Touch down

Andy drinking maple syrup straight from the bottle.... where have we seen this before?!
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9 hours flew by, especially when you've been given the gift of sleeping anywhere like Adam, and we arrived in Vancouver. There was some concern at immigration when Andy decided not to bother reading half the customs form and the big Canadian immigration official didn't seem to take too kindly to this. Oh and this was after the official had given Adam the Spanish inquisition.

Pleasantly surprised by the temperature, we jumped in a taxi to the Samesun Hostel, downtown, which was handpicked from the bible that is The Lonely Planet. We seemed to land on our feet as the hostel was in a great location, reasonably clean and has a bar on site! A little concerned that we'd be perceived as slightly confused about our sexuality for sharing a small double room and also wanting to save some pennies, we moved in to a 4 bed dorm thereafter.

Stanley Park and beyond from the top of the Harbour Tower
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After a long day and desperately trying to adjust to the 7 hour time difference, we wandered down to "The Beaver" for a well earned pint to be greeted with Beaver on tap... which pours surprisingly quickly and despite being the cheapest beer on tap, tastes pretty good!

We're now getting a bit worried that this is going to be a blow by blow account and you'll probably all start getting bored so we'll try to be a bit more concise...

After originally hoping we would have an empty dorm, the following day we were to find ourselves sharing with two Irish guys, Kevin and Martin... Kevin being a big balding bloke and Martin a much smaller bearded Ginger! Always getting drunk and talking some interesting variation of English which made more sense after they'd had a few drinks! They were nice guys!

Gastown Steam Clock and cheesy smile
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Thursday, our first full day saw us head out Downtown and to the Harbour Tower Restaurant and look out. From the top you could see the majority of Vancouver, the mountains and cable cars on one side and the bustling Downtown Vancouver on the other. For such a big city, it lacks the hustle and bustle that you might expect from a New York or a London. This may be because of the unique, serene setting, sandwiched between snow tipped mountains and the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Having said that, for such a beautiful city, the number of homeless people really does detract from the ambience. After a quick run around the top of the tower we ventured around Vancouver to see what was about. Walking through a little neighbourhood called Gastown was to bring more than we had bargained for! Initially it seemed pretty nice but as we reached the far side we noticed it got a little quieter and people seemed to get a little stranger. We eventually found ourselves walking out the far side of Gastown with people dancing, laughing at themselves and kissing walls. There was something deeply disturbing about the people we were surrounded by.... Lets just say we didn't spend too much more time hanging around there!

Street art / graffiti
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Now getting to grips with the hostel, Andy made a big break through when he discovered that there were free pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast! Needless to say, this made him very happy and the hostel probably now regret including this in the price of a room! Full of pancakes, we headed for the aquarium which if we're honest was a bit of a let down. Though this was probably a result of us being spoilt by Sea World in our younger years. The outing however wasn't without memorable moments, notably Andy breaking the scales that were used for weighing the giant sea lion! On the way back we stumbled across Vancouver Boat Club, which leaves the new NUBC boathouse with something to be desired! Really wanting to look inside, we managed to convince them that we're in Vancouver for 6months and thinking about joining the club!

Gay and proud, Davie Street
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We're told that St Patrick's Day is actually a North American creation which probably explains why there was a huge amount of hype surrounding it: queues outside pubs at 10 in the morning, green beer and general drunken debauchery. Although, still struggling with jet lag, this didn’t stop Andy putting in an International Season’ best and returning home at 8.45 (admittedly with Adam not far behind)! Turning St Patrick’s Day into a 5 day event, there was a big Celtic Parade the next day with dancers, pipers and all things Irish.

Beluga whale
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Few cities can boast having such a large expanse of park land as Vancouver has in the shape of Stanley Park. In need of some exercise, we had the option of even hiring some bikes or some roller blades. We chose the bikes, a decision that was vindicated following a trip to the ice rink later in the week! After years of finding excuses not go ice skating (mainly because Adam knows he’s rubbish at it which he doesn’t like), Adam gave in and we went with the hostel to the local ice rink! My worst fears came true, I was still rubbish with Andy afraid that I wouldn’t leave the wall the whole night! I rallied and there’s still hope for landing that speed skating medal at the 2010 winter Olympics in Whistler!

An owl
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Ah yes, Whistler! Well we’ve been! Unfortunately it was only for forty minutes! Pretty excited about seeing some decent snow, perhaps doing a bit of boarding and going on some snow bikes, we got there only to find that all the hostels were 100% fully booked and the only available accommodation would cost us GBP100 per night! Tails between our legs, we returned home.

So that’s a not so brief run down of the first 10days. There’s some other stuff we could tell you about including Andy’s remarkable knowledge of the Transformers in pub quizzes, seeing the Vancouver Canucks beat the Nashville Predators in the National Hockey League, IMAX, meeting some mad Swiss, all interspersed with some random drinking and hangovers!

Sea Otters, amazing! They can float on their backs whilst sleeping
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All in all Vancouver’s treated us pretty well other than the awful weather and the fact that we’re really in between the winter and summer seasons which has meant we couldn’t really see much of the surrounding area. It’s been a nice introduction to backpacking, getting to grips with hostels, budgeting, cooking for ourselves again etc. etc. Canada down, it’s on to Fiji where the real fun begins!