"Somebody tell us what's goin' down, don't need another Vancouver shakedown". Nazareth

Wednesday 24th May

Seeing as we were getting such early nights, we were waking up fairly early even though we didn't really have to. This meant we were falling back asleep and regretting it when we eventually came to getting up for breakfast. It seemed we weren't the only people feeling a bit worse for wear though, as the members of staff at breakfast were walking around like zombies. They'd obviously gone a bit overboard on the previous nights pub crawl. The orange juice hadn't been refilled, we were told the coffee was undrinkable and the cereal was down to the last few grains of coco pops. We even struggled to get milk from the dispenser. It slowly got replenished whilst we were sitting eating what we could obtain, so we did fill up eventually. We dawdled for a while after breakfast, killing time before we had to pack up our things from one of the worst rooms we'd stayed in on the whole trip. It was a bit of a relief to check out at 11, although Seattle had been a nice city to see. The walk to our bus stop was pretty much the same as it had been from the train station, only we were a few blocks further up. The only way anyone could actually tell it was a bus stop was when a bus was sat at the kerbside and loading customers. There were no signs and no queueing system. By the time we arrived, we still had about an hour and a half before departure and the crowd forming was waiting for a bus to Portland rather than Vancouver. As the clocked ticked past quarter to 12, I left Charlotte to it, while I swanned off down to Starbucks to follow some football. I know, ever the gentleman. I sat and had a coffee and followed the beginning of the first half but I was nice enough to bring her back a fresh, hot coffee upon my return. A few other people had gathered during my absence and had managed to show just how awful the human race is at queueing. As I said, there wasn't any signs or ropes but seeing as Charlotte was the first one there, I had expected a single queue behind her but instead people had queued either side of her and then just dotted themselves around the pavement. We got the last laugh, as the coach parked itself right in front of us. As ever, all we wanted was a seat together, which we got, but single travellers seem to have an obsession of securing themselves 2 seats by sitting on the aisle seat and placing their bags on the window seat. Charlotte and I always say that if we ever have to sit next to someone else, we will pick the idiot sitting on the aisle next to their bag. Despite all our travel, it hasn't happened to date. We set off pretty much on time at 1pm. The drive was pretty dull, along the highway, although I was distracted by the remainder of the football for most of it. We stopped in the town of Bellingham for a short while, before continuing on to the Canadian border, where we stopped for customs checks. The exemplary human specimens on the bus then poured more glory upon themselves with the removal of the luggage from underneath of the bus. In order to get to their bags, they were just moving other bags around them, rather than taking the first bags of first and thus making everyone's life easier. Seeing as we'd been first on, our bags were last off, so we couldn't have cared less but I eventually couldn't stand it anymore, and climbed underneath the bus to speed up the process. For whatever reason, probably laziness or it not being part of his job description, the coach driver never laid a finger on any of the bags. The immigration/customs turned out to be a walk in the park for everyone bar one lady who just happened to be one of the last through, which held up the bus for around 20 minutes. We did manage to get going eventually. There was a bit of rush hour traffic going in to Vancouver but we pulled in around 20 minutes late, at 20 past 5. For the first time in a long time, we had to get public transport to our hostel, in the shape of the number 23 bus. I'd stayed in Vancouver on my precious trip to Canada and had stayed in the same hostel we were, so when we got to our bus stop, it was like April 2009 was yesterday and I could remember the walk up the hill to the hostel. Upon arrival, we checked in to our room and immediately headed back out to a supermarket. As we were back in Canada, it had to be pasta and proper baked beans for dinner, with some carrots this time for the extra veg. By the time we'd had dinner, it was 9 and seeing as it had been a long day, we turned in for the night, excited to see what Vancouver had to offer in the morning.

Thursday 25th May

After 2 nights in the awful double bed bunk, a night back in a single bed bunk was heaven. We were awoken by the sunlight pouring through the open curtain and in the end, gave in to the temptation of some free breakfast. There was a selection of baked good, such as bagels, muffins and scones, as well as some fruit and porridge. From what I remembered from my previous visit, it wasn't as good as then but it was still free, so we couldn’t

