Day 11-13 - Vancouver

I have had a great time here the last few days, although there's surprisingly little to report.

- Went out to Port Moody (21km E of Vancouver) on Thursday, and spent time on small community shuttle buses (which look hilarious - I'll post a pic soon) going through steep hills and thick forests, and chatting to busdrivers and other locals. It was a great time. :)

- On Friday, we slept in, and ended up going to Langley (43km SE of Vancouver), Daniel's home district, with him, but not before finding an excellent street musician outside Burrard Skytrain station named Matt who played Ben Harper and other such acoustic stuff. During my time in Langley, I actually got to sit down and spend time with Daniel (which is a rare thing when we're in the city), learned that the Trans-Canada Highway 1 is a ridiculously busy road, that Langley has a lot of interesting wood sculptures and far too many skate parks, that you can eat blackberries straight off bushes in the woods out there, and that the local markets are very good value. I had my first experience, on returning, of cooking in the hostel's communal kitchen. The meal was a bit experimental, but noone who tried it seemed to mind.

- Saturday was one of those random sort of days. Went up to Squamish (64km north of Vancouver) to see, believe it or not, a logging competition! Everyone knows I am a greenie at heart, but every year, these guys compete with each other for titles in events such as axe-throwing, climbing up and down 80m poles, chainsawing logs while standing on them, etc. It was great :) Saw some awesome mountain and ocean views on the way there and back, too. I had some great company for the trip too in a new friend, a professional photographer named Peter. We parted ways near Lions Gate Bridge and I spent about 2 hours on and around it before coming here.

The fireworks are tonight - tonight it's Sweden's turn. I wonder if they can outperform China? It'll be a tough call, but many here believe they're up to the task. This weekend will be busy in Vancouver as the gay pride parade is tomorrow, and this is a public holiday weekend as BC Day (the province's foundation day) is on Monday. I'm going to try and get out as much as possible.