Welcome to Vanshterdam

Seattle was great. Obviously seeing the city with my mother wasn't all grunge music and sleepless nights a-partying, and having to get up at 6am because of her early conference starts was a drag, but the city's got a great vibe. I can't remember who I've emailed about what but to recap briefly: the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is awesome (although, sorry Rami I resisted dropping in next door to the Star Trek 40th anniversary convention), the burritos here are tremendous and the coffee's great. I even went into the original Starbucks - where they still make it by hand on the original machine and it's way better than in their fully automated franchise stores. With Mum's conference thing we also went to Blake Island (birth place of chief Se'Atl after home the town was, to the good chief's annoyance, named) for an "authentic" Indian cultural display. It was so tacky it was iconic - like something from the Simpsons or the Family Guy.

Since then, I've been on the go. We caught a ferry to Victoria - Canada's answer to Canberra - being a small town, on an island, which is the provincial capital of British Columbia. It also thinks it's Britain, with Tudor homes, hotels that serve High Tea (another "authentic" cultural experience at $60 for cucumber sandwiches and scones - given we've drunk tea before we passed on that one) and double decker tour buses. From there to Vancouver - a Canadian mixed grill of steak, salmon and prawns for dinner and then an early start up to Whistler the next day.

Whistler is unbelievable. It is not just a ski lodge. They call it a "village" but it's not that either. It's Ski City. Take a chalet, turn it into a palace, make this just one wing of a building and that's what the lodges look like. There's several "villages" of them, with golf courses and celebrity homes as well. We took a ride on a "floatplane" (ie a seaplane) around the mountains and the tail end of the Pemberton Icefield. WICKED! Even more wicked that we got back to the lake before the storm hit!! It came rolling over the mountain like the apocalypse and the winds bounced our plane on the water a few times as we landed. Those who had gone up the mountain on the gondola got windblown, snowed on and had to be rescued by truck. There were still some trapped up there at the end of the day, but none from our group.

Next day, today, Mum left for Oz and so it's just me. Gotta say, while Canada's got the reputation for being the nicer of the North American nations, since crossing the border we've found people a lot less helpful (pre-paid shuttle bus to the airport that doesn't turn up, anyone?), people actually do get surly if they don't think you've tipped enough and I've copped a bit of aggression from random people on the bus or the street, which I didn't in the States. Vancouver is a lot grungier and seedier than I was expecting. It has the reputation of being liberal re drugs ("Vansterdam" some call it, according to Lonely Planet) and that's actually been quite apparent - both from the number of drugged out people I've met and the smell in my hostel!!!

Still, the multicultural nature of the place is pretty cool, the surroundings are beautiful and any big city (Van has about 2 million) is going to bitch-slap you on your first day or two, til you find the good bits. I'm here til Monday, in time to catch the end of the Fringe Festival. : )

However I am changing to a budget hotel from tomorrow night on. I just checked in and used the bathroom at the hostel and I'm still feelin' kinda dizzy.....