Bridges and Ferries

I had a very big breakfast this morning as I had felt like eating eggs with sausages. The breakfast was really good (even though I had had to pay extra for it) and I felt really full afterwards. While I was eating, some guy sat down at my table since he needed the power outlet that was nearby. At first I was a bit annoyed about sharing the table but then we started chatting a little bit. The guy's name was Mehmet, he was from Turkey but currently living and working in Boston. When I mentioned that New York hadn't really captivated me yet, he told me about a website with unusual sights. We checked it out and decided on a few attractions that sounded interesting.
So after breakfast, Mehmet and I took the subway Downtown. The abandonned subway station, which we wanted to check out first, was supposed to be close to City Hall. However, when we got off the subway and started walking around that area, we couldn't find any entrance. Thus, we checked the facts again and found out that getting to the abandonned subway station was kind of sketchy - you would have to stay in a certain subway after its final stop. Consequently, we decided on trying to do something else. We couldn't find any other unusual sights nearby. However, as we were close to the Brooklyn Bridge, I wanted to to go and check that out.
We ended up walking on a nice path along the water which offered an amazing view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhatten Bridge. Apart from the noise of the traffic, this was really the first nice spot that I had been to here in New York.
Next, we wanted to check out something called the 'Dream House'. We walked there for about half an hour only to find out that it was currently closed. Mehmet told me that he needed to work now for a bit, so I decided to go on on my own.

I wanted to check out the Statue of Liberty. When I got to the ferry terminal that offered the ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, I found out that I would only have been able to go to one of those two attractions this afternoon since it was already past 2 PM. Therefore, I decided to postpone this trip and to do something else now instead. The free State Island ferry was right around the corner and even though I didn't really know anything about it, I decided to take it.
The 30 minute ferry ride to State Island was actually very nice. It offered a cool view of Manhatten and the statue of Liberty. When I arrived at State Island, I decided to justwalk around for a little while. There wasn't too much to see, though. I saw some signs leading to a National Lighthouse Museum, which sounded really interesting. Unfortunately, the museum was already closed as it was 5 PM by now.
The ferry ride back to Manhatten was really nice, too. The sun was just about to set, which gave me the chance to take a few amazing sunset pictures with the Statue of Liberty.

After I arrived back in Manhatten, I just took the next subway back to the hostel. Here, I had another cheesecake chocolate muffin for dinner and took a hot shower before going to bed.
All things considered, I still didn't really like New York much. It is too noisy, there are too many people and there is nothing that really captivated me.

Greenwich Village and tv show locations

As I didn't really know where to start in this big city, I decided to join the Greenwich Village tour offered by the hostel this morning. We left the hostel just past 10 AM and took the subway to Christopher Street. From here, we started by exploring the West Village, where we saw the exterior of the building from the tv show 'Friends' as well as many other historic buildings. We also walked through Washington Square and past the 'Comedy Cellar', which I had seen on the tv show 'Louie'. For lunch, we had a slice of pizza. Afterwards, we checked out the East Village. Our tour guide gave us a lot of information about tv shows, artists and famous bands that had started out in this neighborhood.
The tour was over around 3 PM and I decided to check out Union Square, as it wasn't too far from where the tour had ended. Afterwards, I went to Times Square. I thought about maybe getting tickets for a Broadway show, but the waiting line in front of the cheap ticket booth was very discouraging.
After walking around a bit more, I decided to go back to the hostel to have a snack. As the mouse au chocolat cake I had wanted to try wasn't available, I tried a chocolate cheesecake muffin instead. It was really extremely good, I think I have never had such a delicious muffin.
While eaiting my muffin, I went on a small walk to the exterior of the June's house from the tv show 'White Collar'. It was already getting dark outside but I didn't really mind as it was only about 10 minutes from the hostel On the way back to the hostel, I walked a bit through the Riverside Park.

Riding to New York

I barely slept last night as I was worried about possibly not hearing my alarm. Thus, I actually got up a few minutes before my alarm was supposed to sound and then quickly got ready. I left the hostel around 5:15 AM and went straight to the skytrain station. I ate some breakfast in the train while riding to the airport.
Getting through all the security checks at the airport didn't take as long as I had expected. Consequently, I had about 2.5 hours until my plane left. I spent the time checking out the shops in the airport and drinking a hot chocolate from starbucks.
The plane left at 9:15 AM Vancouver time and landed about 4 hours and 50 minutes later at 4:50 PM New York time at the Newark airport. I had to wait for almost an hour after that until I finally had my suitcase. However, it took me another 30 minutes until I had found a way to get to New York. I had planned to use public transportation, but I didn't really find any useful information on where the buses depart or where to get the bus tickets. Thus, I decided to spend 16 USD on a shuttle to Manhatten.
I got off the shuttle somewhere close to Times Square. It was already dark when I got off the bus, which was actually less scary than I had expected. There was a lot going on here and there were people and blinking ads everywhere. Finding the tram station here was easier than I had expected. However, there were no elevators so getting down to the subway with all my luggage was a bit annoying. Surprisingly, some random guy actually helped me with that.
When I got off the subway, I had to climb up some stairs and this time, no one helped me with my luggage. The hostel was less than 2 blocks from the subway station and I was happy when I finally arrive there.

