Friday, March 31, 2006

North Sydney to Stephenville

Well, we're finally in Newfoundland. We had a bit of a start when we got to the ferry - apparently we were supposed to reserve spots, even as walk-on passengers. However, while the guy behind the desk was putting us on the waiting list (and making us sweat), more places became available or something, and we got our tickets. I'm not too sure what the deal was - considering there were maybe 20 other walk-ons and not much traffic - but I guess I'd have to suggest booking tickets to anyone taking the ferry to Newfoundland. Just to save yourself a scare if nothing else.

But all that was forgotten once we were on the ferry. First thing that surprised me, it was really, really empty. I had thought there wasn't much traffic, but this was crazy. I'd been hoping to run around and get interviews - and maybe find a ride to St. John's or somewhere along the way to St. John's - but the truckers had vanished - sleeping I was told, and most of the other passengers were getting wrapped up in the crappy movie.

We met James on the ferry and hung out with him for a bit. He was also looking to hitchhike out towards St. John's - only he lives out that way, so he probably has about 1000x better chance of getting a ride. He told us that Deer Lake, about 4 hrs east of the ferry terminal in Port-aux-Basques, is a good place to hitch though, cause it's a crossroads for the east and the north and a lot of truckers stop there.

I wanted to catch him for an interview, but we ended up on deck instead as the ferry was pulling out. Good thing, there was a thin layer of ice burgs out in the distance. It was kind of surreal, this line of white cutting through the ocean. And even more surreal as we plowed toward it, and then through the ice. And Neil even spotted a seal out on the ice which I missed. Grrr. Next time.

The ride was about 7 hours long. We ended up meeting up with Werner, who owns a lodge in Margaree Forks in Nova Scotia. He'd never been to Newfoundland, and didn't really know where he was gonna end up for the night. But he offered to take us along, and we happily agreed. So, against the odds, we managed a ride, and got to interview him. Things were looking up.

And when Newfoundland came into view, I decided that no matter what happened or where we ended up, it would be worth it. I can't describe the feeling seeing Newfoundland for the first time, it was just too gorgeous. I'll post some of the footage on here someday, but that won't do it justice. The cliffs, and the snow, and the little craggy islands. I thought we'd crossed over into another land. I guess we kinda did.

Werner took a look at the map, and Stephenville seemed close enough and big enough to check out for the evening. So we headed that way. It wasn't exactly what any of us expected, though I probably couldn't have told you what I did expect. Though it did have karaoke, so it can't be that bad a place. After dumping our stuff at a motel, we went to check out the nightlife. Too late to work tonight. And there are a few pubs. And a live performance that we caught a bit of. It was one of the last pubs by this point, and Neil and I were exhausted. We must sound like the height of wussiness, but this next-to-nonstop travelling is about as far from a vacation as we could get I think. Anyway, we ended up back at the motel. And I'm gonna crash. But if you would like to enjoy more of the live performance, you can check out Alex's stuff online: http://spaces.msn.com/alexstolethesun/ Personally, I like "My Mess" and "My Way Back"

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Charlottetown to North Sydney

Well, the schedule has been sorta up in the air. The only thing really concrete is that we have to get back to Fredericton for April 14 or so. And as I think we're gonna attempt to hitchhike across Newfoundland and back, we should give ourselves as much time as possible. So we're heading there first, and then we can hit Nova Scotia on the way back.

I was a bit torn over whether or not to take the overnight ferry to Port-aux-Basques, but I really want to get some footage of the trip, so we've found a bed and breakfast in North Sydney. The bus dropped us off outside a hotel overlooking the ferry terminal and the downtown, and it was quite pretty with the sun going down. Yeah, another long day on the bus. I had thought that once we got to the Maritimes the rides would get shorter, cause the cities are closer together. It's not working out that way so far, there's just not enough time to stop everywhere I'd hoped.

