Day 1 - Vancouver - Stanley Park

Wow I slept well! Sleeping tablets are a life-saver for getting over jet-lag. I feel totally normal today.

Breakfast was okay. A bit of a North American take on a Continental breakfast, with bagels instead of croissants. There was some jalapeño and cheese bagels, so I grabbed a couple and some salad to take with me for lunch. I actually came prepared with sandwich bags this time!
Whilst eating, I got chatting to a couple of people - an Aussie guy and then a girl from the UK who wasn't really based anywhere but was currently living in Canada - and started talking about recommendations about places to visit in Vancouver. I'd already planned on going to Stanley Park as it's by the port and is supposed to be the place to go, but the girl gave me some tips about the route to walk and so on, and the Aussie guy (Matt) asked if he could join me which was nice.

We started off walking through the gay district as it was meant to be a colourful route. It definitely didn't disappoint.





We reached the coastline and were slightly taken aback by some bronze sculptures of some people laughing. Apparently this art is a representation by the artist Yue Minjun of the form 'Cynical Realism', which is a contemporary Chinese movement that emerged in response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Minjun uses humour and cynicism to create a dialogue amongst the audience. It is certainly an interesting response to Tiananmen Square...

Upon reaching English Bay, we continued to meander around the coastline taking in the Lion's Gate suspension bridge...I shall be seeing another suspension bridge in a week or so...but this one was still impressive.

We finally took a break for lunch when we reached Stanley Park itself, which had been hiding from us on the inside i.e. to the right of us, but completely inaccessible because a lot of it is untamed and left completely for nature. There's an area which has several Totem polls - carved from Western red cedar and unique to the North West Coast of British Colombia and South Alaska. Totems are coats of arms, as opposed to idols and each have a meaning.

We carried on further still exploring some of the more untamed park area, this time on the hunt for some wildlife - there are supposed to be beavers living in some of the lakes, but unfortunately it was a bit too sunny for them. We did get entertained by some ducks who were definitely getting a bit flirty with the female (she was playing rather hard to get...), and concluded that one of the male ducks was pulling out all the stops and trying a bit too hard. It certainly kept us amused.

After all of this it was clearly time to head back to the hostel. Very exhausting, but well worth it!