Suddenly Summer Moved On...

G'day y'all,

I've been putting off doing a blog update for some time now. Decided it's probably about time I get off my lazy ass and put pen to paper, as it were. No real excuse for it. I've just been enjoying summer here in Vancouver - one of the main reasons I stayed - and it's been a lot of fun. Excuse me now while I sift through 10 weeks of memories and photos to try and find something vaguely interesting to put below.

So, yea, summer. It's been good. It was kinda late arriving but it has definitely been worth it. After the period of warm weather we had when my friends were over in May it got a bit rainy again and a lot of the locals were saying the summer was going to be a washout. June was quite overcast with a fair number of showers, from what I remember, but since the start of July it has been really nice and warm here for the most part. It's funny because the same locals that were cursing the bad weather in June were the same ones saying we could 'do with some rain to freshen things up' in recent weeks. Reminded me of home.

I guess some of the major news from the past couple of months is that I have moved twice. Firstly, I moved out of Downtown and into a two-bedroom basement suite in a quiet residential area in Southeast Vancouver for the start of July. The main reason for this was to move back in with Daniel, as I'd grown a bit tired of living with random students at Conference Plaza, and also to check out another area of Vancouver. The place was close to 29th Avenue skytrain station so you were Downtown in 20 minutes, so it was pretty convenient and the quality of sleep at night was a million times better than Downtown, where there was always some siren going off or some homeless guy hollering whatever in the middle of the night.

Location of our pad on Slocan Avenue, Southeast Vancouver

It was great living with Daniel again, for the banter alone. However, we hardly actually saw each other because of our different work schedules! The odd day where we had the same day off was usually spent kicking a football around or down at Stanley Park playing Pitch and Putt. Daniel's friend from back home, Eoghan, joined us towards the end of July. He arrived on the same visa as we're on and crashed at ours during his first few days. The plan had been to find a 3-bedroom place to move into for the start of August but unfortunately there weren't any viable options to be found. Trying to find a 3-bed place that's in a decent location and furnished seems nigh on impossible. It's hard enough finding a 2-bed place like that. In the end I ended up moving out of my room and Eoghan took it over. I was pretty keen to try living in another area of Vancouver and so I ended up in the West End on August 1st - where I'm typing these very words.

Anyway, more on that in a little bit. The rest of July was filled with working and just enjoying the summer really. I tried to get out and about, down to the beaches, down to Stanley Park, going for jogs, etc as much as possible to make the most of the nice weather. Vancouver really is a fantastic city when the sun's out. There are so many nice locations to spend a day - Kitsilano, Spanish Banks, Stanley Park, the North Shore - all amazingly beautiful locations. Having the backdrops of the mountains or the islands in the distance is quite incredible and you feel really lucky to be here. I recommend everyone comes to spend a week here in the summer at some point if they get the chance.

Evening stroll around Trout Lake - a few blocks from our pad

Clear blue skies above Hermes in July

Hazy summer afternoon at Spanish Banks beach

Gull chilling on a sign

Strolling around the Olympic Village area on a sunny July day. Looking towards BC Place stadium.

Olympic Village views of Science World

Sun setting behind Stanley Park

Arm party: Me rocking Gina's jewelry and 11 diamond Hermes H-hour watch :P

One of the major events of the Vancouver summer is the annual 'Celebration of Light' at the end of July. This is comprised of 3 separate nights of firework displays - each hosted by a different country - down at English Bay. The three nations competing this year were Vietnam, Brazil and Italy. Literally hundreds of thousands of people packed onto English Bay and the surrounding beaches on each night to watch the fireworks launch from a huge barge a few hundred yards out in the water. The displays are also timed to music, so they make for a pretty good show. I managed to get down to all 3 nights. I'd say Italy had the best fireworks but Brazil had the best overall show. I think the samba music made it! Here's a selction of snaps from the 3 nights:

 
The other side of my summer has realy been one of money-saving and sobriety. With my visa due for renewal on September 9th, I put myself on a mission to save as much money as possible for this date. Firstly because I need to have a decent amount of money in case the immigration officer asks for proof of funds and to pay for another year's worth of insurance (not cheap!) and also so I could go and have a real blast over in the States for a day or two. I decided that I could combine this with a real drive on the fitness front and save a decent amount by not drinking any alcohol for a few weeks! A few of my friends were a little skeptical and/or disappointed that I'd chosen to do this right as summer arrived but it has worked out pretty well for me. I think it's been over 2 months now and I haven't had a single drop of booze. Feeling great for it and been feeling good down at the gym too.

