Day Four- Vancouver!

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Ok so we ended up getting to bed at around 1am BUT there’s a good reason! A few good reasons! Firstly the forecast said it would be snowing at 11pm so we waited up for that (didn’t happen), then I got a call from my mother who is currently travelling around Greece, THEN we realised we had to pack before we went to sleep otherwise we’d have to wake up super early, and DURING packing Adam threw up. So we had about 5 hours sleep. Which is fine. So fine.

We left the apartment at about 6:45am, when it was pretty much pitch black outside (although not so dark that we couldn’t see cars covered in snow- so it did happen!) and headed to the train station to go back to the airport. It was really sad leaving Seattle, two nights was definitely not long enough. Just as we were lamenting the fact that we wish we had seen the snow last night, we stepped off the train at the airport and.... *drum roll please* it started to snow!

In fact, it snowed all morning, so much so that our flight to Vancouver was delayed by an hour and twenty minutes. Whilst that sounds super boring (and it was) we were kind of glad because we couldn’t check in to the airbnb until 3, and prior to the delayed flight we were getting to Vancouver at about 1, and would have to walk around with our luggage and wait for 2 hours. Adam once again slept through not only the entire waiting period at the airport, but also the entire flight too. I, once again, was not so lucky, and got to experience all of the anxieties and nerves that come from a delayed flight and also being in a very small, very rickety plane.

We’re not too sure why the plane from Seattle to Vancouver was a tiny one. We even had to get a bus from the terminal to the middle of the tarmac it was so small. I guess it’s not a very popular flight?

Anyway, we are so lucky that Vancouver was our final destination of the day. We overheard multiple arguments with airport staff, and found out that all of the AirCanada flights for the rest of the day had been cancelled, and people needing flights to another city would have to get a hotel for the night. Crazy snow!

Getting through immigration and customs at the Vancouver airport was the easiest thing we have ever done. Firstly there was hardly anyone at the airport so we just walked straight through the waiting areas. Secondly, we were asked “what’s the purpose of your trip to Canada” and that’s it! That’s it!? Our bags were also the first ones out at baggage claim. So it’s fair to say we had an extremely easy and quick entrance to Canada!

We got the train to Broadway (interesting) and our Airbnb was only an 8 minute walk away. It did however take us quite a lot longer than that, firstly because we kept stopping to play in the snow and secondly because it’s very hard to push two suitcases through thick snow up a hill (would you believe). Forgot to mention, Vancouver is absolutely covered in snow.

Our Airbnb is very sweet, we’re essentially staying in someone’s basement (detached from the house) with a full kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. AND the street we’re on is so beautiful!! It literally looks like the street from Home Alone- the houses are large and beautiful, everyone’s out salting and shovelling the snow, and there’s pretty lights everywhere.

Anyway, we checked in at 3pm, dumped our stuff, I put extra layers on, and we headed out for some food at 5pm. We didn’t have a plan, just that we’d walk and eventually find somewhere. And eventually we found a Wendy’s! Now I’m all for trying the different fast food joints, but there seemed to be something not quite right about having Wendy’s for dinner (in replacement of all the other cuisine we could be trying). But, we hadn’t eaten since we got to the airport this morning and we were desperate, so we went in for a frosty and some shared poutine. The frosty, it turns out, is less of a milkshake and more just a cup of ice cream (not a bad surprise) and the poutine was...sub-par. Serves us right for getting it at Wendy’s I suppose, we’ll just have to try it again somewhere else! How sad.

Afterwards we went for another long walk without a plan, and ended up crossing a huge bridge where we found the actual city, and soon found Boston Pizzeria, a pizza place cross sports bar. Adam didn’t consider Wendy’s being our dinner (“that wasn’t a proper dinner, that was a snack”) and I was pretty keen to be of legal drinking age again, so we headed inside. We ordered Canadian beers and shared a Mediterranean pizza while watching the NFL and the NBA, and ultimately (even though we shared it) had to put half the pizza in a to-go box.

We walked back to the Airbnb after that since it was getting late and very cold (it was -6!). We’re going to bed at a reasonable time, but it’s our first night to catch up on sleep and that’s looking very tempting.

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