USA - Mexico - Canada Tour 2007

U S A

M E X I C O

C A N A D A

Road trip 2007

August 12^th – October 28^th

August 12^th

Finally the big day had come, I finished working at the MCC Thrift Store yesterday and now I was free...now I could start my road trip...a dream became true when I left my place in Vancouver, BC in Canada around 7am. Vancouver was still sleeping and the sun was already shining. Anxious to get down to the Pacific Central Greyhound station I took the Fraser street bus and got off at the Main street station. The heavy weight of my backpack already bothered me a little bit and I thought about which things I can leave somewhere behind. At the Greyhound station I had to get my baggage tags and a ticket. And then stand in line with the other people that were heading down to the states. 8:45am the bus left Vancouver and the bus driver prepared us for a possible long line up at the border, but when we got there we had to wait for only about 30minutes before we could to go inside the immigration office and get our paperwork done. I left the border office with a visitor visa that allowed me to stay in the USA for 3months, more than I needed for this trip. In Seattle, WA I had to transfer buses. While I was waiting there in the bis depot I met a young man from the southern states that was going to get a job in Alaska in the fishing industry. Then on the bus to Portland, OR I talked a little bit with a women called Andrea. She was Buddhist and traveled a lot to Asia and also all across North America, so it was good to hear her opinions about some places that I had on my “To do list”. She also recommended me a hotel with some dorm rooms in Newport, OR. Later there was a guy sitting beside me, Keeve was his name and he is a photograph. We talked about his time in Quebec and France where he lived for a while. It definitely made the bus ride more interesting when I could talk to people and I really found that out even more later on my tour. In Portland, OR I had a 3 hours layover before I took around 9pm a small shuttle bus out to the Oregon coast.

August 13^th

12:50am the bus driver dropped us off at the tiny bus station in Newport, OR. It was dark, cold and I had not much of an idea where to spend the night. I just planed to go down to the beach and sleep there somewhere like I did several times before on some hiking trips. Well I followed a sign to the next Provincial Park, I used my cellphone to light my way down some stairs through bushes and trees, all the time I could hear and smell the water from the Pacific so I knew I was on the right way. Down at the beach I had to climb over some fairly high sand dunes which was not that easy with a heavy backpack and the little light that came from the moon somewhere up in the dark sky. It was a nice scene, the water, waves, a endless sand beach, the moon and me somewhere in between trying to fight my way through the sand dunes. After a while I thought that I found a nice spot for the night, right below some cliffs and dry sand I first sat down for a while, then unfolded my camping mattress and crawled into my sleeping bag. The stars in the sky were amazing and so I slept pretty soon without any problems until sunrise around 5am, I took some pictures and then slept for another 3 hours. After breakfast on the beach I packed my stuff and then walked back into Newport. There I first went to the Tourist Information Center and asked them about any nearby campsites but they couldn't help me. But there I met a guy from Australia that also slept on the beach last night and he did that since about two weeks but I wanted a shower and so I looked for the Sylvia Beach hotel that Andrea from Eugene suggested me the day before on the bus. They actually had dorm bed for $30 per night and I thought after a night on the beach I would be able to afford that “expensive” dorm room for one night. So after I settled down I went back down to the beach and walked towards the Yaquina Head State Park. Two hours later I arrived at the park where I first hiked down to a little cove with a bunch if seals. Later I took a look inside the Yaquina Point Light House which was in the same park. The evening I spent in the reading room of my hotel. I planed more details of the next few weeks and watched the sunset from the balcony.

August 14^th

One good thing of staying in “hotels”is the usually free breakfast, while having a huge breakfast I talked to several people in my room. Then down at the beach I had some coffee before I got some food in a small grocery store. I dropped off my backpack at the bus station and then walked down to the old Yaquina harbor, there was obviously the tourist center of that town. I had some shrimp and chips for lunch and then left Newport around 4pm. In Carvallis I had to transfer to a Greyhound bus, there I got told that my backpack was 60 pounds and I only was allowed to take 50 pounds per piece of luggage. Well so I took the food and tent out of my bag and took it on the bus as carry on, but I knew that I had to find a better solution for all my stuff because the Greyhound rules in the USA are a little stricter enforced than in Canada. Then back on the bus we took the highway I5 south. It was an endless, wide and straight highway through flat landscape. Close to my seat sat an 8ß years old man that just recently returned from a one month trip to China and his soon upcoming trip to India would also be one month. He said that it was his goal to travel these countries in his lifetime and then he could die. In Eugene, OR I had to transfer buses. While waiting for the connecting bus I met this weird white tall guy. I think he was a little bit mentally confused, all over his body he had tattoos and a huge “Hakenkreuz” on his neck. Then when the bus arrived I luckily got a seat, a few people had to wait for the next bus even though they had a ticket. I learned that Greyhound generally oversells it's buses and every time there are some disappointed people that can't get on the bus. On the bus I slept pretty much all night except when we stopped and the driver had to make his announcement.

August 15^th

My first night on the bus didn't bother me much, we arrived in Sacramento, CA at 7:30am. There I got on another bus down to Fresno, CA. Along the way I saw a lot of dry areas, the grass was yellow and only the watered fields were green. Then in Fresno, CA it was good to feel the dry heat once I got off the bus. Rod Nidever a friend of my family already expected me at the bus depot. We went to his place where I had a shower and a snack to eat. Later that day he gave me a little tour of Fresno and later we played Racquetball with some friends of him. They were pretty good players and they showed me how to play that game. After that we went to Taco Bell and had dinner. The rest of the evening we spent at their house and talked a little bit. I also had the chance to check my emails and update my friends on how my trip has been so far.

August 16^th

Yosemite National park was on my list today, Rod and I drove there, along the way i saw a lot of dessert and then once we got into the Foothills there were some trees, as higher as we drove as more green vegetation there was and the trees got bigger. Then at Yosemite National Park we drove up to the Glacier Point from where we had an awesome view of the canyon and some surrounding mountains. The drive down to the canyon was quite spectacular and we saw some waterfalls. We walked a little bit around on the bottom and then went to a nice huge lodge called Shawahnee Lodge with a fancy restaurant in it. After we had dessert and coffee in that fancy place we drove to the El Capitan, it's a huge wall of granite rock. On the way back we stopped to check out the famous Tunnel View and Bass lake where we had some burger for supper. We got back ti Fresno late in the evening to I went to bed after we arrived there.

August 17^th

The public transit system helped me to go to Fresno downtown. It was around 10am so the heat was still OK. Later it would be much hotter. I found a few cool buildings and a area with a few malls and a pedestrian area where they played music. But other than that there wasn't much more to see. After lunch Rod and I drove out to Kings Canyon National Park, there were fewer tourists than at the Yosemite Park. The “Big Reds” are the biggest attraction in this park, The biggest tree by volume is in that park with a bunch of other huge tree. The “Grant Tree” is 83 meters high, 12metres diameter and 30 meters around the bottom of the tree. I felt quite small when I stood in front of these giants. After that Rod showed me a camp for kids a Hume Lake, on the way to that camp we took a little detour to see the Kings canyon where would have been a lot of back country for me to explore if I would have had more time...

August 18^th

At 7:35am I was back on the bus towards Los Angeles, CA. The most impressive thing along the way was the Tijon Pass, the highway winds through the mountains with four lanes on each side. In Pasadena, CA a part of Los Angeles Rebekka a friend from Germany who married somebody from the states picked me up at the bus station. It was really hot down there so it was good that we went kayaking with some of Dave and Rebecca's friends at Huntington Beach in the afternoon. We paddled through channels between some nice villas where the rich people live. Later we went to the beach and checked out the sunset. Back in Pasadena we made supper and later we played Poker and had some drinks. The night was a little noisy because we had to keep the Air Conditioner running all night because of the heat.

August 19^th

The morning we all went to a Indonesian church where Rebekka works part time. We also had dinner there and I enjoyed their spicy food. In the afternoon I went to the old part of Pasadena, it was interesting to see how different the architecture is down there in the south. Then it was time to go out to the LAX airport to pick up Eunji from South Korea. Our plan was that she would join me on my tour for the next 2 weeks. On the way to the airport there was a problem with the train and all the passengers got stuck for about 2 hours to wait until there were some buses available. Eunji arrived around 10pm and until she was through the immigration process. We got back to Pasadena close to midnight.

August 20^th

Eunji and I left Pasadena in the morning and went to the Greyhound station to get our tickets. The station in Los Angeles is supposed to be one of the busiest in North America and we learned that while we waited for an hour in the line at the ticket counter. After that we left our baggage at the station and took a bus into downtown LA. We walked around in the old part, had some Mexican food for lunch. Later we walked through the financial district with some nice high rise buildings. The city hall is a old stylish building and we even got a free ticket for the MOCA (Museum of California). The Toy and Tokyo district didn't impress us at all and after we bought some fresh food for the time on the bus. Back at the bus station we were happy to be inside a cool building with AC. 4Pm we left LA with the Greyhound bus towards Phoenix, AZ. Around 7pm we left California and rode into Arizona, the landscape was flat, lots of bushes and rocks.

August 21^st

In Phoenix, AZ we had an hour layover and then spent the rest of the night on the bus. Just after sunrise we entered New Mexico with a similar landscape like Arizona. After 16 hours on the bus we where happy to leave the bus in El Paso, TX. We checked in at Hotel Gardner, had lunch at a fast food place and then explored El Paso. The museum was pretty cool with art from Mexico and the USA. Then we started our first real adventure – we crossed the border into Mexico. The closer we came to the border the more people begged us for money. After we crossed the bridge across a tiny river we had to pay 30 cents to get across the border. Nobody checked our passport, only the 30 cents were important. Once we crossed the border we were in a different world, lots of poor people, dirty streets, shacks, street vendors, old taxis, old school buses, food stands everywhere and a lot of Spanish musicians on the streets. It was quite overwhelming to see this kind of life and we wondered how it will be the next three nights in Mexico. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring this crazy border town. Back in the USA we tried to find a cheap bus down to Chihuahua, Mexico. There were several bus companies that offered a bus service across the border but the agents in the offices didn't speak English...after we kind of figured out which bus we would take the next morning we looked for a grocery store which was quite a challenge around 7pm, El Paso looked like a ghost town and almost nobody was left on the streets.

