the first half of my trip to Canada
I guess not many people are reading these posts, but one day in the future I might. Arrived in Montreal after a long day of travelling and I'm quite knackered and feel my mood slipping once more. After internets I will go for a wander to find food and then maybe drink ale in bed and read a bit. Maybe talk to hostel room mates if they appear, as that is where I am sleeping for my first night here. (Next three night's at Yann's house, but he's doing a gig in Ottawa tonight).
So from Seattle to Vancouver last Tuesday was a good journey as Heather kindly drove me there (Gavin couldn't come as it was his first day teaching at a new school). Traffic was bad for some way north of Seattle but emptied out a bit nearer the border, where a young woman asked us intrusive questions but let us in quite quickly. The journey was not as scenic as I'd expected, never mind. We found Lizzie and Matt's house in east Vancouver quite easily and they fed us curry and then we went to a local pub, the Princeton. First observations on Canada: the road signs are more confusing than in the US but the money makes more sense and the coins have the queen on them. We had a few drinks (ale didn't seem very special after Washington state's high standards) and had to listen to some live country music and then some blues stuff. Heather returned south after 1am, which was fine by her as she is a night time working girl (not that kind of working girl!). I found things a little challenging in the house with three cats and four kittens running all about the place and making horrendous messes in the bathroom, but other than that the hospitality was very fine.
Wednesday Lizzie had to work so Matt took me into town on the bus. We got off a bit earlier than was sensible, in the east side of downtown, and the sight that greeted us made the Tenderloin area of San Francisco I was complaining about earlier look just "a bit rough". This was like a zombie film, albeit it one where they don't try to eat your brains but just hang around a bit. All of Canada's most destroyed homelesses and smackheads loitering around a few blocks, just sort of camped out on the pavement, not even begging as there are too many of them. At least none of them hassled us. Then we had a quick wander through the small Gastown area, with its comedy steam powered clock, before meeting Lizzie at the Wicked cafe where she works for some lunch. Then we walked along the waterfront by Canada Place (other observation: Canadians write mostly proper English, i.e. it was good to see "Harbour Centre") where they had a big sculpture of a water droplet and loads of plaques with various historical information, so it was like a free outdoor museum. Also the view across to north Vancouver and the mountains beyond was quite impressive. Then Andy, an old friend from Edinburgh who moved to Vancouver two years ago phoned, and we met him after his nearby work and had a couple of pints in the nearby Yaggers pub.
After going home for a bit we went to a sushi restaurant and then got the bus back to east downtown, this time nearer Chinatown than the jakeys, and went to a hardcore bar called the Cobalt to see a gig. All bands seemed to have at least one notable instrument missing. First was a kind of angry post-punk band called Gross X-Mass, with guitar, drums and saxophone; they had some decent moments but were a bit pretentious. Then there was Terror Bird, a girl in a big red coat playing a Casio keyboard quite badly but with some very charming synthpop songs which might be good with practice. Then there was Nu Sensei, with a drummer bloke and a very yound looking girl on bass and shouting, quite hardcore with fast angry songs, they got the crowd going the most, pretty decent effort. Finally was Hearing Pin, which was just guitar and drums, quite interesting post-punk with some complicated rhythms and good dual vocals. Then the thing just ended and there were no DJ's, and I found some bastard had stolen my jacket from a chair I'd left it on! The staff were also really unhelpful and threw us out after allowing me only a short look for it. (Luckily I have another jacket on this trip, but it's not as good or as warm).
On Thursday I took a trip to Stanley Park, a peninsula on the western tip of downtown, and had to get off the bus early due to some incident where the police were blocking off several streets, possibly some kind of explosion scare in the community college. So it was a long walk to the park but it was pretty fine when I arrived. Had a sit down by the Lost Lagoon and looked at some swans, and then just up the path, before the wild forest starts, I was amazed to find gangs of racoons wandering about the place and paddling in shallow green pools, neither hassling passers by or running away from them. Into the forest there were no major animal sightings, but some impressively large trees (Beaver Lake had no beavers, just some ducks and a lot of lillies). Then I emerged on the sea wall on the northeastern edge of the park, and walked around the waterfront admiring the view and was on the southwest before I could get into the forest again. Heading back into town after, I'd just got onto the first suburban street when I saw a skunk in somebody's front garden, messing about under some shrubs.
After falafels I got a bus to the Biltmore Cabaret some distance south of downtown, and was joined by Lizzie in time for the first band. Although we were expecting a garage punk gig, Minotaur (I think they spelled it differently) were really irritating funk/prog-rock with slap bass, beards and a lot of showing off. Luckily, the next band was quite decent new wave indie rock, called something Perfect, but not Past Perfect. Post Perfect maybe, can't remember. Finally was Hard Feelings, a very high energy garage punk trio who really did some exciting things, but the crowd was a bit tame after the night before. Then Matt joined us after they'd finished, which was careless of him! After the gig we had Subways but no further drinking.
Friday I got a bus in the opposite direction from downtown, over the Georgia Strait and up to the Lynn Valley for some more serious forest hiking. There were signs warning you about bears and notices about various precautions you should take so as not to die. I did a three hour circuit but didn't really feel in any danger. First was north up the Lynn Valley Headwaters; at first an easy gravel path beside a scenic river, then I cut up a side path uphill and found it very challenging, steep and full of rocks and tree roots. Heading south down the high path wasn't a lot easier and I see very few people up here, except four different extreme joggers. Further south than my starting point was Lynn Canyon, where they have a shaky suspension bridge over a scary gorge far below, and I was just enjoying taking photos and trying not to be nervous when some horrible shirtless jock idiots came on the bridge and started shaking it and scaring some Indian ladies. The last stretch was quite steep back to the bus stop in the suburbs and much sweat was produced.
In the evening we got a curry takeaway and then went out with the upstairs neighbours, Robin (girl) and Issam (boy), to this overwhelming ice cream place where they have over two hundred flavours (also spelled correctly in Canada), some of them very silly indeed. I had banana fudge and a thing called lucuma, a South American fruit apparently. Then, with just Lizzie and Matt we walked up to the Astoria for an indie night, but it was mostly semi-ironic old pop music and quite annoying. The band did ok music, kind of post-punk, but with a shit singer. Ryan, who I met in Prague last time, came and joined us and we had some very good chat with him.
Saturday was a bit quieter and my credit here is running out so less detail. Met Lizzie after a morning shift and went down Granville Street and ate burgers in a silly bar which played too much grunge music. Then Lizzie went home to sleep and Matt took me over a large bridge to Granville Island, where there are interesting arts and crafts shops to attract tourists. Also we had a pint in the local brewery and took a tiny boat back over the water. Then we drank in a pub called Morrissey's, and after a long walk through town ended up in Pub 340 where some gig was setting up and metal was on the stereo. Finally went to Club 23 for a goth night Sanctuary, where Lizzie joined us and later her friend Alice. It was fairly typical fare, gay spooky EBM and futurepoop for the most part, and we didn't stay long (and Matt got sick for some odd reason).
The end. Montreal starts now!