Our plans for Wednesday were to visit the Andy Warhol exhibition and visit the Olympic Stadium site. I really wanted to go see the stadium first because i doubted the girls would actually come otherwise. We'd heard it was very far away you see, when we asked people where it was they said it was much too far too walk, I thought it must be an hour, hour and a half max and apparently that's all it would be. It's funny though because in NY walking for that long is nothing, you walk all day long because there are so many things to see everywhere around you. I guess the locals just don't usually have time because there were lots of beautiful sights along the way in Montreal for sure. Anyhow we ended up going to the Warhol exhibition first so I still had to prod the girls along with my words later on in the day.
The exhibit was actually reflecting on the Andy Warhols influence within the music scene. Quite an interesting topic when he never really did anything directly focused on this but they pulled off a large exhibition to the contrary. There were a lot of interesting pieces but i must say i missed the headsets that tell you all about it like at the Guggenheim. There were some guided tours but only in French on that day. Makes it much more interesting with headsets, we still read all the information but it's not the same. Alyson and Rachel enjoyed it much more than me however, and its true that the works he was doing were far ahead of his time.
Alright so after the art gallery we headed on our lengthy walk to the Olympic Stadium. On the way i saw my first Lexus IS-F also, a very new and great car, and I think i've also seen the new Nissan GT-R but it was at night and far away. Well from the get go the girls were saying that we should just catch a bus to the Stadium but i wanted to walk there and see everything along the way. It was fortunate that we did because we found the most spectacular park. All the trees there were falling, or whatever you call it when they die in such a beautiful manner. So many different shades of Autumn. The park has a great lake there as well and the best part is the squirrels. More squirrels than anywhere i think i've seen. Even they come in different shades, there are a variety of brown shades and black and even some white ones. We were relaxing under the trees on the leaf covered grass and feeding the squirrels dates. Thoroughly enjoyable time.
Eventually we got to the Stadium and by that time noone cared about it except me, it was starting to get dark and apparently their legs were going to fall off, or had or something. It's a brilliant stadium though. The base looks like some big UFO and a massive leaning tower rises up with very strong curves. I liked it anyhow.
We caught a train back, their train system is called the Metro and their trains are funny because the wheels are actually rubber tyres. I wonder how much more effective, or indeed if it is more effective than the metal wheels most trains have. I imagine they'd have to be replaced pretty regularly. Canada has a bit of a thing for quirky transport i think, the Vancouver buses are all electric, and they run off overhead cables which are everywhere, they have to go really slowly at the points where the extended arms that are attached to the electric wires need to change line.
That night we the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona. Wasn't that good a movie but it had Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansen. Best thing is probably all the nice scenic shots around Barcelona, it looks amazing, or when they kiss. It's pretty much just about Vicky and Christina going to Barcelona.
On the Thursday we went for a walk up the hill which i'd been wanting to do badly. Really wanted to go up and watch the sunset, didn't do that unfortunately. The view from the hill is again spectacular, looking out over Montreal which is all pretty flat with just the Olympic Stadium rising above everything in the distance. The walk up to the top is just as nice as the final view though. Everything was yellow. Honestly the colours of Montreal are just brilliant.
There is a store that all the students know and love called Dollarama. It's a massive dollar store where everything in the store actually does just cost $1 or less. You could throw a really good party with all the costumes and disco balls and things. We just went for the candy and the tamagochi things. Alyson's and mine are still living, Rachel I'm afraid didn't give hers enough care or attention.
In the afternoon Pete and Ian took us for some very cheap drinks at the UNI. It was funny because it feels like it's in a classroom but they had loud music and drinks are only a dollar. They have it every Thursday apparently but it's only from 4-7. Hence we started our night extremely early. After that it was a bit of a shamble trying to decide what was happening, the guys got caught watching rugby and by the time they felt like going out it was 12. Aly and I called it a night cause we'd tried to go out at one point but all we did was go get pizza pretty much. Rachel kept going and she met up with some girls she knew.
Friday
Had our last morning ritual of getting cheap croissants from the grocery store than going across to the cafe where the girls get their moccha and I got a fresh OJ. Today we splurged a little and bought some special chocolate butter croissants as well.
We flew with Air Canada from Montreal to Vanc and it was pretty decent. Had a reasonable entertainment selection but somehow it was mostly crap. I watched The Happening which is a pretty sick movie. Some airborne virus that makes people kill themselves. Wasn't particularly good. Drinks were included but meals weren't so it was ok for a 5 hour flight.
Vancouver! Rachel has been taking us with her on her daily schedule really. We walk her to and fro work and stop and get coffee and pizza at the best local places. Very good.
