Downtown Vancouver

It was a wonderfully sunny day, so I went into Downtown Vancouver. The general plan was to see some of the many interesting examples of public art that can be found all over the place.

I started at English Bay beach, which had many visitors due to the weather.

I then proceeded along the shoreline opposite Granville Island.

As usual I got hungry, so I decided to traverse northwards through downtown to a bistro I had visited on my first day in Vancouver.

It was really great chilling here, looking out at the North Shore, while munching on a delicious sandwich, and swigging some ale! Here is a short video clip for your viewing pleasure.

I finally caught the bus back to my place, and noticed this while waiting for its arrival.

Millstream Trail

A couple of miles north of where I live in West Vancouver I discovered the Millstream Trail. It's not a long trail, but does go through a really great wooded area. Furthermore, the walk to the trail was awesome, but for completely different reasons. Finally, to top it off, the trail comes out at a great spot overlooking the whole of Vancouver! But let's start at the beginning; about 2 walking minutes north of my place is Highway 1, and just beyond it is the neighbourhood known as "British Properties"

The houses in this residential area are just amazing. If I had mountains of cash and wanted to move to Canada on a permanent basis, I'd want to live here for sure!

Not only are the houses awesome, but the view of Vancouver you would have from your window is staggering! I doubt it would ever get boring.

So, after an hour of admiring the homes of Vancouver's ridiculously rich I came to the trail in question. In case you want to know, the trail starts at the intersection of Millstream Road and Eyremount Drive.

The trail begins to the right of this signpost, just beyond the house you can see in the background.

A few days before I took this walk there had been a lot of snow, and the trail was still covered in it. Also, the streams were partly frozen. I'm glad I chose a warm day to do this one.

I was actually pleased when I read the warning sign for the trail. The line "This property is presently an undeveloped wilderness in its natural state" was exactly what I wanted. I just hope areas like this stay the way they are.

That said, I was a little dismayed when I came across an obstacle to my journey. I called this obstacle "The Fail Bridge". The bridge across a small stream had collapsed and been taped off.

However, this did not stop me, and I found a way across the stream a few metres up from the bridge. Fail bridge failed again, ha! So I continued on the trail and was happy to find that the other bridges had not gone the same way as the first.

As mentioned before the trail ended at a great little spot overlooking Vancouver called the "Hi-view Lookout". The view was amazing, and you could see for miles and miles!

In this pic (from top to bottom) is the sky, Vancouver, Downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park, the Burrard Inlet, West Vancouver and some trees. You can also see Vancouver Island from this point, but the sun was in that direction, and I doubt any photos would have come out very well even if it hadn't been.

So after some time admiring the view I set off back along the trail and home, where I ate straight away as I stupidly didn't think to pack a lunch and was rather peckish by the time I got back.

West Vancouver Seawall

Today I went for a stroll along the "West Vancouver Seawall". It was late afternoon, and the sun was beginning to creep towards the horizon. This and the looming clouds gave me some pretty good pics in my opinion.

The walk isn't particularly long (10 blocks), so leaving late wasn't a problem. I knew what time it was due to this being at the start of the walk.

A few minutes in and I stopped at a pier, and met Bob. He also seemed to be enjoying the view.

At another pier and I meet Bob's bro Terry.

At the end of the walk I was surprised to find this interesting feature. It is simply entitled "German Friendship Globe".

However, the most surprising thing about this is that the globe is slowly rotating! Very cool.

As usual you can view more photos by following the associated pics link on the right.

Beaver Lake

The other day I was going to visit horseshoe bay, but I missed my bus and didn't really have time to get the next one as I was going to an ice hockey game that evening (more about that in the next post). Anyway, I decided that it was too nice a day to waste it, so I made my second venture over to Stanley Park.

Last time I voyaged over there I hadn't really planned it, so there were features that I missed which I wanted to see this time round; the main one being Beaver Lake. After ambling around the general area of it's location (I hadn't brought a map with me), I finally found it.

It was getting fairly late in the day and the sun had started to set. This meant that the lake came across as being rather eerie. This was exacerbated by the fact that there was hardly anyone around at the time. I quite like the atmosphere of the photos that I took.

I then headed south through Stanley Park towards Vancouver's Downtown area where I was to meet the SWAP group for the ice hockey, and came across a statue of the park's namesake and an awesome view of the dusk cityscape.

