Last unknown city, Vancouver!
Trip Start
Aug 06, 2009
1
149
151
Trip End
Dec 01, 2011
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday 22nd November 2011
Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada (By Rob)
Future home? Vancouver?
We felt bad getting Eve up at 5am so she could drop us to the airport, we didn't think when booking the flight 2 months ago that we would need a lift!! With Sarah's nanny still sick Eve dropped us to Sarah's house and Sarah dropped us to the airport. So we got Sarah up as well, but she was going to work so we didn't feel that bad! A massive thank you to Bryan Sr., Eve, Niamh, Bryan Jr., Sarah & Aoife who made us feel right at home, also for looking after us and for showing us the real Canada!! Thank you.
We landed in Vancouver pretty early and got the sky train to Mick's apartment (Rob’s mate from home) which was in the middle of downtown Vancouver on the 36th floor overlooking the Canadian football stadium, very central.
We dropped our bags and went for breakie then walked around downtown for the rest of the morning. Vancouver is actually pretty big, I thought it was going to be a small enough city but there are so many high rises with so many people.
The weather was a bit crap to say the least, very dull and raining, well it is November and if you like Van in November you will love it in July and summer time. We went to the tourist information desk and got a load of info on the city. We took a long walk around Stanley Park and the waterfront. It was a very pretty place with a great view of the snowcapped mountains in the background that almost looked fake!!
We finished the day off catching up with the guys back at the apartment, Mark, Mick and Jimmy. Our roommates for the week. Danielle is in for a tough week!
Day 373
Wednesday 23rd November 2011
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (By Danielle)
Neighborhood watch! Granville, Kits, Shaughnessy & Fairview
Luckily it was a nice dry day, so we went exploring! We walked down to get the tiny rainbow coloured boat across to Granville Island, it was so cute – it looked like something you would float in a bath tub!! Ha ha! Granville Island was so cool! This little island in the middle of a thriving city has an old town style vibe buzzing with a colourful artistic community. It was fabulous a little urban oasis has fine waterfront restaurants, artsy cafes, theatres, galleries, design studios, unique shops and the most spectacular fresh food market you’ve ever seen. Better then some of the Asian markets we have visited! They had the best wide range of fruit and veg – including the unusual fruits that you only find in Asia! So I can buy my favorite Mangosteen fruit! We pottered around there for a good few hours, picking at any freebies and popping into the artisan shops and funky stalls.
From Granville we walked over to Kitsilano, the popular beachy suburb of Vancouver. We walked along the beach up to Point Grey, by far some of the nicest homes I have seen with unspoiled views of the sea, looking over to Stanley Park and West Vancouver, with the mountains as a snowy backdrop! We grabbed some lunch in the village and kept up our walking tour taking us to Broadway, through Granville Park and into the super posh town of Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy is home to the rich and super big houses! Large American colonial style homes with loads of space to drive their SUV’s around them. All the mummies were out with their baby carriers and dropping kids to school and the village shops leading down Granville Road to Broadway were very luxury! It felt a bit like our Mosman back in Sydney!
We also checked out the suburbs down near the Vancouver General Hospital – nice area, less of the high rise that I really and not a fan of. If you have gathered from this read we are doing a bit of house hunting with the idea of moving here once this trip is finished! Checking out our future hood!
That evening we headed off to a hot yoga class in the Yaletown studio. We got a great deal, unlimited yoga for $20 each (only a tester but perfect for our short stay). It is a really nice studio offering Bikram, hot yoga, Yin and Flow classes. Nice to test out different styles and new studios, can’t seem to find an Ashtanga studio close by so this will do for now. We loved the hot yoga class, walking home nice and toasty especially as it is chilly out there!
Day 374
Thursday 24th November 2011
Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada (By Rob)
Rain rain rain……ugh!!
It rained all day today, no joke I think it might rain more here than Dublin but at least Van gets a summer!! Danielle had her interview today with Lululemon Design Lab, we are both going for interview’s in Vancouver to see what it can offer us. Danielle worked with Lululemon in Sydney so she loves the company and wants to work for them again but in the design lab where they design the cloths, great opportunity. It went very well but could not take it to the next level as she had no visa grant.
Still raining we took a walk through the Gasworks downtown, lovely trendy place with lots of design shops and cool restaurants and bars. Really nice part of Vancouver and still looked great in the rain.
Danielle was making great use of her weekly hot yoga pass going morning and night!! I decided to have a break tonight well I was sorta lazy too because the rain was no way motivating me!!
Day 375
Friday 25th November 2011
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (By Danielle)
Yin & Yang – Thai and Irish!
Starting the day with a Hot Yoga class gave me a burst of energy – Rob went off to his interviews, one in Kitsilano the other in North Van. I decided that as an appreciative guess of the lads I would clean their apartment to say 'thank you’ for putting us up! It is a typical lad’s apartment, to put it nicely so there was a fair bit to do! The place got a good scrub and a dusting – I could have spent longer at it but to be quite honest a girl has to have her priorities straight. I had some shopping to do! I headed for the main shopping district downtown- Robson Street. It was so weird cuz it was like as if I was walking down Henry Street or something, it just felt like Dublin – but that is probably cuz of the weather! Ha ha! That has to be Vancouver’s biggest downfall – it must rain more here than home! Madness!
