Seeing the blog posts in “newest first” order makes sense while actually on the holiday. But afterwards, it’s nice to be able to see the trip from start to finish, instead of finish to start. So here we are:
For the flight from Incheon to Sydney, Korean Air had offered us an upgrade to “first class” for a moderate fee, so moderate that we didn’t think twice before saying heck yes we’ll give it a go. So we figured this might be a nice way to round out the whole holiday. When we say “first class” it’s not super fancy like Emirates or whatever. This plane seems a fair bit older than the one we took from Vancouver. But still – once we boarded through the seperate door for First / Business passengers no less, would you look at the space, that’s crazy!
Definitely can’t complain about that! Legroom check: More than ok!
I don’t know why they bothered making the screen a touchscreen because nobody will ever be able to reach it – there’s a little old-school remote-on-a-string to operate it. We were in the middle seats, so no window, but no dramas! And if I had no idea who my seat-neighbour was, there’s a big-arse privacy screen the covers the whole length of the seat/suite – didn’t need that though. Anyway, all quite impressive and must really have been pretty super-duper in its hey-day.
We were a little late taking off due to lots of pother planes trying to do that at the same time, but no biggie. The plane did give a mighty groan and a good deal of shuddering as the engines revved right up and we left the ground … but nothing seemed to explode and from then on in the engines were perfectly smooth and happy. The air around us however had other idea – for the first maybe two hours things were jittery. The plane, not the passengers. There was just an almost-constant turbulence – not enough to be concerning, but enough that they had to delay dinner by about an hour, and rush back to sit down a few times. So does my dinner come with? A bowl of steaming hot soup of course! So it was a bit of a race to see how quickly I could get the water level down before one jolt sent soup everywhere. Things were calm enough ended up being no soupnami to worry about. It was a nice soup, a little spicy, but not a fish soup like the first leg of the trip home, so very happy about that.
Dinner was served in three courses, which is jolly fancy. I guess this still counts as a course even if it’s a prawn on some toast?
This was very quickly followed by some beautifully vaguely-cooked tuna, and a salad served in a way I’d never seen before. A collection of different leaves, stacked together in a plastic wrapping, with a carrot and a green chilli added in as well. I’m not trying to be funny about the tuna, it was delicious and the onion & radish were perfect accompaniments.
I didn’t take a photo of the bibimbap itself but it was presented very differently to last time – most of the mixing had already been done, only the rice and the mushrooms were served separately, everything else was pre-mixed. I think it was tastier than the last one, maybe the flavours had more time to settle since most ingredients had been mixed together for a while.
I unwrapped my salad lead stack – some of the leaves were nice, some of those leaves were more ‘whoa…what is that?’ – but the very zesty lemon vinaigrette managed to overpower the worst of it.
Once the bibimbap was done, they came back again this time with a little plate of fruit and a little place of cheese and bickies. And after that, they came back again this time with a little tub of ice cream. So really, can’t fault the service, or the quantities, it was a pretty substantial meal.
Just like the first leg from Vancouver to Incheon, all the cabin crew were really warm and friendly, excellent service, with again the vague hint of disorganisation, maybe they’re bedding in a new process and everyone doesn’t fully have the hang of it yet. There was nothing wrong as such, just really tiny things, like everyone gets a lovely hot towel… on every other airlines that’s offered that, it is picked up about a minute later, but here they go putting tablecloths on the you table and other bits and pieces so you end up holding on to a towel for a while thinking what do I do with it, before it finally gets connected.
So just to reiterate it’s only really little things, and I’m being so nit-picky because I don’t have much else to write about, and maybe also because this will be the last time I’m writing about a flight for a while so I’m just going a bit overboard and stringing it out a bit. Ultimately, noting that you’ve had to hold on to a refreshing warm towel for few seconds too long really is the epitome of a first world problem, and a sign that one’s privilege is showing.
After all the lovely food and plates and tablecloths were cleaned away, it was time to get some sleep – and this time on a bed that is full width end-to-end, unlike the other beds which taper quite a bit down at the foot end. After the ‘please turn into a bed’ button was hit, the seat did its usual gyrations and did indeed turn itself into a lovely big wide bed. As a bonus the supplied pillow was pretty awesome this time too. The low-level turbulence kinda helped rock everyone to sleep I think, though there were again a few instances where it came a. bit more severe and there were announcements stating everyone must stay and their seats and not get up for any reason. No way I was going to do that, I was too busy being all comfy in a good sized bed. Really really impressed with it. I don’t know why they supplied a blanket as the cabin was quite warm (maybe a bit too much so) – but I ended up sleeping really well, luckily waking up about 10 minutes before breakfast was served (i.e. 10 minutes before everyone wants to go to the loo at the same time), so was nice to miss rush hour!
