Canada - Vancouver

Duuuuuuude. Duuude. You know that scene in Baseketball where the entire conversation consists of “dudes”, well this is the final dude in that conversation…dude. Vancouver is awesome. Why have I not been here before? Why have I not heard of this. I really don’t get it. I kind of feel like when I went to Stockholm, but this shit is way closer. Like in Stockholm, all the girls here appear to be hot, and they have hot girls working in strange places, like construction. The difference is! When you walk into the 7 Eleven here and you see the smokin hot girl behind the counter, she wants to literally sit and talk. It’s off putting I tell you. As an American the conversation style here is whacko. We are defensive by nature, they are not. They ask where you’re from and really want to know. They ask what you’re doing in Canada and really want to know. They want to know what you do and what you think. And this is everyone! I challenge you to come here and not make “friends” left and right. It’s quite a thing.

How do you not like this city? Maybe the rain and winters are a drag, but I don’t care at the moment (it’s Fall), and I now know how badly I want to come back in the summer. They have beaches everywhere. Didn’t know that. They love pools and patios and American sports. Didn’t know that. They have strip clubs that rival some of the better clubs in the US. They love hockey, and I mean more than you guessed they would. Like 10 channels on their TV just talking hockey strategy.

The Main road is called Granville and it cuts the island from the Harbour to Granville Island. A pretty cool road but the center does get slightly dumpy with the homeless, that being said they also shut parts of it down and make it pedestrian on the weekends, which is awesome. Not enough cities do that. Gastown is their biggest old town area and it was awesome. I mean first things first, it’s called gastown. It’s like you walked into Mad Max or something. But while Tina Turner did not make an appearance, the bars and restaurants were packed, and they had style! These restaurants are as modern as any good and big city. Good job.

Yaletown was good too but I found it a little less interesting. I had a fantastic meal at what turned out to be one of the most popular restaurants in Vancouver (Blue Water…I just stumbled upon it). Perfect scene for me and I had gorgeous oysters and amazing service. The bartender schooled me on all the places to go as well.

Notes to self:

-I swear to god I was told that the gem in the polite and good looking Canadian crown was Alberta. While it was a stripper who told me this, I still believe her. You should’ve seen her describe it…so sincere…plus you know…boobs.
-Can’t drink till 9 in British Columbia!!! Very sucky when your flight leaves at 9! haha

Fairmont Pacific Rim - Oct 2015

I mean this hotel is awesome. My mandatory and required complaints are very very limited.

Obviously I am no Vancouver expert, but the location of this hotel seems just oh so slightly out of the action. Like super slightly. Like you can still walk everywhere and you are right on the water and the Harbour views are money so I probably shouldn’t mention anything but it just seems oh so slightly farther from things than “perfect” should be.

The rooms are big, the bathrooms are huge and modern with giant tubs and glass walk in showers and great lighting plus TV’s in the mirrors. The AV system is money with surround sound everywhere. The bed is great. The rooms even have balconies if you order right. This room is super comfortable. Oh, and everything is controlled from an Ipad, or from numerous other touch panels placed around the room.

Mini bar is good. Room service menu is actually fantastic and is available 24 hours. Pay per view is perfect and has a knock your socks off 24 hour package.

The pool area is cool if the weather is good but I wasn’t able to observe any “scene” if there is one (they certainly have enough cabanas to indicate that there’s a scene). The downstairs bars are super popular and they do live music on the weekend.

This place ain’t cheap but it is sick.

Notes

-I got a discount but the rate was still $400 per night.