I've lived in the city. Rules are different in the concrete jungle. When city folk enter these familiar environs, different senses turn on. It's like special genes activate. Your eyes dart around more fluidly to accommodate for the increase in stimuli. Your 'watchman' sense turns out to look for pickpockets and unpredictable addicts. Traffic increases, so you need to gain a sense of patience. It used to take a minute to ride a mile, now it'll take 20. Traffic lights, merging, one-ways, honking, pedestrians, bicyclists, rogue homeless jaywalkers, and don't forget your batshit-crazy hotrods peeling out through the streets. Is that person opening their car door into the lane? I think that woman is lost, she just swaggered across 3 lanes. Looks like that turn is a one-way....
It's the jungle, baby.
After keeping my head low in Lillooet at a free campsite for a few days to let the rush from holiday blow over, I found my window to get into Vancouver on Sunday so I'd beat the Monday Labor Day traffic. It's been a long time since I've been in a major population center. Last time was Edmonton on the way north to the Arctic some 10,000 kilometers ago.
When you're within a few hundred miles of the US border, it's where all the Canadians live. You get more cell service. More traffic. The people drive a lot crazier and there a lot more ways to get lost.
I came down highway 99 down the "Sunshine coast" but it was anything but. I'm in the temperate rainforests of Cascadia now. Water typically dumps from the sky in buckets in the land with no dry season, giving these forests 4X the biomass of tropical rainforests.
When I arrived at my hostel in Gastown, a historic neighborhood in Vancouver, I was cold and soaking wet. I needed to figure out MANY different things:
What stuff is going in my room that I'm sharing with 7 other people?
What is going in the security closet?
Where can I park my motorcycle and how can I bring a tarp with when I park it?
Is the motorcycle safe where it's parked?
Where do I hang up my wet clothes?
Where is the bathroom?
Where can I get clean water?
Where can I do laundry?
I was situated in The Cambie Gastown hostel in a very rough part of town. Junkies made deals and used right out in the open on the sidewalks. They'd wander the streets screaming at the sky or mumbling to themselves. Tourists and locals walk amongst them like they're a part of the landscape. Graffiti mars the sidewalks and boarded up windows of closed neighboring businesses. A faint scent of urine can hang in the air when it drifts out of alleyways when the wind blows just right.
I'd heard it first-- folks around BC are aware of the crime wave and uptick in addicts in Vancouver and Victoria since the pandemic. Some blame the politics of the ruling administration, others say it's because of the more inviting weather. Some blame the addicts themselves for their choices, as if they saw a glimpse of their life at rock bottom and chose it willingly. Most can agree, however. This is an intergenerational problem that will not be solved in a year. A couple of Canada's provinces have safe-injection sites which have proven to lower the number of overdoses, lower traffic into hospitals, and assist some in weening off of their addictions. A lot of the casualties of the drug's war on the mind wander about in Gastown.
Big-city hostel life is also something I hadn't experienced since Calgary. You arrive wide-eyed, not sure where anything is or who to talk to. You can see it on the new arrivals' faces. It can take an hour or two before you can finally relax when you have to share so many facilities with people. Common areas are places where people sprawl out their books and devices so they can plan on how they'll squeeze the most they can out of their experience in the city. Some travel alone, some travel in couples. Some travel in groups of friends, and some are there ONLY for Vancouver. Some pass to parts unknown like myself. Some are on vacation, others are also living a nomadic lifestyle like myself.
The turnover can leave one feeling left behind. I went out for drinks the first two nights and got to know several people very well. It only took 1 more day before I didn't recognize a soul in the common area anymore- my new friends had all adhered to their plans and either moved on or headed back home.
Vancouver is a west coast city. Even some of the suburban housing styles had a Latin spin on them that you'd expect in LA or San Francisco. The accent of some of the locals is also closer to California than it is to the Canadian core. That surprised me. It takes some effort to get around but there was plenty to do. Sushi is affordable and high quality. Historic sites are plentiful. The weather agreed with me the whole time, which was wonderful. I got to spend time with fellow hostel travelers at many different tourist locales. I also got some errands done and got my next steps lined up.
One thing occurred to me, however. I'm not prioritizing major cities unless there are special reasons. The cost of Vancouver was astronomical. I spent so much on parking, lodging, beer, and food that I think 1 day in Vancouver beat a week in BC's interior in terms of cost. I wouldn't call it 'unsustainable' in terms of my finances, but it definitely makes me feel reckless.
I'll be changing my plans accordingly going forward.
-JT 9/9/2022