snooooowwww!!!!

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Was very excited to arrive into Vancouver in the midst of a snow-storm - and apparently quite uncommon for Van at this time of year! Had a warm welcome at the hostel from Chloe and Georgena, 2 cool girls from Adelaide who were nearing the end of their month long trip through Canada. Felt right at home really considering 99% of the hostel must have been Aussie.

Sara arrived a few hours later and although I’d only been gone for 2-3 days its so nice to actually see someone you know! Also made the whole trip become very real. It was really cold for the first few days so we wandered the streets of Van with regular stops for coffee, soup and bagels. The 2nd night there we found out that Ozomatli were playing down the street from the hostel so we went along with Chloe and George and were lucky to get tickets out the front. If you’ve never heard of Ozomatli they are a 9-piece band playing an amazing combination of jazzy/latino/hip-hop/funk/dub… so as you can imagine it was a real party atmosphere! It was actually one of the most amazing concerts I’ve been to. After playing an awesome show the band grabbed their instruments and jumped down into the crowd, before setting up right in the middle and played a number of classics including hokey pokey! Then they got everyone to crouch down and one by one the band stood up and played their instrument and when they’d all jumped up the crowd went nuts and they lead a conga line throughout the place. The place had such a cool vibe! I’ll try and get a video uploaded in the next few days so you get a better idea.

And there began our week in Van.

The next day we did more walking covering Downtown, Yaletown, Gastown and last but certainly not least… Chinatown. An interesting place that - Sara has fondly renamed “Crack-whore-town”. My word of advice if you go to Van - avoid it at all costs!! I know everyone says the dim sum is great but apart from the fact I don’t enjoy Chinese food, I don’t really think it can be that good that is worth walking the dodgy streets to get it! Anyways we met up with Nig in the arvo and drank a lot of beers at the Yaletown Brewery then more back at The Beaver (the hostel bar)! Had a great arvo and was so good to catch up with Nig. Only saw Kat briefly but will catch up with them more now over the next few months. Hopefully they’ll come and stay on our couch and we can go boarding!

We missed most other Vancouver sightseeing (including Stanley Park which has now been hit by a shocking wind storm) however we got very familiar with the shops… and oooooh did we shop! For a girl that doesn’t do much shopping - I was in heaven! They have really awesome clothes here and the fact that I had a grand set aside to splurge on a new board made it even more fun. Also drank a lot of coffees, none of them as good as we’re used to in Sydney but some were pretty good. Lots of organic coffee over here… actually lots of organic everything. I’m really impressed with the Canadians - they are huge on the environment and recycling and have all the facilities set up to do things properly. Australia has a long way to go!

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