Vancouver and the Island

We flew into Vancouver airport at 11pm thinking that if we’d been let into America without any problems then Canada should be fine too. But oh no, we got the immigration lady who was in a bad mood and after collecting our bags we were then sent to speak to more immigration people for them to decide whether we could enter their country or not. In not a particularly friendly manner we were asked question after question about why we were going there, where we had come from, how we had managed to afford our trip etc. We noticed that we were the only people who didn’t look Mexican who had been sent in for this interrogation. Anyway we must have passed their test and were eventually let in to Canada and wearily found somewhere to stay.
Vancouver is a really beautiful city. It reminded me of New Zealand with the mountains reaching down to the see. We stayed right next to the beach with lovely views of the mountains across the water. We spent a couple of days exploring the city and were shown around some of the different sorts of pubs / bars Vancouver city has to offer. There are bars which aren’t at all keen on people getting drunk so if you want more than two drinks you have to order food as well. There are the student / backpacker bars where drinking as much as you can is fully encouraged. There are the bars for the strange people which are mostly empty apart from a few very strange people. We played a game of pool in the one we visited where an added challenge was to avoid the bucket on the floor and the water dripping down into it from the roof right next to the table. There is even a cannabis café there in a part of the city called Vamsterdam!
Next we got the ferry across to Vancouver Island. I was under the impression that Vancouver Island was quite small but it’s actually around the same size as England. My Grannie and Grandpa’s friends Mary and Derek live there so we stayed with them in a little town called Comox which is about half way up the island. They showed us around a bit of that part of the island and we saw one of the huge cruise ships coming back down from Alaska. They then drove us back down south to Victoria (which I was surprised to find out is the capital of British Columbia,) in their absolutely massive motor home. No exaggeration, it was like a house in itself! The drivers seat was an arm chair, there were two other arm chairs and a sofa. Two fold out beds, a double room, a bathroom and a kitchen section. Both of the sides moved outwards at the touch of a button and there was a big TV right at the front. Presumably for when the driver gets board. We stayed in this luxury for a couple of nights then Mary and Derek went home and Conny and I moved back into hostels.
Whilst in Victoria we went on a whale watching trip. We were so lucky to see three Orca whales and one Humpback. None of them were doing their jumping thing that day but I was very pleased to see some of Willies friends and the Humpback whale came up really close to our boat. It came above the surface of the water directly in front of us, heading straight towards us. When you see them from the side or from a distance you really can’t fully comprehend their size. They are huge! Probably bigger than the boat we were in so it’s good it decided to continue onwards without having an even closer look at us. As we headed back we went past a group of big, stinking sea lions and then our boat driver decided to race back throwing the boat and all of us from side to side which was quite fun although a little scary as it felt like if you didn’t hold on you could easily fly out at any time.
There are quite a few Totem poles all over British Columbia and we saw a few of these both in Vancouver and on the island. I think a lot of them are really rather attractive, something that it might be nice to have a few of in your garden. We also went on a guided tour of the government buildings and to my amusement found what I interpreted to be signed nose picking zones (I’m sure you’ll think the same if you have a look at the photo on my bebo site) although our guide failed to mention these as we passed.