En route to Vancouver via LA and Dallas 28/02/07

Well I have made it to Vancouver safely, but it wasn't a short trip! Ithink with those round-the-world tickets they try to create a routethat is the least direct possible! In my case it was LA, then DALLAS(!!! not in the right direction at all!) then Vancouver.My time in LA was quite cool, although I hadn't really slept on theplane (too many good movies!!) so I was quite wasted. We were also an hour late because there were delays at Auckland airport, so that shaved an hour off what was already going to be a fleeting afternoon in LA.

I managed to get to my salubrious accommodation "The Orbit Hotel" on Melrose Ave, Hollywood (home of "Melrose Place", no sightings of hot Jake though). Can recommend Prime Time shuttles and Coast to Coast shuttles for getting to and from LAX. The Orbit is pretty OK, you can't beat the location and it was clean. It is also US$20 per night (my inner stinge was delighted).

The first thing that I spied when I stepped out on the sidewalk (oh I am so adaptive to local lingo) was a dwarf!!! I guess they have lots of workin LA what with all the little people roles. I was in a dorm with some nice randoms from Scotland and Japan. Pretty much as soon as I got there though, I decided to take the local bus to Hollywood Boulevard. I found out later that none of the other backpackers have been able towork out the local bus system, so I felt quite proud. It did make nosense whatsoever. Great looking at the freaks and geeks on the bus,you definitely knew you were in LA. The routes were also a bit messedup because they had cordoned off lots of H'wood Boulevard in order totake down all the Oscars stuff (the Oscars had been the day before, gutted my trip didn't coincide, then again I think all I would haveseen was the back of lots of fanatical fans' heads!).

When I got there I checked out the Hollywood walk of fame (The Hoff and "Anne Shirley" were stand-out favourites), Grauman's Chinese theatre (my Havaiana jandalled foot was quite a contrast to Marilyn Monroe's footprint in the concrete outside) and the Kodak theatre where they hold the Oscars. Then I had the best slice of pizza in my life at Greco's Pizzeria.Part of the goodness was that it was about the size of 10 slices ofNZ-size pizza. Delicioso.

Then managed to catch the bus back again.When I tried to give the African American bus driver my day passticket (duh, it is a ticket for the whole day) he said "No baby,that's your ticket to ride!" then he proceeded to lauch into (in avery raspy authentic voice) "She's got a ticket to ri-ide..." whichwent on for some time. Next thing I know the crazy looney 2 seats behind me who's been reading the captions aloud off the news monitor at the front of the bus pulls out his harmonica and starts playing along. And all the hispanic housewives with their groceries were allsmiling creepily. Go LA!

After another long couple of flights the next day (Dallas airport was nice and lots of shops, if only it wasn't kindof frustrating to be in Dallas, no closer to Vancouver than when I started!) Aaron picked me up at Vancouver airport. I got my working visa no worries - I definitely think saying that I was a lawyer before coming here worked in myfavour. They must realise all lawyers are trustworthy and ethical.

The drive through the night lights of Vancouver was amazing. Aaron andSarah's apartment where I am staying is right in the centre of the CBD. There is also a gym in the building which I guess might be a possibility for Inca trail training. Then again who am I kidding, this is me.We went to their local "Cardero's" last night for Granville Island honey lagers and fresh salmon. Delish. I got pretty tiddly and Aaronand I rehashed all the MERW goss for quite a while!

The view from the apartment this morning is amazing - misty mountains(3 really close skifields, although we are going to hold out and drive1 1/2 hours north in a few weekends' time to check out Whistler) and sparkly harbour on one side, and skyscrapers on the other. V. cool. Am excited about going out exploring once I get out of my jamies. I also have an 80's night, dinner and "The Producers", then Japanese dinna on the social agenda for this Thurs-Fri-Sat this weekend, so I don't think my time here is going to be dull, no dowt abowt it!

Vancouver - 13/03/07

Hi everyone

Well I am still in the same place but thought I would give an update since I have been such a committed sightseer. Just delete if its all a bit much!

Vancouver is such a cool city, it is just coming into spring so it is nippy and there is still snow on the hills for skiing, but there is blossom everywhere and we've even had a couple of warm days. I can imagine how nice it must be in summer - there are wee beaches all over the place.

The first week that I was here I did a lot of walking - hopefully good practice for the Inca trail. I stayed with Aaron Sherriff my old workmate from MERW and his wife Sarah who live in an appartment in downtown Vancouver, about 5 or so blocks from the very centre of town. I walked round the seawall and explored a very small bit of Stanley Park which is this MASSIVE park which takes up a whole peninsula and is full of fitness freak Canadians running and walking etc. I can
definitely recommend the acquarium in Stanley Park, there were snakes,caimans (llike crocs), dolphins, a sea lion, beavers, Beluga whales(my favourite - fascinating, even for a non animal lover like me!) and a simulated rain forest. Very cool. I ended up staying there for 3 hours.

