Now I could post what I wrote yesterday and you could read all about me whinging about how I haven’t been able to get into ‘tourist mode’ and I’ve had a hard time settling in, rarara.  Or I could tell you about my day today.

So today I got up early and went to the Downtown hostel.  I’m staying at the central hostel.  Both are HI (YHA) and not very far from each other.  Only Downtown is much quieter as I was told today.  I meet tour guide Erik, a lovely 71 year old ex-Copenhagen gentleman who has been in Vancouver a while.  Ok, I can’t remember the exact amount of years, anyway, and 9 other people taking the tour.  There were 5 German and 3 Australian and 1 Canadian, which was weird but nice because usually Australians outnumber anyone else 3 to 1.

We walked along the sea walk, which strangely enough, is along the waterfront.  Erik explained the changes in Vancouver, the history and architecture and any fun facts that come up.  This took about an hour and a half.  Then we caught the train then a ferry and ended up in North Vancouver.  After another bus ride we were at Capilano, I’m going to say area.  We didn’t do the suspension bridge right away.  We went a little further up and checked out the two Lions also known as the two Sisters.  These are mountain peaks that are still covered in snow.

Rolf checking out the mountain sceen.

We then wandered through the forest.  I don’t know the name of the forest or maybe I wasn’t paying attention because after I was told that 2 of the Twilight movies were filmed there I started referring to them as the ‘sparkly vampire forest’.

Sadly I did not see Edward Cullen swing through the trees with the greatest of ease, and if I did see a sparkly vampire I think I may have died laughing.  Anyway, we had a lovely walk through, stopping at places of interest and having lunch at the salmon ponds.  No salmon for lunch though as they are only babies (fry) and it’s out of season.

The walk took us to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  A rather touristy suspension bridge over a canyon.  We had just over an hour there.  It was interesting.  The new Cliff Walk was an education on water conservation, but being Australian, I grew up with this message so it was nothing new to me.  Basically, don’t waste water.  It is a naturally resource that can’t be replaced.  If you are Australian you know what I’m talking about.  In Tasmania I live on tank water.  For those of you that don’t know, rain fills a tank and that’s what you have, until it rains again.  For those of you that view water conservation as an alien concept, Google it.  It will come in handy one day, hopefully before you are packing your bags for Mars.

Capilano Suspension bridge.  It is 135m long and quite far off the forest floor.

The tour was fantastic and just what I needed.  I’ve been in a bit of a funk since I got here.  My travel brain has taken a while to kick in and I’ve been very boring.  Vancouver is lovely but is just another city.

Tonight I also caught up with a friend.  I met this guy on a Conservation Volunteer trip in 2008 on Maria Island.  We spent a week weeding and getting the site ready with a bunch of other people.  So we finally meet again.  It was nice.  We exchanged travel stories of the past few years.  He made me feel better about my recent lack of travel enthusiasm and I hope I inspired him.  So, all in all it was a great day.

I now have a few decisions to make and a job possibility, but it is late now so I will inform you all of my continued adventures soon.