Familiar Faces & Grand Prix Races

Hey everyone,

Hope everyone is well.

The last few weeks have been pretty much vacation time for me, starting with 5 of my best buddies from back home coming over to Vancouver to see me. It seemed to have been a long time coming but when the day finally arrived I was so excited to see the boys again.

In what can only be described as another classic case of 'Green Light Cottrell', the weather in Vancouver was absolutely incredible. (See below forecast - and it actually stayed that way. Incredibly I don't think we saw any rain in the week and a half that they were over! Unheard of in these parts.)

I think it's fair to say that we made the most of the sunshine. Here's a small selection of photos from the various places and activities:

Whitecaps v Toronto at BC Place

The lads! Aaron, Jared, Mark, Ben and Nick.

Chilling in Stanley Park. Frisbee and footy for most of the day. B-E-A-UTIFUL

Liccle Raccers at Stanley Park Pitch and Putt

On course at the Pitch and Putt

Unbelievable tekkers.

Down at English Bay with Daniel

Strolling along from English Bay - view through Burrard Bridge

The good old Granville Island Bewing Co. Tasting Room

Rogers Arena tour

Lynn Canyon suspension bridge

Jumping from rock to rock across the water in Lynn Canyon Park

Friends reunited. On top of a boulder.

People chilling at 30 Foot Pool

Rewarding scenery by the lake walking through Lynn Canyon

More Stanley Park. Surely the world's most picturesque cricket pitch.

More fris and footy in Stanley Park. Scorchio.

The boys also took a couple of days up in Whistler, which they really enjoyed. Zip lines, mountain biking, bungee jumps. I think they did it all! Unfortunately I couldn't go as I was a tad concerned with the bank balance with Montreal on the horizon.

Overall, it was an awesome week and a half. The guys really landed on their feet with the holiday rental apartment they got. Turned out to be a super sweet place and only a few minutes walk from my place. We had more than a few drinks and a couple of decent nights out as well. I really didn't want them to see them go back at the end of it! As it usually is with the boys, it was almost 24/7 banter and laughter. Loved every minute of it and I'm very grateful they made the effort to come over. Hopefully I gave them a good taster of what Vancouver has to offer!

No rest for the wicked, anyway, as the evening the boys went home saw Penny and Jason's 2 year 'Can-niversary'. They hosted a lovely shindig at their place with plenty of drinks and food in celebration of hitting 2 years in Canada. Congrats Penny and Jason!

In other exciting news, the Grouse Grind re-opened again recently so I had to seize the chance to get up that mountain again, one of the first activities I did when I arrived in September last year. My goal is to do the Grind at least 10 times over the summer. After remembering the struggles of the first ascent I arrived much better prepared (actually had a bottle of water and a banana this time!). I just wanted to go nice and steady, not too fussed on my time but aiming to not stop at all on the way up.

The task ahead!

At the top! Still a decent amount of snow up there. Was basically walking through a stream of melting snow for the last 10 mins.

My time for the first Grind of the year. Fairly happy with that one!

Views from the top

View of Downtown and Stanley Park

The top of Grouse Mountain

Looking back to Vancouver in the cable car on the way down

As you can see above, I finished in just under 57 mins, which I was pretty happy with. Now I want to get to under 45 mins before the end of the summer! (Just FYI, the course record is something around 25 mins, which is just utterly insane...)

A few days later, my friend Gina and I had the same day off work and she kindly offered to drive us down to the good old US of A for the day. The State of Washington is less than an hour away and the small town of Bellingham provides many a local with cheap shopping and classic American size food portions - not to be missed!

I ran a bit of a risk at the border, giving a bit of banter to the Officer and proclaiming that I wasn't smuggling drugs or weapons "today". For a split second I thought I had totally blown it but thankfully they recognised a cocky Brit when they saw one. I had to pay $6 to get a visa waiver but we were soon on our way again through the Peace Arch to Bellingham Mall.

The Peace Arch

 My only purchase was a plate at the Old Country Buffet. I think I ate approximately my bodyweight, in true American fashion, which was very satisfying. Gina made a few purchases so it wasn't a completely wasted trip! We also went on a random 'road trip' through the surrounding countryside outside of Bellingham, which was nice.

On our way back to Canada

The other major trip I took was last weekend. All the way over to Montreal, Quebec for the Formula One Grand Prix. I was so excited. As many of my close friends know, the Canadian GP has long been my favourite in the entire calendar and so to actually have the chance to go in person was a dream come true! I took the red-eye flight on Thursday night, which turned out to be a killer after I hadn't really slept much the night before either. The flight was around 5 hours (I found it incredible that you can fly for that long and still be in the same country) and I didn't sleep a wink. Fair to say, I was fairly exhausted when I arrived but it was pretty much straight to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for Friday practice!

