I arrived in Kelowna in the mid afternoon and instead of couchsurfing I decided to stay in a hostel for a change. I stayed at the SameSun Backpacker’s hostel in the center of town. I could have easily couchsurfed, there are plenty of hosts in Kelowna, but I was looking for something different. I quickly met a number of people working or staying at the hostel. Many of them were Australian, mostly twenty somethings that spent the past winter at a ski resort working and were now travelling around and working shorter stints at the hostel in exchange for a room and a bit of pay. There were also a number of Canadians travelling, mostly students who just finished university or were on summer break.
Kelowna, is one of Canada’s most beautiful cities. It sits on the 120km (75 miles) long Okanagan Lake, and I surrounded by greenhills, and snow capped mountains in the distance. The population is about 140,000 people, so the cities has most of the amenities you would need. It’s also the center of BC’s winecountry with over 20-30 wineries in built up on the surrounding hills. It has a couple ski hills nearby and even a couple local breweries. The climate is also much drier that other parts of BC, like western Washigton and Oregon it’s shielded from much of the rain that comes off the pacific by the Cascade mountains.
I stayed 2 nights and both of them I ended up with a group from our hostel at the local dance clubs, Level and Saphirre. During the day I visited the waterfront, beaches, 2 wineries, a goat’s milk farm, and a the Tree Brewing Co. At the summer hill winery, I arrived just in time for the 12:00 tour. I was informed that since I was the only one there I would have a personal tour with Colette. She was very interested in my story and since the weather was perfect 22C (72F) and sunny, she took extra time outside with me. She was even kind enough to answer my barrage of questions about Kelowna, and the surrounding areas, weather etc. All factors I am considering in my decision making process to find my next home. The most interesting part of the tour was the pyramid. Apparently the owner of the Summerhill winery has a bit of an obsession with pyramids. It’s 1/8 exact replica of the pyramids at Giza, Egypt. It is used hold weddings, and other special events, and each barrel of wine spends at least some of it’s aging time in the pyramid. Apparently the pyramid wine always tastes better for some reason. The pyramid even has 12” wide copper strip that run the length of each of the pyramid corners and a large crystal hanging just below the summit of the pyramid.
Later that day I ran to the top of Knox Mountain with Prit. Prit was in Kelowna on business and saw that I was in town too so she contacted me so we could go for a run together.
The next day I headed for Jasper, and luckily I had a passenger, Felix. Felix was staying in the same hostel and needed a ride to Jasper, about 7 hrs by car away. He was off school from the summer and lives near Montreal. He decided to fly out west for the summer and hitch hike his way around. His plan was to get a 1-2 month job in Jasper for the summer. He shared fuel expenses and even some of the driving duties with me. The hostel in Jasper was full so we shared a campsite near town. That evening we headed into Jasper for Game 2 of the NHL playoffs. Since the Vancouver Canucks are in the running everyone was out watching the game. We spent the rest of the night enjoying a wild Saturday night in Jasper. The next morning I dropped Felix off at the hostel, and headed to town to pick up Theresa, for the next leg of my Journey.
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