As it was already past 8 PM, I just had a cheese turkey croissant for dinner at the hostel and then took a shower. After that, I didn't really do anything anymore as I was pretty exhausted from my journey and last night.

Hunting Supernatural filming locations and shopping

I was quite busy this morning. At first, I checked my mail at the SWAP office, then I went to CIBC in order to close my bank account. When I called the credit card hotline in order to cancel my Canadian credit card, I was told that I could still keep it seperate from my bank account and that this wouldn't cost me anything. As a seperate credit card for emergencies might come in handy sometimes, I decided to do that.
I also talked with the Moose Travel manager Jason in order to complain about my Banff to Jasper trip which hadn't made it to Jasper. He told me that I would get a fair refund, which sounded like a good deal to me.
Around noon I took the Expoline skytrain to 'Metrotown'. There was a big shopping mall called 'Metropolis'. However, my main reason for coming here was a nearby 'Supernatural' filming set. I easily found the set. Unfortunately, apart from the helpers and all the trailers and cars, I couldn't see anything. The actors were filming inside the building - a church. So the most interesting thing I saw was a trailer with the names 'Cass' and 'Crowly' written on the doors.
Next, I decided to check out the mall. I was looking for some pants. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any affordable pants that I really liked. I also had a greek lamb pita for lunch. Around 4 PM, I went to check out the film set one more time, but I wasn't lucky this time, either.
I went back through the mall to the bus stop, where I took the '130' going North. I got off after about 35 minutes and then I still had to walk a bit further to get to the Ironworkers Memorial bridge. I knew that there was a 'Supernatural' filming location, the bunker, somewhere around here but I didn't know the exact location. As the weather was really bad (it had been raining non-stop all day long), I didn't want to spent too much time looking for the location. So I just took a walk through a park in that area and luckily, the bunker was right there. It was actually right below the bridge, but a lot further down than I had originally expected, which was the reason why it took me some time to find it.
Finally, I walked back to the bus station and took a bus back to 'Metrotown'. Before taking the skytrain back to Vancouver, I checked the film set one last time, but there still wasn't anything new for me to see.

Back at the hostel, I prepared everything for my early departure the next day.

Saying 'Goodbye' to Victoria

This morning, I took a shower and packed the rest of my stuff, which didn't take too long. When I saw Katrina, she gave me a Goodbye present - a copy of her favourite book, 'The Alchemist', a bookmark - in combination with a cute card, which made me feel very treasured.
Around noon, I was eating some of my leftover food and getting ready to leave while Katrina had to deal with a plumber - the pipe leading into her kitchen was leaking. About half an hour before I had planned to leave, Katrina suggested that she could drive me to the ferry terminal after the plumber had finished the repairs. As spending some more time with Katrina and not having to worry about taking the bus to the ferry terminal with all of my luggage sounded like a good idea, I happily accepted Katrina's offer. However, this meant that I couldn't take the 3 PM ferry. I would have to take the 5 PM ferry instead.
While Katrina was still busy with the plumber and cleaning up the basement, I decided to watch some more 'Suits' since there was nothing else for me to do anymore.
Katrina and I left the house just past 3 PM. We didn't go straight to the ferry terminal. Instead, we went for a small walk with Jakki around Beaver Lake. Just like usually, taking a walk in this beautiful area gave me a very peaceful and calm feeling. This was good as I was actually pretty sad about leaving Victoria - my home for the past six months. Chatting with Katrina cheered me up, too.
The thought that 'I will be back' one day was quite comforting as well. I don't know when or how exactly, but I do know that Victoria feels like home to me and that nothing will keep me away from here for too long.
After Katrina dropped me off, I met with Dave and Pam for a for minutes in order to say goodbye and to give them back the phone which I had borrowed from them. The Canadian phone had been really helpful for me during the past few months so I was very grateful that they had given it to me.

The ferry ride to Vancouver was rather uneventful. I was trying to see as much as possible of Vancouver Island while we were driving away from it. After I couldn't see the Island anymore, I only watched the ocean until it got to dark for even that.
Taking the bus and the skytrain in Vancouver with all my luggage was less annoying than I had expected but I was still glad when I arrived at my hostel. While checking in, I asked if I could get room '116' - the room where I had stayed during my first visit here. The guy at the reception, Giles, needed to do some changes but he managed to fulfill my request. In the end, I even ended up in the same bed where I had slept in during my first visit.
After leaving my stuff in my room, I walked a bit through the Downtown area looking for lunch. In the end, I decided on a small bar/restaurant, where I had a really good chicken foccacia with a green salad. When I ordered an apple cider, the waitress asked, 'That's alcohol, right?', which seemed like a weird question to me as cider was obvious alcohol. I guessed that she only wanted to make sure than I knew what I ordered.

