Diary: Canada’s Most Dangerous Street
September 2023 - En route from Vancouver to Whistler, in the Garibaldi Highlands.
There is a reason I made this article a diary and not an itinerary.
Background:
I had just accepted my first big-girl job and had 10 days to spare. Like any good travel junkie, I started looking at cheap flights.
When looking at flights for solo trips, I look for a few things: cheapness, novelty and ability to go to multiple stops. Portland, Oregon fit the bill.
I booked a flight into Portland, and arranged a six-day trip for myself with stops in Seattle and Vancouver. I had never been to any of those locations.
In fact, I had never been to Canada. I gave myself two days for research and to pack.
I thought of it as my last hurrah before proper adulthood. In reality, this trip was one big, nasty gulp of adulthood. I could physically feel my pre-frontal lobe form on this one, ha!
Stop 0: Las Vegas, Nevada (A Layover)
September 2023 - The famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. I got an Uber here because it is far from the strip and in the centre of a very busy road.
What would you do if you had four hours in the middle of the day in Las Vegas? I followed my Gen-Z instincts and went straight to TikTok.
A-Ha! I found it. A viral spot called Café Lola.
I was dissapointed to find an overpriced latte in a strip mall. But, it was a good place to set down my bags for a second.
I ordered a ride-share Uber back to the airport. My driver, a portly Vietnamese man in his 50s, picked me up.
As I opened the car door, he exclaimed, “Charlotte, meet José” my fellow carpooler, a non-English speaking Bolivian construction worker en route to L.A.
Something about that introduction still makes me giggle.
Stop 1: Portland, Oregon
September 2023: Left: the exterior of Northwest Portland Hostel; Right: The interior of my cozy room in the hostel.
I landed in the Portland airport. As soon as I got out of the airport, things got weird. As I walked to the bus station, I saw homeless people swaying in the streets.
As I got on the bus, I held my belongings close to me. On the bus, there was a barefoot man in rags. As the bus rolled closer to my hostel, my jaw dropped with the blocks and blocks of homeless people.
I got off the stop that seemed to have nobody waiting for me. The sun was setting and I was in a new, scary place.
I quickly grabbed a makeup wipe from my bag and swiped off my make-up to make me look a little less bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
I put in one AirPod and covered it with my hair. I put my hood up and hid my phone deep in my pockets.
If you are ever in a dangerous place, hide your phone and let Siri guide you via audio directions. Looking confused at a map is not smart.
When I got to my hostel, a Victorian property in the Nob Hill neighbourhood, I got in line behind a middle-aged woman who didn’t have an I.D. She was trying to check in for the night and was insisting she had left it at a community centre downtown.
The hostel worker said she would be able to check-in if she came back with the I.D. When it was my turn, I upgraded to a private room.
After some rest and a deep breath, I started the next day with fresh eyes. Portland is small city and is actually very pretty. It has a beautiful river and is lined with Victorians and Queen Annes.
I started the next day with a group tour. Most hostels offer free city tours. When traveling alone, this is one of the first things I do to learn about the area and meet other travelers.
On my tour, there was a friend group of four in their sixties touring the northwest. There was a pair from Denmark and a young man from New Zealand.
Our tour guide, an elderly hippie woman with dangle earrings, a green pullover, and wispy silver hair lead us around. We heard a story about a theatre’s sign, a weird statue of a gremlin farting (I am not joking), and finished at a lovely outdoor market with food stands.
September 2023: Left: the interior of Powell's City of Books; Right: a Nike-themed coffee from Deadstock Coffee Roasters.
Us young people (the New Zealander, the Danish and myself) congregated near the pizza place and made a plan to explore the largest independent bookstore in America: Powell’s City of Books that takes up an entire street block!
After the bookstore, we did the most random thing I have ever done in my life. We went to an elementary school and found about 100 Portlanders sitting on the lawn at dusk.
