vancouver, bc

hello from snowy vancouver!

we woke up this morning to snow falling outside our window, which was pretty exciting! the ground is half green, half white now, so hopefully it´ll fall long enough that we can go outside to make snowmen!

i´ve been here since sunday - i arrived in vancouver 10 minutes after i left adelaide, (though it was the longest 10 minutes of my life) so i got to live sunday twice. lauren came to meet me at the airport and then i went back to their place in new westminster. it´s a really nice apartment, right close to the skytrain which makes everything accessible. the first couple of days i was here the weather was pretty bad, cold and raining, so i didn´t do too much touristy stuff.

on tuesday croft and i went to granville island, which has really nice food markets and arts and crafts. i enjoyed a maple syrup crepe, which i have been looking forward to pretty much since the last time i was here a couple of years ago. real maple syrup is so yum! we took the tiny ferry to downtown and walked around seeing the sights. greg and lorinda arrived tuesday afternoon, and lynne on wednesday evening, so the one bedroom apartment is starting to get quite cozy! wednesday i went exploring in vancouver, which was fun. though with the weather being bad, the city doesn´t look nearly as beautiful as it does on a clear day when you can see the mountains against the blue water.

wednesday night, lauren, greg, lorinda and i had a taste of canadian culture when we attended the ice hockey, vancouver v seattle! with my last experience of ice hockey being watching the mighty ducks when i was 10, i didn´t know much about the rules, but there didn´t seem to be any and we were greatly amused by the number of not-so-subtle hip and shoulders to smash the opposition into the perspex wall. vancouver won 7-3, i found peanut butter m&m´s and we didn´t get food poisoning from our hotdogs, so it was a successful evening!

yesterday the four of us went into vancouver and had a good time being tourists. it was a stunning day, blue sky and sunshine, so we went up the lookout and saw gorgeous views of the city. it´s huge, and with the backdrop of the mountains it really is one of the most beautiful cities i´ve ever seen. lauren met us in the city after work so we went back up the lookout to see the city by night (well afternoon actually, it gets dark at 4.30pm!).

this afternoon we are going out to get a christmas tree, we need the four of us to carry it back up the huge hill between the skytrain station and lauren & croft´s place. christmas in the cold is so great! speaking of, i am loving the cold weather, and hoping that i am missing heatwaves at home! bye for now :)

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Part of trip: Canada & US

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