Friday, September 25, 2009

9 days to go! Vancouver Canucks and Korean BBQ! :)






ENGLISH

So..I managed to be inside the GM Place to watch live an hockey game!

Monday, together with Adam we went to see one of the pre season games: Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames!! I put on my Canucks jersey and I was ready for the game!

Well, what can I say? Hockey looks really cool! Beside some rule that I didn’t really get (for example when they change all the team) the main aim is just that: score a goal! So, it’s something that I’m familiar with!

Over here, like I said in one of my first posts, hockey is the national sport and even for a friendly game, the GM place was pretty packed!

The match was great, with a point scored by double Sedin :) just at the last second available! The extra time finished without any variation and so: shoot outs! Something that they tried to introduce in soccer as well but without any result!

Around me, very North American atmosphere, hot dogs, sodas, Canadian pride just before the beginning of the match when the national anthem was played...

Well, was definitely something that I had to check out before my departure!

The moment is coming... I don’t have so much left.. I spent my last free days planning and packing! My adventure down in the States is pretty much completely organized.. flights and accommodations are booked.. in the next updates I’ll tell where I’ll go and when!

So..I still miss the UBC and Whistler.. let’s see if I’ll make it!

What else? Since my leaving is close is the moment of some good bye – farewell.. It’s really like a déjà vu, like two years ago when was the moment to leave Las Palmas.. I saw my former Czech colleague Zdenka that came back from Vancouver Island for a couple of days.. it was nice see her again.. with Julia surely has been one of my favourite colleague! About Julia, she just resigned and left the job because too much commitments with her university.. and so came the moment to say her good bye as well.. I went with her, her boyfriend and her brother to an authentic Korean BBQ.. that was awesome.. it’s really a nice way to have dinner! I enjoyed the days spent with her at work.. talking with someone that really shares your same interests and is close to you with age..makes everything a lot easier!

So, well, nothing else... 1 week at work.. and 9 days to go!

C ya

ITALIAN

E così c’è l’ho fatta ad andare al GM Place a vedere finalmente dal vivo una partita di hockey!

Lunedì insieme ad Adam siamo andati a vedere una partita della pre-season: Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames! Indossata la mia maglia dei Canucks..ero pronto per entrare nel vivo dell’azione!

Bè,cosa posso dire? L’hockey non è affatto male! Al di là di qualche regola che non sono riuscito a capire completamente, l’obiettivo principale è semplicemente quello di segnare un gol!Pertanto è qualcosa che mi è davvero familiare!

Qui in Canada come avevo già detto, l’hockey è senza dubbio lo sport nazionale e di conseguenza anche per una partita amichevole, lo stadio era praticamente sold out!

La partita è stata spettacolare, con un gol realizzato dal mio sosia Sedin :D ! giusto all’ultimo secondo disponibile! Il tempo supplementare s’è concluso senza alcuna variazione e si è passati agli shoot out, qualcosa che si era tentato di introdurre anche nel calcio con risultati ovviamente fallimentari!

Intorno a me, la vera atmosfera nord americana: hot dogs, bibite giganti, pop corn e orgoglio Canadese al momento dell’esecuzione dell’inno nazionale “Oh, Canada!”

Alla fine, qualcosa che è valso la pena vedere, prima della mia partenza!

Il momento si sta avvicinando.. non c’è davvero rimasto molto ormai.. ho passato i miei ultimi giorni liberi pianificando gli ultimi dettagli ed iniziando ad impacchettare le mie cose! La seconda parte della mia avventura, giù negli States è quasi completamente organizzata.. voli e accomodations sono prenotati.. nei prossimi futuri update dirò come, quando e dove andrò!

Mi mancano ancora da vedere Whistler e la UBC… speriamo di farcela!

Cos’altro? Dato che la mia partenza è vicina, è il momento di alcuni arrivederci-addii.. è davvero come un dejà vu, come due anni fa, al momento di lasciare LP! Ho rivisto la mia ex collega Ceca, Zdenka che è tornata per alcuni giorni a Vancouver lasciando Vancouver Island.. è stato carino rivederla di nuovo..indubbiamente con Julia è sicuramente la mia collega preferita.. loro due sono sicuramente quelle con cui sono andato più d’accordo in questi mesi… riguardo Julia, si è appena licenziata perché troppo impegnata con l’ultimo anno di università.. e così è arrivato il momento di dire arrivederci anche a lei… siamo andati insieme al suo boyfriend ed a suo fratello ad un autentico Korean BBQ… spettacolare.. veramente interessante! Mi sono divertito a lavorare con lei, parlare con qualcuno che condivide esattamente i tuoi stessi interessi ed è praticamente tuo coetaneo, rende veramente tutto molto più faci!

Bè, nient’altro.. una settimana al lavoro.. 9 days to go!

