Sunday, 16 August 2015

Vancouver

Our first three days in Canada we spent in Vancouver.

Day one was our arrival day.  I had arrived earlier in the day at 8am.  It was too early to check in to our hostel but I was able to have a shower and rest for a couple of hours before I went back to meet Rosie.  The airport had cameras showing the arriving passengers so I was able to sit down and watch for Rosie.  I was a bit worried when she text me to say she had been making jokes at immigration but she still made it through.  There was one false alarm when I thought a man on the screen with a backpack was Rosie, it wasn't, but soon after she had arrived. The travel buddies are reunited!

We took the train together back to the city and then walked a kilometre to the hostel.  It was much easier the second time with only one heavy backpack between us and because I already knew the way.  I was also able to tell Ros all about the hostel and how clean it was - very important info.

After Rosie had showered off the travelling dirt, we managed to zombie walk to the supermarket in the evening for some supplies before we succumbed to jet lag at 8pm.  We were proud of lasting so long.

On day two we were up early and after breakfast at the hostel we set out to explore the city a little. We were still both very jetlagged, but in opposite directions, so usually at least one us could keep our eyes open!
It was Saturday and the city was very busy with lots going on.  We accidentally walked through a film set and then almost ended up at the runner's brunch at the end of a race that was going on. This could have been because I was wearing my pink trainers and running jacket.  We managed to escape the crowd of runners before we were forced to eat some waffles.  Instead, we walked along the water to Stanley Park. We stopped to watch the sea planes landing for a while on the way.  We took some videos to send to Dad.






In the park we got asked to take part in a documentary about dating and social media. We declined - we were not in a camera ready state at all! The day was very cloudy but there were still some nice views around. We walked all around the park and then cut back to the city via Beaver Pond when we got tired. No beavers were spotted. We did see something flapping around in the ocean earlier on our walk. We couldn't decide if it was a seal, a really big fish or a sea monster so we decided on sea monster.





Our next day in Vancouver was also quite relaxed. We did a bit more walking along some of the beaches with great views of the city and the ships in the harbour, but we didn't want to overdo it as we will be starting our serious hikes tomorrow. The sun came out and it was blue skies for most of the day after two days of cloudiness. I had plenty of sunscreen on because I had not been careful with the clouds the day before and had gotten cloud-burn. I underestimated the Canadian sun.





When we got too hot and our legs were sore we stopped for lunch in the shade at a beachside restaurant.  Rosie had a giant burger and I had fish tacos.  We decided to treat ourselves because it'll be camp food starting from tomorrow! Our jet lag is fading away slowly and hopefully we'll be able to sleep normally tonight.




We spent the rest of the afternoon organising our stuff for tomorrow, when we will collect the van and start the road trip adventure.



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