Where's Waldo?

  Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday, August 3, 2008

After dropping my car off in Banff, I made my way to Kelowna on the bus, more as a stopover on the way to Whistler than anything else. What struck me immediately was the heat, a whopping 35 degrees, so after checking in at the hostel, I got changed into my summer gear, including the flip-flops-from-hell that cut my feet to shreds whenever I wear them!

I had a pleasant evening on the Saturday, as bands played until late in the park next to one of the beaches, so I just resided there for a few hours with what seemed like the rest of the town's population. Then on Sunday I just mooched around the other parks and beaches, enjoying a bit of rest and relaxation, before resuming my journey to Whistler the next morning...

When I arrived in Whistler, I was surprised to find that the hostel I was staying at was 6km away, but a helpful old guy told me where to catch the bus, so it was no big deal. I'd deliberated about whether to stay in this one or not, but it turned out to be the best decision of my trip, as the hostel was perched on the edge of Alta Lake with a stunning view out towards the mountains. In addition, I met some nice people during my time there...

Amelie, a girl from Germany, immediately caught my eye, and we ended up spending most evenings together, usually (and bizarrely) playing "Yahtzee" or "Where's Waldo?" on the sofas. I'm not sure why they felt the need to change its UK title of "Where's Wally?" or vice versa, but regardless, it's a classic series of books - some of the little drawings hidden in amongst the chaos are hilarious!

During my stay, a mountain basically collapsed on the Vancouver to Whistler highway, closing it for four full days. This didn't really affect me, but it meant that others in the hostel were forced to stay for longer, most notably Julia and Johanna from Germany and Sweden respectively, so we became a nice little group, and I enjoyed a few table tennis bouts with Julia especially.

The four of us went into town one day for a mooch around, and after finding a rather large statue of a cow, decided to hop on for a photo...cue jokes about making sure all four cows were included, etc! As the weather was terrible, we then went to the cinema, although we split up as Amelie and me wanted to watch Dark Knight, whereas Julia and Johanna preferred Mamma Mia.

We all went out that evening as a couple of Swiss girls had arrived and offered to drive us there and back, and we found a good place that had a Led Zeppelin tribute band on! I was really enjoying them, but the Swiss girls complained that it was too loud, so we left and the night fizzled out after that. I should have stayed there and got a taxi back on my own, in hindsight...

As is often the case when travelling, no sooner have you made some friends, then you seem to be saying goodbye to them shortly after, but it goes with the territory and I'm more used to it now than when I was in New Zealand. Even so, the day everyone left was a bit of an anti-climax, not least because the road was still closed so the hostel was pretty much empty, and the weather was still miserable.

Thankfully, the sun made an overdue appearance on my last day in Whistler, so I was able to get the gondola to the top of the mountain, and a further chair lift up to where all the hiking trails are. I hiked for a couple of hours and got some really good views over the lakes, but the freezing cold wind soon picked up so I was happy to get back to ground level in time for the final bus back to the hostel...

The road to Vancouver finally opened in time for my scheduled departure, so I wasn't faced with an expensive and lengthy detour - a mere two and a half hour journey, and I was in Vancouver, a city I'd heard mixed reports about...