Last week my days off provided me with an opportunity to explore some bit of Vancouver that i've so far neglected.
Main Street, so I am repeatedly told, is where a lot of the good eating places are. Since the main reason I'd gone out was to find a cool cafe to chill out in, it seemed like a good place to start. Main Street is about as close as Vancouver get to Bristol; a little worn-down or seedy looking in parts, but with cool stuff and a nice vibe in the gaps. It has second hand book shops and vintage shops and reandom comic orientated stores - you get the idea.
I came across a few interesting cafes and sat in one of them (where they made their hot chocolate out of real chocolate - win). But along the way found other titbits of interest. For example, the vintage shop had made their security grill thing out of cutlery, which i thought was quite cool.
And I came across more wall art - I wish i always had my camera with me to take pics,cos there's loads of it in Vancouver, and it make the whole place shinier. This isn't really my style, but i like the fact it's there anywayz.
At this point my sitting in a coffee shop turned into something of a hike...
Having seen that Main and Broadway intersect I went for a wander down Broadway - yet another thoroughfare that I had yet to venture down. Clearly not paying enough attention I amused myself for at least five minutes when i came across an 'eye psychic' - a mystic one. I was quite a loss as to what an eye psychic does, but i liked the idea. I somewhat ruined my own illusions when i realised it was a 'mystic eye' psychic (rather than a mystic 'eye psychic'), but never mind.
Another thing i mused upon on my hike was just how prominent the mountains are inVancouver. You'd think i'd know that working on one and living at the bottom of them, but to be honest i had completely forgotten. Living at the bottom of them, you can't see them most of the time (And actually, it's so misty such a lot of the time, that you can't really see them when you are on one!).
Anyways, they do, i am reminded, completely overshadow the whole city, which i guess is one of the reasons why people around here are so keen for all things mountainy. :)
Talking of mountainy things, there's a sign on the mountain that i had wanted to take a picture of for ages, but we always go past it too fast. However, i was presented with the ideal opportunity during the holidays when the road had been closed and I had got throroughly stuck at the bottom off it, crawling up the hill at snails pace, along with everyone else.
Don't feed the bears. This is what happens if you feed the bears:
This is probably my favourite Canadian sign so far (although, it's very close between this and the 'vancouver is a nuclear weapons free zone' sign of my very first post). More signs should have cartoons.Anywayz, going back to my meanderings around Vancouver. I had eventually found myself walking so far that I ended up somewhere near Granville Island, which is apparently a scary, wild place, according to the sign which warns you to beware the wild coyotes! *eek*
And I shall finish the post off with one more sign for the day. Just around the corner from the coyotes I came across possibly the most weirdly named street in the whole of Vancouver:
At least, I'll be a little surprised if i find anything more idiosyncratic...Other highlights of the day included a beautifully indulgent visit to my favourite hat shop, and also finally joining the local libary and getting some french and german grammar books out (like all the cool kids... ;) )
No comments:
Post a Comment