A dream takes flight

The plane journey was exciting, after weeks/months of preparation we were finally on our way.

We weren’t travelling light – I was laden with a bike box, snowboard bag, and a big carry-on bag. Charlotte had a huge suitcase, a laptop and another carry-on bag. I was beginning to feel North American.

A two hour wait in a stiflingly hot immigration hall behind families of refugees did leave us a little jaded but when we were finally on our way to the bright lights of the city we perked up again.

The hostel, St Clair Hotel, was what you’d expect from one of the cheapest places we could find – shocking. Our view was of a concrete park which through most of the day hosted the drug dealing games, where zombies aimlessly ambled occasionally, crossing paths to top up on drugs. The room itself was alright and the showers etc were clean enough. We wanted to escape quickly though.

We were only a few hundred metres from the Steamworks micro brewery as it turned out so it was a great opportunity to check out Canada's ales - which aren't much like English ones but are pretty excellent nonetheless.

DRG

Stepping into the unknown

Handing in our notice at work and saying goodbye to work, friends, family and comfort wasn’t easy. Bristol is a great city to live, and Hargreaves Lansdown was a great place to begin my career.

Choosing to take a blind leap of faith and start a new life in a new country (for a time at least) was never going to be easy. But the buzz of opportunity, the prospect of mountains and sea on my doorstep and the exhilaration of stepping into the unknown meant that I rarely doubted the decision to go to Vancouver. 

The various leaving drinks and lunches were great fun and almost make me want to leave more often. I’ve met a lot of good people along the way. 

DRG