are always up for a chat, but they also quite unbelievably loud. On the bus last night, Cathy and I remarked that you could almost hear a pin drop on the Sydney-to-Canberra Murrays bus because nobody speaks, but on the bus last night, there was no peace and/or quiet to be found at all. I don’t know whether it’s the niceness/kindness/politeness coming out in the sheer enjoyment of conversation, or whether it’s the overabundance of sugar in the diet. Probably both; either way, I was glad I bought noise-cancelling headphones before we left.

We’re still in Shelby. As mentioned earlier, it’s in MT, but it really should be in MN, as in middle of nowhere.

And we’re skipping lunch.

*

‘Guess you’re really up shit creek then ….’

A few hours passed after I wrote that note, and it slowly became clear I wrote too soon. The delay in Shelby referred to earlier was nothing compared to what was to come. I’m writing again now about 24 hours later (Sunday 8/7, mid-afternoon) and the train is about 6 hours late. It relates to the derailment mentioned earlier. Apparently the track was unsafe in eastern Montana, so they called in a crew late yesterday afternoon to fix it before we could proceed. We were delayed about 5 hours, just sitting in the train, quite literally in MN (middle of nowhere), unable to do anything. I thought it was going to turn into the scene in ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ where the train fries itself and they have to pull all their luggage off the train and go in search of alternatives. Given that as the alternative scenario, I’m happy with a 6 hour delay (not sure where the extra hour was lost). So we won’t get into Chicago until about 10 or 11 tonight, which means we really only have one full day in the town. That’s OK. Nothing we could do about it even if it wasn’t. But if we’d stayed there much longer I worried we’d run into The Good Ole Boys, which would have been disastrous, because I don’t know both kinds of music.

We got the impression they tried to make up some time overnight because the cabin really shook. I was glad of the arse harness for the top bunk, otherwise I might have fallen out and landed on Cathy. The delay meant we passed through Fargo at sunrise but I wasn’t awake, and even if I was, it’s a real challenge getting into an out of these bunks. In any case, when we awoke, we found that even after all that, we were just as late as we were at sunset the night before. The stories people tell about the DC/NY/Boston part of the network being the only efficient part seem to ring true.

I am not sure if the delay is Amtrak’s fault or not. Certainly seems strange that they would have let the train leave Spokane in the first place while suspecting the rail itself wasn’t up to scratch, but the eventual outcome is certainly better than being stuck on a bus for two days – Cathy would have lost it completely and I wouldn’t have been too far behind her. I don’t know how the American rail system is owned/managed, but I am guessing there is a third party access rights system in place (since this principle for regulation of natural monopoly emanates from the American railroad system – sorry, Cathy). If so, it would mean Amtrak merely run the service, and aren’t responsible for maintaining/fixing the track itself. Diffused responsibility is a wonderful thing; nobody on the train knows who to yell at (or even which level of government to yell at). Still, I’m kind of wishing we’d traversed Canada instead of the US. While we’ve again met some really interesting people on the train (but have only met one person so far who knows Canberra is the capital of Australia – and this is surprising because most US State capitals are not the State’s biggest city), it’s making me wish we’d traversed Canada by rail instead of the US.

I was also wondering about the crew they had to call in late on a Saturday afternoon to fix it. I was wondering what might have happened if it was 1950s Australia – the crew would have wanted triple time, and then when they showed up they would have said “it’s a bit too hot, we’ll call in some lights and start work after sunset, but the clock starts now” – we may still have been stuck there. Still, it’s given us a lot of time to read, sleep, talk and play chess. Read ‘The Great Gatsby’ on the train which was pretty good, as well as some uni stuff. We need to go bookshopping in Chicago and post some books home (and maybe one pair of Cathy’s shoes).

Again, by the time you read this, we’re in Chicago at our hotel, and have had a drink and a snack at a late night place across the road (resisted the strong temptation to order four fried chickens and a Coke) – but it’s taken a long time to get here and I’m tired. I don’t really mind if we don’t see very much of Chicago tomorrow (tomorrow’s all we’ve got), it’ll just be nice to be stationary for a while. I knew upfront that the train would take a long time to arrive (it’s a big country), and honestly, that’s part of the experience (the sensation of having travelled), but the delays soured it a bit for me. If this trip is any indication, it’s quite clear to me now why Americans rely so heavily on cars. I assume it’s a political choice, because other similar economies (the EU and Japan spring to mind) have much more balanced approaches to private and public transportation.