The b&b was only a 20 minute walk - if that - but I had hardly eaten all day, so it seemed a lot farther. I gotta remember to eat when I get the chance, cause when I wait, I never seem to get another chance til I feel like I'm on my last legs. And even though we dumped stuff off in Fredericton, these packs are still too heavy. We've got summer clothes, and winter clothes, cause St. John's just had a huge dump of snow. Very strange weather in this country.

We'd planned to take the ferry out this morning - we'd even packed before heading down for breakfast, but exhaustion was setting in again, and it wasn't too hard for us to convince ourselves to stay an extra night, let Newfoundland warm up a bit, enjoy the ocean view from the Heritage Home B&B, wander the docks, maybe get a few interviews. We mentioned the project to Juana, the woman who runs the b&b. She made a few phone calls and half an hour later she gave us a list of about 10 people we should go speak to. One guy was already waiting for us. So we grabbed the gear and were running out the door and it was another day of filming.

It turned out to be awesome, we were interviewing people until the sun was setting, and a couple were especially outstanding. Thanks again, Juana! One thing I learned about Cape Breton Island is that cancer is really, really prevalent. It seemed everyone we asked could name family and friends who had suffered from it, or recount their own stories, and most people blamed the tar ponds. These are basically pools of leftover toxic waste from the steel mill. I'd never heard of these - probably cause I don't read the papers like I should, but check out these links for a bit of a background: http://www.agrnews.org/issues/124/environment.html http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tarponds/
http://www.safecleanup.com/jag/timeline.htm

We were in Sydney (about 30 min from North Sydney) to change buses, but didn't see the tar ponds. We'll have to try to get there on the way back. I wouldn't have thought something like this could exist in Canada.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Canoe Cove and Charlottetown

We spent our time in PEI staying in Canoe Cove with Karyn and her son Rory. Karyn has an absolutely gorgeous house on a hill with a view over Canoe Cove, the Northumberland Strait, the Confederation Bridge in the distance, and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the horizon. I could just stand there and stare for hours.

Canoe Cove doesn't really seem to have a centre, but we wandered the 15 minutes down to a park next to the water, past one of many churches in the area and an old, one-room school house that is now used as a community centre. We actually got to interview a woman who was the schoolteacher there in the 60s, which was really cool. Her husband was a potato farmer (very prevalent on the island) before he got into landscaping.

Rory took us for a ride up to Cavendish to see the Green Gables house and the beautiful beach. I'd never seen ice in the ocean before coming across the bridge to PEI, but here I could get up close. And the sand dunes juxtaposed against the red dirt was beautiful. I could have spent the whole day filming there. Probably was a lucky thing we had to keep moving.

We also spent a day wandering around Charlottetown. My Canadian history is pretty pitiful, but I did remember Charlottetown as the Birthplace of Confederation. At least that much got drilled into my head in school. However, as I took another look at the history, nothing was actually ever signed until London, three years later, with the BNA Act in 1867 (our first constitution) and PEI wasn't even a part of it at that point. And apparently, Ontario and Quebec weren't even supposed to be a part of the Charlottetown conference, originally Britain had convinced the maritime provinces to get together and try to find strength in unity. Ah, whatever, the whole thing is a can of worms I don't want to get into right now. But this is something I'll be coming back to, the constitution should be the basis of Canada.

Anyway, PEI was great, the Islanders were extremely friendly, and we even managed a local hockey game in Kensington. I'd never been to a hockey game, and though I'm not exactly hooked, I'd hit another game if I had the chance. And I really want to go back to PEI and see the other parts of the island. I think what struck me the most was that the entire province is only about 140,000 people. The entire province. After taking 19 hours to drive across Ontario, and not even touching what I would consider the northern parts, to have a province that is 4 hours across the length and 45 min top to bottom kinda blew my mind.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Fredericton, and the trip to Charlottetown

Neil came to the rescue with New Brunswick and got us hooked up with a place to stay in Fredericton, and I must admit he outdid himself. We're crashing at Ewan's place, and Ewan is awesome. We managed to take it easy and get a variety of interviews over a couple of days at the same time. I'm not sure how we managed that.

