Vancouver, Canada

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Canada is like USA's liberal, atheist neighbor. Without generalising too much, it seemed people were just less strict here, and more laid back (although that's not necessarily different to every american city, Vancouver's liberalness could probably be compared with a city like San Francisco in the US). One amusing example of this was at the beach, where there was a floating platform about 20 feet out with a large sign on saying "DANGER, KEEP OFF!", and another telling you not to dive or swim underneath it. The lifeguard of the beach was actually rowing children out to the raft in a boat, so they could climb on it and dive into the water.

I stayed at a cool hostel in the most happening spot in town, night-life wise (and the drinking age in Canada is 19 so I could legally go out for the first time!), and the hostel actually had it's own bar on the bottom floor, and a smoking balcony upstairs which you weren't allowed to drink on because they didn't have an alcohol license, but the staff didn't really seem to care anyway. That was where I hung out in the evenings, playing cards and drinking games and what not (there was one hilarious situation where one guy had to pronounce the punctuation every time he spoke - e.g. say comma or question mark or whatever every time there was one - else he had to drink. After forgetting several times and being caught out by one scrutinous guy, he stood up and turned to him and shouted "Fuck you, comma, dude, exclamation mark!").

The first day I was there I went on a very interesting walking tour (by a professional as opposed to someone from the hostel), which gave lots of anecdotes and funny stories about local history, which is the sort of stuff I love. The following day, me, a swiss guy and 2 canadian girls went to the beach, stopping by at a vegetarian cafe which sold 'the best veggie burgers in vancouver'. The weather that day was absolutely perfect for being at the beach. Very hot, but not too hot that it was unpleasant, and not humid at all. It was just bliss lying there in the sun, drinking cold juice and listening to music - there was just a random band set up on the beach playing, which was awesome. Hopefully pictures will be up on facebook soon. I was going to leave that evening but I really didn't want to, so I ended up staying an extra day and booking back into the same hostel (I already checked out and put all my stuff in the storage room, ready to go).

Next stop, Chicago - only 2000 miles and 50 hours away!

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