With the ‘now turn back into a seat again’ button pressed, it was soon time for brekky. Scrambled egg and bacon and potato and broccoli and tomato, with a choice of breads/pastries, marmalade or jam, and a choice of plain or strawberry yoghourt. Pretty awesome really! The scrambled egg was pretty solid but you know that’s gonna happen when it’s been cooked ages ago and reheated, so all good, it was still really tasty, and by the time you finish all that, and the croissant with jam, and the yoghourt … no way are you going to go hungry!
After that, it wasn’t too long til we came in for a very gentle landing, and hello again, Sydney! Thanks to a good amount of sleep it really felt like a much shorter flight than 10 hours, a pretty cool experience.
I managed to get a quick pic of the plane just after we walked off it.
I think an A380 had come in at around the same time so there was a bit of queue for the passport gates but it did move nice and quick. We picked up our customary duty free bottles of booze, and went on our way. It didn’t take too long get the baggage and get through the border security and so forth – next minutes, we were outside, and seeing very strange things like cars driving on the correct side of the road! One of my nieces had very kindly volunteered to give us a lift home, so that was really nice.
We were soon back home, and time to meet someone who, despite their face perhaps saying otherwise, was really happy to see us:
She hasn’t left our sides all day – so I guess she’s not too disappointed we’re back.
So, that’s that, five pretty amazing weeks all done, now just bunch of wonderful memories and average-to-mid blog posts 😀
Starting with Honolulu was a good pre-holiday holiday, and a nice way to break up a very long flight with a few chill days.
Boston’s a lovely city full of history, just pick the right hotel that won’t try to charge you hundreds for early-leaving fees when you left bang on time.
New York is … well it’s New York. Pretty much unaffected by the current bonkers political climate over there, it was epic to be able to see so many shows during our time there, and soak up some of that ‘city that never sleeps’ vibe.
Montreal was quite pretty, the language barrier was basically non-existent just start every conversation with Bonjour and you’re good to go.
Ottawa was a bit of a mixed bag, definite Canberra vibes, plus a fair amount of homeless people not having a great time, but not causing us any bother. It’s civic building are lovely, and we were so lucky to have booked our time there when it coincided with the Aus election … but I don’t know it’s a place that I feel a need to rush back to.
Toronto – always an energetic happening place, was nice to come back and see a little more of the city and surrounds.
Vancouver – glad we had a chance to get a proper look at this place unlike last time in 2018. It’s so very green for a big city, with a lovely bay we were fortunate enough to look over (and take too many sunset photographs).
Incheon – there for a good time not a long time, but having the transit hotel available made such a difference for a very long time stopover.
Now – time to get back to work and save up to hopefully get away for another trip in two years. Thanks for following along on our little journey, see you for the next one!
First things first – what happened to May 15? Swallowed up by the International Date Line when we crossed it. Our flight did take off a bit after midnight, so I guess technically we did see a little bit of May 15.
To pick up where I left off earlier … once it was time to board we left the lounge, boarded the plane, turned left (always nice when you get to do that) and … holy crap, this is amazing! I’d heard that Korean Air is good but kinda standard in what they offer, but walking in to the cabin I was pretty amazed. Why have seats when you can have suites? Well that’s what they call them – I guess they are talking things up a bit, but each seat was its only little room even with a sliding door to close it off from the rest of the plane. Really surprised to be treated to something this fancy!
In addition to a door, there was a huge screen, a good amount of storage, and (what looks like) a microwave …
It’s not just me, right? It definitely looks like a microwave…?
In actuality it was just a little storage cupboard to securely keep your headphone stored while the plane was taxiing and at takeoff/landing.
There was even a wireless phone charging pad which was a nice touch, and the pull-out tray table had a stand that you could rest your phone or iPad on. All very thoughtful.
Instructions on how to use everything in the seat/suite
As soon as we sat down we were handed a welcome drink, and a menu to check what you wanted for dinner and breakfast. The staff were all really friendly and kind.