I got introduced to a katimavik alumni here, who did an interview. Katimavik is a national youth program that places kids age 17-21 in groups that represent the demographics of Canada, and they all live together in three different provinces for three months each. For a better description see: http://www.katimavik.org/

I love the idea of this program, and only wish I'd heard about it earlier. There are rumblings that the current government may not keep up the funding, which would be a shame. We keep hearing about national unity and we need to keep Canada together and blah blah, but do they ever do anything concrete about it? And when something concrete is done, like Katimavik, why isn't there better advertising or media for it? And why do they now have to fear for its future?

I also got to interview the Secretary to the Chief and Council of the St. Mary's First Nations community. He was really interesting, and very open to speaking about his life and experiences and culture. Fantastic interview.

And we even got to take a much needed day off. Neil spent the day watching season 2 of Battlestar Galactica, and I finally got to watch the first season of Dr. Who, which I'd started before leaving the UK. I find it kinda odd that we're both hooked on remake series. There's really nothing new anymore.

And now we're off to PEI. We're staying with another couchsurfing host, and are getting picked up at the bus station in Charlottetown. It still amazes me that people are so willing to go out of their way to pick us up and put us up. If everyone could be this way, the world would be a better place.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Québec, and the trip to Fredericton

I spent most of the trip to Québec in a total fog. The toboggan ride really took everything out of me. At least that's what I'll blame it on :) But I spent the bulk of the bus ride unconscious. I was still really out of it when we arrived, and happily Sandria, another person we met off couchsurfing, was at the station already. She took us back to her place, and after dropping our packs, Neil insisted we go look for dinner. It was about 9 pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, which was maybe a couple of bagels, so on top of the exhaustion, my head was swimming from lack of food as well. So my first impression of Québec was a bit foggy.

We were able to sleep in a bit the next day though, which helped. And then wandered the old city. It was like being transported to some European city, and the weird fog of travelling of the previous day resembled jetlag, so maybe that's why I spent that first day in a daze of not really knowing where I was. Row houses, tiny streets, old gateways and towering walls. And suddenly stepping out to a view of the St. Lawrence and realizing that it's THE St. Lawrence, the same river I had to draw on all those maps back in social studies class.

And we had to get some tire d'érable (maple taffy served fresh and steaming on a bed of snow, and rolled around a stick as it hardens). I'd had it at the Festival du Bois in Coquitlam, and then at the Rendezvous Festival in Whitehorse, but it was a bit surreal slurping it up while watching the St. Lawrence river go by.

We ran into our first problems here trying to get interviews. I can't speak French unfortunately, but I really want the documentary to be multilingual. So I've approached people and said I would ask questions in English, and they could answer in French (or whatever their first language is), and though I wouldn't really know what they were talking about, I could get it translated later. It's worked a few times, and people are usually more than happy to find out they can answer in their own language. However, we got a lot of people who just weren't interested at all. I was sorta expecting that, I guess what I wasn't expecting was that it would all be concentrated in one area.

Don't get me wrong, we got our quota of interviews for the city, and they were really good, and the people we spoke to were really insightful. I'm just starting to worry that we're approaching the same types of people, or maybe attracting the same types of people, and not reaching the diversity that I'd hoped for. Though really, the diversity I originally wanted would require at least a month in each province. We can only do what we can. Maybe this is Canada through rose-colored glasses, and is that so bad? It's a beginning.

We're heading to the Maritimes now. Now the schedule starts to get sketchy. Fredericton is the first stop. I'm still beat from Mont Tremblant . . . I'm gonna sleep.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Mont Tremblant to Québec

I am so glad we stopped in Mont Tremblant. When I first got onto couchsurfing.com I started a thread on the messageboard about the documentary and asked for people who were interested in participating. Karen got in touch with me, and I figured we could pop by between Montreal and Québec, and so it ended up on the schedule. I had no idea what to expect, and I'm finding that's the best way to travel. No expectations, and no preconceptions.

