23-26 March 08
Found out that the free internet at the library comes at a cost. First of all it's pretty popular so in busy times you have to walk around for ages looking for a spare terminal along with 20 other people. So if you see one across the room you're likely to be half way there and someone else jumps in· doh. Haven't encountered "internet terminal rage" as yet though. The other issue is that if you need to go to the toilet, you learn to hold it until you leave as the hobos use the sinks in the toilets as bird baths, and the toilets were feral. Rachel went to the toilet and there was this stinky woman in there half naked washing her hair in the basin.
Talking about feral toilets· Rachel blocked the toilet in our shared bathroom· mmm luckily our neighbours didn't need to use the toilet before maintenance could fix it. Yuk. Was pretty funny though.
We went to the mother of all camping-outdoor equipment store called "Mountain Equipment Co-op" (MEC). They had everything, it was awesome. We ended up buying some "lightweight - all fit within the biggest pot" camping saucepan and frypan so that we could cook more than just soup and toast at the hotel. We figured that if we are going to stay in hostels most of the time we'll need them. Also bought some hiking boots for Rachel. Hopefully they'll help keep her feet warm.
We also bought each other birthday presents, but not from MEC, they really didn't have what we were looking for. We got each other a good warm waterproof/windproof jacket. They were on end of winter sale, so we got 30% off.
We each got a Social Insurance Number which we read somewhere that we didn't need or couldn't apply for on a working permit. However we found out that we do need one. It wasn't too much trouble, just had to wait for half an hour in line.
We booked a 7 day cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage (Alaska) which leaves on the 21 May so hopefully the weather gets a bit better before then. At least need some more sunny days. We got it pretty cheap, about 1600 US dollars for both of us which includes all food as well. Must have been that it was at the very start of the season (first cruise) and they had a few free spaces to fill. Now we just have to fill in the time between now and then. The travel agent suggested going to the US as nothing really gets going here in Canada until May as the weather is not that good. So we're looking into that.
Trying to transfer money from our Australian bank to our account here has been frustrating to say the least. We were trying to use Rachel's bank, but they insisted on us providing a particular number which none of the banks over here use. So they just weren't going to transfer the money at all. This took us a couple of days back and forth and visits to banks here· grrrrrr. So we rang Karen who works at the Commonwealth bank and she was able to shed some light and was able to use the information and numbers that we had for the bank over here. We just need to transfer money into their account so she can wire it across. YAYA.
I also learnt the hard way that I should have got mum or dad authorised for my bank account as when I transfer money using internet banking, it sends me a code via SMS to complete the transfer (security feature). Stupid stupid stupid me forgot that my phone wasn't set up for international roaming and I should have got something sorted out before I left. Now I'll have to try to organise it over the phone.
We also walked to Granville Island which is really a peninsular not an island, but it had some public markets and some cool shops also. When it was time to head home, the weather had turned cold and very overcast. Rachel had a bit of a sore hip so we jumped on an Aquabus which took us back closer to our motel. About a 5 minute walk as opposed to about a 45 min walk. Anyway we'd just got on the bathtub sized boat when it started to rain-hail-sleet or something. It was more like fluffy hail. There was thunder and lightening but luckily most of it had passed before we had to get off and walk the rest of the way.
