I just arrived in Vancouver (and boy was it a long trip)! The flight from Auckland to Sydney went without a hitch. It was a pretty standard flight, nothing particularly exciting but it takes longer than you think. I mean, if you look at the distance between Australia and New Zealand it doesn't look that far but actually, it kinda is.
Anyways, pretty much as soon as I got into Sydney airport and through customs (again) (like, seriously, I just got off a plane, they checked me before I boarded. Where would I get any prohibited items?? Is New Zealand customs not good enough for you??) I had to rush to catch my next flight.
At the start, the flight to Vancouver seemed like it would be cool. Y'know, the seats are fitted out with touch screens and have a lot of movies you can watch, some pretty recent ones too (Iron Man, Prince Caspian, Kung Fu Panda, Batman Begins) and also stuff like, Aladdin too. I was in the middle of like, a three seater which was kinda lame. But like, as the flight wore on I got so annoyed with everything. The flight was long, the food wasn't great, I had no idea what time it was or where we were geographically and when I looked out the window it didn't look like we were going anywhere. It was almost as if we were just sitting in one of those simulation cabins that they use for training or whatnot. So yeah, time seemed to go super slow, like, half as slow as usual. I watched like, 5 movies and some TV shows and I swear, not more than an hour passed after each movie. I was getting really irritable by this stage, like, no one was telling us where we were or how much further we had to go and also, the map on the touch screen didn't even work! Gosh.
The plane itself though is nice enough (unlike Air NZ) but the service on Air NZ is a lot better. I mean, its all very well if you have a nice plane but if you don't have the service/ food to match it doesn't really matter.
So yeah, the taxi ride to the hotel was kinda interesting. I automatically went to get into the left hand side of the car but of course they driver is on that side in Canada. Lol. But yeah, there were a lot of roadworks/ construction going on, especially around the airport. There's a lot of that going on here actually. They're gearing up for the Winter Olympics in 2010 I suppose.
Upon arrival to my hotel I just had a quick check of my email etc and had a shower and then went straight out to explore the city. It reminds me kinda like Auckland and Wellington combined. Most of the streets are in grids so its not too hard to lose yourself. It's kinda like a big small town though. Most of the streets are kinda empty and there aren't many people or cars. Maybe it's just cos it's Sunday or something, I don't know. Most of the people though appear to be tourists which is interesting.
Also, the driving here is kinda crazy. That's what I noticed first. They don't really seem to indicate and like, the buzzer thing which tells people when to cross goes automatically whether or not people are there. Also, people don't seem to jaywalk which I is fine, it's safer anyway, but like, I'm fighting all my urges to do it cos I do it all the time at home. I'm not sure if it's an punishable offence or not. Also, driving on the other side blows my mind. Like, everything I've learned about driving has kinda been tipped upside down. I think now when I get home I'm gonna be super confused (moreso that I was initially).
Yeah, so I went exploring today. I didn't really know what I was doing or where I was going but I thought I'd just hang out for a bit. I planned on planning my week, or at least my first day in Vancouver on the plane but that didn't happened so.... yeah. Oh, and also, time seems to go really slow around here. I don't know why. I went out for what seemed like 4 or 5 hours but like, it had only been about 3. Crazy. The other thing that I noticed, and you might also notice if you check out my photos is that the Canadian flag is everywhere. On buildings, on cars, on backpacks, on boats. I can see one right now from my room. Besides that everything seems pretty normal, like, not really being in a foreign country, more like being in another part of NZ or summin'.
So I think the plan for tonight is go out for some dinner, check out Vancouver at night and then plan the rest of the week, if not then for tomorrow.
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