The village of Mont Tremblant has the feel of a Swiss town nestled in the Alps. There are some fundamental differences, but the feel is the same. With creperies and cafés and specialty resort shoppes. Dylan, Frank's son, was our guide for the day. He took us around the village, and up the lift. We hooked up with the ski patrol and hung out with them for some time, interviewing patrollers including Victoria Fletcher, a World Cup Telemark Skier. We also got to meet Luc Bombardier, who's devised a sort of steadycam to be skied with, and he went down the hill with Victoria to film her skiing. Awesome footage, can't wait to play with that.

To top off the day, they agreed to take us down the run on a patrol toboggan - Dylan, Neil and myself all on one. It was like going down the hill headfirst at top speed. They had a patroller at the front and one behind to keep us steady and upright, but it was still a close call a couple of times. Snow flew everywhere, and little ice nuggets pelted our faces. I was sitting in the middle and had my head buried against Dylan's back, and my fingers digging into his shoulders. Neil was stuck at the back and was leaning back, so he didn't have the same cover I did. But I could hear him howling and laughing all the way down the hill. It was such a rush.

That pretty much wiped us out for the rest of the day. I went out with Karen after she got off work, and I was just exhausted. Though I did try the sampler of the locally brewed beers - the wheat beer was awesome.

And now off to Québec. (The first thing I learned about the province Québec, the capital is also referred to as Québec, not Quebec City. Hence the confusion, which will probably continue.) We have to go back through Montreal, but we won't be stopping to do interviews here until the route back. What with stopping in Ottawa instead of Montreal, and then staying an extra night in Mont Tremblant, we gotta get moving before the whole schedule goes completely out the window.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Ottawa to Mont Tremblant

Ottawa was really cold. It's kind of horrible and sad that that's the first thing I can find to describe my first visit to the nation's capital, but it really was bloody cold. The wind made it colder than Whitehorse. Or maybe I was just being a wuss, cause I know that back home the daffodils are probably out by now. And the dump of snow we got has probably melted. Yeah, yeah, it's also probably into its fifth consecutive day of rain, too.

We were a bit late getting to Heather's the other night. We had no idea what Ottawa looked like, or where we would be getting in, or where we would be in relation to the university. It turns out they have an awesome transit system there though - we picked up the free phone that connects directly to the bus line, and the friendly person (who answers in both French and English) tells you exactly what buses to take, where to transfer, approximately how long it will take, and how much it will cost. Of course, we didn't bother following the directions.

We didn't really want to show up at Heather's starving, and she had a night class, so we also didn't want to show up too early, so we decided to wander. That, and we needed to set up accommodation for the next night, cause Heather couldn't bail us out every time we realized we were heading for some strange city we didn't have a map for. So after wandering around in the dark, we finally found a friendly police station that was still open and had people in it, and they performed their tireless task of giving the dumb tourists directions. So we retraced our path back to the bus station, and discovered that a block away was the main drag. So we found an internet place and Neil foraged for food while I got online, and half an hour later, Heather was out of her class, and we were officially late. So we finally got on a bus, and discovered we were a long way from the university. We took it to pretty much the end of the line, and then took another one to pretty much the end of that line - and got a tour of Carlton U in the process - before arriving at Ottawa U where I called Heather, cause we got lost about a stone's through from her residence, and she asked me if we were actually in Ottawa.

And it turns out if wasn't as late as we'd thought - Heather took us on a tour of the university, and around the outside of the parliament buildings, and over the canal, and on the way back to her place we discovered that the pub across the street had karaoke the next night. So it was a bit of luck that we hadn't secured a couch to crash on, cause we decided to stay a couple nights in Ottawa. Who can resist karaoke?

We spent the next day wandering around the university, interviewing idealistic students. I am an idealist at heart, and I think that if more people stuck to their university beliefs 10 years after graduating, the world might be a better place. I've heard the saying - if you're not a socialist at 20 you have no heart, if you're not a capitalist at 30, you have no brain. Well, I'm not 30 (quite yet), so I still see lots of nasty things about capitalism that should make it difficult to sleep at night. But I've seen a lot of things along this trip so far that make me realize capitalism is not the only force out there. Even being able to do this sort of film such a small budget, and having people who are willing to open their homes and offer their couches or beds in the name of sharing culture and information and lives and stories, it's a force all its own. Maybe there's more idealists out there than we're lead to believe.

