Canada Eh!

Posted by Sarah O'Neill , Thursday 27 October 2011 09:48

On Sunday 12th June we crossed the border and headed into Canada. We had booked our hotel in Vancouver, and had read a lot of reviews! We knew it wasn't in the best area, but most people had commented that it was fine and they felt safe, so we plumped for it as the price was right! When we got there we decided to go straight out for a walk to explore. It was like nothing I have ever seen! The area we were in is called East Hastings, and is renowned to be a dodgy area, with lots of homeless people, however, this does not paint the right picture. Imagine walking down the street, and finding it hard to make your way through the crowds, nut the crowds are the homeless people. Lying on the street or pushing shopping trolleys up and down, there are literally hundreds of them along this street. I also saw someone using a crack pipe for the first time, and in my naivity had to ask Ben what it was! This became a very common sight while we were there. We also saw women propositioning men frequently, and lots more drug abuse. It was very sad, and such an eye opener, as it is so in your face. Vancouver is one of the mildest places in Canada, and has a lot of social support for the homeless etc, which is why there is such a huge population, and East Hastings seems to be the place they congragate, as when you turn off this street, things return to 'normality'. Vancouver is a very beautiful city and when you get near the water it is even nicer. There was a lovely old part of town, Gastown, which had some old buildings and a steam powered clock! We wondered around and explored, and also booked a Whale watching tour for the next day.





The whale watching tour was a good day out, a 3 hour boat trip to the spot to see them, and we did see them! However, the boats can not get closer than 50m, and they stay even further away than this, so you actually don't get to see the Killer Whales that well, which is a shame. It was a lot of money for what it was, but we had a good day out, and did get some pics, even though the whales are pretty small! The boat trip was lovely and we got to see some beautiful scenery! When we got back, we decided to stay in town, as the Canucks (the ice hockey team!) were playing in a very important game, which was being shown on big screens in the town. So we found a piece of pavement to sit on and got into the game spirit, it was great atmosphere!


On Tuesday we went to Granville Island, a fun market place where we had a nice lunch! In the afternoon we explored Stanley Park, a huge park in the city, with lots of walks and things to see! We saw some awesome totem poles and beautiful scenery! On Wednesday we booked to go on a bus trip to the Capoline Suspension Bridge, which is a very old suspension bridge and a kind of little theme park area. We enjoyed lunch there, and a stroll around, and of course over the bridge! On the other side there were some treetop walks which we did, before heading back on the bus. We got our stuff from the hotel, and headed to the greyhound station for our overnight trip to Salem, Oregon, to see the libby's!!!

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Well, it's only been 15 weeks since we got home!

Posted by Sarah O'Neill , 07:02

So, we actually landed in the UK 15 weeks ago today! However, that is skipping a lot of the story! So, I have my 'notes' (little scraps of hotel notepad paper!) to help me record the last few weeks of our most amazing adventure!

Last time I wrote we were in Hawaii, which seems like a lifetime ago! From Hawaii we flew to mainland America, straight to Seattle, we landed on Friday 10th June. We had pre booked our hostel online after a lot of research, so headed from the airport to the downtown area via the monorail. After a short walk (late at night!) through the city we found the hostel and we were really happy. We had booked a private double, with shared bathroom facilities. The owner was really friendly when we arrived, and gave us loads of info. We went out for a drink and some food in the next door pub before bed!

On Saturday we headed to Pike Place Market, which was great fun! It is often shown in the movies with people throwing fish around! It is also the birthplace of Starbucks, with the original store there (the queue was crazy so we thought we'd go back later!). Ben had his first corndog, which he did not enjoy! We also had some lovely fresh fruit from the market. It was a great place to poke around, and we managed to see some of the fish being thrown at the fishmonger stall! Since we only had one day in Seattle we tried to make the most of it, and walked to see the Space Needle! The weather was beautiful and we really enjoyed exploring! It was funny to be back at the Space Needle, as I had been there before with Rachel and Emma and the Libby family when we visited them in December 2007! The whole area around the needle had a great vibe, there was street music and stuff going on, which was great to enjoy.

We walked back towards Pike Place Market and we were going to go to the original starbucks, however, the queue was still RIDICULOUS! We took a picture, but decided to get our coffee from the one around the corner instead! We had a lovely lazy time hanging out on a grassy bank next to the market, where lots of people were enjoying the sunshine! We headed out for some dinner, and then headed back to the hotel, ready to get the Greyhound to Vancouver the next morning.

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