Vancouver – Day 4

Today I decided to check out the farmers market on Granville Island.

It is possible to take a taxi boat over to the island, but, being the adventurous type and as the sun was shining, I decided to walk via the Burrard Bridge. With a selection of Porcupine Tree albums programmed into the MP3 player, I set off. This gave me the opportunity of getting some photographs out over English Bay and a view of some of the huge ocean going container ships they have going in & out of Vancouver – which just happens to be one of the busiest ports in the world.

After crossing the bridge, pausing on the way for photographs, I then, crossed the very busy road (good old pedestrian crossings) onto West 1st Avenue and walked past the Molson brewery. Following the road round it leads one onto Granville Island.
[One thing which has taken me a while to get used to is that vehicles give way to pedestrians – I know they should in the UK (it says so in that least read book of all time: The Highway Code) – but over here they really do. If one is standing at the edge of a curb waiting to cross the road, vehicles will stop to let one cross! Don’t try this at home!]

Sitting at the intersection with Duranleau Street one will find Jack “The Bear” Latek. This is one character of a guy. He does work with the mentally ill – seeing as they get turned out on the streets here even more so than the UK – and is questionably one fruit cake. He was very nice and polite to me and I ended up chatting to him for about ten minutes. He collects old metal lapel pins, broken watches & jewellery which he then makes into things and sells them off to help raise money for the mentally ill & community projects. His next project is to put bike racks outside non-profit making city organisations to help the poor and, as he put it to me: “We’re losing our sense of community man, we have to get it back before it is destroyed completely.” I tend to agree with him, so, if you have any broken watches or lapel pins you want to get rid of, send them to:-

Jack “The Bear” Latek, 4383 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C. V5V 3R1 or Carnegie Community Center, 401 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6A 2T7.

Having bid farewell to “The Bear” (he was a huge guy) and accepted his gift of a map of Granville Island and a spring (made of metal) I then headed into the market proper. Actually that should be markets – there are several – along with al manner of gift/art/craft shops, galleries, performing arts studios, water park and a plethora of other things besides. I spotted one right away and vowed to return.

First though; the Public Market. This was just like St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, filled with colours, sounds and smells. Food of every description was available. I promptly got myself a salami stick which would thrash the arse off of any Pepperoni version available. I spent quite a bit of time sampling things and buying things; some gorgonzola stuffed olives, grapes and peaches (more fruit Mummy) and a wonderful organic coffee. After satisfying my initial hunger I returned to the lure of:-

The Granville Island Museums!

This consists of The Model Trains Museum and The Model Ships Museum – oh, to be a boy again. Rest assured this wasn’t just a collection of old Mattel or Airfix kits someone had stuck together and painted, these were serious models made by real weirdoes, quite often from original blueprints (so the scales were correct) and taking years to make! Most of them were quite huge being a metre plus in length. There were actually radio controlled working submarine models - yes, they could submerge & surface again – one of which was used in an episode of The X Files. There was also a model of Seaview – if anyone can remember “Journey to the Bottom of the Sea”. (I’m counting on you Trogg!)

After satisfying my boyish reverie I returned to the market. I picked up some more food bits in order to make myself a meal back at the hostel & set off back the way I’d come – but on the other side of the bridge this time.

I got back to the hostel, did a bit more catching up with the blog entries (I’ve still got a way to go) had something to eat and turned in for the night. I want to be up & ready in time for Erik’s Monday tour.