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Michael's HomeEr what are we doing here?Nanaimo (pronounced Na-No-No!!!)

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Er what are we doing here?

Nanaimo (pronounced Na-No-No!!!) |

We checked out of the Patricia in Vancouver and made our way down to the train and bus terminal we arrived at days before. Whilst waiting for our bus we were talking to an older couple about where we were going and what to do. The gentleman had emigrated from England 50 years ago. We got on our greyhound which took around 40 minutes to reach the ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay and soon we were crossing to Vancouver Island which took around 1 hour and 40 minutes with some stunning vistas along the way. When the ferry arived at Departure Point in Nanaimo we were dropped of at the bus terminal and tried to follow our useless instructions to the Cambie hostel. We waited at a bus stop for about 15 minutes until the bus driver told us the hostel was just 5 minutes walk. We asked a passer by if he knew were it was and he told us to look out for weirdos. We roughly knew what the hostel would be like because it was a clone of the one in Vancouver which we didn't like the look of. Anyway we found it and it was exactly as we feared. The hostel was above a large noisy bar. We checked in anyway and when we got to our room it was like a prison cell. There was a homemade bunk bed with grotty blankets on. There was no window and bare floorboards which allowed the music from the bar below to vibrate the whole room. We dumped the bags and headed out to find internet access to see if we could find somewhere else to stay. All of the hostels were booked up except the Cambie (funnily enough!) so Lucy went into a travel agents to ask them if there was anywhere we could stay. They told us about a hostel just around the corner called the Painted Turtle which was not on the hostel websites. We went in and luckily enough they had a room available for Wed, Thu and Fri. We went back to the cambie and cancelled those nights so that would only stay the 1 night there. The music blared out until 1am and I was wide awake again at 4am.

Locations Visited: Nanaimo


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