August 22^nd

We were supposed to catch the bus at 5am at a bus station close to the border. Around 5:30am a bus driver from a different company told us that we're at the wrong bus depot, obviously we didn't understand the people in the office last evening about from where the bus would leave. After the driver dropped us off at the right bus depot we got our ticket and then were happy to find a women with us on the same bus that spoke a little bit English. The rest of the people were Mexicans. Then at 7am the bus left the USA. At the border we had to get off the buss, claim our baggage, push a traffic light button, wait for the green light and then go back on the bus. Nobody checked out Passports and we also didn't have to fill out some papers for a visitor visa. Later we got told that we were illegal immigrants and that we would have to pay a high fine in case they would catch us because we didn't get that visitor visa. Well we just were happy to cross the border without any problems. Along the way there were several people that came on the bus to sell Burritos, sun glasses, watches and other things. Then around 2pm we got to Chihuahua, Mexico. We took a taxi for $6 to get to the hostel. There we were happy to find out that the family that owned the hostel spoke English. Then we started to explore the city, Here people were more laid back, people didn't beg for money and the houses were in better condition. Chihuahua has lot of nice old buildings, cool little restaurants and people that tried to talk to us even though we didn't speak their language and they didn't speak English. Kids in school buses waved at us when we walked through the city and people stopped talking when the Asian girl and the white guy from Germany passed them. The owner from the hostel told us that Chihuahua only sees very few tourists every year and we could see that it was something special for these people to have foreigners in their town. For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant which looked a little dirty but the food was great. Later we got some Cerveza and drunk it (illegally) in a park.

August 23rd

The first night in Mexico was pretty good, we had a cozy little two bed room with nice wooden beds and a mattress. We wanted to go for a little hike up a mountain where there is a huge white cross made of white stones on the mountain. We decided not to go by taxi and instead use the local bus system to get there...well because of the fact that we couldn't speak Spanish we just took a bus that was going towards that mountain....after a while we got off the bus and then had to walk through poorer part of the city, we walked passed shacks and old run down houses. After maybe 40 minutes we got to the foot of the mountain after we saw a lot of poverty. There was a small road going up the mountain and we took that one because we got told that there were dangerous snakes in the grass and bushes. It was really hot and hiking up a mountain just made us more sweating. Then at the lower end of the cross we had lunch and enjoyed the view over the valley and Chihuahua city. Later we tried to hike further up the mountain towards it's peak but soon we realized that there was no trail leading all the way up and that last part we would have had to climb. So we decided to take a small trail down back to the city, on the way down we ended up hiking through grass, which we weren't supposed to do according to locals that told us about the snakes in that area. We made it down without any snake encounters and then walked back to the closest bus stop. Buses in Mexico aren't that comfortable compared to the ones I used before in other countries, the bus itself was an old school bus with wooden seats and no AC. We were happy to get off the bus without any accidents along the way. Then back at the hostel we had a little rest and then headed out to see a cowboy parade in another part of the town. There we got to taste some more Mexican food, we had a thick sour tasting corn soup and some chips topped with some spicy sauce...too bad I can't remember the names of the food we had there...later that evening we went to Cafe del Pasdeo. There we had the chance to enjoy some life music and good Mexican Cerveza.

August 24th

When we woke up we didn't know yet what would expect us today. After breakfast we had a last stroll through the city center, then we took a cab to the bus station outside of the town. There we got told that the bus we where hoping to catch was already sold out and we had to wait for the bus at 2:30pm. That meant we wouldn't have that much time in El Paso to catch our connecting Greyhound bus. Well so we waited in that huge bus terminal and had burritos for lunch, all around us Mexicans gave us some interested looks, after a while we just enjoyed that people looked at us the two strangers... Then on the bus we were happy to see that our driver spoke a little bit English. About half an hour before the Mexico-USA border we had to stop at a military checkpoint, everybody had to get off the bus, we had to claim our baggage and then a few young soldiers searched all the bags, except my big backpack they didn't bother. It was funny to see one of the young soldiers to search Eunji's bag, obviously they haven't met too many Asian girls before, and then even go through her underwear made them look a little foolish. So back on the bus we headed towards the border, there we first had to wait about an hour on the bus and then another hour outside with all the other people in the long line up in front of the Immigration office. So many Mexicans that tried to get into the USA got turned away and it was heartbreaking to see them come back out and walk back to Mexico. We had to leave our fruits that we bought in Mexico at the border and then they let us in without any trouble. 9:15pm we finally arrived at the bus station in El Paso. There we caught the last two seats on the bus to Phoenix, AZ. Before they let us on the bus the Security personnel searched us and our bags for weapons and after we convinced them we're no terrorists they let us on the bus. Well and if that weren't enough ID checks the bus got pulled over around 2am and Border Officials came on the bus again, they even brought their nice little German Shepherd on board. So after we had that ID check behind us we finally could go to sleep in safety...

August 25th

After the night on the bus the bus arrived in Phoenix, AZ at 5:30am. Here our plan was to stay at Jeremy's place. We both knew him from Vancouver, BC. At his place we had a big breakfast and a shower. The Hurricane down in South Mexico also affected the weather in Arizona and so we had a little rain shower and it wasn't that hot as it usually is in Phoenix that lays in the middle of a dessert. Later we drove to Sedona National Park, also with us we had two other volunteers that worked in Phoenix for a year and his sister with her little son. At the park we stopped a few times to enjoy the red rocks and then we had lunch at the trail head that lead into a small canyon. After lunch we hiked into that canyon and had a good time with each other and the amazing scenery. On the way back to Phoenix we found out that there was a big accident a few miles ahead of us and we decided to stop for a pizza, but even after 2 hours the highway was still blocked and we had to wait another 2 hours. Around 1am we got back to Phoenix.

August 26^th

After a short night Eunji and I were back on the bus, today we took the Greyhound to Flagstaff, AZ and from there a private shuttle bus to the Grand Canyon. We got there in the late afternoon, set up our tent at the campground and then headed straight to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. And it was really grand, I never sq such a huge whole in the ground. We just stood there and couldn't believe what we saw. After the sunlight was gone we went back to the campsite, on the way back we stopped at a movie about the Grand Canyon. Back at the tent we cooked some supper and then went to bed.

August 27^th

Our alarm woke us up at 5am, we wanted to be at the rim before sunrise so we could take some nice pictures and enjoy the changes of light and see the cool effects of the light. It really was spectacular to see the sun rise and then shine through some clouds into the canyon. These are pictures that we won't forget for a long time and we probably will tell our own kids about that experience. After we had seen enough we headed to the trail head of the Kabab trail, a trail that goes all the way down into the canyon. After about an hour hike into the canyon, we were maybe 300 meters below the rim, it started and there also was lots of lightning that concerned us more than the rain. We watched how the flashes went into some peaks pretty close to us. We tried to seek shelter under a huge rock and just watched the lightning show in front of us. After around 40 minutes the rain stopped and we rushed the now flooded trail back up to the top. Once we got up there the sun came out...well but we didn't go down again. Instead we took the bus back to the campsite and had a nap until noon. The afternoon we spent hiking along the Hermits rest route trail. About half way at the Mohave Point we took the bus all the way back to Hermits Rest. There we had a snack and some water. We stayed on the rim to see the sunset, and today it was even better than yesterday. We could see the moon rise and the sun go down at the same moment. To make the whole thing even better we brought some beer along and had it on the rim. The evening we spent with doing our laundry which is always a waste of time....

August 28^th

We woke up, had breakfast in the sun and then took the shuttle bus back to Flagstaff, AZ. There we took the Greyhound bus to Las Vegas, NV. Along the way we saw a lot of dessert, the Bullhead dessert mountains. Then after we saw enough of the dessert it got dark. Before we got to Las Vegas the bus had to drive up a mountain and suddenly out of the dark Las Vegas appeared with all it's lights. It was pretty cool to see how bright the city is. Around 9pm then we arrived in downtown where we would meet Keri, Kaylene, Lan and Joe. They're all friends of mine from Vancouver that did their own separate road trip along the west coast of the states. First went to a free light show in the downtown pedestrian area and then headed out to the “Strip”, that's where all the famous Casinos are. There we spent all night checking out the different Casinos, for example the Belagio, New York, Luxor, MGM and so many more. Huge hotels with millions of lights with Gambling addicts in it...that's pretty much what Las Vegas is. After we had enough of the craziness we went back to our hotel late in the night.

August 29^th

Today we all slept in until 10am, then we went to a all you can eat buffet in one of these hotels. We only had to pay $6.99 per person and then had a variety of tons of different dishes from breakfast, lunch, dinner and even lots of desserts and cakes. I never ate that cheap so much good food. After that we had a hard time to move in the heat with our full tummies but we made it to Circus Circus, another hotel, where we watched a couple of free circus shows. Then at 4pm Eunji and I had to say good bye to my friends and go back to the bus depot. There we took a bus to Los Angeles, CA. On the way, in the middle of a freaking hot dessert, the bus had to pull over on the highway. The bus driver made an announcement and told us the engine was overheated and he had to shut off the engine and also the AC. So it got really hot in that bus, the sun was shining, outside it was around 50°C. Eunji got off the bus to take some pictures of a cactus and she tried to get closer and walked a little bit off the pavement into some grass and sand. Suddenly the bus driver was screaming at her to get back on the road because of the snakes in the dessert...you should have seen Eunji's face...after about 40 minutes in a very hot bus we could continue our journey on the bus. Luckily the sun went down and and we got through the mountains without any problems...but slower than we were supposed to be. So in the end we were almost 3 hours late when we got to LA. But luckily we caught another bus to San Francisco,CA. On that bus we also spent the rest of that night.

August 30^th

10am we arrived in San Francisco, CA, it wasn't that hot like in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and we enjoyed the “cold” weather. We stayed at the Globetrotter Youth Hostel in downtown, it was a old building but the staff and people there were friendly so we didn't mind. We ate and then walked through downtown towards the piers, there we spent some time along the water, saw a bunch of sea lions at Pier 39 and then hiked up to a tower from where we had nice view of the city, the Golden Gate bridge and the Alcatraz island with it's famous high security prison. Before the headed down to a beach close to the Golden Gate bridge we sloped at Lombardo street which is also called the crooked street. At the beach we enjoyed the sunset and tried to take some nice shots of the Golden Gate bridge with the sunset in the background. Back at the hostel we cooked some supper and then went out on the streets to see what Francisco has to offer at night, we found a nice bar called “Gold Dust bar”. There we had a beer called “Prohibition Ale” which I highly recommend, at that bar they also had live music which gave the whole atmosphere a boost.