On the upside, I am currently the chess champion – that makes the aggregate score 2 games to me, and about 80 to Cathy … Yes! Yes! I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!

Vancouver - the food part 2

Since I am sitting here horribly glutened with Jay peacefully sleeping behind me...might as well catch up on some food blogging! And remember times when my stomach didn't feel like it was being punched by a boxer.

This is a photo of Jay sampling some lovely Canadian wines by the harbour in Victoria. I am including this to record the weirdness that is ordering wine in ounces. I ordered six oz of wine...Jay ordered nine, and so was given an additional carafe of wine with the extra three oz. Weird. But then in Australia I supposed we have the new "lines on the glass thing".

 The photos below are from the wonderful meal that my friend Yoni in Vancouver treated us to. She took us to the Boathouse. Not the Canberra one :p but the one on Kitsilano Beach. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day as apparently is common in the month of “Junuary” in Vancouver. But it was still gorgeous overlooking the harbour. The food was also incredible and the service even better. The waiter practically gave us a floor show and made lots of great recommendations - including for wine. Apparently it is almost impossible to get this wine outside Canada - but if you see it get it! Burrowing Owl Pinot Gris. Wow.

To start we shared, some yam fries (which at the time I didn't realise were to become standard part of diet for the next few weeks) and these amazing coconut covered deep fried prawns. Perfectly cooked and full of flavour. For mains, Yoni had the Steelhead (???) and I had halibut, and Jay salmon. Yes we were naughty and ate fish, but hey it was seafood restaurant and it smelt so good!

A much cheaper but still very yummy vego meal was then had the next day when Jay and I went exploring the Punjabi market in Vancouver. It is not really a market but more a few blocks of shops filled with bollywood heaven, plus a number of restaurants that do vegetarian Indian buffets. We went to All India Sweets and Restaurant, it wasn't brilliant but it was yummy - the dahl was definitely the "hero of the dish". The staff were also lovely and didn't laugh when I took a while to understand what "pop" was. I was too full afterwards to try the sweets, but they looked pretty! :)

Final Vancouver food memory to record is from a bar we stumbled on my accident while killing time between trains (holidays are tough :p). It is on Main St in Vancouver - a really interesting street that Jay and I walked 51 blocks of (I didn't count I know because the station is before 1st Avenue and Punjabi Market is from 49th-51st street; useful yet boring these naming of streets with numbers). Along the way we stopped at Queen Elizabeth Park, a number of second hand shops and this pub called Portland Craft. Much to Jay's distress this pub had a number of their own beers on tap - a bit like the wig and pen but much fancier. Jay drank a beer called Twilight just for me :p but more importantly this pub had its own home made pickles!!!! These were awesome...but I am must admit I am not convinced that you can get away with pickled blueberries - I think that was taking things a little too far.

Mental idiom translation #1

"So, what do y'all put on your fries down under, ketchup?"

(Question from a fellow traveller from Vancouver to Jasper, who was from St Louis)

I can deal with the fries/chips terminology, as well as the ketchup reference when they really mean tomato sauce, but the next person who refers to my residence as "down under" gets it. :)

Au revoir Canada...ya

Greetings all I will leave the comedy to my travelling companion, "Woody Costanza"....but just wanted to record a few thoughts now that part one of our Canada adventure is over and we are now officially in the USA after being smelt by US immigration dogs.

I have loved our time in Canada so far, both Vancouver and Jasper.

From my perspective Vancuover really seems to be the Sydney of Canada, just as Ottawa is the Canberra of Canada (though with beautiful architecture and a lot more class!).  The harbour is magnificient and would really outdo Sydney's if it hadn't been somewhat spoilt by industry, including huge piles of sulphur everywhere. I would love to live in Vancouver but I suspect I would be an outcast - the city seems to be filled with fit, beautiful and lovely people, who make use of the many beautiful parks and walking tracks. I could potentially also develop a fountain phobia (they sure don't have water shortages here...). Nevertheless, I think I could be happy to spend significant time lazing around in Stanley Park (just beautiful) or Queen Elizabeth Park and consuming as many different foods from Granville Island markets as possible. If I had Ms Singh with me, I am sure I would have bought a lot more things at the Punjabi markets as well (credit card breathes sigh of relief).

