They speak English here!!!

We arrived in Vancouver 7 hours before we left Japan. It was weird crossing the international date line. We would have loved to have stayed longer in Japan, if not just to chat more with Sharon and Mitsu. We will definitely be back.

Oh Canada!

Vancouver was interesting on arrival, we had to think about what to say to the Passport control officer, he spoke to us in English. After many months of Ni hao, Konichiwa, Sawadee, Sabadee and all the rest if was strange to have English, with English music over the PA. Tim Horton's coffee, Starbucks, McDonald's, signs in English, Bus timetables in English. Snippets of conversations from people walking past, in English. And then the swearing from the young locals waiting for the bags, the builders walking to a construction zone or a guy not able to find his way. At least in foreign countries you didn't know that they were swearing, we didn't miss that.

Anyhow, Vancouver is a beautiful city with such a diverse of neighbourhoods. We didn't see any moose in the streets but the typical buildings in Downtown Vancouver that you see in the Canadian TV shows are instantly recognisable. We did arrive during a bit of dull weather. Both Jude and I pulled out the fleeces for the first time since Nepal and I even ended up in my jeans. The next day was a lot better.

Sleeping patterns were very messed up but after a day of rest, some proper food from a proper supermarket we hired some bikes and headed for Stanley park, THE place to go for a bit of exercise and to see the city.

Beautiful boats near Stanley Park

The weather turned fantastic and it seemed everyone headed for the beach. Walking your dog in a bikini seems to be the thing to do here, it was a different sight to normal and North American, non backpacker figure. People of all ages dressed in various forms of beachwear.

At a Vancouver Canadians baseball game

We hope to get to quite a few sports games in America, the opportunity arose for a local Canadian game (Hockey season is over at the moment), although they were not major league, the atmosphere in the park, dancing the birdie song half way through the game and a chance to learn some of the rules was beneficial and shod set us up for the Yankees in a months time.

Seattle is our first couchsurfing experience. More details in the next post.