Busride to Seattle

Finally I decide to take the 'Quickshuttle' bus to Seattle - it is only 50$ round trip, pick up in Downtown and drop of in Downtown Seattle near the Space needle - perfect! I book a hostel bed in the 'Green Tortoise' and get on the bus in the afternoon .. still with a little bit of a sick feeling how the border is gonna be ..
I fill out the immigration form and use a red pen - that was a mistake! The bus stops and we all have to get out, take our bags and passports and go into a building. 3 officers are waiting, I have to fill out another form in black .. but everything goes normal, no questions asked and I pick up my bag happily and get back on the bus.
The drive down to Seattle is beautiful! The olympic mountains on the left - Snowcaps all the way, forest, lakes and than after about 2h behind the border: view over Seattle ... what a city!
I get dropped of and take this picture ...
The air is clear and warm, bands are playing in pubs and bars and you can close your eyes and feeeel NIRVANA playing somewhere!
I walk to the hostel and loose my way a little - so two homeless people, one in a wheelchair without legs are giving me advice for the way - and the guy with legs asks me if I have plans for tonight - aaawesome!!!

So this will be the last time reporting from Vancouver.. I just wanna leave some city impressions before moving on to Seattle!
I am not an architectural expert, but some of the hotels in downtown have been really impressive!
On top of that you can find the official olmpic countdown clock on the corner of Hornby and Georgia. It got started in 2007 by the swiss watchmaker omega and looks a little like an ice cube.
Than just around the corner of my hostel you can find the tallest building in Vancouver: Living Shangri-La! It is a mixed-used skyscraper, that holds offices in the first 15 floors and a hotel with condominiums in the top floors and is all together 201m high!
Another milestone of architectural achievements is the Vogue theatre in downtown Vancouver - at Granvillestreet, so just down the street from the place I stayed in - I lived in the party zone! The whole street is pretty much full of theatres, music, clubs and art scene - amazing!

Last but not least: surrounded by water ans split up through rivers and creeks (even Downtown!) this city had some public transport ferries running. The most famous maybe the aquabus! It runs over to the Granville market and the view back to Downtown is just beautiful..

Canadian Forests

I had the honor to join an extraordinary person for a tour through a canadian forest and over the Lynn canyon suspension bridge.. His name is Eric, he is 68 years old, retired bus driver and personal trainer and now he takes out tourists for day trips. It's free, but I hope everybody left him a tip. It was a blast! A tour through architectural history of Vancouver, a ferry ride to the northern part of 'town' and after only 30min you find yourself in a bear territory...
The forest is green, thick and smells wonderfully misty - the trail leads to a little lagune where kids are jumping off the rocks in 20feet hight in icecold water and we stop for a picknick. Eric throws in some stories about 'little Hollywood' that is located nearby and shares with us that they just finished shooting 'Twilight 2' in that canyon - aawesome :)
After another walk we come to the famous suspension bridge - just a lot of people and for some well traveled people with new zealand experience - not really that exiting.
But a great trail, an extremely interesting guide, that made the city even more special to me!

Totempoles and stonemen

On one of our bicycle tours we stopped on 2nd-beach, the south-west side of Vancouver. There is a long beach stretched out along the shore and at the end a couple of stonemen of an artist, who took metal poles and drilled holes through big rocks to lign them up one over the other. It's suposed to bring you good luck if you built one yourself - and so I tried ...

Another tourist attraction are the totem poles at the beginning of Stanley park - so sure thing that me and my roommates stopped by for a visit. Different artists and totem-carvers of the region contributed a pole for this place and a little sign in front tells their stories, the meaning of the different figures and animals contained in the pole and when it got carved - just another fascinating spot!

A night in Vancouver

Spending a night in Vancouver can really become an adventure .. in a wide variety of ways!
We started off from the hostel to visit the night market in chinatown... it was a long way and beautiful city views that I tried to capture in fotos.
As we finally found the entrance of the market at the end of chinatown - we agreed to a little try out: everyone had to pick something to eat or drink, that he or her never had before! We let the others try and ended up in a culinary adventure! But: it's worth a try even if I never wanna taste some of these flavors again in my life!

Home sweet home...

Not that I am not happy in Canada .. but .. I really miss barbecuing with a bunch of special guys from home. Especially when the location is so pretty like the last one where we came together and the barbecue is that exclusive!


Ich vermiß Euch Ihr Lieben!! Aber ich denk definitiv an Euch - wenn ich mich in billigen Hostels versuche mit schlechtem Wifi ein wenig Arbeit zu erledigen oder wenn ich Sprüche in ner Bar lese, wie: "Drink triple, see double, act single!"
Ich hoffe Ihr genießt den Sommer, grillt täglich und laßt auch sonst die Kuh fliegen!
Liebe Grüße an Alle!

'Push-biking' Stanley Park

After a nice free breakfast at the hostel me and my roommates (Andrew, Australia; Jerem, France) started walking down Robson Street to Stanley Park. Shortly before the park you can find an enormous number of bike rental places .. we compared everyone of them and the biggest and most famous one 'spokes' was the most expensive! So we took a chinese family business and got a great mountainbike, helmet and lock for 4,75/h! It is so much fun!
A beautiful view over to the skyline of downtown, the totem poles, the aquarium, endless forest, and beaver lake... unbelieveable! Just walking distance from
downtown - an oasis. Bicycling underneath the lions gate bridge, along the beach with the sun coming out .. another perfect day!
To make it even more perfect - we decided to eat over on 'Granville Island'. You can take a 'aquataxi' over to the other side of the bay and find a huge international food court, market and art galleries.

Bowen Island

Yes this is really only a busride from Vancouver ... It doesn't take a long ride here to feel like in a film set of one of those movies where they fight bears, go camping and chop wood, it's only a few minutes out of downtown and a completely new world begins..
Today I joined one of those Hostel tours - Volunteers do them, you get to meet a lot of nice people and see stuff you would've never seen by yourself.

A ferry ride later I end up on 'Bowen Island'. Hills, mountains, lakes, cottages, nice big houses, modern architecture, a picturesque harbor with great tacos and beautiful forest with a fern covert ground .. the sun is up, about 24°C ... what else can you wish for?

Maybe a sunny walk around lake Killarney with it's swampy area? Our tour guide Rob walked us through the little village, around the lake, including a picknick at the water..

Or maybe a salmon berry on the way?? (Rubus specialibis)
They taste like a mixture between raspberry and blackberry with a note of lime in there - ok, but not my favorite.

After a cold 'Hefeweizen' [ HEH-feh-vite-zehn] in the Bowen Island Pub we headed back to Horseshoe Bay to catch the bus home - what a great day!

Yeaaahhhh - Vancouver!!

Hey you people at home,
I survived an Airbus flight and arrived in one piece in Vancouver a couple of hours ago... Jiippiii!
I must say: I am stoked! Vancouver is amazingly beautiful, offers various attractions and holds absolutely friendly and helpful people!
I ended up in a nice Hostel in Downtown and go on a tour tomorrow .. I have to look up to which island though ... to much information for just one day!
But: I wish I would have spent some semesters at the university here .. the beach is 5min from downtown and students are enjoying their weekends with a nice barbecue at the beach or on a sailing trip through the bay.