So this is it. Our last night in Vancouver. Time seems to
have decided to rush by this summer because it doesn’t seem 2 minutes since we
were getting ready for our big US trip. Now we’re leaving for good and heading
out East. Eeeeeek.
Vancouver has offered up a pretty good summer
and I’ll
definitely be sad to leave. We had pride which was big and flamboyant and
hungover and hot. So bloody hot. It was fun to spend it with all our friends
(including a wicked visit from Kate from home) and we had a great time. We tried
out the Canadian’s street party offering. Pretty good, but didn’t hold a candle
to the Royal Wedding at home. That was also a drunken affair. On the Saturday
we went to the Dyke March on Commercial which was really chilled and full of
families. And boobs. Loads of boobs. We successfully thwarted our hangovers
with fruit beer and sangria and Sunday arrived, hot as hell and ready for the
Pride parade. We had a pride brunch of vodka jelly shots and crudités and went
to watch the parade in the blazing heat. It was pretty good. There were
thousands of people there and everyone was in such a great mood. We were only
disappointed that we didn’t bring our cozzies because the sea was soooo good.
We finished up our pride weekend with an after-party at our friend’s penthouse
(sweet) and then hit Celebrities for a very sweaty 2 hours before hauling
ourselves off to bed with a donair. A thoroughly good weekend. |
| View from Harrison |
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| Douche Avenger |
The only blip over the summer was the awful Sunday where I
thought my disc had gone again, and we had to cancel our trip to the Rockies.
In hindsight it was totally the right thing to do. I got some time to rest up
to prepare for our bigger (and more important) trip and I guess we saved a bit
of money on the way. Also it gives us even more reasons to come back to visit
(alongside the Aurora Borealis and you know, friends). Anyway, we kept hold of
the hire car for a day and decided to head to the Harrison hot springs as it
was a lot closer and pretty good for the back. We finally made it to Lynn
Canyon on the way and tried out the suspension bridge and paddled in the 30
foot pool. The hot springs were lush. They were open really late at night so we
could hang out in the steaming pools and look at the stars...The hotel was
pretty weird and I’m sure we were the youngest there by about 40 years, but it
we had a really lovely time. Seeing Ash’s face when the car hire people told us
we were getting an upgrade to a ‘sporty model’ was pretty funny too. I
nicknamed it the Douche Avenger.
 |
| Night market |
Our last weeks have been filled with frantically selling
items on Craigslist, resting up the back whilst trying to make sure we do
everything we wanted to do before we leave. We visited the Richmond night
market which was really cool. I think I ate a bit too much squid and I burnt my
mouth off on an octopus ball...but it was another item ticked off the list. We
also managed to make it back out to West Van to see Sandi and Molly who we
stayed with when we first arrived. It
was really nice to be back and hopefully we’ll see them next time they’re in
the UK. Oh and we obviously have Meat & Bread scheduled for our last day.
 |
| Ash enjoying said Night Market |
 |
| Lynn Canyon |
Things I will not miss:
1.Getting mistaken for a man
2. Only being able to buy alcohol from BC Liquor
stores (most of which aren’t open past 6pm or on a Sunday)
3. Selling cell phones
4. How fucking expensive this city is
5. Bedbugs/racoons/skunks/BEAR FEAR etc.
6. Seeing the bitch who stole our money driving
round in a Mercedes
Things I will miss:
1. People – you know who you are
2. Mountains, beach, forest, snow, GAY all in one
city
3. Toonie toss
4. Granville Island
5. The beer culture – I even started to like the
North American weird ‘smells like passionfruit tastes bitter as hell’ hops they
use
6. Stanley Park
7. The excellent transport system (Dad point)
8. The sunsets
9. “Do you wanna play a game for some beer?
10. Varied and assorted food items; Bennys, peanut
butter in everything, stuffed bagels, steamed pork buns, black kale, Tim Horton’s
gross but cheap work snacks and...
11. Slurpees (of course). They deserve their own
point on the list as they provided me, time after time, with the best hangover
cure I have ever known. Thank the lord for Slurpees.
Adam threw us a going away party on Friday which was lovely,
and just chock full of gays. On a sidenote, I also tried a Beergarita for the
first time (Margarita and Corona), which was only marginally better than Adam’s
Crystal Light and vodka. Rank. It was a pretty emotional goodbye...that we
basically kept putting off by meeting up every day afterwards to prolong the
inevitable. It's much better to leave on a high however and we definitely have
unfinished business with this country.
Thankfully we’re heading off for a really exciting trip,
which will make leaving a little bit easier. Our next stop is Halifax in Nova
Scotia, so everyone has to cross their fingers for the back, and for no
hurricanes. I’m still trying to convince Ash to dress up for Anne of Green
Gables in Prince Edward Island, and I’m massively looking forward to hitting
the smoked meat in Montreal.
So...byebye Vancouver. Thanks for an amazing year and thanks
to the wicked people that we met. Get yourselves over to the UK.
I guess I’ll see you all back home?! That sounds so weird. I
cannot WAIT for that first pint of Harvest Pale.
Stella x
1 comment:
BYE BYE
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