Last vacation post! I survived the week-long cruise and finally made it to Vancouver!

Our ship docked in Vancouver early in the morning. We were amongst the first groups to disembark. It was great setting foot in Canada again! We lined up through customs, then inched our way along the terminal. Once we got near the exit, we took a taxi towards the hotel. In typical Vancouver fashion, it was raining outside as we were leaving. It seems to always rain in Vancouver when we have good weather in Toronto!

After getting checked in at the hotel, I scrounged through my stuff to find directions to get to Granville Island. We bought ourselves a pair of one-day bus passes at the local convenience store before lining up to catch the bus. Buses in Vancouver are actually a lot easier to use than in Toronto. I was a little worried prior to getting on one, but it was a piece of cake. Once we got to Granville we found out it was too early as most of the shops weren’t open yet. We wandered outside for a bit, then made our way towards the public market to grab a late breakfast.

After eating, we spent some time buying souvenirs inside the market. Once we had our fill of Granville, we took the bus back towards downtown Vancouver. Our next stop was to visit the Mitsubishi Canada branch office by the Canada Place pier. Actually the main reason for our visit was to see the view of Vancouver from the top of the building. But alas there wasn’t much of a view with all the rain and fog. I did get a good shot of our cruise ship from the pier though!

After leaving Canada Place, we strolled through the streets of Gastown. There were quite a few souvenir shops in the area, so we took some time to go through each of them. By the time we were done, I was getting really hungry again, so we decided to continue walking towards Chinatown for lunch. Chinatown in Vancouver is…sketchy. Very sketchy. If you’re ever in the area, make sure you avoid walking down Hastings Street. It’s just not a pretty place to be…

However, we did make it to Chinatown in one piece. We managed to find a noodle shop to satisfy my Chinese food craving. Hehe. After lunch, we stopped by the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden, then did some shopping at one of the malls my friend Jenna recommended.

Later, Jenna picked us up and we went for a drive in Stanley Park. I’m so grateful that Jenna took us to Stanley Park by car because it was too far to travel to on foot. We were able to take in all the sights as we drove alongside the perimeter. There were very different views of park depending on which side you were on. I really liked the totem poles they had near the entrance.

After going through the park, Jenna drove us back downtown where we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Sushi in Vancouver is really really good! It was a little sad saying goodbye to Jenna once the night was over, but it was so great to see her again.

For the rest of the evening, we ended up wandering the streets by our hotel. I was determined to find a place to go karaoke, but I pretty much gave up the idea after an hour of walking. We ended up calling it a night and went to bed early. There wasn’t much to do the next morning since we had to head to the airport. We had breakfast at the hotel, then we packed up our things and headed to YVR. Even though my time in Vancouver was short, it was still worth the trip out to the west coast. Downtown Vancouver might be a smaller version of Toronto, but it was still a great place to visit.

That concludes my vacation writeup! Until next time. =P