Keep on surfin' - CANADA VLOG EP. 08

maxmschneider (51)in #dlive • 6 years ago (edited)

Wow! I'm blown away by the response to the Crowfunding! Thank you! Each and every one of you! I really appreciate you helping me out to bring the project Harrison to live!
If you want to join the family, here's the link: https://www.gofundme.com/Help-Harrison-The-Van

I slept in the van for a couple of days, right at the workshop to save up on some fuel. Otherwise it would have been about 60km of transit every day. Also I had the feeling it was time for me to move out of my friend's place. Seven weeks I've been there and it's been enough. Even if they told me I could stay, I kind of needed to move. So I did, right where I spend the most time of my days anyways. This is how dedication works. I did not have a shower in that time, but a sink where I could wash myself in. It's enough.

Getting on with the conversion, I finally got to put some walls. Not an easy task to be honest. Inside this van there is no straight wall at all, so I had to use 1/4 inch plywood to be able to bend it a bit and build a window frame to get the wall somehow straight. Accidentally the frame turned out to work as a window sill with a small ledge. So I can place stuff in the window without being scared of it to fall out. I might get a bonsai or so. We will see.

After the walls were in, it was time to put a ceiling. Instead of plywood I decided to use pine wood panels. It looks nice and gives the inside a chalet kind of look. As soon as I had the first panels in I also put the lights. Got the quite cheap from that electronics store called Addison. Love that place. It's a wonderland for engineers with a nerdy attitude like me. So yeah, cut and strip the wires, crimp connectors and wire it all up. Finally I don't need to use my headlamp, which ran out of battery...

But as far as I got, I realized that I am actually on travel and I haven't seen much of Montreal yet. Since my conversion budget is running out anyways and I need to wait for the crowdfunding money to arrive in order to go on, taking a break from the conversion seems like the appropriate move here. So I got back into the city. My choice of accommodation for that is definitely Couchsurfing. Not only people let you stay at their place for free, you also get to spend time with them. The value of this is way bigger than any hostel, hotel or Airbnb. Getting to hang out with locals to get to know their perspective of the city and seeing the way they live life. This is how you really see the city how it is.

My host told me that the Mont-Royal Street had the street festival this weekend. I can't really describe what goes on here, you better check it out in the video to get an idea. But basically every single shop took his sale upfront to the street. Everyone was there, just roaming the streets, trying food and scrabbling about records, books and other articles in the street shops. I also might have found the smallest coffee shop in Montreal, under a staircase, just big enough to fit a person and a barista coffee machine.

After being right in the crowd for almost all of the day, I needed to rest. There was this place I wanted to go anyways, by the basin, with the Farine Five Roses on the other side. No one was here, just me. The sun was about to set when I arrived. I sat down on a bench and just watched how the day faded into the night. Just being in the moment observing your surroundings is something I haven't done for quite some time. This feels just great.