Exciting Adventures around Hallowe'en Time #2

So, I got to trees last time. What have I done since?

Well, I've discovered some new bits of the city I had somehow previously neglected. On Saturday I had set out in search of jugglers and spinners at the art gallery and failed rather in my pursuit until it was too late (they were on the one side I didn't look... *sigh* but I shall find them next week...). However, along my meanderings I did discover Robson Street. Robson is nothing particularly exciting, it just baffles me how, having walked through an intersection of it every day for the first week, I failed to notice that it is a massive shopping/restaurant hub that stretches across the entirity of Downtown. Likewise, I really only recently actually bothered to walk up Denman, which is the other main street of the West End besides Davie (where my hostel was). It's funny what you manage to *not* do when you first get to a place.

Anywayz, marginally more exciting was my visit to Gastown - another area that it's astonishing I managed to avoid for so long, given that it is literally 2 minutes from the seabus (our main route to downtown).

To be honest as much as guidebooks go on about Gastown, mostly it's some 'cobbles' (what they actually mean is 'bricks' rather than concrete, but still), the worlds first steam powered clock (admittedly kind of cool) and all the tourist shops that i thought had been missing from downtown Vancouver. (I'm going to have to take back that thing about them all being on Granville Island, they're equally divided, Granville Island/Gastown).

I'll let you read the explanation of how it works for your self (in the plaque above, which will enlarge if you click on it). Steam from underground makes balls move around ,which makes the clock go... or something.

You can see the mechanism on the left - with as little reflection as i could manage. And on the right, if you look closely you can see the stream coming out the top.




Besides the clock Gastown is quite pleasant, and it's 'old' buildings do make a change from the shiny new-ness of the rest of downtown, but moreorless every shop is a tourist shop, and between those are a few expensive restaurants.

One thing I found surprising about Gastown is that it is soooo easy to wander straight in to Vancouver's dodgy area. It literally takes half a block's wander in the wrong direction to realise that maybe you might not want to hang around for too long. At the time I thought this was unusual, having not just an affluent area, but a properly touristy area right next to one of the most destitute. There's a block in San Francisco where this is sort of true, but the area there is affluent, not especially touristy. However, it has just occurred to me that Hollywood is precisely like that - one of the most touristy areas in North America, but in actual fact really not a nice neighbourhood. Weird the way the world works.

That said, wandering out of said dodgy bit, I did find some very nice graffiti (unfortunately it's been graffitied over, such is the irony of the art form...):


*the next bit is me getting excited about a crane, feel free to skip it... *

[cranes]

So, cranes. I've never really considered them to be particularly exciting. What's more there's this huuge red contraption that sits on the Vancouver waterfront ruining the view:


However, it turns out it's quite cool. I saw it working the other day, and it's used to put shipping containers on the huge cargo ships that go through here. It's so big it makes it look like a simple process of stacking a Jenga tower (hopefully without the ultimate collapse - although I do think that playing Jenga with shipping containers and a crane like that might be rather alot of fun). Genuinely very like giant Mecchano... Anyway, the upshot is that i no longer resent it ruining my view quite as much because it has cool points...

[/cranes]

The view (North Van) from beside the big red thing:


I live between the two main roads you can see running up the slope.


Besides sight-seeing, I've also spent a couple of evenings skating - or helping some of the other Bunacers to not fall over, is probably a more accurate description. Then yesterday I tried my hand at roller blading for the first time in about 10 years (well, bar one night in 3rd year, but i don't think that would count ). Hannah and Tabitha hadn't gone around Stanley Park yet, so yesterday we headed out there. Hannah and Shima stuck to bikes, but since I'd already gone on a bike, me and Tabitha tried out hands at skating. Turns out that I can skate just fine, but turning sharp corners and stopping were both something of an issue... I think i've got far too used to just leaning and going in a direction but that doesn't work very well off ice. I did escape any injury though and over the nearly 6 miles gave my thighs a proper good workout!


Close of the day was spent sat on the beach watching the sun go down - as in yesterday's blog picture. Another one of the pretty sunset across the beach.


There have of course been a few days where we haven't got up to much (well, except I joined the local gym, so i've been gym-ing when not doing anything else), but I guess there's no harm in catching up with yourself abit after a couple of weeks properly on the go in a new city.

We are in a bit of a weird limbo at the moment though since I and my flatmates all have jobs lined up, are being trained as I type, but don't know exactly when in the next couple of weeks we'll be starting. So at the moment we've got plenty of spare time but are relunctant to spend much money until we have an actual income. I guess I might go an explore some more of the (free) trails and paths the North Shore has to offer. When I do have an income, the world will be more of an oyster and I plan to make the most of my location to visit Victoria (on Vancouver Island), Whistler and Seattle at some point, but that will have to wait for now.

I am exploring various agencies with more enthusiam right now, to see if I can get some casual work both before the season starts and to top up hours in the season, as and when I have time. I got the main step out of the way a couple of days ago, which is to get a 'Serving it Right' certificate, so that I can legally serve alcohol in BC (basically a requirement to be a waitress ('server') any time alcohol is involved. In summery, they want you to know that servers and estabilishments have a duty of care, so if some drunk guy goes and injures people (or worse) on his way home, you can be sued. That, and that high fat foods slow down the absorbtion of alcohol the most. I do slightly resent that I have to pay $35 to have that repeatedly drilled in to me though. Still, it's probably a good investment in the long run.