Dan Hough

Canada

Published 08 July 2019 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (~7min read)

It’s 7:45 and I’m sitting in a beautiful house overlooking the Strait of Juan Fuca. I’m seven days into a trip around North America which I hope will lead me to deciding where to plant a few roots in Canada.

Back in November 2017, I submitted myself to a pool for getting an invitation to apply for a Working Holiday Visa in Canada. In May 2018, the process had taken several turns but I had finally been approved for a work permit for two years, starting whenever I went into the country and activated it. I did that in April this year with a long-weekend trip to Toronto. I couldn’t start back then, though – I had some business to wrap up in the UK.

And a week ago, on July 1st, I finally headed over, starting in Vancouver, British Columbia. My plan is, over the next couple of months, to travel around Canada (and pop into the USA) a little bit until I’m satisifed that I know where I want to set myself up.


Little did I know when I booked my flight (months ago!) that the the 1st of July is in fact Canada Day, the day when Canadians get together to celebrate an important milestone on the road from a collection of colonies to a fully independent nation.

So I landed in Canada’s third-most-populous city at 7PM on the country’s birthday, hoping that the fireworks would start while I was in the air. Alas, it was still light. On the bright side, I was able to check into my hostel and quickly walk down to Canada Place, where the fireworks were going off.

I got to Canada Place just in time to see the last of the fireworks, obscured and from a distance. Cue disappointing trombone.
I got to Canada Place just in time to see the last of the fireworks, obscured and from a distance. Cue disappointing trombone.

Crowds had already formed so I couldn’t get close, but I did see some fireworks. What a way to be welcomed to the country.

When it was all over, the enormous bulk of people quickly but calmly dispersed and I, too, went to bed in my four-person dorm. I didn’t sleep on the flight so by now I’d been awake for somewhere around 20 hours. I had beaten jet lag!

Over the next two days I took part in a mixture of touristy things and things-I-normally-do. I went to a yoga class, I met with someone from an Internet community I’m a part of, and I played some guitar.

I wanted to buy a guitar for this trip because while I’m travelling I’m hoping to do a bit of busking (if it’s legal!) and some open mic nights. So, I did that and my new guitar is tiny. I’m considering going against my usual principle of not adorning my tools with decorations; since this guitar will mostly be used on the road it might be nice to decorate it with stickers from wherever I go.

I also went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park (a very touristy activity). It’s more than just the bridge! There’s a nature walk, a treetop walk, a cliffside walk – lots of different walks depending on your mood. I was in all the moods, so I did them all.

This bridge once took the impact of a 46-ton, 300-year-old Douglas fir tree and survived.
This bridge once took the impact of a 46-ton, 300-year-old Douglas fir tree and survived.

I also found time to do a SCUBA Diving Refresher course in a pool at the University of BC. I did my Advanced PADI almost 4 years ago in Thailand, and I knew I’d do some diving at some point on this trip so I should hone my skills. It went really well. During this session I met an English couple who moved to Van 4 years ago and haven’t looked back. They raved about the place, which was validating and inspiring.

I didn’t want to spend too much time in Vancouver as I thought as I’ve been here before I might have exhausted it a little, so I’d also organised a trip to Vancouver Island where I’d stay with some nice people from Couchsurfing.com in Nanaimo. By the time I left Vancouver I actually was rather keen to stay, but I got on the ferry anyway.

My gear on the ferry to Vancouver Island: one 15L backpack (riutbag), one 20L Decathlon Duffel bag, one Yamaha APXT2. Total weight when packed is 12.7kg, with half of that weight on my back.
My gear on the ferry to Vancouver Island: one 15L backpack (riutbag), one 20L Decathlon Duffel bag, one Yamaha APXT2. Total weight when packed is 12.7kg, with half of that weight on my back.

I met someone from Tofino, a town on the Island famous for its laid-back, surfing and hippie culture. She was doing some yoga on the top deck of the ferry – she was really, really nice, and offered to let me stay on her couch if I made it to Tofino.


Nanaimo is a small town, but it’s got a pretty active local music scene. Several people I met were in one band or another, or worked in one of the many venues in town. It’s very welcoming too: in every bar or restaurant in Nanaimo I visited I got into an interesting conversation with a friendly local. From the man designing a mandolin on his laptop using a CAD program, to the wedding party getting some “bennies” at Gabriel’s Cafe before the groom heads down the aisle a couple of hours later in a nearby hotel, everybody was interested in my story, and had an interesting story of their own to tell.

There’s other stuff going on too: a weekly night market is very popular, there’s a big community of seafaring folk there, and it even has a co-working space!

My couchsurfing hosts were wonderful. I met one of them at the bar that everybody I met seems to work at, and she told me about her time in Canada. She’d not been there very long – only a few months – and she loved it. She told me that she’d spent a couple of months hitchiking but had basically no bad experiences. People were universally great, and she even hitched a ride with a friendly travelling circus for a while.

One of my more memorable experiences was meeting a harbour seal while paddleboarding from Nanaimo to Protection Island. Sadly, I didn’t get a photo (my phone was in a sealed dry bag) but it was pretty special. It almost knocked me off my board, then it chased me for a little while, apparently looking for food. I had none, sadly, which is why I was headed for the Dinghy Dock Marine Pub & Bistro, “Canada’s only floating pub,” according to one local’s claim.

The next day I said farewell to my hosts, got on a bus down to Victoria, and allowed the lingering jet lag to take me into a lovely nap.


I’m really enjoying myself so far. Canada feels incredibly welcoming – from the attitudes of the people to the little ways that their cities are set up, it’s just nice.

So now I’m in Victoria, where I’ve been staying with a friend for a couple of days. Pride celebrations happened this weekend, so yesterday was a pretty busy day in town, and I walked somewhere in the region of 12km between museums, parades, yoga classes and home.

After a few days here I’m going to pop down to Seattle, then Portland, and then back up to Vancouver before I start my epic journey to eastern Canada.

If you’re reading this from any of the places I’ve mentioned, please get in touch! I’d love to hang out. This is the start of a trip which I think will lead to a fairly serious move to Canada, so I’m very keen to make some lasting connections out here.

I’m looking forward to week two!

Heckle me on Twitter @basicallydan.