Vancouver, Friday

On Thursday night I arrived at the Vancouver apartment I’m staying in for five nights. It’s a self-contained studio apartment on the sixth floor of a highrise, it’s quite new, and is close to BC Stadium in Yaletown. So it’s about a 10 minute walk to downtown, which is great. Friday morning I met my cousin Pete for breakfast. Pete lives 15 minutes from me in Brisbane and we never see each other but was nice to catch up again after our big family get together in Alberta. We had brekky in a very cool cafe (Vancouver is full of them) near Chinatown so I took the opportunity to visit the Sun Yat Sen Classical Gardens which have been created using original construction methods and authentic materials. They are quite lovely. Then I walked through historic Gastown to see the old clock that blows off steam when it chimes every 15 minutes and check out the souvenir shops. I decided to go to the Granville Island markets after that to have lunch and buy some supplies. I walked through downtown to the aquabus terminal where a cute little ferry was waiting. I grabbed a turkey hot dog and ate it while watching three young teenagers tap dance in the busking space, they were fantastic. Then I bought blueberry bagels, cream cheese, brie, salmon pate, and pheasant terrine with pistachios and cranberries to snack on for the next couple of days. It was all delicious. I took the little ferry back to my apartment, put everything in the fridge and went for a walk downtown for a couple of hours just checking out the shops and buskers. It was a great day, I really like Vancouver.

Sun Yat Sen Gardens

Sun Yat Sen Gardens

Gastown

The steam clock. I also took a pic of it blowing steam but I like this one better. Will go back and get a better one including steam.

The cute little aquabus

Young tap dancers at Granville Island markets

Hydrangeas at the markets

Chocolate shop at the markets

Self portrait of sculptor Douglas Coupland at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Was originally plain black but he has invited the public to stick gum all over it in the hope that eventually his features will be obscured.