Vancouver – Day 1

Firstly I must issue a correction. I meant to do this a while back but forgot. I previously stated that I walked the length of Yonge Street in Toronto – well if any of you were bothered to do so and actually checked this on Google Earth or some such equivalent (Microsoft do one) then you would quickly see that this is patent bullshit! Yonge Street is the longest street in the world and measures about 26Km or more – I can’t remember the exact figure as I was told it a while ago. What I should have said was that I walked the length of the Downtown part of Yonge Street. Apologies for any misleading caused, especially in the sense of the heroic effort this would require as I was not equal to it.

Today is my first full day in Vancouver.

I have to confess to a feeling of melancholy at the fact the train trip was over. It had been so good that I wanted it to go on longer. I would also say that the Gold Leaf upgrade had been worth it – the food was superb, the view from the observation car & large vestibule incredible, and I didn’t have to worry about organising my luggage as it was all done for me. However, all things are transitory, so I move on.

After checking out of my hotel – the last for a while – I then set about walking to my hostel. Once I realised I was walking the wrong way – the compass was packed & I didn’t feel the urge to stop & unpack it as it was raining – and reversed my course for the four blocks I’d walked and got it right second time, I found it. I had to wait to check in, so I dumped my bags and set about a minor exploratory walk. There are three hostels in Vancouver: Central, Downtown & Jericho Beach. I had already booked myself into Downtown before leaving the UK and thought I might try them all out during my time in Vancouver. I have now changed my mind, as I feel I have picked the best one.

Jericho Beach hostel was an old military barracks and has quite basic facilities – no terrible problem – and is situated several kilometres outside Vancouver city. It takes a bus ride to get into the city in order to do anything. The other problem with it is the dormitory arrangement. As they were old barracks there are about 8 bunks to a dorm, which equals 16 people, and very open. I had already been warned about this by the lovely Andrea, as she told me you don’t get much unbroken sleep with people arriving at all hours of the night - not their fault if they are coming in from the airport – and you happen to get surrounded by a few Japanese people! In addition to the already racial slur I have placed upon groups of them one must add zips! Apparently they have a lot of zips on things, like their (usually very large) bags, and they undo them, extract one item, zip it up, use the item and then unzip the bag, replace item and zip it up again. This apparently is done multiple times and at all hours of the night. This was also confirmed by a woman I got talking to in the library here. Her name is Joyce and she comes from Cumberland. She stayed a couple of nights in Jericho Beach and said exactly the same thing! Oh, one mustn’t forget that the bags have to be removed from and replaced in lockers. So the basic symphony is bang, zip, bang, bang, zip, bang. There are a few variations of movements to the symphony with some extra zips being inserted. So I’m glad I didn’t book there – and won’t.
Central is exactly what it says on the tin. It is in Granville Street in the Yaletown district and I checked it out on my exploratory walk. It has a bar beneath it and is flanked by night clubs! It was pretty bloody busy when I walked past it in the afternoon and apparently at night the place is heaving & very noisy. I got confirmation of this from Chris; an Aussie guy out of Brisbane who stayed there for a couple of nights before moving to Downtown. He said you had to virtually elbow your way through the queue waiting for admission to one of the clubs whilst trying to explain you were not trying to jump the queue but just get though it in order to return to the hostel. Doesn’t sound like my cup of tea either – which is about right as I don’t like tea.

Returning to the point, after getting checked in I dumped all my bags in the dorm to which I have been assigned, got changed and went off for a proper explore & orientation of downtown Vancouver. This is a large city which has spread to the mountains – and therefore no further – and has a harbour front similar to London’s Docklands, i.e. tower blocks with vastly overpriced properties in them unaffordable to normal people. (Yes, I am implying that one has to be abnormal to buy anything in Docklands – it isn’t worth the money!)

Vancouver is also a very modern city, so much so that the city council actually had to step in and declare various structures Heritage Buildings to stop them being torn down and replaced. It hosted the world Expo in 1986 and the old Expo building (the wonderful looking glass golf ball) is now the science museum with its own sky train station. The sky train is an elevated train track (mainly, only a little of it is underground) which runs around the whole city.
I backtracked to the hostel in order to check in and whilst being unsociable outside I met Chris. He is an Aussie from Brisbane, has been over here for six weeks and will be setting out on a road trip from Seattle to Mexico with a few mates next month. We had a good old chat and a laugh and he recommended some places to check out. He also told me there are some good places to eat along Davie Street (only one block up the road) but it is the Gay District – thanks for the warning. (Since then, and having seen it in daylight, the prevalence of rainbow banners all down the street is a bit of a giveaway.) I told him I was glad I left my tight leather trousers which make one squeak when one walks behind (I don’t really have any), and told him I wouldn’t fart loudly in public to give away my “virgin” status – to which he had a good laugh. I know he is staying in a dorm on the floor below because I could hear his laugh from my dorm! A good guy though.

I then got checked in and dumped all my stuff in my locker. I sorted out a load of washing and went back to the front desk to get some change & washing powder sorted out. They asked me if I wanted to sign up for “Erik’s Tour” tomorrow. This is a guided tour of downtown Vancouver and a trip out to Capilano Canyon. If you want to cross the suspension bridge the cost will be $25 and the tour lasts all day. I’m up for that.

I then set about doing my laundry as I had exhausted my supply of shirts. Having got the machine loaded up I retired to the library to read for a while. After the drying was done – the clothes were dry enough to put on – I then headed for my room to sort out the mess I’d left in my locker.

When I got there I met my fellow roommates - The Geordies! These were three guys from Newcastle over here for a year on working visas. They were getting ready to go out on the town and had some music playing from their MP3 player – S&M by Metallica to be precise. “Do you mind the music being on?” one of them asked, “Not at all, carry on” I replied. After a little chat I said “You’re not going to be out too late are you lads?” They looked a little anxious until I said “I am taking the piss, have a great time!” Ice broken, laughs all round and introductions were made – Adam, Michael & Steve all met Phil – the Southern Woss (my terminology) – “nah, yoor alreet” was the consensus – apologies for not being able to type Geordie, it certainly confused the spell checker. I retired to the library to do some more reading while they finished getting ready, for no other reason than to give them more space to do so. I was just standing about outside having a smoke when they all left. I said cheerio & wished them all a good time to which they replied “There are some beers in the room – help yourself to them if you want.” Nice guys.
I turned in reasonably early as I wanted to be up for breakfast before starting Erik’s tour at 9:00 the next morning.

I hear the lads come in about 2:00; they were giggling & taking the piss out of each other in good natured manner. They did not make loads of noise but the main reason I woke up was that I wanted a pee. I lay there for a while until they all got settled down and it all went quiet. As I had a top bunk I was quietly trying to get to the floor by holding on to this dividing partition at the bottom of the bed. It was obviously not designed for this sort of manoeuvre – and indeed had been employed as such before – as I managed to pull the thing out of the wall (only one screw & rawl plug) and as I let it go it crashed back against the wall making more noise than all three of them had! “Sorry if I woke you lads up” I said to which they all dissolved into fits of laughter. I escaped to the toilet.
When I returned all was quiet and I went straight back to sleep.