It is 1.13am EST Monday/10.13pm Sunday. I have been in Vancouver for five days????? Whao. The last time I checked; I promised I would not go away by myself anymore. But this is different. I miss my baby sha.
I arrived in Vancouver on Wednesday, right on schedule. I am totally surprised how much I have changed since I started work. I sat on a six hour flight totally at ease. My restlessness seem to have reduced by 50 percent. Awesome!! So I jumped in a cab and told the cabbie my destination, then decided I needed to go to the bank as well. Meanwhile, it was after I finished at the bank that I realized that cabbies charge u 10 cents per second in Vancouver. The Ijebu/accountant in me sprang into action, once I got to the hotel started looking for subway maps. By the time I settled in, it was about 3.30pm EST, I was starving. I found an african/indian restaurant and ordered something to eat. I ordered spring rolls for appetizers , they were yummy.
I got back to the hotel, took a nap and when looking for the skytrain station in my neighbourhood. It turned out to be a short walk. Not bad at all. The next morning, I dressed for my appointment and hopped on the train. Twenty minutes of nice, smooth uncrowded train ride, I was in the west end of the city. I joined the queue to go into the embassy and I realized my brain was zoned out due to zero caffeine, I definitely can't talk to a consular officer in that state. I ran into the starbucks on the same block, ordered a caramel macchiato and took a sip. That was good!! Back at the embassy queue, holding unto my lil life saver.
After visiting the embassy in Nigeria three times, and the one in London once; Vancouver was easy-peasy. I was out under two hours, the actually interview was about 1.5 mins or less. Thank God for favor. Although I almost could not sleep, the last time I had an embassy interview that was 5 mins long, the guy changed his mind after I left. Thank God it did not happen this time. Lunch on Thursday was sushi, I was beginning to feel the excitment. I wandered around the west end for some time and went to see the look-out at the habour center. Scary and Nice.
Picked up my visa the next day and decided to go the famous chinese garden in Chinatown. It was definitely easy to get around the city, finding lunch that I could deal with was a challenge. I finally settled for a Japanese take-out somewhere in the heart of chinatown, little did I know it was recipe for trouble. After lunch, I took the long bus ride to Stanley park hoping to see the aquarium. Ofcourse, it was closed, can u imagine??? It was barely 4.10pm and they claim Vancouver is a city. So I took the same loop back since it is passing through my hotel to get to Metrotown. About 30mins into the ride, I started feeling very weird. It really felt like the on-set of a migraine, but I noticed my lunch was sitting in my tummy for the past 2 hours undigested. Long story short, had to hop-off the bus to puke all of it. I am sure the street cleaner on duty would have cursed endlessly while trying to get it off the side-walk. Eew!
It was just Friday evening, still have about 5 more days to go. I got back to the hotel and went to look for good old Papa John's pizza, my tummy deserved something familiar. Saturday was much fun, took the West side sightseeing tour around Vancouver. So I got to know what I saw all round town the previous day. I forgot to mention I made it to Gastown on Friday before heading to Stanley Park. The Gassy Jack guy, who founded Gas town was a charter box. There was an ugly statue of him right in the middle of Gas town. The famous steam clock was broken, although it still makes a lot of noise and steam. We made it to Granville, an island in the middle of the city by midday. I took a boatride around the false creek, and found some really decent restaurant for lunch. After the tour, I decided to go to the Capilano suspension bridge!! men, what was I thinking. Found a couple of ppl that were interested too so we shared a cab. I still don't know what I was thinking, because I was 110 percent afraid of height. Kept my eyes closed all thro. It is a beautiful bridge anyway. I heard it has not failed in 120 years.
I went to Whistler on Sunday, stopped over in Britannia beach (it's a ghost town with no sand, i still wonder why they called it britannia beach). Shannon Falls was beautiful, the only thing I can say about Squamish is eew!! We stopped at the 2010 Ski Jump location as well. The snow was picture perfect. Whistler was not as exciting as the road trip to Whistler cos I don't ski. I probably need to start that soon.
By Monday, I was sick and tired of Vancouver. It did not help that the food has not agreed with me. I finally discovered the famous British "Nandos'. Whao, what a relief. On my way back on Wednesday, yippee!! did I mention they make you pay two taxes on most things??? That sucked.