August 31^st

One more day in San Francisco before we had to go back down to LA. We used the time to go to the Buen Yerba garden, the Martin Luther memorial and then the highlight from today the MOAD museum, it was about African culture in todays America. We got some food for lunch in Chinatown that was pretty big. The we walked up to Nob Hill and the Grace Cathedral that stands on top. Then we decided to take the bus out to the Golden Gate bridge, we also walked half way across the bridge, today the higher parts of the bridge were hidden in fog and there blew a cold wind. We had to go back to the hostel to pick up our backpacks and then we went to the Greyhound station to get in line for the bus. Good thing we went there earlier than usual, that evening a lot of people wanted to go down to LA...we left San Francisco at 10pm. This city is one of my favorite cities in North America, I like the laid back atmosphere, the diversity of the people and the culture and old buildings and for sure it's location right at the ocean, somehow a similar city like Vancouver in Canada.

September 1^st

After we arrived in Los Angeles, CA, by now we know that Greyhound station better than we maybe wanted to know that place, we had a lot of coffee at MC Donald's, it was still 6am so we couldn't show up at my friend's place so early on a Saturday morning. We got to Pasadena around 9am, had a shower and great breakfast with Dave and Rebekka. The afternoon we spent in Hollywood, walked along the Hollywood Boulevard with the stars in the sidewalks, saw the Hollywood sign on the hills and then took a bus to Redondo beach. After that I dropped off Eunji close to the airport, her two weeks were over and she had to return to Korea. We had awesome two weeks together and got to know each other more than when we traveled 'only' for a short time during our volunteer time in Canada. I myself went back to Pasadena.

September 2^nd

Today I met up with another German fellow who was in LA for a few weeks. The morning we spent at the MOSAIC church and then we went to the famous Venice Beach and Malibu. There we spent some time at the endless sand beach and enjoyed the huge crushing waves. The beach was crowded with people and it looked like in the Hollywood movies. The evening we spent at another MOSAIC event in downtown LA, there they rent a Inka temple night club for their services. The rest of the evening I wandered around in Little Tokyo (downtown LA) and then took the metro back to Pasadena. There I had dinner in a Mexican restaurant...back at Rebekka´s place I was really tired, so I just took a shower and then went to bed.

September 3^rd

Dave and Rebekka went to school early in the morning, I myself slept in, updated my blog and did some more trip planning for the coming weeks. Later in the afternoon I took the metro to Long Beach, it took me almost 3 hours to get there...Los Angeles is huge! On the way I passed several areas that didn´t look too promising, there is some truth to the bad image of LA...Once I got to Long Beach I had not much time left before the sun went down, I took some pictures, had a few snacks and then went back to the train station. The waterfront in Long Beach is nice which was a nice surprise after that rather bad neighborhoods...back at “home” it was already late, I had to pack my stuff so I would be able to leave next morning. After a chat with Dave and Rebekka we all went to bed.

September 4^th

Quick breakfast and then it was time to leave Pasadena. Before I took the bus I had some time to visit the Fuller Seminary, the school of my friends. There I also had the chance to escape from the heat and use the internet. Then around noon I took the bus down to San Diego, which is about 4 hours south of LA towards the Mexican Border. Along the way we stopped in Long Beach, Oceanside a nice beach resort town along the Highway 405. Then we arrived in San Diego, CA, first thing I realized that the city is way more relaxed than LA, the weather is just perfect, warm and a nice breeze from the Pacific and lots of nice buildings. After checking in at the hostel in downtown I bought some food and then headed towards the harbor. There it was time for supper...I was craving for some good food...haha but cheap how I am I only ate some sandwiches. I walked for a while along the waterfront, checked out some museum ships from the US army. Then when it got dark I was too tired to explore more, so I went back to the hostel where I chatted with a couple from South Korea and introduced myself with my roommates, a guy from Michigan and another one from England who was on the road for over one year...I envy these people that have the chance to spent a year on the roads of this world!

September 5^th

Another sunny day in California, I started with a free pancake breakfast where I had the chance to meet some Australians. Then I took the bus out to Ocean beach, a famous beach for surfing and nice suburbs with nice long beaches. There I tried to take some pictures of the surfers, had some Lobster Tacos for lunch, swam in the ocean and took a nap on the beach. Back in downtown I caught a bus up to the Balboa Park, where I walked around and took some pictures of old nice buildings. San Diego obviously had a lot of money, compared to LA this was the paradise, lots of nice parks and clean streets. Around 5pm I took a bus out to the Coronda Island, there I spent some time at the Silver Beach State Park, on that island was also a huge navy base... After supper I went with Martin, my roommate from Michigan, to Malony´s bar. We had a couple of light beers...light beer sucks!

September 6^th

After a short night sleep I got up around 5am to catch the early bus to Phoenix, AZ. We had a short breakfast break in El Centro, a small town somewhere in the middle of a dessert. Then we passed Calexico, in Phoenix I took another bus to Tucson, AZ. On this bus I met a young man from San Francisco who was living in Phoenix, He wanted to go across the border to Mexico to have some fun... At the time I got to Tucson it was already dark and I found out that the Greyhound station wasn´t at the same place as the old one from where I looked up the way to my hostel for the night...well so I had to figure out how I would get to the hostel, good thing Tucson isn´t a huge city so after about 20 minutes I arrived at the hostel. Hostel, well it was a normal house with a few rooms with several beds. The people that lived in the hostel were all permanent “guests”, so it was kind of a weird feeling to stay there with people that all knew each other. Anyways they celebrated a birthday and I also got same cake.

September 7^th

My day started with a all you can eat waffle breakfast which was in the 20$ for the hostel included. While eating I had the chance to talk to some of the people that live in the house, so the locals gave me some informations about their city and where I could find some cool places. I left my backpack at the hostel and then headed out towards downtown. On the way I passed some huge cactus which were over 3 meters high. My first stop was the Tucson Artisans district with a small market from local artists. Short stop at the old city hall which was built in an old southern style. For lunch I headed to 4^th Avenue where I was told that I would find some good food. This street looked like the Commercial Drive that I knew from Vancouver. Trendy place with different small restaurants and stores. Close by was the State University of Arizona, there I visited the library to escape the heat. Tucson is also in the middle of a dessert and mountains...believe me it was hot! I spent about two hours in that library and used the free internet to update my blog and check out the pictures that I made in the last few days. Then I took the bus back to downtown, back at the hostel I took a shower and then walked to the Greyhound Terminal, the sun already set and black clouds were in the sky. It looked like a big thunder storm...the eastbound bus to El Paso, TX left Tucson at 8pm. I had a long bus ride in front of me...

September 8^th

...after about 7 hours on a noisy bus I arrived in El Paso, TX around 3am. Yes El Paso again, it´s kind of a main stopover for buses that go east and west along the Mexican border. From here I boarded another bus that would bring me all the way through Texas. I slept the rest of the night and then got the chance to experience how big Texas really is...all day flat areas with tons of bushes, grassland, oil fields with the distinctive oil pumps along the highway. Another thing was that I left the dessert behind me, there was so much green land, nice change after 3 weeks in the dry heat of California and Arizona. Oh yeah maybe I should mention that we had a bus driver who was in a really bad mood...so several passengers got into a little fight with him. Then 6pm the bus arrived in Dallas, TX. After about 2 hours waiting in a crowded terminal with mostly Mexicans I took another bus to Houston, Tx where we would arrive at midnight.

I would find out 2 days later that my grandpa from Austria died today after several months in ill health...9000km away from home I wasn´t able to attend the funeral.

September 9^th

In Houston, TX I had to wait one hour in the line up to catch the bus to New Orleans, LA. The rest of the night on the bus was OK, I was ready to get off the bus and take a shower...after 37 hours on several buses I definitely had spent enough time on the bus to give myself a break! Finally around 8am I got off the bus in New Orleans, LA, the city that was almost 100% destroyed two years ago by the hurricane Kathrina. And no doubt this city is still not back to normal. It was hot around 95 Fahrenheit and very humid...another thing that struck me were the people that live here. Lots of black people, very few white ones and almost no Mexicans compared to the cities along the border. On the way to the hostel I met a man that returned to New Orleans after he left the city two years ago because of the hurricane. He said he couldn´t live without New Orleans, he loved this city so much that he had to come back home...

To get to the India House hostel I took the oldest still running streetcar in the world. There I was surprised how cool the hostel was, swimming pool, nice open people and air conditioned simple rooms with bunk beds and most important at that point a shower and free coffee! After settling down, a little breakfast gave me some new power and I took the streetcar back into the heart of New Orleans which is around the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. On the way down I saw lots of destroyed houses and left overs from the big “flood” two years ago. First I checked out the waterfront along the Mississippi. Fascinating for me were the old colorful French style buildings in the French Quarter, lots of bars, stores full of Voodoo puppets, small hotels, restaurants, strip clubs, hippie bars and all kinds of rather unpleasant smells in the air. Outside of this French Quarter I saw more destroyed houses, apparently half of the population never returned back to New Orleans after the hurricane in 2005. It was too hot to walk more around, so I went back to the hostel and had some lunch. After cooling down in my room I took a ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers, another old part of the city. The evening I spent at the hostel, swimming in the pool, drinking beer and talking to other travelers from all over the world...

September 10^th

After a night with a nice breeze from the air conditioner in our room, I had a late breakfast. I actually like my breakfasts...Toast with Peanut Butter and some Banana slices on top, very delicious! Then I tried to find some informations where the big old cemeteries are and how to get there, then I headed out into the hot and humid city. I took the old streetcar away from the city center and got off at the last stop in Midtown. The famous graves, which aren´t graves below the surface, they are huge stone tombs that stand above the surface on the ground. Some are like small houses without a door and windows. I wandered around in two different cemeteries, after I saw enough I took the streetcar back into downtown. There lays St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the oldest cemetery in this area. There I also found the famous tomb of the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, the whole tomb is covered with X´s. The tour guide said that this area is a bad one, although I didn´t have any problems I tried to get back into the safer part of New Orleans. I took a bus to the Garden district, nice houses with lots of green vegetation and some trendy neighborhoods. Back at the hostel I had lunch and then headed out to the next library to see what´s new in “my world” at home. I found out that my grandpa in Austria had passed away two days ago, this didn´t fit into my road trip mood and so I went back to the hostel and spend some quiet time there in the pool. Later in the evening I went down to Bourbon Street to have some cheap light beers, light beer sucks! But the live music in the bars was awesome...

September 11^th

9/11 the day which changed America, all the TVs were full of that topic and people stood in front of the TVs just to watch these pictures over and over again...for me it was time to move on, somehow not easy to move on from a city that I started to like. I left the hostel around 7am, the air was still nice and cool but I could feel later in the day would be hot today again...and my feeling was right! At the Greyhound station I had some time to call my grandma in Austria, she seemed to be all right even though her husband died three days ago, she is a fighter as well.

