I arrived in Vancouver after only a 3 hour flight which was quite nice but I was still pretty tired as it's always a long day. I ended up getting a taxi to the hostel as I had no idea where I was going or how else to get there. I got to the hostel, settled my stuff and headed out for a wander and some food. That's where it all began... my love for the 'Excellent sushi' place. It was indeed excellent but it was also ridiculously cheap. I had a whole plate of food (which I couldn't eat all of) for $5.50. Then I headed back for an early night.

The next day I woke up to find a message and it was from one of my friends from the Oz bus who coincidentally happened to be staying in the room next to me in the exact same hostel. This was a nice relief, as Amy from home hadn't been able to make it out as planned because of the cancelled flights for the volcanco ash. It hadn't been planned for him to be there but he'd run out of money and brought his whole trip forward. From then on, we just wandered Downtown a lot. That day we just went to Gastown and saw the steam powered clock and just looked in a few shops. The next day, we went to Granville Island which I was actually a bit disappointed with. There is a big market and lots of shops but I'd got to the point where I didn't really want to buy too much or spend much money. Then we watched a bit of Ice Hockey (which there was a lot of while I was there as it was the playoffs).

The following day we walked to Stanley Park, it was a really pretty walk along the water and the park itself is huge and really impressive. We just sat in the park a bit and relaxed. On the Friday, Sandra came to visit from Whistler so we sat down and had a catch up with a hot drink and a crepe, did some shopping and then went to the pub. We had dinner later and of course the compulsory pink wine and then just headed to bed. She had to leave early in the morning. The next few days were again just quite chilled, with reading books and movies in the hostel. It was nice to be in one place for a week but I think I was getting to the point where I was ready to come home as I didn't want to spend too much money. Most of the days did involve the cheap sushi though!

Then Monday came around and we had 'the Best Cheesecake in Vancouver' which was a bit of a let down again and then it was time for my homeward bound flight! I couldn't believe it had all come to an end and that that was the end of dorms and a cheap lifestyle to me. I had an amazing time and I'd love to do it all over again, especially Oz and New Zealand but I was also ready to come home to my home comforts, so here I am!