The tickets my Dad had bought for me for my birthday turned out to be awesome. I was in stand 31 at turn 8 and 9, right by the wall that many-a-driver has succumbed to over the years.

View from my seat

I took sooo many photos over the 3 days I was at the circuit, I'm only going to show a small selection here. The weather in Montreal on Saturday and Sunday was absolutely amazing - pushing the high 20s. I even came away with a bit of a tan!

Heikki Kovalainen's car after he met the wall in practice.

Lewis Hamilton - eventual race winner

JB - the man I came to see - had a shocker

The Ferraris

Ham going at a rate of knots

Mark Webber - one for Rich

JB

Downtown Montreal from my stand

By far the fastest thing on the track all weekend

Dude with the craziest hat IN THE WORLD.

The McLaren lads

Crossing the bridge over the St Lawrence river back to the Metro

The biosphere at Parc Jean-Drapeau

Kimi the legend!

The 3 days at the circuit were a fantastic experience. The cars are SO loud. I was very grateful to have packed the earplugs that Mum had sent me for my birthday! Unfortunately I didn't get anywhere near the pitlane. I wasn't sure whether I would have been able to get anywhere close and couldn't be bothered to walk all the way to find out. Jenson Button had a terrible weekend but I was happy to see a Brit win it!

Between times I was staying at the Hostel Alexandrie in the Latin Quarter of Montreal. It was a cool little place. It didn't seem to have too many dorms/rooms but there was plenty of space inside. I met quite a few cool people, the place was really chilled out and I'm happy I stayed there in the end.

The cross-street for my hostel. Just can't get Robin Van Persie off the mind!

Heart attack in a box or what? Montreal is apparently the place to get poutine. What a joke of a dish.

Strolling through Parc du Mont-Royal

The Cross of Montreal. Commemorating city founder Maisonneuve.

Schwatz's smoked meats - absolutely delicious!

Francofolies festival was on at the time.

Gate to Chinatown. No way near as significant a Chinatown as Vancouver, I can tell you!

Start of my Old Montreal walk. Statue of Maisonneuve at Place D'Armes.

New York Life Building - the city's first skyscraper apparently

Aldred Building

Basilique Notre-Dame. Site of Celine Dion's wedding and Pavarotti's Christmas concert.

Oldest building in the city apparently - the Old Seminary

Rue Le Royer

Rue des Artistes. Where's Liam when you need him?

Hotel De Ville - 'Vive le Quebec Libre!'

The Old Courthouse

Nelson's Column. Yes, THAT Nelson. Good on the Brits.

Ben and Jerry's shop. Didn't go in.

Marche Bonsecours

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours

As for Montreal itself, I wasn't too impressed to be honest. There were some nice areas, such as Old Montreal, with its narrow cobbled streets and street cafes, the parks and Parc Jean-Drapeau, the island on which the grand prix circuit sits. However, I found the rest of Montreal to be a bit grubby. I guess maybe I'm just spoilt by how nice Vancouver is. A lot of Canadian's love Montreal because it has a very European feel to it and I guess has a lot more history than most places. To a European though, it's no Europe and whilst Old Montreal had its charms, I found it to be a bit underwhelming on the whole.

Anyway, I made the most of the recommendations people had given me before I left. I ate a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's, a bit of a legendary outlet from what I gather and it was as delicious as people claimed. I also ate that great Canadian national dish Poutine (aka Potato fries, melted cheese curds and thick gravy - apparently Montreal is THE place to get it) with my new friend Natasha from a place called La Banquise, just above Parc LaFontaine. The classic ingredients were topped with 3 other meats (picture above). Terrible nutrition-wise and I could only manage half of it, so saved the other half for before my flight home. I quickly squeezed in exploring a few of the other major streets people had told me about before heading to the race on the Sunday, knowing I'd have to make a dash for the airport straight after. 

Overall, the Grand Prix was fantastic and the trip was fun. It was great to be able to catch a few rays again after the weather in Vancouver had sucked in the past couple of weeks. Seems odd that I was essentially half way home!

In other news, I've had my 2nd letter of introduction through from the good people at the Government of Canada. It's official: I'm allowed to stay for another year! Guess some more of you are going to have to make the trip over to see me now! :P

Ciao for now,
Simon x