03 March 2005
Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA
This will be a slightly shorter bit... we were only in Vancouver one night. Actually we should have written this several days ago but we didn't. So you get it now.
We saw Mountains with snow on top!!!! Way cool. The flight between San Francisco was great and took us past several snow capped peaks. Checkout our photos to see!!! Way cool.
Photos
We arrived in Vancouver at about three in the afternoon and, on the advice of Elke's Unkle, we did not head straight for The Island. Had we done this we would have arrived, most likely after dark and would therefore have been unable to see either the city or the lovely little islands from the ferry.
Chris, while spending a few hours in the Vancouver airport some years ago, left a small love note for me tucked into a crack in a desk (in the internet room, of course), so the first half hour in the airport this time was pent trying to locate first the internet room and then 'the' desk. It was not a successful search. 'Why' I hear you asking 'would Chris leave a love note for Elke in a hidden place on the opposite side of the world to where they both live? Didn't he WANT her to find it??' Well, because Elke was travelling at the same time as the note was being written and was infact passing through Vancouver shortly after the the note was left, it wasn't as crazy an idea as it might at first sound.... Crazy Chris.
So back to this trip.
The essential difference between the US and Canada? It can be boiled down to this simple experience. After the failed love-note finding excursion, I was looking at a tourist map of Vancouver wondering about how to get in to the city centre and within a minute of standing and looking (only slightly) perplexed, a friendly man in a neat green jacket appeared at my elbow and asked if there was anything he could help me with. I like Canada. (Of course I don't want to generalise, that isn't fair either).
After deciding to catch the public bus, not the expensive airport shuttle, and trying to catch the said bus from the employees-only stop, and then getting kicked off the bus for not having exact change and minding some other poor sap's bag while he went to get smaller notes for the change machine, and battling our way down the isle with our big packs on our back.... we were on our way into the city. Yay.
We'd learned from our accommodation problem in Hawaii and booked ahead so we knew exactly where we were headed to, sort of. The two maps we had didn't seem to quite match so there was a little confusion but we made it. The vote was unanimous upon arrival - this was the best hostel we had stayed in, and we hadn't even stayed in it yet! We dumped our bags and headed out for a walk in Vancouver.
It is always amazing to me how coincidental life is at times. If we had turned back sooner, or later, or not gone out, or stopped to look in a window, or (well you get the point) we may never have bumped into Dean Commons and his pertner Amanda. Dean is/was a colleage of mine from Leeming Senior High School. As it was I was so excited about seening a familar face I couldn't remember his name until it was almost too late, and then I almost called him Dave. They have been here for the last couple fo months trying to get work, and we agrred that after dinner we would meet up again for a couple of drinks.
Here I need to mention that Chris, for the last half hour or so, had been almost continually discussing the $3.50 pints of beer that we saw advertised on the door of the competing youth hostel across the road from ours. I guess it was a good deal. So we decided that was the place to head with Dean and Amanda when they came to meet us at the hostel at 8.
Dean had a better idea and promtly marched us off to Gastown. It is a really neat area of town which Dean (an extremely well versed tour-guide considering their short residency)told us was the perfect place to open up a little theatre, and infact he had the perfect little place picked out. Backing onto (get this) Blood Ally!! Lots of atmosphere!! We headed to a little brewery for a drink and a chat.
We left Dean and Amanda on a quite road and headed for home. As we approached we became aware of the huge numbers of young party people out on the road. We joined in and Chris got his $3.50 pint of a local brew called Beaver Beer (or somthing equally as Canadian and loopy). Actually we each got several of them and after a plate of nachos and a chat with a Tasmanian girl we were both feeling a little tiddly. Actually, I think I was considerably more tiddly than Chris.
Across the road things had really picked up at the two pubs beside our hostel. The guy on the front desk, when asked, said that it was a fairly standard Friday night and that earplugs were available from him if they were needed. We declined, knowing that our room was at the back of the hostel away from the street and walked off down the wildly vibrating and thumping hallway. After an extended giggling fit brought on by the aforementioned tiddlyness and something funny said by Chris (although I can't now think what it was) we both slept well (despite dreams of being stuck in a techno dance club hell).
The next morning we made it to the ferry and over to Vancouver Island. Now reportedly this trip is very pretty with one leg of the hour and a half long journey being through a fairly narrow channel between some small islands. We didn't think we were going to see any of it. As we got closer to the ferry terminal the fog closed in and by the time we got on the boat we could barely see from one end of it to the other. It must have been our day though because the fog lifted completely just as we were reaching the island channel and the view really was fabulous. Lots of water birds (even seagulls can look romantic when you are in the right mood), wooded hill sides and smoking chimneys. It really was wonderful.
We were met at the terminal on Vancouver Island by Elke's Unkle Jochen and Aunt Diane. See if you can guess which side of the family they are on... Jochen, Jurgen, Elke... It was great to see them after so long and also to see their kids, Helgi and Johannes (more hints as to familial origins) and of course good old Oma.
OK, so it wasn't as short an entry as I had anticipated. Sorry. The next one will be shorter by comparison. Promise. I hope.
I just get so excited telling everyone about what is happening. Plus my journal in the old fashioned book form is not going well so this is to remind us when we get home too.
hugs to all.
