My Swedish friend Henrik's trip to BC and Washington! / Music Breed Quiz

My Swedish friend Henrik just emailed me... I figure he's back home from BC and Washington already. His trip sounds like it was quirky enough, however! :D

Hi there,

I'm back on this side of the "pond"... :)

Unfortunately, as things turned out, I didn't get to spend many hours in Vancouver... anyway, I've already started to plan the next trip, so see you then... :)

Here's a brief summary:

Day 1: After a loooong journey, we arrived at YVR sometime in the evening. After standing in line for hours, we got to the customs officer. She asked us where we were staying. "Bosman's hotel," I said. "We don't have a Bosman's in Vancouver... do you have a reservation there?" "Yes, and we've paid for it as well!" "Hehe... good luck!" All right, we went outside after we got our bags, to grab a taxi. "Where to?" the driver says with an Arabic accent. "Bosman's hotel, please..." I said. "And where this be?" I didn't know the address, only that it was supposed to be in downtown Vancouver... after a while he asks me to write it down, so I write "BOSMAN'S" in big block letters... "Aahhh... Buzzmens! I know this place!"... so it turned out it did exist... :)

Day 2: Our relative in Vernon had booked us on a flight to Kelowna, so we head out to the airport, after eating breakfast at a nice place two blocks from the Hotel. The woman there (of Asian descent) has lived in Italy and is glad to have Europeans there... Anyway, we fly to Kelowna in a small propeller plane, and land there at noon. Our relative is supposed to meet us there, but doesn't show up for a couple of hours... Finally she does show up however, and we're on our way to Vernon, in her old van with peeling paint, as she says (I would say flaking paint, but I've probably spent too much time in England). We check in at a new motel in Vernon, her house is too small (and it really was).

Day 3 - 5: Not much. She had to work for a couple of days more, so we're walking around in Vernon, which is a relatively peaceful place, so not much happens. At dollar store, I find some incense with the text "Cannabis" on them and a price tag of $2.00. I took a picture of that (on which you can only see the text Cannabis and the price tag), and it has made some people I know wanting to go there, when I showed them the picture... On the fifth day, our relative had a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner in her home, since she was going to be with us in the US during the Thanksgiving holidays. It wasn't like in the movies, she had chopped up the turkey to small pieces and served it with potatoes. The only thing that was new to me was the stuffing (which was of course separate from the turkey, since you can't stuff anything that lacks cavities... ;) ).

Day 6: Crossing the border. We drove up to the customs officer, he took our passports and told us, "It's gonna cost ya 6 dollars per person" and to drive past him and back up towards the door. We thought they were going to search the van, but once we got inside, it turned out they were doing some maintenance on the computer systems, so we were told to go back into the car and wait for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, we went back inside, and they gave us a form (which to my great surprise was written in Swedish) to fill out and sign. The questions on this form were yes / no questions and truly bizarre. "Have you, or anyone in your family, ever been diagnosed with a mental disorder?" "Have you, anyone you're traveling with, anyone you're supposed to meet or otherwise stay in touch with, planned to carry out any terrorist activities in the United States of America or any of its allied countries directed towards the United States of America, companies, or individuals residing therein?" These guys didn't look like they could appreciate a joke, so I didn't ask them what to do if I change my mind when I'm already in the US... nor did I ask for an eraser... :) Anyway, we tried not to laugh, and soon we were on our way to Omak, where we stayed at a motel.

Day 7: On our way to Spokane, we stopped to check out the Grand Coulee Dam and the "mighty" Columbia river, which accompanied us on most of the trip through Washington. I wasn't too impressed by the river, the Kalix river right here is not much smaller... In the afternoon, we arrived in Spokane and went to see two of our relatives at their home. My dad tried as best he could to sort out the family relations, who's related to who and how, and so on... I wasn't too interested and played with their three cats instead, which subsequently made me very ill - I'm allergic to cats...

Day 8: Tour of Spokane, and family dinner at a steakhouse. I met four more relatives, and all of them seem to be interesting people.

Day 9: Time to continue. Before we left, we stopped by at the evil House of Cats. I found out about Lake Isaacson, but there wasn't time to visit the lake this time. So, we took off, and I was glad I could blame the cats for the tears in my eyes... After a long trip along the Columbia river, we checked in at a motel somewhere in Oregon, not sure where.

