Travel Canada for $150!?

So it seems like my awkwardly random blog that has about as much purpose as my life might actually be metamorphosing into…a travel blog?

If you didn’t already know, it’s Canada’s sesquicentennial (mmm that beautiful sexy word) birthday this year! So VIA Rail, which by the way is this epic train that goes from Vancouver to Halifax, released 1867 tickets yesterday (I see what you did there, VIA Rail. Smooth move.) to travel unlimitedly for the entire month of July. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains

Yep, unlimited travel across Canada. For only $150. For just 1867 lucky individuals.

As you can imagine, chaos ensues.

Like, seriously, did they imagine that it wouldn’t be popular? Like we would think “Oh, explore our country from coast to coast for less than a couple hundred bucks? Nah, bro, I’m planning on having a summer fling with Netflix.”

No. What did happen was thousands of young hopefuls trying to buy tickets online, crashing servers and blocking phone lines.

Canada’s 150th anniversary?

More like Canada’s 150th Hunger Games.

I tried for 8 hours (yes, 8 long grueling hours) to grab one of these Golden Tickets. And there were times where I almost gave up:

4:20 pm – Oh, look! Tickets are back on sale! Better get ’em quick before they run out.

4:43 pm – *watches spinning loading wheel of death go round and round and round and round and round and round and-*

5:15 pm – Finally, the login page! Oh, oops, nope, the site crashed for the tenth time, gotta start from the beginning. *hysterical laughter turns into hysterical sobbing* 

6:33 pm – Website crashes. Lovely.

8:50 pm – A dent forms on my forehead from banging my head against the table for 4 hours. I may have a concussion.

10:12 pm – Sanity, slowly fading away into oblivion…

12:01 am –  One. Last. Try.

12:18 am – Tears run down my cheeks from the sheer beauty and elegance of the word “Confirmation.”

12:20 am – ALL. TICKETS. SOLD. OUT.

After all that time, I actually got tickets! I feel really bad for everyone who tried maybe even longer than me and ended up empty-handed. Luck finally came through for me.

So, anyways, I’m spending one month travelling this summer and I’ll be blogging my journey along the way! Canada, here I come! Oh wait, I’m already here. The rest of Canada, brace yourself!