complain. We slapped some cream cheese on some bagels, Charlotte made herself a bowl of porridge and we stocked up on coffee and orange juice. The cream cheese was disgusting and Charlotte under milked her porridge but we were full when we left. We had plenty of time in Vancouver, so we were in no desperation to get out and about. We still got out by half 9 and headed down to the waterside, where we joined the pedestrianised sea wall and started walking east. We were headed for a place called Granville Island but rather than cheat and take the ferry or cross a bridge, we followed the sea wall the majority of the way round. We did end up taking a bridge but only when it cut off a tiny portion of the walk. Once we were across the bridge, it was only about 15 minutes further on to Granville Island. The island is known for being an arts and crafty place and is full of all sort of craft shops, as well as the rather large Granville Island Public Market. We skipped past the shops for the time being and headed straight for the market. We spent some time wandering round the vast array of stalls but found nothing worth parting with our money for now. There was fish, meat, flowers, jewellery, crockery, clothing and all varieties of food stalls. We would be back for some food but headed outside to have a look around some of the shops. Rather than proper tacky souvenir places that exclusively sold magnets and key rings, the shops were a bit more high end and sold statues/sculptures, artist prints and various things worth buying, although we didn't. Outside it was pretty fresh in the shade, so we ducked in to a coffee shop and had a warming drink before heading back to the public market for some lunch. After great consideration, we decided against the chicken pot pie from a counter that was populated entirely by Asians, both queueing and serving and instead opted for a tasty slice of lasagna and some salad from a nearby deli. We watched a couple of Asians tuck into their pot pies and were pretty glad we'd gone for what we had. It wasn't a huge portion but it would tide us over until an afternoon snack. After our lunch, we wandered over to the nearby Granville Island Brewing Company, where we waited patiently for a few minutes, before we were seated in a couple of chairs at the bar. We could have gone for the tasting set of beers, which was 10 sample ones but instead, we just plumped for a pint each. We got a pale ale and a maple cream ale and sat at the bar sipping them and whiling away some time. Seeing as we were at a brewery, it would have been rude not to buy some glassware, so I (Charlotte probably won't let me put we), purchased a couple of glasses once we'd finished our pints. We wanted to buy some veg from the public market but didn't want to go back to the hostel just yet, so we decided to continue further along the sea wall for a while and then head back to the market for our vegetables. The afternoon walk along the sea wall was lovely. When out of the sea breeze, it was pleasantly warm and for such a large city, you can't really beat the backdrop of the mountains just beyond the skyline. The container ships were sliding in and out of English Bay, cursing barely a ripple in the calm waters. It's was a nice place, probably even more so than Seattle, which we had also enjoyed. We turned round not long after passing a rather tall and rather weather beaten totem pole, which was being held up by other trunks of wood. We returned to the public market, picked up some green beans and sweetcorn and hunted down some stairs up to a bridge, in order to make our passage back to our hostel a bit quicker. The stairs were hard to find, so we weren't exactly quick but we were in no rush. We didn't hang around when we got back, just staying long enough to drop the veg in the fridge. We headed back out in to town search for a bookshop but our search proved fruitless and took us through the more rundown and tramp filled area of Vancouver. It happened to be where the other HI Vancouver hostel was located, so we were very pleased with which one we'd picked. To cheer us up, we stopped by Tim Horton’s for a mid afternoon snack. It turned out to be a bit more than a snack, as we ordered 20 Timbits, which are small, flavoured doughnut balls and preceded to consume them all between us in one sitting. I'd never had them before but Charlotte was the expert on the matter. They were tasty but some flavours were far better than others. Charlotte got slightly embarrassed that we'd eaten all 20 in one go and, rather than putting the box they came in in the bin in the café, she left with it and chucked it further down the road where we wouldn't be judged as fatties. Our final stop of the day was at the supermarket. We found a closer, cheaper and all round better one than we'd visited the previous night and it happened to be in the gay friendly neighbourhood of Vancouver, where their zebra crossings aren't black and white, they are all the colours of the rainbow. Brighton has some catching up to do! After some consideration between rice and pasta, we opted for pasta, as it was far easier to cook on the awful hobs that the hostel offered. We got a jar of sauce to go with it, which was all we needed, considering we already had our veg. For the rest of the day we ploughed through some blog/photo admin and watched some Ice Hockey on TV before tucking in to our dinner. It had been one of our busiest days in a long time and it had felt good.

