Getting ready to travel

In an effort to start getting things together for my trip in June I aired out my tent and sleeping bag this morning, then made my way into the city centre to look for a pair of shoes. For the past few months I have only had my Blundstone boots, but as great as they are, they just won't cut it for travelling in the summer. I had a pair of shoes with me when I left Canada, but I managed to wear right through them last summer. I checked out a few shops off Princes Street with little appealing to me. I was down to the last shop and decided I had to get something from there. I found a few that looked alright, but was having a bit of trouble sorting out the sizes. I told the guy I wore a 13 US, which immediately triggered his question, "Is that where you're from?" I told him I was from Canada, and he replied with, "Oh, good! What part?" It turns out that his wife is Canadian and he just spent the past 18 months living in Vancouver, in the Kits area, while working at Valhalla Pure on Broadway. He was asking me what I was doing living over here when I could be back in Vancouver, saying that he and his wife are going to move back to settle down for good at the end of this year. We ended up talking for almost an hour while I tried on numerous shoes playing Cinderella, trying to find a pair that fit, and I found it pretty funny to hear the stuff that he mentioned that he missed, namely sushi and mountains. These are definitely at the top of my list and it was great to see that I'm alone with on these opinions. I eventually found a pair of North Face approach shoes, overpaid, and left to wander around town for the afternoon thinking about how truly nice Vancouver actually is.