An early Saturday start saw me on a bus to Vancouver to stay with friends and get away from all things snow for a weekend.
The journey was a lot more exciting than I had planned as the conditions on the roads were very icy. The 60 seater bus actually lost control on one bit of ice and we slid about ten foot with the back starting to slide sideways. That was really quite scary and we had to go really slow so that didn't happen again. A little while later the driver announced that a dangerous pass was coming up ahead and wasn't sure it would be safe to cross, there being a large drop on one side (yes I did think of the Italian job at about this point). Fortunately the bus driver decided to stop and wait for the pass to be cleared and gritted before setting off again and we managed to make it alive to Vancouver with only a couple hours delay.
By the time I got to Vancouver I was still early to meet up with my friends so I decided to have a walk around the waterfront area. I was a complete tourist, taking loads of photos. There were lots of interesting bits and pieces including a huge Lego whale sculpture which was ace!
After that I went around to Emanuel and Yvadney's place. They are old friends from London, I used to work with Emanuel, who moved out to Canada a couple of years ago. I stayed at Emanuel's flat which is very nice but on the 20th floor! It took me a little while to go anywhere near the windows.
Emanuel gave me a tour around his bit of the city including a visit to his office, which is the Canadian branch of the same company I work for in London. It was very interesting to see the office and see how a typical Canadian work place is set up. The city is nice with lots of little touches like leaf prints in the concrete walkways, which were done for the Olympics. In the evening we had a meal, drinks and an opportunity to catch up. I could give them the low down on our friends back in the UK and they tell me about all the odd things about living in another country (they really miss a good fish and chips shop).
On Sunday morning Emanuel and I had a breakfast of kings at the Templeton Dinner. Sitting at the counter, I had two blueberry pancakes, six strips of bacon, three eggs easy, rosemary potatoes, two rounds of brown toast, maple syrup and about a pint of coffee. I didn't need to eat again until Monday morning.
I took my leave of Emanuel and Yvadney on Sunday evening, It was great to see them again and hopefully not so long until I see them next.
Vancouver is a nice place and I think I really need to go back and visit it during the summer as it rained constantly the whole time I was there and so wasn't maybe in its best light, well they do call it Raincouver.
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