Venture Vancouver

Robson Square, originally uploaded by Qantas Travel Insider.

I went Ice Skating tonight for the first time in a decade and the first time since being in Canada. I went to GE Ice Plaza (Robson Square Ice Rink). Its great, it is only $3 to rent some skates. When I got there, no one was skating and security and first aid staff were out on the ice. Aparently someone had hurt their ankle and then was refusing to get off the ice. They were eventually escorted out and then the zamboni was put on to clear the ice. It is awesome to watch a zamboni do what it does.

It wasn’t that long until we got to go onto the ice. I went out holding onto the edges real tight. There are these granny walker type things that staff place into the rink and that anyone can grab onto and run with it. It is supposed to be for children to learn on. I used it a bit to get a feel for what  my feet should be doing and to feel sort of what it is like to ice skate. It wasn’t long until I got the hang of it and could skate around the whole rink without having to hold onto the edge.

I had skated for 2 hours and was starting to get tired and a blister on my foot. It was a good time to take a break as they soon stopped the music and got everyone off the ice to allow the zamboni to do its thing again. I loved the music that was playing, mostly 90′s stuff.

I went back onto the fresh ice but it felt more difficult than before. It felt really bumpy and slippery. I didn’t skate for much longer as I was getting hungry. I soon left with 2 friends to go get some food at the Lennox Pub. The place was packed at about 10.30pm and there seemed to be only one table free. There was one empty chair at the table and a empty glass. We figured that the table just hadn’t been cleaned up yet. The three of us went in search for some extra chairs to place at this table so that all of us can sit together. It took us a good 10-15min to find chairs and bring them over to the table. Once we sat down and was ready to settle in, someone tells us that the someone is sitting at that table? We were all baffled because it sure did not look like anyone was sitting there, nor had anyone sat there the whole time we kept returning to the table with an extra chair, and still, as we were leaving, we still did not see anyone sit there. Perhaps the staff just didn’t want us there, but I hate how they waited until we found spare chairs and brought them to the table and settled in before they told us that the table was apparently ‘taken’.

We left in search of food and walked down granville until we hit the Two Parrots pub. This place was much nicer than Lennox. It wasn’t as packed. The Two Parrots have this two pound burger deal thing, that if you are able to eat it by yourself within 30min or an hour then your next burger will be free. Its a $25 burger. I think they should give the burger you just ate for free for accomplishing eating it. Although the yam fries were droopy.

On the way to the Two Parrots we saw George Stroumboulopoulos, and my friend just had to go say hello and shake his hand. I of course, had no idea who my friends were talking about, although the guys face looked familiar.

Its unfortunate that the Ice Skating Rink in Robson Sq is only open until the end of Feb. I’d recommend anyone visiting Vancouver should go ice skating at least once. There are rinks around that are open after Feb.