So this is it - the Vancouver Island experience already coming to an end - which coincides with our departure from British Columbia - "The best place on earth" as every number plate states proudly. With one crying eye we are getting ready to explore Canada's East coast. But first things first: Vancouver Island - is it all what it's cracked up to be? Well, yes and no! Our arrival in Victoria, BC's capital, by boat was somewhat romantic and there was love in the air...lots of it! Or maybe that is just our impression after that not so lovely, nevertheless greatly memorable border crossing experience in the States. We even got a random thorough luggage inspection - but the Canadian officers could not have been nicer about it - cheerfully carrying our heavy bags from A to B whilst giving us a sympathetic look which pretty much said: ''I find this silly, too''. I got all excited about the fact that we got an especially pretty stamp in our passports and off we went - but not without one of the officers running after us to ask whether we needed directions. May all people on this planet travel to Canada to experience how awesome human beings can be!!! And it didn't stop there...Our two favourite experiences so far: Number 1: a lady and her poodle saw us stranded on a busy highway in the middle of nowhere (mental note to myself - print out map in future...) and pulled over not only to give us directions but to drive use to our destination. Number 2: again a lady taking initiative - we were looking for a parking spot for our rental car and she decided to give us her parking space that she pays for annually and parked at a friend's instead...Too cool! Anyways, enough of the helpful people - what about the black sheeps!? So far only one - the car rental company Budget that ignored our reservation and could not have possilby cared less that we were pretty lost on the island and felt in desperate need of a GPS. But since it's a company I reckon it doesn't even count : ) So after a night in Victoria - a charming city that looks truely enchanted during the night cause of its countless lights and horse-drawn carriages, we headed to Nation to pick up a little grey Mazda and that hard-fought GPS. Turns out - that whole GPS debacle was a little bit of a waste of energy since it seemed to have a life and agenda of its own...wherever we wanted to go - the little bug refused to take us - so we pretty much felt like little road warriors getting to the Goldstream National Park, Chemainus and Nanaimo DESPITE it, not because of it : ) I would even go as far as to say that the GPS was on the edge of being suicidal since it had a tendency of directing us to drive through dense concrete walls...But no worries, everybody survived in the end ; ) Nanaimo turned out to be a cute little harbour town. Since not much is going on there usually, we were glad to find out that our little visit coincided with a little bit of a celebration, live bands and even pretty good fireworks on our return a few days later. But Vancouver Island wasn't supposed to be about lots of excitement anyways. We really enjoyed the drive, the little hikes, the stunning views - mountains surrounded by water don't seem to ever get boring. Whenever we turned around a corner we were like ''Aww'', ''Ohh'' all over again. We loved the little waterfalls in Goldstream and enjoyed our boat trip to Protection and New Castle Island (just off Nanaimo). We induldged a little bit into the local seafood and then we were off again to our next stop Tofino. Tofino felt a little bit like Byron Bay inhabited by pensioners that never kicked the habit of smoking pot. So people were understandably cheerful and seemed content : ) We spent a night in a Botanical Garden which sounds more exotic than it actually was. The crowd there seemed to be determined to single-handedly change the world to the better...Shoes off upon entrance and the guy from our dorm was asked to leave the common room because the noise his laptop was making supposedly destroyed the peace of others...Hilarious! We didn't mind the bullshit - but weren't sad to leave either. So we went off to beautiful Long Beach...and did get a little punishment - maybe it was the Coke we drank despite the ''Coke is evil'' signs all over the hostel...Badly sun-burned we went on to check out Ucluelet - only to find out there wasn't much to find there. So we drove back to Nanaimo to take in the mentioned fireworks and another cholesterol-rich meal. Back in Victoria we got to know a lovely couple from Liechtenstein and since that happens so rarely we felt like taking them out for a drink which turned out to be a cozy and fun evening. Our last sightseeing experience was a casual stroll to Fisherman's Wharf on the next day to check out the lovely decorated floating boats...and then a hop and a skip and another ferry ride away, we found ourselves back where we started at the airport in Vancouver...a sleepless night and two flights later...and all of the sudden we are in France...or as close as you can get to that outside of Europe. But more of that soon... : )

