Return to Vancouver (travel log excerpts)

Billet en français ici

Just got back from Vancouver yesterday, my second trip to the place in two years. It's a nice city and I'll have to go back again because a week (minus 2-3 days lost to conference) is not enough to see everything one should in that general area. Like with my previous trip with my better half involving plane travel, I shall offer excerpts from our little carnet de voyage (cheap little McGill U notebook we got for free a while ago). With retrospective comments, sometimes.

Translated from Québec French by yours truly

Ottawa, Friday July 30th 2010
"[...]I have a headache (unavoidable travel stress?) so I bought a coke for 2.25$ from a dyed and surly Chinese girl"
NOTE:For some reason, the Chinese girls working in the service areas of Canadian airports such as YOW and YVR aren't nice at all. It would be proper etiquette to smile or at least not shout at the customers...

Hongcouver, Saturday July 31st, 2010 7:07 am
"[...]Date Night is a weird movie..."
NOTE:Watched it on the plane, before Iron Man 2 which is not as good as Iron Man

31 July 2010, 17:25 Chinatown
"[...]I am I tired. Probably because of the constant exercise of walking to which I am no longer accustomed, having become a sedentary and "slippery" suburbanite, not entirely against my wish. [...] Chinatown [in Vancouver] offers more than Montreal['s Chinatown] but is more diluted..."

Café Crêpes or smthn like that, 9:56 August 1st 2010
"[...] Breakfast in a 'crêperie' that is more like an American diner with its country-jazz music. [...] Anyway, the crêpe with blueberry jam reminded me of [i]La Butte à l'équerre[/i] and [i]Le Petit Coin breton[/i]. And the fact that it's blueberry season in the Kingdom of the Saguenay. It's frustrating to be homesick on a trip like that..."

13:05 Hotel
"[...] we stopped in a "bakery" called La Parisienne (or Le Parisien?) for a day old muffin because it's more like a Waterloo bakery than a Paris one..."
NOTE:About bakeries in Yaletown and elsewhere in Vancouver: they're not quite up to the major leagues. I know nobody goes to Vancouver for their bakeries but I can't eat salmon, so I have to eat something, dammit!

17:40
"[...] We passed by Gastown, the old Vancouver of which the only old thing is the steam clock, and is a neighbourhood which is just too touristy. [...] Remark: there really is a Starbucks in every corner in Vancouver, a bit like Tim Hortons in Waterloo except that Vancouver is more dense and has more Starbucks than Tim Hortons because the former has better coffee and atmosphere as well..."

8:06 Hotel
"[...] The internet hasn't been working for the last 9 hours. Stupid hotel wireless of my ass..."
NOTE: The Georgian Court is actually a very good place to stay in terms of bang for your buck, and we picked it in fact partially because wireless internet was included in the price, but that means it can be slow or unreliable at times

3:17 CC-205
"[...] A boring talk on smoking cessation. I can't believe the speaker got a professor job right out of PhD. So boring and unimaginative in approaching the problem. The previous speaker (her supervisor) was boring as well [...] the guy looked like Dan Castellaneta
[...] The SSC reception sucks royally, with its Xmas turkey and insane beverage prices (4.50$ for a coke! 9$ for a beer)..."

6:16 Convention Center
"[...] I have been at the conference for 7 years (sic) [...] I'm a little bit out of ideas on what to write. My brain, like my feet, is a complete mush..."

13:30 Beach #3 Stanley Park
"[...] Here it's quiet but there are a number of people, including a girl sunbathing topless with her boyfriend. The water isn't as cold as in the Baltic sea. Oh yeah, the sand is disgusting. Still, the beach is pretty nice. But would be better without ugly people. Or guys, except for me... Now I have to go because I believe my wife is going to kill me :D..."
NOTE:I did draw a smiley in my journal. It was more elaborate that the above.

21h41 Hotel
"[...] In the end, we didn't actually reach the "clothing optional" beach but it's probably for the best. I saw a pair of titties anyway, which beats seeing a dick that's been shriveled by water and the sun (and age). [...] Oh yeah, British-Columbia blueberries aren't wild, big and tasteless..."
NOTE: The last sentence is ambiguous. BC blueberries are big and tasteless.

15:12 Vancouver Public Library
"[...] Oh yeah, we bought two bottles of BC wine in a liquor store that had fewer choices than the crummiest SAQ Express..."

19:55 Hotel
"[...] plus one small glass of Ontarian ice wine (I had a BC one last year and I have to say that Ontario has a better climate for ice wine production)..."

End of citatons

Well, that is it for the Vancouver 2010 trip. At least I bought slightly more souvenirs than last time. I'm not good at buying useless travel trinkets.

Remarque oenologique

(English below)

L'Ontario ne vend pas de vin en dehors des LCBO, mais il y a quelques comptoirs de vins canayens dans certains supermarchés assez grands. Juste pour changer du Inniskillin, on s'est acheté un "merlot" de Naked Grape. Ben, selon le point de vue, c'est soit l'équivalent ROC (Colombie-Britannique, Alberta, Ontario et Nouveau-Brunswick) de "Notre Vin Maison" (attention: site prétentieux), soit l'équivalent pas Australien du Yellow Tail (qui, comme la mayonnaise, est "bon" parce qu'il ne goûte rien).

***********

In Ontario, wines are usually only sold in LCBO's but some larger supermarkets also have little wine counters filled exclusively with Canadian (possibly Ontarian only) wines. Just to try something different than the usual Inniskillin (best Ontarian wines we've had so far, especially their rosé), we bought a "merlot" from Naked Grape. Now that we've sampled it, we can safely say, that, depending on where you're from (I'm looking at you, Norm), it's either the Rest of Canada (well, 4 provinces out of 9 ain't bad) equivalent of "Notre Vin Maison", or the non-Australian answer to Yellow Tail (which, like mayonnaise, is "good" because it has no taste whatsoever).