Day 19 - Vancouver

Today we took in the cultural sights of the shopping centre at Metrotown.  It is a good shopping centre and we spent a good few hours wandering around but were all fairly restrained with the plastic which was good.  Lauren insisted on going in every single Aldo she could find to see if the bag she had deliberated upon a few weeks ago was still there.  It was not.  Not in any of them.  (And that would be about 9 altogether).  Charlie was disappointed by the Accessorize store and will be reporting back to work on Monday that they are not up to the usual standard she expects!  I managed to resist entering Gap (which I thought was really restrained) and Laura got blisters from her flip flops.

We then returned to downtown and took a walk along the English beach which was really pretty before taking a little boat back to Kitsilano (which is the area where Lauren lives).  After watching a load of dogs play in the sea, which left Charlie bored beyond her wildest dreams and Lauren saying she could spend all day watching them we returned to get ready for a big Friday night out on the town.

We went to a bar/restuarant called Earls for dinner which looked really nice but had the effect of poisoning Charlie within an hour of her finishing her pasta.  We indulged in some cocktails which were good but really strong before wandering down to Gastown and to an irish pub called the Blarney Stone.  I have never seen anything quite like it.  Apart from feeling rather old in there it was really strange to see a load of 19 year olds (the age to drink here) go nuts over a traditional irish band complete with OAP violinist whose birthday it was.  The band took a break at one point and we were treated to obscure 80s cheesy rock hits which they also went nuts to.  It was definitely an interesting experience!  Unfortunately Charlie then felt  the effects of her dodgy dinner so we returned home in the early hours with Adam chatting up the taxi driver and calling himself 'Davie' for some unkown reason whilst squeezing 3 people in the front of a cab, Laura being sleepy and falling asleep, Charlie feeling distinctly unwell, Lauren sorting out everyone, and me being rather bemused by the whole experience!

Tomorrow Charlie departs back to the UK again (hopefully she will feel better by then).

Distance travelled today - 0 miles.

Bearwatch - 0 real bears.  Many stuffed toy ones.