Bowen Island or: Heaven on Earth

I might be a little dramatic again, but it is just that: A secluded place, yet in the immediate proximity of the big city Vancouver, just 20 min. offshore the village at Horseshoe Bay near West Vancouver. As soon as you walk off the ferry, you’re in the midst of a timetravel – or sort of. The buildings gathering around the ferry terminal look like the stage setting of a 50-ies Western and house such vital institutions as the public library, a visitor center, a bus stop, a few nice restaurants, e.g. Doc Morgan’s, a barber shop, some coffeehouses and a realtor’s office. Uphill, the main road across the island disappears behind a steep ascent, speaking of unknown adventures and findings.

The Islands

While I’m visiting, one of my major stops had to be Victoria, of course, to meet the man who set my mind on coming here in the first place. Yes, Chris, that’d be you! Too bad, I only had a small time budget on me, while I was there. So Chris and I made the most of it and he was so kind as to pick me up downtown Victoria and give me the quick tour around some of his major shooting locations, e.g. the Inner Harbour and locations along the beaches of Victoria.

Easy going Canadians and Live Jazz

Friday night, the rain stopped for a while and I took the opportunity to stroll down to the beach on Volunteer Park. Too bad I hadn’t brought my camera as the sky seemed inflamed over the fiery sunset. I must say the entire impression of the area is a really different one when it doesn’t rain. All locals to whom I have mentioned the weather maintain that it this year has been record setting in terms of dampness and rain. Oh well, lucky me – of all things, I pick the rainiest weeks of the year …

When heading back to my appartment, I came by an Italian restaurant, which advertised “live jazz daily” in big neon letters. Since I haven’t been to a live music club here, yet, I spontaneously decided to get a brief glimpse over an after dinner cup of coffee. And to my greatest pleasure the music was really good and in a matter of minutes I found myself in conversation with literally everyone at the tiny bar, made new encounters with locals and immigrants and a few minutes later we chatted about music, books, living conditions and whatnot. See, that is the exact kind of experience I miss so often when being back home: When trying to start a conversation with strangers, you get polite replies, but it never really goes on, especially when you’re single like me and not showing up in a crowd of people. There seems to be a certain amount of suspicion, as if people got the feeling “Oh, something must be wrong with him, if he shows up by himself”. Back home, you need to join a sports club or an organization or something in order to get yourself a social network, or you go to one of those specific networking nights where professionals of a certain walk of life meet over a given subject. But I often find that too formal, it always comes at a cover charge, it takes all night and you can’t just show up, chat for the duration of a beer and head on. It’s not really spontaneous is what I’m saying and this is entirely different here! (And much along the lines of how i prefer it to be).

Well, anyway, I had to get home early in order to be all bushy tails for next morning and for my trip to Victoria.

Whoa! Day 5 already?

I’m still struggling with my physical condition to a degree, which slows me down and takes a good deal of adventurous spirit away, so I tend to sleep in and spend quite some time on the laptop. Also, the weather is still not nice, it is raining for most part of the day and temperatures barely rise above 5°C. So that doesn’t make me exactly feel like going outside (but I have to and take advantage of my being here).

Yesterday, I went to BCIT to talk to the Director of Student Services about a course I had planned on attending, while I’m here. This was a really nice encounter and she greeted me, as if we had been knowing each other for years. Very pleasant! The trip to British Columbia Institute of Technology amounted to a 30 min. drive down to Burnaby, but I got there on time and without any detours, which makes me kind of proud as I tend to get lost, when not completely focussing on directions and the car I’m renting doesn’t come with a navigational system. Speaking of cars: German cars are really popular here. I don’t think I have ever seen as many German automobiles outside of Germany than around here. What is more, Vancouverites seem to be doing well, as most of the cars you see are the very expensive models, e.g. Porsche, Mercedes SUVs, Audi RS, Volkswagen Touareg and of course – the MINI Cooper (S, for the most part). So, here’s a reason to be proud, Germans!

I must say that the neighbourhood grows on me from day to day, despite the grizzly weather. Last night, I went to a nearby pub, where I’ve made an encounter with the waitress on day 2, and she also greeted me in such a friendly way that it made me feel, as if I have been living here for five years rather than just days. (Of course I’m aware that she is just being very professional). Everything is in walking distance and it has already become a daily routine to walk the two blocks to the next Safeway’s or Organic Market and get my nutrional necessities. Two blocks further, there’s a copy shop, where I intend to get some photographs printed as postcards, and a Blockbuster video store. Should the weather not become any better, I just might rent a movie here and there to keep me entertained at night.