Friday 26th May

Despite being in no rush, we were up pretty early in order to beat the crowds to the showers. We achieved that part but didn't succeed in beating the crowds to breakfast, so we had to squeeze ourselves in on a bench, rather than at our own table; we stocked up as ever though. While we digested our breakfast feast, we relaxed on our beds and flicked through our lonely planet book on Canada and also had a look at our notes we'd made. There wasn't a great deal written down or in the book that we'd not done already, or didn't have planned for the following day. We came up with a thin itinerary though and thought we could bulk it our with some slow walking. At about 10, we got our things together and headed our into what was yet another beautiful day. The Pacific Northwest and Vancouver is well known for receiving a lot of rain but so far, we hadn't seen a single drop, which was fine for us, as it had made for some great days. We walked right across the peninsular to where downtown Vancouver stands on, eventually ending up at a pedestrianised area, that was yet another part of the Vancouver sea wall. We were now on the north side of downtown Vancouver and could clearly see the suburbs of north and west Vancouver across the water from us, with the dark mountain peaks rising behind the buildings. In the square that we reached first, was the Olympic caldron, which we assumed was the one they lit when Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics back in 2010. We waited patiently for the idiots sitting in front of it to move away, before taking a quick snap and heading on. Just behind the caldron, was the view I described out across Burrard inlet, which is technically a fjord, towards the north shore suburbs. We spent a while enjoying the view and watching the seaplanes take off and land, which seemed incredibly clumsy but smooth at the same time. From our viewpoint, we moved down some steps to the sea wall walk area and started heading east towards Canada Place, which is Vancouver’s take on the Sydney opera house. Charlotte had read it out to me earlier and had said it looked like snails but snails seemed far from the mark. It's points were more like a big top at a circus. We watched a couple of more seaplanes come and go before continuing along the sea wall. We were still on the look out for a book shop and decided to ask in the visitor centre to see if they could help, which was just across the road. They did help us find a book shop but it didn't have what we were after but it had only been a 20 minute diversion. On our way to the bookshop though, we were treated to a homeless man vomiting at the crosswalk, which was a lovely experience. Back on track, we walked down the side of Canada Place, which had a paved walkway, with bricks naming all the Canadian provinces and territories and then towns and cities in them. It was a nice touch but it didn't seem finished, which could also be said about the whole pathway, as once we got to a point, we were stopped by hoardings. By this time, it was nearly midday and we were starting to work up a bit of a hunger, so we walked back down the Canadian path and decided to walk towards the area of Gastown to find somewhere to eat. In keeping with our technique, we went for the first place we found, seeing as it was also a brewery. We sat down and got a couple of beers each and ordered ourselves a couple of burgers to go alongside them. The beers came first, as they tend to do, and were both excellent. Better than the ones we'd had on Granville Island the previous day. The burgers came not long after and were also top notch, so we left feeling pretty good but also, pretty full. After lunch, we spent a few hours milling up and down Water Street, which was the centre of Gastown. It was mainly populated by coach loads of Asian tourists and lots and lots of souvenir shops but there were also lots of locals milling amongst the tourist crowd. The highlight of the street was the steam clock, which whistled every 15 minutes and then whistled at length on the hour, whilst blowing steam out its top. It is powered completely by steam, hence its name. We eventually grew weary of the crowds, so decided to head back to the hostel for some respite. We did pop to the supermarket after heading back, in order to pick up some supplies for a picnic but we weren't out for long and once we were, we sat up in the rooftop patio and enjoyed a cider we'd picked up from a nearby wine shop. Neither of us were particularly hungry but we resolved to having something to eat, just because we'd spent so long in the shop the previous day, mulling over a plan.