Greetings from the States!!! As I hinted - Sascha and I couldn't resist the urge to pay Seattle a little visit since we happened to be so close to the U.S. border. The actual border crossing was an extremely unpleasant experience. Only the bare necessities were exchanged...No hello, good morning, please or thanks - just a simple and straightforward: "Where are you from?, "Where do you want to go?", "Why?" and "It's 6 dollars to enter the United States". They were such arrogant pricks that I really had to pull myself together not to say anything. Anyways, 6 dollars, two bag searches and another two unfriendly people later we were in Coca-Cola land. Since it was Sascha's first visit to the U.S. I knew I had to show him the most important bits of American culture first - so straight after checking into our hostel I took him to Chipotle. It's McDonald's Mexican style - actually even owned by McDonald's and I practically lived of their Burritos whilst I was working in D.C. 2 years ago. The second tackiest thing on the itinerary was watching Twilight's Eclipse. We felt we had to since the majority of the movie was shot in Seattle and in a forest near Vancouver. Other than that we went on a water taxi to check out Seattle West - which has a totally different vibe compared to mainland Seattle. We sipped Pina Colada overlooking the beautiful beach with the mountains in the distance and felt that life couldn't get much better - but that was before we started munching away on our Fajitas : )
So yeah, Seattle has been sweet. We are on our way again tomorrow - taking the ferry to Vancouver Island. But not before we had the mandatory coffee at the First Starbucks opposite Seattle's lively Public Market and a visit to the museum to get a little bit of culture into us - an exhibition about Kurt Cobain and Andy Warhol - that way both Sascha and I are happy : )
I am definitely hoping to see a few whales on the way to Victoria...We were lucky enough to see a black bear up close in the mountains in Whistler!!! So fingers crossed that was only the beginning of this trip's wildlife spotting : ) Whistler was awesome by the way! Beautiful scenery, crystal clear water - we both felt like being trapped in a postcard. We swam in the Lost Lake, did quite a bit of hiking and explored the impressive mountain range by taking a Gondola up the Whistler Mountain and to the peak of Blackcomb Mountain. To compensate for all the fresh air and exercise we joined into a Club Crawl that was organized by the hostel. It involved hopping from venue to venue which was great - and the evening got as ugly and promoted heavy drinking as much as one would expect of a night like that. But good fun altogether and nobody got hurt, tattooed or married ; )

Our short flirtation with Vancouver is almost over... : ( With one crying eye we are preparing for our departure, since there is simply too much to see to stay monogamous for much longer. The plan is to at least attempt to scratch the surface of British Columbia with our next stop being Whistler. We are leaving early in the morning to catch the Greyhound - it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive. Coincidently and funnily enough we gonna stay in the same accommodation as the Olympic Team did this winter/spring. I guess Whistler is only this big, hey. Even though famous for being a world class ski resort I am sure Sascha and I find something to do that does not involve any snow.
Apart from making lots of travel plans - (we decided that we couldn't resist the temptation to cross the U.S. border after all...but more about that soon to come...) we also invested a bit of time into exploring Vancouver's beaches. Easily enough they are called 1st, 2nd and 3rd beach - as I mentioned before - you neither have to be smart nor over 5 years old to be able to figure out this city...if only life could always be this simple. All three of them are lovely and have a very special atmosphere. It seems that after 5pm the whole city migrates to the beach to have BBQs, play guitar, sing, dance, exercise, laugh and simply enjoy each other's company.

Other than that, Sascha and I found out what the city's nickname "Hollywood North" entails...For three days in a row we've been tumbling into film sets. One time they went to great lengths to make it look as if the scene was shot in Boston with different police cars and everything.