If I can pull myself together and overcome the pain from an unexpected articular gout attack, I might check out the Vancouver Art Gallery later this afternoon. Also, I’m supposed to meet Alvin, one of my Vancouver contacts. But that also depends upon whether I’ll be able to get my shoes on and walk. I’ll do a test “drive” to the store now…

Regular-sized Canadians dressed in T-Shirts – at 45F!

Yes, it’s true! It is barely 10 C°, winds at 15 km/h (how convenient, everything’s metric here…), which makes for a real feel of just between 0 and 5 C°, I am freagging sick to the bone and having a flu including temperature, but I frequently see people on the streets dressed in shorts and T-Shirt. And don’t be fooled into thinking, they were just crossing the street or traffic light, no, I’ve walked with some of them for several blocks. It’s as if coastal Canadians were insensitive to the weather and just declare the warmer climate and dress to it. That’s how it seems to work here. Also, they aren’t constantly on their cell phones (of which they have, I’m sure) to share such essential news with the world as “Oh, hi honey, I’m just on my way to work, being on line with everyone else waiting on the train and I wondered, if you could help me pretend that someone liked me and that I’m not that total loser everybody else makes me.” Doh!?

Also, healthy living seems to be part of everyday life – or at least in that part of the city, where I’m lodging. There’s at least one organic food mart or coffee shop literally on every block or even more of them and very pleasing to the eye, being health-aware does something for them in that they don’t come in sizes worth of three or more singular individuals. Quite the contrary, I haven’t seen a single overweighed person here, and if I did, they were American tourists (whom you could easily identify by the way they dress, speak, behave). So Americans, you may not make much of your skinny neighbours, but they’re surely nicer to look at

I am thinking of taking a short class at UBC while I’m here and will attend an information event tomorrow afternoon as well as speak to the Dean of Admissions about whether I can take part or not. Apart from that I’m really sick like I haven’t been in a long while. No surprise, with going from one climate extreme to the next. My little body doesn’t seem to be coping too well with extreme conditions, be it nutrition, weather or the constant emotional stress I seem to be exposed to one way or another. I just hope, I won’t be too sick to go to that information session tomorrow. Also, I’m thinking of arranging a get-together of Vancouver flickr photographers. Sherry, one of my flickr friends, had the idea and suggested it to me. I immediately contacted the person she mentioned (apart from having contacted one or the other Vancouverite from my flickr contacts list) and she seems to be up to it. So the plan is to set something up for next weekend at the Vancouver Art Gallery. If I’m not totally dropping out from flu, that is. So, would you please keep your well-manicured fingeries crossed for me, pleaaaazzze?

The Arrival

I arrived at Between Friends Bed & Breakfast one day erlier than planned. My decision to book a B&B instead of a regular Hotel proves to be an excellent one with every day that passes. Not only was I made feel welcome like barely ever before. Simone, the landlord, and I also seem to have a good chemistry going and the neighbourhood is simply fantastic. I have cruised around various parts of Vancouver now, and yet I still enjoy coming “home” to this place, Kitsilano to be exact, every time, when I return from my daily trips.

My second day – Sunday – was largely taken hostage by a severe problem with my Mac. My initial attempts to connect to the wireless network here failed and I have been almost three hours on the phone the next day in order to sort this out – however, to no avail. It appears that somehow a certain preference setting in the network configuration can’t seem to get overridden despite my having sufficient access privileges. Apple’s Help Desk wasn’t able to resolve the problem and quite expectably resorted to a “not our problem” kind of approach. Sucks big time! So I did all I can to remedy this and even went to see various Apple Authorized Dealers here in Vancouver – but no gain on this end. So I ended up doing laundry, getting acquainted with the neighbourhood, running a number of errands and cruising downtown later that day to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. However, the club I was supposed to show up at was so packed, I didn’t get in and this gave me the much preferred opportunity to stroll around Pacific Center, the BC Ferry Terminal and to explore the Vancouver Convention Center, which is currently being augmented for a second site to open for the 2010 Winter Olympics being hosted here.

Day Three – major depression, doubts, loss of confidence and faith and plain despair. Not to get me wrong: Everything works out as planned or better, but I started to have second thoughts about all of this for the first time. Why am I doing it? To what end? Where do I see myself in some time from now? Open questions, which I’m unable to answer today or at this point. The weather just harmonized with this foul mood in that it rained the morning and gray clouds obscured the sky for the larger part of the day. Only shortly before sunset I was summoned to my car by simply spectacular light which shone across English Bay and Kitsilano Beach. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get there in time to catch the absolutely amazing rainbow, which dipped Downtown and the surrounding quarters into a surreal light. But I managed to capture at least a couple of pics, which – as usual – you will find on my flickr stream.