Then I took the bus towards Florida, we passed the swamplands in which you still can find some Alligators. In Mobile, LA I changed the bus which went along the Gulf of Mexico, What a dream, white sandy beaches with a water like you can find it on these pictures! It looked like the Caribbean, Especially the area around Panama City Beach, FL was great. But unfortunately the bus didn´t stop here, so I got off the bus around 20 Miles later in Panama City, FL. It was already dark outside, but still a crazy humid heat and looked look like it would rain in the next few minutes. I had no idea how to get to the beach, where I planed to spend the night. After about 30 minutes I found the water but it was in the middle of this city, mosquitoes everywhere and signs that told me that I wasn´t welcome here to sleep on this beach in the middle of a small park. Well so I moved on with my heavy backpack, I met a drunk young man which lived in that area, he told me to be careful with the crack junkies that hang around in that part of Panama City, he also told me that there is a very tiny stretch of beach about 30 minutes just outside of downtown. When I got there I was wet, not from the rain – it didn´t start yet, but the sweat from my body. The beach wasn´t a beach like you can find it on nice tourist pictures...no it was more a stretch of sand, covered with grass, just fa few meters away were houses and a street. Why I could see all that? One thing full moon and the other thing was that the area was lid from the lights that belong to the harbor building just 200 meters away...but at that point I

didn´t care about these things. I knew I could start raining every minute and so I tried to find a more or less hidden spot under a bush. I thought my tarp will keep me dry from the rain ,yeah it sure did from the rain but it was so hot that I was sweating the whole night under the tarp. During the night it was raining off and on.

September 12^th

I was still alive, wet and still tired but alive!

The Greyhound station would be my first stop for today, what a good feeling to be inside a cool building with cold water. Yesterday on the bus they broke my a clip from my backpack belt, I headed out to find an outdoor store that could sell me another clip, but this wasn´t that easy. Nobody could tell me where there is a good store to find what I needed, I checked out a big mall but there I had no luck either. It was already around noon and the sun burned down on me. It was way too hot to walk around in Panama City and I just wanted to sit in a cool room, so I went back to the small Greyhound station and spent the afternoon there with reading. Then at 6:30pm I boarded the bus to Orlando, FL and from there an overnight bus to Miami, FL. In Tallahassee we had an hour layover because the driver for the next shift was late...back on the bus I fell into a sweet sleep...

September 13^th

Around 9 am we had a stop in one of the cities north of Miami, FL. There the border police came on our bus to check the passports and Ids, unfortunately the guy sitting next to me had no idea and didn´t speak any English at all, I guess he was Mexican. They took him off the bus and brought him away...poor young man! Then we headed towards Miami. We got there around noon, I got off the bus at the airport station, from there I had to take the metro bus to South Beach. On the bus I meet 2 young people from Australian and we found out that we would stay at the same hostel. Then there was another young man, he was born in Sudan, is Bolivian, lived in Japan and had an hour layover with his flight here in Miami and so he wanted to use the time and check out the famous West Beach. So we introduced us to each other and then made our way to the hostel, perfect location, only 1 block from the beach and very central in the South Beach area. After checking in we headed straight to the beach where we spent the afternoon. Yeah I made it from the West Coast to the East Coast, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, sweet! Miami beach, I´ve seen it in so many movies and pictures and it really is that cool as I expected it. Endless sand beaches, blue-green warm water with perfect waves and even the sharks stayed off the beach. Fernando the guy from Bolivia and I went out to have some food in a trendy bar. They had a ½ price special and so we got some good food for a reasonable price but the beer was almost 10$...Welcome to Miami, here you pay for the name. We got some beer and then met there at the hostel the Australians. We had a little room party and then tried to find a cool night club, we found one with a dance area on top of an aquarium, well but we didn´t stay long because nobody was there and one of the Australians got into a fight with one of the bouncers. Around 2am I went back to the hostel and Fernando tried to catch a taxi to the airport. At my room I talked with the Australians for a while, one of their friends had to go to the hospital after his incident with the bouncer...

September 14^th

I got up around 9am, had breakfast and chatted a little bit with some other fellow travelers from Hungary and Turkey. They both worked in Washington DC as lifeguards in a hotel for the summer months.

Then I was already hungry again, the free breakfast wasn´t that great...then to the beach again. After swimming I checked out the surrounding area. I found some nice old houses and also some art on the street. I checked out the sunset at the beach and then went back to the hostel. While getting some more beer with the Australians a black guy tried to steal our wallets, we tried to get away from him while we waited in a hotel lounge, somebody must have called the police before and they came to get him away from us. We had our little room party until around 1am and then decided to go swimming in the Atlantic ocean. It was amazing to swim in that warm water, little waves and stars above our heads! Back at the hostel we had some food and then went to bed.

September 15^th

Today, I got up at 7 am, after a very short night and a little hang over from last nights adventures, a shower got me back on track, had some breakfast where I talked with other German travelers from Stuttgart, checked out and tried to catch a bus to downtown Miami. On the bus a black young women started to talk to me, but not in English as I would have expected, no it was in GERMAN, she was from Germany and visited a friend here in Miami. Stupid me, I should have known that there are colored people in Germany as well, but honestly I didn´t expect that on the streets of Miami...

Then in downtown I got off the bus in a sketchy area, according to the informations that the hostel gave me, this was supposed to be a bad area. Minutes later I found that out in my very own way...a homeless guy started to follow me and wanted to help me. He asked me where I would have to go and that he could show me the way to the Greyhound station. More than that, he offered me to protect me from the other homeless people that seem to live all over the streets in this area. I tried to argue with him that I should be fine without help but he didn´t go away. He followed me and once I saw the little shady bis station he told me that I should pay him for his services...well I gave him a dollar and explained him that I´m a poor backpacker. He didn´t like that excuse but he did let me move on. The station itself was like a little military checkpoint, around the property a hight steel fence and a security guard with a gun, welcome to the other side of Miami I thought while entering this place. Inside I got my ticket and then had to wait for an hour or so. While waiting the security guard got bored outside and came inside the little building as well. He had a big flat screen TV where he watched some Chinese martial arts movie. All in Mandarin but he didn´t care because 95% of the movie were fights anyways.

Then finally the bus arrived at the depot, this would be my bus to Key West, FL. We drove down a highway with 44 bridges that connect a string of islands on the souther tip of Florida. This area is also called “The Keys” 155 Miles away from Miami lays Key West at 24 degrees Altitude, which means this is the closest point to the sun in the USA. A town like you could find it somewhere on the Bahamas or Hawaii, crystal clear blue-green water with coral riffs. And all that only 90 Miles away from Cuba. The trip down took me 5 hours, I got there around 4 pm, walked to the hostel and then took my running shoes and went for a run along the Atlantic Ocean. It was quite hot and humid but there thing to do after weeks on the bus... Back at the hostel the air conditioner and a cold shower brought me back to normal body temperature. Once it was dark I went for a stroll through the neighborhoods. I passed the most Southern Point of the USA, several nice restaurants and resorts. I was tired because of my lack of sleep from Miami, so I went back to the hostel where I had my own room but also my most expensive room so far, 35$ for a hostel bed is too much I think!

September 16^th

Isn´t breakfast a great way to meet other people, somehow it seems like that on my trip, today I met a girl from Germany. We talked a while in the outdoor kitchen and then it was time for me to check out the town of Key West. It´s surrounded by water, nice beaches and an old harbor. There I bought myself a Cuban Cigar which I smoked on a little beach...that´s how Fidel Castro must live! While walking through the streets of Key West I saw lots of exotic plants and trees, also small animals like ducks, chicken and gees are on the streets. Don´t ask me where they come from...some streets looked more like a path through a tropical jungle than a street in a quiet neighborhood with old houses. Later in the afternoon I got my stuff at the hostel and then took the local bus out to the airport from where the Greyhound bus would pick me up. Back on the bus to Miami, a great sunset over the Keys impressed me once more how beautiful it is down here. In Miami I had an hour layover before I got on another bus to Orlando and from there later in the night to Atlanta.

September 17^th

After a night on the bus I still had about 12 more hours on this bus. Then at 5:30pm we got to Atlanta, GA. The public transport system helped me to get close to my next “home”. I had the address of an older couple in Atlanta where I could spend the night. Mary and Raynard welcomed me very friendly and then we had grilled salmon for dinner, later they gave me a little city tour through the older parts of Atlanta, the parts where Martin Luther King grew up. Back at home we chatted for a while, I checked my emails and then we all went to bed.

September 18^th

After breakfast I quickly found out that the weather here is very different compared to what I had the last few weeks. The air was nice and fresh combined with a perfectly blue sky and sunshine. The perfect day to explore a mid size city like Atlanta by foot. The most interesting thing in this city was the Martin Luther King Jr. museum and the area where he lived and worked with the people. Also from here he started the movement against slavery. I checked out his birthplace, his grave which is a tomb in the middle of a water park and the little museum which was close by. Then while heading towards downtown I passed through some areas where mostly colored people were living. In downtown I had lunch at the Olympic Park, checked out the huge CNN headquarter, peaked into the Coca Cola museum and souvenir shop. After that a quick look into the Underground Atlanta shopping mall and then I headed towards Mary and Ray´s house. On the way I got myself some fresh food at a little market which I ate in the Grant Park. Back at the house I got my stuff, wrote a little Thank-Your card and then took a bus back to the Greyhound station. Where I took a bus northbound towards Washington, DC.

September 19^th

After the night on the bus it was necessary to change buses in Richmond. The next bus brought me straight into the capital of the United States of America - Washington, DC. Along the way through North Carolina it started to look like fall, the leaves already started to turn red. Time to get back up to Canada so that I would be able to check out the great North, so I thought but later I would find out more...

It was a nice sunny morning in Washington, DC. The city was in busy mode and lots of people were on the streets when we got there at 10am. First thing that struck me was that there were so many people in suits.

