CA: The One with the Severe Delay

Hi.

How are you? You’re well? I’m very pleased to hear it.

I’m good, too, thanks for asking. I’ve been very busy.

What do you mean you don’t want to hear my excuses? They’re very good excuses!

Oh, you do want to hear them… Erm, well, I’ve been working? No, okay, that’s not good enough.

How about that I’m still getting settled in Vancouver? Yes, I know it’s been two mont—yes, I understand that it’s a poor—Okay okay, fine, you got me.

 

The reason, and pretty much sole reason I have not updated my blog (as promised, I shamefully add), is due to my laziness. I’ve had ample time to write about the things I have done, and yet, I always find something else to do instead of documenting my days.

Canada Day – the day I wrote and published my last post – was over a month ago now. That is shameful. I had every intention of talking about my experiences of Canada Day and the following few days but, truth be told (I am aware, family, before you mention it)… I wasn’t very impressed by the celebrations.

I didn’t even take any pictures. There was meant to be a large and spectacular fireworks show to commemorate 150 years of freedom. I did attend, I’m very proud to say. You could pay for prime viewing in an over-crowded and tightly packed square by the waterfront. Obviously, I didn’t because I’m not a fool (and I also don’t like people).

Instead, we circled round the bay to the other side in Stanley Park… where it was still pretty busy. As anyone who knows me in real life will know, I’m not a fan of huge crowds of people. This was pretty much my worst nightmare, surrounded by random people, all being loud and boisterous as they waited for the fireworks to start. Somehow, we found a patch of grass to sit down on and waited, growing more and more annoyed by the people around us, for the fireworks to start.

When they did start, I wasn’t very impressed. Perhaps it was the limited view I was subjected to by the people standing in front of us. Or, perhaps, it was because I didn’t think the show was that impressive. Fireworks are fireworks, and unless there’s something truly spectacular or different about them, it doesn’t feel very special to me. That and there were too many people. Way too many people…

What else have I done that’s kept me so “busy”? Not a lot that I can think of, and even less that I have pictures of. When it comes to posts that have been … ah … delayed, I find the best way to deduce what I have done worthy of mentioning, is to scroll through the few pictures taken on my phone.

Lo and behold! We have the answer. Two things spring to mind.

The first, of which, I admit, there is a very limited selection of pictures to show you, is one of the great tourist attractions that every newbie to the city of Vancouver is meant to do as soon as they arrived – Granville Island. Me being me (for there is no better way of explaining it), I did not head to Granville Island like I was expected to. Why would I conform to such ridiculalities (yes, I did just make up a word and I only regret it slightly)? POWER TO THE PEOPLE. Or, you know, just pure laziness.

Anyway, back to Granville Island. The way I had been told about Granville Island, was that it was an island with lots of market stalls and more food than you could possibly eat.

It was not what I expected when we got there. It was touristy. Very touristy. I would compare it to Blackpool or to Niagara Falls, but it doesn’t quite reach that level of tacky tourism. No, there was a certain quaint charm to the island, I must say. Despite the fact that it wasn’t quaint – it’s quite big, in fact. Quaint feels right, though, for some reason. It was relaxing, let’s go with that.

Yes, relaxing. There were plenty of tourist attractions (such as tacky shops, boats for hire, that sort of thing) but also there were some delightful places. Places such as a Glassblower and glass shop where you could watch the Glassmith (you can also call them a Gaffer I just found out (how exciting is that?!)) as he heated, shaped and moulded intricate glass bowls, pots, and ornaments. Safe to say I was very content with watching the Gaffer (see?!) as he worked; my friend, however, was not. So we had to move on fairly quickly.

YET THEN, MY FRIENDS, THEN. We stumbled upon a Blacksmith (Ironsmith? Not really sure if I’m honest). I can’t say he was doing much at the point where we visited him, but the work around the workshop was pretty impressive. Iron railings, chandeliers, that sort of thing. I get a little bit too fascinated by trades like these.

Moving past my obsessions, the rest of the island was a strange mix of everything. There was a famous brewery (apparently) dominating centre stage. The line-up (YES, I DIDN’T USE “QUEUE” – SUE ME) stretched waaaay longer than I would’ve been prepared to wait. It reminded me of Willy Wonka and his Chocolate Factory … sadly I didn’t have a golden ticket.

There was a market indoors that was jam-packed full of tourists. I was intending on buying quite a few things, but left with just an ice-cream in my hand due to the insane traffic. I do have to admit, though, after we made our escape from the torture that is people, the view from Granville Island is quite pretty. There is lots of water about (due to it being an island… obviously) so, naturally, the scenery is very nice. Picturesque, even (set myself up nicely there):

 

I am sure there is more that I did in between seeing Granville Island and my next activity, but, basing it off the pictures on my phone, I didn’t. So, therefore, I have no recollection of it. That’s bad, isn’t it?

Anyway, yes, next activity. I have the benefit of having befriended someone (on the train from Toronto, no less) who works for an animal rehabilitation centre connected to the Vancouver Aquarium. So, naturally, she gets free tickets to the Aquarium. Ergo, I get free tickets to the Aquarium. Ipso facto, I don’t have to pay extortionate prices to see animals in questionable captivity.