I also had a look around Gas Town which is the old section of
Vancouver. It is named after Gassy Jack Deighton, a guy who rowed up in his canoe in 1865, rolled a keg of whiskey ashore and set up a pub on the spot. Gassy because he talked a lot. The landmarks there (a steam clock and a statue of Gassy Jack) are not nearly as interesting though as the crazy homeless ("panhandlers") who frequent the area.

From Gas Town you can cross over into China Town which is just
slightly south. I went to Dr Sun Yat-Sen's classical chinese garden
there and nearly froze but all very pretty etc etc, and visited the
Sam Kee building which is only 1.8 m long and is in the Guiness Book of Records. He bought a normal size piece of land in 1906 but then then Canadian govt requisitioned back all but 1.8 m of it so he built a building only that wide to piss them off.

My first weekend in Vancouver was fun. One of the highlights was going to Granville Island with Sarah, my old friend Justine from Uni who is an engineer in Vancouver, and Jean, Geoff's old flatmate who is an accountant here. Grraville Island isn't actually an island, its an area under the Granville bridge which has lots of artsy shops and studios and theatres, an art school a concrete factory (random), and the public market. One way to get there is to pay $2.50 for a wee "bath tub boat", I did this when I went back yesterday. The coolest part of Granville Island for foodies is the public market where there are heaps of food stalls and all sorts of interesting stuff. The first time we went we tried "perogies" which are polish dumplings served with fried onions, sour cream and sauerkraut. They were a good stodgy
base for sampling the beers at the Granville brewery. Yesterday when I went back to Granville Island I got some Cognac Pate, delish.

One of the coolest things I have done here is snow shoeing up Mount
Seymour which is about 20 mins north of Vancouver, There are 3 of
these local mountains - Cypress and Grouse are the other two. You can do nightskiing at each of them, and a lot of the events in the 2010 Olympics are going to be held there. Anyway, snow shoeing....a couple of myths were definitely busted! 1. Snow shoeing is not a Nana sport, 2. Snow shoeing is not always on the flat, 3. I can't think of a third but it was bloody hard work. Again, good practice for Machu Pichu. Oh! That was the third one - snow shoes don't look like tennis rackets anymore. You can totally pivot your foot and you get quite used to walking semi normally in them, until you are exhausted and get clumsy again. It was definitely a good idea to have Garry our guide because
he took us off the trails and up these crazy hills, sliding down these amazing natural snow slides and walking down through quite thickly forested bits.

The next week I went to stay with Jussie who lives in a story book
looking house across the Granville bridge on the other Island. It is still strictly speaking central Vancouver, just outer central. Jussie used to live downtown near Davie Street which is the gay gay gay area!! The rubbish bins and bus stops are pink. Very laid back though - when I was there yesterday I reckon I saw 3 out of 4 members of the Village People at the local Starbucks. Anyway, Justine plied me with Okanagan cider one night and Bellinis another night (and just quietly, they have an interesting concoction here - frozen white rum, bubbles and peach schnaps, floating in sangria!!).

During the days I checked out the sights in the area - the University of British Columbia which is the size of Temuka I reckon, it backs onto "Wrecks beach" which is a nudist beach in summer but definitely a bit chilly for it at the moment. Walking along it in pointy boots is not recommended. I walked along there checking out the surfers (brr),stoners, first year Uni students and "artists" ( I will give them the benefit of the doubt and call them that rather than homeless/lunatics - they were making some interesting log piles/sculptures...). From there I went to the Museum of Anthropology, and saw probably enough totem poles to last me a few years. I tagged along with the little old
ladies who run tours there, but they were more along the lines of
"look at the pretty masks" rather than telling you anything much about the First Nations which is what they call the injuns here. One interesting fact was that the government banned Indian stuff like potlaches (big festivals with pressies) in 1884 and it wasn't lifted until the 50's. So at that point lots of little old men who were the only ones who remembered anything by then had to come out of retirement and start dancing and carving and stuff!

Another night Jussie and I went to Commercial Drive which you can get to on the Sky Train and is an area where you could basically pick any country or type of cuisine and find a place serving it. We had "Poutine" a Quebecois speciality of fries and cheese curd (like chewy cream cheese) drowned in gravy. It was a good foil for potent Quebecois beer! Then we had dinner at a Mexi restaurant where I decided to try out my Espagnol. Not sure it went down that well really.

The weekend just been Aaron Sarah, Jean and her boyfriend Si and I
went to Whistler for some skiing/boarding. Had a great time, pretty
crazy snowy weather and the one black run I did nearly killed me but overall very fun. The next morning at greasy fry up brekkie at a cafe, the Tennis Club, Richard Branson rocked up randomly and proceeded to play tennis (in his jeans and shirt and wooly jersey!) in the fishbowl type tennis courts attached to the cafe. He was pretty good.

So I'm having a fab time! Some other random observations are that the sushi here is realy good and the birds are really big. Aaron and I are off to see the Vancouver Canucks play the Minnesota Wild at Ice Hockey tonight (they are big rivals but unfortunately apparently not much biffo between them usually). Then Justine and I are off to Seattle this weekend, will keep eyes peeled for McDreamy.

Hard to believe that in 2 weeks Geoff and I will be in Buenos Aires!

Julie. xo