We saw Mountains with snow on top!!!! Way cool. The flight between San Francisco was great and took us past several snow capped peaks. Checkout our photos to see!!! Way cool.
Photos
We arrived in Vancouver at about three in the afternoon and, on the advice of Elke's Unkle, we did not head straight for The Island. Had we done this we would have arrived, most likely after dark and would therefore have been unable to see either the city or the lovely little islands from the ferry.
Chris, while spending a few hours in the Vancouver airport some years ago, left a small love note for me tucked into a crack in a desk (in the internet room, of course), so the first half hour in the airport this time was pent trying to locate first the internet room and then 'the' desk. It was not a successful search. 'Why' I hear you asking 'would Chris leave a love note for Elke in a hidden place on the opposite side of the world to where they both live? Didn't he WANT her to find it??' Well, because Elke was travelling at the same time as the note was being written and was infact passing through Vancouver shortly after the the note was left, it wasn't as crazy an idea as it might at first sound.... Crazy Chris.
So back to this trip.
The essential difference between the US and Canada? It can be boiled down to this simple experience. After the failed love-note finding excursion, I was looking at a tourist map of Vancouver wondering about how to get in to the city centre and within a minute of standing and looking (only slightly) perplexed, a friendly man in a neat green jacket appeared at my elbow and asked if there was anything he could help me with. I like Canada. (Of course I don't want to generalise, that isn't fair either).
After deciding to catch the public bus, not the expensive airport shuttle, and trying to catch the said bus from the employees-only stop, and then getting kicked off the bus for not having exact change and minding some other poor sap's bag while he went to get smaller notes for the change machine, and battling our way down the isle with our big packs on our back.... we were on our way into the city. Yay.
We'd learned from our accommodation problem in Hawaii and booked ahead so we knew exactly where we were headed to, sort of. The two maps we had didn't seem to quite match so there was a little confusion but we made it. The vote was unanimous upon arrival - this was the best hostel we had stayed in, and we hadn't even stayed in it yet! We dumped our bags and headed out for a walk in Vancouver.
It is always amazing to me how coincidental life is at times. If we had turned back sooner, or later, or not gone out, or stopped to look in a window, or (well you get the point) we may never have bumped into Dean Commons and his pertner Amanda. Dean is/was a colleage of mine from Leeming Senior High School. As it was I was so excited about seening a familar face I couldn't remember his name until it was almost too late, and then I almost called him Dave. They have been here for the last couple fo months trying to get work, and we agrred that after dinner we would meet up again for a couple of drinks.
Here I need to mention that Chris, for the last half hour or so, had been almost continually discussing the $3.50 pints of beer that we saw advertised on the door of the competing youth hostel across the road from ours. I guess it was a good deal. So we decided that was the place to head with Dean and Amanda when they came to meet us at the hostel at 8.
Dean had a better idea and promtly marched us off to Gastown. It is a really neat area of town which Dean (an extremely well versed tour-guide considering their short residency)told us was the perfect place to open up a little theatre, and infact he had the perfect little place picked out. Backing onto (get this) Blood Ally!! Lots of atmosphere!! We headed to a little brewery for a drink and a chat.
We left Dean and Amanda on a quite road and headed for home. As we approached we became aware of the huge numbers of young party people out on the road. We joined in and Chris got his $3.50 pint of a local brew called Beaver Beer (or somthing equally as Canadian and loopy). Actually we each got several of them and after a plate of nachos and a chat with a Tasmanian girl we were both feeling a little tiddly. Actually, I think I was considerably more tiddly than Chris.
Across the road things had really picked up at the two pubs beside our hostel. The guy on the front desk, when asked, said that it was a fairly standard Friday night and that earplugs were available from him if they were needed. We declined, knowing that our room was at the back of the hostel away from the street and walked off down the wildly vibrating and thumping hallway. After an extended giggling fit brought on by the aforementioned tiddlyness and something funny said by Chris (although I can't now think what it was) we both slept well (despite dreams of being stuck in a techno dance club hell).
The next morning we made it to the ferry and over to Vancouver Island. Now reportedly this trip is very pretty with one leg of the hour and a half long journey being through a fairly narrow channel between some small islands. We didn't think we were going to see any of it. As we got closer to the ferry terminal the fog closed in and by the time we got on the boat we could barely see from one end of it to the other. It must have been our day though because the fog lifted completely just as we were reaching the island channel and the view really was fabulous. Lots of water birds (even seagulls can look romantic when you are in the right mood), wooded hill sides and smoking chimneys. It really was wonderful.
We were met at the terminal on Vancouver Island by Elke's Unkle Jochen and Aunt Diane. See if you can guess which side of the family they are on... Jochen, Jurgen, Elke... It was great to see them after so long and also to see their kids, Helgi and Johannes (more hints as to familial origins) and of course good old Oma.
OK, so it wasn't as short an entry as I had anticipated. Sorry. The next one will be shorter by comparison. Promise. I hope.
I just get so excited telling everyone about what is happening. Plus my journal in the old fashioned book form is not going well so this is to remind us when we get home too.
hugs to all.
# posted by Elke & Chris @ 1:58 am 
