Vancouver

The Greyhound service from Whistler to Vancouver again provided some magnificent views of mountains, seas, forests and lakes.

I checked into the SameSun hostel in Vancouver, on slightly seedy but cool Granville Street; surrounded by clubs, venues and lots and lots of pizza shops. There are probably about 5 pizza shops within viewing distance of the hostel, all selling large $1.49 pizza slices. Vancuvrians (?) must really like pizza!!!

The hostel itself was interesting. My room was very basic: nothing but 2 bunk beds in bare room, and very messy / not very clean looking. I lay down on my bunk bed, exhausted from walking around the city with my backpack on, looking for the hostel (I followed my guidebook's version of where the hostel is which took me to the wrong end of town). Looking at the room, I thought this is what it must be like being in jail. But then I remembered the key difference, I can leave the room. So I did. The hostel came with it's own bar downstairs, called “The Beaver”. The slogan was “Be Canadian. Eat (at the) Beaver.” The “at the” was small print. The best thing about eating (at the) Beaver was the fact that they had nightly $4 meal specials, which on the first night was lasagna, second night Sunday roast and on my last night “West coast” fish and chips. Now that's what I call backpacker priced meals.

I spent my days in Vancouver shopping (first day) and sightseeing (second day). My sightseeing walk of about 5 hours took me along the famous Sea Wall all around Vancouver and the world class urban park Stanley Park, and all through the park itself.

Stanley park really is an amazing place. It is a big park right beside downtown Vancouver on one side, and surrounded by water on the 3 other sides. Walking through it you would swear you are not in the city. It feels like remote forest, lush, green and full of animals. The only sign of the city are the frequent sea landing planes zooming across the park, taking off from one of the waterways just North of Vancouver's downtown.

One of the coolest things about Vancouver is that you can almost always see mountains hiding behind the city's skylines, with their peaks still covered with snow. So you can be on a street surrounded by high rise buildings, but look down the street and see the harbour, and behind the harbour a towering, snowy mountain. But despite the snowy mountain scenery, it was nice and sunny, and 2 of my 3 days here were T-shirt weather.

My overall impression of Vancouver is that is a nice, clean place. In contrast to the US cities I have seen, it certainly feels cleaner, nicer and safer.

On my last night after the ritual meal in the bar I headed out to the local casino. I'd saved so much on buying $4 dinners that I had the urge to lose some money. Which I managed to do nicely. Though I was impressed with the 50 cent roulette tables! This morning I have checked out and am hanging around the hostel before I embark on my train journey across Canada, which departs at 5:30 in the evening.