Driving to the station with my parents, my dad turned around to me and asked, "so how you feeling?"... "ehm, yeah okay". After what felt like weeks of saying goodbye to friends and family, I was finally leaving home and *sniff* the cats. As the great Spongebob once said: "I am ready".
The last two weeks have flown by. I've been staying with my great aunt and uncle, Lois and Archie, in their beautiful flat on Kitsilano Beach which overlooks Vancouver's downtown area. The day I flew into Vancouver was clear and crisp and I was able to see the snow-topped mountains surrounding the city as we came into land. After walking through the door of Lois and Archie's apartment the first thing that hit me was the view – forests, mountains, sea and city.
I spent the first few days walking around, getting used to the size of the roads and the cars. It seems everyone here has 4x4s which would look ridiculous on any street in Scotland. But here, they seem normal among the scale of everything else. I visited UBC Campus during my first week which included a visit to the Anthropology museum and the "clothing optional" Wreck Beach. No naked students that day though, perhaps it was a bit chilly. After walking down the wooden steps through the forest I arrived on the pebbled beach where I stumbled across a fish carcass. The carcass was huge and partly eaten and I soon realised that it was carried there by a bald eagle, who was sitting in the tree above me. The eagle would occasionally take flight and was followed around the sky by its juvenile. I stood watching them for a while and then heading back up the hill, feeling like nature had just high-fived me in the face.
My first excursion into the mountains happened last Wednesday and was a spontaneous one. Since arriving I've discovered that Facebook groups are a godsend for meeting people and tagging along on trips if you don't have a car. That afternoon someone posted on a hiking group page: 'heading up to Tunnel Bluffs for a sunset hike. Leaving in 30 mins. Let me know if you want in.' I replied and met them half an hour later outside the science centre in Vancouver and off we headed along the coast. After an hour of introductions and chatting we pulled over at the side of the road and started the hike. We had an hour to get to the top before the sun set so we set off at a fast pace. Just as the light was growing dimmer we came through the trees at the viewpoint which looked over Howe Sound and were met with a fantastic view. The small group of us sat up there for a bit and chatted while eating some Chips Ahoy! cookies that I had expertly packed instead of remembering to bring a head torch. A mistake that will not surprise my family in the slightest.
The walk down was very, very dark (thank god for iPhone torches!). A couple of times we stopped and turned the lights off, letting the darkness swallowed us up. It made me think of my friend, Lauren, who about a month prior had walked for 3hrs *by herself* in pitch blackness through the highlands of Scotland to locate myself and a group of friends in Ben Alder bothy. Experiencing the darkness coming down from Tunnel Bluffs just reinforced to me that Lauren is crazy.
When we reached the first viewpoint again on our decent we all lay down on the rocks, switched off the lights and looked up at the stars. On the other side of the mountains to our left we could see the dull glow of light from Vancouver. Overall, it was a fantastic first hike on the west coast, even if half of it was in the dark.
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Running and riding the bike around Vancouver's streets has proven a great way of exploring the urban areas. The bicycle infrastructure in the city is fantastic and you have a lot of room on the roads because they're so wide. All the equipment that I had to leave at home I've managed to find easily in Vancouver's many outdoor charity shops, so within a couple of days I had 'all the gear and no idea'. I've made a few friends through running and going for obligatory coffee and cake afterwards. Through this I discovered the wonder that is Grounds Coffeehouse, a cafe that sells the best cinnamon rolls I've ever tasted. Loving it all so far.
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