There were two courses for dinner – first up, a prawn salad, which was pretty nice (not being a bit seafood fan)
My main course was Bibimbap – a very popular Korean meal, they even kindly gave instructions on how to eat it 🙂
It was nice and tasty. What looks like a tube of red toothpaste was a chilli paste so you could make the dish as spicy or mild as you wished, which was nice. I wasn’t a big fan of the very fishy soup that came with it, but I gave it a go. The bibimbap itself was nice, as were the other side dishes. Winner winner Korean dinner!
Service seemed a tiny bit disorganised – but hey we all good fed good meals so mustn’t grumble. Perry had a steak which he said was cooked perfectly to his liking. Dessert was a small plate of tasty fruit.
By the time dinner was done it was about 2am Vancouver time, so sleep was definitely next thing on the agenda. It was just a matter of pushing the ‘Hey seat, turn into a bed would ya?’ button, and the seat duly obliged, winding itself back and down til it joined up with the footrest to make up a nice lie-flat bed. To be fair the pillow they provided was a bit rubbish but I feel kinda bad to be nitpicking, coz how bloody lucky am I to be able to enjoy a bed while I get whisked halfway across the world. But while I’m whining, wi-fi was an extra $20 so even I said no to that.
The flight was 10 hours long, but I slept like a baby so it felt an awful lot shorter. It was much more comfortable than the Delta sleeper we’d been in a few weeks before, it was more spacious, a godsend to your average fatty-boom-bah like me. So all in all, really really pleasant! The flight was quite smooth, there were one or two times when the Fasten Seat Belt light went on, but they were just minor jitters, nothing to worry about.
I woke up without about 3 hours left on the flight, not too long before breakfast was served. And sure enough, it was also a great meal. An egg frittata with potato, spinach, tomato, and thick-cut ham. And a choice of breads (bagel for me). And some yoghurt. A hearty and delicious brekky for sure.
I dozed off a bit after that, woken only by the gentle thud of the plane on the tarmac as we landed at Incheon. It was so foggy, so snaps to the pilot for being able to land at all, never mind doing it so smoothly.
Next minute … here we are at Incheon airport. It was about 3am, so the place was pretty quiet, but boy it is ginormous!
Incheon airport was to be our home for the next 14 hours. I know last time I said ‘never again’ to a long stopover, but unlike the 30 degree humid lounge we had in Vietnam, this airport is so big it has its own hotel built in, on the Departures side, so you don’t have to clear customs or do any of that, just a simple check of the passport at the transfer desk and that’s it. We checked into the hotel, a windowless box, but still, a windowless box where you could get some proper sleep, have a shower, and use a good base to have so you don’t have to carry your cabin baggage around all day. I can strongly recommend booking this for a long stopover where it’s available.
After catching a few more hours sleep, we headed out to explore this enormous airport a bit, found a burger place – and had a really tasty burger and chips. Actual steak, not just mince. Impressive!
I’m writing this now from the ‘prestige lounge’ of Korean air – one of at least 5 or 6 different lounges here, did I mention Incheon airport is huge? It’s huge. The lounge has a big selection of food and drink, but remembering we’ll soon be fed on the plane, I’ve got to learn to pace myself 🙂 In the meantime here are a few more airport pics.
I guess this is as good a point as any to wrap up this entry, the flight leaves in a bit under two hours, so time for me to go check out all the food and try not to have too much of it. This has been a fantastic little stop-over, I’m so grateful for the hotel and chance to shower and freshen up before what will be our final flight for this holiday. Sydney … here we come!
It’s almost time to start heading home – today’s the day we begin the journey.
But since the flight isn’t ’til late, we still had one last chance to get out and about. Breakfast was at a cafe where I can now say we finally met a surly Canadian 🙂 But, looks like she was only person trying to keep a whole cafe running so I can’t blame her really. And despite all that the coffee was fantastic.
