Vancouver, where summer is winter.

Caught the 10 pm "red-eye" to Vancouver with West Jet with the naive belief that I'd be able to get some sleep over the next six or so hours. Got into Vancouver at around seven or eight AM having tossed and turned the whole time. The new sewction of the airport was amazing, only added recently for the Winter Olympics. It's was like I walked out of the plane and after a few steps walked into a museum exhibition. Flowing water, bird song, trees it was quite impressive and this was on up one storey (whole ground floor being the first floor over here is a bit confusing) and airports tend to have high ceiling & large floor space. There was then a huge cascading water feature down into the customs hall. Nice. Hate to think what it's going to look like in ten years time and how they are going to eventually remove it all. Didn't take any photos being so tired and not thinking straight (that's a poor excuse because as it turns out I don't take many photos regardless unless I'm actually out somewhere 'touristy' and have my camera ready with me. Which is a shame because I then have to rely on my memory to retell much of this which is not a good thing). As soon as I stepped out of the airport at 8am and onto the skytrain platform I was glad I had my hoodie with me (cutting back on checked luggage weight) because it was as cold as a winter day back home. Not sure what the temperature was at the time but I think the max temp of the day was 16.

The new Canada line on the skytrain was nice and new and frequent which was nice and new. Arrived at the Cambie hostel which was only a few blocks from the Waterfront station very early at 9AM and this turned out to be fortunate because the place was absolutely crap. I mean in every possible way (okay, except the staff who were friendly & helpful) so it gave me plenty of time to find somewhere else to stay. Ended up going to their sister hostel that they had a few blocks away which was marginally better without having to cost me extra money or, in fact, losing me any money. Again, I shoulda tooka photos to show how crap it is. Spent my time in part of Vancouver that I didn't come across last time I was here on the other side of the city in the late 1990s which was good. Heard about the riot, sequel to the 1994 Stanley Cup finals riot, before I arrived. It's no wonder though with some of the public art I saw.

Then saw the aftermath and realised what the fuss was about. For blocks there where large city stores with their smashed windows all boarded up, then for blocks outside that more of the same at random.

All but one I saw had various messgaes of remorse, embarrassement, guilt and civic pride and unity. I like to think next time the Canucks are through to the finals of the Stanley Cup Vancouver City will be better organised. Third time lucky eh?! It's no wonder though with some of the behaviour I saw.

There are a lot of apartment buildings in Vancouver, I think it was one of the first things I noticed about the city. Apartments and mountains and the fact that they retain their working harbour. Tourist boats, container and bulk freight ships, barges, pleasure craft, seaplanes, ferries and cruise liners all passing to and fro with the mountains in the background still capped with snow.The whole reason for coming to Vancouver, seeing as I'd been here before, was purely for administrative purposes. To sort out the red tape needed so that I could live and work. That morning I headed into the nearest Services Canada office and got my SIN (Social Insurance Number) which was surprisingly straight forward and immediate. Looks like I have to reapply for my Canadian passport from scratch which is a pain because I need to get both a guarantor and referees. "Hi you don't know me but would you like to go guarantor on my passport application?" isn't really the best way to go about it but I may have little choice. It would be nice if I could just renew my current (expired) passport and the Canadians just cross reference their criminal records databse. Any other knots to be tied, like getting a bank account had to wait because as it turns out Canada Post decided to go on strike which threw a spanner in the works. They were on strike almost the whole time I was in Canada (minus one day). Seeing as I now had little reason to remain in Vancouver as I couldn't receive any mail (not that I had faith that it would reach me at the hostel) I decided to move on.
(PS, I paid the price for all my bitching and moaning to people about the cold weather on my first day in Vancouver. By the end of the second day I was suffciently sunburned.)