Semester 14 Chapter XXV: Down Fucking Hill

What’s good everybody, it’s that time again. This is the last one from Vancouver for the time being; my flight back home is scheduled for tomorrow. It’s early afternoon over here and the weather outside hasn’t been very pleasant today. Which doesn’t matter much as I’m pretty roughed up after the weekend. In the best way possible. Got new Tjay in the headphones, feeling fucking good, all is set, let’s get to it!

 

Every day over here has been fun so far. Last week, we made some spring rolls along with some other friends for dinner at home, we did another beach volleyball afternoon session followed by some barbecue and we also did another trip do Deep Cove with the intention to rent some kayaks and spent some time in the bay. Unfortunately, all kayaks were rented out due to some event so we got some ice cream instead and then came up with an alternative plan. We ended up going for a hike in a natural park nearby. A bit crowded but lovely (as usual). We even took a dip in a small lake. Crystal clear water, swim through in between two giant rocks, fresh air. All wrapped up by some drinks on a bench near the apartment. On Friday evening, we drove to the top of the Cypress Mountain which used to host ski competitions during the Olympics. Since it’s summer now, it was pretty quiet but it gives you some more opportunities to appreciate what nature has to offer here. We stopped by for a beer on the way back to enjoy views at the city. The longer I’m here, the more I take shit like that for granted but you just gotta respect how exceptionally beautiful everything is over here.

 

Oh, and there was a blackout. It was Tuesday, I was just about done with my work for the day and then everything went off. First I though, it was just the apartment but when I was leaving the house to get some wifi in a café, I noticed it’s the whole building. In the café I picked, I learned it’s the whole block. Apparently someone crashed into something important and knocked everything out. So most restaurants were temporarily closed, supermarkets as well… Took me couple of blocks to find some working traffic lights and connect to an open wifi to deal with my personal calls. It basically doesn’t happen in the city like ever and it took about 3 hours for them to fix it.

 

And… Then there way downhill biking. See, I’m a fucking cyclist. That shit is in my DNA. Those who have been following this blog for some time know that cycling was my main means of transport back in Shanghai. I’ve been on that shit since I was a teenager and it only took Tenerife and its unfriendliness to bikes to put some pause on that. Having said that, I’ve never really been into the idea of mountain biking, let alone downhill. It’s always been road bikes. So I wasn’t too hot to try this one out. The idea of skipping over roots and rocks and rolling down steep slopes didn’t sound appealing to me at all. And when the time came and we went to this trail park on the other side of the Grouse Mountain, I was kinda expecting to give it a go, do couple of bumps, try not to kill myself and never do it again. Boy, was I wrong. The first day (which was Tuesday), I’ve done an intermediate trail called Bobsled three times and I was fucking excited. Even though it was pretty basic, figuring out the essential technique, your body, gravity and geometry of the bike is rewarding as fuck. Fresh air, woods, speed, adrenaline rush… There’s something to it. I tried it for the second time on Friday. Met up with this 18-year-old dude whom I’ve met through my friends and we went back to the same park. I would like to take a minute to shout out local public transport. All buses are equipped with a bike rack in the front. Plus drivers are friendly, helpful and communicative. I love shit like that and I miss it a lot back in the Czech Republic. Anyways, we took it back to the same park. Started out with Bobsled again but then we tried out some advanced trails too (I remember the last and the longest one was called Expresso). The first steps are really mostly about getting your mind right and reprograming your self-preservation instincts a little. Facing a tall steep slope that consists either of some planks or a fucking rock looks kinda crazy at first. You understand the principle, you understand the physics, you see people do it, but your mind goes “no way, fuck that”. So you stand there, you go back and forth, you meditate. And at one point you go. And you land it. And it feels like snorting a line or some shit. I would like to shout out that youngster too. He gave me some cool advice and pushed me to try out some shit I probably wouldn’t have, had I been by myself.

 

And then there was weekend. Which was more bikes. It’s kinda fucked I got into this on my last couple of days here. But then again, it might be for the best. Because I’m pretty sure that if they had introduced me to this on the first day, I would have probably pushed for it pretty hard missing out on all the other amazing things we’ve done so far. So it’s all good. Anyways... We did all biking near Squamish. First day, we did a track called Nelson twice. That one is just a treat. No super hard parts, it’s long, it flows. Then we tried to do one named Cake Walk. Different story tho. You see, these advanced tracks have some difficult rolls or even drops. You usually have a “chicken line” option that goes on the side and is a bit easier. I obviously didn’t do the craziest shit but I was able to handle some sections I felt pretty proud of. We spent the night at our usual camping spot. Equipped with some drinks, weed gummies and the gas fire bowl (campfire ban still in place). Slept like a fucking baby. The day after, we went to a different area and did a trail called Rupert. Again, an advanced one. And man, I managed to ride down some rocks nearly taller than me… If you had shown me those couple days back, I would have laughed in your face. But there I was, letting shit go. We did one more Nelson as a celebratory ride afterwards, got some drinks at our usual Locavore spot and drove back home to finish the last episode of Crash Landing On You. We've made it all.