Saturday 27th May

It turned out to be yet another standard morning in Vancouver. We got up, had a good sized breakfast and even swiped some more so we could have some breakfast for our journey the following morning. We had hoped to be out slightly earlier than the previous day's but it was half 9 when we finally left the hostel, which still felt quite late. Our destination for the day was Vancouver’s famous Stanley Park, which was only about a 20 minute walk from our hostel. There were certain parts of the park that were closer but we wanted to walk it in a certain direction. For the last 5 minutes of our walk, it just became a task of following the crowds, as it seemed all of Vancouver and its visiting tourists were heading to the park for the beautiful Saturday we had in store. The majority of people were on two wheels, which is why we opted to use our feet. From the moment we arrived, it was clear we made the right decision, as the cycle lane that runs anti-clockwise around the park, was a precession of cyclists. Stanley Park had been a highlight of my last visit and I was sure Charlotte would love it as much as I did the previous time. The sea wall skirts around the edge of Stanley Park for around 8km and offers fantastic views of the Vancouver Skyline, the north shore suburbs, the mountains, the shipping lanes and, on a clear day, Vancouver Island in the distance. The walking/rollerblading/jogging path, that runs parallel to the cycling one, was fairly quiet, which made for lots of space and not much hassle. The other sights along the sea wall were the Lion Gate Bridge, which is named for the mountains behind it to the north, and a bit of nature, in the shape of a few Great Blue Herons wading through the shallow waters. As we got further round, we could just about make out Vancouver Island in the distance but it was so faint, it probably didn't show up in photos. When we got to Third Beach, just before midday, we decided to stop for lunch, so we found a shaded spot of the sea wall and perched ourselves on the edge. There were plenty of locals sunning themselves on the beach in the fine weather and had we thought about it more, we probably would have joined them. After our simple picnic, we continued on for about the final third of the sea wall within Stanley Park. Just as we were finishing, we passed an outdoor swimming pool,which again, if we'd known about, we probably would have paid a visit to. Instead of a refreshing dip, we cut through the interior of the park, keeping an eye out for one of the many mammals that call the park home. Stanley Park is home to beavers, skunks, raccoons and even coyotes but all we managed to spot was a squirrel. We passed a large lagoon before reaching our starting point again.  We'd read there were some totem poles within the park, that we'd missed on our first circuit, so we started walking again to see if we could find them. Fortunately, they weren't to far in, although the sign we turned off at dropped us off at some cricket pitches rather than the totem poles. We stood outside the Pavillion for a short while looking confused and it wasn't long before a local came to our rescue and pointed us in the right direction. There were about 8 totem poles lined up amongst a clearing in the trees but the info boards in front of them were so faded, it was hard to decipher them. Still, they made a good photo and we took a few, before heading back. It was almost 3 by now and we were getting weary from a bit of walking and having been in the sun all day. We stopped off at the shops for a quick supply run before heading back to the hostel. It was washing day, so whilst it was on and drying, we relaxed up on the rooftop patio. It was so pleasant, I fell asleep. When I awoke Charlotte had disappeared but later phoned me to tell me she was down getting the washing. Time just seemed to disappear in Vancouver and before we knew it it was nearly 7, so we headed down to cook dinner. It was a pretty similar meal to the few previous nights, so pasta, green beans, carrots and a pasta sauce. We chucked in some Italian herbs that were sitting on the side and they helped give the dish a bit of taste. After dinner, we retired upstairs in order to pack our things, freshen up and turn in, in preparation for an early start the following morning.

In recent weeks, I've not done too many summaries about the places we've visited but I think Vancouver deserves one. It's a lovely city, nestled between the sea and the mountains. It probably helped that we got great weather during our whole stay but when you are walking the walls around Stanley Park, it's hard not to feel envious of the lucky locals who get to live their lives their.

This one is a crossword clue as there are no songs or quotes for our next destination.

Town in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, surrounded by the ? National Park

James and Charlotte

"The bluest skies you've ever seen in Seattle" Perry Como

Monday 22nd May

It was safe to say we weren't disappointed to be leaving Portland. It had been alright but certainly wasn't anything to write home about. We woke at half 6 and were greeted by plenty of light streaming through the curtains, which made the remaining packing and clearing the room nice and easy. We picked up our complimentary coffee and bagel and took it with us on the walk to the train station. It was a nice easy walk which was helped by it still being cool. We still managed to work up a bit of a sweat by the time we arrived though. We checked our bags in upon arrival at the station and then sat down to eat our bagels. We hadn't long consumed them when an announcement went up that we had to check in at a desk in order to be given seat numbers, so we all piled into a hasty queue and checked in. We picked up a cold drink just before the train was due in but ended up waiting for about 20 minutes longer, as the train was late. Eventually, the large crowd was called forward and we all clambered up on to the train. It was a completely sold out train, so there wasn't a seat to spare. For the whole 3 hour journey, we had to tolerate a group of schoolchildren shouting at one another but it didn't prove too distracting, as the scenery, once we hit Puget Sound, on which Seattle stands, was pretty impressive. Once we arrived at just gone 12, we retrieved our bags from a conveyor belt and started our walk through Seattle to our hostel. It was pretty much just straight down one road, so it  wasn't too hard. As always, we were too early to check in, so we passed some time by visiting a supermarket and grabbing a drink in the Starbucks on the corner of 1st and Pike, which is known for being the original Starbucks coffee house. By the time we finished our iced coffees, 2 o'clock had rolled around, so we walked back to the hostel, which was on the opposite side of the road to the Starbucks and checked in. We'd gone a bit gimmicky for our stay in Seattle. We'd opted for a double bed in dorm, as it was cheaper than getting 2 separate bunks. We were immediately unimpressed with the room, as we were on the top bunk and the ladders and lockers made it an incredibly tight squeeze. Seeing as we were only in town for 2 nights though, we didn't bother with kicking up a fuss about it. We stowed our bags in our locker and headed down to the kitchen for some lunch. Seeing as it was such a nice day out, after lunch, we headed straight out to enjoy some of it. We did end up inside for most of it though. Our hostel was right next to Pike Place Market, which is a huge market place selling fresh fish, produce and all sorts of arts, crafts, gifts and tat. We spent a good couple of hours browsing all the stalls on all the floors of the market before reaching the end and being greeted by a great view out across the sound. Once we'd seen enough, we spent some more time browsing the adjacent streets. We managed to pick up some pin badges and spent some time perusing a map shop, just for fun. We decided to stop for another coffee before heading back to the hostel about 7, just in time for dinner. We sorted bags and things out first, seeing as we didn't want to spend to long fussing around the room every time we had a shower or needed something out of a bag. Dinner was an old favourite, beans and pasta, made with America’s version of baked beans, which are seasoned with bacon and brown sugar. It was pretty hard to tell the difference, so dinner turned out to be pretty good and very filling. After dinner, we braved the tightness and stuffiness of the room for what would only be one of two times.

