Two Ducks in Bear Country

September 10, 2012

After some much needed sleep (see: yesterday), the jet-lag had us up before 7am. We didn’t fight it, but got up and headed for Granville Island. We took the Seabus from Burrard Bridge and arrived a little early (the shops were still closed), so we had a bagel and a coffee and watched the marina. At about 10am, the pace on Granville Island picked up considerably, as did the weather. We took a lot of time browsing through all the small crafts and art boutiques, and of course the large food market. Granville Island is unique, in that it does not only have it’s usual amount of restaurants and bakeries, but also lots of small factory shops, where the owner is crafting in the back and selling in the front. Examples of this were the broom shop, a hat shop, a brewery, lots of woodworking shops and photography studios. On top of that, the Emily Carr University has its campus on Granville Island, and you can sneak a peek into the lab rooms where students are busy prototyping all kinds of design household goods. It’s really hard to compare it with any other place I’ve been that prides itself with being and “artisan quarter”.

After strolling around the island, we set course along the southern shore of False Creek, heading for Science World. On the way, we saw small parks, very pretty apartment complexes and finally the Olympic Village of the 2010 Olympic winter games. Science World was closed, but we weren’t planning on going there anyway. Instead we headed downtown again, passing through Yaletown, past the Vancouver Public Library and onto Hastings. Our plan was to head east into Chinatown, but we were two blocks off, and soon got discouraged by the … colorful people we encountered on the street. So we took the safe way back, through Gastown with a small stop near Canada Place. We ended up taking the scenic route along the marina, but that gave us the opportunity to look at everything in perfect sunlight where yesterday it had been mostly foggy.

The plan for tonight is to have dinner within a 100m radius of our hotel, which includes at least three Japanese restaurants. Tomorrow we’ll pick up our car, load it up with groceries and head for the hills, literally.

September 9, 2012

We made it! Getting to BC is definitely an accomplishment by itself because you have to endure the 10+ hours flight to get here. Luckily, our drive to Frankfurt and the flight itself went smoothly, with Katrin and I having three seats for ourselves.

We arrived in Vancouver at about 5pm local time and took the SkyTrain downtown, and then the bus for the last stretch to our hotel. The hotel is … well, basic, and kinda old, with bathrooms shared for the whole floor. Nevermind that, it’s cheap and we’re not here to stay indoors. We took a quick stroll down to the shore (photo above), looking towards North Vancouver and Stanley Park. After that, we bought some light snacks at a nearby Safeways (open till midnight) and returned to the hotel, where we fell into a very natural coma for the next twelve hours (the jet-lag-b-gone sleep).

We rose at 9am today (Day 1) and began the day at a small breakfast shop on Denman, with a cream-cheese bagel and a mug of good ol’ coffee. After that, we decided to start our day by taking a quick walk around Stanley Park (about 10km). We shared the trail around the park with lots of other people, from joggers to tourist to people participating in numerous charitable jogging/walking drives. Walking around the park gave us a really good impressions of the general dimensions and directions we will be heading tomorrow. After we left the park, we walked downtown where we wandered about aimlessly, looking at many store windows and a few small shopping malls. Our final destination was the Canada Place, where two cruise ships were anchored, busy performing their safety drills. From Canada Place, we took the promenade along the shore back home for a quick refresher.

At about 6pm Daria picked us up at our hotel. By now we had walked more than 20km, but luckily, Daria had two additional bus-tickets, so we took the next one to Gastown. Unfortunately, this is where the Vancouver weather kicked in again, with light but constant rain coming down. We strolled through Gastown a little while before settling on the Spaghetti Factory for dinner and a nice beer at a nearby brewery.

Now we’re beat again, both exhausted and probably a little jet-lagged. But I still managed to squeeze out a blog-post using the free Wi-Fi here. You probably won’t have to read quite as much in the next few days.

September 6, 2012

(Photo courtesy of katkam.ca)

September 3, 2012

So, we’re getting ready to get on the plane to Vancouver on Saturday. Sadly, it isn’t quite as straightforward as one might hope.

These are just some of the things that will keep me occupied until then:

• The labor strike of the Lufthansa’s domestic cabin crew, set to go into nationwide effect on Friday, with likely impact on flights by all carriers.
• Preparing this blog.
• Thinking about all the gear I will have to schlepp around: Laptop? Check! DSLR? Check! X100? Check! Great, now repeat with battery charger for each device, cables, filters, sleeves, card reader. External HDD? Additional lenses? Will I have time to read more than one book? So many choices.
• Photo workflow on ground. Will I have time to edit at least some shots? What does the (free) WiFi landscape look like, considering it’s 2012?