Arrival

Here's the first post of my 3 plus week trip to and around Canada. I'm just going to use this to keep a diary of what I've done, plus highlight any funny bits. I'll also link to any nice pictures that I take - I'll keep the ones of my thumbs, the lens cap or my shoes to myself if that's ok with you!

Just to catch up to the present, flew in yesterday, and the flight was largely uneventful - (read boring). Luckily I was next to a lady and her young boy, who were from the UK but living on Vancouver Island. I tried to ask them about the Kinsol Trestle, since I plan to visit it later in the trip, but no dice - she had no idea which bridge I meant, so much for local knowledge! :)

Collecting the hire car was a little bit more eventful - cue me being frustrated at not being able to open the boot of the car! I did eventually find the control how - a small button on the door panel that if you hold it for 2 seconds the boot lid pops up. Less than 2 seconds and it locks you in - not at all like the cars I'm used to. First test for me and the Buick (not a Chevy Malibu as was suggested by the website) was going down a spiral ramp out of the carpark, still I managed it ok, just as well as I refused the 30 bucks a day damage waiver! There was one brown trouser moment when I got stuck at a junction leaving a major road where the gearshifter stuck (it's an auto and I'd gone into park as I was waiting ages at the junction). Eventually after cauising a tailback of annoyed Canadians, and me resorting to hazard lights I worked out unless I had my foot on the footbrake, I can't come out of park - what a hand-holdy way to do this. Given it's an automatic, it's already way more hand-holdy than I'd want - wouldn't have had that problem with a manual, again a time where technology doesn't make life easier.

Talking on technology, my sat-nav has been a lifesaver on its first outing, it safely routed me to the hotel after I became a little lost. Well I wasn't etymologically lost as such since I knew where I was, but knew I was heading into town, not to the hotel, and was only doing that since I'd missed a turn, and that had only occurred since the sat-nav didn't locate the satellites in time. In fairness this was because the car was park in an underground car park, but there wasn't an opportunity to stop once I was outside. Those paying attention will have noted that I had to go down a spiral ramp, but the car was underground. No I wasn't making a journey to the centre of the eaerth (largely because that one's already written so I couldn't blog it) but because the carpark it built on the edge of a hill in at the top from the airport, come out at the bottom by the roads. The second excellent feature of the sat-nav is finding points of interest, I've just asked it to find petrol stations, supermarkets and attractions. I listed each by category in distance order from me - definitely worth the money for that alone. All I need is to select one and it'll take me to whereever I need to go. I'll do a road test later when I go to the petrol station and super market.

Right I'm typing this at 1:20am since I'm still on UK time (where it's 8:20 am) but I'm quite tired still even after 6 hours sleep, so I'm going back to bed. Oh and in other news - it's snowing.