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Vancouver pt2

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Well I’ve explored Vancouver for 3 days now, there’s some pretty cool parts of town and more Japanese restaurants than I’ve ever seen in one city. (though that will probably change in the next month or so…) Plenty of other different ethnic foods too.

Saturday the weather was just about perfect and that was reflected by the mob of people all over Stanley park, so we drove up to Grouse Mountain above North Vancouver and did some hiking in the forest. Different to any forest I’ve been in, it was so quiet the only thing you could hear was the occasional bird call, no other noise whatsoever.

I explored most of the downtown on foot during one of the 3 days here but when Sunday decided to be wet it turned into a public transport day which is pretty easy to figure out here and we got to some more outreaching parts of the city. Overall I like the the city vibe here. There are so many international people here that certain areas no one is speaking any english but other areas everyone is speaking english and I liked areas represented by both categories. You can just about forget you are in North America for a while and then be reminded that you are just as quickly as you forgot, interesting…

Next it’s back to the US and Seattle with an Oasis concert coming up there on Tuesday, should be a blast!

Vancouver

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Vancouver skyline

 

Arrived in Vancouver today after camping in a small campsite in the mountains last night.  The drive through British Columbia is great even without snow on the mountains since it’s August.  Though last night the low got down into the 40s, so much for summer!

Walked around Vancouver quite a bit this evening and randomly came across the 9:00 gun in Stanley park as it’s daily shot was being fired.  Unfortunately the city skyline here is dominated by the water front high-rise apt buildings which I find quite ugly, it’s one of the least attractive skylines of any city I’ve been in.The city is very international,

 

 

I’ve heard so many languages so far that I couldn’t count them all and several I couldn’t identify.  Walking down one street felt like a mile long world bistro and despite having already eaten dinner the area was still very engaging and all well kept up & classy.  As a whole the city has a European feel to it, with lots of different Asians here but it still holds on the the North American city feeling somewhat. Hard to explain but the diversity here is the main thing I’ve noticed so far.

A note for anyone trying to view my pictures on flickr:  Apparently flickr decided to stop letting people view most of my photos, I’m trying to get that fixed so hopefully it should be working properly again soon.

Montana and into Canada

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Spent the last few days driving through Montana.  Billings to Missoula on Monday, Missoula up to Troy on Tuesday which was very scenic.  Yesterday we crossed the US/ Canada boarder into British Columbia yesterday and spent the night in Kelowna, BC.  The drive from Creston, BC to Kelowna is right through the mountains with fantastic views the whole way, which even the on and off rain couldn’t spoil.  Yesterday was the first day of rain since the day I left, but some of that was neat with the low clouds hanging onto the mountains.

 

We still haven’t paid for a campsite yet, due to a combination of staying with relatives and parking in walmart parking lots where they allow free overnight parking.  Classy I know, but it’s free and we haven’t been staying overnight in areas with great parks with camping for the most part, that will change soon though.  

 

One wonderful (read: woeful) US dollar now buys me $1.06 Canadian, which quite frankly sucks but at least it’s 5% better than when I was in Canada last year..  Wireless internet access has been hit and miss, mainly available in the decent sized towns but nowhere else but I’ve been able to connect at least once a day.  I haven’t put much on here yet because pretty much everything until yesterday was places I’d been before, from here on out it’s all new.

 

Next up, Vancouver…