For our last hurrah in Vancouver we decided to take ourselves off to Stanley Park, to see the Aquarium. Just take two buses and easy-peasy, you’re there, no dramas. The Aquarium was I better than I expected to be – or at least, bigger. The highlight would have to be the Sea Otters who were just hilarious. The Prairie Dogs of the sea I think. When we first saw them they were pretty relaxed, just drifting around, but as it came closer and closer to to feeding time (and time for a talk they gave about them) they became more and more energetic, their clocks are very well in sync coz they knew exactly what was about to come. A few things I learned – sea otters fur became very valuable in the past – literally worth its weight in gold. In Vancouver, they successfully overhunted the population, down to … Zero. As a result, There was no one to control the number of sea urchins so they had a population explosion. And because of that, they in turn destroyed the kelp forests which are on the biodiversity keystones (ie super important) for the area.
Fortunately, in 1969-72 they were able to import 89 otters from Alaska, and happily this was a great success with the population rebuilding slowly but surely, and the kelp forests returning. Another fun fact – Sea Otters have about a million hairs per square inch, compared to about 1,000 for the average human. Sea Otters also have little pockets under their arms, which they use to store their favourite rocks – useful for smashing shells on. Mind you, they have the same biting force as a black bear, so they could probably get by without the rocks if they had to. Oh and lastly, when otter babies are born, the mum often wraps them up in a kelp blanket. Awwww….
Hanging out with their favourite bucket…
As we wandered about it was surprising to see a Sloth at an aquarium, its enclosure didn’t feel too big, but I guess moving at the usual sloth pace maybe it’d take a week to get from one side to the other. There were a few reptiles there as well.
We also went to see the ‘4D Experience’ – with snazzy 3D glasses, and an extra D (ooh, Matron!), which was rumble effects and wind effects, even a little spray of water when an animal fell into a river for example. A bit frivolous but fun enough for 15 minutes.
Sure enough, I took lots of pictures., and videos. The videos don’t seem to be uploading here in the airport so will try them later.
Just outside the Aquarium, saw a squirrel, having a breather after being chased/attacked by a crow
After that we hopped on the bus, and the other bus, to get back to the room.
Now for the hard part – packing the suitcases to come back home. Easy enough to do physically – emotionally, maybe not! Vancouver’s a pretty cool city – quite green, good vibes, but still a lot of people without a home, who I hope the city continues to help. We left our usual calling card, and there was still time for one last sunset pic from the balcony, before our car came to take us back to the airport.
At the airport, check-in was lovely, and we were through security within minutes, there was no queue at all, so that was a pleasant surprise. So now all that’s left to do is wait in the lounge until it’s time for our flight. The Skyteam Lounge isn’t too bad, sandwiches, soup, and someone making personalised wonton soup on demands – a little bit fancy! There’s also cakes, but no ice cream – can’t have everything! :-). But certainly a pleasant enough place to wait. So for now that’s it for Canada – no more poutine, no more buses that say SORRY, no more Eh, eh?
As this trip starts drawing to a close, we figured it’s time to pick up a few souvenirs, else how do you know you’ve even been on holiday? A part of Vancouver called Gastown is very touristy, home apparently to a dozen souvenir shops, allegedly all opened by the same person. Who needs competition anyway?
We hopped on the Number 44 bus and off we went to a stop nearby. First up though, and much more importantly, breakfast. Tasty food and a massive soup-mug of coffee at Waves.
Too busy drinking my humongous coffee to grab a photo of it.
One thing I loved about Waves – on their menu they listed Coffee, Juice, and “Frapp-Eh.”:)
We visited a few of the souvenir shops – this one had the prettiest logo:
I even managed to get a shot of the famed steam-powered Gastown clock.
You’d think, being in Gastown, it’d be gas powered? I guess the funny thing is I took this photo just a few minutes after midday. Yet it was surrounded by tourists just standing there taking photos of it, getting selfies with it… it’s a quite a local celebrity. Apparently it’s not even fully steam powered, but helped along by electricity. But not enough help to make it accurate 😀
As luck would have it, once it decided it was something o’clock, I managed to capture the tail-end of its party piece, and it was kinda cool, hearing the standard clock bell tune played out by steam whistles.
Everyone actually applauded at the end…!
We did very important things, like pop in to another branch of Lee’s Donuts – this time for Chocolate Churro Cheesecake, Lemon Cheesecake, and Apple Strudel Donuts. Delicious. You get three for $10, so of course you’d be crazy to get two (which I guess are under $10 but never mind).
It’s a nice part of town, feels very much an older part of the city.
