O Canada!

So....

I am currently experiencing West to East jetlag for the first time. Unlike flying west where you get bonus sleep, here the sandman sprinkles plenty of sleep in your eyes but kicks you out of bed! Tomorrow morning I will have to wake up at 2am according to my body. Hmmmm

Anyway, Vancouver was amazing. Something of a bubble though since you could very very easily forget about the rest of the world.

My favourites.

1) A little restaurant called Urban Fare. (On Bute)

Check out the pics on my Facebook profile. It makes you want to eat healthily! Once I discovered it, my meals included an abundance of veg. It even made me want to attempt to overcome my `fear' of messy fruit. To my shame, the only fruit (other than smoothie form) I eat is bananas... don't ask me to give a logical explanation.

So Urban Fare made healthy living an easy option, and served up the most amazing `home-cooked' meals. It also had all you could possibly want from a grocery store, kind of like a Woolworths on crack with some character. In the background they played soft jazz, and the service was about as friendly as you can get.

2) O'Doulls Wine Bar and Restaurant (on Robson)

Served the most amazing buttermilk pancakes (read crumpets). Also had dinner there once which was fantastic with live jazz and friendly service.

3) Friendly Canadians.

Wow. After 2 months of Bermuda where you really feel like you are being done a favour by someone letting you be there customer, the Canadian service was absolutely amazing. A coincidence that the tip was not automatically included? In Bermuda, one restaurant I went to automatically includes an 18% tip, most 15%.

Every time I was served I was asked how my day was. There was always a smile. Canada seems like a happy place.

4) Ice Hockey

The next opportunity I get, I am going to strap some ice-skates on. That I will ever be playing ice-hockey is a stretch, but it looked like an amazing game, and really made me want to get out on the ice.

It was also quite funny. Fighting is allowed! You drop your gloves and stick and you can go at it till you both fall to the ice and the ref stops it. The two games I watched were exhibition games, so there was more fighting than usual. 3 fights in one of the games. Not sure there are any other sports where bare-knuckle fighting is condoned...

5) Amazing Beauty

Vancouver is often compared to Cape Town. They are quite different, but both are really pretty cities. Vancouver probably takes the cake if you exclude the magnificence of Table Mountain and Cape Town beaches... ok, Cape Town takes the cake. Well, ok... I don't know. Cape Town is the chocolate cake and Vancouver is the carrot cake. You are allowed to love both.

Walking around the sea wall was my favourite. More than 10km without crossing a road. You can roller blade, cycle, jog or walk.

Within firing distance are the Rockies, and incredible hikes and rides.

So now.... if it just wasn't so damn far from civilisation (read South Africa ;-))