Venture Vancouver

Snowshoe adventure at Mt. Seymour, originally uploaded by selihpxe8.

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.

On the Drive, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

I had heard that Commercial Drive was once Little Italy. There is a little italy in Melbourne, that is still very much italian focused. I went to ‘the drive’ and walked from Commercial Station up to Venables St. I have an Eye Witness Travel book which lists Commercial Drive as a shopping district for tourists. I would not recommended tourists go to this area. It is not a pretty part of the city, it looks old, degraded, dingy, and just very worn. I am sure this place has seen better days and that when it was little italy, it was a hustling bustling awesome place. The drive has some interesting restaurants and food shops, but as for shopping district, not so much.

Unless your definition of ‘shopping district’ is shopping for smelly second hand old clothes, books and furniture perhaps, but then you could help the homeless and buy such items off them instead of for some of the price tags I saw.

I think ‘the drive’ is a great place for locals, especially local artists. There were heaps of walls that were covered in muriels and the homes down each cross street were colourful and interesting. As mentioned there are some good food shop markets, restaurants, bakeries and cafes which make the drive a great local place to hang out. If I lived in one of those cozy colourful houses, the drive would have everything I could need. Read more… …

best goalie, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

Tonight I am going to see my first live hockey game ever at Rogers Arena, but before the game, food is in order. The Kingston Taphouse on Richards st was recommended. I was really surprised at how large this place is inside, you would not have guessed it from outside. There wasn’t that much time before the game and I also wanted to buy a jersey beforehand too. The Kingston staff were able to place us at a table straight away and served us immediately.

I ordered a maple glazed grilled salmon. It was pretty good. Some parts tasted too ‘grilly’ but the parts that had the maple on it were sublime. We were out of there pretty quickly and made our way to the arena.

While walking to the arena there was a guy in a wheelchair with a cat in a little suit on his shoulder. I wish I had taken a photo, it was cute. There were quite a few beggers asking money from the huge horde of people making their way to the arena.

Read more… …

Rogue Kitchen, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

Granville Street Party, originally uploaded by Powerkey.

I was so surprised to learn that there was no gathering place or public countdown or fireworks for New Years Eve in Vancouver. This city has fireworks for every other event except the biggest event of the year! There are fireworks for Canada Day, for Thanksgiving, for Halloween, for the opening of lights of hope at St Paul’s Hospital, there is even a festival of firework lights, but come new years eve where there are fireworks all around the world… all you can hear in Vancouver is the sound of crickets.

I was looking forward to doing something different or new for my first new years in this city, in this country. In Melbourne city (which was expected to be 40°C on nye) there are fireworks at the hub of the downtown. I have only a few times attempted to go into the city on nye and managed ok, but it is basically impossible to move as everyone crams onto the streets like sardines.

I thought the city would be buzzing with life, and that it was great that I live downtown. I thought the streets would be like the photo above, but no, it was more like below.

Eerie Granville Street, originally uploaded by mhchipmunk.

The streets were quiet and empty, just like this article describes, Vancouver is the no fun city when it comes to New Years eve celebrations.

I was going to have a quiet night with just a few friends in my small apartment playing boardgames. As the day went on, and it seemed that some people still didn’t have plans for the night, I opened my place to further guests and ended up managing to fit 10-12 people in my apartment plus two cats. One cat is the size of a small dog.

At midnight we broke out the champagne, the party poppers and screamed out the balcony happy new year (but there was no one downtown to hear us). The party poppers made a mess everywhere and scared the cats to go under the bed. No one could concentrate on playing any games but the night was fun and eventful. I am still surprised I managed to fit that many people fairly well in my apartment and am glad that the apartment is small enough that it is really easy to clean.

I also loved that it was -3°C outside on new years eve. It was so fresh and great to be out on the balcony, a lot better even without the fireworks than in Melbourne. It can get really suffocating in such heat.

I think due to liquor laws in BC, there are not many options for private celebrations. If you want to rent a room at a community centre and have a private party with alcohol, you can’t without a liquor licence. Even with a licence there are still inconvenient restrictions such as only the person with the licence is allowed to provide the alcohol (so you can’t have a potluck thing happening) and you’re supposed to purchase the alcohol only at BC Liquor.

A lot of apartment buildings have function rooms but often don’t allow alcohol to be consumed. So people are left with two options, an expensive catered event at a restaurant or pub venue or a house/apartment party. The liquor laws are a bit silly here. I think they’re a bit too lax in Melbourne, but Vancouver is at the other extreme. Not that alcohol is a necessity for a buzzing party, but it can certainly help.

For any tourist thinking about being in Vancouver for New Years Eve…… think again because it is just no fun compared to other cities.

Saturday 4th December 2010
Location: Granville Island, Vancouver

The next day  I went for a hike in the snow at Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. Hiking after it has snowed was great. I saw a deer. The trail that I went on was next to a shooting range, I wonder about the deer there because it didn’t seem to flinch or run away when it saw people and it doesn’t react to the fire of shots which can be heard from the near by shooting range. I was quite comfortable hiking in the snow. Unfortunately the trail was blocked at some points so I wasn’t able to do the whole trail.

The snow was gone the next day and it appeared only once more in November, on the 25th when it snowed all day. Again it was gone the next day. Below is a slideshow and video of the photos I took of the snow on the streets and while hiking as well as the day it snowed all day.