#5 Vancouver, back to Canada!

Toronto and Chicago were last added to my itinerary because they were closer to fly to then Vancouver or Alaska or Seattle and seemed like fun cities to also visit (Chicago was however always one of the cities I wanted to visit). Anyways, it's now time to go to the places I originally had on my list, Vancouver first and then Anchorage, Alaska and Seattle after. I picked Vancouver to see orcas/killerwhales! My tour is booked for tomorrow, so fingers crossed!! 

Went back 2hours again (so 9 behind of home) and it was a 4 hour flight. We had a lot of turbulence but I thought to myself, if I go, at least it'll be with a Dr. Pepper in hand as that was what I picked for my complimentary drink 🤭! I watched 3 movies (last one was a documentary and I didn't get to finish it unfortunately):

- Strangers Chapter 3, weird..

- Solo mio, fun! Recognized some of the culture haha

- The secret of me, very interesting!

I did have to go through customs this time, but again only took me 10min or so to get through. The guy did ask me a few questions on what I was doing and where I was staying but he didn't seem to care much as to what my answers were haha. Walked to the skytrain and was suppose to take a bus after but decided to walk the 2nd part which was about 30minutes. And I'm glad I did, what a lovely neigborhood. Lots of 'swap houses', for books, and even dvds and plantseeds! And I caught my first glimpse of the mountains!! I'm staying in a house this timenand have a private room with a private bathroom! 

Arrived at the airport!

Just like Japan, I love it!

30min walk to my accomodation

I love this haha!

First glimpse of the mountains!

My room was great and it seemed as if I was in another Asian neighborhood. The house owner was also Chinese or Asian, I knew that from the signs all over the house in both Chinese and English and from the decorations and all the stuff everywhere haha. I walked around the area for a little bit, but soon hopped on a bus downtown and then walked another 10minutes to a sportsbar to watch the Dutch match. I had Googled where best to watch it and this was number 1. Some of the screens were huge but they showed the Japan-Sweden match. Like I said before, nobody cares about the Dutch haha. After the first matches, I stayed for the rest since I was chatting to two other solo travelers at the bar, one from UK and one from Switzerland. We went out for a bit, drank, dancednand laughed a lot, it was fun!

My room

Cheers to Holland!

Dutch matched on the two small screens in the middle😅

Went out after the matches and swapped hats (swapped them back before we left)

I had a short night after that because of my whalewatching tour at 1030am and had to be there at 10! And so I slept a lot on board haha I was also really cold but luckily I wore long leggings and had my jacket (I should have brought my sweater as well though). I dozed off but was still half awake paying attention to any announcements but none came and I saw that it was already almost noon! It was a long way out before we finally saw something! First up, orcas/killerwhales 🤩. The boat kept their distance which was nice and I saw a couple getting up enough for me to see the white around their eyes. Beautiful, but I also thougt, just let them be and also let me be 😅😴. We then went in a bit further and the boatride became a rollercoaster haha we went so fast and up and down until we got to a few sealions. Also cute. And then we rushed further down to a humpback whale! This one was breaching and so we got a good look at it! They told us at the start that they had someone taking pictures and so I didn't attempt to myself and just enjoyed the tour. The tour was about 5hours and so I didn't make my meet up with the guys at the bar before 4pm. I thought it was only 90minutes or so. Ah well. Got back to the room after 5pm and slept and chilled. It was raining a lot and so I didn't mind! Fell back on my steps though 😅.

Meeting point whalewatching

Cold & wet but let's go!

Our route - 5 hours

Humpback whale breaching :-)!

Sealions - part of the orcas diet

Orcas!!

The next day was a sunny one again 💕🎉 and so a good day to do some sightseeing again. I woke up really early and did a load of laundry, which was free in the house I was staying in and also perfect timing because I had one dress left and also down to my last pair of socks! I went out after that to get to the free shuttle that went to Capilano suspension bridge. Bridges, treetop walk, cliff walks, my kind of activities!! After walking and climbing for a few hours, I went back downtown to see Gastown, Chinatown and Granville island! 

Suspension bridge

Treetop walk

Banana slug! Slowest in the world, would take this little one 15 hours to cross the suspension bridge!

Only way back was also via the suspension bridge

Cliff walk with the suspension bridge in the background

Waterfall!

Back downtown - waterplanes and mountains in the background

My souvenir from the suspension bridge place - beer jelly and wine jelly (hot&sassy, stout, pinot gris, indian pale ale, cabernet/merlot)

Lunchbreak - bread and hot&sassy wine jelly (and hot it was, spicy!!)- with a view

The famous steaming & hornblowing clock @ Gastown

🤭🤭

Chinatown!

Leaving Chinatown

Free Jazz festival

Free sunglasses & free ginger ale

On my way back

Was back in the room around 5ish for a well deserved break, walked 13km! So food & writing post cards! I also booked a last minute daytrip for tomorrow to visit Whistler which I wanted to go to but it depended on how much of the city I would do today so hence the last minute booking. It's about an 11-12hour during trip so I decided not to go for another round but stay in :-).

Dinner - bread with stout beer jelly & noodle soup

Unfortunately I didn't have a good night sleep. But it is what it is and I decided to get up and go to the pick up point a bit early. The area looked familiar as I walked around to find a mailbox and then I noticed that it was next to the sportsbar I went to on thursday haha what are the odds. I picked it out of 4 pick up points because it was the closest one.

Posting cards!

Canada is bringing in the big guns if they lose 🤭

Got on the bus and we had 3 stops: Shannon Falls, the Sea to Sky Gondola and Whistler Village. It was a very scenic coastal and mountain drive! And we met 'BOB', bus drivers joke: Big Orange Bridge.

On our way!

First stop: Shannon falls 335m! We had about 45minutes to walk around the area.

Shannon Falls 335m high

About 90 steps up for this viewpoint 🙃

Peace at the base

Sunday chillings

Left Shannon falls 335m, right where my finger is, climbers!

Second stop: Sea to Sky Gondola (highest point 885m). We had about an hour and a half down here to do the gondola and a hike (or two).

Gondola selfies 🤭

Video from the gondala, half way up

Suspension bridge

Spirit trail

Wonderland lake loop + spur trail

The wonderland lake 🤩

Lunch with a view (bread with pinot gris wine jelly)

Last minutes before heading back down!

Third and final stop: Whistler. We had about 3hours down here. Walked around a little bit and met up with one of the guys I met at the sportsbar on thursday, who was staying in Whistler for some days, for the final minutes of the match. We had a couple of beers after and walked around for a bit. I watched Killer Whale on the way back. I had downloaded it to my phone and was going to watch it before I did the whalewatching tour but things didn't go as planned the day before haha and so I at least still watched down here. Bad movie though haha.

Whistler

Mountain view🤩

Walked into this square just before Canada scored in the extra time

Whistler river

On our way back to the city

We got back a bit early and so I decided to walk back since the weather was so nice! It was an hour to get back and after that I was pretty done haha. 

Walking back

Well that's it for Vancouver, that's it for Canada! 

Not my best, but walked: 7,3km - 3,8km - 13,5km - 13,1km.

Had a good night sleep and woke up pretty early and so with plenty of time, I walked the 30min to the station!

At the airport now! Next stop: Anchorage, Alaska!!

Cheers,

T.