Saturday 20 December 2008

Putting the British into British Columbia

Things are getting a bit silly now. We awoke to news that it was -18C/-0.5F outside (only -10C/14F if you could stay out of the wind), and there's a forecast for 10cm of snow overnight. We weren't planning to spend Christmas in Canada...

The main task of the day was finding thermal underwear to make being outside bearable. After shivering around empty streets we discovered that all the locals were tucked away in the underground malls that pepper the city, and we found some nice leggings to keep our extremities from frostbite (I'm a size 12 in Canada! I'll be working to become a size 10 post-Christmas).

Vancouver is a nice, clean, friendly city, but shopping seems to be the main leisure activity of residents and visitors alike - it's too cold to do anything else. We did, however, discover a steam-powered clock and a gingerbread village. Tomorrow Hannah wants to find one of the famously beautiful beaches! Ice skating on the Pacific?



A steam-powered clock! Genius.



Hardcore Canadians refuse to be slowed by the weather.



Hannah and a gingerbread house. Moments later an old lady opened the door and invited us in, then proceeded to put me in a cage and set Hannah to doing chores, until she lit a fire in her oven to eat me and then Hannah pushed her in and we escaped and lived happily ever after with our father the woodcutter.



You can't catch me!



Desperate times...