Today was the first stage of our month-long trip to Italy. The morning began with a short cab ride to the airport — quick, quiet, and efficient. Next, a pleasant surprise at the Powell River airport: today we got to ride on the 34-seater rather than the usual 19-seat ‘cigar’, where you hunch into a permanent stoop to get to your seat. At the South Terminal we debated taking the free shuttle to the Skytrain or the BC Transit bus to the Bridgeport station. The bus came before the shuttle left, but was the wrong one, so it was off on the shuttle, then up two escalators to Skytrain, where we validated our last two-zone tickets and rumbled to the end of the line downtown at Waterfront station. Up a couple more escalators to street level, then a short wait on Hastings Street for the 160 Express bus enroute to Port Coquitlam. A woman with an internal thermostat unlike anyone else on bus worked her way along the front rows and opened every window. We retreated to the back of the bus, and she soon headed our way, asking if we minded if she opened yet another window,
’It’s chilly,’ I suggested and she mumbled something about it being summer for christsakes (it’s not) then sprawled across a seat and promptly fell asleep while the rest of us shivered in the back.
Off the bus in PoCo, and a quick stop at our former favorite Donair shop for a super lamb with extra hot sauce, then a 20-minute trek to our lodgings, backpacks seemingly much heavier than they were when we began the day.
Next, another two-hour two-bus trek downtown to attend and participate in a literary reading at a coffee shop, then a return trip back to the Coquitlam bus loop and a waiting truck ride back to our lodgings.
Total time in transit today: taxi — 5 minutes, plane — 25 minutes, shuttle — 10 minutes, Skytrain — 28 minutes, city bus.- 3 hours and 45 minutes, truck 10 minutes.
All in all a good rehearsal for Monday’s bus and Skytrain trip back to the airport before the 12 hour flight to Amsterdam and Rome.
Who said getting there is half the fun?
