Trying to explaine Lost to a French girl with spotty english

Today, hopefully within the hour, I am leaving Vancouver to the North by bicycle and riding as far as Sechelt where I will be staying at another hostel. I can only hope that the people will be as nice as they are here in Vancouver. Maybe it the lack of a war or negligible violent crime but the Canadians I have met all seem so laid back and stress free. It seems there is no lack of jobs here in Vancouver either which allows people a certain degree of freedom to move between occupations that I can only imagine decreased the daily stress. I guess I also have to factor in travelling on my own, which of course will attract more conversation than in other circumstances.

On the left is a photo of my room, 18a, at the hostel. It is almost 9:00 pm in this photo and as you can see out the window it is still quite bright. The photo is a little dim but that is my bike in the room on the left. The ability to bring it inside was a major plus. Vancouver like most major bike cities in North America is know for its bicycle theft. In fact I had a bag stolen off my bike yesterday while inside a coffee shop. I should have known better. Fortunately nothing irreplaceable or of significant value was stolen, and the need to replace certain items led me to parts of Vancouver I probably would never have seen.

To get off the peninsula that downtown Vancouver is situated on there are several bridges leading off to the north and to the south. I made my way off to the south yesterday to Kitsilano neighborhood in search of a good road bike shop to replace my stolen goods and get some advice on the wobble in the front end of my bike. They suggested adjusting the headset, and putting some more tension in the spokes on the front wheel.

This was about noon and the heavy breakfast and large cup of coffee that accompanied it were demanding some attention to my bowels, which lead me to Granville Island which is situated under the Granville bridge I had crossed to get to Kitsilano. I had intended to visit anyway to check out the graduate exhibition at the art school there, but I turned out I was a day late. Instead I wandered about the incredible market they had there and purchased some smoked salmon and fruit to snack upon as I watched boat go in and out of the canal called False Creek that separates downtown from Kitsilano.

From where I was sitting I had a nice view of the Burrard Street Bridge shown above, and after lunch I took a water taxi, which you can see in the lower right, across the canal where I snapped the photo on the right of the underside of the bridge. Heading west along the bay along the Seaside pedestrian and bike trail (lots of Rollerblades as well) I passed Sunset Beach shown at right before I took this series below along the path into Stanley Park.



At the tip of the peninsula is Stanley Park which is an incredibly lush park and I took the path around the perimeter on the water's edge. Seems like it was one way the other direction, but by the time I realized this i was a quarter of the way around and did not want to retrace my steps. On the Northern side I took this photo of the bottom side of Lions Gate Bridge which I will traverse later today on my journey North.

After the park I took the SkyTrain on a loop around the outer regions of the city. I took a nice series of photos out the rear window of the train of all the stations we passed through that I will post when I have time to assemble them. Next stop was a bike shop relatively near my hostel where I dropped of my bike for the suggested adjustments. I had planned to walk back across the city to the Hostel but about this time a torrential downpour pushed me onto a bus. It had been a long day all ready so I didn't mind so much. I bought some tortillas from the Taqueria down the street and ate rice and bean tacos for dinner. Haven't really wanted to cook meat since I left Berkeley and so I have eaten a vegetarian diet for every meal. I eat more this way, which I prefer as food is a fine friend when away from home.

Watched the season finale of Lost. Disappointing lack of resolution, but what did I really expect.

I am off to retrieve my bike, pack, and then get the hell out of dodge and on to the open road.