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Erik
Amazing tour guide! The short journey from Seattle to Vancouver was good, so used to the Greyhound buses by now. We met some boys (Paul, from the UK and Nathan from OZ) from the same hostel in Seattle just as we were leaving and shared a taxi to the Greyhound station. This time at customs everything went fine, nobody was even interested in my luggage. Great!
Once we arrived we realised that two girls from the Seattle hostel were also on the same bus (Lucy from the UK and Steph from Germany). It also turned out that we were all staying in the same hostel in Vancouver! So once we arrived Thommo and I tried to get some money out as we only had 10 Canadian dollars left from our earlier visit, however a large majority of ATM’s do not appear to like Visa! After managing to get some change we all ventured out of the station to the Sky Train in search of getting to the city centre. Once we got there we had to walk about 7 blocks to the hostel, pulling my bag along is even becoming a chore now! I do wish I was strong enough to put it
on my back so that my legs could take some of the strain. But everyone else seemed to be struggling towards the end of the walk too. We checked in and I was pleasantly surprised by the standards of the hostel we had chosen., even better was the fact that Thommo and I had a shared 4 bed dorm to ourselves for the first night. This is the first hostel we have been to where they have private bathrooms, by this I mean one room with a shower and cubical, toilet and sink!!!
After checking out the room and having a lovely hot shower we met the girls and boys downstairs for dinner. We went to a pub right nest door to the hostel, lovely fish and chips and they were on the special too, always good to save some money! We also booked onto a tour that was happening the next day. That evening we went to a few other pubs to sample the local scene. We were really excited by seeing that the pubs had Strong bow on tap, however much to our disappointment we were informed that the whole city was not able to get any!
Lake in Lynn Valley
Us infront of the lake with the mountain in the background Our dreams of a nice cold pint of cider and black were dashed!
The following day we set off early to the other YHA hostel to start the tour. After signing up with Erik and his famous tours we started with a walk along the water front and some of Yale town. Erik is a 65 year old incredibly fit man. The views were brilliant and he was very informative. Due to hosting the winter Olympics Vancouver has had a lot of development in recent years. It is planning on having the longest water side walks and cycle paths in the world. We then stopped for a coffee break and to purchase some sandwiches for lunch. There was roughly 20 people in total on the tour. We all caught a public bus up the Lynn Canyon Forest. We saw many things here, including the Cleveland dam, lots of really old trees and a salmon farm. It was really nice to be breathing in fresh air and to be out of the city again. The high light of the day was going to Capilano and crossing the suspension bridge that is some 80m above the river bed. And yes I
Cleveland Dam
Would love to jumo off this if it wasnt certian death! did manage to make it all the way across without freezing, even though it was swinging and torting by a silly amount. Once we managed to stagger across we then went up on to the tree routes which were also quite high up. After catching the public bus back into the city Erik took us all to the Library. This may sounds boring to all, other than my parents, however the building was amazing and the service provided was even better. The whole service is free, well actually the funding is taken out of local taxes. The tour was 11km and ended up in the harbour where we watched a massive cruise ship depart and loads of seaplanes take off. Was great to finally get some good exercise. As you can tell from the pictures I am in great need of more exercise!
After freshening up we met up with the girls and boys again and tried to find a bar that everyone would like and that didn’t charge an arm and a leg to get in. This was harder than it sounds! In the end, after walking quite some distance, we found a bar called Marlon’s which had
Trans Canada Trail
We walked part of the longest trail across land! a fantastic live 60/70’s rock and roll band. We then were recommended a club down the road (the Railway). This was a cool place, lots of people doing their thing, a large majority of the people were covered in tattoos and a large proportion of the people were very very drunk!. The girls managed to get lots of attention from some weird men but over all a good time was experienced by all.
After booking some more accommodation for cities on our trip in the future, the following day we ventured over the Granville bridge (windy and a lot longer than it looks!) to Granville Island. We witness some great street entertainment, a massive farmers market and also had a fabulous meal in a restaurant that looked really expensive but turned out to be a bargain. That night we meet up with the boys and went to the club under our hostel (Club Royal), we had a brilliant time shaking our moves on the dance floor and people watching. But the next day we felt rough as hell so we stayed in bed till the late morning when we eventually got a bus out to Stanley Park. Poor boys
had to get the greyhound back to Seattle, hope you were ok guys? In Stanley Park we enjoyed walking through the rainforest climate, seeing the lovely lake, a family of ducks and even saw some people getting married at the pavilion. Stanley Park is amazing and the people of Vancouver are so lucky to have this place on their doorstep. That evening we just chilled and went to bed early.
In the morning we finished packing and made slow progress to the greyhound station. I really like Canada and defiantly wish to return there in the future to discover more of what it has to offer. I think I prefer what we have seen of it to what we have seen of America so far. People do not appear to have such big egos and the scenery is gorgeous.
Onwards to San Francisco….. Been looking forwards to this city since we started.
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Lindy_LoO
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Meep only me
Have you ever thought about being a photographer? The pictures that you guys take look like the kind you find in the brochures so beautiful. xx