He started 2008 in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, the tiny former Soviet nation sandwiched in the Caucasus bordering Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. Tom originally arrived there as part of his global bicycle ride attempt, Ride Earth, and planned to stay just three days, before heading southeast, into Iran. As it happened he was stuck there for an extra few weeks, due to the delay of a sleeping bag he was expecting. Fate, it seems, kept him in Yerevan, as one evening he bumped into Tenny. Nine months passed (no, it isn’t that sort of nine months), and he was still there, renting a cramped, Communist-era flat in the heart of the Armenian capital, editing websites in his boxers, spending many hours and days of quality time with his new Armenia-Iranian girlfriend, and planning to continuing his cycle ride with her.
Now it’s November - a few short weeks before Christmas, and in the Allen house in Middleton, Northamptonshire there’s a knock at the door. It’s Tom. He’s home. And Tenny is with him. They’re back in England for a short time only, having travelled back by a combination of hitch hiking, train rides and ferries over the course of 16 days. They came from Tenny’s family home in Tehran, Iran - having previously cycled there from Yerevan. It took a train ride from Tehran to Istanbul, another train from Istanbul to Athens (before the riots started), a boat up the Adriatic to Venice, and from there they hitched most of the way home. After spending Christmas in England, Tenny is now back in Tehran, having flown home a few days ago, and Tom is hitch hiking back to Istanbul to collect his bike, and carrying on, taking a very route scenic back to Tehran. You can read the full story on the Ride Earth website. It’s an interesting story, I highly recommend it.
But anyway, back to my year. It has definitely been an interesting time. Having returned from my trip to Ghana in February I sat around and pondered what to do with life. I’d done various shorter trips abroad in the months since finishing University, but something was missing. I decided, eventually, that I needed to move somewhere else – to experience what it feels like to live thousands of miles away from home in a totally new environment, where it would just be me – a whole new start, and a whole new challenge.
Eventually I came across Canada – and the ease in which young English people with a lack of desire to pursue a career could obtain temporary work visas. At the time I knew nothing of Canada apart from it being close to the United States, and it was big. Pretty limited then. Having chatted to my folks on this winters afternoon about the possibility they told me that Vancouver, on the west coast, was supposed to be extremely nice.
Cue Google Image Search. “Damn”, I thought, as I stared at aerial photographs of skyscrapers, sea, beaches, parks and mountains – all in one shot. “That looks cool” With that, a trip to the library followed to get a book on the city. Five pages was all it took – I applied for the program that same afternoon.
In hindsight, it was the best thing I ever did. It has been an eye-opening, culturally fulfilling, broadening experience. As I said, I knew nothing of Canada at the start of 2008, so coming here, learning about how varied the landscape is (sea, to mountains, to prairies, to lakes, to arctic tundra), how it is the second largest country in the world (geographically – after Russia), how you can fit the UK into British Columbia roughly four times, and how it’s a buzzing, cosmopolitan feast for the senses, due to being almost entirely made up of immigrants from absolutely everywhere, has been amazing for me.
My opinions on globalisation, immigration, and diversity are all for it. I think it is an extreme positive when people from other backgrounds and other cultures come together – and Vancouver is a melting pot for that. The city welcomes it with open arms, positively encourages variety, celebrates different cultures, lifestyles, and opinions coming together to form one, diverse, liberal society. In Vancouver there is something for everyone, and I feel totally at home as part of it.
So what have I been up to recently? Well, Christmas has just been and gone, and with that came an epic dump of snow which battered the city for two full weeks. Vancouver isn’t generally considered a snowy place – due to a jet stream from the South Pacific keeping temperatures, and thus snowfall, to a reasonable level, but a few days before Christmas Day, the city was treated to a blizzard of biblical proportions. Being totally unable to cope, the city ground to a halt. Buses were unable to run, cars were buried, shops and businesses closed, and people were unable to get to work. It was chaos. Brilliant chaos. We took the opportunity to go sledging – something I’ve personally not done for about 15 years, and Vancouverites celebrated their first white Christmas since 1998.
Our Christmas Day was pretty memorable also. My flatmate Sophie had her family over to visit from England, and after a few days in the city, they had all driven up to the Olympic ski resort, Whistler, to stay at a chalet over the Christmas period. Thomas, my other flatmate, and I, drove up on Christmas morning to spend the day there. The highway up – known as the Sea to Sky, was extremely treacherous, given the current conditions, but after three separate pant-browning moments on the way we arrived.
I have to say Whistler is a truly spectacular place. I visited before, at the end of summer, with my folks when they came to visit, but in winter it is something else. After having breakfast at their chalet (a seriously beautiful chalet I might add) we wandered up to Whistler village. The whole place was a hive of activity, transformed from the quiet, relaxed atmosphere we experienced in September. We went up Whistler Mountain on the gondola, revelled in not-a-cloud-in-the-sky weather, and took the new “Peak 2 Peak” gondola across to Blackcomb Mountain, and stared at the valleys, and surrounding mountains. Awe-inspiring.
After that I could not help myself, but to spend the afternoon snowboarding down Blackcomb, with Sophie’s dad, brother and sister. I’d not been on a board in about two years, but it was worth it, and everything came back very quickly. The afternoon flew by, we got to the foot of the mountain, went back up again, and before we knew it, it was time for Thomas and I to drive back to Vancouver. We had a 20 pound turkey in the oven, and two friends (Aussie Dave, and Sara from Toronto) patiently awaiting our return – for Christmas Dinner.
So now, the holiday season is over once more. A new year has begun, and that means a whole new start. The ski season is in full swing, the days are fresh, but very cold, and I have all my snowboard gear together. I think 2009 could be another interesting year.
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