After a major delay leaving London, I arrived in Vancouver nearly 2 hours later than planned. Luckily, Ashley had been late also and had only been there a little while by the time I'd made my way through customs and collected my bags. It was lovely to see her and meet her family, amid catching up and reminiscing about the European trip. Arriving at her house, it was late so after visiting some of her friends, I crashed, absolutely exhausted. The next day I slept in while Ashley went to classes and by lunchtime she had been home and we were heading into downtown Vancouver for a walking tour of the city. Having Ashley to show me around was wonderful as she told me the history of the area and lots of juicy gossip. Gastown was my favourite place, the oldest part of Vancouver. After dinner we went to the movies to see Vanity Fair but jet lag had caught up with me by then and I dozed through the movie and crashed out. Thursday was a drizzly, overcast day so we put on hold our plans to visit Stanley Park. Instead we headed down to Granville Island, nestled on the water and full of markets. The markets were wonderful with a real art and craft theme plus some great food stalls to sample. Took a cruise around the harbour on the "Aquacat", and although it rained intermittently, it was wonderful to see the city from the water. I was still rather tired that night so we had dinner and watched some movies. Friday was a beautiful day, so we headed off to Stanley Park to make the most of the sunshine. The park is huge and just gorgeous, so green with the water surrounding the outer edges. I could have walked for hours. We did cover a lot of ground and then checked out the aquarium where I saw belugas for the first time, these large white amphibians. I really enjoyed myself in Stanley Park. Saturday we were up very early to head out to Victoria for the day. The ferry left at 7am so we had breakfast on board, arriving in Victoria mid morning. Victoria reminded me of little English villages and it known as a British town. We spent the day wandering around the little town, browsing in the shops and soaking up the street entertainment. Of course, ate some lovely food, a really good Mexican restaurant was our lunch stop and a great margarita. We were back on the ferry by 4pm and back at Ashley's in time for dinner. Sunday was the day I was flying out so after another hearty breakfast, Ashley took me to the airport for my flight to LA. I had a wonderful time in Vancouver and it really made me aware of how beautiful Canada is and how I'd love to spend much more time there. My favourite places were the historic Gastown, Stanley Park and Victoria.