..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Canada
Adapting to Whistler
0By now, Jess and I are pretty settled in our lives here in Whistler.
We arrived in Whistler almost five months ago. While we’d booked accommodation ahead of time with a little bit of advice that a person we’d never met had given us, we didn’t particularly know much about the place. Sure, we knew it was one of the best ski resorts in the world. We knew the bike park was going to be awesome too, but we didn’t know how to get to our accommodation from the bus terminal, or where the nearest shops were.
Having spent 3 months backpacking beforehand, I guess we just thought that we would “figure it out when we get there”, and in reality that is exactly what we have done.
While we are learning things about Whistler all the time, it is a really cool feeling to know things about a completely different place in the world. We saw a lot of things in Europe, but we didn’t spend a great deal of time in any one place.
We are at the point where we really have some normality now. We know what time the buses come, where to go shopping, and what to wear when the weather is indecisive. We can walk to places without having to think about which street to take so as not to become lost. Just like we had in Adelaide, we have here “our” places to relax, sit and talk to eachother. We no longer need to look for a nice spot, we know where it is. If we are buying lunch, we know exactly where to go for a good deal and some nice food.
What we have in Whistler is not a life that we will have forever, but while we are in this situation, it is enjoyable. It makes me proud that when our friends come over towards the end of the year, we will be able to show them around and give them some “local knowledge”.
For those that aren’t aware, I am no longer a mountain bike guide, but I am now working in IT, seeing more of the mountain than ever before. This means 4 long days (for me) – 8am until 6pm, but then a nice three day weekend, usually spending all three days riding as much as I can.
Jess’ riding is improving in leaps and bounds. Every time I go riding with her she does something else to impress me.
The bike park closes on October 11 (not including the staff day on October 12, at which point our lives will pretty much be working and socializing. The snow is already falling on the peaks as we speak, but it won’t be usable until November, so we will probably head down to Vancouver to catch up with a new friend, and to see the city that we were too tired to see when we first arrived in British Columbia.
We will upload some photos in the next few days, but for now, I have to do some work!
Living Life in Whistler
7
It’s been ages since either of us have posted, I know.
Up until this point in our lives, we have both lived in Adelaide, South Australia. I’ve travelled around Australia for work, but only for up to a week at a time. Jess travelled to India back in 2001. Obviously both of us have since done some overseas travelling, however neither of us have ever lived in another place for a prolonged period of time, let alone properly relocated and found work.
Before leaving Australia for our honeymoon and then Europe some 5 months ago, our working holiday to Canada had already began. We applied for our visas through the Working Holiday Program, which was fairly straightforward. My application was quick and easy – Jess’ was complicated by the fact that she wanted to work with children. As it turns out she could have quite easily ignored the more expensive and complicated process of having health tests and examinations, but these are the things that you find out when you actually go through with the plan.
After being told by just about everyone that accommodation is hard to come by in Whistler, we booked ahead. We made the choice when we were in Switzerland. It has made the experience of living in Whistler somewhat easier, but I regret spending so much time on the computer while on the other side of the world.
Arriving in Toronto was once again quite straightforward. Being the well prepared people that we are, all of the required paperwork was printed and ready to be presented to the immigration offer who took care of our file. The experience was great – he knew Whistler quite well, gave us some advice and wished us all the best for our time in Canada.
The next day we flew into Vancouver, then caught a bus to Whistler. It was May the 1st, and we were in our new house, starting our new life. Since arriving, Jess has began nannying, and I am now a mountain bike guide for Whistler Blackcomb. The big things are out of the way, but the surprise to come of our relocation is all of the little things that we take for granted in everyday life.
After being in Europe, with little idea of where anything ever was, it is great to be settled in. To be able to walk to and from the shops with full confidence, knowing that we won’t get lost, or to know and be able to communicate with 100% clarity to your neighbours. We can catch the bus to and from the village without having to check 5 times to know that we are on the right one. It’s just a nice rest.
We have some sort of routine back. My work is quite sporadic, but we are able to have breakfast together, and usually finish the day with a walk down by the lake where we usually sit for an hour or so.
Riding the bike park is great. My riding improved quickly and then as the exhaustion set in it has declined considerably. Hopefully I can take a day or two off this week just to rest, and then I’ll be ready to go and have some fun again. Jess is doing great on her bike and is loving the park too.
