A Friendly City Of Friends

The other day at my granny's in Germany, I sat browsing our government's foreign countries information website for details on interesting destinations and the requirements for getting there. As I was plotting a possible route through the Near East into central Asia, I soon got annoyed by all the necessary invitations and visas and insurances to be obtained in advance, simply not being in the mood for all this hassle right then.
Thus I turned around to have a look to the West, at the Americas, and as I click through state after state - voilà - no visa needed to stay up to 90 days in any North or South American country on the way! Intriguing indeed...
Regarding the season it would make sense to start from the North, let's check airfares to Canada then, shall we? There's a very special offer for June,5th only, and it goes to Vancouver. Who lives in Vancouver? Karin and Matt.
Email Karin: Got time in June, may I send bike?
Karin writes: Yes and great!
So I book the flight and go pack, well, sometimes you just have to follow the flow, I guess...

After trailing the sun for hours on an awfully cold airplane, a young Canadian immigration officer snaps at me (in a way suggesting a certain German heritage) and sends me into closer inspection,where I join the usual suspects

(Read: mostly suspiciously exotic or slightly shabby looking people. Like me.).
After a not too long, rather pleasant chat with a very kind customs officer and having repacked my belongings, I'm finally allowed onto Canadian territory.

A short ride on the Skytrain later, I meet my friends at the station on the corner near their cosy little apartment on Cambie Street. It's been two years since we last met, back in South Africa...

I stayed with Karin and Matt for a couple of days. They showed me around town and took me out to a barbecue with friends.
In the daytime Karin was busystudying Irokese history

while Matt supplemented his still humble earnings as a young art photographer with a landscaping job to be able to survive in vibrant but pricey Vancouver. So I had lots of time to myself, to do preparations for my upcoming journey or to just go exploring town on my own. Vancouver is a very neat and friendly city, and when the sun shone some parts reminded me of Cape Town or Perth. The people seemed to treat each other and tourists very civilized and courteous, they even thank the driver when getting off the city bus.

Alas, it's been drizzling or raining half of the time I'd been there, and, sitting on the couch with a hot mug of coffee, I looked out into the grey tristesse rather frequently. I'd caught a heavy cold during the flight, with lots of sneezing and coughing, a whisky voice and red eyes, slight fever at times and a permanently running nose - all being rather inconvenient.
The bicycle hadn't arrived yet, but it eventually reached Canada and went through customs all right. Yet there was no way to predict when it finally would be delivered to Vancouver. Nevertheless I was longing to get out of the city and into the wild, and thus decided to seize the opportunity and leave most of my stuff with my friends, to go on an extended hiking trip, over on Vancouver Island, just two ferry hours off the mainland.