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It’s common knowledge that Canadians are die-hard hockey fans, and we knew we were in for something BIG when we were in Vancouver when the Canucks were playing Boston. It was only game two of the series finals, but fan fervour was visibly rampant: at 10am we witnessed fans queueing to purchase merchandise, the “girl in the wetsuit” statue in Stanley park was wearing a hockey shirt, and cars decked out in Canuck colours full of cheering fans rolled through the streets blasting horns … even then, little did we know what the night had in store for us. We headed into the downtown to meet up with Mike (our Kiwi flatmate from Ireland) who was at a special game event being hosted in the Vancouver downtown military barracks. The game was broadcast on the big screen and the hall had been converted into a makeshift bar for the evening and was filled with army boys and their family and friends, and friends-of-friends (us).
Thankfully it was a Canuck victory and the atmosphere was electric with everyone on a massive high. After leaving the barracks, we hit streets thick with tens of thousands of rapturous fans dressed in blue, green
and white, celebrating in full swing. In a somewhat random move, we agreed to join Mike and his mates in attending a punk concert, and saw DOA and two other punk acts live on stage in the dodgy part of town. Turns out Dave is quite the punk fan and I lost him for most of the evening, as he thrashed it out with the kids in the mosh pit.
Vancouver is one of those must see cities. Always competing with our hometown of Melbourne for the “world’s most liveable city”, and the posterchild of sustainable urban development, we had to check it out for ourselves. We stayed with our friends Hannah and Matt who are living in the trendy beachside suburb of
Kitsilano. We hadn’t seen them since our last trip when they were living in Macau, but they have been busy since – moving to Canada, giving birth to their adorable daughter, and Hannah is now a published author with her debut novel
The Colour of Tea. We were lucky enough to score ourselves an author-signed copy, and although we’re undoubtedly biased, it is a fantastic read and is getting fab reviews, so you should check it out! Available in
Australia, NZ and on Kindle :D.
Walking from Kits beach along the foreshore, we arrived at
Granville Island which is home to an awesome produce market, dozens of little artist studios, and also offered up the best coffee we’ve had since leaving Australia. We were so deprived of decent espresso since leaving home, that we felt compelled to return here 4 times during our stay in Vancouver just for the coffee alone! Given the city’s reputation for being highly bikeable we took to the streets by pushie We were able to cover heaps of ground and saw a huge chunk of Vancouver, including the famed
Stanley Park with it’s kilometres of bike paths, cruising along the seawall that links to the downtown.
We took a ferry across to
Victoria on
Vancouver Island for a few days where we stayed with the affable Dona and Vibhu who spoilt us with delicious homecooked fare and enlightened conversations. We had hoped to explore more of Vancouver island but didn’t make it far out of delightful and quaint Victoria. We did head out to the
Butchart Gardens which was pretty impressive, but sadly the roses weren’t in bloom so the admission price ($35.00
CAD each!) seemed extortionate. From here we caught the boat onwards to Seattle …
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anonymous
non-member comment
You always have the best blog titles!
Can't wait to read The Colour of Tea. Happy travels.