After hanging out in Nelson for one wonderful, action-packed week (even though Shambhala was not part of it), I had to leave way too early and abruptly when the opportunity came up to get a ride to Vancouver - at 6:30 Wednesday morning! But I was glad to not have to get on a 12-hour bus again. The lady who drove me and two other girls in this great old minivan had, of course, just been to Shambhala (go on, rub it in) and turned out to be 50-something :-O - what is it with all these Nelson women looking at least 20 years younger than they are?? ;-) Pretty amazing.
Anyway, as we were going down the serpentines to Osoyoos, overtaking as many as 5 trucks at the time at breakneck speed, I was beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have taken the Greyhound after all. But the few minutes of fear were well worth it in the end, as Charlene dropped me off right in front of the HI hostel at Jericho Beach in Vancouver. Good choice! It was so close to the beach, I basically turned into a beer-drinking beach-bum. When I wasn't out spending the last remainder of my paycheck, that is ;-).
Well ok, that's a pretty short account of my two days in Vancouver...but I swear that's all that happened! Of course they had this beach volleyball thing going on on Thursday night, but guess who couldn't join in because of injuries resulting from stupidity? ...Yeah.
Soo then I took the bus to Squamish on Friday morning, going up the Sea to Sky Highway there, which was pretty cool. Not the highway itself (construction, construction, construction), but the views and stuff.
After settling into the hostel and dutifully admiring the sight of THE CHIEF (don't know how high it is, made out of granite :-)...great info...), I took off exploring the climbing and bouldering sites today. The weather was pretty miserable all day (= rain), nevertheless I climbed the Chief - OK, don't get too excited: Not with a rope, but on foot. You can hike up there, it's only 3 1/2 km one way (supposedly), but the elevation gain is crazy, you're basically just climbing stairs and ladders the whole way up. It was well worth the effort though.
Tomorrow I'm going bouldering, come hell or high water - quite literally. Even in the rain there are quite a few sheltered spots where I should be able to cling to the rock for a bit!
On Monday I'm hoping to meet up with a couple of girls who'll come down here from Nelson. Then on Tuesday I'll be off to Vancouver, and on Thursday...well, let's not talk about it. :-/
Well, Germany's not THAT bad, honestly...at least I hope that's what I'll find out when I get back ;-).