And a cool record shop – which I managed to both (a) escape within 30 minutes and (b) not buy anything. Yes it’s pat-on-the-back time…
We probably wouldn’t be allowed to eat here 😉
Why? That’s right, because we’re not from Brooklyn 😀
Lunch was at a nearby food court, food is from FatBurger, which seemed appropriate. Poutine, and chicken bits.
After all that, we popped on to the Number 50 bus and made our way back to Davie Village.
It was around two years ago, more or less to the day, that we were in Liverpool in the UK for the Eurovision Song Contest. So it was very good to see that for 2025 the first semi-final had just been published direct to youtube and not limited to just Europe, it was ready for anyone to watch. And since I could beam youtube directly from my iPad to the TV in the hotel, we watched the Eurovision semi-final. Lovely!
For dinner tonight, still spoiled for choice with a big street chock full of restaurants, we opted for “Disco Cheetah” – mainly for the name, but secondly for the delicious sounding things on the menu. It was a Korean restaurant, with lots of delicious bowls available, among other things. I opted for the Tofu Cauliflower bowl, Perry had a chicken one. As unexciting as a tofu/cauliflower bowl might sound, it was delicious! Lots of lettuce, pumpkin seeds, shredded carrot, a bit of smashed avocados, and delicious big chunks of tofu and cauliflower in an amazing sauce. Way more tasty than it had any right to be, and it helped me feel a little less guilty after donuts and poutine for lunch.
It just looks like stuff piled on top of stuff, but two delicious bowls of chicken (left) and tofu/cauliflower (right)
Of course, what else was there to do after that lovely healthy food but have a pint of Ben & Jerry’s for dessert.
Tomorrow, it’s time to start re-packing the bags, and start the long trip back home. The flight (well, the first one) isn’t ‘til night-time though, so we have one last day to see what Vancouver has to offer. Sweet!
Yes I think these blog titles are becoming more and more unhinged. I’m OK with it 😀
Today we breakfasted at ‘The Basic’ – it lived up to its name but mostly in a good way. The absolute best part, coffee was being poured into my cup even before I sat down. It’s like they were reading my mind.
Eggs Benny with Avo and Tomato was ok (but I think the sauce might have been from a packet?), and Perry had a corned beef hash. No hash, but lots of corned beef.
And the most important part – Perry’s breakfast was also served with toast and Jif. For all us Australians that sounds pretty problematic. Here, though, it’s different:
Yep Jif is peanut butter. What next, we find out Mr. Sheen is an ice cream, and Gumption is a salad dressing? Probably not. But Jif peanut butter … it’s a thing. Just don’t clean your surfaces with it.
On the way back from breakfast, saw this supportive and thoughtful piece of street art:
After 1,000 or so sunset pic yesterday, here’s one in the daylight hours.
Anyway. Today’s adventure was a 5 hours or so bus tour. This was as good a time as any to put the washing machine on for another of its own 5-hours journeys. Our tour was “Vancouver City and Capilano Suspension Bridge Park”. Happily, it was a pretty small bus with less than 20 people. Our tour guide Steve was great, he drove us all around some of the sights of Vancouver, the fancy shopping district around Alberni and Burrard streets, and a hot tip to go to Lee’s Donuts. We also went around Coal Harbour, and our first real stop was in Stanley Park. It’s a massive park and we saw a little bit of it, but was good to see a collection of indigenous story / family poles. It was also great to for Steve to explain that no, they’re not Totem Poles. And you know whose fault that was? Captain Cook! When he was in Canada he’d recently come from a part of the pacific where people had thes poles with figures carved into them, which they did indeed worship and totems. Captain Cook, upon seeing something vaguely similar in Canada, decided it must be exactly the same thing. So for the following few hundred years people keep saying Totems Poles, when, they ain‘t. As they say – every day’s a school day!
The main attraction of this tour though was the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. There was more to it than a suspension bridge -it was has a few restaurants, a gift shop (of course!), and a number of other walks around the beautiful are in which the park it situated. We were all pre-warned that there was a cliff walk which was great, but, with tons of steps so I thought nah I’ll give that one a miss.
We did however take the suspension bridge. First built in 1889, it has been modernised since then of course, but geez is it ever wobbly. There’s a more comprehensive history here: https://www.capbridge.com/our-story/
Walking across the bridge was a great way to feel really drunk without taking a drop, I couldn’t walk it without holding on to the handrail, it didn’t take much at all to get it swinging and fucking and diving. Running and deliberately shaking the bridge is forbidden, there’s even someone permanently stationed in a little watch-house to pull up anyone doing the wrong thing. It doesn’t need anybody’s extra effort to wobble, it does a great job all by itself. It’s not really obvious from the video, but have a look anyway.
