O' Canada, How I've missed you
Trip Start
May 08, 2009
1
22
27
Trip End
Jul 06, 2009
Vancouver,
British Columbia,
Canada
Thursday, June 25, 2009
I got into the hostel in the nick of time for the 8:30PM pubcrawl. Right away, I found a bit of a crew that were standing next to each other and were the blatent extraverts. Isaha was from Atlanta, Georgiana was from Britain, Zia was from Winnepeg, and _____ was from Aussie. We started off at the pub we should have ended at I think; something like Doggories. It was right across the street from the hostel as we were in the club/pub district. I found out I probably should've stayed at the Downtown Hostel as that was near the gay bars and the club district is filled with trashy straight people. The first pub had a bikini contest. There were some REALLY cute straight men watching them (this was about the only plus of the night besides the very gay music they played). The men had markers and were writing obscenities and "funny" things on each other shirts while also getting almost getting kicked out for being too drunk and trying to touch the bikini models.
After the first bar, we went around the corner and grabbed a large table for the 15 of us. The Aussie was hilarious all night and had wit the second after you said something. Zia from "Winnepeg" seemed a little needy. We soon went downstairs to the club where we danced to some pretty cool music. Isaeh, the large black man, put a very drunk woman on his shoulders before getting yelled at. I danced like crazy to a couple songs (Put a ring on it) until they got to the live band. The live band ended up playing mostly 80's songs or great songs that you cant dance to (Mr.
Victoria
Brightside). So Zia and I left early. Boo. As we were walking out of the bar, two men where getting punched in the face, thrown on the ground and arrested by the police. Ah! We went to McDonalds, had drunk food, and talked about boys and life. After a nice drunk time which I haven't had since my fraternity days, we walked outside. Only again to find a fight. Some guy was freaking out on the construction fence with blood going everywhere... I dont think even the bouncers were trying to mess with him. This is what I'm talking about trashy.Relaxing to Michael my ass off
On Thursday, I paid for internet and laundry for the first time. Boo. I slept in, grocery shopped and essentially had a human day. Unfortunetly, my roommate stank like yesterdays rank. Once I got advice on where to go for the night from the cute hostel host, I started predrinking and talked with another rommie of mine. He gave me some good advice on traveling before I took off for Davie street. I had learned during the day the Michael Jackson had died and knew what I was getting myself into (which was fine; I havent listened to him in forever!). I took Ivee's brother's advice and went to 1181 on David. Too posch for me but had a great Travolta movie on. As I was walking down the street, I came across a dance party on the street to Michael Jackson music. The corner was filled with about 15 ecentric people dancing to an ipod stereo of Michael music; they pulled me in and I had a BLAST. I ended up meeting a couple of Irish lesbians who I tagged along with.
Pub crawl
We went got in a cab because one of the girls has a bad disc in her back. As we got into the cab, the one girl opened up the drivers side door and screamed, "Oh! You gave me a fright! You're sitting on the wrong side of the car!" In her amazing Irish accent. I exclaimed while laughing, "I can't get over your accents". The lesi to my left says "I cant get over your accent!"; the lesi in the front says "I cant get over your face...just joshin ya!" and the lesi to my right holds out a mirror and while touching up her lip glosss states, "I cant get over this wart." All of this amazing Irish accent was just too much for me.We got to Odyssey and some straight woman pulls me up on a dance stage for fun. She introduces me to her cute guy friends who are obviously very superficial as they couldn't remember my name or get off their phone. I got in trouble for taking a pic of the naked shower guy dancing, danced with the lesis and with myself, and watched the great music videos of Britney Spears. Generally, a great night!
Eric the Tour GuideI found the energy to go to an all day Vancouver tour with the hostels. I walked briskely with no socks to the Downtown Hostel to get started. We toured the first part of the morning in downtown Vancouver. Eric talked about the world fair land, how the new condos and new developoment is being put there now, the Market Island, some monuments, and a lot of other tidbits that only a local would know. I am in love with Vancouver. Eric should be the official spokesperson for the city if you ask me.