Anyway, I got my karaoke fix that night. It was a bit of a shock that it didn't start til 10. I'm used to London, where it started at 7 and finished at 10:30. But I could get used to it.

And today we headed to Mont Tremblant. We discovered last minute that the hop-on, hop-off Canada Pass we're on doesn't cover the trip past Montreal, but $50 return for each of us is reasonable enough. And it was a fun trip. We're staying with a couple we met through couchsurfing.com - Karen and Frank. They are really cool, and Karen's going to get us passes to get up the ski hill so we can do some interviews and talk with the ski patrol. And get some great shots of the village.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Hamilton to Ottawa

I now have a sherpa. Neil has quit his job in Hamilton to join me on this crazy journey and carry equipment and shoot interviews and make sure the sound is reasonable and generally keep me sane. Which is rather a tall order, we'll see how well he does.

I got a bit of a break, and a day to completely reorganize the packs. We've got a smaller backpack that I can now use as our portable studio - the lights, the clamps and fixtures, the extensions cords, 2 mics with cables, a couple of gels, tissues, lens cleaner, chargers, and other assorted crap that I crammed into a fanny pack and stuck at the bottom of the pack. I also got to dump some more useless stuff off to pick up on the way back through, and another 10 hrs of footage that I won't need til the summer. I'm still carting around a full box of 50 tapes though, it will be nice to break that open. I'm hoping for somewhere between 100 and 125 hours of footage when we get back to Vancouver in July.

The weather has been a bit bizarre. It was so warm yesterday, I was running around in a t-shirt - in fact the only t-shirt I brought on the trip, and I was starting to rethink that choice. But Canada didn't let me down, it was snowing again this morning as we left Hamilton. A very dry snow, it didn't feel wet to the touch, but furry. Weird.

We headed to Toronto for a few hours this morning to check out the city and meet with one of Neil's 2nd cousins, Lyle, whom he'd met for the first time a couple of weeks before. Really cool guy. We'll have to hook with him again in April and interview him.

We were on the bus to Montreal this afternoon, when I took a look at the times and realized we'd be getting in after 10 at night with no map of the city, no place to stay, no idea where a hostel might be, and if it might have room. The last time that happened, we were in Turino last summer, and we got stuck with a really expensive hotel. This time, it's Heather to the rescue - she's a friend I met in London, and she's going to Ottawa University, and it's on the way. And thankfully she doesn't mind last minute couchcrashers. Maybe we can even find some karaoke . . .

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Winnipeg to Hamilton

After travelling this much of Canada, I was starting to think that Vancouver is the oddball in the Canadian family. There's snow everywhere - it's really the Canadian constant so far - except when leaving Vancouver. And then I remembered that the wet coast just got about 10 cm dumped on it in the last week or so, so maybe we're not as odd as we'd like to think.

Though the snowmobile tracks that have paralleled the highway throughout northern BC, up to Whitehorse, and now points east are companions I'd never travelled with before.

So far I really like "northern" Ontario. I still find it a bit difficult thinking of Kenora as northern after checking out Thompson and Whitehorse. But it is quite beautiful, and the falling snow is covering the highway and reminds me of the Alaska highway, so I guess it's north enough.

At the last rest stop I heard a distressing story from a woman from Calgary. It seems they have a large homeless population there, and a lot of untreated mental illness as well. Sounds familiar - from the days when they emptied out Riverview after government cuts. I heard the story of a woman who had been under care for a week, and the day she was released, she committed suicide. And her war veteran son, who ended up homeless, and his legs froze in the prairie winter and had to be amputated, and then he was back on the streets, where his legs became infected before they found him housing.

Just another Canadian story?

