Hitting the Road

This is my first experience travelling alone, I know many people do that, and I always had the curiosity to try. I'm sure it will be an eye-opening and amazing experience, which unfortunately will miss a piece—the pleasure of sharing it with someone. And that's for this reason that I'm writing right now, to fill this missing spot.

This post is about the first day of my solo trip. Starting from Vancouver, BC I'm heading to Portland, OR by bus, and then fly to San Francisco, CA and back to Seattle, WA and Vancouver (bus again).

Let's start from the beginning. I woke up, kinda sweaty, I went to wash myself and pack my toothbrush, after use. 

I checked that all the essential was there, put my fav t-shirt on and choose the only pair of shoes I'll carry. Alright, a pic just for reference.

My roommate left on my desk a lock, I learned how to use it, it wasn't straightforward at all. Grab the cheap jacket, keys, phone, wallet. and head out for the bank.

And that's where the first tip is (kindly suggested by the bank employee). If you travel abroad and want to use your credit card you have to call the number on the back of your card. Otherwise they block it, and you don't want that right? So do it.

Then I calmly had some sashimi lunch and head out toward the station. Early, like 1 hour early. I grab a chicken salad sandwich at Tim Hortons and board on BoltBus (second tip: take BoltBus).

BoltBus is cheap as hell, there's a power outlet on most seats and WiFi, well it's slow and clumsy but it's there, a lifesaver for such a long trip (8 hours), you can basically waste your time the same way you do it everyday, it doesn't even feel like you're travelling :)

After boarding, it took approximately one hour to get to the border. The process was painless, as I'm Italian I had to do the ESTA beforehand (and that's the third tip) and pay 16 bucks. They asked me few random questions, some more money, and a declaration of the threats I'm bringing to the us:

I declared my sandwich

We got back on the bus, and everyone was sitting in a different place, so don't bother to get a nice seat when boarding—it makes no sense.

Travelling by bus can be cozy since it's not surreal like a plane. In a plane there's the artificial light that screws you up, that dry air that makes you feel like your throat is crumbling and the very small and clumsy seats.

On the bus you can do all sorts of stuff: write, sleep, think, read and any other glorious time-wasting activity (the guy near me played Star Wars 3 hours straight—what a nerd). For that matter, this post was mostly made on the bus. And that's what I saw of Seattle.

Bus got issues tough. I think we were stuck in the only traffic jam of the whole west coast, an accident on the highway. And—hell—we were stuck there for more than 3 hours. 

I mean, no big deal, even more WiFi leisure time and catching up with old friends who were willing to chat on Facebook. At 11:00 I was starting feeling really hungry, the driver was nice to stop at a service area, a substantial amount of sugar helped me survive for the rest of the trip. 

After a few hours we finally arrived at destination, it was something like 1:00 am. The first impression I had of Portland was of a really clean city, Christmas lights made me feel excited about it. Arrived at the station I called a cab, painless and it's cheap like less than 6 $ (not that I had a choice at 1:00 am).

Look at all those poor people waiting for the cab, I handed my phone to a chick that had a taxi phone written on her hand, cmon get a phone dude.

Anyway, I eventually arrive at the hostel, one of the neatest hostel I've ever been to. If you go to Portland that's the hostel you have to go to http://www.nwportlandhostel.com/ (guess what? fourth tip). Apparently I wasn't the only bastard who checked in at 1:20 am. So I just relaxed while in line, got my room, went to sleep.

You know, it wasn't a bad travel day, and by being alone you can't complain with your companion about trivial things such as being late, and by not complaining it sucks so much less. I guess when you're alone you really get into a flowy state, where you just go, no matter where, or when.

Anyway.

Let the chill begin.

Day 1:
16 December 2013
Vancouver-Portland bus ride
Travel time: 11h.