Day 10: More traveling, a stop at a Winery. We got a bit lost for a while, and missed Fort Vancouver (WA) which we had planned to check out. Finally we found somewhere to stay for the night, not sure where... Could have been Longview...

Day 11: We went to check out the Pacific, unfortunately it was cold and rainy, so only the toes got a bath... Later, we went to see some graves of the first Isaacsons that arrived in the US (for some silly reason, they changed there name to the Jewish spelling).

Day 12: Continued on the journey, and ended up somewhere in the Seattle area, Kent I think the place was called.

Day 13: Visited the Museum of Flight in Seattle. That took a full day, so we just went looking for a motel afterwards. The car started to smell strangely, and as soon as we found a motel and drove up the their parking lot, it broke down totally and coolant flowed over the tarmac. Luckily, a garage was just across the road. The guys there were Vietnamese and spoke very little English, but they did fix the car... and they were very entertaining... "you chan' hooo!?" (do you want to change the hose?), "ight nah!? chan' hooo ight nah!?" (do you want me to change the hose right now?)

Day 14: When I checked out, the guy behind the counter thought I was Canadian, so apparently this is the point where my somewhat British accent had been totally eradicated. :) This day, we went in to Seattle, checked out the Space Needle, the I-Max theatre (a film about the Vikings as the true discoverers of America) and looked at the stuff in the Science Centre. In the evening we met up with two more relatives, also nice people, at the Outback Steakhouse.

Day 15: Drove back to Canada. Canadian authorities didn't even care to look at our passports, quite a difference from the US guys... we got to the airport in spite of the horrible traffic, and flew back to Europe. I think they stay was much too short, but my dad and brother thought this was the best day of the trip... hmm... :) I found some shotglasses with the text "Smoking in Vancouver" and a picture of a Cannabis leaf that I took some pictures of. I used these in an alternative description of the trip that you will soon see... ;) (I wrote it in Swedish first, so now I'm just going to translate it for my English-speaking friends....)

Day 16: At home, 02:30 (that's 2:30 AM), after being awake for 32 hours. I had no problems falling asleep....

(Day 17 - 22): Loads of work had stacked up... this is the problem with
being on vacation while everyone else is working... :/

The end.

/Henrik

Hey, he's emailed me the alternative version already... sweet! :D

Hi guys,

As most of you already know (or should know, cause I've told you ;) - and some of you have even seen me there, although not as many as I had hoped for), I've been on vacation in Canada. Here's the *alternative* version of what happened there.... ;)

I first wrote this in Swedish to my Swedish-speaking friends, so here's a translation for you lot... Some of the Swedes subjected to this email reacted with the words "Wow! I have to go there! Didn't know it was legal in Canada!"... while others uttered disbelief, saying that it can't be THAT cheap... but photos don't lie, right?

Remember: "There is no absolute truth, and this is the only absolute truth."


Some things would seem to imply that many Canadians are fond farmers, and in particular they seem to like vegetables...




Our suspicion is confirmed at Dollar Store in Vernon. This is where you'd go for cheap vegetables!




A game of poker at Starbucks in Vernon... (traveling is expensive, one has to finance it somehow!)




After a few minor setbacks, I decide to change my tactics and buy my opponent a few drinks to wash down the veggies with...!




After this tactical measure, the statistics improve drastically and the stakes are raised!




We continue our journey towards popular tourist resorts in the northwest of the US...




...but unfortunately it turns out to be illegal to bring agricultural products into the country, so we're forced to cut our visit short and quickly head back to Europe...




At Heathrow, they still use Windows. The flight is delayed by two hours.

I'd post an OK Cupid spelling test here, but there are spelling errors in the image I get in my result... talk about irony, and a deal-breaker when it comes to posting quiz results.

So here's another test instead:

You scored as classic rock. classic rock 65% Indie 60% mainstream rock 60% industrial 55% grunge 55% reggae 55% metal 50% Emo 35% country 35% Punk 35% Pop Punk 20% ska 20% rap 20% Pop 15% what breed of music are you? created with QuizFarm.com