Of all the people eon the bridge, I only heard one mid-way meltdown (and no it wasn’t me!) so that was pretty good going. We made it across the bridge without incident and rewarded ourselves with a cool drink and some Otter Balls 😀 In another instance of ‘every day is a school day’, Otter Balls are just Poffertjes, served with icing sugar and maple syrup, Delish.
Anyway, time for photos of our time at the park:
Don’t know why – maybe they get tangled in the trees too easilyView from the middle of the bridge was pretty goodAnother view from the middle of the bridgeThere’s a lot of it – it’s about 140m long, though feels a lot longer when you’re walking it
Next big stop on the tour was Granville Island – renowned foodie area, artist area, and of course, tourist area. Last time we visited in 2018, we were there mid to late afternoon, didn’t even stay an hour as it didn’t seem that impressive. This time, we had a bit longer to explore which was great. The food market was good – kind like a Queen Vic market in Melbourne or the markets in the center of Adelaide. Lots of interesting good, plus Lee’s Donuts, the shops highly recommended by our tour guide Steve. He was right – tasty donuts! Sorry we went through our ‘butter crunch’ donuts before taking a photo. The whole area is an interesting urban mix of industrial, and, well, more industrial. Situated under a bridge, much of its factory past has been reclaimed, most of the building remain, just housing new and interesting things. Like donut shops 🙂
Holy crap, the price of Vegemite though!
Eventually it was time to return to the bus, and in turn, back to our accommodation. For dinner we headed out to a great (?) dining institution, Denny’s. Tasty lasagne and a good quality steak soon followed by – it was all pretty good and reasonably priced.
Presentation might not be their strong suit but it sure tasted nice.
Who knew spending half a day in a bus would make you tired, so maybe I rushed through this one a bit as I want to go get some sleep. But not without yet another shot of the beautiful sunset of English Bay.
Today for breakfast we wandered down to “Amoko” – a place we’d dropped into to in 2018 (it was under a different name) not long after we’d arrived for our whirlwind 24 hours stay. This time, delicious smashed avo was on the agenda. So good I wolfed it down without even taking a photo.
I also noticed today that the bus awnings are coloured like this…
So they can produce an effect like that on the footpath:
Anyway, we had breakfast on our way to “The Really Gay History Tour”. Unsurprisingly, it’s about Vancouver’s gay history, told during a two hour walk around the streets.
It was an incredibly interesting tour, covering from thousands of years ago to the present day – for example the way many of the indigenous nations around here had words for 3, 4 or even more genders. That’s right, using people’s current pronouns isn’t some new-fangled ‘woke’ thing. Our tour guide talked about som key people in the fight for our rights over the years, it’s time to google ted northe, Dr Peter Jepson Young, and Jim Deva. Our guide also took an unflinching look at the mistakes of the past – where gay men would, sometime violently, keep lesbians out of the gay clubs, as one example. It wasn’t all just winning rights and doing marches, some of the history isn’t pleasant but still important to learn about.
On the lighter side, we saw this important building:
This was the YMCA that inspired the writing of the song. I bet it’s fun to stay there.
Overall, the tour ultimately painted a picture of courage being the catalyst for change – individuals that had the courage to defy the laws of the day to change things for the better. It was well worth doing, and feeling so lucky that the waitlist actually worked out, as the tour was originally full when we tried to book.
Once the tour was done, it was straight to ‘trees’ to get some more of their delicious blended lemonade. Perry had a nap, I went for a small wander down to Burrard bridge. Not the prettiest I guess, but gave a different perspective on English Bay.
Also spotted this interesting fountain/art installation.
For dinner we walked down the street of a thousand restaurants (or at least that’s what it feels like), and ended up back at the delicious ‘Donair Kebab’ place, so sure enough – it was Donair Kebab for dinner. Delicious once again – adding a few pickled vegetables into the kebab really seems to elevate it to another level. Yum!
Tonight was a bit less cloudy than the other evenings we’ve had here, so I got the proper camera out and got a few sunset shots. Didn’t get the shot I was really hoping for, but I included an out-of-focus version below all the same. 🙂
Ah if only it was in focus!
