Niagara Falls

Before leaving Berlin, my old spanish flatmate told me: “if you go to Canada, you HAVE TO MEET THIS guy: Dave”. So I did. He put me in touch with him and then I managed to go to the small city of Kitchener (South Ontario, close to Toronto) to meet Mr Dave. And I did good. I could have come to Canada only to meet this guy and I would have been happy. He received me like an old friend and had planned many things to do on the weekend. Among them: the Niagara Falls!
On the way, between all our talks about our travel experiences and everything, we stopped to a Vineyard where he used to work and had a small degustation. After 2 hours, we finally reached the Falls. Here is a sample of pictures about this wonderful weekend.

Crossing Canada from city to city

My Greyhound experience

After crossing this massive piece of land, I can say that I am very well acquainted with the Greyhound Bus rides. Greyhound is the main Bus company crossing Canada from West – Est, North – South, going almost to every reachable place by road.

Escape in Alaska

Alaskan registration plate

On the road !

Coyote by the side of the road

Gas station in Alaska

Eagles season

Liquor store in Haines

One night in a Hunter cabin

Inside of the cabin

Spirit of the night

Where bears are kings…

Chilkoot river

Arrival in Skagway

Hitchhicking

Canadian border, from Skagway to Carcross. My way could have stopped there. They asked me plenty of questions and were not convinced I would not steal any job of a Canadian. But the faith wanted me to continue my adventure and keep rolling on the Canadian roads.

In harmony

Going to Alaska

Going to Alaska. Dropped by a first driver on the middle of the highway. Around -8 c the morning and snowing lovely. Time to play music!

The Spell of the Yukon

Yukon. North West Territory of Canada. In the winter, temperature go down to -40c and it gets dark most of the day. I thought it could be a good place for some adventures. A lot of Canadian dream about visiting this territory because it is not very well known, pretty remote and wild.

Story of a map

Planning my trip

There is something inspirational in a map.
All those roads, those directions, those specific pieces of information; lakes, rivers, parks, mountains…It is like reading a story. It makes me dream. And although it is really rational, I find it artistic, beautiful. A map calls for travel and awakes your curiosity. The more you look at it, the more interesting it becomes and the further you wanna go.Some other times, I look at the map and it scares me. Canada is the second biggest country in the world, distances here are endless. They give me vertigo. It may take hours on the road to travel only a few centimeters on the map! I did already 4100 km on the road and I still have 5800 other kilometers to go. In the end of my travel, I would have cross France 10 times (north/South).In a few weeks, I will start crossing the country with the idea that every step is a step. No matter how small it is, it will bring me closer to the final point. But is there really an end in all this?

The Rockies

Drawing by Adria and Camille

 

The Rockies. The name in itself is already captivating. It calls for adventures.

Waiting for the snow

On the Road

I did a couple of miles on the road already. Mostly hitch hiking. There is something beautiful in being on the road. Some kind of freedom. In a way,the feeling of not having a house broadens my living perspectives. Everywhere is a new possibility for me to eat, sleep, settle for a night or more. Unfortunately when you are hitch hiking, this freedom can quickly turn into a long and unpredictable waiting period…Therefore, it is important to have in mind that wherever you are it is ALL RIGHT ! And sometime I have to say…I forget it !I found some distractions waiting for a ride: Playing ukulele, making push-ups, learning poems, thinking about why this damn car didn’t pick me up ! …

I also met a lot of people hitch hiking: some of them where drunk or high with an uncertain drive, some others more shy and didn’t share so much; one of them was retired and had travel a lot, another one was a plumber regretting his former artist life; I met Lucifer, Jesus, the sun; and also a truck driver bringing the coal down from the mine to the bottom of the mountain, he was also an heavy metal fan…Another had just recover from cancer and was the happiest person in the world. Even a farmer with his big smile under his mustache took me for… 100 meters…
In the end, they all contributed to my trip and I’m very grateful for that !

Okanagan Valley

About 12 days ago, I left the West coast and Vancouver to explore the inland territories of Canada. I had finally the feeling to go forward in my trip. I really liked Vancouver area but I was happy to leave the big city and enter the country side. The plan was to head up to the Okanagan Valley (east British Columbia) where I was supposed to work in an organic farm. It took me 2 days to go there. I shared a ride with 5 other people on a van to leave Vancouver. They dropped me on the way in a small town called Hope. Not much to do there…