 

I’m really not sure yet but it seems biking might become a real thing for me. Haven’t felt like this since I discovered diving. I’m scrolling through downhill trails in Tenerife, I’m researching where to get bikes, I’m all up for it. At this point, it feels like getting a decent bike might be one of the very first things I’ll do when I get back there.

 

This whole Canada thing has been just beautiful. Some shit change and some shit don’t. And being here kinda represents both to me. Been ages since I spent this much time with my people over here and it still feels pure and organic. It also feels all of us have progressed in certain ways. Shit’s moving. I knew that this trip was gonna be a bomb so I don’t wanna say it exceeded my expectations. I do wanna say it probably couldn’t have been any better. The energy, the vibes, the activities, the talks, all that. So before I wrap this up, I really wanna give one more shout out to my people. For sharing their home for 5 fucking weeks, for putting me on some amazing shit, for introducing me to some cool people. This shit ain’t over. We’re doing this again in some shape or form. And that’s on everything. I see y’all. One!

 

Highlights:

• Downhill.
• Downhill.
• Downhill.

Semester 14 Chapter XXIV: Parallel Universes

What’s up. Here we go again. Still in North Vancouver, Canada. Still being on some good vibes over here, still exploring new areas, still having fun around people I like. Shit’s going well. After weeks of amazing weather, it has just gotten pretty cloudy and windy outside and it’s starting to rain. Might postpone my run and write this motherfucker instead.

 

So, Vancouver… Last week, we visited shipyards down by the water. Pretty cool area with lots of people chilling and lots of places to stop and have a drink. We followed the walk by some bar hopping. Again, the fact that basically every bar over here is also a brewery still feels kinda amazing to me. We also managed to go all the way to the eastern edge of the city, an area called Deep Cove. It looks like a bigger village. We drove to a bay, took a short hike around the surrounding woods and got some ice cream on the way back. It’s crazy how close nature is from Vancouver. On top of that we went out for some beach volleyball and we also visited downtown. And that was a fucking experience. See, Vancouver downtown is pretty gentrified. You got your posh cafés, your 10 dollar beers, your pricey meals… And then you got the Hastings Street and the whole area nearby. At one point, you just walk through a fucking portal and all of the sudden, there’s no expensive restaurants anymore. There’s China Town and junkies. Junkies everywhere. You see all stages of them. You see all these empty eyes, you see people walking from nowhere to nowhere, you see people lying face down on the pavement, trembling somewhere by the wall. Never seen a motherfucker smoking crack in real life before. This time I saw like 20 during a half an hour walk. You got people who still seem kinda functional and you see plenty long gone. And there are so many of them. Shadows living in different dimensions. It raises so many question. How the fuck does that happen, how does this happen in a city like this, what are their stories, what are their daily realities… What the actual fuck. You leave the place and it takes couple of days for you to process it. Really difficult to believe all of it.

 

Friday evening we left the town once more. We stopped by for some food and then we went to one of my friends’ favorite camping spot. It was my third time over there. Since there’s a total campfire ban in the region, we brought a gas powered fire bowl (which is still okay). The evening was fun. Some weed gummies, some music, lotta laughs. The day after we drove down the hill to the Cat Lake for a swim and back to Squamish for some lunch and coffee. After that we went deep into the Squamish Valley and eventually found a really cool spot for the second night. Just by the river with enough privacy and yet again lovely views. Happy days. Next morning, we had breakfast and then left, stopped by for some coffee on the way, did a small hike close to the town and then met with our hiking partners in our regular restaurant for some drinks. We made it back home in the evening, had some food and watched 2 episodes of Crash Landing On You. Shit’s ridiculous.

 

So yeah, another Monday. I’ve been here for nearly a month and I have about one more week ahead of me. Work’s been pretty slow (which is normal for July) but I still have quite some of it. Workouts have been fun and my runs are just epic. Feeling good in this bitch. Hope you guys are doing well! Sending some love to everyone reading. One!

