Oh Canada, I love Vancouver…
One of the hardest things about writing about Vancouver is trying to figure out which photos to share… It is such a beautiful place, quieter than I imagined, I could have spent so much longer exploring than I did. But don’t worry, I did my fair share of exploring, walking more than 14km around the seawall in one day. The Island of Vancouver has a 22km seawall built the whole way around it, 8km around Stanley Park. We went the ‘shorter’ option and walked through the different neighbourhoods of Vancouver and along the waterfront… There are distinct differences in the neighbourhoods of Vancouver, similar to that of New York.
With Yaletown being filled with converted factories and lots of new boutiques and coffeeshops, flowing into the high rises by the waterfront, then you head towards the main sports area, before cutting up inland through Chinatown and into Gastown another very trendy area of town. Across the north side of the island you find yourself in the touristy part of town where the cruise ships come in and the large convention centre with its famous sails can be found. We walked down further to Coal Harbour for lunch with a view. Then as we were cutting off Stanley Park we walked past the Lost Lagoon where I saw my first racoon. And down to the southern side of the island where the beaches are. I could just imagine this place being packed during summer. Then it’s a walk either continuing along the seawall with it’s grassy areas to one side and apartments to the other, or you can cut up through the West End, I did a bit of both.
The smallness of the city or downtown surprised me, but I so enjoyed this walk and seeing all the different neighbourhoods which have very distinct feels to them. Along the waterfront in Yaletown and Coal Harbour there are a lot of art pieces to be seen, this picture was one of my favourite, although at the time we thought it was actually a useable space, only to find out it was just an art piece.
I’m not going to lie the weather in November was cold, but it wasn’t wet or snowing, and the colours of the trees were beautiful, and the snow capped mountains in the background made me smile every time I caught a glimpse.
Day two brought new adventures, this time off the island and over to Granville Island an old industrial island where there are now public markets, art spaces for the students, and non students, of the University of Art on the island, as well as the fun cement factory. I read up on Granville Island while there to find out more about it, the original buildings are still there and are considered heritage listed so can’t be changed. The island got is name from Vancouver originally being called Granville… The silos were painted as a part of an art exhibition by two Brazilian men and suit the island feel perfectly.
From here we headed to Kitsilano one of the trendy areas off the island where we had brunch worthy of Melbourne standards, then we went up into Suburban Vancouver and to Queen Elizabeth Park. A great place with beautiful gardens and an amazing view back over Vancouver Island:
We drove along Main Street which has a mixture of old historic buildings and shopping of all different types. There was one thing left for us to do (well, there was heaps, but our plan was to see as much of Vancouver in two days as possible) and that was to head over to Stanley Park. We drove around the park, and stopped to see the different views. Two places stood out, one, was looking back over Lion’s Gate Bridge, at the right time of day you can watch the sunset from this point, and off to the other side, you can see the snow covered mountains in America. Further around towards downtown there are a number of Totem Poles, each has a story of the area it is from, and its design. Vancouver had a lot of different areas with First Nations art, and little that seemed touristy, I was really impressed with these memories to the indigenous people. And fascinated to finally understand the story behind these poles.
The rest of my time in Vancouver was spent eating, trying the different local beer brews and walking around the ‘financial district’ which never seemed to get THAT busy. There was a relatively high amount of homeless people, I was told this is because Vancouver is the Hawaii of Canada, but I never really felt unsafe, even walking at night. I intend to go back to Vancouver, not because I feel I didn’t see it all, but because it is the kind of city I could easily just hang out in and explore the secrets of, plus I want to visit Victoria Island and the Inside Passage, so I must go back…