Out and About

Taking Omitsu for a walk along Creelman St.
with its pink blossom trees.

View of Vancouver overlooking Granville Island.

Artwork in Kitsilano.

Reflections from above,Vancouver city centre.

View from Kitsilano beach.Fay's favourite tree.

Olympic Curling

Go Team GB!

The Olympic Spirit

The start of the 2010 Winter Olympics has brought about a wonderful a sense of pride and patriotic spirit for the Canadians. Every time Adam and I visit the city centre, we get lost amongst the red sea of Canadian supporters. The fun, proud and friendly atmosphere is like no other we have experienced. We feel very welcome in the city as the people here are so friendly. Today we carried around our big Union Jack which turned out to be a real conversation starter.

For those who don’t mind queuing, there are great choices of free events taking place, from Zip lining and Ice skating in Robson Square to live concerts at Yaletown. So far Adam and I have chosen to ignore the three block line ups. However I did manage to visit the Canadian Mint Collection which involved lifting a bar of gold weighing in at 28 lbs!! And viewing the mighty Million Dollar Coin...

Lynn Canyon

Lynn Canyon is situated in the district of North Vancouver. To reach Lynn canyon Adam and I had to catch a ride on the Seabus from the Downtown area across to Lonsdale Quay. The Seabus only takes eight minutes to reach the other side but it was still an enjoyable experience.

It was interesting to see the Downtown area from a new observation point,the stretch of skyscrapers looked superb.

When the sun finally broke through the grey mass of clouds, we both jumped at the photo opportunity.

After a lengthy uphill bus ride we arrived at our final destination.Upon entering the canyon Adam and I were both impressed with the magnitude of the trees and the lush green vegetation. As we approached the suspension bridge we could hear the raging waterfalls beneath us, crossing over the suspension bridge was rather exciting as there is a 50 metre drop to the rocky canyon below.

After our first Canadian suspension bridge experience we decided to explore more of the park and followed a trail towards Rice Lake.
The lake was converted in to a drinking water reservoir in 1912 as a back up system in case there happened to be a low water supply during the summer.

The Lynn Creek water system was still in use up until 1981 when the system failed due to flooding. North Vancouver's water is now supplied the Seymour reservoir, located a little further up north.

The reflections made by the lake were wonderfully calming and very beautiful to see. Adam and I both took a moment to unwind and let the wise old trees fill our lungs with goodness.

Beautiful BC

Walnut Street

Our new home is situated in the famililar area of Kitsilano, we are just a few blocks from the beach in one direction and a few blocks away from 4th Avenue in the other direction. 4th Avenue is a big shopping spot which happens to be where I go to work.The street has a range of grocery stores, my favourite being Capers and The Apple Market. It has a big Safeway supermarket but I find it very overpriced and the food seems to only be available in very large quantities.

Adam works down town in a place called The Pacific Centre (a big shopping mall) He can conveniently catch the bus from the end of Walnut Street and it will go right into the centre. To catch the bus it costs $2.50, which certainly adds up, so I now buy a book of 10 tickets for $19.00 from the local corner shop and Adam is now the proud owner of a monthly bus pass that cost a bunch more dollars but definitely works out in the long run.

We are sharing our home with a Canadian couple, Lukas and Naomi. We have yet to meet Naomi as she herself is off on her travels but Lukas is a nice guy around our age. He took us out for Sushi which was very tasty! We are also very happy to be living along side a very cute dog and lovely fluffy cat.

6th Avenue

The next part of our trip took us to the area of Kitsilano. It can be reached by taking a 10 minute bus ride over Granville Island or Burrard Bridge.

We immediately fell in love with area. The houses are gloriously oversized and all unique. It is an expensive district but very beautiful, quiet, safe and clean.

We booked in four nights at a home on 6th Avenue through a homestay website called airbnb. Darcy was our fabulous host, he was very welcoming and gave us a great introduction to Canada. We experienced the taste of Nanaimo bars, the luxurious warmth of heated floors and the joy of a fridge freezer with an ice dispenser.

We loved meeting Darcy's friends and realised they have a great fondness of rye and coke (rye and ginger ale for the ladies).

During our stay we realised it was going to take longer than we had anticipated to find a rental property. Thankfully Darcy offered us an extension which allowed us more time to get house hunting. We must have looked at about five properties, none of which were suitable for our needs. Then finally... hooray we found a place to stay!

So it was goodbye to Darcy, Oscar & Charlie (the cats) and hello Walnut Street.

The First Night

We spent our first night at a hostel in the downtown area of Vancouver. The hostel itself was actually OK, the main downstairs area had a striking similarity to the Norwich Art School bar. Our bed was painted to look like a castle, very random indeed.

It took us a while to get over our jet lag and acclimatise to our new surroundings. It helped that we travelled over here as part of the BUNAC group. It was good to socialise with fellow Brits and share information about Canada. Some of the group plan to stay in Vancouver like us, so it will be nice having some friends to meet up from time to time.

Hello Everyone, welcome to our Canadian blog spot. We thought it would be a good idea to keep you updated on our day to day happenings. So far we have been situated in Vancouver, British Columbia for three weeks. It is a beautiful location, the city itself is nestled between an impressive display of snow topped mountains and the Pacific ocean. The city is named after Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer who sailed to Burrard Inlet in 1792. The population of Vancouver is around 580,000 and because everything is so spread out and spacious, it often doesn't feel like we are actually in a city at all.