 

Highlights:

• Junkies. 
• Nature.
• Shrooms.

Semester 14 Chapter XXIII: Climbs

Hi everybody, it’s that time of the week again so we’re back at it. Woke up quite early today, ready for another day in Vancouver. Weather has been good, entertaining things are happening, time flies. I’ve also just turned 36 and I’m still not sure how to feel about any of that. I don’t really see myself as a guy approaching his 40s just yet. I feel more secure and relaxed than before but I still see myself closer to 20s than to 40s (which is obviously bullshit). But I guess that’s what happens when you pick the lifestyle I got. Most of people my age deal with kids, the build homes and shit. And I’m not really interested in any of that. I am totally grateful for seeing another year tho, I’m happy with where I’m at and I wanna shout out all of my friends and close ones who make it all worthwhile.

 

So about last week… I took Tuesday off running because my face really burned after the weekend. The rest of the week, I was back on tho. I like my workout routine on weekdays. Wednesday afternoon, we went out, met some more Czechs living here and played some beach volleyball in a park nearby. Hadn’t played that shit in ages but it was fun, it wasn’t really that bad and we ended up playing couple of games with a group of locals too. My forearms hurt like a motherfucker tho. If you hit the ball right, you’re good, but if you slightly fuck it up, it just goes. Pain was gone couple of hours later tho so I see no reason not to repeat that shit sometime soon. We wrapped the evening up at their friends’ house like two blocks down with some beer and good chat.

 

Friday night, we paid a visit to the guys who we did the hike a week before with and Saturday around lunch time, we were on our way out of town. We had some pretty good burgers by the highway and then we headed to Squamish to rent me some climbing shoes. I took the opportunity to get myself a new wallet too. Had the same one for about ten years and it really didn’t resemble much of a wallet anymore. So yeah, that’s new. After that we took it to this climbing rock nearby. A bit off-road but still reachable by a car. Now, when it comes to climbing, physical strength is really not that important which is something you realize couple minutes in. It’s all about technique and mindset. You can’t be to afraid and you have to realize that your shoes, specifically you toes, can hold a lot of fucking weight on the tiniest pieces of surface. Shoes themselves are uncomfortable as fuck too. By design. They have to be smaller in order to actually function. So yeah, I obviously didn’t excel but I manage to climb some basic walls and I did enjoy it. Grateful for the experience. For the night, we headed to the same spot we camped two weeks ago, got joined by some more of fellow Czechs, ate some weed gummies (at one point I was tripping pretty good) and slept out in the nature.

 

Sunday morning, we got some good breakfast (this Just Egg vegan shit they sell over here is epic) and proceeded to climb some more rocks in the area. This time we actually had to hike about 30 minutes from the closest parking spot to get there. It was fucking great. It felt a bit better than the day before, I felt a bit more secure, it was fun. And the fucking views! It’s funny that sometimes it really feels like there’s no way you can figure out your way up the wall but if you keep it cool, stop, think and try couple of moves, you eventually make it. It’s fun, it’s pretty complex and it is rewarding. When we had enough, we drove to this lake on the way to Squamish where we met up with some more people, went for a swim (water was actually pretty warm) and then continued to the same bar in the town where we wrapped up our adventure the previous week. After a drink, we returned the shoes and made it back home. I put my friends on this Korean series Crash Landing On You so any change we get, we watch that shit. Both ironically and seriously. And that’s exactly how we finished the weekend. And since it was my b-day, I got a veggie muffin with a candle in it and we drank some good scotch. Great day.

 

And that’s that. Canada has been good to me, it’s yet another beautiful day out here, all good to go. Hope y’all have a good start of the week, keep it all positive and don’t entertain bullshit. We see each other. One!

 

Highlights:

• Climbing.
• Volleyball.
• Fucking gummies.

Semester 14 Chapter XXII: Boulders

What’s up everybody! Here we go again… Couple of days delayed but I guess that’s what happens when lotta shit is going down at once. This is definitely something I’ve been enjoying over these past couple of weeks. Ever since I got out of Tenerife, I’ve barely had time for all of the podcasts, music releases and most of online shit I normally do. And the streak is going on. Over the last week, I’ve experienced some more cool shit, I’ve seen some more spectacular things… We’re doing good over here. So without further ado…

 

