Annette's blog: Vancouver day 2...and still loving it!

I have figured out that the best time to use the internet here is in the middle of the night! It is 12am now...not exactly in the middle of the night, but I'm hoping to have a normal night tonight! I do have the common room (where the computer is) all to myself now. Actually that's a lie. I have to share it with my friend mr mickey mouse who decided to say hi a minute ago! :)

Where to start?

So last night I went to bed at 10pm but was awake again at 2am. My body decided that it had had enough sleep for a while! I updated my blog again, surfed a bit on the web etc and managed to fall back to sleep at 5am.

It was starting to get light again and I thought that I should have at least 3 more hours of sleep so I could get my free breakfast and explore the city.

And then it was 12pm! Rather annoyed at myself for sleeping in, I jumped out of bed and went to tim hortons for brunch. I had a large iced mocha latte (which was waaaaay to big to finish but tasted great) and a cinnamon roll (which was really yum).

After I finished that I had to do something active to burn all the sugar so I went to the water front and walked towards stanley park. Amazing views! I will try to put some photo's up. I even saw a cruise ship from the Holland-America line! And it had two names on it. Vollendam and.....Rotterdam...there you go hans, I had to think of you ;)

I got to stanley park and the trees there are just amazing! It was so peaceful and right next to the city! Even better then Kings Park!

There is also an aquarium in Stanley Park where I went to...but that really wasn't all that exciting. It was alright, but the lighting was really bad everywhere so I couldn't take any nice photo's :(

By the time I left there it was about 6pm. The thought of walking aaaallll the way back wasn't to appealing for my feet so I thought I would check out the bus.

When I got to the bus stop it was standing there already and because something had broken down, no one had to pay for the trip....BONUS!

While sitting on the bus I was looking in my lonely planet, just to make sure I knew where to get off. The woman next to me straight away asked me if she could help me and explained to me how to get back to my hostel.

When I got back to the hostel there was still no bag!

Earlier today I had heard people talking about fireworks and when I asked the guy at the front desk about it, he said that it is a yearly event and really cool to see.

So off I went again. A 40 minute walk to one of the beaches. While I was on my way I grabbed the map out of my bag and straight away another woman asked me if she could help me. She gave me some handy tips about public transport in and around Vancouver.

Man people are helpful here! Although, I don't really dare to pull a map out of my bag just like that!

I made it to the fire work place 1,5 hours early and enjoyed an amazing sunset.

While I was sitting there a very interesting young man (about my age) came and sat next to me and started talking to me. He shook my hand and asked me where I was from. Like I said, he was rather...'interesting' and I wasn't to sure if I appreciated his company. He was really sweet and gave me one of the flowers that were growing in the grass....actually now that I think about it...it was probably a weed....lol

Anyway...I had read somewhere in my lonely planet something about the firework festival so I started looking through my book. The guy actually got the hint and asked me if I wanted company. I told him that it was nice of him to offer, but that I would be fine by myself. So he stood up and said either 'I need a wave' or 'I gotta wife'. I know...nearly the same thing!

The guy did look kind of lonely so it was nice that I could talk to him for a few minutes.

After that I had to wait for over an hour and heaps of people rocked up to watch the fire works.

At one stage this one woman walked through the crowds and went up to every single group saying: 'You need Jesus Christ' and walked off again. I wouldn't say it would be the most effective way of doing mission work, but I find it amazing how people like that can really put themselves out there.

At 10pm the fireworks finally started and lasted for 20 minutes. It was nice to look at, but not sure if it was really worth the 1,5 hour wait.

Then the walk back began. By the time I got to the hostel my feet were soooo sore! I don't think I have ever walked this much in one day! I can hardly walk on them anymore! At least I know that all the sugar from lunch is burned off!

Something that did struck me while walking back where the homeless guys.

I had just watched a 20 minutes display of fireworks and who knows how much money that would have cost!

And on one hand it's nice that we can enjoy things like that. But if you then afterwards look in the dark allies and under steps, you can find homeless people everywhere. What kind of world do we live in where we think it's ok to shoot all that stuff into the air, while so many people need our money, time and energy?

That's just one of the questions I was thinking about while walking back to the hostel. Of course I didn't come up with an answer, but I did feel an extra strong desire to finish my degree so I am able to get in there where people really need the help!

So, that's all for now I think!

The weather had been absolutely amazing today! Very sunny, but just not to hot to stay active!

The plan for tomorrow is to hire a bike and go back to stanley park to see the rest. I also hope to make it to china town!

I'm also gonna try to get a simcard for my phone and give United Airlines a call, cause this is getting rather frustrating and 'te gek voor woorden'! It shouldn't take my bag more than twice the amount of time to get here then it took me!

Am already looking forward to be able to spend another day is this amazing city!!

xxx

Breakfast/ Brunch