(no subject)
Walking back to the highway outside of Osoyoos after drinking a big bottle of wine was BRUTAL. The sun is intense there. It's a desert, and apparently the hottest city in Canada-Hotter than the prairies even. We said our goodbyes to the french punks we were hanging out with there and began the long trek out.
We were stopped outside a dairy queen, just about ready to pass out. After a few hours of hopeless thumbing, I decided to go get us a blizzard. Half way across the highway a black car pulled up to pick us up. I figured the only reason he stopped was because Nate was sitting there alone-a lot of the time girls hitch-hiking alone have to worry about pervs trying to pick them up. I darted back and ran up to his window and was like "Buddy! Gan we get a lift?"
Turns out, he was okay. I don't quite remember his name, he was quiet but very friendly. All along the way he was blaring punk and metal bands we've never heard of. He played Casualties for a while, the guy's a treeplanter, driving back to Nelson from Princeton where he was working. The highway was closed because of a flipped semi, so we had to take a longass detour through this old mining road, passing these creepy darelect houses late at night. Also, all the other cars were travelling down the one-way road too, so every once in a while we'd have to pull over to let someone try and get past us.
After passing through Grand forks and Castlegar, we eventually came up upon Nelson city limits. the place lies in a sunny valley, just below the alpine tree-line. Even though it's blistering hot, you can look out at the mountains and see that some of them are snow-capped. The town sits along a beautiful, clear lake. The streets are like trail, everything is steep hills. Lots of hemp shops, lots of crazy hippie stores and a huge candy store with everything from "Duff energy drink" to chocolate from Britain. A huge downtown core and a huge alternative scene for a town of only 20,000 people.
The fellah took us to a campground inside city limits, something I've never seen in any other town. He advised us that it was free, but he was wrong. The fee schedule sign wanted $17/night for a tent, plus $3 from each of us. $23 in total to camp for the night. After making use of their facilities, taking a shower and chilling in the mess hall for a little while, we decided that, because there's no-one there and also because it's 1:00am and we couldn't pay anyone if we wanted, we would just pitch our tent and see how it turns out.
Nobody came to our tent. So, in the morning we quickly packed up, Nato took a shower and we hoofed it out of there as quickly as we could. An interesting thing to note is that even though it was past midnight when we got there, there were still tons of people walking around on the streets and even in the residential areas. It's like a town full of night owls.
The second day there was spent looking around the city. We found out that there's a library there where we can use the Internet for free, a Salvation army where we picked up bread and a food hamper, a visitor center where we grabbed a map of the town and every ammenity you'd expect in a city twice the size.
We got some pizza and ended up running into some cool punk kids outside the laundromat. It's the first time on this trip we've met some kids just like us. The people in Kelowna were cool, but they were hardened, they lived there a long time and while we felt welcome, we didn't quite feel like we belonged there. They were a couple named Pete and Alexi. They came from Victoria and, like a lot of the people we've run into, stayed at the same $4 campground-Loose Bay. They also got a ride out of Kelowna from the same people we did. And while in Kelowna, also hung out with Scooby, Nick and their crew and felt pretty much the same way.
Finally, some like minded people.
We headed directly to the liquor store and I think you know the rest of this story...
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SURVIVAL TIPS IF YOU'RE IN NELSON:
- There's a salvation army open on the weekdays. They'll hook you up with a hamper.
- There's a library up the street from City Hall, free Internet.
- There's a soup kitchen where you can get a free lunch somewhere in town, haven't been there yet.
- near the beach, there's a visitor's center where you gan get a map.
- there's a campground in the middle of the city, but Nelson is very compact and most of the cops are pretty lax. hike out of town 5 minutes and you can pitch your tent almost anywhere.
We were stopped outside a dairy queen, just about ready to pass out. After a few hours of hopeless thumbing, I decided to go get us a blizzard. Half way across the highway a black car pulled up to pick us up. I figured the only reason he stopped was because Nate was sitting there alone-a lot of the time girls hitch-hiking alone have to worry about pervs trying to pick them up. I darted back and ran up to his window and was like "Buddy! Gan we get a lift?"
Turns out, he was okay. I don't quite remember his name, he was quiet but very friendly. All along the way he was blaring punk and metal bands we've never heard of. He played Casualties for a while, the guy's a treeplanter, driving back to Nelson from Princeton where he was working. The highway was closed because of a flipped semi, so we had to take a longass detour through this old mining road, passing these creepy darelect houses late at night. Also, all the other cars were travelling down the one-way road too, so every once in a while we'd have to pull over to let someone try and get past us.
After passing through Grand forks and Castlegar, we eventually came up upon Nelson city limits. the place lies in a sunny valley, just below the alpine tree-line. Even though it's blistering hot, you can look out at the mountains and see that some of them are snow-capped. The town sits along a beautiful, clear lake. The streets are like trail, everything is steep hills. Lots of hemp shops, lots of crazy hippie stores and a huge candy store with everything from "Duff energy drink" to chocolate from Britain. A huge downtown core and a huge alternative scene for a town of only 20,000 people.
The fellah took us to a campground inside city limits, something I've never seen in any other town. He advised us that it was free, but he was wrong. The fee schedule sign wanted $17/night for a tent, plus $3 from each of us. $23 in total to camp for the night. After making use of their facilities, taking a shower and chilling in the mess hall for a little while, we decided that, because there's no-one there and also because it's 1:00am and we couldn't pay anyone if we wanted, we would just pitch our tent and see how it turns out.
Nobody came to our tent. So, in the morning we quickly packed up, Nato took a shower and we hoofed it out of there as quickly as we could. An interesting thing to note is that even though it was past midnight when we got there, there were still tons of people walking around on the streets and even in the residential areas. It's like a town full of night owls.
The second day there was spent looking around the city. We found out that there's a library there where we can use the Internet for free, a Salvation army where we picked up bread and a food hamper, a visitor center where we grabbed a map of the town and every ammenity you'd expect in a city twice the size.
We got some pizza and ended up running into some cool punk kids outside the laundromat. It's the first time on this trip we've met some kids just like us. The people in Kelowna were cool, but they were hardened, they lived there a long time and while we felt welcome, we didn't quite feel like we belonged there. They were a couple named Pete and Alexi. They came from Victoria and, like a lot of the people we've run into, stayed at the same $4 campground-Loose Bay. They also got a ride out of Kelowna from the same people we did. And while in Kelowna, also hung out with Scooby, Nick and their crew and felt pretty much the same way.
Finally, some like minded people.
We headed directly to the liquor store and I think you know the rest of this story...
--------
SURVIVAL TIPS IF YOU'RE IN NELSON:
- There's a salvation army open on the weekdays. They'll hook you up with a hamper.
- There's a library up the street from City Hall, free Internet.
- There's a soup kitchen where you can get a free lunch somewhere in town, haven't been there yet.
- near the beach, there's a visitor's center where you gan get a map.
- there's a campground in the middle of the city, but Nelson is very compact and most of the cops are pretty lax. hike out of town 5 minutes and you can pitch your tent almost anywhere.