My hostel was accordingly to the informations from the internet in a rather unsafe area, so I wasn´t to surprised to find out that it was the true...the hostel was in a run down area with lots of run down buildings around it. Well and my hostel was one of these run down houses. But don´t worry, I wouldn´t write this if I wouldn´t have survived....so after I left my stuff at the “safe” hostel I took a bus back into the government district. There everything was in a nice order, probably because of the hundreds of police men, and even more FBI and Secret Service agents with their big black SUV s like you know them from these Hollywood movies. So I checked out the old Union Station, I tried to get into the Capitol but they didn´t let me in because I had food and some water with me. Well so I checked out the Supreme Court, the Library of the Congress, US Botanic Garden, National Museum of the American Indian, National Air and Space Museum, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial and then the White House. The police man who was patrolling the fence gave me 2 minutes to look at the White House and take some pictures. After a long day with lots of museums I took the bus back to the hostel. About 10 blocks before the hostel I got off the bus to buy some groceries that would bring me through the night and the next day. The last 10 blocks I didn´t want to take another bus, so I decided to walk home. I had to walk through these neighborhoods that weren´t to famous for their safety and I found out why...people were sitting outside their homes in the dark, they looked at me maybe because I was the only white person on the streets. But I got back to the hostel without problems. There I prepared some supper and talked to my roommates from Poland and England.

September 20^th

Today I wanted to see the Holocaust Memorial Museum which was also on the National Mall where all the big museums are. The ticket was for free, the same like all the museums here! I´ve heard from a friend how that museum is and how disturbing the pictures are. I also was interested to see how the US would handle this topic and what they had to say about it in a public museum like this which is sponsored by the US government. I was moved again how cruel “my” people were just a little over 60 years ago and what they did to humans like you and me. They also mentioned that the US could have done more to prevent Holocaust and I really think that this museum was well done! Then on my way to the Museum of National History I got some food. The museum was so crowded that I didn´t spend too much time there and so I spent some time in the National Gallery of Art with pictures of famous painters like Picasso, Van Gogh and others. Then it was time to take the elevator up to the top of the Washington Monument, up there in about 550 feet I had an amazing view of the different famous buildings of the capital and the greater Washington DC area. I took some time to relax at the Vietnam Memorial and then headed over to the Lincoln Memorial, where Abraham Lincoln sits in a huge stone throne.

Later I met Christian, a guy that I met in the hostel. We agreed to have some beer later in the evening. I waited that it would get dark, I wanted to take some pictures of the Capitol and the Washington Monument in the dark. Then we went to an Irish Pub where we had some “Bass Ale”, one of the local beers. Christian had to catch a night bus to New York and I went back to the hostel where I found out that I have three new roommates, 3 girls from Germany. We talked for a while and I also got to know a couple from the Ukraine that did a work and travel tour along the east coast.

September 21^st

I already finished my sightseeing, so this morning it was time to take it easy, have some breakfasts, talk to other people in the hostel and then go back to the Greyhound bus depot. From there I took a bus north-west to Hagerstown, MD. There Barb Peckman picked me up to bring me to Chambersburg, PA where they live on a nice farm. The Peckman´s are the family of Joe who I knew from my time in Vancouver. He told me that they would like to host me and that his mum is the best cook in the USA! They had about 150 cows and 1200 acres of farm land. And yeah I had the chance to eat awesome food that Barb prepared for me, I also was able to meet the whole family which was an good experience for me. It felt like home for me, the landscape with it´s rolling hills, green fields and lots of forest areas. In the evening Melody and me watched a movie called “Freedom Writers”, a good movie about gang violence in Los Angeles.

September 22^nd

My day started with French Toast and sausages that Barb prepared for me. Then they gave me a tour of their farm and their big farm vehicles, then Barb took me to her parents where we had a drink and a little chat with them. For lunch we had more great food. The afternoon I spend with planning the next few weeks and I realized that my time was running out which meant that I had to adjust my plans...

Around 4pm I got the chance to watch them to milk the cows and how they feed the little ones. Melody´s boyfriend joined us for another huge dinner and then we went to play some mini golf.

September 23^rd

7am we had breakfast, I know early for a Sunday but we went to church and we had to drive for 45 minutes to get there. It was a good service, for the afternoon they had planned that we would go to a corn labyrinth called “Maze”. On the way we had lunch at an Burger King restaurant and then we actually got lost several times in that labyrinth. We had to answer several questions to get the directions through the labyrinth...

Back at home I took a nap, a cold was on it´s way and so I wanted to take it easy for the rest of the day. During the evening we spent time together and talked.

September 24^th

Time to say good-bye to the Peckmans, Barb prepared a last big breakfast for me, I knew I would miss these breakfasts! Then she brought me back to Hagerstown where the Greyhound station was. There I took a bus to Baltimore and from there to New York City. I was happy to spend the day on the bus, I got a serious cold and felt quite sick...so I could get some rest on the bus.

Then going through the suburbs of New York gave me a weird feeling, something like coming home even though I only spent a weekend here 2 years ago. But already then I started to love this lively city. The city fascinated me again, the huge amount of people, the skyscrapers, the high density of different cultures and so many interesting thing going on all over in the streets. Arriving in the biggest bus terminal that I´ve ever seen, the Port Authority Station, 260 gates on several floors in the middle of Manhattan, was a cool thing as well. First of all I got myself a map of the subway system. Then I took a train out to the Bronx where I would stay for the next 3 nights. After some research about cheap places in NY I got connected with Nancy, she also did a voluntary service up in Seattle, WA a few years ago and now she lives here in NY.

The Bronx are an area of New York which is famous for it´s lively people that lived there, mostly colored people and immigrants. It´s also got told that it is not the safest place for tourist, but that´s why I enjoyed staying there...live with the locals! I found the little basement suite from Nancy, it was rather a little whole under the house...yeah but it served me well! Nancy had a job as a social worker and she gave me some cool ideas where to go and what to do for cheap and where I could escape from the normal tourists that come to NY. I also bought myself in a corner store close by lots of fresh veggies and fruits so I would get rid of my cold pretty soon. The evening we both spent at her home and talked about her days in Seattle and about New York.

September 25^th

After breakfast the subway brought me back into the heart of Manhattan, I got off at the World Trade Center (WTC) station. The place where the WTC was changed a lot in the last two years since I´ve been here. Now it looked more like a huge construction site, even the subway station, now called “WTC path station”, was rebuilt. Only a small memorial reminded of that incident that changed NYC. Walking through the financial district with its´skyscrapers is always an amazing experience. Then I took the Staten Island ferry that passes closes by the Statue of Liberty and which was for free. A good view of the New Yorker skyline was also included in the ferry ride. Back in Manhattan I watched a few break dance artist performing their show while eating my sandwich in the Battery Park. Then I strolled through Chinatown with lots if little markets with all kinds of exotic food, Little Italy with hundreds of little restaurants and the famous NOHO district. The subway brought me to 42^nd Street, there my camera ran out of battery, first I tried to charge my battery in the “Toys R US” store, but a friendly salesman kicked me out. Then at a little Starbucks coffee shop I had more luck, while sucking on a Iced Coffee I could charge my battery and also get some rest. It was interesting to watch people walking on the street in front of my window, thousands of people, they looked like pilgrims that come to the famous Times Square, take pictures of themselves and then move on...is that how a modern world pilgrim looks like?

Then my battery had enough power to survive the rest of the day, so I walked through the streets around the Time Square, checked out the Trump Tower, where I saw Mr. Trump giving a press conference about some new magazine for the rich. Tiffany & Co was close by but I didn´t need any new jewelry for half a million Dollar, so I moved on to the Rockefeller Center. Then when it was dark I took some pictures from the Times Square at night with all the neon signs and then took the subway to the city hall and from there I walked to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Some more of the buildings that I saw today are the city hall, an old tall white building, then the Empire State building, Madison Square Garden a little green patch of grass in the middle of high rise buildings, New York Stock Exchange, NY University, Wall Street and the World Financial Center.

September 26^th

Most of the morning I spent in the Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is definitely one of the best museums in this world. It covers a lot of the human history from different continents. After calling my mum to congratulate her to her birthday I took the subway to the United Nations building. It wasn´t easy to get close to it because most of the streets around it were closed by road blocks from the police, this week they held the annual UN General Conference and so you can imagine how serious they were concerned about safety. It was interesting to see a few groups protesting in a park close by. It was another hot day today, even worse underground in the subway stations. To breathe some cool air I made a visit to the public library. Around 7pm I met up an old friend, Joelle, I got to know her two years ago while I was here in NYC. Together we took the subway across the river to Brooklyn Heights and walked from there over the Brooklyn Bridge, pretty cool view of the skyline with all its´ lights. Back in Manhattan we spend some time at the old Seaport, there was an Indian festival with live music and dance show. We sat for a while on the river and caught up with each others life. Then she showed me the “Village”, a part of New York where the alternative scene meets up, pretty relaxed night life and interesting people on the streets, little bit like the Commercial Drive in Vancouver just bigger. There we had some real New York style pizza in a little Italian restaurant. Around 11:30pm I had to head back to the Bronx because I didn´t have a key with me to get into Nancy´s basement.

September 27^th

The last 3 days passed by so fast and now it was time again to pack my stuff back into my backpack and move on. Back in Manhattan at the Port Authority Station I caught a bus to Boston, MA. On the bus I got a window seat and beside me sat an fat old lady, my nightmares about riding a bus beside a fat person became true. She was snoring and her hand always fell on my lap...haha but I said to myself don´t worry be happy only 5 hours to go! And actually I slept most of the bus ride anyways. Then in Boston I had to take the train and a bus to get to my hostel which was about 20 minutes in the suburbs. There I checked in, ate a little bit and then called my friend Min. She is from South Korea but I met her in Vancouver where she took some ESL classes. She studies here at the Boston University and so we tried to hang out together while I was in town. Together we and two of her friends had supper at the student dinning hall. Then she showed me here room where we spent some time. Around 9pm I left so she could prepare for an exam that she had to take the next day. On the way home I had the chance to take some nice pictures of the Boston skyline at night.

September 28^th

The plan was that I would meet Min around 11am at her room in the Hyatt Hotel. I left my backpack there and then we went for lunch with Haruka, a girl from Tokyo that also studied at the university. The all you can eat lunch buffet was awesome and after we were full enough we took the train to downtown. Adrian, one of Min´s friends came with us, he was from Switzerland and took some English classes at the university. We checked out the downtown area, nice old buildings between some newer high rise buildings. We had some coffee and watched a street performer doing his shows. Around 6pm we went back to the dinning hall and had some supper, then back to the Hyatt to get my stuff. Then time to say Good-Bye to Min and my new friends. At the bus terminal in downtown I had time to update my diary and then I took the night bus across the border into Canada. Montreal would be my next destination and I was excited to be back in Canada, it´s a different air that they breathe up their. But the last six weeks across the United States were an awesome time and I´m happy about every minutes that I could spend in this country!