C ya

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Yukon & Alaska: Wilderness and awesome landscapes in the last frontier!






















So, I went there and I came back! I survived the Yukon wilderness!!

What can I say about my 5 days up there... well, only one word: Awesome!

The real Canada is there, is not anywhere else. The beauty of this huge country is exactly that: the nature and the landscapes. It’s written everywhere, in every travel book you could buy and read, in every review of past travellers, in every article that you can find.

Canada is a young country, there isn’t so much history over here and when I mention history I’m just referring to something old. And that “something old” is simply possible find it just in Europe and Asia. I’m talking about old buildings, old stuff like the one that you find in Rome or in London...

The oldest settlement in Canada is St John’s in Newfoundland and is around 450 years old but pretty much nothing of that period is still standing and therefore u have to go to Quebec City to see something quite old.. but the majority of visitors that come up here they simply come to stare the landscapes and the nature that surround you everywhere you go after you leave a city...

So.. the Yukon... I just chose it instead of the Northwest Territories just because of money reasons. You guys have not idea about how damn expensive is go up there. Thanks to my ability to look for and usually find a good deal with the airfares I was able to have a roundtrip flight for 340 CAD that is really an awesome price! To go to Yellowknife, NWT they were asking 900 CAD... I just can’t afford it!

I arrived in Whitehorse and I stayed around the city for the first 2 days. What can I say? It has 24000 inhabitants! All the city is jut 8 streets! There is pretty much nothing! Even if the city itself is surrounded by the Yukon river and awesome mountains that give u an idea about what this huge territory can offer.

So the first 2 days have been just city exploration walking around. Unluckily the summer season is already over and a lot of museums are closed but was nice anyway.

On Monday I got my ride, a Ford Fusion (not to be confused with the European model, this is a completely different one) and the real exploration started... I drove to the Yukon Wildlife preserve along the Alaska Highway.. this visit gave me an awesome chance to take a look to the amazing wildlife that is impossible meet up there: elks, caribous, muskoxen , strange sheeps... I wasn’t able to see a moose :(

The day after was surely and actually the best one! I drove by myself 400 km along the Alaska and the Klondike highways, surrounded just by trees.. really only trees! For all the time that I drove I think I met just 25 cars, nothing else. Driving with the automatic speed is ridiculous and the absence of traffic allows you to watch around and wonder... I drove through Carcross, a village in the Yukon that seems something jumped out from the past and I arrived in Alaska! So I touched my 2nd American state! And surely one that is not so easy to visit. I was in Alaska just for half day but is so cool say: I’ve been there! Well, to see the real Alaska is a Into the Wild experience that someone has to do but for me was just a visit, short but cool somehow. I went to Skagway.. the city itself is nice but is just invaded everyday by tons of cruise ships tourists.

I think that is useless tell what I think about this kind of tourists: the same that I think about the ones that go to the resorts. Stay at home cause that is not travel. Is throw away your money. Cruise ships are even worse: overpriced and half day in every port to buy some crappy souvenir made in China or El Salvador. NO comment!

I was forgetting: I was even able to watch the Northern Lights. The organized excursion that I bought (125 CAD for 6 hours) was pretty cool. With an Australian family we went to a cabin in the woods. We stayed there for exactly 6 hours, external temperature -2° C and around 2 AM until 4 AM we watched this amazing phenomenon! The sky is just dark and then is green.. green curtains that move up and down.. something unbelievable. Like unbelievable is the number of stars that is possible see staring the sky.. thousands... u can even see clearly the Milky Way.

Since I just have a point & shoot camera the results of the photos are terrible... the aussie guy told me that is going to send me his photos (he had a 5000 AUD camera!!).. let’s see if he remembers!

So now I came back over here in Vancouver after a pretty terrible flight (bad weather on Whitehorse and the plane was shaking like hell... first time that I got pretty scared in 59 flight did in my life) and I’m counting down the days.. Yes.. is almost over guys... after 5 months and 13 days not so much time is left! When the Canadian custom officer on my way back crossing the border asked me: “So you have the plane ticket to go home?” I just realized that I’ve just 16 days left!

Thanks to Luighi my backpack won’t be too heavy but think about pack everything isn’t something that I really wanna do.. here is my house now, is my city... when I came back from Whitehorse I was just thinking.. I’m going back home.. Vancouver!

I still have a couple of things that I wanna do: see the UBC, Whistler and go to a Canucks game! The last one will happen Monday 21st : Canucks vs Calgary. 56 $ and my place is booked. The rest hopefully will be done as well.

A question that someone could ask me: Would you leave in Whitehorse and in the Yukon?

My answer: No! Or you really have a good reason that simply means a good job that brings you a lot of money or no way. In winter goes down till – 30° C and my opinion is that you can feel really lonely up there sometimes. But a visit is damn worth!

C ya