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Published: October 6th 2012
It was around 10pm when we got in to Vancouver and thankfully our hostel was very close to the bus station. We had to fight our way through a crowd outside the pub next door to the hostel to find our way in. The room was pretty good clean with a comfy bed and a TV which we didn't turn on at all. Chris discovered that his bottle of cooking fuel had leaked a bit and everything in his backpack smelt like fuel. Great. He unpacked everything and stuck the fuel bottle out on the window sill so it didn't stink out the room.
Sunday morning and we wandered through Chinatown on our way to a breakfast cafe that had been recommended. It was very popular and there was a bit of a queue outside. It was also quite expensive and we decided to go elsewhere. After finding some food we went down to the tourist info place and told them we had two week left in Canada and weren't sure what to do. We left with a huge pile of pamphlets and lots of ideas bouncing around our heads. We then spent the afternoon looking in various shops around
Mega Breakfast
Classic American Style Diner food. the CBD before heading back to the hostel to flesh out some plans for how to spend the rest of our time here.
We had decided to extend our stay in Vancouver by a night so we could get more sorted as well as post some things home. Monday morning and we walked up to the post office carrying our old sleeping bags and a bunch of other things we wanted to post Not all of it fitted in the box, but at least we got ride of some of our stuff. We sent it surface mail, so it _should_ get to us in the next couple of months. For breakfast, we went to a classic old diner style cafe called "Templetons". The interior hasn't been modified since around Elvis's time and was pretty cool The food was really yummy and cheap. It's a small place and quite popule. There's only one person serving so it can be a bit slow but that's ok. From there we walked through to near Stanley Park to hire a tandem for a few hours and ride around the park (one of the things you are Meant To Do in Vancouver). We hadn't
ridden a tandem before and it's a weird experience. You both attempt to correct any wobbles which leads to over correction and constant wobbles. The person steering has to continuously fight the bike wobbling around. The other weird thing is that while the hub may be able to coast (ie stop pedalling while cruising down a decline), the front and rear pedals are fixed to each other, so if one person pedals the other one has to. And conversely, if one person stops the other person does too. It's like riding a dysfunctional fixie bike. What's weird is that people sometimes race these in mountain bike races! Along the way we saw Vancouver's most visited attraction (some colourful totem poles), the disappearing lake (a lake which is naturally shrinking as it fills with sediment), and several float planes landing and taking off. It wasn't an amazing experience, but something different and fun for people watching too. After the ride we popped in to Whole Foods to grab some food and went back to the hostel to finalise our plans for the next couple of weeks and make some bookings - bus to Whistler, hotel in Whistler, and car hire to
Nanna Nena
Found her store drive to the Rockies. The staff at the hostel were nice enough to let us leave our bags there for the next couple of nights while we were in Whistler so we sorted our bags out and put them in their store room. We then cooked up some dinner and went to bed early knowing we had to get up at 6am in the morning.
After a terrible nights sleep thanks to annoying Germans being loud at 11pm and then again at 1:45am (causing Chris to smack on their door and tell them to shut the f$%k up somewhat loudly), we grabbed our bags and walked to the bus stop. The bus strip was really pretty and scenic with some great views of the mountains.
When we got to Whistler and checked in, we were told that we'd been upgraded to the deluxe room which had a jacuzzi inside. Awesome! Must be quiet here at the moment. Once we had dropped off our things we wandered into the pedestrian stroll to grab a coffee from Mogul's Cafe (served by Australian of course - they are everywhere in Whistler), and then go looking for some bikes to rent. Since
Token Totem Poles
Vancouvers most visited attraction. We were there too. it's at the end of the season we thought it would be pretty easy, but we didn't count on the fact that they sell all their rental bikes in September every year, so finding the right sized bikes was a bit tricky. After trying about 6 bike shops, Chris grabbed a Rocky Mountain full suspension cross country and Nena got a hardtail as we couldn't find any small duallies anywhere. We went and checked out some of the Zappa trails around Lost Lake - mainly green trails, but some blue too. Green trails are easy ones - usually a wide graded track or even paved. Blue gets a bit more technical with rougher parts and obstacles, and black is considered much harder and technical with dangerous sections. Just before 6pm we came back down to the town and extended our hire to 24 hours so we could get some more riding in in the morning. We then went back to our room and went out to dinner at a Tapas restaurant for Nena's birthday. Wow - the food was amazing. It's probably the best food we've had on this trip and that's a big call after five months of travelling
Disappearing Lake
Gradually getting filled with silt, rotten plant material and ducks. around three continents! Once we were happily stuffed full we went back to our rooms and watched an episode of Game of Thrones before going to sleep.
On our second day we headed back up to the Zappa trails after breakfast (and a coffee from Mogul's again). They are called Zappa trails as the many trails in the section are named after Frank Zappa songs. Nena was getting pretty confident now and nailing some of the blue trails. Might be time for a new bike when we get back to Hobart (and have paid off our credit cards!). We saw plenty of squirrels around, but no bears still. The tracks are in great condition with plenty of cool man made bridges as well as crazy rock and root sections. We came back to the hotel at lunch time and after lunch Nena returned her bike while Chris extended his for another 24 hours. After this Chris went off on his own to tackle The Emerald Forest trails which are mainly blue, and A River Runs Through It which is a classic Whistler black trail full of technical sections, man made bridges, jumps, see-saws etc. The first section of the
Yay Nena
ok - take back the Nanna Nena comment. River track was really hard with rough sections and no real let--up. After this bit a rest was required so after scoffing down a Clif bar he did some (very) amateur film making by running backwards and forwards with his camera and filming sections of the trail. A little vid here:
The trail finished near the beautiful Alta Lake with a relatively easy paved ride home. After the quality of last night's meal we went back to the same Tapas place again, and the waiter recognised us and knew which beer Chris had had last night - impressive. The food was again amazing. When we got home we filled the Jacuzzi and then had a bath and watched a movie (at the same time - luxury!).
The Tapas restaurant is also well known for it's breakfast (having been voted best breakfast in Whistler every year since 2002!) so we went back _again_. Delicious food again and great service too. Oh - forgot to mention, when we came in the first night they were playing Salt n Pepa "Push It", and they seem to have a penchant for 80s, 90s music as we heard everything from old
Donkey Puncher
And remember - everyone gives way to bears. Really? AC/DC to Billy Idol to INXS. Great stuff. Anyway, after being stuffed full of yumminess Chris took off to hit more of the Zappa trails while Nena headed up to the same area on foot (and watched dragonflies over the lake, while not seeing any bears). Given the size of our breakfast we made do with muesli for lunch and after chilling in the village for a bit we caught an earlier bus back at 4:30pm (we had booked for 6:30pm). Chris had considered trying the downhill trails, but it was going to cost between $80-120 for only a few hours riding. Save it for next time. A highlight of the bus drive home (apart from the stunning views again) were seeing some more sun dogs which are like rainbos formed when the light passes through ice crystals at just the right altitude. We had previously seen a good one in the sky over New York. See the photos to get an idea.
Back in Vancouver, we arrived at around 7:30pm and wandered back to our hostel. We remembered it was free food night so we went to the nearby pub, and traded our vouchers from the hostel in
OMFG Noms
Tofu parcels in lettuce leaves. These were soooooo good. for a plateful of pierogi (which are a type of Polish boiled and fried dumpling). Not too bad and it was enough to fill us up for the evening. We spent the evening making rough plans for the next week of driving and camping in the Rockies.
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