That might be a little excessive, but yeah. The Aquarium is very expensive, and Gen (my friend from the train – only the occasional person actually gets a name drop), the one who works for the animal rehabilitation centre, explained the moral dilemma of handing over the animals to the care of the Aquarium. Still, the Aquarium wasn’t too bad. Lots of pretty things to look at.

 

Okay, so he’s not as pretty to look at, but still…

 

INCLUDING PENGUINS. Penguins penguins penguins penguins penguins. PENGUINS. I get very excited by penguins. They make me happy. But that’s enough of that.

 

What else to tell you about? Life continues steadily. The weather’s been very odd. British Columbia has had a lot of forest fires recently due to about three weeks of horrid, unforgiving sun. Let’s put it this way: certain areas of British Columbia trying to deal with these forest fires are the size of a European country. It’s that bad.

Due to the fires, there’s been a constant sheen of smoke marring the sky and, most tragically, the mountains. I can no longer step outside my front door and gaze longingly at the mountains. Now I  have to squint and just about make out a big lumpy shape. It is getting better, though. We had a full night of heavy rain which was just perfect for me. I love sleeping to the sound of rain and I was getting fed up with the heavy weather.

Now it’s a nice mixture of cloudy, windy and sunny. Maybe not the best of the forest fires, but at least the air’s clearer and I can breathe without too much fear of inhaling poisonous fumes.

 

That’s about it! Sorry if this wasn’t worth the wait … I can understand why.

You know what? I’m not even going to promise an update soon. That’ll just get your hopes up. The next post will be posted when it is posted. Kapeesh?

CA: The One with the Island

I completely forgot to write this one, going to be honest! Can’t even claim it’s been a hectic week or so – it really hasn’t.

Let’s jump straight back into it, shall we?

 

One of the few things I was insistent that Bryony experience was Casa Loma. For those of you who don’t know me (which is a very select few who follow my blog) I have a deep fascination with Medieval Fantasy, and Casa Loma is one of the few places in Toronto that almost satisfy me in that regard. It just needs more knights walking about it, then the fairytale would be perfect.

Not really sure how much to write about Casa Loma, as I’ve already been and wrote a pretty in-depth description of all the different rooms etc.

When I was there (with Gemma – you can tell I like showing people this out-of-place-miracle-of-a-house) last it was in the run-up to Christmas, and obviously there were Christmas decorations scattered among the grounds, even different Christmas trees in each big room to symbolise something!

This time, unsurprisingly, there were no Christmas trees. A minor relief, I believe. I’d be worried for the Canadians if they were still celebrating Christmas, four months on. I’m not really sure what was there instead, apart from some pretty rad (that means ‘radical’, for you old folk) wood carvings of animals.

Apart from that, I didn’t really see anything else new. There was a pretty museum across from Casa Loma, however. We didn’t go in (due to an extortionate entrance fee), but the grounds were very pretty to walk round. And sit in. We did a lot of sitting. Being a tourist is seriously tiring.

Now comes my second escape from the busy, hectic, world of Toronto city. Something I’ve been wanting to do, but due to weather concerns I’ve never done, is to venture across to Toronto Island. When I say venture, I mean a twenty minute ferry ride from the city to the island but still, it makes a big difference.

The weather was bearable, I suppose. The occasional bout of sunshine breaking through the grey-cast clouds. It was at least warmer than freezing, and the wind kindly kept at bay most of the time.

It was very pretty. And peaceful. Due to going during the week, and before the summer period, the Island was pretty quiet, which was both good and bad. Nothing was open, so our options were fairly limited, but it did mean there were less people to annoy me!

Toronto  Island all gives you an exceptional view of the city if you look north (hence the cover photo). I’m going to include another one just because I thought it was seriously impressive.

We spent a lot of our time just wandering round, exploring the connected islands. Some of the islands are residential, and feature some truly wonderful buildings. I’m thinking that you guys, mum and Charles, would enjoy a retirement there.

 

We also, as is to be expected from any person visiting Toronto as a tourist, went up the CN Tower. I have very little to say about this, so there you go.

 

Thus concluded Bryony’s trip out to Canada to see me.  I hope she had a good time.

Another thing worthy of mention in this post is my delightful job. Thanks to them, I got to go to a music concert for free!

A French singer/songwriter called Jain designed a watch for Swatch and the company needed two people from the Toronto area to go to the gig in order to promote the new watch. So, guess what? I decided to go.

I can’t quite say the music was to my taste (a strange mixture of French Pop and African beats) but the atmosphere was terrific. Plus, it was free? So who can complain?

 

Now we look towards the future. I am delighted to say that my time in Toronto is drawing to a close.  I have a found a job for the summer out in Nova Scotia, on the beautiful island of Cape Breton. I have to say, I’m mostly excited for the change of scenery. Urban landscapes, bustling hordes of people and pandemonium have grown rather thin on me after five months in Toronto. To venture out to the far east, where trees are plentiful, along with tranquillity and peace, sounds like a dream right about now.

We’ll see how I feel after I get there!