We began with a walk over False Creek and down to Granville Island. This is the site of Vancouver's famous public market and it did not disappoint, with the same fruit and vegetables as we get in California! Phew, we won't starve. Quality and prices were comparable too, which was a relief to Hannah, but samples were less forthcoming than at the farmers' market in Walnut Creek. Gone are the days of getting a free lunch by wandering past all the stores six times. There weren't many buskers, for which the area is renowned, presumably because frostbite can curtail musical dexterity.
Downtown Vancouver is on a peninsula so there are plenty of ferries that can take you around the various inlets. We hopped on the Aquabus and hopped off minutes later by English Bay Beach, which was as chilly as Weymouth in the summer but with fewer bathers. The beach trail took us up into Stanley Park and we walked around the Lost Lagoon (helpfully signposted everywhere) and back into town for noodles. 52% of Vancouverites don't speak English as their first language, with the majority of immigrants being from Asia, so food choices are plentiful and diverse. Vancouver also lacks SF's calorie-burning hills. I mused as I tucked into my lemon chicken dumplings in spicy peanut sauce: might my descent into obesity ironically happen after leaving the US?
I decided to stop whining about the weather, which is still in double-Celsius figures, and buy a hat from a thrift store. Prices are a little higher than in Berkeley but the merchandise a little less shabby. More investigation is needed. I also began my quest to find a Blue Bottle Coffee equivalent and started at Musette Cafe opposite the hotel. A "musette", as I'm sure you're aware, is the cotton bag full of food and drink that's handed to a cyclist during a race. The shop was full of bikes but my cappuccino, though good by standard standards, wouldn't win the yellow jersey from Blue Bottle.
Tomorrow Hannah is going into her new office for the first time while my coffee search continues and I hilariously attempt to get a mobile phone and a bank account while having no fixed abode or income. Then we'll really see how friendly Canadians are.
Granville Island: famous.
Exotic fruit.
The aquabus has a sign that it can only hold twelve and we counted sixteen stepping off. So like the Titanic, but smaller.
Baby's first pumpkin spice latte.
Stanley Park has black squirrels! They're normal squirrels dressed as ninjas, and just as quick and sneaky.
Something tells me that this might be the gay district...
First real coffee. The quest goes on.
