Friday (27/4), I walked all the way from Kitsilano, through Granville Island to Canada Place and Gastown, which is downtown. And for all of you who are not acquainted with the geography of Vancouver, that’s quite a walk. But it was beautiful, too, and totally worth the sore feet. Because Vancouver is a city where they have thought about aesthetics.
The walk started in Kitsilano, or Kits as the locals call it, where the magnolia trees and cherries and lilacs were blooming.
I continued down to Kitsilano Beach, to the lovely shoreline trail that goes all the way from Kits to Granville Island.
It was low tide, so the smell of sea weed was strong in the air. I love the ocean creatures and the smell of them. I know that for some people, the smell is disagreeable, but for me it brings back memories of long, sunny childhood summers in the Stockholm archipelago and the Swedish west coast. It’s one of my favourite smells.
Closer to Granville Island, you can see Downtown across the water. It’s easy to understand why I was told by another wwoofer that downtown Vancouver is built on a separate island, because there is water everywhere. But, the island is actually much bigger than that. The whole of central Vancouver is built on the island between the two arms of the Fraser river, while Downtown is on a long strip of land, divided from Kitsilano by a narrow but very long creek. That gives the city a lot of shoreline and the possibility to watch the buildings from across water. Quite similar to Stockholm. It gives the feeling of space and freshness, which I think might be the one single biggest reason why atleast I find Vancouver to be such a pleasant city. That is, if we’re only talking about physical, superficial qualities.
By the water, they have these super cool, but probably extremely expensive houses with a view of the ocean. But still, closest to the water, there are small parks, lawns and trails where people run, bike and walk their dogs. Everyone is allowed to enjoy the freshness of the water.
In the middle of the long creek that separates Kitsilano from Downtown, is Granville Island. There is an arts university there, but the main attraction for tourists is the Public Market. Is is basically a huge indoor hall with stalls and counters where you can buy everything from organic apples from the Okanagan valley to jewellery from the artist herself. I bought a bag of organic chocolate chips and three guavas and went out to sit by the water to eat my lunch and watch the water taxis taking tourists Downtown.
From Granville Island, I walked over one of all the Vancouver bridges, and walked right across Downtown on the very straight streets to Canada Place, a cruiseshiplike building by the water.
Here, the buildings are all skyscrapers made out of glass. It’s cool, when the clouds are reflected in all the buildngs, but it also feels kind of sterile. From there, walking into Gastown, just a couple of blocks away, creates a totally different feeling.
This is the oldest part of Vancouver, the buildings are lower and many of them are made out of red brick (which I’m strangely partial to). On this street, there are tons of tourists taking pictures of the steam clock (whick nowadays is actually run by electricity) and it looks very clean and cute, but only one block up, I walked past narrow alleys with grafitti on the walls and a group of middleaged men sitting on a stair smoking weed. The smell was heavy in the air. (Later, Scott, my second host, told me that at night, there are people doing a lot heavier stuff in Gastown. Vancouver is a safe city, but Gastown is one of the few places where you don’t want to go alone at night. It’s the decadent part of the city, with the artists and drug addicts.)
Well, funnily enough, I happened upon this building just a couple of blocks later. Vancouver really is a weedy city.
So, that was my first day of sight seeing in Vancouver. From Yaletown, where the rich and fancy live and shop, I walked over another bridge and continued all the way up to Broadway, where I caught the 99 back to Kitsilano.
Katja Malmborg 