First blog from Canada!
Seasons greetings and happy holidays to you all! Seems to be the general message around the traps of Vancouver.
So far it’s been a pretty sweet trip. The city is massive and it’s amazing. So let me run you though our first couple of days.
Rocked into Vancouver International fairing pretty well considering the 20hours in transit we just endured. Went through customs to get the visas organized and then we were out of the gates and exposed to our first Canadian experience. Hailed the first cab we could find and we were pumped for our first chance to converse with a Canadian national…only to be disappointed and encounter an Indian man who spoke through a very thick accent and could barely understand us. However, he gave us a fairly decent run down of the city. Was very strange to be driving on the other side of the road. Thought we saw some trams, but then realized that the buses run on electricity and off hanging cables.
Arrived at the hostel and it was bucketing down with rain. Checked in, had a shower and then hit the closest bar to have a skewie (which is conveniently located right next door to the hostel). Drank there for a while and had a feed (no one understands you when you say “I’ll just grab a feed thanks”). Then we moved onto another bar to mix it up. Found this great little sports bar that had a Canucks game on and we pulled up camp there for the next couple of hours. The service was awesome; they brought all the drinks over and even poured our beers. Guess they are working off tips after all. Found our local drop; the Canadian Molson brew. It’s a light amber ale and not too far off the taste of a nice Super Dry or something. Chatted away to some locals and internationals and found the spot to hit up on a Sunday night was the Roxy bar, which was just across the road. And to Winksy’s delight it was country night. Staggered over there and experienced a pretty interesting night chatting to locals and enjoying the festivities.
Woke up Monday morning feeling a bit proppy but thought the best way to overcome that was a nice walk around our new town. Set off in any random direction and just started walking. We walked around all of Downtown Vancouver for probably the next 2 hours and saw heaps. Walked past BC Stadium where the BC Lions play in the CFL and the Canucks home stadium. Cruised through Chinatown and then headed up Main St. Heard rumours on the way over here that East Vancouver is a bit of a sketchy area. Curiosity got the better of us so we headed for the area to see what the big deal was. Well we weren’t disappointed. This place was Crackville! Crazy bums, strange looking gangsters, crack heads, thieves, you name it. People talking to themselves and lots of people going through bins. Some old mate tried to sell us a shaver and razor blades, another guy looked at us like he wanted to shank us…ahh good times!
Got back from our walk and had another eventful night. Signed up for the pub crawl, which was run through the hostel. Thought it was a good way to see who was around the place. Little bit shattered when we realized that the dozen odd people standing in the lobby were all Aussies as well. Nonetheless it was a good night out.
Next couple of days pretty much followed the same routine. We were still adjusting to the time difference so most mornings were spent sleeping a little too much. Then in the day we would go walking round the city seeing things and getting stuff organized. Set up a bank account, organized our social insurance numbers, and have been house hunting feverishly. Went out of the city to check out this house that was advertised. Fair to say it was the biggest dump ever! Talk about false advertising.
And as the days followed a similar structure, so did the nights. Most times we hit a bar or club to immerse ourselves in the Canadian nightlife. Probably another reason why we weren’t getting up too early. Met some cool people and made a few local friends. The town is pretty good like that. best way to chill your beers is to leave them outside.
Andrew arrived late Xmas morning and it was a bit of a surprise to bump into him. We were coming back from a bar and we caught him in the lobby around 1am. In the morning we got up and went for the run round the city. Trying to evade the guilt of a weeks worth of over indulging. Ran to the waterfront and experienced our first white Xmas…well not technically. There wasn’t really snow as such, but there for sleet covering the bay. It was still pretty awesome. Got back from our run, had some lunch and then set up camp in the hostel lounge room for the remainder of the day/night. Was a little disappointing to be honest, kind of wish we had some better plans. But eventually things livened up and we got the party cranking. Now it’s Boxing Day over here and I’m chilling in our room. Still unable to really get up and front the cold outside.
Not sure WHAT we’re doing now. Trying to house hunt still, so hopefully that works out all good. Otherwise it’ll be a short trip.
Well that’ll do for now. Started off strong, but now getting over the typing.
