Canada

Having now completely maxed my allowed days in the Schengen visa zone, we were ready to head out of Europe. The original loose plan was to head to Mexico. But with Christmas and New Year approaching we decided to try to get into Canada to spend the holiday period with Mitch and Kelsey. In October we got the news that Mitch had broken his neck in an accident and we were keen to drop by for a visit.
The only issue is, I’m currently unable to fly directly into Canada. Well actually, the truth is that I’m ineligible to enter Canada at all. This was also the case back in 2020 when I was oblivious to the fact yet managed to talk my way across a road border crossing. With the plan to try to repeat that good luck, we booked flights to Seattle in the USA; conveniently a short bus ride to the Canadian border. I hoped to explain my Canada ban to a Border Agent since I wasn't doing well appealing the refused entry through the visa office.

The 8-hour flight from Reykjavik to Seattle was delayed a few hours. In the week leading up to our flight, I'd seen online that bus tickets were selling out fast. So, I booked our tickets for the only bus departing from the Airport. Despite it being only an hour and a half after our scheduled arrival. Unfortunately, our delayed flight meant we missed the bus. With that option now gone we were left with one last evening bus departing from Downtown. With a scheduled 9 pm departure we caught a taxi downtown in time to buy tickets and be back on our way to the border.
We arrived at the Border about midnight and managed to repeat the luck with the Border Agent that had allowed me entry 3 years back. After a small explanation of the situation I was handed back my Passport and we were through to Canada! Incredible how much easier it is to deal with a person rather than an automated system.

It was a short trip from there to the main Bus terminal and we had a room booked for the night nearby. Completely wrecked from the last 24 hours of travel we crashed out happy to have that part of the trip behind us.

Fortunately, we were able to book tickets for a bus to Revelstoke departing the next morning. Unfortunately, it meant we had only 7 hours before we needed to be back at the Bus terminal. The next morning we made it back in time to catch the bus and settled in for the 9-hour trip into the beautiful snow-capped mountains.Read more