Another highlight of our stay and a famous Vancouver legend (his name has been mentioned in the Lonely Planet Travel Guide in various editions) was our tour guide Erik. The fact that he led as through the beautiful scenery of the Grouse Mountain and the Capilano suspension bridge was almost secondary - what really impressed us was his personality, attitude and life style. A few months shy of his 70th birthday he was fitter than our entire group taken together. He climbed, jumped, talked, pointed out stuff - without being out of breath once. Instead he happily chatted away about the fact that he had such a crab childhood that the only thing he wanted to do as a young boy living in Copenhagen was to immigrate to a country far, far away from all the drama...Funnily enough I could somewhat relate to that...Anyways, he was decided to go and live in Australia - but that never happened! He saw one picture of Vancouver in a shop window and that was all it took to convince him. He's lived in Vancouver ever since and has been working as a volunteer for the city for many years, doing two 9-hour guided tours a week. All unpaid...and it seems he couldn't possibly be more content and happy. During the past 15 years he's never fallen ill or canceled a tour- and to be honest, even though magnificent, I am not surprised. This man utterly loves what he is doing and I have rarely come across a person that seems to get as much satisfaction out of his/her livelihood (even whilst getting paid for it)...Well, you can tell I was deeply impressed by Erik - the fact that he had traveled to 84 different countries and went around the world four times catapulted him right into my top ten of role models : )

Vancouver rockssssssssssssssssss!!! Sascha and I are absolutely blown away by this city!!! There's absolutely no doubt now as to why it ranks so high in every statistic to do with cities + great living quality. The people are so over the top friendly that you find yourself on the look-out for a hidden camera . I've been thinking to myself: "That's way too nice - it must be fake." But no - it's for real! From the guy who checked my passport, to the staff at the airport, to various people in and around the hostel, countless tour guides - not a single one of them has not been awesome up to this point. Normally Canadians are described as to be friendly Americans. It doesn't do them justice. They should be dubbed "friendly Australians" - and hey, that sure says something! Patiently they've answered all of my questions...Today I got free Chinese cause I was wearing a red shirt ?! (I told you it feels as if people are almost suspiciously nice).

We are staying at the Hostelling International Central Vancouver - which is a chain. And after the first night here I feel that I will be loyal to them for the rest of my life - and I always thought I suffered from commitment issues... ; ) Last night the staff took us out to see a Comedy Show in a local bar, today we all went to Granville Island and the Public Market and tomorrow we are off to Stanley Park. Up to this point this trip has been so idiot-friendly that I'd send a five year old on it without even worrying for a second.

So yeah, Vancouver with its 180 degrees mountain scenery and beaches in the city centre is pure bliss. The only really crab bit was the way we got here. We spent the night at Gatwick airport - which wasn't great but not a big deal either. (We even got "offered" to spend another night there since the flight was overbooked. They were giving out $400 travel vouchers and a stay in a 4 star hotel in exchange for seats - but we were determined to spend the next night in an eight bed dorm instead.) But the flight with Canadian Affairs was just a complete pain. Even the pilot seemed to be a total asshole - he humiliated the flight attendants as well as passengers over the loudspeakers by publicly pointing out their wrongdoings..."The man in the red shirt - that rule also applies to you - sit down..." On that flight Big Brother was definitely watching you and as a result even I did as I was told for once ; )

The highlight of today (apart from the beautiful weather and our discovery of the beautiful inner city beach) was Sascha and me daring one another to get a piercing that's a little bit out of character...and we both ended up with having a slightly over-sized ring attached to our lower lip...Not sure whether I am gonna get used to that! But it sure gave us an adrenalin rush, a picture opportunity and a few stares from people walking by, thinking "Look at these funny looking, slightly sun-burned creatures and their equally swollen lips..." Anyways, good times : )

Farewell BBQ about to commence...To leave London when it's this sunny feels somewhat sad! Looking forward to see my girls one more time and can't wait for Sascha to finally arrive! Booked our first hostel in Vancouver! More expensive than I had hoped - but it's so gonna be worth it! Canada here we come!

4 days to go till Canada...