Friday, March 10, 2006

Winnipeg

My first impression of Winnipeg - I got off the bus and ran into Dennis, a guy I met at the hostel in Whitehorse. He'd been to Vancouver in the time between, and just happened to be on a layover waiting for a bus to Montreal. How crazy was that. Maybe we'll hook up again in Montreal. Nothing surprises me anymore.

My second impression - the cabbie who took me to Carolyn's place was just about one of the coolest people I've ever met. He has some great ideas on government reform and achieving true democracy - something I've come across a few times so far. I'm glad I'm coming back through, he was working so an interview wouldn't have worked, but I'll catch him in May.

Also Winnipeg is a lot bigger than I thought. I hadn't quite realized that it is the largest city for a couple of provinces, and that everyone seems to feed into it. My deep knowledge of Canada basically stopped at the borders of Saskatchewan (really the borders of Saskatoon), so finding this relatively huge city with a really cool mulitcultural vibe in the prairies was kinda refreshing. And Carolyn took me to a great place for Ethiopian food, which was awesome. A long wait, but worth it in the end. Ok, maybe not worth missing the karaoke for, but there's always more karaoke somewhere :)

Anyway, I got to meet some of the very cool people at the CNIB, and managed a couple of interviews. And some sightseeing and repacking and reorganizing. It never seems to be finished. I can't wait to get to Hamilton to drop off some of the completed tapes and some of the more unnecessary stuff that I swore I needed. This travelling thing is a chore in itself.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Thompson, and the ride to Winnipeg

Ok, I came to Thompson without any expectations. Well, maybe one - I figured it would be cold. I was blown away.

First off, huge thanks to Becky and Travis. It's the people who make a trip worth travelling, and Becky and Travis made Thompson feel like home for a couple days. Becky picked me up at the bus station at 1:30 am, introduced me to her big friendly dog, and gave me her spare room, complete with big comfy bed. The next day, she skipped her class to take me on a wirlwind tour of the most interesting people in Thompson. Ten interviews in one day. We met with Crazy Pete, and a couple of people who work at the Boys and Girls Club, and some of Becky's fellow nursing students, and a couple of friends who popped over, and finally a Cree drummer, who allowed me to film his band's performance that night. I was so exhausted I couldn't think by the end of the day. Actually, I'm still trying to recover, so sorry I'm not describing more. My brain is shutting down. But the footage was gold, and Travis topped it off with a wild caribou steak dinner. I couldn't have imagined a better experience of Thompson, and I only hope my time in other cities is half as cool.

I'm heading down to Winnipeg now, which should also be really cool, cause I get to meet up with Carolyn, a friend I worked with in London. There are a lot of trees on the road to Winnipeg. That's about as insightful as I'm going to get right now.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Saskatoon to Thompson

So my schedule got thrown off again - this time due to a snowstorm that hit Saskatchewan and closed the roads to Manitoba. I took a quick side trip to North Battleford and was lucky to get back to Saskatoon cause of the storm. So I spent an extra day on my aunt and uncle's farm, trying to walk through snowdrifts that came up to my thighs. Reminds me of the snow they used to get when I was a kid. I remember winters when the tractor would be almost completely covered.

So this morning I was off to Manitoba. This is the first time I've deviated from the Greyhound routes - I wanted to head up through Swan River and The Pas so I ended up on the provincial bus system. It was worth it, got to see some different places. Though staring out at the flat prairie fly past, you lose track of where you are, and how far you've come. And I was so itching to see some kind of variation in the horizon, I coulda swore there were distant hills to the east and north as we crossed the Manitoba border. But it mighta just been my eyes.

Though I must admit I love being able to walk out into a field and see nothing but sky, it's a very humbling experience.

Travelling up to northern Manitoba makes me once again rethink the size of Canada. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to not think about the landscape past the horizon. Out of sight - out of mind. But now I'm continuously travelling through the landscape beyond, and hours go by and the sun rises and sets, and the road isn't ending, and I really have no idea where I am or where I'm going - cause the map is crammed too far into my carry-on bag for me to bother - and this is when I realize just how huge Canada is.

