Vancouver, eh?

Landing in Vancouver for the second time was awesssome. Just like 18 months before, we flew in to clear blue skies and an unseasonably warm summery sunshine. In contrast, rather than a slightly excited/resigned, “well I guess this is home for the next little while”, it was an altogether fuzzier feeling; more like returning home (At least to one of my many adopted homes).

Just like my efforts to get out to Canada to start with, arrival day was going to be something of a rush. My flight up to Prince George (which, fyi, only cost £20 less than my flight from London to Vancouver?!) left at around 6pm and in between times I really wanted to sort out a mobile phone and a bank account. Obviously, this was a whole lot easier than last year because I already knew how such things worked, but it still took me a good amount of the afternoon. Mainly this was because, being a weekend, some but not all of the banks are open, and I ended up going on a ridiculously long hike around Vancouver to every branch that wasnt open before ending up that the one I had first planned to go to anyway (but dismissed...). That, and also because the guy in the phone shop didn't understand the words, “I just want to re-activate this phone and get the simplest pre-paid option you have”. You'd think it wouldn't be that difficult... sigh. * is not going to go on a rant about Canadian mobiles...*

All set up and ready to work, I headed back to the airport, where I managed to not pay excess baggage for the second time in 24 hours (win!). In my remaining non-time at the airport, I found my self getting overly excited by Canadian fast food that I really didn't need to eat. Tim Hortons is too good to pass up after 6 months away though, so I stuffed my self with doughnuts and spent the next hour and half feeling a sickly kind of satisfied. I was only sad that it was too late in the day to get a Breakfast Bagel Belt. Mmm...

The flight up to PG is absolutely stunning. We flew out over the North of Vancouver, and over Horseshoe Bay (which you may remember I blogged about last year – turns out the reason its called Horseshoe Bay is because from the air, it looks exactly like a horseshoe. Funny that). The path then flies you up over the coastal mountains and over a number of the coastal islands. Veeeery pretty. Then, before you know it – poof! Prince George, in all its square, blocky glory turns up, and we're landing into the tiniest airport ever (It's even smaller than Inverness airport!) 

I was soooo excited to land, and a little nervous too, but mostly excited. Neil came to meet me at the airport and we headed in to the grand metropolis of Prince George to grab some dinner, then onwards to the UNBC dorms – once again, my home for a couple of shifts. It was fantastic to see Paul and Amy and Miguel and other familiar faces that night, but meeting the rookies was gonna have to wait til the morning - it was 9.30pm after all, and that is waaaay past the rookie planters (or the old tired planters) bed time.

Next time: Planting, one year on.