Our first 10 days in BC

Summer bike jumps - Whistler

Granville Island

Sunset from our new home - looking over to Vancouver

Bike riding through Stanley Park


So what did our first 10 days in BC consist of? A little but of rain, a little bit of sun, a few different couches, a hire car, a new apartment, a new job and endless hours in front of the laptop looking for accommodation and jobs for the next 6 months.

Basically we spent the first night in a hostel in downtown Vancouver and then the next 4 nights on a great couchsurf with Greg followed by 3 nights on Ryan's couch and then 2 days with Claudia and Alan in Whistler before getting the keys to our 2 month mini lease on an apartment on North Vancouver from Stephen.

During the days we have been chasing our tails a little getting social insurance numbers, a Canadian mobile, our bank accounts and then there were a few job interviews, a weekend looking for accommodation and work in Whistler for the ski season and a few nice afternoons doing the sights in the city.

Lee starts work at STX Marine tomorrow so it's back to being the new boy again and Lisa has arranged a few days hiking with Greg making the most of the last few sunny days before the Vancouver rains start to fall and work begins. We had heard of the rain in Vancouver a little before we came over but now we are here it seems that it really is a "rainy season" for a month once it starts. Oh well, we have our nice new golf umbrella and decent waterproofs so it shouldn't stop us getting to work or getting out and about.

We finally made it

So here we are, chapter number 2. Vancouver. BC, Canada.

After a busy and stressful last few days in the UK Friday was suddenly upon us and an early start saw us getting to Gatwick in good time thanks to a lift from mum. Excess baggage was the first task of the day. We knew we had a few kilos that we should have shed but we were going to push our luck and see. We managed to sweet talk our way into 15kg of hand lugguge instead of 10 and bit the bullet and paid for the main bags. With that task complete it was onto the next, make sure we get on board our flight. That was straight forward and a pretty uneventful flight saw us landing at Vancouver half an hour ahead of schedule. Lining up in immigration saw us bumping into a couple of familiar faces from the flight over albeit behind a queue of 15 recently landed foreign students who spoke barely any English so it was a long wait. Once we got stamped in we headed off in search of our first nights accommodation due to a mix up of dates on our behalf. We had visions of a nightmare situation, Friday night in a new country, big packs on our backs and nowhere to sleep. An aussie named Ross who had been on the flight with us had been recommended a hostel in the centre of downtown so we decided to go and check it out. The Samesun hostel seemed like a decent choice and would allow us to get our bahs offloaded and enjoy the rest of the afternoon wandering around Vancouver.

Saturday morning we set off relatively early and again had a wander to get our bearings in the city, banks, shops, stations, interview locations, etc. We had arranged a couchsurf with a local called Greg who came to collect us from the hostel at lunchtime. We got our bags dropped off at his place and then went to watch a football game followed by some Polish food at a nearby festival. Jet lag still present meant an earlyish night.

Sunday was a miserable wet day so we headed off a little late into the morning, saw Chinatown and picked up a Canadian mobile phone. The poor weather held up most of the day so we ducked in and out of shops and eventually found a decent book shop to waste a few hours.

The list of summer thank yous

Lee’s Mum Marie for Tom Tom contribution, shower, personalised pillow bases, BBQ, washing line and general bits and bobs

Lisa’s Mum Margaret for solar charger and contribution to Tom Tom

Matt for the spork and loan of his climbing DVD’s which were great on those raining afternoons and our 2nd shower (but thanked him and told him one was sufficient)

Perky for our on the road treats, the cake didn’t even make it into the van

Andrew, Sarah and Ethan for allowing us to cook, our stove/grill and ideas on camping venues with the cool camping book, borrowing his lonely planet books, exciting us with the Europe’s highest point books

Luke for the non slip mat

Steve and Nicky for the portable speakers – for allowing us to disturb the peace

Tom for the heater which will be installed one day

Graham for the awesome bike rack

Matt for the Mule bars and gear, Mr apple strudel is appearing around the world

Les Francais pour les desins et un cote personelle dans le camions. Herbes, patches, salt, crystal, jam, recipes

Simon for the loan of the power tools without which the bulkhead would still be in place and the sunroof still in the attic

Veronica – for the crystals to maintain harmony in the van

Russ and Ad for remote assistance in breakdown number 1

Rich and Rach for the emergency whistle and compass which took us west instead of east

Nicole for spending part of her Europe holidays over with us, providing us with new topics for conversation, new music and loads of fun.

Everyone else for contributions not mentioned in the above, this was complied while drinking a bottle of wine so please excuse potential errors/ forgotten items

2 days and counting - Canada

Very proud Auntie Lisa with baby Ethan


One month in the UK has passed by so quickly. Catching up with all those we could, friends, family, new born babies and a few days away climbing and riding. On top of all this we have been cancelling direct debits, setting up new ones, changing addresses and seeking places to live and work.

Basically as of yesterday evening we have somewhere to stay for the first 4 nights and then a few homeless nights and then we have been fortunate enough to find a flat in North Vancouver that we can rent for a few months from the 20th September. It's in a great part of the city, a little out of the way but not too tough to commute the 10km into downtown. We also both have interviews during the first week as well as the opening bank accounts saga, social insurance numbers to get, cheapo city bikes to buy so plenty to keep us busy until we get offers of work. In the meantime I am sure that Vancouver has plenty to offer us in the form of entertainment and places to explore.


To all those that we have not managed to see or get hold of, apologies but we will be back, one day.


Anyway, time for us to head West now and hopefully plenty more to report back soon.


Lee n Lis