There were all waiting to watch tiny birds fly into a formation and into the school’s chimney - a phenomenon called Swift Watch.
Photo by Jim Choate of Swift Watch at Chapman Elementary School.
We then got dinner together and spoke about our travels.
The next day, I got a train to escape to Seattle.
Stop 2: Seattle, Washington
September 2023: The Pike Place Market in Seattle.
The train ride is always my favourite. I passed through many western towns on my way to Seattle via Amtrak. To be honest, Seattle was worse than Portland.
Seattle, like Portland, has widespread homelessness. On top the homelessness, the city was gritty, had an element of danger, and a harsh wind. I got settled into my hostel that night and shared a room with a lovely Australian girl my age.
The next morning, I went next door and ordered a matcha. On my travels, I like to pick one thing new to try for the duration of the trip, whether it is a coffee order or a makeup look.
I think part of traveling is not only exploring places but exploring your identity. New places somehow make it easier to do that.
That day, I visited the Pike Place Market, the Starbucks Roastery and the Space Needle. By the time I made it to the Space Needle, I was tired.
September 2023: Left: The Space Needle; Right: The Starbucks Roastery
I was not going to pay the price to go into the needle, so I walked around the gardens and paid to go see a movie at the science centre.
A grumpy worker told me the wrong place to go twice and it was in a totally different building. The Seattle hospitality is…
Anyways, after the movie, I went to the Seattle Public Library to read. As I meandered home at dusk, I found myself in a tough one.
On one side of the street, there was a line of homeless people in tents. On the other side, there seemed to be a gang.
In the centre, the sheriff’s car. I chose to walk down the side with the gang. After getting lots of looks from the members, I scurried back to the sheriff’s car and called an Uber.
Stop 3: Vancouver, B.C.
I took a bus to Vancouver and I should have known as soon as I crossed the land border into Canada. I told the passport control officer the address of where I was staying.
He asked me if my parents knew where I was, and if I was really traveling by myself. In my head, I thought this prick needs to get off my case. But I soon realised his concern.
The bus dropped us off and I found my way to Tim Horton’s to “sample the culture” and to let my phone charge. I then made the 45-minute trek to the hostel and had one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life.
I walked down blocks and blocks of homeless people. Not only homeless people, but homeless people using needles and staggering into the street.
There truly must have been hundreds. It was like a scene in The Walking Dead. I felt so heartbroken for those people.
When I got to the hostel, I had to take an hour or so to catch my breath. I was in shock. Little did I know, I had just walked down ‘The Most Dangerous Street in Canada’ by myself.
Lesson learned the hard way, do better research. After my three scary cities, I decided to pay the extra money for a day-long tour. The next day, I hopped on a private bus to Whistler.
Stop 4: Whistler, B.C.
The bus ride was gorgeous in late September.
September 2023 - Whistler's village with the gorgeous autumnal reds and oranges.
Once I got to Whistler, I walked around the lovely mountain village and grabbed lunch. I then went to the Audain Art Museum and the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, which was one of the most interesting museums I have ever visited.
September 2023: Masks at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre.
On the way home back in Vancouver, it was past dark, and I was not going to walk past that certain street again. The bus driver was dropping off each person or couple at their hotel.
So, I asked him at the end to drop me off at my hostel. I am always amazed at the kindness of strangers. As the last person on the bus, he let me get on the microphone.
We had a good laugh. I think I said something like “I love Canada!” (I know, cringe, but what was I supposed to say?)
Travel Tips:
I like to read a book about the location while on the trip to help me learn and get a deeper understanding of the place. For this trip, I read Out Here by Andrew Ward.
I did this trip wrong. I think the PNW is best scene by car in a road trip that allows you to stop at the beautiful national parks instead of the inner-cities.
I would not recommend Portland, Seattle or Vancouver. However, Whistler is a dream destination!
I don’t love every trip I take. But I always learn a lot. I think it is better to go a bad trip than no trip at all.
