Our streak of hot, sunny weather came to an end the day we arrived in Vancouver. After seeing nothing but blue skies for two weeks, the city’s skyscrapers stood high and grey-blue among pervasive, white clouds. Rain was heavy in the air, and on the second day it poured and poured for hours on hours.
If I’m honest, Vancouver didn’t make an impression on me in the way that Portland and Seattle did. I’m not sure if it’s because by this stage of the travelling I’m getting a little jaded about new destinations — gaining a wonderful privilege of ceasing to be surprised by changing scenery — or if it’s a wider reflection of the city. I have to say I’m surprised though: Vancouver was the place I had wanted to come to before my year abroad. I was desperately keen to be accepted to UBC, and to go to school with a backdrop of dusky mountains and be surrounded by different fancy foods. In hindsight, it was sort of a blessing that I ended up at Western instead: London, Ontario is about a thousand times more affordable, and more conveniently placed for visiting elsewhere. But Vancouver had all the same been my ideal location, so it was sort of odd to finally be there, and to find myself not particularly fussed by what I was seeing.
Don’t get me wrong: Vancouver’s a nice place. It’s stunningly situated, with a plethora of lovely parks and smart, tall buildings. There’s a whole bunch of great things to eat, and cool things to do. It just didn’t — stand out. It doesn’t look wildly different to Toronto and a bunch of other similar cities besides. It offers the same amount of interesting foods as any major city. Its natural surroundings are broadly the same as that which blesses all of the Pacific Northwest. I’m being unfair, I know; all these things make it a lovely place to be. I just didn’t feel that I got a sense of what is truly, and distinctly, Vancouver.
In Vancouver’s defence, I was only really there for three days (left on the fourth), and I did only see snapshots of it. But then: is that any different to how I visited Seattle and Portland? Perhaps it’s because Vancouver is so much bigger, and therefore so much more difficult to get a cohesive grasp of. Perhaps if I’d had the opportunity to be shown around by a local, I’d have grasped a sense of its identity — perhaps I picked the wrong places to look around. But then, as a tourist, I don’t really have any complaints with the way I spent my trip. In purely holiday terms, it was a lovely visit.
To begin, we went to UBC campus. The first two days of our stay were spectacularly moody and damp, and it was quite becoming for the city — and for the campus — to be draped in low clouds like that. The mountains I had imagined myself studying beside could be glimpsed, blue and ethereal, behind the dark green fir trees, faintly shrouded. It was quite stunning. I somehow managed to find this both gratifying, that I had been right in my inclination to go there, and also rather feather-ruffling. Frankly, how dare they. My competitive streak sort of wanted to tell the entire institution of UBC to sod off.
What’s more, in some random campus building we popped into to use the loo, there just happened to be a place selling authentic stone-baked Neapolitan style pizzas, where one would expect dodgy library paninis. Casually! Summer school students were slumped at desks, staring blankly at laptop screens, nonchalantly wiping at the remnants of good quality extra virgin olive oil left around their mouths. Beautiful, lightly charred pizza crusts lay discarded amongst the class notes on the tables: the bones of exquisite pizza playing the mirror image of highlighter pens. Could I imagine a thing such as this at Western University? Fat chance. True, Western is notoriously a place for rich kids, but our default pizza joint (holla King Ritchie’s) is a damn sight doughier, and greasier, and distinctly unfancy. I have to say it’s pretty good for its price point, but that’s not saying all that much.
Suffice to say we ate some pizzas, with gusto. First, however, we ambled on down to Wreck Beach. This is another example of stunning natural beauty around the campus: large, whimsical logs lie scattered along the dark sand, lapped at by cold, grey sea. Those same mountains stand solemn in the distance. There is a caveat, however, in that it’s a nudist beach. (Weird, that it’s literally right beside a university campus? Or is that just me?)
I’m sure the place is jolly on a hot, sunny day, but to be honest the vibe of a nude beach is a bit weird when it’s cold and grey. Only those who are very dedicated to the concept of being publicly naked think to seek it out, and they adopt a strange uniform. Hiking boots, thick raincoat, but completely naked from waist to ankle. A couple of the people there were inclined to make one extremely uncomfortable.