Video
After he let me pick up some expensive socks for my feet (since my others were dirty and Vancouver is expensive), we took the subway to the busboat across the channel. The majority of the tour took place outside the city in the surrounding natural parks. After another busride, we walked around a park for several hours. He showed us lakes, where they'll be having the 2010 winter Olympics, a damn, falls, beautiful trees, beautiful landscapes, etc. I was with a very diverse group as well: He was from Norway, and the others were from Mexico, Holland, Germany, Austrailia, Britain, Michigan, Portland, and Brazil. What made the tour SO interesting was Eric: He knew TONS of tidbits of information about Vancouver having lived here for 48 years. He also did the tours for free because he loves Vancouver SO much. He never got mad even though I wanted to kick the guy from Holland for constantly wandering off (this idiot was trying to impress the woman from Mexico and says "oh look, a golden retriever; great hunting dog". It was a shitzu and not a hunting dog. dumbass). We had lunch where the Salmon where swimming up the stream to lay their eggs. We then walked to the Campinalo suspension bridge which was a huge tourist spot. I guess a 54 ton tree fell on the bridge 2 years ago and didn't do an ounce of damage to the bridge. This type of confidence in the bridge didn't phase me; I WANTED OFF. It was teetering over a 300 foot fall over a river with a bunch of tourist idiots trying to make it teeter more. Lucy who lives in Dublin now and some immature girl from Portland and I sat and chitchatted while waiting for the rest of the gang.
Another video
We decided to hang out both that night and do Stanley Park in the morning.The tour was great and Eric was even better. I have never had a better experience on a tour than with Eric and feel priviledged to have met him. To hear his life stories about traveling, Vancouver, his life, his work, his morals.... was just great. And cheap too :).
Wine in the Summertime
I had my friend Lucy from Dublin (originally from Austrailia) meet my acquantaince Zia from the Pub Crawl. Before we got started, Zia informed me she was actually from Vancouver and was living in the hostel because she was inbetween jobs, at a crossroads in life, and it was cheaper. I was fine with this but when people have two stories to tell, I cannot to help but raise a red flag due to my ex. Anyways, we went to a yuppier part of town (Yalestown?) and had a bottle of wine. It was the start of a 10 day jazz festival around the city so we went to a restaurant with this type of music. We ended up having two bottles and an appetizer and then Zia eventually ditched Lucy and I. I found out I LOVED Lucy. She was brilliant and an architect who believed in sustainable architecture. She actually did a presentation to a bunch of big wigs as to how we need to get back to the way the aboriginies did it 40,000 years ago in Austrailia. Using nature around us to be completely sustainable and in harmony with the land is essential to our existance. She tried to talk me out of city planning and more into architecture...
Random Lesbians
she also tried to talk me into more of Austrailia traveling and less of New Zealand. Although we had our disagreements, I adore her and plan on keeping in contact with her. We ended up hitting up the gay bars 1181 on davie and Neighbors for the dancing. We ended up both dancing with a hideious bald drag queen and some creepy men. Oh what a night!Waiting
I didnt really know what time I was leaving Vancouver and, for the first time on my trip, was going to wing the logistics. Some locals helped me with bus transfers to get to the train station. However, when I got there, I met dead ends. Since I wanted to purchase my ticket with Amtrak rewards points, I couldn't there because the rewards office is closed on the weekend. When I called the number, they couldn't because the rewards place was closed on weekends. The train station internet cafe was also closed on weekends. I took a train back into town in search for an internet cafe which I didn't find. However, anotehr local pointed me in the direction of the Vancouver Public Library. Free books and free internet!!! I booked my ticket and was ready to go. I had some time to kill so I had lunch, walked around (smelt a lot of pot), and took a bus to see Stanley Park. Stanley Park is BEAUTIFUL. Gorgeous huge pine trees, an art fair walkway, rose garden, walkways along the ocean, deep forest trails, bike rentals, and more. I saw a wedding take place and then took a bus back to the train station. I saw on my google maps that a "mall" was down the way from the station. I ended up going to this "non mall" and walked around the area. I found a local shop and bought a T-shirt for Pride in Seattle that night. I also went across to a street to a yuppy coffee shop where I started finishing my book "The Art of Racing in the Rain". I finally finished the book on my trainride down to Seattle. Pride 09' here I come!