And that’s about it for today. For a day that was forecast to rain all day, we have once again been so lucky with the weather – for the entire trip, really. I’ve probably jinxed it now for our last few days, but let’s see. More tomorrow!
First things first – since we have a washing machine (yay) time to put some washing on. It’s one of those combo washer/dryers that doesn’t really excel at either thing, so it’s good that we weren’t in a rush for clean clothes.
Yep that’s 5 hours to do the washing. And the drying.
It looked like we were going to get some rain this morning, so after a very good coffee at nearby ‘Matchsticks’ cafe we aimed to stay more or less under cover by heading toward the city centre.
We caught one of the trolleybuses – it’s a bit weird as they are just a bus (not weird), but when they aren’t moving, they are completely silent (weird) , since they’re electric, powered by the wires overhead.
The trains are short – I haven’t looked up all the details (I am a nerd, but not yet that much of a nerd) but it feels like they are only long enough for for carriages. (Yes I’m enough of a nerd to be talking about trains though…)
I guess this means the trains are automatic. Or, they let any passenger be the driver. Who can say.
There’s a mall right at the City Centre station, and since it had an Apple Store, what is a nerd to do but grab a photo.
Among the shops we visited was Marshall’s – feels kinda like a Target — but among the many things they sold were Poutine flavoured dog biscuits. You know you’re in Canada when … 🙂
We wandered up and down the streets, through what I guess is the cinema district, because it had … lots of cinemas. It also had a pretty high proportion of homeless people. This isn’t the ‘East Downtown’ area that is the main area for the city’s unhoused, but just seems Vancouver has its fair share of homeless people. I don’t have numbers but it feels like a lot more than Sydney.
While the news was talking about Ford and other companies starting to implement job cuts, there was also a story about a big ‘tiny house’ site to give homeless people their first step to getting back on track, with not just somewhere to live but plenty of medical and mental health support and stuff. I’m getting off track when it comes to talking about a holiday, but anyway it was nice to see that someone’s at least trying to do something to get people off the streets.
Anyway didn’t take many photos but here’s a nice cinema sign.
On the way back to the hotel we saw a nice park:
Also, I think I had the best lemonade ever (ie the non-fizzy, American/Canadian version of Lemonade) at a cafe called Trees. It was next level delicious, blended with ice and smooth and just delicious.
Also, cake!
Once we got back the room I took a moment to put the big-arse zoom lens on my camera to get some shots from the balcony. It’s doesn’t give beautiful crisp pictures but it sure makes faraway things look closer 🙂
I spent about twenty minutes trying (and failing) to get some photos of the birds that are flying around the place, with little to no luck. For example this was the best I’d managed:
Meh.
I must have been manifesting birds out in to the universe or however that goes, because next minute, we had The Visitor. A massive, one-foot-tall seagull landed on the balcony railing, and just start there for a good 20 minutes, striking various poses. So I switched over to my ‘portrait’ lens on my camera and got to work.
So that’s the visitor. Not that dramatic really! Eventually it gave up, but about half an hour later either it or one its friends was back for a while. I guess most tourists give them something to eat – as far as I know I cant read bird-brains but it sure give off ‘sense of expectation’ vibes. Luckily it didn’t go all Alfred Hitchcock, we didn’t up with a hundred of its best friends or anything mad.
The bit of Davie St that we’re staying in, slap bang in the middle of the gay village, feels a bit like King St Newtown – there are like a hundred restaurants and they all good. Tonight we went to Tami’s’ Taverna – and no prizes for guessing that yep it’s a Greek restaurant. The food was pretty phenomenal, we ordered a mixed platter of just-about-everything, plus probably our favourite Greek dish, Saganaki cheese. This was like dinner and a show as the fried cheese was brought to the table and then set alight in front of us. All good flambé fun!
The platter-of-everything, while maybe not the nicest looking thing ever, was sure one of the most delicious things ever. The potatoes were cooked in, well I don’t know what, but they had such a depth of flavour, even the thick slices of carrot were infused with deliciousness. Everything had flavour turned up to 10 or thereabouts, without it being overpowering, every bit of food on the platter was well cooked, and bursting with flavour. If you can’t tell we were pretty impressed, and the prices were reasonable too. So glad we chose this one!