Whistler is nothing of what I expected it to be. If we hadn’t visited Domat/Ems in Switzerland before visiting Whistler, I think we would be 100% in love with this place. Given the comparison though, this is just another amazing place in the world. A place that we are happy to live in, and are able to thoroughly enjoy, but also find some faults in too.
Anyway, it’s time for dinner, or “supper” as the locals tell us. Hopefully it won’t be so long between updates in the future.
Dublin to Whistler and Sleeping in an Airport
10As Jess summed up perfectly, we only had a 14 hour stay in Dublin. It was nice albeit a little rushed, however unfortunately it was one of those hostel nights where you experience broken sleep. The beds weren’t particularly comfy, there was the odd drunken yelling in the street outside and of course people coming and going from your room don’t help either. We were used to this sort of thing by now, however it just contributed to the tiredness that we felt from the late nights and early mornings that we had in London.
While our budget for the trip was looking pretty good, we still opted for public transport to the airport. After spending the best part of three months having only ourselves to rely on, it was almost empowering to be able to figure out public transport systems in other countries, and not pay the ridiculous fees that some people do to catch a taxi or an “airport express” shuttle service. While we were waiting for the bus a taxi van pulled up at the stop and convinced three people to come with him for the low price of only 13 Euro each! I think it cost us around 2.20 Euro each to catch the bus to the airport. As it turned out the taxi stopped at almost every stop along the bus route, so it didn’t even turn out to be a faster option.
We boarded our AirTransat flight and received a fairly smooth trip across the North Atlantic Ocean to Toronto. By the time we landed, I well and truly had a headache. It was 3pm by the time we had our bags, and the day was dragging on already. We had gained 5 hours thanks to the change in timezones, which was a lot less than when originally travelling to Europe, but combined with the lack of sleep we were exhausted. That afternoon we drank as much water as we could to make sure weren’t dehydrated from the flight.
We briefly dropped into Toronto, catching the bus and then metro to the city centre. We just wanted to get some cash out, and do a little bit of shopping before starting our new life in Whistler in a few days time. After trying our Mastercard in about 4 different ATMs, we were a little bit nervous. We only had 20 Euro on us. As it turns out, things are a little different here – Mastercards don’t actually work in that many machines. Nevertheless, this scare, combined with the tiredness and the enormity of this city, we retreated back to the airport with our tails between our legs. We ditched the idea of shopping, and just grabbed a bite to eat. 5 tacos for $5!
When we returned to Toronto Pearson Airport we took a look around for what looked like the best place to sleep. We had planned in advance to sleep there since our flight the next day was at 7am. It just didn’t make sense to stay somewhere else only to have to wake up at 4am anyway.
Sleeping in an airport made for an interesting night. I woke up at one stage and there was an Asian man standing about half a metre away from my feet. We both woke probably once every hour or two, moved into another uncomfortable position on the row of chairs that we were on, and then tried again for more sleep. It wasn’t bad enough that I regret it, but it was enough to know that I never want to be homeless. For anyone considering sleeping in the Toronto Pearson Airport, Terminal 3 is the better airport for sleeping in.
The next day we were off to Vancouver thanks to a cheap flight with Air Canada. Taking a domestic flight within Canada turned out to be a much bigger deal than flying between countries in Europe. While going through airport security I was told that I had three knives in my bag. Not asked, told. It was obvious that the mindset is a little bit different over here. After 5 hours of flying we arrived at 9am in Vancouver. Once again we had jumped timezones and we saw and extra 3 hours in our day. By the time we had arrived in Vancouver I was pretty much wrecked. I made a point of drinking as much water as I could on the plane and I still had a headache. Originally we had planned to stay down in Vancouver in a hostel for a few days to get prepared and buy some supplies but by this stage we were exhausted. We wanted our own bed! After ringing our landlord to check if it was okay for us to arrive that day, we jumped on the next bus up to Whistler.
Arriving at our new home was like closure on the backpacking part of our trip. It was done. We could finally relax! We had a shower, cooked dinner and watched some TV. At 5pm we decided to just take an hour long nap. Jess even set her alarm. I woke up at 3:30am, confused. We both slept through the alarm, but kept sleeping until the morning. I think we had around 13 hours sleep – just what we needed.
So here we are, starting a new life. Over the past few weeks we have been doing a little bit of everything. Buying bikes, clothes, shoes, food, registering for all sorts of government numbers, setting up bank accounts, applying for jobs. ..And of course exploring the local area as best we can.
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