Queen Elizabeth Park

The day following my afternoon in Downtown Vancouver, I visited Queen Elizabeth Park.

The park isn't that big (especially compared to Stanley Park), but was great to look at on a sunny day like the one I went on.

Furthermore, the park is the highest point within the city of Vancouver, so the view was spectacular.

At the centre of the park is the Bloedel Floral Conservatory. It was nice to look at, but I didn't enter as I didn't want to spend the money, and the weather was just too good outside.

Just beyond the conservatory was a fountain surrounded by places to sit. It would have been a perfect place to chill and have lunch. Unfortunately I hadn't brought any food with me, so I just chilled, took photos and recorded the fountain doing its fountain thing.

One of the mountains visible from the park is Grouse Mountain. I wonder if that's walking distance.

Continuing my walk around the park it was clear that it has a strong emphasis on horticulture. Quarry gardens, rose gardens etc., they put a lot of work into it.

I should also mention there is a restaurant in the park called "Seasons in the Park".

Just looking at the place I figured it would be a bit pricey to actually eat there, so I waited until I left the park, and grabbed a sub sandwich from a Subway downtown. Maybe I'll come back when I've earned a bit more cash.

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.

Deep Cove

A couple of weeks ago a friend and ex-colleague from Safeway, Liz, sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to a place called Deep Cove. I of course agreed, but on the day we planned to go we decided to cancel due to the weather. We thought it was going to rain, but it didn't, but it was a very gloomy day.

Then the day we eventually went on had fantastic weather, good call Liz!

We started the day at Cates Park and walked around to the cove through the residential area in-between. I of course asked whether Kate knew we were in her park, yeah, terrible, I know. Anyway, the view that the houses in the area had from their windows screamed "expensive property". The view was stunning, especially on a day like the one we had.

A nice little treat as we made our way to the cove was discovering an Easter tree in the front of one of the homes. Liz got very excited about this.

Not long later we reached Deep Cove.

The harbour has a great view across the Indian Arm and out towards the Belcarra Regional Park.

Walking across the cove we came across a dude performing an interesting sport known as slacklining. Liz was rather impressed with the skill being displayed, as was I. For your viewing pleasure I recorded a short clip of the guy doing his thing.

We then proceeded to the Baden-Powell Trail which led us to Quarry Rock, this looked out over Deep Cove and beyond; it was an awesome view.

After heading back down the trail we ended the day with doughnuts at a place in Deep Cove. All in all it was a great day out.

Grouse Mountain

Recently two work colleagues from Safeway and myself went up the "Grouse Grind". This is basically a steep path up to the resort near the top of Grouse Mountain; one of Vancouver's local peaks.

Even though the path is very steep, it isn't overly long. We completed the ascent in about 90 minutes. However, the record is something like 25 minutes!

So you know how you're progressing there are markers at quarter intervals.

Once we finally reached the top we sat down and had a coffee (don't get to do that when going up mountains usually), and then took a stroll around the top. There was plenty of snow around, which gave the place an almost enchanting feel. However, the most exciting thing was the bears, and thanks to an electric fence between us we could get pretty damned close! Then there were the reindeer, not as exciting, but still a first for me.

After watching some Christmas singers in the resort we took the aerial tramway back down to base of the mountain. On the way down we were treated to a spectacular view of Vancouver.

And finally, what you've all been waiting for, the video. Be careful, it's a long one!

Ice Hockey

Last week I went on a SWAP organised event to see an ice hockey match. The "Vancouver Giants" were playing the "Chilliwack Bruins".

However, getting to the stadium became a bit of a mission. This is because the bus we needed to get to the stadium was completely full 3 times in a row. At this point we tried a different bus at a different bus stop and succeeded. However, there was a guy (who I'm pretty sure was on weed) that I sat next to who suddenly, and without warning decided to tell everyone to have a "happy happy day", and then started to sing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". Weird!

Anyway, we finally arrived, and had only missed a few minutes of the start of the match in which 'The Giants' had scored a goal. The game was good, but the constant deluge of advertisements at every possible opportunity can get a little annoying. However, the beer helped!

From watching a couple of matches on TV I was expecting far more violence than there was in this game. I know, I shouldn't want more violence, but I do, I'm only human! Well, the final score was Giants 4, Bruins 1. It seemed very one sided, Vancouver rocks!

After we all left the stadium we had to wait for a bus, which took a while at that time of night, but we did have a laugh.

And here is the video, enjoy!

P.S. You may have noticed a new section on the right hand side of this page entitled "Vids & Pics". This is available wherever you are on my blog, and provides links to the vimeo video album, and each photo album that I've uploaded to facebook. These photo albums contain all the photos that I take (including those not added to the blog) and are of a higher quality than the blog pics.

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.

Stanley Park

The other day it was particularly sunny, so I decided to visit Stanley Park. There really are a lot of squirrels, and that's not just in the park! It was mid-afternoon when I arrived, so I didn't have time to see everything I wanted, but that just means there'll be more to see the next time I go.

Below are some of the pictures I took, as well as a video.

And here's the video. 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!

The Vlog

Now, not only will I be updating this blog while in Canada, I will also be keeping a vlog. For those who don't know what a vlog (or video blog) is, then you can find out by clicking here.

Basically I will be recording videos of my adventures and uploading them to the web, I'll then embed the videos in blog posts here.

At the moment I have decided to upload the videos to a site called Vimeo, as they tend to end up being of a higher quality than on some other sites, and I personally find it pleasant to use.

All my Canada vlog vids will be stored in a Vimeo album here. So you can just visit that page and view any of the videos I have uploaded up to that point. Furthermore, Vimeo lets you download the original video file to your computer (the download link is usually found in the bottom right hand corner of the video's page).

Anyway, the first video is an introduction about my year out in Canada. You can either view the video below, or click here to view the higher quaility version, or to download the original file. Enjoy!