Vancouver Vancouver

Wandering along the beach looking out towards downtown Vancouver

Not quite the same ring to it as New York New York, but I couldn't think of a single cheesy movie or song title with Vancouver in it. Anyone?

So I made it to Canada! Only 15 days in this lovely country though, so I will have to return. I can't believe that I will be home in under 2 weeks. This trip has gone so fast!

So the bus trip from Seattle was fairly uneventful, and the customs incredibly easy. No trouble there at all. I had arranged for my friend Megan to meet me at the bus station, but when I got there she was no where to be seen. My bus had been half an hour late, but I figured she would have checked with one of the staff. After looking around and not seeing her, I gave her a call.

"I was there but I left after half an hour" she said. We must have missed each other by minutes. Apparently the staff wouldn't tell her if my bus had come in and so she decided to make her way back to her place in case I had decided to make my way there. She gave me some directions, and it was actually very simple to reach her.

She lives in a very cool suburb of Vancouver called Kitsilano in possibly one of the tiniest flats I have ever seen, so I was very grateful that she let me stay with her.

It was cool to hang out with her. We cooked some dinner and then the next day, as she had the day off, we went to an awesome coffee shop to hang out, drink coffee and play backgammon. Deciding that her backgammon board was too tiny and annoying to play on, we hit the thrift stores to try and replace it. Although we found the most gorgeous board, we decided that $20 was too much to spend, although she did buy another couple of games, and so wine and board games were the order of the day.

Hanging out with Megan

Vancouver is a beautiful city. Surrounded by water, there are lots of cool little hangouts. Granville Island is one of them. A cool food market overlooking downtown which sits on the other side of the water, it was great to sit and listen to buskers, and watch the world go by. One busker in particular caught my attention, as his voice was just awesome. Not being able to place who his voice sounded like, it wasn't til he played Paolo Nutini that he solved the mystery for me. I ended up buying a CD of his music and I'm very glad I did.

The fantastic busker Stephen Spender playing in Granville Island

The weather was lovely, and so I wandered along the beach, meandering my way back towards Megan's place and to a place called Kit's Beach near her flat.

I was supposed to meet up with a friend Trent whom I had met in the animal sanctuary in Bolivia. Megan had already expressed that she was looking forward to having the place to herself, and so when he had to postpone, I decided to go out anyway. Megan had told me of a cool arthouse cinema within walking distance to her, so off I trotted, and for a mere $7, I was treated to a double feature of two Canadian films I hadn't heard of, called "Chloe" and "The Necessities of life". Both were good, and so it was a good night, although it still would have been cool to hang out with Trent.

Next day, I finally left the sanctuary of Kitsilano and headed downtown, wandering around. Meeting up with Megan, a couple of her friends, and also Trent and a friend of his, we played pub quiz (oh how I've missed my weekly dose!) and it was an awesome night!

Quiz night with Megan, Trent and some of their friends

Today Megan and I had brunch, coffee and then I bade her farewell, and swapped to my hostel for one night before my Rockies tour tomorrow. I'm doing a four day tour before heading to Calgary to hang out with one last friend. And then that's it! The trip is so close to being finished!

But it isn't yet, and today I finished my time in Vancouver by hiring a bicycle and cycling through Stanley Park, one of the biggest urban parks in the world. It was very cool, and because it is situated on the water (like so much of Vancouver) it had some pretty beautiful views as well.

Hanging out with my bike
The Red Buddha and me
A beautiful lake inside Stanley park which is rapidly decreasing as the forest takes over

And so now I am almost going to go to bed at the extremely early time of 10pm. I haven't been sleeping well, so I am very excited to hopefully get a good night's sleep tonight. (edit: worst night's sleep ever! So loud, hot and uncomfortable)

Only a couple more travel blog entries left, and then back to boring mundanity. Well new mundanity, since I will be a student again in a few short weeks.

As per normal, photos to come once I get the time.