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- Apr 25, 2023, 5:00am
- 🌙 2 °C
- Altitude: 13 m
- EnglandHammersmith and FulhamShepherds BushShepherd's Bush Railway Station51°30’15” N 0°13’12” W
Leaving Vancouver
April 25, 2023 in England ⋅ 🌙 2 °C
Flying over the Rockies between Vancouver and Calgary
Breakfast of today I met a cohort of young folk who had partied hard the night before and had had to call an ambulance for one of their number who had drunk 18 shots (and goodness knows what else) before passing out, vomiting and unable to move. He was kept in overnight suffering alcohol poisoning. The conversation was around how much they could drink, when they could start drinking again today, just a question said I " I'm sure you all know the units of standard drinks that are safe" .. No they said, is there such a thing?? hehe!!
One of the young people, Kaitlin, is from Rotorua, well not originally, she is Scottish first, went to NZ as an 8 year old with her parents. and now travels between NZ and other places in the world for summer all year. She works on the Zip line and I promised to take my grandchildren there when she's back in October for a free ride. (right tui)....what a coincidence!! I also met Valerie who thought she'd like to be a psychologist, I think I may have talked her into a second choice, along with the other young folk of course...to think about being a flight attendant as she said she just wanted to travel??
You just have to laugh, honestly. The other thing about Vancouver is that marijuana is legal and is smoked out in the open, on the streets, and I'm sure I got a bit dizzy walking to the station (maybe psychological but still a strong feeling), I was appalled, children exposed to the smoke, it is a different world entirely. I was also shocked at the amount of street people encountered all along the main street, hands in rubbish bins filling black bags with cans to sell. One guy I met on the bus had a huge garden bag full and as we chatted I asked him how much he might get for this bag, $30 possibly was the reply. "It will buy me some cigarettes and a beer for the day." He said he was too old to stop smoking.
Ah well, I left for my 5 o'clock flight at 1 p.m. only to find when I arrived that I was to travel domestically to Calgary first before getting another flight to London. The flight was only an hour, but the sight of those Rocky mountains was something else to behold, just stunning then Calgary came into view in a flat flat foothill square city, sandy sandy and brown from the air, not much green at all, I had another two hours before my flight to London. Sat in the bar/restaurant and had some dinner - no meat burger and chips....that'll keep me going for sure.Read more
Traveler Vancouver sounds a bit different to when we were there, then again maybe we didn't stop to talk to too many people,went out of the city quite a bit. Hope you enjoyed it though, I loved the huge market,and scenery.lovely to hear how you're going, enjoy your time with Margaret and family, then you're off on your pilgrimage,all the best, Love Maryxxx
Traveler The huge food market is amazing and I managed to find a great bowl of vegan offerings there, but so highly priced, I didn't buy here except for a calendar which was hugely marked down..hehe! I loved going out on the aqua bus, but really the sky scrapers are so ugly, the little houses on the "false creek" boat trip were more what I expected. Thanks Mary I am having a lovely time as always with family. It's so interesting the different experiences to be had... I also love their transport system..stellar! Hugs, your ain auld cousin xxxooo ❤️
Traveler These hills are stunning!
Traveler Stunning