In this post I talk about the days leading up to my departure from Australia, and navigating my first few days in Canada.
The endings and goodbyes were coming thick and fast. I finished up at my beloved retail job eight days before I left Australia. My last day did not feel like my last day, but it did, all at the same time. I usually buzzed around the store tidying displays, but that day I wandered around the shop aimlessly, taking in each area, each of my favourite products, one last time. At the end of the day, I shut the shop as I did any other day, except my mum and one of my co-workers was there for moral support. I just couldn’t believe, after more than three years in the role, my time there had come to an end.
I went to my last yoga class at Gold Coast Yoga Centre five days before I left. Yoga brings up emotions, I mean, that’s part of the practice. And I had shed a fair few tears in class recently (usually smothered by a bolster). This time was particularly poignant, and one of the other students even cried a little with me!
My mum stayed with me on my last weekend in Australia, and helped me clean my room and pack. My housemate Cat was away, and although it was a busy weekend, it was so wonderful to spend a few days one on one with Mum. I do not know how I would have gotten through those last few days without her. With my suitcase laid out on the living room floor, I was fighting through overwhelm and decision fatigue, trying to decide what to take and leave behind. Trying to make it fit in my suitcase, and within the 23kg weight limit. Mum took the lead, and we got the job done.
My dad arrived on Monday afternoon, and Mum and I said our goodbyes, with lots of hugs. Dad stayed the night- we went out to dinner one last time and played one last game of Rummikub.
The next day, we packed up his car with the things I was storing at his house, and he dropped me off to my Aunty Karen and Uncle Pete. They lived close to Brisbane Airport, and had offered to take me on the morning of my departure. I left my favourite knock-off Doc Marten boots in Dad’s car, one of several items I forgot to pack.
My aunty and uncle had secretly arranged for our extended family, including cousins, nieces and nephews, to join us for dinner at Guzman Y Gomez that night. It was a wonderful surprise, and was great to see everyone before I left.
Even though I knew I would see them again, I could never have imagined how hard it would be to say goodbye to my friends and family.
I left Australia on the Aussiest of days- May 8, or ‘Mate’. Aunty Karen and Uncle Pete accompanied me into the terminal, and I checked in my suitcase, which weighed in at 22.8kg. They took the obligatory photo outside the yellow Departures gate, and we hugged and said a tearful goodbye.
Over the past six years, I had downsized my belongings from a three-bedroom house to a single bedroom. Now, my life was reduced to the contents of my 23kg weight limit, in a blue hard shell suitcase.
I proceeded through security and customs, and once at my departure gate, I spoke to Mum, Dad and my best friend Meg, and posted to my socials. I could not believe the day had finally arrived. After everything I’d had to do to get to this point, after all the stress. I had reached the end of the to do list, and now there was nothing else to do but get on the plane.
Since committing to this trip in early 2023, I had fought so hard to keep my plans on track. At times I felt so overwhelmed and disconnected from the idea and the inspiration. I walked onto the plane in a daze.
I flew out of Brisbane at 10am, headed direct to Vancouver. The in-flight announcements were made in English and French. 60 minutes into the 13 hour flight, they served us ‘dinner’, beef and potatoes. Shortly after dinner, the sky turned dark, as if we were flying into a black hole. The lights in the cabin were dimmed. I’d experienced this before, going from night to day, but not day to night. It was eerie and strange- I’d only been awake a few hours.
Day One In Canada
As we came into land at Vancouver Airport, I gazed in awe out the window at the snow-capped North Shore Mountains towering behind the city skyscrapers. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Excitement, long suppressed beneath the overwhelm, bubbled up to the surface. I had arrived.
The transit through the was smooth. Even most of the customs checks were automated, which was a bit sad but also less intimidating. I was cleared by 7.15am local time. I booked an Uber which delivered me to the Panda Pod Hotel, a capsule hotel in Richmond, a city half an hour’s drive from Vancouver. I had chosen this accommodation because it was close to the airport, and I had a morning flight two days later to Penticton in the Okanagan Valley. I was also trying to avoid staying in backpacker hostels to the best of my ability, and the cost was the same per night.