It is a little unnerving, arriving at 1:30 in the morning in a place I know nothing about, staying with people I've never met before. Though by the time I get there, I'll be too tired to worry.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Whitehorse to Saskatoon

So this has been my longest bus trip - 43 hours from departure to arrival, with about 36 of those hours actually on the bus. It started out fairly empty, then filled up somewhere between Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek. I had a guy next to me who had been in the bush working at a camp for the past two weeks, and he was really cool. Made the trip a little less solitary.

We passed through the mountains, and ended up in the plains of Alberta, which was a bit weird for me cause I'm so used to taking a route through the Rockies and then having the foothills. This time, it was like I blinked and suddenly it was flat. Or maybe I woke up and suddenly it was flat. Everything kinda blends together on long bus rides, and after the first 24 hours, time ceases to mean anything.

At some point I had an 18 year old who was from Germany sitting beside me. In some ways it made me feel great to see someone so young from so far away staying in some little town in Alberta, making connections with kids there. In some ways it made me feel old, that I'd waited too long to make a relatively simple trip across my own country. Ah, we're all where we're meant to be.

In Edmonton I had a 5 hour layover, and I met up with an old friend from elementary school (now that made me feel old), and I got to go for dinner with her and her husband and her adorable son. Thanks again for the tour around the city!

And now a midnight bus to Saskatoon. Watching the lights pass by, so many single lights surrounded by a void of darkness. It almost feels like there is no land beneath us. Maybe I'm just really tired again.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Whitehorse

I really didn't know what to expect of Whitehorse before getting here. I didn't know anything about it, except that there is lots of light in summer, and not so much in the winter. And that it was gonna be really, really cold, so I bought the whole spectrum of clothing layers in preparation. Well, it turned out I knew even less than the little I thought I knew.

The first thing - Whitehorse is gorgeous. The Yukon River flows beside it,and the mountains rise up around it. With the snow everywhere, and the ever-changing clouds, I could just sit and stare at the landscape forever.

After tearing myself away from the scenery, I discovered the people are also too awesome for words. I stayed at the Hide on Jekell hostel. It had a really global atmosphere, with visitors from as close as Japan and Korea, and as far away as Toronto. Oliver and Elena are running the place at the moment - he's from Germany and she's from Russia, and they are great. And we all got to celebrate the hostel's 5th birthday, complete with pasta, wine and a dip in the hot tub. And what dip in the hot tub would be complete without getting out and rolling in a snowbank and then jumping back in? That's a night I won't soon forget!

The people in town were equally fantastic. The organizers of the Rendezvous festival took me under their wing, introduced me to so many cool people, gave me rides around town when they saw me on the street, and were just generally some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. The first event I went to - a Dance Fever Night, where the Sourdough Sam and Queen contestants had to do dance numbers, and the Can Can dancers and Snowshoe Shufflers performed as well - I felt like I was at a family reunion. Everyone was welcoming, and having a great time, and getting involved. I've never seen an event so big with so many people who are unafraid to get dressed up and act crazy.

Through the Rendezvous festival, I also had the chance to enter the hairy leg contest - I think I came in last - and got a block of snow all my own to carve into something. As I can't draw, I decided to make a gigantic HI. As I got into it, I realized the back was going to say IH. With some help from one of Canada's top snow carvers - Don Watts, we got the I changed into an E on that side, so it read EH. It got some laughs, so I'll count it a success.

But it wasn't all play, I ran around with camera in hand and caught the chainsaw chuck, axe throwing, flour packing, beard growing, and professional snow carving competitions. There were others, too, but it's all blending together. I gotta go through the tapes to remember it all. You'll just have to watch the documentary to get the full story :) And in the end, it wasn't even that cold. I didn't even wear all the layers I bought. It hit -30 for a couple of days I think, but there was no wind, so I didn't even realize it was that cold. And I'm usually a wuss when it comes to that kind of thing.

So go check out Whitehorse!