I've thought that it'd actually be quite nice never to drink again but it's pretty much impossible to do. Drinking is so ingrained in our culture and society now it's considered strange if you don't drink and it's awkward for the person who doesn't drink. Countless times I've been asked "why aren't you drinking?" "Why don't you drink?" "What's wrong with you? It's summer!" It really does make you feel awkward and like you have to excuse youself - and even apologise - every single time. Now I know how my friend Aaron, who has never drunk in his life, must feel a lot of the time when he's out and about. Anyway, I'd be kidding myself to say it's 100% due to health or some moral conscious decision. Truth is I do like to have the odd pint of ale or two every now and again, so it would also be taking away a pleasurable experience. I've never been a HUGE drinker but when I do I usually take the 'all-in' approach. Maybe I can find a healthier, happier balance in the future.

So, as previously mentioned, I moved again at the beginning of August. I moved into a little apartment sharing with 1 middle-aged Canadian guy just off Denman St in the West End. The location is fantastic - right next to Stanley Park and the shops, restaurants and cafes of Denman St and Robson St are right on my doorstep and it's a five minute walk to English Bay. It has definitely been a great spot to be in during the summer. It's still only 10 to 15 minutes walk to Downtown as well, so it's super convenient but at the same time a bit more green and a lot more quiet than Downtown proper.

Location of my current room

I tried a couple of the local eateries fairly promptly. Nom nom nom! as all food bloggers say. You could come to Vancouver purely to sample all the amazing and varied cuisines on offer.

Korean @ Sura restaurant with Sookae. Really good!

Italian - Tavola restaurant with Jen and Gina. Awesome pasta.

I'm now going to bombard you with a selection of 'Vancouver in the summer' shots that I've collected whilst out and about. (Growing tired of thinking of stuff to write at this point, as you can tell from this picture.)

Back to the summer snaps:

Status to David Oppenheimer, Mayor of Vancouver back in the day.

Gay Pride Starbucks!

The Gay Pride parade! I was just walking by. Honestly. No, seriously. Why don't you believe me?!

Little Inuksuk statue on the seawall. There's always loads of these in amongst the rocks but this one looked particularly good.

Red sky at night over West Van

Monty Python & The Holy Grail playing at the free summer cinema at Second Beach

Coal Harbour summer sky

Perfect summer

Chilling down at Second Beach

BC Place illuminated at night

Vancouver's Olympic Flame in the morning sun. Watching the London coverage here was pretty hard. Really wish I could have been home for that!

Went to the Food Cart Fest at the Waldorf Hotel, East Hastings with Gina one day. Some tasty food to sample!

Gina and I made our own little Inuksuk on the Yaletown seawall. We named it Viggofrank.

In the past couple of weeks I've been out for a couple of hikes. The first was over on the North Shore - The Two Canyon Loop - with Penny, Jason, Irina, Chris, Jenny and Matt. It was nice to stroll around the Lynn Canyon area again. There's some really nice scenery and it was a good day weather-wise for a hike. Unfortunately I wasn't the best company after getting up early beforehand to watch a drab 0-0 draw between Arsenal and Sunderland. Will I ever learn?

Haven't come face to face yet.

Found this guy buzzing around

My second visit to Lynn Canyon's suspension bridge

The second was over on Bowen Island. A 'small' island about 20 minutes ferry ride away from Horseshoe Bay. It takes about 30 minutes on the bus to get to Horseshoe Bay and then it's a quick ferry over to the fantastically named Snug Cove on Bowen. I caught an early ferry there, hoping to spend most of the day. It was a nice place to visit. Very natural, quite old-school. It reminded me of Sweden with the wooden buildings set amongst the trees. The hike up Mount Gardner was a little more challenging than the Two Loop hike. The map that they give you is utterly appalling as well so I'm not entirely sure where I ended up. I definitely made it at least most of the way up for some nice views, anyway. I met a couple of other hikers who said they were having similar difficulties determining exactly where they were on the map, so it obviously wasn't just me!!

The weather on the day was a little disappointing. It looked like the sun would burn through the clouds by the afternoon and while it did get pretty hot when I was up Mount Gardner (very helpful) I scrapped my plan to head to one of the beaches on the west side of the Island in the afternoon. I turned back for Snug Cove, bought 1.5 litres of fluids (forgot to take water) and then ate at the little Tacos stand just to the right of the ferry dock. Still, all-in-all a good day exploring new territory.

Horseshoe Bay

Library on Bowen Island

Killarney Lake

Killarney Lake 2

Spent what seemed like ages coming to the top of one trail to find this spectacular view.

Better view towards Keats Island and the Sunshine Coast

Tacos! (Nom nom nom)

Snug Cove!

And that's about as much as I can remember from the past couple of months! I'm off to Seattle on Monday for two nights to check out the city and activate my new visa on the way back into Canada. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.

See you on the other side,

Simon x