Day Three - New Route Home

Day Three

Friday. I drag myself from sleep around 1000h grab my pack and head to nearby Yaletown in search of some breakfast. Along the way I stop at a "Shoppers Drug Mart" and stock up on "Emergen-Cs" to help fortify my system. Before I know it I am near an Aqua Bus landing so I decide to seek nutrition at the market on Granville Island. A breakfast of (mall quality) sushi sustains me for the next mini-ferry trip to Vanier Park and the Maritime Museum. Good company on the voyage, a woman and child from the hinterland of BC, visiting for the big wine expo. going on for the weekend. She and her husband are vintners and have a booth at the expo. He is manning the booth and she touring the city and keeping their daughter busy. I made a mental note that if I ran out of things to keep myself busy I could visit the expo. and spend the day sampling wine. Can you believe that everyone goes around there spitting the wine out into buckets after they swill it around in their mouths for a few moments‽

I had visited the Maritime Museum many years ago — 18 or 20 — and I must say it has changed very little during the intervening years! A bit of a disappointment really, but felt I needed to try to keep some context with my past I guess.

An hour and a half later saw me boarding the same ferry with the same companions but this time I chose a new ferry landing to disembark. There, I was able to walk a section of one of the extensive waterfront trails that Vancouverites are lucky to enjoy. That lead me to a new route to the hostel and a better understanding of the lay of the land. A light drizzle began a couple of blocks from my destination, the first bit of rain while here.

Refreshed and hungry after a good nap, I headed out for a night on the town. I had sighted an interesting looking cafe a half block away so returned there to look at the menu. Warmly greeted by the owner I bellied up to the bar and checked out their tapas menu. Deuce Bungalow, Spanglish Cantina is very slick, hip cafe with a friendly staff and great food. I arrived happy hour-ish and most of the tapas and some entrees were two for one. So for 10CD I got two tapas on each plate a bed of rice of fish and chicken tacos. Four large tacos made a big dinner for me! Very good and professionally presented! All for about 8.20 USD!! It was also the first place I found a really good beer selection and something I really wanted to drink, a true Belgium Ale! Most of the pubs served a brewed pablum.

Finally sated, I made my way across the street to the street party tent just as the band The Grey Medium began playing. I listened to them for their set. I decided since my destination — Pub 340 — in Gastown was more of a walk then I was up to, I would take my first cab ride of the trip.

As so often is the case, I was unfashionably early and had to sit around drinking lame Canadian beer for an hour or so till things started picking up and the bands arrived. On the up side I got a great seat at the bar and kept it through the three bands I wanted to see. My stool was next to the open spot in the bar where people lean to order their drinks so I was able to talk a few moments with quite a few people. There was one early 20-ies chick (legal age in BC is 18) who could not have weighed over 95 lb. who, in three hours drank enough to put a sumo wrestler in a coma! I commented on it to one of her companions saying "someone's going to have to carry her out of here in a bag" and the companion said "I know her well, we play soccer together, she drinks like that and hardly slurs her words!" I would have been barfing all over the place! One of the bands The Grey Medium was one of the ones I saw at the street party earlier. 

A cab ride home with a Russian driver and a short but interesting conversation about the difficulty pursuing his artistic dreams while trying to afford to raise his two kids … driving an all night cab while dreaming of the paintings he longs to create. A late night snack at the all night sushi place next door and tuck into bed about 0200h. Sweet dreams!