From Jasper, we caught the overnight train to Jasper in the Rockies. This is something I have been wanting to do since I was a serious teenager. It was quite an amazing experience. It was quite bizarre curling up in my bunk at night looking at a slightly industrial twighlight landscape, and then being greeted with the morning sunshine rising over the largest snow capped mountains I have ever seen in my life. The great thing about getting the train, is the journey is as much of an experience as the destination. Certainly, I am sure its the people we meet a long the way that will remain key memories of this trip. Already we have met some really interesting characters (plus unfortunately some very loud ones...). Howard and Cliff from St Louis were brilliant storytellers and really gave me a different insight in to military life in the USA, and the personal consequences of the ridiculous "don't ask don't tell policy". Last night we met the Davids - one a young, uber Newtownish muso type from New York who is writing his own Ulysses, I am sure we will all be reading it one day! And the elderly David a retired academic geologist who is still working to help countries better understand undersea earthquakes and possible tsunami impacts.

Jasper itself was just gorgeous - I rather felt like we landed on the set of Northern Exposure (but with no Moose ggrrrr argh grumpf). It was picture perfect. Surrounded by snow capped mountains and gorgeous lakes - oddly named with very unmajestic names of Colin and Mildred. I really wish we had more time to explore but we did pretty well and I managed to mostly keep the car "Colin" on the right side of the road...amazingly the time I didn't nothing beeped, that would have been useful...Colin appeared to beep at us for absolutely everything else which started to drive me a little nuts. It even accused Jay of trying to break into the car via the boot.

Maligne lake was definitely a highlight. I loved that the tour guide on our boat took us to Spirit Island and advised "this is what you think you are here to see and you can stand there and take the photo that everyone has, but over there that is the good bit" - and sure enough he was right.

It was also great to spend Canada Day in Jasper - with flags everywhere and fireworks. I am sure this is hypocritical of me. Australia Day makes me want to vomit but this just seemed so quaint.
 
Anyway, USA time now...it will be interesting to see how different things are just over the border in Seattle.

So far the only annoyances I have experienced in Canada are a regular use of "ya", excessive faffing around by government employees (although this made me feel like my work colleagues and I are so efficient), ridiculously large servings of food and things taking a long time  - but largely due to people being way too nice and helpful!

Weird things so far...serving wine in mini carafes, drug stores, berries in salads, ridiculous sized punnets of strawberries, pop, crap sauvignon blanc, good chardonnay...

Good things so far....interesting people, breathtaking scenery, funky chunky popcorn, yam chips, wines from Okanagan valley, gluten free food in Jasper!, lots of walking and sleeping for the first time in months, getting to see bears, mountain goats, elk and deer just wandering along the side of the road.
 
x
C

Vancoova and Jaspa

Hello, world. This is me. We’ve been out of wifi touch for a few days, up in the mountains of Alberta. Could have gone to an internet café but couldn’t be stuffed. Been too busy doing stuff. Haven’t even missed Facebook. (Cue: Cathy, falling off chair.)

Today we saw a number of breathtakingly beautiful lakes in and around the Jasper region of Alberta, as well as taking a dip at a hot springs pool. Cathy was at the wheel, and on the other side of the road. We were planning to go to the Columbia Icefields glacier but I wasn’t dressed for the occasion. Note to self: when driving down a road called the Icefields Parkway, don’t wear shorts, you idiot. Also, this major national highway has pedestrian crossings on it. Only in Canada. The mountains here are incredible – even the medium sized ones are bigger than Kosciusko. We’re a long way up. I’m going to come back with a few hundred pictures of trees, lakes and mountains from this segment of the trip (Cathy’s denoted this the ‘nature segment’ of the trip). Oh, and some pictures of elk, mountain sheep, and a black bear we saw on the side of the road. Had lunch at a diner in the middle of town today. Note to self: never eat at a diner again. Nearly made me puke, and nearly killed Cathy. (Note to Cathy’s mum: no, not really, but it was BAD). Worst meal ever, three and a half stars.