Technorati Tags: migration, travel_2007

Crossing the Border

… to where? Here I am – in Canada! Land of my dreams? I moved out of the city 10 years ago and now it appears, as if I were moving back in. Does it make any sense? Probably not. So what it is? It’s fairly obvious: Trying to run away – from myself. But you can’t. All the wise guys around me know that. I know it, too. But being a capricorne and having my picture on the dictionary entry “stubborn”, here I am doing all I can and burning considerable amounts of money over the attempt to do it nonetheless. Because I believe I can. Run away from the past. Leave it behind me and start all over again. Well, probably not all over, but equipped with a fresh angle of looking at things, a new attitude, more health, resolve and determination. So, was I missing anything in making a change?

Just the other day, I took the Underground Tour in Seattle. You wouldn’t believe all the catastrophic mistakes the founding fathers of this city made in building it. Like, for example, boardwalks that were on a different level than the street. To cross the street, people had to climb ladders, cross the street, and climb down on the other side. Picture this! Ladies in corsettes and with unloading dresses, men in their sunday attire and children barely able to walk. How stupid can it get? To put the icing on the cake, they made up for this by putting a solid brick cover over those boardwalks, literally burying anything below, blocking it from the sunlight, ventilation, access… – I beg your pardon?!!

Despite all these crass miscalculations, Seattle evolved from a proverbial mudhole, filled with sawdust and suffering twice a day from the tide literally washing people’s homes away to one of the major cities of modern times. If that isn’t proof enough that anything is possible, you’d probably have to reach for the Bible and read about the miracles Jesus performed during his lifetime. So – YES! You CAN change anything and you CAN reinvent yourself. I know, *I* CAN! I’ve got it in me, enough resolve, enough determination, with a reestablished health also enough perseverance to make anything happen. And I will. I set out to accomplish this, and I won’t let go until it is accomplished.

So – crossing the border to where? To a new life, a new me, a new beginning. Hopefully here, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Halleluja!

Bye-bye, Seattle!

I’m getting ready to leave the hometown of Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Frasier Crane and The Fabulous Baker Boys. I have spent three days here and tried to accommodate as many attractions as possible, while still taking my time in order to be able to fully appreciate my experiences. I would like to thank all Seattleites for treating me very nicely, being helpful and friendly on every level and making any traveller or visitor very welcome. I also was fortunate enough to find mostly nice weather, especially yesterday, when temperatures broke through the 60 F barrier and it being sunny all day.

I managed to go atop Space Needle and visit the Experience Music Project Museum, both located in Seattle Center, meet a friend’s cousin over in Woodinville on the east bank of Lake Washington, stroll down Pike Place Public Market, sit atop the Waterfront in Sound View Café, check out the oddly shaped Central Public Library on 5th avenue and take the Seattle Underground Tour. I had a fresh seafood snack at “Steelhead Diner”, half a dozen fresh squeezed orange juices (which squeezed my wallet, too…) and see a fabulous show at nationwide acclaimed Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley. Last night on Friday, I decided to go see a movie at a cineplex theater on Union Square and check out, whether that felt any different from seeing a movie in English back home (it didn’t, except for the fact that everyone around me spoke English instead of German). I also took hundreds of pictures, some of which can be found on my flickr-stream.

Today, on Saturday, March 17th, I will continue to Vancouver, B.C., one day earlier than planned. I feel that if I went back downtown today, a) burning money would come to a critical peak and b) it would rather leave the impression on me of having barely seen anything in the light of the countless attractions that are advertised in my little brochure. So, I quit when it feels best, and this is just the time. In addition to that, I will take the opportunity to research and modify my travel plans to the end of going back to Las Vegas one week early and see the desert once more, maybe one of the numerous shows on the strip, go atop Stratosphere or even travel as far as to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, I’ll see. I would also love to rent a Harley Davidson one day and cruise along winding desert roads, but I am not sure about the risks implied here and haven’t decided on that, yet.

I’m enjoying the sights and sounds as best as I can, but contrary to my feelings in Las Vegas, where I was happy to continue my travel on my own, I now sometimes wish, I’d have someone around to share all the experiences and discuss the impressions of the day over a good dinner, a glass of wine and candlelight. Well, wishful thinking – for a start, who knows, what’s going to happen up there in Canada….

Stay tuned and come back! Oh – about commenting: Please do! Your comments may not appear right away as I have to manually confirm them in order for them to appear, since in this day and time, it is necessary to have spam filters even with blogs. But I do get your comments and authorize them every other day or so. So – fire away!