I hadn’t slept on the flight from Brisbane, maybe dozed here and there, but I was feeling surprisingly good, so decided not to check into my pod early, as I’d previously requested. I figured the closer I could push out sleep to night time, the better. I dropped my bags off and went shopping for another pair of knock-off Doc Martens, and a long-sleeved shirt, something else I had forgotten to pack. I found both items in Value Village, a thrift store near the hotel.
I walked a lot around Richmond that day, to three different local shopping centres. I bought socks at H&M. I bought pork stir fry from a food court, and ate half for lunch, saving the rest for dinner. By lunchtime I had finally hit a wall, and was nodding off over my food. I waited in a park across the street from Panda Pod for a little while before check-in at 2pm, and I very nearly fell asleep lying on a brick wall in the sun. I woke with a fright thinking my backpack had been stolen, forgetting I didn’t have it with me. I was well and truly ready for a nap.
I checked in and the receptionist gave me a quick tour. I was issued with two fob keys- one for a storage locker in the foyer and another for the doors, to the hotel itself and to the room where my pod was located. I settled into my pod for a nap.
I woke up two hours later, had a shower and ate the rest of the stir fry. At 9pm, the sun was only just starting to set, but it didn’t matter because the pod room had no windows. I was tired but unsure of whether I’d be able to sleep again. It was only 12.45pm in Brisbane. I decided to watch something on my computer and read my book, and doze if I could. As it turned out, I could barely keep my eyes open, and I fell asleep watching Baby Reindeer. I woke up a few hours later, brushed my teeth and went back to bed, reading my book until I fell back to sleep.
I had no strict method for overcoming jetlag. I had no set plans for my first two days in Canada, so I just let myself nap when I needed to. Once my sleep tank was refilled, I would work on setting a routine in alignment with the new time zone.
The sleeping pods were stacked two high. They were supposed to be sound-proof, but I wasn’t confident they would be, so I had selected the top level out of concern for noise above me. I quickly came to regret this choice, and having to climb up and down the ladder, especially with valuables like my laptop. I also learned quickly not to moisturize my feet before using the ladder!
Day Two in Canada
I started my second day in Canada with a pancake breakfast at IHOP. I returned to the Richmond Centre with the objective to sort out a prepaid phone plan and sim card. I had done extensive research into the options available. During my previous travels through Ireland and the UK, I had been able to buy a cheap prepaid sim card at the airport, but this was not available in Canada. I did end up finding a cheap and easy option in Koodo, a $39 p/m plan which would renew once to cover the duration of my trip. The coverage with Koodo was great, and I highly recommend them for travel in Canada.
I then went to the local library and tried to cancel my Australian phone plan with Telstra, something which was proving difficult having left the country.
I found out from Janine it was going to be 30 degrees Celsius in Penticton that weekend. She had warned me about the heat I could experience in Canada, but in my packing frenzy I hadn’t packed any summer clothes except a few tank tops. So I raced back out to Value Village and bought a pair of denim shorts and flip flops.
With my warm weather wardrobe sorted, in the late afternoon I caught the train Downtown. I walked around Waterfront and Gastown, and ate a cheesesteak sandwich and a glass of wine at the Black Frog Eatery for dinner.
My second night in the pod was restless. It was Thursday, and people were checking in at all hours. There were two rooms of pods, with locked doors securing them at night. I think I annoyed the receptionist when I set the alarm off on the door to my pod room that night, but two fob keys was simply one too many when jetlagged and sleep-deprived. There was a man violently clearing his throat and coughing loudly all night. The 2am check-in was in the pod below me, and snored loudly for the rest of the night. I wasn’t winning the sleep game, so I got up and sat in the communal kitchen and phoned the international customer service number for Telstra, and finally managed to cancel my Australian number and plan.
I finally got some sleep in the early hours, and had an early start the next morning, with my flight to Kelowna at 9.30am.
Kate Kelsen 