One perfect day

I wouldn't say that I've been inundated with stuff to do in the past week. In fact, it's been pretty relaxed. However, the rain has been stretching things out, forcing me to sit in waiting for the next sunny day. It's raining once again today, so I think I'll take it upon myself to update this blog.

Yesterday was perhaps only the third or fourth sunny day I've experienced in Vancouver in the four weeks that I have been here. I figured that it may be my last, so I fought off a hangover from the night before and decided to make a full day of it. It was not only a sunny day, but it was also the first day in which I found myself outside not wearing more than one layer. All the locals seemed to be rugged up in their winter clothes, but the sun and the fifteen-plus-degree temperature warranted a sleeveless approach.

I first headed over to Stanley Park, as I hadn't yet visited the famous urban park in my stay. I got there not really knowing how to go about seeing the park. I had heard that renting a bicycle was a good way to do it, but ten minutes in, I still hadn't seen a rental shop. I was told by the information booth that I actually had to back outside of the park for about fifteen minutes. After doing so, and renting a bike, I was on my way. I set a pretty leisurely pace for myself around the store, as I had the bike for two hours, and took in the sights of the park as I went along. It was pretty beautiful there, and the difference between the view of the sea and the view within the forested areas was quite large.

Afterwards, I headed back to the hostel for a bit of a rest before going to check out the UBC (University of British Columbia) campus. At the hostel, I ran into a few people who were interested in a bit of a trek, so I waited around and we all went together. The basic plan was to make our way to UBC, and then stop by Sophie's Cosmic Cafe (a famous cafe in the neighbourhood of Kitsilano). Before catching the bus (which took forever to arrive), we planned to get all the way to UBC then walk back to Sophie's. After realizing how far away UBC was from anything (it was basically past a small forest), we decided against this course of action.

UBC itself was pretty nice for a university campus, although we found not much else to do there apart from a quick stroll around. We went to the Museum of Anthropology, but the entrance fee was $9, which none of us wanted to pay. The campus was also surrounded by beaches, though, on the way to one of them, we took a wrong turn, and were too lazy to head back, so we ultimately gave the beaches a miss.

We caught the express bus on the way back towards Kitsilano, which turned out to be a fateful decision. When we saw Sophie's, we signaled for the bus to stop. Unfortunately, as it was an express, it went by several blocks before stopping. We were too lazy to walk back that much, so we just kept going, settling on trying out a Vietnamese place on Robson St.

We got to Robson St., and the Vietnamese place was nothing but an empty building, something I really should have taken a note of the last time I went past the area. We almost ate at a Korean place a little further down the road, but the prices seemed a bit extravagant, so we walked out soon after being seated and given menus. It was then that I suggested Phnom Penh, a Cambodian/Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. That of course meant walking all the way across town to Chinatown. The upside of this was that the food was absolutely incredible, and very affordable too, and everybody agreed that, despite the long journey to get to that point, it was well worth it.

We capped off the night with a bit of Tim Hortons and a stroll to Canada Place after buying things at (and hanging out in) HMV and Chapters. I had been out for a little over twelve hours, and so my legs were in absolute pain, but I somehow managed to survive the trip back to the hostel, where we all kicked back for a few beers and a whole lot of conversation.

These will probably be my final set of photos for the trip, unless I see something funny at the airport.

The rest of the last week has mostly consisted of wasting time by doing a variety of activities, such as watching movies, attending a hockey game (Canucks lost yet again), going to pubs, meeting up with various people (Luke, Shaun, and Debbie to name a few), getting wet in the rain, finishing Halo 3 at HMV, reading books at Chapters, and generally hanging out at the hostel like everybody else. It's been fun, but it's good to finally be going home tomorrow night.