Vancouver Eh

Wow....what an amazing week it has been! Canada has offered no opportunity for me to blog so here I go again on the plane! (It's a great way to kill time while flying.)
Days 27 and 28 were pretty well written off as travel days. Both of our flights to get to Vancouver were delayed so on top of the whole flight being changed on us a month or so ago we arrived even later than expected. Between having to do our night in Seattle which was not originally planned be basically lost 1 whole day from Vancouver that was in our original plan. We crammed in as much as we could but missed doing a lot of things in Vancouver as we simply didn't have enough time! It is a lovely city though. After taking over an hour to get through immigration at the airport we jumped on the train to the city that we had sussed out when we did our quick stopover 2 weeks ago. Our hotel was a quaint little 1920s building a few blocks from Stanley Park and a really short walk to English Bay. By the time we had checked in and got ourselves sorted it was already 3pm so we wasted no time in heading straight out. English Bay was our first stop as it was only a 5 minute walk down the road down Denman Street. It's a really cute area with lots of shops and eateries to choose from. There are a heap of massive logs that have been placed on the beach itself to create seats or leaners for people lazing on the beach, and they also have a mat that runs from the boardwalk all the way down to the water for wheelchairs to gain access which is such a great idea!
From the end of English Bay we spotted the water taxis heading over to Granville Island so we jumped on one and headed over to check it out. It is a strange little island that sits under an bridge and is surrounded by marinas. It is super close to the main body of land and is well connected with a vast array of bridges for cars, bikes and pedestrians. That is one thing that struck us about Vancouver in general.is that so many people cycle, and it is really well catered for! Granville Island is very arty, there are lots of boutique bars, eateries, breweries and shops as well as theatres and markets. We had a wander through Granville Island Public Market which was one of the best markets I have been to! It is all food of various forms, similar to the food part of Queen Vic Markets in Melborne but a lot more boutique and much bigger. They have every kind of meat you could ever imagine! They even had some A5 grade Wagu for $199 a pound 😳 We got some handmade fudge at one of the fudgeries which was absolutely divine. Cheese was another specialty with any kind of cheese you could want (except for good old NZ tasty) and fruit we had never seen before. There were various places that were like delis and it was like a pick n mix of olives every way, stuffed peppers, cheeses...pretty much anything you could ever want on an antipasto platter.
We spotted a theatre complex across the road from the markets called The Improv Centre, so headed in for  nosey. Turns out they had a show on that night.....theatresports! The show was 45 minutes away so we zapped across the road to get some famed Poutine before it started. We have never had it before and I have to say we are not really fans. The concept seems good but the combo of the gravy and cheese curds made it super salty! The theatresports was great fun
...it was run in exactly the same way as 'Who's Line is it Anyway?' And as it turns out Colin and Ryan got their start there (Vancouver Theatresports).
By the time we had finished there the water taxis had finished for the night so we made our way home on foot via downtown (quite a hike as it turns out).
As a city it is very multicultural which is something that is distinctly lacking in most American cities. We probably wouldn't have noticed as much if we hadn't been in America for several weeks prior.
Day 29 was Stanley Park exploration. Stanley Park is the biggest city park in the world....bigger than Central Park, but much easier to  navigate than central Park! We hired bikes, and because the park is very flat we got 1 speed, pedal brake cruisers. They are so much more comfortable than mountain bikes! It took a few hours to do the whole perimeter and all of the little spots in the middle...and of course a few beer stops 😉
There are such beautiful views of the harbour and different parts of the city all the way around, and we even called in to see The Fish House where Rach used to work when she lived there. It's all derelict now and looks like they might be tearing down.
The Rockies roadtrip is on it's way...another flight to fill in.