Tuesday 23rd May

It turned out to be a pretty warm night sleep but that served to make the shower first thing in the morning thoroughly worth while. Once refreshed, we had our fill of the free cereal at breakfast and returned to the room to find everyone else in our room had checked out, although we were sure it would be full come the evening. When we stepped out on to the streets, it seemed significantly cooler than it had the day before but we were in the shade and the day hadn't had a chance to warm up fully yet. Our first destination was the Space Needle, which is a tall observation tower that was originally built for the 1962 worlds fair but has since become an icon of the Pacific Northwest and, more specifically, Seattle itself. We were finding Seattle to be an incredibly walkable city, despite it being built on fairly steep hills, so we arrived at the Space Needle quicker than we expected. We weren't planning to go up it, due to Charlotte's fear of heights, so we just admired it for a while before heading off in search of Puget Sound. We made our way down a steep hill before getting stuck with the railway between us and the sound side park. A bit of walking got us to a bridge that took us over the train line and in to Myrtle Edwards park, which was right on the shores of the sound. We instantly fell in love with the views and the location. We found a bench to sit on so we could relax and spend some time enjoying the place. It was another beautiful day but the cool breeze was just enough to take the edge off the heat of the sun. The blue waters of the sound looked appealing but we left them to the two huskies that someone walked down to the edge of the water. The container ships were coming, going and anchored up waiting for whatever their next task was and in the background were the snow capped peaks of the Olympic mountain range were clearly visible beyond the water and the land. It was idyllic, very liveable and not many places had come close to being so appealing, to us at least. We spent a good half an hour just appreciating the view and enjoying the weather, before peeling ourselves away. We started walking along the coast, back towards the market/hostel area. We stopped by the Olympic sculpture garden but left thoroughly disappointed that there was only one sculpture to look at and it wasn't​ particularly good. We left the parks behind and walked past numerous piers that houses either posh apartments or posh restaurants. When we arrived at the Aquarium, we knew it was time to head up the stairs (there were stairs because the hill/cliff was obviously too steep to run a road down) in order to hit Pike Place Market. It was slowly ticking towards 1 and we were starting to get a bit peckish for lunch, so we stopped by the hostel to look for somewhere to eat. The stop proved pointless as we never did find anywhere, so we resolved to heading out and finding a place which, from vast previous experience, never ends up well. We had a quick glance at a café inside Pike Place Market but balked at the rather steep prices, so we headed through and out the other side. In a moment of blind inspiration, I decided to cross the road with Charlotte following, before Charlotte decided to just stop at a sandwich shop that had a fairly long lunchtime queue hanging out its front door. Over time, we've slowly got better at finding places to eat and part of it had been by just picking somewhere and going for it. It worked out incredibly well this time, as the sandwiches at Michou Deli, were fantastic and substantial. A “whole” Sierra (which was chicken with chipotle dressing) and a “whole” portobello sandwich later and we were pretty content. Our next stop was a coffee, from a coffee shop other than Starbucks. We like to try and drink at local coffee chains and although Starbucks is about as local as you can get in Seattle, we fancied somewhere a bit different and a bit quieter. We found one called Fonté, which suited us and we plonked ourselves on an outside seat in the shade and whiled away an hour drinking a sizeable Americano. Seattle was a nice city, it just didn't have a great deal to see, so we were perfectly happy relaxing and watching the world go by. We stopped by the shops once we were done with our coffees, picking up some pasta for our dinner. Despite the fairly early hour, it was half 3, we walked back to the hostel and relaxed in the cooler communal area downstairs from our room, we got up to date with blog and photos. We packed before it got too late and the room became too busy. For dinner, we rustled up some tuna, pasta and cheese before calling it a day and returning to the sweatbox. The quicker we got to sleep, the quicker we could be out the room and never have to return. Seattle had been nice though!

Somebody tell us what's goin' down, don't need another ...

James and Charlotte