Vancouver

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So we had our first experience of Greyhound buses and it was not pleasant. Smelly, snoring men (and some ladies) and a broken alternator belt made the 14 hour journey feel like a lifetime. We squeezed ourselves onto the already jam packed bus at 8.30pm and couldn't sit together :-( so really the broken alternator belt was a blessing in disguse as we changed buses at 2.00am and managed to grab a seat together! Lara - your travel pillow got its first outing, however we still both only managed about 2 - 3 hours proper sleep. We finally made it into Vancouver at 9.30am, an hour late, to pouring rain - not a great start to the day. After locating the Skytrain it took us 5 attempts to actually get on a train as we had hit rush hour and they looked like sardine tins packed with people. Luckily there was only minutes between trains and after a 4 block walk we arrived at our hostel - The Samesun. Being so early we couldn't check in so we dumped our backpacks and headed back out into the rain and did a bit of camera hunting for Heather. After we had finished shopping it was lunch time and we felt we had earned ourselves a good hearty meal as we had not eaten properly since the previous evening. We found ourselves a lovely Irish pub and enjoyed a gorgeous Irish Stew which warmed us up immensly.

The rain set in for the rest of the day and carried through to Friday so we made the most of being stuck indoors and did some laundry and then headed to the in-house bar - the Beaver Bar!! That night we met a couple of people in the hostel, Scottish James who will talk to absolutely any one and Alex who has climbed the Himalayas so nothing phases him!!! Stingray from Neighbours was also in town for the night and some of the Aussie guys we'd met introduced Heather to him - well he's nothing like his character and as mother tought us if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!!! By Saturday the rain had cleared and we finally got out and started touring the sights of Vancouver. James joined us on our outing and we walked down to the waterfront to the Convention Centre, then on through Gas Town and its famous Steam Clock (which Heather is convinced is now run by electricity!!!) We then visited the Famous Chinese Gardens in Chinatown, it was like stepping into another world and you didn't even think about the concrete jungle that was on the other side of the wall!! The gardens were so serene and peaceful that you could wander around them for hours and not realise the time - apparently it's all down to the balance between the masculine and feminine elements of the gardens - the rocks and trees and the water and plants (or so the guide told us!). We ate lunch in one of the many chinese restaurants around and then headed off on the walk around False Creek and the posh end of town - Yale Town. We sampled some delicious Italian Ice Cream and then enjoyed the views over the water as we continued our walk around to Granville Bridge and back up to the hostel.

As it was a Saturday night we decided to see what the entertainment district had to offer, besides 25c peep shows...! We began the evening in the bar downstairs again with James and Alex and some people they'd already met, Brett, Louise and John. We made the most of the cheap drinks until they kicked us out at midnight. With no idea of where to go and not wanting to freeze in a queue, James did what he does best and asked a couple of random strangers on the street where was a good place to go. They suggested a "jazz" bar just a few blocks away, $10 to get in, no queue - sounded good so we set off!! Now we're not sure what their idea of Jazz was, but to us the music was more country and blues and the array of cowboy hats and longs beards didn't do much to convince us otherwise!!! Infact one man's moustach was making all the boys jealous, especially James who wanted to grow one just like his!!!! It was the fattest, bushiest, piece of facial hair we'd ever seen!!! We stayed until they eventually kicked us out and feeling merry we all headed back to our beds!!

