From Madrid to Silver Star Mountain - The epic journey of a lonely man
This is the story of Kyran Findlater, travelling from Madrid, Spain, to Silver Star Mountain, in British Columbia, Canada.
I left Madrid early in the morning with aunty-in-law Ester and my wonderful wife. They were nice enough to drop me off at the airport on their way to work early in the morning. After lots of tears and hugs and goodbyes, I strode off - determined to get on that plane without any hassle!
I successfully checked in all of the baggage through Lufthansa (who were carrying me on behalf of Canada Airlines) to Frankfurt, and going on to Canada. Thankfully I had no issues going through Spanish customs/border control, I did not need to show them my in-process paperwork - I was worried about being deported! All the hard work getting papers legalized and stamped back home did come to bear fruits though, as our marriage is "in progress" of being registered, and I have an application for residence also "in progress".
The first flight to Frankfurt was about 2.5 hours, and was pretty straight forward. The transfer was short too, and soon I was on my way to Canada! Seen below is a picture of the in-flight entertainment screen, showing the flight path from Frankfurt to Calgary, in Alberta, Canada.
I watched about 4 movies on that flight, I think they were "The Edge of Tomorrow", "Hercules", and some others. My plane-buddies were nice and quiet, and skinny, but needed to get up and go to the toilet every hour or two.
I arrived in Calgary with an amazing view out of the plane (sorry, no pics) of snow covering the vast flat-lands, all the houses and fields totally covered in deep snow. My bags had to be collected and re-checked in at this airport, and I had to get my work permit/visa done at the Immigration desk. It all went smoothly!
When I arrived in Vancouver finally, after close to 15-16 hours of transit, I decided to save money and take the train to the city center, and walk to the Samesun Hostel where I had pre-booked 3 nights stay. On my walk, I stopped to take a picture of all the pretty lights, shown below, as I walked down one of the main streets in the city center:
Once at the hostel, I was in a 4-person shared room. I ended up having all 3 of my original room-buddies leave before me, and had 3 new guys show up the day before I left. The pictures below show the room, and my bed was the top bunk with the green water bottle up on the shelf. Also shown in my survival food of choice - Mi Goreng noodles!
While in Vancouver I had to organise my Social Insurance Number (essentially a Tax File Number in Australian terms) and a bank account. I also needed to get a Canadian mobile phone number, find a voltage converter for my 220V european engineering equipment, buy some new shoes and sunglasses, and finally (most expensively!) get all my snowboarding stuff sorted out.
New shoes! Merrels, with Gore-Tex inner layer for waterproofing and insulation. Very fancy. $120 :(
I visited an Airsoft/camping/military shop which was about 50m down the road from the hostel. Yay!
Inside the hostel was nice enough, this is the common room area shown in the two pictures below. There were also little lounge areas at each floor's staircase/hallway area.
While on my way to go find a voltage converter (was very hard, took up a whole day) I took the subway again, and noticed there was no driver! See the picture below. Speeding down the tunnel!
I ended up getting a voltage converter, and on the way found a second hand sports shop called "Sports Junkies". They had reasonable stuff, and for $299 (not including tax.. as usual..) you can get a board + bindings + boots. I wasn't sure at the time if I should get a board set-up there so I continued on to get the converter. By the time I did that, time was running out and I didn't really want to spend $600-700 or more on new stuff if after 6 months I would have to find a way to get rid of it, and probably lose lots of money in the sale. I ended up getting the board package for $299. They were good brand items, so I shall see what happens!
The two full days in Vancouver ended up as just enough time, with plenty of sleep and one night of beer consumption in there too. The free breakfasts were enough to keep me going through the day, and some Mi Goreng would be okay for dinner. On the last day though, I got a nice vegetarian platter with lots of mexican stuff for lunch.
The next phase of my trip was to take a Greyhound bus from Vancouver to Vernon, changing at Salmon Arm. The bus left at 6:30am on Friday, so I had to get up really early and get my stuff down to the taxi. I am pretty sure the Indian taxi driver ripped me off over double the usual amount, and then I tipped him heaps on top. Bastard.
The picture below is looking towards the middle of the Greyhound terminal - nice and early in the morning but there was quite a few people there.
My bus! Number 19, to Salmon Arm with change-over to get to Vernon, which is at the base of Silver Star mountain. The next set of pictures is from my bus journey.
Icicles on the side of the rocks, where the water was flowing down and turned into ice-spikes! Was weird to see all the icy patches on the rocks.
The bus trip took ages, because the estimated 9 hours and 15 minutes was extended to over 10 hours due to delays at Salmon Arm. When I finally got to Vernon, I was certainly tired and it was extremely cold. The other Aussie guys in the bus with me didn't have any way/idea how to get to the mountain, and I had my boss coming to pick me up - so when she arrived she offered to help them get groceries with me and take us all up to the mountain - how nice!
After getting supplies and getting to the mountain, I put my bags in the apartment and went with the boss to the Bulldog Hotel (my new workplace!) for the first night of the bar being open! It was great fun, got to meet lots of people who I will be working with for the next 5 months. The food (vegetarian of course) and beer was awesome!
The next day, after a lot of sleep, I went for a walk-about and took some pictures. First is the sign for Silver Star mountain village!
In the picture above, my accommodation is in the block of apartments to the left. There are other apartment blocks further down to the right as well, where some of the other staff are also staying.
The Bulldog Hotel! up these stairs and through two sets of doors is the lobby area that will be my workplace for the season. See the two pics below!
The colours are epic right??
The Grand Cafe and Lounge is on the other half of the building to the lobby area, and has just re-opened after the Great Flood of 2013 (December). The whole area was damaged, including most of the lobby, after a water mains pipe burst from temperature stress. The renovations are still underway in some areas, but for now the main restaurant is back in action!
I made some curry on my second night, and tonight I plan to make some spaghetti with tomato + veggies sauce!
Some pictures of the entrance to my unit thingy, and the name of the apartment block is "Shooting Star". There is a hot-tub and community area, including laundry, in that area under the building's name sign.
So that's it for now - I really can't wait until Mercedes comes to join me here for Christmas, I miss her so much already! The future holds great things, lets see if some of that comes true around this joint haha. Buenas noches y buenas suerte! Good night and good luck!
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