There was a lot of cloud so wasn’t able to get any nice sunset photos, but this one will do.
That was about it for the day – almost feel like I’m still recovering from yesterday’s 3am start. Nighty night!
It goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway – 3am starts are not my friend. But thanks to finishing packing the day before so I didn’t have to engage any brain cells this morning, we got out and to the airport with plenty of time to spare.
Pearson airport is pretty huuuge, but before too long we were through security and found out way to the lounge. It was nice enough, and so big.
Plenty of flights heading out
These big curved departure screens were a bit a fun novelty.
Big Air Canada lounge. Food and drink selection? Less big, but certainly adequate.
They didn’t have a ton of food and drink on offer, but they had coffee so all the rest doesn’t matter so much. Breakfast was a nice bagel with cream cheese.
We hung around there waiting for the flight, and before too long it was time to do a bit more walking to the gate and get on the plane.
Nice seats, plenty of legroom.
Before toooo long it was time for Brekky – and what a breakfast, glad they woke me up for it 🙂
For a while there it felt like they just kept serving food and food and food. Before breakfast there was a little packet of mixed nuts. After breakfast there was a tray full of snacks, and who am I to say no to a Kit Kat. After all that, it was time to get right back to sleep. I was asleep or at least half asleep for the whole 5 hours, but on the plus side by the time the flight was done I was feeling at least half refreshed after the early start.
Vancouver airport had some interesting architecture going on – it’s hard to say but there was a waterfall flowing down that stone wall.
One nice thing with this place was that our accommodation booking came with a free airport transfer, so we gave Uber a rest for once and took the transfer as provided, which worked a treat, we were whisked away from the airport and right to our accommodation.
One thing I noticed on the way was the way the country has been galvanised by recent events happening to the south. Some petrol stations has big “This station is Canadian owned and operated” signs, for example.
Vancouver has lots of trolleybuses – electric buses with big electricity-catching poles kinda like trams. As we were being driven into town, there was one going the other way with “SORRY” the only thing written on its front message/destination board thing. I’m thinking maybe that’s about as Canadian as things get 🙂 It’s also a whole lot greener than Toronto – heaps more trees and shrubs and gardens to be seen, which is nice.
It wasn’t easy to tell but there were a few subtle clues here and there about which part of Vancouver we were staying in.
Due to the difference in time zones, our flight left at 7am, arrived at 8am, and took about 5 hours. We knew it was going to be a long day ahead, and the check-in time for the accommodation wasn’t til 4am. Happily though they stored our luggage while we went for a bit of a wander around, had a drinks break, saw some nice flowers, lots of Canada Geese, and had a very nice wander along the ‘beach’ of English Bay.
Blurry picture of a heronHeaps of crows/rooks/ravens/whatever in this citySnow-capped peaks is one thing I wasn’t expecting, but there were plenty of themIt’s bit hard to see (as I took this from a long way away) but this gosling would have to only be a few days oldNice old car – a Pontiac BonnevilleDelicious “Donair Kebabs” for lunch.
After a delicious “Donair Kebab” for lunch we went back to the hotel lobby to just sit down and do nothing for a bit. There was a whole Australian tour group that had arrived the same day, so we had a bit of a chat with some of the people waiting for a room.
Fortunately we didn’t have to wait til 4pm, as around 2pm our room was ready. Certainly can’t complain about the views!
Having dumped our bags in the room we set out again the get important supplies (i.e. snacks). There ware a few supermarkets nearby and the range of stuff is pretty staggering. Lots of pre-packaged meals, and a very smart ‘oops I forgot I am having people over’ product of a pre-made charcuterie board, including the board! Also some ridiculously large sandwiches that i think could feed a whole family.
Unrelated to anything else, I also found a building that I thought made a nice photo. I also found a few hills which were less-than-nice to have to walk up.
For dinner, we didn’t have to go far – this area is lined with restaurants all up and down the street. We settled on a Japanese restuarant and has some tasty sushi rolls among other things, including some tempura avocado.
So it’s 9pm now but if we were still on Toronto time it’d be midnight, which could help explain why I’m feeling worn out. Time for an early night I think, let’s see what Vancouver has to offer tomorrow. (Sorry if there are tons of mistakes because I’m tired and haven’t bothered to proofread!)
JVL+PJC 