First Few Days

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Amazing

Well I'm finally here, I have been for like 72 hours or so. Theres alot to write so far as it has been pretty epic.

The flight was long but what made it ok was the exit row and noise cancelling headphones, they saved me. I didn't sleep at all which really really sucked. What was cool was meeting a dude next to me on the plane who was 71 years old who was coming to Vancouver to jam with some mates. He was telling me he was in a rockband from the '60s. Definitely a cool person to meet, I want to be doing that sort of thing at his age.

When we landed finally it was relatively easy to get through customs and immigration at YVR. I got sent to the wrong place a couple of times but in the end it only took me about 45 or so minutes until I was fully out and on the skytrain to downtown.

I checked into a hostel and basically crashed. Slept from about 10am - 5pm which probably wasn't the best idea because later on I was only able to sleep from 12am to 5am, ah well. That night I met Nick from Melbourne and Raul from the Netherlands, they were pretty cool. We went and had beers over the road where I was introduced to the tipping system.

The next day I hung around the hostel not doing much. Theres free breakfast which was awesome! Then I went off with two german guys to have our bank accounts created. They had appointments booked, I didn't. So they had to go to TD Bank and I decided to try a different bank, Bank of Montreal. My account was created within half an hour and I was on my way. I must also mention the girl that created my bank account, she was a bit of a babe 😉.

Then I was off to meet my CouchSurfing host, Kyle. It was a bit hairy at first. When I got off the sky-train out in the 'burbs I practically had no idea where I was. I knew which bus to get onto and thats about it. But it all worked out and I arrived at Kyle's maybe 20 or so minutes early. It happened to be Kyle's birthday and also the Canucks were playing this day too. So we went downtown, DTES to be exact, to park the car and go to a bar showing the game. Lets not talk about the game.

Then we went off to The Cambie, which is apparently one of the cheaper bars here in Vancouver. This place was awesome, I had a great time. The drinks were cheaper compared to Australia. Awesome music, lots of girls. Basically all you want in a bar. With the Canucks losing it was still a great night. I'm pretty sure Kyle had a sick birthday too, we were both pretty wrecked the next day. Thanks for saving me Kyle.

I was pretty dead to the world yesterday and slept til about 5pm while Kyle had some meetings and Uni to attend. Ahh the life of a traveller, the best. That night we went and had some Afghani cuisine, which was incredible. The food was amazing and so was the service. It was a little upsetting we were the only customers while we were in there. It must be hard to run a business like a restuarant at times. Later on we cruised down to Commercial Drive which was really really cool. Really nice vibe with cool cafes, bars and cool shops to window shop at. Maybe a possible place of residence in a few months. Then we went down to Gastown which is a really sort of ritzy part of Vancouver which is right next to DTES which is definitely like going from The Causeway to Kingston foreshore except Gastown has more character.

And that's basically it so far. From what I have seen so far of Van City is both amazing and sometimes sad. I love it here though, I hope I can find work and a place to live after my travels. It's just alot of fun here, plus the city is hockey mad so I fit in well.

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Comments

[michele edwards]

Vancouver 17.06.11
so glad darling to know that you're safe and not involved in the riots which have dominated australian tv news. its very cold here now and there has been alot of flooding on the nsw mid north coast. Yamba had 14 inches and there was a land slip on Yamba St - going up towards pippi beach. we're at culburra and its very windy but sunny this weekend. take care love mum