Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2006
1
158
188
Trip End
Ongoing
Vancouver,
British Columbia,
Canada
Sunday, March 30, 2008
We headed over to Stanley Park and wandered through a small section of it to go to the Aquarium. Having been to Sea World recently and the Boston Aquarium I was thinking it might be more of the same, but there was quite a few very weird and wonderful underwater freaky fish to look at. Some alien looking, some plain weird but the best for me was the Beluga Whales as one of them was obviously a bit bored that day and was blowing bubbles for entertainment. I'd seen a clip of dolphins doing this. It was going up to the surface and gulping some air then blowing a circular air bubble and chasing after it. The bubble lasted for a while and then it would bite it to burst it. Unfortunately they were cleaning the tank that day so there was a lot of algae in the water and it never seemed to blow a bubble in the best direction or for long enough for me to get a photo. So you'll just have to believe me, but in case you don't, have a look at this Youtube of dolphins doing it:
http://www.yootube.com/watch?v=TMCf7SNUb-Q
We managed to see a couple of talks when we were there and spent quite a long time so got good value for money. The last talk of the day was aboot sea otters and one of them was getting fed whilst this was going on. It either caught the fish or scooped it up but would then float on its back and use it's chest as a table whilst munching away.
We headed back after the aquarium and got caught in a hailstorm. We were laughing aboot something completely unrelated but a lass walking past with an umbrella also started laughing. We couldn't work oot if she was laughing because we were and thought we were laughing aboot the weather or if she was just a complete nutter. We saw another few people grinning or laughing away. Vancouverites, mad, the lot of em. Whilst there was a certain novelty factor to it for me, it soon faded when the hail started stotting off my head and pinging off my face and ears.
The next day we went on the hunt for winter gear to a shop called Mountain Coop. Unfortunately it was more aimed towards hiking and general ootdoor stuff rather than snow gear so wasn't much use. I need some stuff that I can use on the slopes, but also cheap stuff too. It's a good time to be buying towards the end of the season so hopefully there's a bargain oot there somewhere. We didn't particularly find any so I'll leave any snowy adventures until after Calgary as there might be a better choice there as it's close to plenty ski hills. Graham came over fully prepared with all his stuff so might sneak in some west coast skiing before we head off. On the way back to the hostel, aboot 5.30 came the daily hailstorm but this time I was fully prepared. I had my brolly that I bought in Perth with me.
On Saturday we heard that there was a snowboarding comp going on up in the mountain which is on the North Side of Vancouver. We wandered down and jumped on the sea bus and in an hour or so were on our way up the wobbly cable car which got a woooo from quite a few people as it swung aboot over the towers. It was -4 degrees and was the day I had on 5 layers. We were only there to check it oot and started oot our winter wonderland day with a trip on a sleigh! It drove (no reindeer I'm afraid) us over the hill to the competition and we watched a few boarders chucking themselves down the hill and off a big ramp until the mist and fog came in and they took a break. We headed back in the main centre and thawed oot by watching a couple of short films. The first was aboot a couple of grizzlies that they're keeping in captivity to test oot an electric fence system that they could possibly use in the wild to protect and rehabilitate wild bears withoot any human contact so they can be released. The other film was a promo of British Columbia and just lots of nice looking aerial shots. After those we went back and saw the end of the competition and enjoyed the snow which was more like polystyrene balls than flakes, but not quite fully fledged hailstones. On the way back to the hostel, yeah, more hail, although it was a bit more slushy this time. There was certainly more slush on the floor and by the time we got back to the hostel my feet were soaked through completely.
Yesterday the sun came oot. Unbelievable. Blue sky. I thought I'd never see it again. It was all a bit suspicious actually. We were meeting up with Tracey, who's a friend of Tara who's Steve's better half who we're going to visit in Calgary. She'd mentioned to us that Vancouver is a nice place when the sun shines but we'd not seen any evidence of sunshine so didn't believe a word of it. Lo and behold the day we were meeting up, oot pops the sun. We met up in a bar with an ootside patio and sat in the sun, which was actually quite warm for a while. The second the sun started to go down the temperature went with it. On the way back to the hostel, it didn't hail! It was freezing though, it took a while walking to warm up. We walked through the dodgiest bit of the city just to check it oot. We weren't stabbed, we weren't even bothered or hassled so it wasn't scary but it definitely showed the other side of a big city with all the druggies and down and oots with their shopping trolleys for homes.
Today the sun is oot again, so I'd better stop typing and get oot there before it disappears.
