The internet in 2012 was nowhere near as convenient as it is today in 2024. I still remember when I took a cross-border bus from Seattle and entered Vancouver, my phone’s utility was limited to communication and nothing else. Back then, WiFi wasn’t as widespread as it is now; many public places, coffee shops, and restaurants didn’t offer free public WiFi hotspots. You really had to rely on your phone’s mobile network, but it wasn’t as easy to purchase data plans as it is now. Although I had unlimited data with T-Mobile in the U.S., I was left groping in the dark when I entered Vancouver, Canada. Without an internet connection, I had to rely entirely on the preparations I made beforehand.
What was left to do was to rely on maps and ask locals for directions. Offline maps weren’t as convenient as they are now either. Fortunately, Vancouver’s SkyTrain could take you to most popular attractions, and the rest could be covered by buses. When it came to buses, you had to pay close attention to whether you had reached your stop; this was something you had to manage on your own. Otherwise, there was a chance you might miss your stop or get off too early. After all, Google Maps wasn’t there to assist as comprehensively as it does now.
If you ask me how I managed to find this bus stop without Google Maps and then take a bus to Stanley Park, I honestly wouldn’t know how to answer. I vaguely remember finding instructions online about how to take the SkyTrain from Pacific Central Station to downtown and then transfer to a bus to Stanley Park. After that, it was all about relying on memory and the notes I had taken, searching and making my way there. It felt like an adventure, having some information but still facing the unknown. I couldn’t double-check anything online, and I couldn’t be sure if I was on the right track or if I had made a wrong turn.
If you ask me whether I still have the courage I had back then, I honestly can't say for sure. Nowadays, as long as your phone has battery and an internet connection, it's almost impossible to get lost or be unable to find information. But back then, things weren’t so convenient. I had to rely on maps for directions, and even for buses, I would have to look at the route maps and numbers on the map to find the right stop. I had to carry my backpack and use a phone without internet (at best, it had text and image backups of information I had looked up in advance), along with a physical map of Vancouver. Nowadays, no one would carry a physical map, let alone a map of an entire city. But I did it—I actually went around Vancouver alone for three days and two nights, and now that I think about it, I must have been pretty brave. It’s no wonder that when I returned to my teacher’s house in Seattle, they said I was really bold to go on such a trip by myself.
But I did meet some nice people who helped me out, whether it was the Taiwanese B&B owner or the local people I asked for directions. I didn’t encounter any dangerous situations, so I was quite fortunate to have successfully completed that trip.
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