It feels like we’re crossing spots and places off the list one by one. Last week, we spent one evening in the Stanley Park which just across a bridge from the West Vancouver on the way to downtown. It’s a pretty big one and it’s covered with trees, green areas and beaches. At one of those, they hold this hippie gathering every Tuesday. And we got to witness it. It’s basically just a bunch of people playing drums and some others dancing to it. It is pretty appealing and it sounds like something you could enjoy apart from the fact there’s crowds of spectators everywhere. So you basically get drunk or high, get half naked and dance your flip-flops off while being observed by bystanders shooting content for their IG stories. And I know one thing for sure… If it’s time to do any of that, audience is the last thing I need. I still respect the fact they do this. Public space really seems pretty lively over here. Around 10pm, police comes to shut this shit down so it’s not really an all-nighter tho. But hey, if it works for folks, why the fuck not…

 

One of these evenings, we also went to the Horseshoe Bay. It’s an area couple of kilometers west from Vancouver with some more beaches and views at surrounding islands. It’s also a spot where local divers go to to do their thing. I was looking at options but diving here is not really price-friendly, it requires a dry-suit and July is also not the best season in terms of visibility. Still playing with the idea but I might pass on that.

 

The real shit started Friday evening tho. We packed the car with all the necessities and went up north. We made it to the Pemberton area where we got joined by two guys whom I met before during one our little hangouts. We spent the first night in the middle of nowhere, couple of kilometers off the main road. Fire, conversations and some weed gummies which are 100% legal over here. Another thing, which is completely legal in Canada, is fucking gay marriage. I try not to get angry about it anymore but I would still like to issue a sincere fuck you to the Czech political leadership. You guys are ass-backwards, you live in the fucking stone age and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Not gonna go much deeper than this (I’ve done it several times before) because fixing this is pretty much in the same ballpark as abolishing slavery or giving women voting rights. Just because some stupid shit has been happening for ages doesn’t make it right. So yeah, you can stick your traditional values up your ass and let people breathe. Over and out.

 

The day after, we drove to Pemberton, got ourselves some coffee (I tried Canadiano – latté with maple syrup; shit is a real sugar bomb) and then we proceeded to our actual destination. We parked by the start of the trail to Wendy-Thompson Hut. In Canada, you got national parks, provincial parks and then areas with not such certification. And we picked one of those. There are still marked trails and it’s still pretty user-friendly, there’s just no tourism infrastructure, no restrictions in terms of camping (no dedicated camping areas) and it all feels more like “on your own risk” kinda deal. First, we walked for about an hour and a half up towards the hut. Even though we carried tents, sleeping bags and all the essentials, it all went pretty smooth, the hike was great and the scenery was gorgeous. All the woods, mountains and lakes. And again, the vastness of all of it. Sometimes it’s hard for a human brain to compute how big shit actually is, perspective is melting, scale feels all the way fucked up. The actual hut is a self-service spot which you can book online and use as a shelter. It’s located on the verge of the tree line and alpine line, just by a lake. It’s crazy how crystal clear water is everywhere. You literally get to drink it directly from streams. When we got there, we continued a bit more uphill in search of a camping spot. Even though the hike was pretty fucking epic, for some time it seemed we might eventually have to head back to the hut and set the base over there. Lotta boulders, very windy and cold spots, not enough space for tents etc. Karma was good to us tho. We finally did find an amazing place with a great view, big enough for everything we needed, and that’s where we slept for the following two nights. And boy oh boy… Words can’t really do justice to what that shit looked like. We got to do some off-trail hiking around the peaks the day after and you really get hit by visuals so beautiful, it sometimes get difficult to process. Plus the fucking night sky with bloody full-moon... Even the dehydrated food we bought for the journey was good, everything about it was enjoyable and there wasn’t a single soul around for the whole time. And I liked the vibe of our whole group too. Fucking awesome.

 

Monday morning, we packed it all up and head down to the car. Then it was back to Pemberton for some burgers and then all the way down to Squamish where we took it to this crystal clear river. Cold as fuck but we all dipped in. I managed to get my face sunburned over the weekend so ice cold water felt real good. Couple of beers afterwards and then back to Vancouver, back to work, back to reality. Tuesday was pretty chilled and in the evening we got invited for a little hangout at some other fellow Czechs’ apartment. Happy days.

 

So yeah, shit’s still looking great. As I see more and more things, I’m starting to run out superlatives but hey... You don’t really see this everyday. Spent about two weeks over here, got three more to go, feeling excited about all of it. Hope you guys are doing well, hope your summer’s shaping up to be a good one and your spirits are high. Sending some love to everyone out there. One!

 

Highlights:

• Hiking.
• Stanley park.
• Black Mirror. Check out couple of episodes… Motherfuckers still on point.