Saturday, May 12, 2012

North Vancouver






So today was a big big day! We wanted to get the tiring things out of the way so we had a quick breakfast and headed on up to North Vancouver.






We caught the sea bus over which was cool for novelty but I feel sorry for people who have to commute that way. It is so slow and crowded haha. Then we caught the 236 bus to Grouse Mountain. When I'm blogging about this, it seems like a quick process but it is very long and tiring. Its about an hour bus ride and there's a whole bunch of tourists squished onto the vehicle.





Anyway, we got there and the view was already beautiful from the bottom! We could see, that even though its nearly heading into Summer, the mountains had snow caps! It was the best of both worlds, warm (it became too warm) weather and snow. I think May is a great time to come to Vancouver.





We caught the skyride up to the top! Which is a long cable ride that goes about 1.5km up to the top of the mountain in 6 minutes. From the top, the view of Vancouver was spectacular. My camera really didn't capture it very well but ohh my it was breathtaking!





We spent $10 to go tubing for two hours. We only ended up going for one hour because walking back up the snow hill was super tiring. It was good exercise though. Haha tubing was fun. It reminds me of water theme parks. I would always win the races. I am awesome.



I've never had green melon powerade 


We met some New Zealanders working there. Actually, there were a lot of Australian tourists there. We walked through some trails to catch some great views, and also walked another to the grizzly bear habitat. Oh boy they are so cuddly and cute! I love teddy bears so this was so exciting for me to see up close! They're just coming out of hibernation so we were lucky to see them sprawled on the snow floor catching some sun.





We had lunch with a panoramic view and then took the skyride back down. At the bottom, we went to see the wolf habitat. They just look like pretty white huskies. They were sleeping though. Lazy winter buggers.





We caught the bus back to Lonsdale Quay, then waited forever to catch the one that went to Lynn Canyon Park. The walk was tedious but once we got there (after a long long while of walking) we saw the suspension bridge. Now, when I did research on Vancouver - the tourist advice was to go to Capilano Suspension Bridge. I stumbled upon some local forums which suggested that Lynn Canyon Park made more worth out of your money (free!). Capilano costs about $40 bucks and Lynn had the suspension bridge too as well as some amazing hiking trails - so I opted for that one.





The suspension bridge didn't seem that mesmerizing until you stand in the middle of it and you feel the weight of everyone's steps wobbling towards the centre. Hehe, then it gets a little fun. To think that that bridge has been there since 1912 is pretty insane.







We started walking along a hiking trail, and then we saw a sneaky dirt path so we decided to take it. We trudged through some forests and then we heard the gushing of water. HOLY MACKEREL, I was blown away when I saw this BEAUTIFUL hideaway of a river. The rocks were smooth and comforting, the water was crystal clear (no joke, we filled our bottles with it and it tastes better than tap water) and the best part? No human in sight!







We chilled there for a while. We let our toes cry out in pain from the super cold temperature of the water. If you dipped your feet in for only 2 seconds, it already hurt from how cold it was! This was my favourite find in Vancouver so far. I really want to go back already! It was really beautiful.







We caught the bus back to Lonsdale Quay, then hopped on the super slow-mo seabus. We wandered Robson & Granville street trying to find food. We settled for Japanese Bistro which was overpriced but still yummy.







We decided that our moneys were not well spent there so we popped over to Crepe Cafe to eat some scrumptious crepes. I got dark chocolate & banana, that can never go wrong. Nom nom nom! We walked back to our hostel, packed our bags for the cafe with the internet and now I'm blogging. After this? Ms. Deena the Tour Guide must plan our itinerary for tomorrow!!







p.s I think I get terrible hay fever here. I sneeze like crazy and my skin popped up with a billion hives! I've never seen myself look so much like a tomato before! Lucky for zyrtec (anti-histamine)!





He looks like Cee-Lo with my sunnies


p.p.s Downtown Vancouver looks like a 60's diner EVERYWHERE and ALSO everyone smokes weed openly. I smell it EVERYWHERE its crazy!! I've only seen one cop car so far and it was this AWESOME old Bonnie & Clyde-esque black and white car. 

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