Rob’s interviews went really well, one wasn’t really his style of gym but the first one was similar to Vision, back in Sydney, so perhaps he’ll have luck with that one – we just have to get the visa now!
I wanted to try a Yin Yoga class for ages, so last night I went to one at the studio around the corner from us. I loved it! So I had to go back for more tonight, it is a great balance to a dynamic or hot, Yang style yoga, real deep stretched poses held for a min of 5 mins! Great hip openers!
We finished of our night with a dinner date with an old friend of Rob’s Mark Kearney. We went to a nice Thai place for dinner followed by drinks in an Irish pub, Doolins! To be quite honest it would be nice to check out some of Vancouver’s better cultural pubs just to get a taste for their night life – instead of hanging out in an Irish pub filled with all the Irish immigrants!! Haha! Maybe tomorrow night!
Day 376
Saturday 26th November 2011
Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada (By Rob)
We may see you again Vancouver!!
Chilled out for most of the day and met up with a few of the guys later on in the night in Mick’s apartment. It was a messy night to say the least, first of all we polished off the Sam Buca bottle I got mick in 30 min, and the rest was history. We stumbled into an Irish bar and stayed there for the night while having some great criac for the night.
Glad I only do this once in a blue moon because I hate hang over’s and the guilt feeling!!!
Day 377
Sunday 27th November 2011
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (By Danielle)
Girls Day off…. Needed! Boys Football Day!
I broke! A girl needs to know when is when and I had had more then my fair share of boy time so I let the lads head off on another booze filled day for the final of the Grey Cup Canadian Football. The town was jam packed with supporters in their colours for either Winnipeg Blue Bombers or the BC Lions.
I wandered the city checking out more of Down Town and Davie Village. Starbucks is great for the days when you just need to sit somewhere and hang out with out being told to move on! Plus free WiFi! I also had my fill of Yoga – doing back to back classes of a hot yoga followed by a Yin class! Perfect for clearing the head and feeling a bit more myself! What made my day was finding a perfect little sushi bar serving the best tasting sushi I have had I a long time!
That evening I got home and had a marathon Skype chat with Diana, it was 1am with her but she was up doing her laundry and I had the apartment to myself so I had a good rant to her, last night really was not my scene – another night in the same Irish bar! Ha ha! Followed by a dance in what can be best described as Coppers (a dingy club in Dublin – those who are from Dublin know what I mean!) I suppose Rob had to deal with too much girl time when we travelled South America – but us girls are so much easier and accommodating… right?! Ha ha!
As our Skype chat ticked on for 2 hours it got the morning for Mama G (my mom back in Dublin) so we added her in our conference call! What a great way to end my girly day! They got to experience the lads return from their day long bender in the wee hours a bit worse for wear! One of them falling head first into my suitcase! Ah ha ha ha! Luckily I was zened out from my Yoga filled and girly chat day that I could manage the drunken stories from the boys! Vive la différence!!
Day 378
Monday 28th November 2011
Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada (By Rob)
Worst hang over to date!!
I was probably the worst person to be around for the next couple of days because that’s how long my hangover lasted. I felt like absolute crap and I have a day of travelling ahead of me! Never again, those famous words again….haha but I want to believe myself his time!
We finished Vancouver off with a hot yoga class…. well Danielle did because I was dying! I met Danielle afterwards for sushi and then went back to mick’s place to say our goodbyes to the lads, sound bunch of guys who let us kip on their sofa for a week, not many people would allow that so cheers lads.
We decided to go to the airport at 12am because our plane was at 6 am and the sky train did not work at those hours. So another nice sleep in an airport was on the cards.
We found a nice spot with free wifi next to Starbucks and rang home, not long now till we are home for good!!! Can’t wait to sleep in my own bed!!
Day 379
Tuesday 29th November 2011
Vancouver to New York, (By Danielle)
Last Sleep in an Airport, Last long day of Travel….
What a night! We left the lads apartment and got the last Sky Train to the airport at midnight. Chilling and dozing in the airport til our flight at 6am. At least we can say that this should be the last time that we need to sleep in and airport out of choice!
Our first flight was from Vancouver to L.A – we passed out as our night in the airport was so interrupted – I’m sure we looked delightful with our mouths open catching flies!! But when you are that exhausted do you really care!!
Flying into L.A Rob spotted the Hollywood sign in the hills, this sprawled out city home to the glitz and glam of the stars- unfortunately this is all we get to see of LaLa land on this trip! We had a short stop over in LAX then we boarded the flight to New York. Arriving that night at 8pm we still have two trains to catch until our day of travel ends! Arriving in Downtown, coming up from the subway we are greeted with the lashing rain… we walk as fast as we can back to Andy’s… then crash! What a long day of travel, but a memorable one – as this is the last travel day we take before the final flight back to Baile Átha Cliath (Dublin – for those who don’t speak Irish!)