"To the use and enjoyment of peoples of all colours, creeds, and customs, for all time, I name thee Stanley Park."
Lord Stanley, Governor General, October 1889

Guided Tour

This video is a short guided tour of the shared house that I'm staying at in West Vancouver. As usual you can either:

1. View the video on this page.
2. View or download the higher quality version here.
3. View any of the previous videos here.

Arrival Video

Sorry it's taken so long to get this video together; there were some technical issues. Anyway, this is a music video of my arrival to Canada.

You can either:

1. View the video on this page.
2. View or download the higher quality version here.
3. View any of the previous videos here.

Enjoy!

Arrival!

Finally sorted out a new laptop, so here is my first blog post from Canada!

It has been a very hectic week, as you can imagine. The flight wasn't as gruelling as I originally thought it would be, and the other BUNAC travellers were very friendly, but the in-flight entertainment was a bit rubbish. The movies themselves weren't that bad (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Sneakers), but the problem was that the screens were shared, and I was quite far away from mine. Anyway, after 10 hours, and a few questionable airline meals later, we arrived in Vancouver.

From the airport we made our way to the hostel in Downtown Vancouver, and got settled. Seeing as it was only early afternoon a group of us went out into Vancouver and wandered down to the waterfront. All the way down the street, and then more clearly when we reached the end could be seen the mountains to the north. A very strange sight when you are used to the London backdrop. We stopped at a bar and had a drink (had to be done), where we came upon a very nice dog who just wanted to play frisbee, and it really didn't care who threw it, anybody who came near was fair game. That evening we all went out for a meal, but it took forever to find a place that everyone wanted to eat at (there were 11 of us).

Sleeping over the week has been a bit off, the jet lag has almost gone now, but I'm still finding that I'm waking up way too early. On the first night I woke up at 3 (understandable I guess seeing as we went to bed at a little after 8).

Day 2 was orientation, which involved going to a presentation at the SWAP offices (SWAP being Canada's equivalent to BUNAC). Here they told us about how things work in Canada (like their culture of tipping for everything), and applying for a social security number etc. After the presentation I tried to use their computers, but they are either ancient or dying, so I couldn't do much more than check for jobs and accommodation. A smaller group of us went out for steak meal that evening at a place called "The Keg". The service was excellent, and it's the first time I've had a steak where I didn't have to eat around huge amounts of fat and bone.

Since then it has been a lot of wandering around Vancouver, handing out my résumé to various places and sorting out somewhere to live. I could have stayed at the hostel for longer, but it wasn't fun sharing a room with 3 complete strangers, especially when one snored like a freight train, and threw up on my bag one night. So I was glad to move out, and into a shared rented house in West Vancouver. The place is in a particularly pleasant area, and for the price is very reasonable.

So far Vancouver has been great. The people are friendly and the views are amazing. Now back to sorting out some money to check out the rest of this beautiful country!

The Night Before The Morning After

Tomorrow's the big day! Canada! Awesome! It doesn't really feel real yet, and I don't think it will until I get on the plane. I'm pretty much all packed, and all the loose ends have been tied up here in the UK. So, all that's left is to do is catch my sky chariot (aircanada airbus) to Vancouver.

I'm not sure when my next post will be, it depends on how busy I am, and when I get to a computer; possibly a few days. Also, there probably won't be another video for a few weeks, that'll have to wait until I get a laptop sorted out. However, I will be recording video during that time.

Now the adventure begins!

Jobs and Money

Just a quick update. It is now only a little under 11 days before I'll be in Canada. I have sorted out some Canadian cash, as well as traveller's cheques. It was funny when I collected them from the bank, as I had to sign and date each one before leaving; there were 34 of them! Not that I complained too much, as the woman serving me was rather attractive.

I've also applied for a job as a "Computer Rollout Technician" in Vancouver. Not sure if I'll get it, but it's worth a shot.

Flight Confirmed!

Well, I've finally sorted out the flight to Canada, it's booked and confirmed! I will be leaving on Wednesday 8th October 2008, and will return a whole year later! I'll be flying with Air Canada from Heathrow to Vancouver, and will be travelling with other BUNAC participants. So, I'll be able to chat with people who are in the same boat as me (or plane in this case).

However, after looking at the flight times, and accounting for time differences, I'll be on that plane for 10 hours! The longest time I've spent on a plane (not including waiting for take-off) is about 45 minutes. They had better have good on-board entertainment!

Image owned by caribb.