Yesterday was the national day of Canada, and while there were fireworks, I couldn’t be bothered getting back up. Earlier someone wished me a happy Canada Day and I said “thanks, it’s my first one”. Just a small insight into the pain Cathy must endure over the next few weeks. The sun doesn’t set until about 10pm, which is my kind of sunset, but it’s not dark enough for fireworks until about 11.30pm. Cathy poked her head out the door. Earlier that day we drove to Maligne Lake and saw the world-famous Spirit Island up close. I admit I’d never heard of it before but I need to do some research – apparently Spirit Island was the subject of a famous Kodak promotion for slides. Also visited a number of waterfalls (French: chutes) which were – in a word – violent. No wonder people die when they jump the fence in search of the perfect happy snap. Also visited a country club which Cathy wanted to visit for a drink, which will probably be the closest I get to Caddyshack. Dropped a few of Dangerfield’s classic lines on the way in. Needed a better audience, clearly.

The day before was spent mostly on a train, the overnight from Vancouver, which left at about 9pm and arrived the following afternoon at Jasper at 4pm. Train is such a beautifully peaceful way to travel; firstly, they stay on the ground, and secondly, there’s a real sense of having travelled (at least, that’s what I think). Probably the lengthiest train I’ve ever travelled on – somewhere between 30 and 40 carriages, I think. It was the trans-Canada en route to Toronto, what a journey that would be! Travelled the Vancouver-Jasper leg with a couple of retired gentlemen from St Louis in the opposite compartment. Very interesting conversation about Canada, and our two respective countries. The earlier evening Cathy and I shared a drink east of Vancouver in a darkened ‘observation deck’ carriage on the train which we had to ourselves, travelling through the darkness. Lovely.

The previous day was spent wandering around the part of Vancouver adjacent to the Pacific Central railway station – we had to check out of our hotel at 11am but the train didn’t leave for Jasper until about 8pm, so after checking in our bags, we caught the bus 50 blocks up to the Punjabi area where Cathy bought a sari and some lunch at an Indian veg buffet. Walked the 50 blocks back, stopping at a watering hole or two (BC/Alberta seems to be microbrewery heaven) where we discovered the strangeness of picked blueberries.

What did we do before that? We had a gloriously sunny and warm day in Vancouver where Cathy organised a lovely picnic (French: piquenique) in Stanley Park (French: Parc Stanley), where we saw the beginnings of a local cricket match and visited the penguins and otters at the Vancouver Aquarium. Reminded me of a park (French: parc) that Cathy and I both love in Tokyo, where you completely forget you’re in a crowded city. 

Very difficult to compare Vancouver Harbour to Sydney – they’re two very different harbours, but Vancouver certainly holds its own. The only significant drawback is that Sydney has shifted a lot of its heavy industry away from the ‘tourist’ part of the harbour; it was strange to be enjoying a lovely day in the park on the harbour and looking at cement factories and piles of sulphur on the opposite shore. Other than that, it’s stunning, and I give it three and a half stars. We also had a rainy day or two where we still did stuff, including visiting Chinatown and the Dr Sun Yat Sen Chinese garden (students of China, spot the obvious flaw here) which was really quite pretty and peaceful, catching up with a work colleague of Cathy’s for dinner (next trip Israel?) looking over a misty and foggy harbour, and catching up with a very old friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in about a decade.

What else did we do in Vancouver? Visited the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) where there was an exhibition about the Cone sisters. Sadly, they’re Cone, but not forgotten (I can’t take the credit, but nonetheless made the joke a number of times in the gallery). Sadly, the art didn’t grab me all that much, but maybe I’m excited about the wondrous stuff we’ll see over the next few weeks. We walked around Vancouver quite a lot, and ended up one day on Granville Island (smallest harbour ferry ever), wandering the markets and struggling to decide what to have for lunch one day because we’re so used to having limited choice but this place had EVERYTHING (almost).

Anyway, I’ll try to write more frequently – I think we have wifi at almost every place from here on in, because I realise now how difficult it is to capture a busy week (my first in a new country) in a few short paragraphs. And now? We’re sitting in the station at Jasper, waiting for our train back to Vancouver. It’s been raining all day, and is really quite cold. I mean, *really* cold. So much for the Canadian summer – I bet it’s warmer right now in Canberra!