September 29^th

It was cold in Canada, 6:30am we arrived in Montreal, QC and sun just started to rise on the horizon, a beautiful day was ahead of me. Yeah good thing the Canadians did let me back in, eh! I guess I wasn´t fully awake or to happy to figure out the right directions to the hostel, but instead walking south I walked north, after about 20 blocks I slowly realized that I must have taken the wrong way and so I asked one of the few people that were on the streets so early in the morning. Well so I had to walk the 20 blocks back to the bus depot from where it took me another 15 minutes to get to the hostel. There I found out that I could leave my bag but that my bed for the night was still occupied. So I headed out into the city, still tired I had some coffee in a MC Donald's and then took a nap in a park at the harbor. As soon as I walked through the old part of this city I started to like it, it had some European flair with it´s tiny streets and old houses. I spent the morning in the old town and then around 2pm I returned to my hostel. There I uploaded some pictures on my hard drive, showered and then slept for a while. After supper I went for a long walk through Montreal and across a long bridge to an island on the other side of the river. Some nice pictures of the skyline were my reward for that 3 hours long walk. Back at the hostel I used the time to talk to fellow travelers. A guy from Port Coquitlam, Canada that just had returned from Europe and Mayuko a girl from Kyoto, Japan that studies in Toronto who was on a long weekend trip to the French-Canadian city of Montreal.

September 30^th

A free dry bagel for breakfast and a big coffee brought me back to life. While chewing on my bagel I talked to 2 girls from the USA and a mother with her daughter from Mexico City. Then I tried to figure out what to do today, the two girls from the USA wanted to check out a famous catholic cathedral, Mayuko from Japan and I joined them. At the cathedral we found out that we had to join the mess if we wanted to see the cathedral from inside, well so we all joined a catholic mess which was held in French. So I didn´t understand one word but Mayuko said it was an interesting experience for her to see a mess. Well sure it must have been a weird experience for her, some priest with scent candles that caused a lot of smoke and then a mess hold in French...after that we went to a French restaurant, pretty fancy and great food. Then we split up because everybody wanted to see something different. I hiked up Mount Royal, a little hill in the city from where I had a good view. Back in downtown I got myself some food for my next trip on the bus and then ate some Chinese BBQ pork. Around 6pm I picked up my bag at the hostel and then walked back to the bus depot from where I took a eastbound night bus to Novia Scotia. One thing I liked in Montreal is that most people speak French and English as well, so I didn´t have any problems there with my poor French but at the same time you can get a taste of the French lifestyle.

October 1^st

After a great night on the Arcadian bus with leather seats and lots of leg space I still had to spend the rest of the day on the bus. Riding through New Brunswick was pretty fun, this beautiful province has rolling hills covered by a colored forest because the leaves started to turn red. Along the highway were small lakes and rivers. During the meal brakes I had the chance to get used to the cold windy weather outside. Then in Moncton it was time to change buses and a few hours later around 6:30pm we arrived on the Atlantic Coast in Halifax, NS. The city was bigger than I had expected but the hostel was pretty close to the bus depot. I left my stuff in my room and then took my running shoes and went for a run. Awesome run along the harbor front and up the hill to the castle, from there back to the hostel cutting through downtown. While eating my dinner at the hostel I had the chance to talk to two Irish guys that worked here since a month or so and they gave me some good ideas what to do and where to drink the best beer in town. The rest of the people in this hostel were rather quiet and so we all watched a movie on TV and then I went to bed, a real bed not a seat in a bus...

October 2^nd

After I had two Apple Pancakes and some coffee I went out into the sunny weather, a perfect day to do some sightseeing and spent some time at the water. So first I checked out the train station and the harbor with some cruise ships. From there I walked along the waterfront. Now I was at the Atlantic Ocean, the eastern part of Canada, in about 4 weeks I would stay at the Pacific Ocean on the other side of this huge country. So from the little ferry terminal I took a boat across the harbor to Dartmouth, there I took some time to check my emails at a library and then walked back across the bridge to downtown Halifax. From there I took a bus to Herring Cove, a cool little place just outside of town right on the shore. I hiked a little bit through some forest and over some cliffs until I found a good place to relax. While sitting there on the cliffs with the wind blowing in my face I had to think back to my time in Vancouver and all the good moments I had there. Back in downtown I checked out the Citadel, a little castle that the British built to protect the city from a French attack. From there I walked to Pleasant Point park which lays in the eastern part of town right on the water. There I had lunch while watching the sunset. On my way home I could watch the cruise ship Queen Marry 2 leaving the harbor. Back at the hostel I talked to some other hostel guests, one of them was a girl from Japan that lived during the summer on the Prince Edward Island, a place far away from civilization and according to her a great place to get some rest and spend the summer. I also got to know two guy from Israel that took a year off from the Military, they said that they couldn´t stand anymore to kill people and fight in the war and that they love Canada because it is so peaceful! Later that evening I went out to do a little bar tour through the city. Halifax is famous for it´s lively bar scene and we all had the chance to find that out that night. First we went to the “Shoe Shop” bar, different small bars combined by one owner, every room has its´own style. There we had a local beer called “Alexander Keith's” definitely one of the better beers in North America. Then we headed down to the harbor to the “Lower Deck” to catch some life music. In that bar I met a guy from Balingen, Germany. Just 20 minutes away from where I live...small world. In the same bar we also met 3 guys and 1 girl from the Canadian Army, they have just returned from Afghanistan and they where there to celebrate. Definitely some interesting storied that they told us. One of them even exchanged his Afghanistan T-shirt with my one from Cambodia. Then when the music was over we walked up to the “Amber Ale House”, the only place in town to get some beer around 3am on a Wednesday night. There we had our last beer for the night and a Jaegermeister and then we all had enough. Back at the hostel we said good-bye to each other because I would have to leave early the next morning.

October 3^rd

After a short night of sleep my alarm woke me up around 10am, they wanted me out of the hostel by 11am and my bus would leave at 12:45pm. In the meantime I bought some groceries so I would survive the next 20 something hours on the bus. Then I took a bus back to Moncton and from there a night bus towards Montreal, QC.

October 4^th

I planed to take a bus straight to Quebec city but then I would have arrived there in the middle of the night with no chance to get into any hostel. So instead I took a bus to Montreal and from there to Quebec city. It took me 6 more hours to get to where I wanted but at least I could sleep in a warm bus. 9am I finally got off the bus in Quebec city, I´ve heard so much about this city and so I was anxious to find out more! My hostel was in the old part of town, also called “Vieux Quebec”. Here the people mostly spoke only French. First I walked along the old city wall towards the cliffs from where I had a great view over the river and the harbor. This is a old town, old stone buildings, tiny streets and so much French style all over. It felt like Europe to me and it was great! I spent pretty much all day wandering around and taking pictures in that old part of Quebec city. I was too tired to go out in the evening, so instead I went to the hostel bar and had there some tasty local beer called “La Barberie”. There I also had the chance to meet some other travelers from India, Germany, Belgium, France,Switzerland South Korea and Japan. We talked about where we are and what are our travel plans for the next days and weeks. Around midnight I went to bed to get a full night of sleep.

October 5^th

I had breakfast with some of the people that I talked to last night. Then Ilse, a girl from Belgium and I headed out to rent a Tandem bicycle. We rode to a waterfall which was about 10km outside of the city, It was fun to be outside in the sun and the cool air. The waterfall was 80 meters high pretty wide, too. There we met the guy from India again. Last night we sat together at the hostel bar and had some beer. We also brought a young couple from Germany with him and so we all went for a short hike through the woods along the river. Back at the hostel Ilse and I went to a Moroccan restaurant for dinner, the interesting thing was that we could bring our own wine. So we ate some good and spicy Kefta, rice and beef and drank two bottles of good Quebec wine, that´s how French people live...

Back at the hostel we met the Indian guy with the German couple, we had some beer and then headed out to see what the city has to offer at night. We also checked out downtown and found some cool bars but not too much going on that night but we made our own little party. Around 2:30am we made it back to the hostel and went to bed.

October 6^th

7am, my alarm rings and so I had to get up. My bus would leave around 8:30am and I still had to eat some breakfast. So back on the bus to Montreal I slept for a while. In Montreal I took another bus to Ottawa. The weather had changed and it was cold and rainy outside. Then in Ottawa, ON the capital of Canada I had to take a local bus to downtown and from there I walked to my hostel. Then I checked out the government buildings, some nice old houses and lots of parks around it. It was cold and rainy and I was tired, so instead of spending more time outside I returned to the hostel. There I met the 2 Swiss girls from the hostel bar in Quebec. Together we had supper and decided to get some drinks for the evening in a liquor store around the corner. We sat outside on the porch and had our drinks and talked in German, well at least they tried to do so with their weird Swiss dialect it was funny to have a conversation. They also planed to take a bus to Toronto the next day and they even would stay at the same hostel. So we decided to take the same Greyhound bus the next day. Later that evening I also had the chance to talk to a bunch of Asian girls that wanted a picture with me, I thought that was funny and we exchanged e-mail addresses.

October 7^th

An old noisy man that stayed at the hostel permanently woke me up earlier than I had planed. And then there was a power outage, so instead checking my e-mails I talked to some other people from Austria, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Then around 10am I walked back to the city bus stop and took one back to the Greyhound bus depot. There I met the Swiss girls again and we took the bus down to Toronto, ON. 6 hours later we got there. We had some troubles finding the hostel but friendly locals helped us out. At the hostel we relaxed for a while and then went out to find a good restaurant. We ended staying in a Chinese restaurant and had a huge plate of food. Later we walked around in downtown but it was too foggy to see any of the high rise buildings which still made up for a cool scenery. Back at the hostel I had to do my laundry and then went to bed after we agreed to have together a last breakfast.

October 8^th

THANKSGIVING day in Canada but this time it didn´t really affect me...

After a night in an “earthquake” bed that was shaking with every move that I or the guy below me in the bunk bed did. 7:15am then it was time ti get up and have breakfast with the Swiss connection downstairs in the hostel basement. The breakfast was a rip off like so often in hostels...then we said good-bye, the girls would head up to a National Park and I would take the bus down to the Niagara Falls. Before that I met up with Mayuko the Japanese girl that I met in Montreal, she stayed in Toronto to study English. She gave me a little sightseeing tour to the CN Tower, the harbor, Old Town and then back to downtown to the Greyhound station. She even gave me a little good-bye gift, some Japanese rice and spices for my time on the road, what a cute girl! Well then at 2pm I took a bus straight to the Niagara Falls, ON. The falls are pretty impressive, but the scenery around it was disturbing. Tons of tourists and hotels are along the cliffs. But I used the rest of the day to enjoy the falls and took some good pictures. When it got dark even some lights turned the falls into a cool scenery, back at the hostel I ate the Japanese food that Mayuko gave me and then went to bed.

