Southern California bound

I spent most the final day at Whistler packing my bag and relaxing at the hostel. I did end up going to the village to see some free outdoor concerts, for which it was drizzling, with the threat of rain. It was ironic that the bands that were playing that afternoon played some surf rock music. The first artist I caught was Hayley Sales, which I was very impressed by. She played some beautiful acoustic/surf rock and entertained the slowly growing crowd despite the threat of rain. I was so impressed by her band, in fact, that I decided to buy her EP at the merchandise tent for $5.

Next up, and the final band to perform at the outdoor music series for the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, were Aussie band The Beautiful Girls, and they rocked the crowd both soft and hard. I would say that it was a fitting end to the festival, but I had only really attended this event for the entire festival, so I can't really talk. In any case, it was a nice end to my Whistler trip. I caught the bus to Vancouver the next morning where I took care of some things early on before meeting up with the others who had just come from Whistler.

A long evening in Vancouver

After taking a quick afternoon nap in my hostel room, the Pano crew got together and invaded a nearby tattoo and piercing parlor. Six people ended up getting a piercing (myself not being among those six) and all of them were generally satisfied with their decorative yet pricey purchase. We all went for sushi afterwards (and oh boy that sushi was great) before heading back to the hostel to watch game 7 of the playoff series between the Vancouver Canucks and the Dallas Stars.

It was quite a spectacle watching a playoff game in Vancouver. Whenever the home team would score, you would know it, even if you weren't watching the game, because of the screams of ecstasy from pubs in the streets and the beeps of horns from passing cars. I did, however, watch the gripping final game of the series, and Vancouver ended up victorious 4-1, after 2 late open net goals.

We headed over to watch Electric Six afterwards, and marveled at the jubilation on the streets, as fans, both on foot and in vehicles, expressed their joy at their home team going on to the next round. I can only hope that I will be able to watch the next series, which will be against the Anaheim Ducks. On a slightly tangential note, it was good to see the Golden State Warriors not only make it to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, but also upset the western conference's number 1 ranked team, the Dallas Mavericks, in the first game of the series. Maybe both of my teams can make a double against Dallas this year.

Anyway, we showed up at the concert just as the support act was finishing up. Much of the Pano crew was there, and soon after all of us had a Jager Bomb, Electric Six got on stage, and things started getting crazy. The band exuded a unique presence, something that I had not seen before, not even in some high-energy gigs that I've been to before. The mosh pit was not very big, but it somehow managed to be the most - I don't want to say violent, but I guess a word to describe it would be animated - crowd I have ever encountered. The fact that it was a small venue made sure that the craziness continued. The security was quite lax, and I ended up crowd surfing no less than 3 times without once being called to come down.

All in all, the gig was off the hook, and well worth the $20 cover charge. The group splintered off after the show, and a few of us decided to visit some bars. After a bit of bar hopping and a few more pieces of sushi, I finally ended up going to sleep at around 2:30, only to wake up 2 hours later to get ready to go to the train station to make my way to LA.

A long train ride to LA

I'm writing this while I am on the Coast Starlight train from Seattle to LA. This leg of the trip to LA, which will last about 34-35 hours, comes after a good 3-and-a-half-hour bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle at about 5:30 in the morning. I'll end up arriving in LA tomorrow evening at about 8, making it a bit of a marathon. Thankfully I've brought along a book and the new Pokemon game to keep me entertained, and will hopefully last me the entire trip. Otherwise, there's always the moving scenery, which reminds me a bit of the train trips around England and a around Wollongong. It's rather nice, but I'm much looking forward to getting off at LA so that I can finally make my way to Coachella. It's been a long time coming, and I'm quite excited.

Training day

This is my second stint on the laptop, writing a blog entry during this train trip, and I must say that I will be very happy once I get out of here. That's not to say that it's been enjoyable, because it certainly has been. I've seen some great sights along the way, and I've met a couple of Brits from Whistler who are also heading over to Coachella. The reason why I've grown rather tired of the trip is the amount of time in which the train is running late. As it stands it is somewhere between 2 and 3 hours behind schedule. What's funny is that apparently that's actually pretty good for this service. I've actually managed to finish reading Ender's Game (great book), volume 3 of Scott Pilgrim (which didn't really take too long as it was a graphic novel), and have made steady progress into Pokemon Diamond. It was certainly worth the experience to travel using this method, but next time I'll be going on the plane for long trips.

I live!

Short entry - I made it out of that train alive. Woohoo! Man, that was a painfully boring last few hours. Anyway, right now I have to hold up my laptop above chest level next to a door in order to get any wireless signal, so this update shall be short. At least the post itself was big. Indio tomorrow! I'll give a full Coachella rundown and hopefully a long-awaited picture update when I get back.