Finally in Vancity

I'll take you from the start - plane and all:

Sunday very early;

Right now, it is 4 AM Ottawa time but in Edmonton time, it’s unfortunately 2 AM and I have to wait until 5:30 AM to see if I’ll be able to find a shuttle to get me to VIA Rail in time. My flight from Ottawa to Toronto was relatively short and sweet, and I had 2 seats by myself. Now, getting in Toronto sucked for 3 reasons: No free wi-fi like in Ottawa, the Sens were getting beaten 4-0 by Toronto and I felt like secretly all the Leafs fan were laughing at me, and I spilled my Tim Horton’s soup all over my jogging pants, great. But, it seems that the Olympic Gods wanted to make it all better so when I checked in (didn’t have my seat number) they gave me 1F. Took me 2 seconds to take in that I’d be going in first class.

 I wish first class was this...

Now, I never thought First Class would be that much better than regular, but wow, are those flight attendants ever almost your slaves! Poor things. We were only 4 out of a possible 12, so I really had all the attention I could get, as well as I was in the first row all by myself, once again. The food and drinks are continuous (ordered water at first until I realized I could get free beer, Thanks!) And I kept being awkward with all the things they would offer me, because half of the time I had no clue what the etiquette was. There were a few awkward situations with the flight attendant, let me tell you. Ice cream and warm cookies? Thanks. Real meal on real plates and not being charged for it? Thanks. Continuous beer throughout the flight? Thanks. Three pillows and a blanket? Thanks!

Anyway, now I’m going to be hopping on the Train soon and this is really where it all starts! I think I’ll be treated fairly well there too considering I’m in a super expensive bed/seat with the 500$ gift certificate (I think economic would have cost about 150 maybe) So thank you Telfer, I shall report!

Also to note, the first crazy hat I bought for the weekend. I’m semi-obssessed…

I love crazy hats.

Sunday, night;

Train.

So the train today was amazing. First, I had to nap from 8 – 12 because my sleep at the airport wasn’t the greatest, talk about the biggest kink in my neck of life. The bus driver woke me up at 5 am and told me he could drive me right away to VIA Rail. Excellent, was there 2 hours early almost!

The cool thing about the train is that a lot of people go by themselves like myself, and we become a little close group. I met a bunch of people on the train, two girls from Ottawa, one volunteering at the speed skating rink and her friend accompanying her, one that is a RCMP show person (yes the people in the red coats and big hats, she has a show everyday on a horse to perform, amazing). Also, a few others around my age.

Met three older ladies, the first I had breakfast with is actually going to be a nurse that Canada Hockey Place with me, so that’s quite interesting, and then another lady who takes the train quite often, who is babysitting her grand-child because her daughter is working in the olympics, and another older lady, around her 70’s, that I spoke with in the bubble train for quite a while, sweet lady. I ended up having supper or breakfast with all three of them at one point, the attendants always encourage you to sit with others when your alone, and you even become friends and joke with the attendants, they were really cool with me.

For sure it was easy for everybody to be talking Olympics because that’s where everybody was going, and we all kept cracking jokes about our hometowns (From Subury, to Pembrooke, to Ottawa to Calgary, to Regina, to Vancouver, etc) and about anything and everything.

The view of the mountains was ridiculous. Never have I been so excited to see mountains, snow and trees. Its so beautiful, I will try to incorporate the most of it in my videos as I took quite a few of those as well! We got some free champagne and wine while in the ‘bubble’ train, all pretty cool.

Here are some pictures:

Highest peak in the Rockies.

In Jasper

 Not a cloud in the sky!

Monday, morning;

The sleeping went well, I woke up every here and there, but I did go to sleep at like 9 pm which was odd, and woke up at 12 thinking it was 6 am. During the trip I went back 3 hours which was odd but my long trip made it really easy for me to get used to it.

In the morning, laying in my bed looking outside my window.

So getting in Vancouver was tricky – I decided to drop my two big bags at the station so I could go be a tourist for a while. First, I went to the skytrain to see how I’m going to get to Surrey in all of this, so I go up the stairs and the man is super nice, telling me which train to take and what to watch out for, then leaves to go see somebody and the woman, biggest bitch every (excuse my language) she just comes up to me says I’m not supposed to be here and I could get fined 170$ and that there’s signs ‘everywhere’ saying that. Sorry, I went around after and found one sign saying that I shouldn’t of been there, and nowhere indicating there’d be a fine. It was automated machines, figured people could tell me straight up what I wanted. Anyway, I can’t even imagine being a real tourist and having that as your first conversation with somebody from Vancouver, I’d be really disapointed and I was dissapointed that there wa sa bitch like that telling people off. Why couldn’t she be like her coworker, Geez.

Then it started to pour. Back to the station I go, got a picture of the Russia House, then two big gentlemen told me to go away pretty much, Thanks, Russia. So I’m back to the Train station and will catch a train in three hours.

And the rain, my god, who knew. It really feels like we’re in April in Ottawa – weird to think we’re even hosting Winter games. Poor Cypress Hill, now I really get it.

That’s it for now -