I'm in Vancouver, trick

I can't even write that much right now because I have a midterm TOMORROW at 8am and it is already 11:47pm and I am moderately fucked. So something short. I won't even promise to write a lengthier post, because I don't know if I would. So here it goes. (Editing comment: this turned out not be short at all ... fuck ... but it's a good one!)

Vancouver is a freaking awesome place to visit for a weekend. I feel like we did a good majority of every great tourist attraction, and I only spent $160 total for three days.

These are the important things you need to know about Vancouver, if you ever decide to visit:

1) Stay in downtown Vancouver, preferably Burrard street because it is right smack in the middle of everything
2) The island is tiny, despite what you would assume from the map
3) Even though the island is tiny and the GPS claims you can reach your destination in eight minutes, you should expect to arrive and park in forty.
4) Groceries are very expensive, at least in downtown Vancouver
5) British Columbia owns all the alcohol in Canada, so you can only buy them from BC Liquor Stores. This means alcohol is effing expensive to buy, and drinks from clubs are pretty diluted


Oh gosh, I was going to blog only until midnight but by the time I finished making this graphic, it was 11:57.

So those were the major destinations, minus a suspension bridge we went to in North Vancouver.

A) Our hotel, the Century Plaza Hotel, which was a $240 stay for BOTH nights. Divided by seven people, this was great pricing. Thanks to Christina for searching for hotels for so long! It came with a complete kitchen, which was great for us because we ate in more than most people do on vacations

B) Granville Island, our actual first destination in Canada. We never got to actually explore Granville Island, but went to a place called Go Fish Food Emporium which was really highly rated restaurant-shack on Yelp. I don't think Canadians use Yelp as much, because there were not many restaurants listed. I had a crazy good char grilled albacore tuna sandwich, which came with "sweet chili ponzu glaze, tomato ‘Snake Bite Salsa' and wasabi mayo." I'm glad I didn't let all the spicy things scare me off, because it was insanely juicy and not at all spicy.

C) Gastown, which was a historical shopping destination. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but we had a random experience of walking through the back alleys of Canada right along the train tracks and the steam clock was fun in its own way.


D) Stanley Park, which we had the good fortune of going to TWICE. On Saturday morning, we rented roller blades and went around for two hours. We later found out that we had gone the wrong way and had actually gone from point D all the way to Burrard St. I am really happy we got misdirected though, because we still rollerbladed along really nice paths we can now say we have traveled through 1/4 of downtown Vancouver by roller blading!


Then today, Sunday, we went back again (the employees recognized us, HAHA) and biked the entire green portion of Stanley Park. It was the most insane bike ride ever - HEART!!! Every view was gorgeous, weather was nice, and we were EXERCISING while having fun! First time I rode on a bike with gears for an extended time, and I really liked it. But I probably wouldn't like it as much when I'm riding along streets instead of along a bike path around the Canadian seawall


E) English Bay, which we went to on Saturday night for a huge fireworks show on the beach, which is like an annual event in Canada. It was a thirty-ish minute show of fireworks, and we watched S. Africa night. The Celebration of Light is a fireworks competition, this year between China, S. Africa, UK, and Canada. The fireworks show was only enhanced because a FREAK thunderstorm started around 7pm that day. We had been told to go early, since the event is watched by 1.4 MILLION people. So we picked up food from Safeway to picnic while we waited two hours for the show to start, WHILE it was raining, but we were treated to an incredible sunset. Found a nice pine tree to protect us while eating, hiding from the rain, and later having girl talk.


Around 9:45, walked onto the beach and watched. The show had a twenty minute warning firework go off, which infuriated Kristen for teasing us. The fireworks were crazy, but even crazier was the lightning. I don't have videos or pictures, but at one point, there was horizontal lightning going across the sky like this


And after the event, everyone walked on the streets of Vancouver. MASS exodus of people! I love love love walking on closed-off streets with giant crowds. :)

Other fun things we did:
1) I ate DELICIIIIOUUSSS and CHEAAPPPP sushi as my last meal. I'm very happy we got that take out. I freaking got a HUGE piece of toro for only $1.75 and a huge tuna nigiri for $1.35. Also a "Vancouver Dream" roll, I forgot what is in it. It was super fresh mmm makes me never want sushi in America again, because THERE IS SO MUCH BETTER OUT THERE!

Only $13.70!

2) Fly a kite at the borderline between US and Canada


Yes, that is me in the black

3) Walked across a suspension bridge hanging between a really nice, pristine looking mountain area that had a very tall waterfall ... I can't describe it and my camera doesn't capture it well but it may have been one of the coolest naturey things I've seen.

The story of how we got here is even better. To make a long story short, we got lost and ended up picking up a random person we found in an isolated university. His name was Rick, he looked kind of crazy, but we had him sit in Mark's car next to Leneve anyway.

4) Japadog, which is like a Top Dog but JAPAN-style! They had japanese sauces and stuff like dried seaweed sprinkled on top with japanese mayo


5) Continuously sing "I'm in Vancouver, bitccchhh" to each other because it came on the radio while we were driving around and yes they DID change it to Vancouver. We decided that cities like Albuquerque would miss out on being able to fit their city name into the song

6) Celebrate Leneve's birthday Saturday around 11:50 by baking a blueberry pie, lighting sparklers, and setting off the fire alarm in our hotel room. I was filming, but panicked when the alarm went off, so I accidentally deleted the BEST VIDEO EVER. The video was: Leneve standing in front of the TV after she comes out of her shower and watching I Am Sam, video pans over to fifteen feet away where all six of us are very suspiciously huddled together whispering, then suddenly someone starts singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" and we all chime in, while Christina lights up sparklers and tries to hand them to people to hold. I get a shot of Kristen who waves her hands at Christina and silently expresses a very clear "FUCK NO I'M NOT HOLDING THAT" while we're all still singing, and before the song is over, the fire alarm goes off and everyone continues to sing while Kristen doesn't miss a beat and jumps up to fan a towel around the fire alarm. Again, BEST. VIDEO. EVER.

Oh god, I have to pee and study.

It need not be said, but I HEART YOU GUYS! I was very against going home. I thought it was such a happy experience to have all my friends fly in and meet at one place. But it is just as depressing when we all fly off into different directions at the end of the trip.