Vancouver
(a very late post: this trip was made in March 2011… I know, I know.)
During my last months in Canada, some things worked out (good deals on tickets and good timing — right after the March break) and I was able to visit Vancouver. A week in the third-largest city in Canada and, according to some assessments, one of the best cities to live in the world (similarly to Toronto).
The first impressions of the city were very positive: nice weather, friendly people, great views of nature. Although Vancouver is known to be a rainy city, especially in winter, we were lucky to find only a cloudy afternoon with chilly winds, a couple degrees above Toronto — which, we later checked, had some snow at the time. The first day, a Tuesday, was basically dedicated to a walk downtown, around the hotel area, and to a quick stroll around the University of British Columbia (UBC) to visit the amazing Museum of Anthropology, strongly recommended.
Some pics from the MoA:
Totem poles
Panel
The next day started with a nice walk around Coal Harbour, in which snow-covered mountains form the background for the calm waters. The harbour is contoured by a seawall that extends for 22 km around Vancouver’s waterfront. Even though it was sunny, it didn’t get very warm, which made it easier to walk.
Coal Harbour
During the walk, we could also see a plaque in remembrance of the Komagata Maru incident, a shameful part of Canadian history in which a Japanese steamship bringing South Asian immigrants — also British subjects, therefore with the right to settle throughout the empire — was denied entry into Canada and had to stay 2 months under, you can imagine, terrible conditions. As the plaque says, such a disgrace should never happen again, even though recent episodes and political discourses make the Komagata Maru incident a outrageously current subject of study.
After a snack, we reached Gastown, a historical area of the city which nowadays has many galleries and shops, some of them really nice, and then reached to Vancouver’s Chinatown, one of the largest in Canada – Asian immigration started mainly in Vancouver, among other reasons because of the city’s proximity to Asia. There, we visited the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Gardens, and walked around some of the neighborhood’s streets. In the evening, we had dinner at Hapa Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant near to the hotel.
In the next day, a fine and sunny Thursday, we rented a car to drive to Whistler, a ride that I was told to make and also recommend: it goes through some beautiful scenery. Not before having huevos rancheros at Templeton, an interesting diner in downtown Vancouver. The road wasn’t busy, and in around 2 hours we reached Whistler, a small town that is very, very clean and standardized, at least in part due to the Winter Olympics hosted there in 2010. On the way back, we had great dinner at Creekbread, a wood-fired oven pizza place that prepares its food with organic produce and quality meats. Recommended!
Our Friday was cloudy and rainy, so we just had a walk around Stanley Park and went to the Punjabi Market, a group of streets with sari shops, jewellery and South Asian food. Some pics are below:
Stanley Park
Punjabi Market
On Saturday, another sunny day, we went to Capilano Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, which also has a very nice park and bits of First Nations history (btw, Vancouver has more of ‘First Nations stuff’ — places’ names, totem poles, etc. –, which does not necessarily mean a better recognition of their rights).
In the afternoon, we participated in a Cherry Blossom walk. Even though the trees were a bit late in their blossoming, it was a quite pleasant walk — I know, old folks stuff. However, we did get to know downtown Vancouver better afterwards.
Saturday evening, it was time to meet an old buddy from school — and I mean grade school: Andre. He’s spending a couple months in the city and we managed to meet for a beer at Railway Cafe, a bar downtown. It was very good, it had been a while we didn’t talk, but I felt like we need more time to catch up. Hopefully soon.
Sunday was an easy day, cloudy and with sparse showers. We went to the Public Market in Granville Island, which has lots of nice food and produce, art and souvenir stores. We bought some nice bread, spices, and cheese, and had a mini-picnic on the walk back, passing by the Inukshuk at Stanley Park.
Finally, in the last day in Vancouver, a Monday, we sort of wrapped up our trip: because we were going to another hotel closer to the airport, we walked around the city for a bit, did some shopping and packed. It was a very nice trip, with beautiful scenery and places… from what I saw, there are many reasons for Vancouver to be such a great place to live at — if you have some money, since it is quite expensive.