A Night out at Jazz Alley

They say it’s one of the top 3 best rated Jazz clubs in the entire country: Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in Downtown Seattle. And boy, I’m such a lucky dog: David Benoit, renowned smooth jazz recording artist will perform live Thursday through Sunday – that means, I get TO SEE THE CONCERT! TODAY! But it gets better: Yesterday, I was at Pike’s Place Public Market and they have a ticket booth there that sell tickets for half the regular price. So I went back to that place today on my way to the Public Library and actually managed to get a hold of a ticket for the show.

Now, club concerts around here are somewhat of a different ballgame than back in Europe or rather Germany: Shows start as early as 7.30 pm, while e.g. the Nightclub at Bayerischer Hof, Munich, won’t get started until 9 pm., admission one hour prior to the show. Also, there are two long sets, which basically comes down to two full shows at the price of one. However, the half price tickets are usually only for the late show, which won’t start until 9.30 pm. Anyways, with a little bit of charm and innocent eyes I was fortunate to get in at 7.00 and enjoy the show. A killer! You have to imagine that David Benoit hardly ever plays in Europe, let alone in my backyard of the country. So tonight was really a major, major highlight of this trip, if not my life! And to make things even more memorable, I had the pleasure of meeting a nice young couple at the neighbouring table, who recommended a number of must-see attractions in Vancouver, after they’ve learned of my trip and plans. They really made my mouth water for Vancouver, B.C. and I expect it to be spectacular!

And then, folks, the second set! Amazing, kicking ass, rocking the joint! Really, this was jazz at its best and not even close to “elevator music” as smooth jazz is sometimes labelled in derogatory terms. You could tell that by the second time the guys had really relaxed and taken a liking in being onstage and being given the opportunity to experiment.

At the end of the show, I couldn’t help but talk to the musicians and get autographs. It was then that the sound engineer spotted my camera and asked me to take a few shots of the light gear and e-mail them to him, which – landed me free tickets for next week. So, any of you coming across this stream, being in the area, loving jazz and having nothing better to do than hang out w/ me, consider yourselves invited! (Really, would love to have company every now and then – I mean, not ANY company, but distinguished one

Awww, this trip really seems to turn out as a “all over, all better” kinda experience!

P.S.: Oh – I had the opportunity to return some of the good vibes that I’ve been experiencing here ever since I landed (everybody is real friendly and helpful, quite different from back home): I think I made the bell captain’s day/night by letting him have one of the tickets, not knowing, whether I’d be in town for one of the upcoming shows – although I’m tempted to drive down next week and check out the Dave Holland quintet.

Sleepless in Seattle

No, not really, fortunately. Although the hotel I stayed at the first night was really noisy, old, overpriced and downright crappy – at least after having been spoilt from the spacious rooms we had in Las Vegas. But what else can you expect, when you need to lodge downtown right under the Space Needle, huh?

Again, to my fortune and relief, today proved to be a much better day than I had anticipated yesterday when flying in from Las Vegas. The climatic, architectural, scenic shock was paramount. But I don’t want to be unfair to Seattleites and the city: It amounted to quite a nice experience today, the sun was out, the temperatures rose to 50 and above and I spent most of the day sightseeing downtown Seattle. I first went up the O-Deck on Space Needle to enjoy the 360 view at 570 feet and – would you believe – had the pleasure to talk to some really nice guys from Vegas, who visited their son and brother and maintained the Stratosphere in Las Vegas rises to almost twice the altitude, 1000 feet to be exact. I gather I have to check this attraction out, when I’m back there. I continued to the Experience Music Project Museum right next to Space Needle, but decided to take my time for that and come back tomorrow. On Pike Place Public Market I stood among the crowds in front of Pike’s Place Fish Market, who in addition to simply selling fresh fish make quite a show of it by hurling 20 pound hailbut into the audience and back over the counter. You gotta see it to believe it! The stroll down the market aisles proved to be rich and diverse and I enjoyed street musicians at every corner. My final stop was the Sound View Café, where I got to take a number of shots across the Puget Sound.

Tomorrow it’s going to be an all music day: I will thoroughly check out EMP tomorrow and look forward to seeing the David Benoit trio perform live at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, the West Coast’s number one Jazz venue. The only concern I have is that, if I keep burning money at that pace I will have to start hurling burgers towards the end of my trip… No, seriously, it’s enjoyable and I take in as much as I can. After all – it’s my first real vacation in more than five years, so why not be a little adventurous?

Technorati Tags: travel_2007