It’s a stunning beach, though! We walked down to an empty part and swam (in swimsuits) out a bit into the sea, cajoling each other and gasping at the cold. Looking out at the misty, moody view, treading clear water, you could almost forget the sensation of freezing your tits off.
If you do visit UBC, there’s also the Museum of Anthropology, a world-famous and fascinating resource for indigenous history and world cultures. I’m kicking myself for not having been able to fit it in, but two of my friends went on a different day and came back buzzing.
In the evening, our group split. Half of us went to do the Capilano Suspension Bridge (30% cheaper if you go after 5pm), and half of us decided to tackle the Grouse Grind. They’re near each other, with free shuttles from Canada Place, so you could absolutely do both if you wish, but we were limited by time. I did the Grouse Grind, which is essentially a hike up 2.9 kilometres of extremely steep mountain. Although there are technically steps, they’re uneven and often broken, with huge gaps between them so that you’re basically lunging upwards. The average time that the hike takes people is 1.5 hours, and the current record is 23 minutes. I’m pretty happy to have done it in a respectable 1 hour and ten minutes. There’s a rather stunning view of the mountains, and the city, and the sea once you’re up there, and also an enclosure of grizzly bears. (If you don’t feel like enduring an hour and a half of solid awful cardio, you can take a cable cart, but it’s rather expensive).
The day we wandered around the city was the day it poured. Vancouver still managed to look pretty, as it’s got so much greenery, especially along the lush suburbs. Interesting points include the Gastown steam clock, Canada Place, and the riverfront park walk. We also visited the Roedde Museum, which I would wholeheartedly recommend: it doesn’t take very long to do, but is a charming historical snapshot with some dear old attentive women working there, happy to tell you all about the family and the charming objects.
Our final day in Vancouver was our best. We rented bikes and cycled along from Canada Place, through Stanley Park, all the way around to Granville Island to see the market. It was finally sunny again, but not too warm, and the entire journey is stunning. You cycle along the waterside, admiring the beaches and the natural rock and large bridges up ahead. Along the way you can stop in at the Go Fish café for a bite to eat or a drink. Then, when you finally reach the market (although there is a shorter trip across a bridge if you don’t fancy a long cycle), you’re met with a fantastic array of foods to sample and eat. I bought myself a selection of delicious Italian antipasti (olive oily, herbed chickpeas and roasted marinated vegetables) and a cheese-stuffed bagel, although the latter wasn’t as good as I had imagined simply because it was flavoured with lemon. I hadn’t realised this when I had pointed to the thing I wanted, and found it a bit confusing as the taste reminded me of lemon desserts. Still: a lovely supper, sitting in the sunshine by the water as we were serenaded by a man singing old French jazz songs.
Thus we ended our time in Vancouver: flushed, pleasingly worn-out, and eating. Other good places we ate in Vancouver which I didn’t photograph included MeeT in Gastown, a completely vegan restaurant. It’s trendy and accessible (received the nod of approval from my at-first-unconvinced gym-bro friend), with a great selection of burgers, bowls, and salads. I had the beet salad with a side of chips — both fabulous. I tried bites of my friends’ mighty mac burger, and poutine, to satisfaction. We also ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which is a chain, but a first for us, AND which includes a starter, bread and garlic butter, pudding, and cup of tea / coffee in the price of their main dishes. Which you really can’t complain about. I ate the tortellini pomodoro, very good, although on a later occasion I had the vegetarian lasagne which I would say is bigger and a better choice. We basically ate breakfast every day in the bar of our hostel — the Cambie Hostel — as you get $5 off if you’re a guest, but it was good regardless. (Especially the Garden Benny). It also has a great vibe in the evenings, with daily events and people who weren’t even staying at the hostel lining up outside the door to get in (but queue jump for guests). I’d definitely recommend staying there: great location, buzzy, big kitchens and communal spaces, even if the shower rooms are a bit cramped, without anywhere obvious to change.
I also heard good things about the brunch at Brioche, and the South American food at Gringo, but never managed to fit them in. Alas — perhaps some other time. I may have begun this post with somewhat of an insult to Vancouver, but it’s such a location I’d definitely not be opposed to going again, if the opportunity ever arose.
sylva 