Vancouver.

If I am completely honest, Vancouver scares me. Vancouver scares me quite a lot. I am going to put this down to my rather sheltered upbringing and from living in the Banff bubble for the last ten months - city living is somewhat terrifying! Now don't get me wrong, Danny and I had a fantastic time and did loads of fun things, but there was always that small niggle at the back of my mind that I wasn't completely safe. I guess that is pretty much my naivety of city living and not really knowing what to expect but nonetheless, the small matter aside, we had a great time!

We arrived at 1pm on Friday, after an extremely long bus journey from Banff, and got straight onto another bus to find the apartment that we were to be staying on. Hotels in Vancouver in the Summer are ridiculously expensive so we opted to use airbnb which was great for what we needed. We dumped our belongings in our room and headed straight back out to try to get our bearings which I failed at miserably. We searched for a baguette shop we had heard was incredible, but when we finally got there they had ran out of baguettes - of course, typical! So we went to a place called Japadog which had been recommended and is a Japanese twist on hot dogs (in case you couldn't tell by the name) and it was so good! We then tried to get the bus to Lynn Canyon Park to go and see the suspension bridge. A great idea, but between myself and google maps we completely messed up and ended up at completely the wrong end of Vancouver to where we intended. So we gave up, headed back into the city centre to eat and called it a night. After all it had been a long day and we wanted to get up and make the most of the next day, we had a lot planned!

We decided to go over to Victoria on Vancouver Island and the spend the day exploring over there. It is a fair old trek from the mainland. You are looking at an hour on the bus/tube, an hour and a half on the ferry, and another hour on a bus at the other end. It really is a beautiful place though, right on the waterfront and we arrived during a dragon boat racing festival which was pretty amusing. We stuck about and watched that for a while and grabbed some food to eat at the nearby fish and chip truck on the sea front. Now Vancouver is pretty well known for it's food truck community and this fish and chip truck was awesome. I'm technically lying when I say it's a food truck as it has actually been made out of storage containers, and the menu is very different from any other fish and chip menu you're likely to find. We bought too much food, as everything was so tempting and we just wanted a taster of everything. We shared a jerk fish poutine, a fresh seared tuna taco cone, halibut and chips and deep fried dill pickles. It was so yummy, way too much food but incredible yummy. We wandered about the shops and the gardens working off the masses of food in our stomaches and just taking in the sights and then began the long journey back to Vancouver. We were lucky enough to spot a whale (well, the whale's tail) on the ferry journey back but unfortunately did not have a camera to hand. Hopefully that will be something that we can experience in Boston!

Yesterday was my favourite day in Vancouver by far, probably because we managed to squeeze so much into one day! We started off by getting on the right bus, going in the right direction and ended up at Lynn Canyon Park. We grabbed a coffee and completed the short hike up to the suspension bridge looking like complete unprepared fools in our flip flops - but it was fine, we made it and it was actually a lovely little walk. I was proud of myself walking across a bridge with such a huge drop, as I'm pretty terrified of bridges, not heights just the bridges, so I was happy I walked across, and back again and stood and posed for pictures. Well done Louise! We jumped back on the bus, and then the aqua bus across to Granville Island. We perused around the market and all the delicious looking fresh produce and then had a little break and tasted a few beers from Granville Island Brewery. I had a delicious hefeweizen which tasted just like foam bananas - so good!

We then made our way up to 4th Avenue so have a look around the shops, Patagonia in particular. One of Danny's missions is to go to the Patagonia store in every city we visit and have a photo and get a sticker. Vancouver and Victoria down, 6 more to go! We grabbed lunch in a cute little place on the corner called Tractor that did really good sandwich and salad combos. I had a tuna/potato salad filled sandwich with a truffle mushroom pasta salad, and Danny had a chicken sandwich with a kale and quinoa salad. Healthy and delicious, travelling isn't all about fast food - especially when we have made it a rule that we are not allowed to eat at McDonalds/Burger King/KFC/Subway. Under no circumstance.

After filling ourselves up we hopped back on the bus and headed over to Stanley Park. We rented a tandem bike and joined the masses cycling around the park. It is so so beautiful, you would not believe. The cycle lane takes you right along the sea front, passing lighthouses, beaches, all sorts - it's so lovely. Tandem biking is a bloody weird experience as well. It is super fun, but on the back part of the bike you can't see directly in front of you and have no control whatsoever. It's probably the one and only time that I will be able to keep up with Danny on a bike!

We ended the day, and our trip by laying on the beach and watching the sun go down. It was pretty spectacular. So all in all Vancouver was a great trip. We ticked off pretty much everything on our list and saw some beautiful things, but it has reaffirmed my decision to never live in a city! I'm too little and naive and get scared by the slightest thing, so I think a cottage in the countryside is much more to my liking. With that being said, I am currently sat on the Greyhound bus on the way to our next city. Seattle be kind to us, we are extremely excited to see everything that you have to offer!