The rain persisted until Friday so we found lots of indoor things to do including visiting the Museum of Anthropology and an art exhibition at the Chinese Cultural Centre (both are free on a Tuesday). We saw a play about recent politics in the Phillipines called Dogeaters, which was put on by local students and was really well acted. After exhausting all the cheap indoor touristy things (including playing pool at a seedy downtown pool hall) we donned our anoraks and walked around downtown to get a better idea of the city. My anorak is from the Salvation Army, I'm convinced an old woman died wearing it, however it was in budget and fit quite well...! on Thursday we stayed in a downtown hostel and went out to some bars and ended up at the cinema at a comedy where we laughed at all the opposite things to everyone else in the cinema - humour is clearly influenced by nationality!
I got my hair cut and found myself sat next to a hunter discussing how he'd caught and quartered a bear the day before. I also learned it takes a whole round of ammunition to 'bring down a Grizzly'.
On Friday it stopped raining!! We hired bikes and cycled around Stanley Park and had lunch at the top of a hill overlooking Lions Gate Bridge. Jo had a fancy mountain bike, I got one with a nice basket on the front but next to no suspension - I also managed to fall off it 15 minutes after setting off by not changing gears when going uphill. This meant I fell off backwards downhill, bruising my pride more than myself. I'm clearly not cut out to be the outdoorsy type!
That night we went to watch an ice hockey game and got quite caught up in it - our guys (the Thunderbirds) won in extra time. Jo refused to have her photo taken with the mascot.
We are now on Vancouver Island with Angie, Murray and Gillie about to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner (different to American Thanksgiving, more like English harvest festival). The sun came out today and we can see the mountains and a glacier from Gillie's house.
Today is the first day since we arrived that we haven't been asked if we are Canadian. We've also been stopped and asked directions a lot - we think it's the anoraks making us look like locals.
Also - don't ask for a cagoule here, they don't know what it means and it's a word very similar to something here that you wouldn't ask for...
