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
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