Wow, what an amazing few days! I have been absolutely flat out and haven’t really had time to update. It makes a difference having somebody else to share time with – unfortunately for you (and perhaps my future memories) at nights I have been socialising with Sare instead of updating my journal.
Okay, I have much to tell, so I think I might split it up into a few segments to make it a bit more manageable. So….on….shit. Insert day here. Tuesday? Let’s say Tuesday. So on Tuesday, Sare and I went on a walking tour of Vancouver, and walked around for about 8 hours or so. That’s enough walking to make even me bloody tired.
We struck first for Canada Place, which turned out to just be a kind of a look out with a few shops inside. Saw some Canada geese, which was noisy. We also saw a line of little duckies that were heading for shore, then the leaders changed their mind and doubled back. But unfortunately, no ensuing chaos. Talk about disappointing. The other ducks just did 180s as well and continued on their merry little way. If only we were that organised. Maybe if I started calling him Snuffy Duck…..
After taking a few scenic shots we headed towards Gastown, a pretty area of Vancouver. On our way I witnessed one of the most kind and generous acts I have ever seen. Sare gave a homeless man 10 quid. That’s roughly $20. He asked for money and that was all she had. She just handed it over. You should have seen how grateful this man was. It really did leave us with a warm fuzzy. I am still in shock for her kindness. Gosh knows there is no WAY I would have done that.
So we moved along to Gastown and walked along the streets, taking a few shots and heading into souvenir shops. Saw the ironically electrically powered steam-clock, and eventually headed into Chinatown. In Chinatown we found the stunningly beautiful Dr. Yen Sat park, which consisted of two gardens – one that was free, the other that cost $10. Apparently the fee-paying garden is unbelievably beautiful, but Sare and I were so impressed with the free one that we didn’t bother.
It was a beautifully tranquil garden comprised of coi-fish ponds and gorgeous trees that unfortunately my limited botanical knowledge prevents me from describing. Their branches hung lazily over the pond, basking in the sun that was beaming down warmly bathing our faces and even allowed us to roll up our sleeves. There was even a small turtle perched on a rock like a Tawny Frogmouth. Sarah and I lingered here for a while, enjoying the sun and the peace (ah, the serenity!).
From here we walked to Granville Island. Those of you familiar with Vancouver may begin to appreciate just how much bloody walking we did! Granville Island is like a big market, littered with small shops and attractions that you could walk around for hours. We only spent a couple of hours here, we are hoping to get back there on the weekend. Probably the most fun we had was in the kids market (where else?). We stuffed around with some hand puppets for a while, including a Lamb Chops one, which made me laugh a little. We also went into a store called Dragonspace, full of ornaments, crystals, books, and spoke to the shop attendant for about half an hour. There was a small section dedicated to Brian Froud (if you don’t know who this is, smack yourself then look him up), and found out about a festival they hold in Ohio in his honour. They essentially all dress up in his creations and party on. Geeky? Yes. Cool? Absolutely! He even gave us some signed cards from Brian. AWESOME.
We left at dusk, witnessing a beautiful sunset over the bridge, and headed back to the hostel. I can’t remember what we did that night, but I’m sure it was cool.
The next day we headed out to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Is it a rip off? Sure is. Is it cool? Sure is. It is strung up at a ridiculous height which made it quite uncomfortable for me. We were exhausted from the day before’s long walk around Vancouver, and this made it especially difficult for me to not be scared at the ridiculous height I was at. It is very safe, but unfortunately for my nerves it swayed an AWFUL lot in the wind. Sare thought this was fantastic, but I can’t say that I really agreed with her. Nonetheless, I pressed on and walked stiffly, gripping the hand rail and breathing a sigh of relief when I got across to the other side. The views were absolutely beautiful, but I was a little too tense to really appreciate them.
We walked around the hiking trails for about an hour, including the 100ft high tree bridges, which I subjected myself to. It’s a good thing I’m not crazy. Beautiful views – amazingly tall moss-and-lichen-covered trees which craned your neck to an almost impossible angle. Some were young, some were quite old (a couple of hundred years?). Gorgeous little rock spattered creeks trickled through these trees, with the odd pond or two. We didn’t stay too long, as it was several degrees cooler than Vancouver and unfortunately I’ve acclimatised to the warmth.
We headed back in with the intention of visiting the Museum of Anthropology, but I ended up having a nap and Sarah got her hair cut, so we unfortunately missed that. We did get to check out the Public Library, which was quite unique. From my perspective it appeared to be modelled on Roma’s Colosseum, and was stunningly beautiful. There was a couple of people gracefully performing acrobatics-on-string from a few floors up on the outside of the library walls. It was calming to watch, until Sarah made me think of being that high up. Bleh. Anyway, upon entering the library, you are met with a string of shops and cafes, which I found confusing. You had to walk further inside the building to get to the books, the 7 or so floors of them. We perused them for a while, but then headed home.
I had planned to get a good night’s sleep on this night, because we were going out to Vancouver Island the next day, but unfortunately for my sleeping patterns there was 5 episodes of CSI: Miami on in a row. H wins out over sleep. I love you H. And Eric. And the rest of the cast. So when that finally wrapped up at about 1am, I headed downstairs to find out the quickest and cheapest way of getting to Victoria (Vancouver Island). Turns out we actually had to get up at about 6:45am. Now, this information would make a normal person go to bed, wouldn’t it? One day Dad, I might be normal. One day. *snorts*
So the guy at the front desk compliments me on my completely awesome new t-shirt that was just made for me. Literally. Sarah and I walked into a place that prints t-shirts, and one of the designs has a pair of the stereotypical thick-rimmed nerd glasses (complete with duct tape holding them together) and the caption ‘Talk nerdy to me’. See? Made for me. So I had that done and hence the guy told me my shirt was awesome.
So two hours and maths/conspiracy theories/Israeli-Palestinian crisis debates later, I decided that I should probably go to bed because I had to get up in four hours.
Okay, I will give you a breather. Vancouver Island coming up.
More Vancouver photos
Capilano photos