The Haunted Walk

My main task today was to do my laundry and to pack all my stuff into my suitcase. I wasn't very motivated to do it, though, as I just really didn't feel like leaving here. Around noon, I had a short trip Downtown in order to pick up my pay check and to put the money in my bank account. It had been raining all morning but the sky cleared just when I wanted to leave the house.

I finished packing around 4 PM and decided to go for a short walk in Mystic Vale in order to clear my head. I wasn't in such a good mood and the now rather grey sky fit my mood perfectly. Mystic Vale was still nice, although the ground was quite muddy this afternoon. On the way to the bus stop after my walk, I saw some deer.

It was Halloween. Thus, this evening there were a lot of children in costumes knocking on our door and saying 'Trick or treat'. We gave them a lot of chocolate bars and other candy while having some of them ourselves. After a while, there were less and less kids coming, so we started watching some 'Suits'.

I had planned to go to the 'Haunted Walk' of Victoria with Margo tonight. However, she told me that she didn't really feel up to it. I wasn't too keen on getting up either, but I was still thinking about going anyway as I didn't want to miss out on anything here. In the end, Katrina decided to go there with me.
We went to the last walk of the night which started at 9:30 PM.
At first we thought that we would be the only people there but then, we were directed into a room where a lot of other people were already waiting. The walk was very interesting, we were told a lot of horrifying stories about people that died or were murdered here and about their ghosts still lingering in the old alleys and buildings of this town.
There was for example a restaurant in a building where people reportet seeing the ghost of an old chinese guy floating a few feet above the ground and watching them disapprovingly. We were told that the chinese guy used to live in the basement of the building and didn't want to give up his home. When he died, the floor was removed and something new was build there. Nevertheless, the old Chinese guy apparently still floated in the place where he used to walk on his floor.
There was also another story of a gruesome murder which was possibly commited by Jack the Ripper.
We also heard about the murder of a beautiful prostitute by a Chinese guy who had proposed to her but she had refused and laughed at him. In return, he had decapitated her with a huge knife.
There were some stories about ghosts in hotel rooms that packed your bags because wanted you to leave and other things.
All things considered, the walk was really interesting and it also offered me one last view of Victoria by night, which was nice. Some of the stories or maybe even being in some of the described places actually gave me goosebumps.

The walk took about 90 minutes so we were home just past 11 PM. Nevertheless, Katrina and I still finished watching the last episode of the third season of 'Suits'.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving and Dancing

There was a free pumpkin carving event today at a funeral chapel on Quadra Street. Margo and I went there around 1 PM. We got a huge pumpkin, a template and all the carving tools we needed for free. There were also two of Margo's friends from her English class, which was nice since this way, we had someone to chat with who already knew which tools to use and so on.
Cutting into the pumpkin and then cleaning it out was a lot harder than I had expected. The pumpkin flesh was really squishy, which was a little bit disgusting. After I had cleaned the pumpkin out and chosen a nice template with a bat on it, I had to carve the figure into the pumpkin, which took a lot of patience. After about 1.5 hours, Margo and I were done and we both loved our cute pumpkins. Margo had chosen a template with an owl for her pumpkin.
You could also get hot chocolate and hot dogs for free at the event and of course I took advantage of that. However, I somehow managed to get ketchup all over my shirt because of my hot dog. It wasn't too bad, though, as I could still easily wash it out. Margo's friends were playing something on the piano in the event room and I joined them. I tried playing a song but I still didn't really remember how to play it too well so I only managed the first part of it.
Then we walked back to the bus stop to go home with our pumpkins, which were actually quite heavy. Back at home, we placed them directly in front of the front door as halloween decorations.

There was a Halloween dance event with a dance class this evening and I convinced Tuulia and Margo to join me. We learned Bachata during the class, which was kind of fun but some of the steps were a little complicated even for me - I just needed some more practice in order to not mess the steps up. Tuulia and Margo left after the lesson but I still stayed there for a bit more than an hour in order to join the dance party. They were mostly playing latin american music. However, I didn't know any of the dances this evening apart from Salsa and Bachata. Nevertheless, I had a lot of opportunities to dance with several different dancers, which was challenging but fun. I also danced with the older chinese guy who I had seen pretty much every time that I had gone Salsa dancing anywhere as well as a few other familiar faces... The dancing community in Victoria probably wasn't too big.

I got home around 9 PM and still watched two more episods of 'Suits' with Katrina.