October 9^th

After breakfast it started to rain for about 30 minutes, as soon it stopped raining I hiked along the cliffs and the river to the worlds biggest “Whirlpool”, it´s just a big bent in the river that comes from the Niagara Falls, To get down to the water I took a small steep trail. The Whirlpool itself wasn´t too impressing but it was quite down there and here off the beaten path were no camera tourists. On the way back to the hostel I stopped at a local farmers market to get some fresh food for the day and my overnight trip to Chicago. Back at the hostel I had lunch with a couple from Africa, they were just about to fly back home. The afternoon I spent with planing my next three weeks. After several calls to different boat and bus operators in Alaska and the Yukon Territories I realized that I wouldn´t be able to go all the way up north with my time that I had left and the transportations that would be available at that tine of the year. Up there it already started to get winter and the transportations would be very limited and the sea very rough. I was a little disappointed about that but I almost figured that it would be that way and so I was planing just to go up to Prince Rupert, BC and then take the BC Ferries through the Inside Passage to Vancouver Island and from there it would be a short trip back to Vancouver. Yeah anyway I still was at the Niagara Falls and had 3 weeks ahead of me! So let´s get back to that, after I had supper I left the hostel and headed over to the bus station. From there I took a bus across the border into the USA. In Buffalo, NY I had a long layover and around midnight I took another bus along the Great Lakes to Cleveland and from there to Chicago, IL.

October 10^th

After the night on the bus I arrived in Chicago, IL around 10am. Through a friend I got the address from a family that lives here, they even picked me up and brought me to their house. This family came from Honduras about 19 years ago. At their home I had a much needed shower and then Christina prepared some great Honduran food for me. Then one of their girls took me into downtown to show me around and give me a first impression about what this city is all about! We took the train and got off close to the Sears Tower. We took an elevator up to the Sky deck, up there we had an amazing view of the city and Lake Michigan. We spent some time at Millennium Park and walked along the shore. It was a cold and windy day, Chicago is famous for it´s cold wind and there is no doubt about it´s truth. Back at home I had a long nap, the last night was still in my bones...for supper Christina´s husband Ramon prepared some Honduran BBQ meet, oh man that was a feast! I also had the chance to meet their granddaughter Sarai, a shy little girl that slowly warmed up and even said Hi to me. It was interesting to hear their story about how they made it to the USA, first illegal immigrants and then the painful process to become a US citizen. Christina for example just got her citizenship two weeks ago, after 19 years living here she finally got the papers. Official figures say that about 10 Million people from Central and South America are living in the US without the proper papers, but the real number must be much higher. Raymon for example has to work from 4am to 6pm just to make enough money. He says it´s not easy and they could fire you for every small reason. But still these people included me into their family live and shared with me everything they had, I wish I can be such a good host for others. The evening we watched a bit TV, I checked my emails and then I went to bed.

October 11^th

After breakfast with Christina, I took the train into downtown Chicago. It was cold and the wind was blowing through the streets. My first stop was the old library. From here I walked towards Lake Michigan and the Navy Pier. Because of the strong wind, it was hard to walk, I headed back along the Chicago river which flows through the city. A coffee brought me back to normal temperature and then the sun broke through the clouds and it looked like a sunny afternoon. So I used the time to see more of the city and take some pictures. Chicago has a similar feeling to New York, just a little smaller but also nice old buildings and interesting architecture. On the way back I got some food for the next day on the bus and then headed back to Raymon and Christina´s house. We had a last supper together, delicious Tacos, Raymon shared his story how he came to the USA, crossing illegally the Mexico-US border and the hiding from the border patrol and so on, quite a story compared to my “adventures” in my life. Around 8pm they brought me to the Greyhound station. From there I took a night bus to Minneapolis.

October 12^th

6:15am we just arrived at the Minneapolis bus depot but for that wasn´t the end of my trip...here I transfered to a northbound bus towards Canada. On this bus I met a dance group from Sri Lanka, they were performing all over the north-eastern USA. It was fun to get to know these people and they talked to a lot of other people on the bus including our friendly driver. In Forgo it was time to say good-bye and I took another bus, my last one for today, across the border into Canada. All day log the scenery was pretty flat, barely any trees and lots of farm land here in the prairies. After 23 hours on the bus we arrived in Winnipeg, MB, Yvonne which is also a Volunteer from Germany already waited for me. We walked to their Volunteer Unit house, there I got to know the other 5 people and we had supper together. After supper we decided to go for a little bike ride through the city and go for a drink in a bar but instead we ended up sitting in a Tim Horton's drinking hot chocolate...12:30am and back at home we all went to bed.

October13th

My duty for today was to see the city, they offered me to use their bike and so after breakfast I was on two wheels ready to see Winnipeg. People all over Canada and even Europa talk about this city, stories about temperatures below -50 degrees and long icy winters with lots of wind and not enough hot humid summers with swarms of mosquitoes. I asked myself, why do people live in a place like this?! First I visited, Matthias, one of the volunteers at his workplace, as Second Hand Store, pretty much the same thing that I did in Vancouver. It was fun to meet the old people there and here their stories, the same stories that you could hear in any of these stores. About interesting customers to overflowing storage areas and so on... Then it was time for lunch, a big burger and some fries brought me back on my feet. Riding my bike through downtown and along the river was fun. Then I crossed the bridge over to the French part on Winnipeg, took some pictures. Back at the English side of town I rode along the river to Asiniboine Park, there I took a nap and enjoyed the sun. My impression of Winnipeg is that the city is a little bit dirty and rundown, but the people are great and they have some pretty nice parks in this city, one of them right at the point where the two rivers flow into each other, also called “The Forks”. It also looked like that they have a good art and cultural scene in this area and not to forget the French influences which I could see at some buildings across the river. Back at the unit house we had supper and then watched “Lord of the rings” with some good local beer.

October 14^th

In the morning we went to an old church which supports this unit. Some sandwiches for lunch and the Bonnie, one of the volunteers gave a little city tour, the idea was to show me some cool bars and drink some beer. We asked the others to join us but only Cirsten came with us. After several beers we headed back to the house, I chatted for a while with Bonnie and then it was time to catch a bus at the Greyhound terminal. There I found out that the bus company that is doing the night bus to Saskatoon wouldn´t accept my ticket and so I ended up spending one more night in Winnipeg.

October 15^th

I got up at 7am, short shower and breakfast and then it was time to head back to the bus depot. There I took the 9am bus to Saskatoon, SK. It was a local bus, so we stopped at lot of small villages along the way. The route went through the prairies, endless, flat areas without trees and some small lakes. It´s so flat that people here have a saying, “Don´t worry about your dog running away, you still can see him after three days.” These huge open fields with a wide sky really impressed me. You can imagine that the sunsets are amazing as well. Around 9:30pm the bus arrived in Saskatoon, SK, Marlene and Dennis picked me up and then we went straight to FOX a little lounge and eatery. Marlene and Dennis are the parents of my friends Keri and Kaylene and they offered me to stay there when I´m in town. Kent their son joined us for a beer and great food, then we drove to their house and we went to bed.

October 16^th

Dennis and I had breakfast and then he showed me their Jewelry Store, after that we went to a Native Museum just a little bit outside of Saskatoon. There we checked out the displays and ate a Buffalo burger. Then a little walk through the fields with some ancient native sites. The afternoon I spent exploring Saskatoon by bike, had some coffee and enjoyed the autumn sun. For supper Keri´s two brothers, Kim, the little baby and her mother joined us. After supper we had some beer and then it was time to get some dessert at a close by MC Donald's. Back at home Marlene and I had a nice chat and then it was time to go back to the Greyhound station. My next destination would be Medicine Hat, but instead going there straight I had to take a long detour to Edmonton and Calgary because the shorter route wasn´t included in my bus pass.

October 17^th

Another night on the bus through the prairies to Edmonton, there a short stop before the next bus bus brought me to Calgary, along the way I caught a first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains along the western horizon. It was high time to get into the mountains, quite chilly nights were signs of the coming winter. But before heading west to the mountains I planed to visit a friend in Medicine Hat, a small town east from Calgary, also somewhere in the prairies. The bus dropped me off around 5pm, Kaylene, my friend, picked me up with her car and we drove straight to a shopping mall to get some food and some ugly sweaters in a Thrift Store. These sweaters we would need the next night for a student party at her school bar. After we had dinner at her place with some of her roommates we went out to play volleyball at the gym and then meet some of her classmates a the “Garage” as small American style bar with good beer and great fried potatoes.

October 18th

After last night on the bus it was good to sleep in today. It was a beautiful morning, the fall already started, red and yellow leaves on the trees and a clear chilly air outside. After breakfast I went out for a little run through Medicine Hat. Kaylene skipped a few afternoon classes and so we had time to do some Kayaking on the Saskatchewan River with her classmate Nick. From her college we could use the Kayaks and so it was pretty easy to get them and drive out to the river. 3 hours on the water were enough and so we brought the boats back and made some supper and got ready for the “Ugly sweater” party at the “Den”, the college bar. The bar was famous for it´s dirt cheap Highballs, so we ended up drinking the from 1 liter glasses. Beside that it was great fun to meet her classmates and friends. Around midnight they kicked us out and we made our own little after party at Kaylene´s place. Around 3 in the morning we all had enough alcohol and weed in our bodies...

Yeah Medicine Hat will be in my mind for a while, great people, great party and the prairies!

October 19th

Don´t ask me how I felt this morning when my alarm woke me up at 7am, the whiskey was still sitting in my veins...fortunately, Heather, a roommate from Kaylene was able to bring me down to the bus station from where I caught a bus to Calgary. After a hang over bus ride I got to Calgary, AB around noon. There I headed straight to my hostel and then got some food. Also I picked up Rabea, a friend from Germany, at the airport a few kilometers outside of the city. She would be on the road with me the next two weeks to Vancouver. We cooked some supper at the hostel and talked about our plans for the next two weeks. She went to bed early and I had to do my laundry....

