Day 7: Teeth Chattering in Whistler

Craig and I left Vancouver bright and early to pick up our rental from the Vancouver International. The discovery of "hidden fees" for the hire of their GPS system AND a one-way drop off charge of $300 was not a good start at all. Needless to say, I will be having some words to our travel agent when we get back...

Anyhow, driving on the right hand side of the road was very disconcerting. It's amazing how subconscious the urge to drive on the left hand side is, or how your entire spatial resolution is tied up with driving on a certain side of the road. Everything was flipped backwards so that took some getting used to. There were a few near-misses and some odd looks when Craig forgot himself and drove on the left hand side. Yet it seems Canadians are pretty forgiving of foreign drivers, so long as it's done on a small road and not say, their main highway! Anyhow, we're getting the hang of it.

We arrived at Whistler at around 12pm and found ourselves the most gorgeous little bed and breakfast, called Chalet Louise. It was absolutely gorgeous! The weather was kinda drizzly and I feared we would have to hide indoors but it turns out that we arrived during the International Ski and Snowboard festival. So we went down to Whistler village where there was plenty of music (even an Irish shoe-tapping Celtic band was playing!) while we enjoyed a good feed at the Amsterdam bar. I was all nice and warm in layers upon layers of clothes but it turns out that Craig has some bizarre genes which allowed him to brave the cold without barely any layers. Must be that dutch heritage... meanwhile, my Irish genes were nowhere to be found! Goddamn.

After some fun shopping (I found a cute beanie and Craig got a bargain at Foot Locker's), we went back to Chalet Louise to enjoy the hot tub. Yes folks, they had a hot tub! It was heaven. After a cat nap, we went back into the village for a typical Canadian pub dinner (Craig tried out some Red Trucker's ale) and then we watched "Clash of the Titans" at their local cinema. All in all, it was a very fun day at Whistler!

Anyhow, we're heading this morning to Kamloops. Gonna take it easy as there are reports of an avalanche currently blocking Highway 99. Hopefully it'll be mostly cleared up by the time we get there.

Until then, take care of yourselves.

Lots of love,

Demi & Craig.

Day 5-6: Exploring Vancouver

Craig and I have fondly spent the last two days exploring lovely Vancouver. It's a Springly 16 degrees, so very comfortable to go walking around. We've still got a few layers on but nothing too ridiculous, at least by Brisbane standards!

Yesterday we had breakfast at a place called Templetons (as recommended by the Lonely Planet). It was great to have a proper breakfast. Energised, we walked to the Vancouver Art Gallery and view the Leonardo Di Vinci's body exhibition. It was lots of fun though at times, it reminded me strongly of work. There was a piece by an artist where she'd used an endoscope to record a vocal box reciting a french poem. It was kinda peculiar yet awesome all the same.


We then explored Robson st (the main shopping strip) and enjoyed these crazy sweets which is basically a green apple, dipped in ridiculous layers of chocolate. I'm almost tempted to open a store in Brisbane except I'm sure the local dentists would find me out and murder me! All that sugar came to haunt me and I had a raging headache. I was also a wee bit dehydrated from the last few days of travelling. So I stocked up on some water then Craig and I found this lovely Japanese store. Some teriyaki udon later, I was feeling much better. We also visited a nearby starbucks where we were served by a Melbourne guy. Small world eh?


Today, we made our way into Stanley Park despite the grey drizzle. It wasn't really that heavy and it was nice spending the time with Craig, exploring the Seawall. We spent hours at the Vancouver Aquarium and were like little kids again. Who says adults can't put aside time for a starfish or two? My favourite were the sea otters. They were very playful and didn't have a care in the world as they glided on their backs gracefully through the water, cleaning their whiskers.


We found ourselves a lovely little cafe for lunch where gratefully, they had fruit salad on the menu. We stocked up on the natural sugar and vitamins. Never thought I would miss fresh fruit so much!

What was the craziest thing I did in Vancouver: I accidentally dialled 911 from my hotel room, when I was trying to dial an international number. Not only did I have to explain to the ambulance that I was okay, I also had to talk to the police! It's funny now but hair-raising at the time. My bad...

Anyway, we're having a ball. Gonna do more shopping. Hope you're all doing well and taking care of yourselves. We miss you all!

xoxo Demi & Craig.

Days 1 - 4: Honeymooning in Las Vegas

Hi everyone!

We've been honeymooning in the USA and I thought this would be a handy way to let you all know what's been going on. While we can't regularly tweet, every few days, I'll try and do an update. So in a nutshell, this was our experience of crazy Las Vegas... So people tell us that Las Vegas is like adult Disneyland. I didn't realise that they meant this literally. Vegas really is like Disneyland but instead of excited little kids running around with coke in their hands, there are excited adults running around with beer. It's all a little surreal, not to mention disturbing at times. We stayed in the Excalibur, which itself looks like a Disney castle. But inside there was no Mickey Mouse... only lots of pokies, cigarette smoke & people offering us supposed freebies.


What was the weirdest thing we did in Vegas? We were offered discounted tickets to see the show, Cirque Du Soleil's Kha, if we agreed to spend one of our mornings looking a new hotel called the Grandview. On a whim, we went along with this and it turned out that it was a company trying to sell Las Vegas visitors expensive Condos. It was called Timeshare (which is apparent prevalent every where else in the world). We said thanks but no thanks, got our tickets and off we went.


What were some of the highlights about going to Vegas? Seeing the show "Kha" and going to the Grand Canyon. We even went on the skywalk, which was pretty cool, despite the fact that the only thing separating us and the canyon's floor were several plates of glass. We also enjoyed watching the water fountain outside the Bellagio and the trip to downtown Las Vegas, where it all originated. Downtown seemed a little bit more chilled and while it has its share of gambling dens, it doesn't try so hard to be something it isn't. It was also a great place to escape the crowds of the strip.


What was the crappiest thing about Vegas? Their sad excuse of an international airport. I thought Brisbane had a pathetic international airport... well! The "international" airport at Vegas didn't even have a coffee shop or any normal shops of that matter. We had breakfast at Burger King (which made both of us few a little ill). Needless to say, all this made us really keen to get to Canada.


In summary, we were pretty relieved to leave Vegas. On hindsight, I think Vegas is much better place to travel if there's a group of you, rather than a couple. While there was a lot of bling, shows & attractions, it seems all that glamour comes at a cost. There was a lot of despair and desperation around, and it kinda wore us out as the days went on. We're glad to have landed in Vancouver where the mood is far more relaxed and the people are real. We'll do some exploring during the next three updates and give you an update when we can.

xoxo Demi & Craig.