Time here in Canada is flying by incredibly fast, and I can hardly believe it has already been almost two weeks since I arrived. The first few days were mostly about getting things sorted out: a local SIM card, buying a vehicle, insurance, registration, and gradually collecting everything I will need for the trip. I also bought a mountain bike so I can reach places I would rather not take the van.
In the end, I went with a 2011 Chevrolet Express 2500 Cargo Van with rear-wheel drive. It is not a luxury camper by any means, but it is exactly the kind of practical vehicle I was looking for. There is plenty of room for a bed, the bike, and everything else I need, and if necessary, it can also serve as my mobile office. Under the hood, it has a 4.8-liter gasoline V8, a six-speed automatic transmission, and fuel consumption should be somewhere around 14 liters per 100 kilometers. The current interior setup is shown in the photo below. So far, we have only made one short trip together to pick up the bike, but I already have a good feeling about it. It is definitely noisier than a regular car, but it also offers a lot more space.
Getting a local SIM card turned out to be a bigger adventure than I expected. After last year’s signal issues in BC with Chatr, which uses the Rogers network, I decided to try Public Mobile this time, which runs on the Telus network. But the activation was not exactly straightforward. The system required a card issued by a Canadian bank and was rather picky about which one it would accept. On top of that, everything had to be completed through an app I cannot install because it is only available for phones registered in Canada. In the end, I managed to sort it all out, but I definitely would not recommend this option to anyone who is only visiting.
Last weekend, I went to check out the Dragon Festival, which I had already visited last year. It was a great experience again, although this year I noticed many more kites stuck in the trees around the fortress.
This weekend, I just took a short walk along the waterfront, where the Romanian training sailing ship Mircea was docked. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to go on board.
The weather has been on my side so far. It is mostly sunny, with just the occasional rain shower, and daytime temperatures are staying around a pleasant 24 degrees. Unfortunately, the wildfires are quite bad again this year, so we will see where the road takes me this time. If everything goes according to plan, I would like to finally head out tomorrow or the day after. And then we will see where the next few kilometers take me.
And here is a short video from a concert. But I saw only the end.
All the pictures are in my gallery https://fotky.kapi.cz/gallery/o25Bg9l6xcBOVqE24jezgFXO