Hello from Vancouver (1) - Arrival in Vancouver
I left beautiful Victoria early yesterday morning at 8 am and
took the Pacific Coachlines bus/ferry combination back to the
mainland. It was another gorgeous day and I spent the entire
ferry ride on the top deck soaking in the scenery and the
sunshine. At about 11:30 I exited at Broadway and Cambie as the
bus driver had advised me and caught the 99B bus to the
University of British Columbia campus and arrived about a half
an hour later. First I found the student union building where I
picked up a bus map and a campus guide. Then I asked my way to
the student residence where I was staying and checked myself
into a comfortable reasonably priced student room that is part
of a 6-unit apartment at a very affordable C$38.00 a night.
After dumping my luggage and getting changed I had a few hours
until check-in for the Servas conference and I decided to use
the time by renting a bicycle at the local university bicycle
co-op to explore the area on 2 wheels. I rented a mountainbike
and started heading west to North West Marine Drive which is the
road that is parallel to the coastline, but the view to the
ocean is obscured by dense forest. In various areas trails and
steps lead down to to Spanish Bay.
I then cycled eastwards and found a beautiful lookout spot from
where I could see the mouth of the Burrard Inlet and the
mountains of North Vancouver. The university grounds in this
area have several mansions that are surrounded by gorgeous
flowers and this is a just a superbly scenic area. From there I
took NW Marine Drive down towards Spanish Banks and kept cycling
eastwards past Locarno Beach and Jericho Beach which is a
recreational paradise. The water level was quite low, however,
and people had to walk out quite a while over the sand to reach
deeper water. After a couple of hectic days I figured I deserved
about an hour of downtime and bought myself an icecream which I
savoured sitting at a bench while observing the action on the
beach.
Of course after this little respite I had to cycle all the way
back up, which ended up not being as bad as expected. The campus
of the University of British Columbia (UBC) is a beautiful
facility. It is very expansive with a large number of mordern
buildings interspersed by green zones and parkland. UBC is home
to about 45,000 students and it is the 3rd largest university in
Canada. The UBC Campus is also the home of the world-renowned
UBC Museum of Anthropology, the Nitobe Memorial Gardens, the UBC
Botanical Garden as well as the Rose Garden & Chan Centre. The
First Nations Longhouse serves as a gathering place for native
students and features sculpted log poles and various pieces of
First Nations art. UBC also houses the largest university
bookstore in Canada as well as the Astronomical Observatory,
located beside the UBC Geophysical Observatory which monitors
earthquake activity.
My first outing on the bike gave me the lay of the land and a
first glimpse at the Vancouver skyline which certainly has one
of the most stunning locations of any large city I have ever
seen. I am glad I had a bit of a chance to explore it before I
return back to the student residence to get ready for the Servas
Conference.