On Saturday we went and had a look around Granville Island. It's quite a big area down on the waterfront that has a marketplace with nice fresh produce and a few stores around, but main focus is food. We ate by the water and spotted a seal swimming around. Vancouver is really beautiful too. Has lots of nice trees and mountains in the backdrop when it's clear enough to see them. Main problem here is the weather. Apparently it just about rains constantly for 4 months. Good though because that's when Whistler gets snow! Also the cars have been very good so far, saw an Aston V12 Vanquish almost immediately when we went walking! Then De Tomaso Pantera and scored big when I realised that the Aston Martin dealership is literally the next street down from where Rachel lives!!!! On further exploration the Lamborghini and Bentleys live just round the corner, i have to search more to see if the Ferrari's and Maserati's are close by. Very exciting. At the Aston dealer there are so many lined up, in perfectly straight lines, DB9's to one side and V8 Vantage to the other; heavenly.
Rachel lives here with her dad Bruce. He's incredibly nice and when we got back he offered us to go hiking with him. Said it was a 6hr and 22km walk. It was funny because we were meant to have a night out with Rachel and her friends, but by the time we got back to them we were pretty well out of the mood. So we sat in a bar sharing hot chocolate and they all think we're incredibly sad; even when we told them that we had the opportunity to go on an amazing hike in British Columbia they weren't persuaded that we weren't losers. Funny.
So early we woke, 7 am, the earliest in a long time at least. Got ready for our big adventure with a lot of apprehension. The group that Bruce goes with are all fitness freaks, himself included. Also funny is that they're pretty much all doctors, this was much more interesting after working in the hospital for three months where the doctors definately hold a superior aire about them. Well they're always incredibly busy at least but it was really a great group. One of the girls had just turned 30 and decided that she'd try and be healthy so instead of having a night out she went on a 30 km trail run; crazy stuff considering she walked 22km with us the next day. Apparently 2 weeks before that she'd done a half iron man, the distances i think are about 87km cycle, 21km run and 3 km swim, Bruce wants to do one of those before he turns 60 so he's got a few years to do that. You see that these are determined people and were were a little worried about how our fitness would go, have to say particularly Alyson judging from the amount of winging i've heard at points of this trip. She did incredibly well though and even by the end of it I got a smiling shot when we were both expecting her to be a heap on the ground for the final photo. The walk wasn't actually too bad, most of it was pretty flat and the gradients weren't that steep anyhow. The scenery though was spectacular. This was the second time i'd seen snow in my life and even though we didn't have any on our mountain top it looked incredible on the surrounding peaks. So exciting, cannot wait to be skiing again. I think i'd forgotten how great the outdoors are, it was just beautiful, their were some beautiful lakes where we stopped and had our lunch that Bruce packed for us. The best, biggest and healthiest meal i've had in a long time only to be topped by the dinner he cooked; Salmon smoked on a plank with some delightful sauce, and very nice salad and veges to go. The silence at the lakes was so nice, a really loud silence that makes you remember how long it's been since you've heard it and forces you to appreciate it. Another great thing was that Pete; the guy who organised it was able to tell Alyson some things about dietetics. He knows because he's a dietician and he is going to study medicine in Brisbane next year actually. And Christian was a German guy that they'd met on another hike when it was him and his girlfriend, who's now back in Germany. Well Christian did Engineering, focusing on the industrial design side which is what I have thought about. The company that he's just started with makes hydrogen fuel cells so we talked alot about that which was very interesting. It would be really great to work in that line, the future of cars but i still think the best thing would be automotive journalist so i'll head for that. So hiking in the British Columbia was a fantastic time and we didn't see any bears which is both fortunate and not, probably more fortunate. Also I had my first chance to use my camel, its the 2 litre plastic water pouch so that was good but it tasted very plasticky, apparently the key is to rinse it out with some mouth wash so i'll try that before the ski slopes, I bought it to minimise the stopping time on the ski slopes. Phill can understand I'm sure, now if i'm really keen i can just take up bars of some sort and pretty well go all day without stop i think.
And finally today, well it hasn't been the best of days. I had a terrible sleep last night because i've had a bit of a sore throat and it was very bad last night. The weather is really bad also, has been raining or looking gloomy all day. We went out and got our SIN number which is just like tax file number and now we have to do resumes. Still not too bad a day of course, no work and i saw a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and when i finish my resume i'm gonna have a quick squiz round the dealerships:)
Our room is really nice, well it's their lounge room but it has a very nice view, at night you can see all the lights from the city which is really nice and in the day you can see the mountains and the city and things.
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