It perhaps wasn't the best idea to stay out late as on Sunday we'd planned to cycle around Stanley Park located on the northern tip of downtown Vancouver. It's actually almost the same size as Downtown itself. We'd decided to follow the sea wall promemade around the perimeter of the park to see the gorgeous view of North Vancouver and the moutains over the water as well as the contrasting skyline of the city behind us. We set off on our hire bikes and first up came across a stunning collection of original totempoles, each one tells it's own story as interpreted by the person who carved it. We continued round the coast past the statue of the 'girl in the wetsuit' out all alone on a rock along to Lions Gate Bridge. Unfortunately this was as far as we could go on the coastal route as it was shut for improvements. Therefore we were forced to turn inland and cut through the dense forests that cover a lot of Stanley Park. It was tough on some of the routes expecially with the dodgy gears and brakes on our bikes. We passed Beaver Lake (no beaver sightings though!!!) and came out on the other side at Third Beach. Beautiful sandy beach that appears completely out of place in the heart of a busy city like Vancouver! Continuing along the beach trail we passed Second Beach and then hit English Bay Beach. There was nothing English about this beach, in fact it wouldn't have looked out of place in California. The weather was good so the beach was packed with walkers, joggers, bladers, cyclists, sun worshippers and even a group of beach volleyballers that caught our attention!! After two and half hours on the bikes we were both slightly soar (!!!) so we dropped the bikes back at the hire place and made our way back to the hostel for a quiet evening in with Movie night!!!!!

We definately needed our sleep this time as on Monday we were going to Grouse Mountian to tackle the Grouse Grind. James and Alex tagged along again (although after climbling the Himalayas Alex was annoying nonchalent about the whole hike!!). So after catching the Seabus over to North Vancouver we did a quick stop at the Capilano Suspension Bridge, where we paid an extortionate amount of money to walk over a wooden suspension bridge that was "quite" old!!!! (enough said!!!!) The challenge came at the bottom of Grouse Mountain when we had to coax Vicky into walking up and not taking the easy option and catching the Gondola!! The only way she was going up that "frigging mountain" (Vicky's own words!) was if Alex carried her bag, so he dutifully complied and we set off. I think if we had all know what it was going to be like the Gondola would have won us all over!! Not so much a trail, the Grouse Grind is more of a staircase. However, we say staircase in the loosest possible term as although they were steps in some shape or another, they were usually made up of rocks or tree roots and sometimes were about 2 foot high!!!!? So you can imagine our joy at this sight, especially after our thighs still ached from the bike ride the day before! But we made it!!! One and a half hours (of hell) later we reached the top. We expected some kind of reward at the sumit as we had done at the top of Sulphur Mountain with the spectacular views of the Rockies, but instead we were confronted by the back of a building!? The views however, would probably have been better if the cloud and rain had not started to set in! Boo!! The only good thing to come out of it......oh no there isn't anything!!!! Perhaps we should have listened to Vicky after all!!!? Still as we'd gone that far we stopped to watch the lumberjack show. They were quite impressive, but it was all very staged and rehersed with each lumberjack having thir own "character"! Best bit was when it was over and James cheekily asked to have a go at throwing the axe at the target like they'd done earlier. With all of two minutes training from one of the guys, James attempted his first throw....and missed! But at least he didn't injure himself! He'd already been warned not to get the axe in the pond to his left but on his third attempt the axe ricocheted off the target and plopped into the water - early bath for James then!! Oh well at least he got it in once on his second throw!!

So cold, wet and knackered we trudged back to the hostel to have diner and get ready for our last night out in Vancouver. A short shower and some quick cook pasta later (our speciality) we were ready to hit the town! We'd already bought tickets to see Paulo Nutini at the Commodor Ballroom a few doors down so oursleves, James (biggest fan in the world), Alex (not bothered!) and Brett (never heard of him) had a quick beer in the Beaver and then wandered down. The show was fantastic and although Paulo was wasted he could still hold a tune!!! It was the perfect way to end our holiday in Canada! The funniest thing was when Paulo came back to do his encore and started singing "I wanna be like you" from the Jungle Book. If we didn't know any better we'd have thought he was on the Grouse Grind with us that afternoon when we were all singing that song to keep our spirits up - very freaky!!!!!

So the first part of our trip was over. We had one last goodbye lunch with all the guys on Tuesday and Heather bought herself a brand spanking new camera to replace the one hiding in Banff somewhere. We then loaded ourselves up like donkeys with our backpacks and made our way down to the airport for our journey to Fiji!!

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