Hello my little chipmunks,
I apologise for the belatedness of the update, but unfortunately I've been having far too much fun to stop and tell you about it!
I met up with Sarah at the Vancouver airport and we trundled off to the hostel in downtown Vancouver. We were feeling pretty excited that we were at the beginning of an AWESOME girls' week, and we had really no idea of what we were going to do with it. The people on the bus were, as always, very friendly and the bus driver even stopped off at a street convenient for us which he doesn't normally stop at.
We unpacked some of our stuff and stepped out into the friendly metropolis. It has a very Melbourne feel, but much cooler than Toronto. You do always instantly pick up a feel for a city, and for both Sare and I, it was a homely, friendly and very cool vibe.
We cruised around downtown, walking the streets and not doing a whole lot. Sarah is a very BAD influence, and I mentioned I was thinking of getting a rook done, and next thing I knew, it was done. And if you don't know what a rook is, bahaha, see if you can figure it out.
So we continued on, looking around the streets, and came across Robson St, almost like Bridge Rd. By this time it was night, and it was really pretty with the fairy lights in the trees, the people bustling in and out of shops that were open till late (it was a Saturday night). One guy did the most amazing balloons - Homer Simpson, Elmo, and other characters that looked ace. I told one kid that he had the coolest balloon, and my did he puff his chest up with pride!
We retired reasonably early, we didn't want to push Sarah's jet lag too much, so we took some hair dye and a few bacardi breezers to help us get through the night. Sare had about two drinks and was almost written off! Lightweight.
The next morning we got up and walked into Stanley Park and to the aquarium. Stanley Park is pretty, but you know, a park. Nothing to really report there. The aquarium was completely awesome, I finally got to see belugas and a couple of sloths. The belugas had a show and so did the Pacific white-sided dolphins, which was reasonably fun to watch, but also sad to see the degradation of these beautiful, intelligent creatures, reduced to following their trainers' instructions for morsels of fish. Although you are consoled by the fact that most of these cetaceans have been rescued from fishing nets and the like, it still is sad to know see these animals in small tanks with a couple of companions, when naturally they exist in large, socially intricate pods with an almost infinite amount of space. Pout.
Anyway, this part of the afternoon started to get a little frustrating, as Sarah's camera stopped focusing and my battery died. Normally I carry a spare battery, but for some reason, it wasn't in my bag (incoherent grumbling). So, we relied on Sarah's camera phone, which, at 3.2 megapixels, did the job quite nicely.
Got to see a sea turtle (he was like, a hundred and fifty years old! [not really]), some very interesting stellar sea lions (one of the females was chasing her tail (bahaha) and the male came up really damn close and snorted water at us), and an albino Californian sea cucumber which was cool on two levels
a) anything that is albino is automatically cool. Except rabbits.
b) largest sea cucumber in the world. It is MASSIVE!
Sigh. We trundled around, looking at the different animals and exhibits, enjoying ourselves immensely. I was stoked that I got to see a two-toed sloth. No, he didn't do anything, but I was happy.
We finally gave in to the lack of photographic ability and headed home. My feet were pretty tired because we'd been walking around for about 5-6 hours, so I was somewhat grateful for this. As we returned, we met a Kiwi who sounded almost Australian, and ended up talking to him for freaking ages!! Johnny is from Auckland and does mountain climbing for a living. He's just come from Antarctica and he's about to go to Alaska. Just when I think I have an awesome life, somebody else comes along and shatters my conceptions! Bastard.
Anyway, we ended up going out with Johnny and having a ball of a time. We went out for coffee (and were told by a couple of 20 year olds that that was 'wimpy'. Yes sweetheart, that's why you're 20 and I'm 26. He didn't quite know what to say to that!) and ended up having dinner and drinks. I really hate $4 cocktails. Terrible.
Okay, but what was really terrible was a cocktail called a caesar. It contains, amongst other things, clamato juice. Yep - clam + tomato juice. The most revolting thing that I could possibly thing of. Kind of like a really revolting Bloody Mary, lined with pepper and gross.
A sip of a Caesar goes like this: frown at drink, screw face up and take a deep breath. Take a mouthful and pause for about a second. Screw face up in sheer horror and recoil at your stupidity. Look around for something else to wash down the gross. Scull whatever you can find, still screwing up your face. Realise that people are laughing at you and wave them away. Please leave me alone with my stupidity and taste of yuk in my mouth. Scull more of your drink and swear never, EVER to touch it again. Never, ever touch it again, unless your name is Sarah and Johnny and you stupidly decide to try it again.
Ah, good times. Great classic hits. Gold 104.
We stayed out for a while, went to a different bar and had some really nice cocktails to make up for the caesar (bleh). A nice bar/pub, complete with Chevelle/Staind/Pearl Jam kinda tunes. I love you Canada.
Got home and had some awesome hot chocolate, and ended up talking to a couple of guys, one from America (sooky-la and wanker) and one from Canada (awesome). We were up until about 2am, chatting in the kitchen of the hostel and just exchanging travel stories.
This post seems to keep going and going, and people are discussing dinner, so I think that I'll post about today when I get back.
So, to sum up:
* Vancouver is cool
* We met a guy called Johnny from NZ, who is awesome
* Never, ever, ever have a cocktail called a caesar
* It is really warm here.
I appreciate that I added information in the summary, but you'll get over it. It's like, 9 degrees. IT'S POSITIVE!!!! OMJ!!! It even rained today.
But, until next time!
Mwah.
Vancouver photos