October 20th

After toast, Peanut Butter and bananas for breakfast we went out into the sunshine, today we had time to see Calgary city. The downtown area wasn´t that impressive and beside some nice high rise buildings and a park . Around noon we picked up our bags at the hostel and walked to the Greyhound station from where we took a bus into the Rocky Mountains to Banff. After a stunning bus ride first through the prairies and then along the first big mountains. For me it was a good feeling to be back in the mountains, no not any mountains...this time the Rocky Mountains where I´ve been a year before for a little road trip. Before we rolled into Banff it even started to snow a little bit, some of the mountains were already powdered with a little bit of snow. Today it was cold in Banff and there was a strong wind whistling through the streets. While walking up the hill to our hostel we met a guy from Australia, he was hoping to get a job on the slopes during the soon upcoming winter season. For supper we had to get some food in a grocery store down in Banff. After we cooked our meal we sat outside in the cold and clear air, there were no clouds on the sky and we could see the stars above the peaks that surrounded us. A quick cold can of Canadian beer and we went back into the hostel and soon to bed.

October 21st

Around 10am we left the hostel to do some hiking. We walked down to Banff, from there to the Fairmont Hotel and further along the valley floor and a glacier river. While walking along the Spray River loop we could see the Bow Falls before heading up to the Hot Springs where we took a long bath in the outdoor pool with view over Banff and the surrounding mountains. Before we headed back to the hostel we got some food. Rabea went to bed early and I updated my diary used the freaking expensive internet to check my emails. So after a good day with breathtaking scenery and crispy cold air I went to bed dreaming of the winter that was just a few steps away....

October 22nd

Our bus wouldn´t leave before 3pm and so we had time to sleep in, get our stuff sorted out and I booked 2 tickets for the ferry along the west coast which we planed to take a few days later. We got some coffee in the local Starbucks before we dropped off our backpacks at the Greyhound station. Then we used the free time to hike a little bit along the river and up some cliffs before heading back to the bus station because it was quite chilly outside. The bus dropped us off in Lake Luise, AB. The hostel there was just awesome, built with lots of wood and nice atmosphere inside. On top of that we had a sauna free to use inside the building. First thing after checking in was a little hike up to Lake Luise, probably one of the most photographed lakes in the world, and it is amazing that green-blue glacier lake, between high peaks and the glacier high up in the background. On the way back down a nice couple from England gave us a ride to the village. There we got some pasta, sauce, veggies and a pretty damn good white wine for our dinner at the hostel. After finishing the wine we went into the sauna...well I have to admit maybe not the best idea but after that we both were tired enough to go straight to our beds. We shared the room with a German girl from Trier and a young man from Slovakia, both working in Toronto.

October 23rd

I woke up early, I supposed the mountains called me...so I had breakfast, checked out a hiking map and headed up to Lake Louise from where I was planing to go further up the mountains. Rabea preferred to sleep a little longer and so I went by myself. To save some time for the interesting part in the mountains I hitched a ride up to the lake. From there I went straight to the back country, off the tourist beaten path. I scrambled up a icy slippery trail to Lake Agnes, a small mountain lake at about 1800m elevation. Along the way up I had some nice views of Lake Louise and the valley below. On the way to Lake Agnes I passed the small Mirror Lake, there I also left the last other hikers behind me, the trail got even worse and I had to watch out for ice layers on the trail. But it was worth all the effort, the lake itself lies in a high alpine meadow sou rounded by higher snow covered peaks with one side open from where I could see other mountains in the distance and the valley with Lake Louise below me. Some pictures later I tried to make my way up to one of these peaks that surround the lake, my plan was to descent on the other side towards the `Plain of six glaciers` that feed Lake Louise. So first I followed the lake around to a small snow covered trail up to the ridge. The trail did several switchbacks before I reached the ridge about 150m above the Lake Agnes. From here I tried to make my way down another slippery trail to the other end of Lake Louise, along this trail I had some nice views of the glaciers. Back at the lake I just followed it´s shore back to the hotel from where I walked down the trail to my hostel. There I met up with Rabea, we packed our stuff and walked to the Greyhound bus stop. While waiting for the westbound bus towards British Columbia we met our roommates from last night. We arrived a few hours later in Revelstoke, BC where we spent the night in the Same Sun Hostel. It was low season so it was pretty quiet there and we went to bed around 10pm.

October 24th

When we woke up we found out that it was raining and the weather forecast predicted the same thing all day long, our next bus would leave in the evening. That meant we got all day long to spend doing something indoors. We ended up spending the morning in the local swimming pool, using the sauna, steam room and the whirlpool. Back at the hostel we cooked some lunch, watched TV and relaxed. Around 4pm we left the hostel and bought some food for the next 24 hours on the bus, it was still raining... Then we headed to the small Greyhound bus depot next to the Trans Canada Highway No.1. Around 7pm we hoped on the bus to Salmon Arm, BC from where we took another one to Cache Creek, BC and from there a overnight bus to Prince George, BC in Northern British Columbia.

October 25th

During the night on the bus we drove along snow covered land, mountains and a interesting landscape which was lit by the full moon, all in all a pretty interesting scenery that passed by our windows while we tried to sleep. After a little bit of sleep we arrived in Prince George at around 7am, just in time for breakfast with a strong coffee. Around 9 am we boarded the next bus to Prince Rupert, BC. Now we could see more of the landscape than we did last night with the full moon and I have to say British Columbia isn´t only breathtaking in the southern parts, it´s also up here in the Northern parts. Through our windows we saw large never ending forests, farmland, mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes. On our bus we also had a lot of Native people which live up here in their territories and the small towns, so we sometimes stopped along the road to let one of these Natives get off the bus where they were already expected by their families. Finally after a long day on the bus we got to Prince Rupert, BC around 8 pm. First I was surprised by its size but it is one of the last “cities” before the almost undeveloped north starts and so it is an important place for trade and also a gateway with ferry connections up to Alaska which is less than 100 Miles away. Also from here we planed to take a ferry down the “Inside Passage” to Vancouver Island but more about that tomorrow. Today we still had to get to our hostel, which was in really good shape and almost empty. We spent the rest of the evening with cooking and talking to one of the other hostel guests...

October 26th

After breakfast we went to the local Safeway store and stocked up on our food supplies for the ferry 22 hours ferry ride all the way down to Port Hardy, BC which lays on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Then we picked up our backpacks at the hostel and walked down to the ferry terminal where we had to be for check in at 11am. While walking down we had our last chance to see Prince Rupert and feel the special atmosphere that lays here in the air, this city has always been a gateway to the adventures that lay out there on the islands along the coast for example Queen Charlotte Island or the big adventure Alaska up in the north. So I was kind of sad to leave this place so fast behind but we had no chance because the next southbound ferry would leave a week later and that was too late for us since we both had booked return flights from Vancouver. So we checked in at the terminal and got on board around 1pm. This ferry wasn´t that big, the bigger and newer one sunk a year ago and while they wait for a new one BC Ferry is using the old one instead. We didn´t care much about that fact because there weren´t many other passengers with us anyways. The weather was pretty bad, windy, rainy and cold...we got the real West Coast experience but still we could see the shores on both side while we drove through the Inside Passage, a long inlet all they way down to Vancouver Island. The channels we used were sometimes so narrow and windy that the boat had to slow down quite a bit and crawl through the cliffs on both sides. While we still had daylight we both just watched the scenery pass by, snow covered mountains, green forests, waterfalls, small islands, whales, big fishes, birds, eagles and sometimes a small fishing boat. I also enjoyed to stay outside on the observation deck, let the wet wind blow in my face and and enjoy the cold clear air. Once it got dark we spend the evening with reading. Around 10pm we arrived in Klemut, a tiny native community on the coast, only accessible by boat. One hour later we left Klemut and we went to our sleeping beds on the floor to sleep. Most people that didn´t want to spend lots of money for a private cabin, like us, did the same. The crew even turned off the lights for us so we could sleep.

October 27th

Around 7am the ferry started to shake, we obviously reached the open sea after leaving the Inside Passage with it´s calm water behind us. Because of the bad weather we had extremely high waves. I went outside into the cold wind where it was hard to move around because of the waves and strong wind. While standing there I could see a group of 5-6 big fishes that were following our ship, for me they looked like sharks. Around 11am we arrived at the port of Port Hardy, BC. A shuttle bus brought us the 10km to the village where we got dropped of at one of the last hostels which were open at that time of the year. Another guy from the Yukon and the two of us were the only guests. The housekeeper was ready to close down for the winter season, probably the reason that the heaters weren´t really working and it was cold inside the building. The afternoon we spent walking around in Port Hardy and a little park outside of the village. There we had the chance to watch a Black Bear while he was catching salmon in a creek that flows into the Pacific. We also saw two eagles sitting in a tree. To catch up with the world and heat our cold wet bodies we went to a local coffee shop with free internet. After supper at the hostel we talked a while with Collin, the guy from the Yukon Territories, before going to a local bar called “Sporty”. A few beers and rounds of pool later with other locals from Port Hardy we left the bar and went back to our “home”. It was great for us to get to know these locals which live out here in a place which you could easily call as the end of the world...somehow it´s the end of the North American continent, but on the other side of the Pacific is Japan and Asia...so it´s not really the end...it just feels like it, maybe because it´s such a remote place with the next small city 5 hours away...!

October 28th

We both got up at 8am, outside the rain was still pouring down...time to leave Port Hardy and go back to the city where we wouldn´t depend so much on the weather. A quick breakfast and then we packed our stuff, today would be the last day of my tour. After almost 3 months on the road all the way around North America it was hard for me to believe that this would be it. For me this was my first big solo trip, backpacking has become my lifestyle and I was infected with the backpacker virus, always wanting to see more of this amazing world and always dreaming of going to other countries, learn about their cultures and get to know their people and ways of life. Sure on my trip I also had some down times especially when I heard the news about my grandpas death. But also thousands of good times and interesting people that I met along the way. So the 7 hours bus ride down to Nanaimo, BC gave me the opportunity to reflect about the last 12 weeks...

We had to change buses in Nanaimo before we took the ferry across to the mainland. We arrived in Vancouver, BC at around 6:30pm – so officially my tour ended here...weird feeling but definitely good to be back at home in Vancouver, the best city of the world!

If you´re interested in numbers...here they are:

I spent 436 hours on the Greyhound buses or you could say 18.2 days...travelling approximately 28,500km in almost 3 months.

Last words...

Thank you so much to everybody that supported me with this trip, thanks to people that I could get to know and that became good friends with me – I miss you all! Also thanks to everybody that gave me a place to sleep and share their life with me, without you my trip only would have been half the fun! And last but not least thanks to my parents that always stood behind me!

And sure thank YOU so much for reading all this...!

Cheers and good travels!

Yours,

Manuel – Manny – Dönner - เดินเนอร์ - 듀너 - ドエナー - 德納