On August 2 my very much anticipated occassion happened - I've left my flat in London to travel to Vancouver. The trip has been planned altogether with my girlfriend Flavia and our friends Michal and Carolina. We all showed up at London Bridge train station in time to take a train to Gatwick, from where we were to take a Thomas Cook flight direct to Vancouver. I know I've had my times with airlines already, and this one is another addition to my blacklist. Not as bad as AirOne, but the service was very poor and the fact we were given effectively no free liquids was unacceptable. Every time we were thirsty we had to spend 1.5GBP on a bottle of water. The free stuff that came with lunch was either squash, tab water or some kind of a cheap tea / coffee.

 

We arrived in Vancouver on Aug 2 early in the afternoon, took a but to our hostel on Grenville St and headed off for our city walk. In less than half day we managed to see the whole center including a visit to a 360 degrees look out Harbour Tower. We also saw the Canada Place, Steam Clock, the whole of Grenville street, the Science museum from outside, China town, etc. Vancouver can be done very quickly and easily. The sights in the center are all within a walking distance.

 

The Sunday plan was to see the major sports outside of the center, which were the Capillano Suspension Bridge, Grosse Mountain and a Lighthouse park. To see all these attractions we bought a day pass for all Vencouver zones. That thing costs 9CAD, which isn't bad. The first two attactions respectively are a bit overprised though for what you get to see. The bridge was about 30CAD and the Grosse Mountain was about 40CAD. I recommend you see both, but don't expect much. The Mountain offers also some funny attractions, like a lumberjack show - feel free to give it a miss - but still, it is worth going up there as the views are amazing.

 

The last attraction was the lighthouse, which was a free hike and we all loved it. Bus 250 took us there in about 25mins. We took some couple of hours to see it all and it was well worth it.

 

We had some mixed feelings about Vancouver. The area is beautiful with all the mountain peaks visible from everywhere around here. The city itself is lacking some consistent taste, which didn't go down well with my girlfriend-architect ;o)) ... One of the highlights was food, specifically sushi, which we all are mad about. If you're ready to spend some 5 GBP, get ready for some huge portions! We ate looootttttssss of the stuff.

 

Now it's time to head off for breakfast, a bit of shopping and then board the ship.