Saturday (28/4), I walked to Commercial Drive. According to the guidebook, that’s where all the bohemians and hipster kids hang out and shop. It’s a little bit off, not really close to Downtown and even further away from Kitsilano. Conveniently enough, though, Scott lives just a healthily brisk walk from the Drive. So, after breakfast tea at the coffee shop downstairs from Scott’s apartment (where they made both coffee and tea in measuring cups and on scales – like a chemistry experiment, so fascinating), I set out for another day of sightseeing.
Commercial Drive is this kind of narrow street, lined with small coffee shops and one-of-a-kind boutiques. To be honest, I went into quite a few of them and ended up buying a marine blue dress and a pair of earrings with trees on them. And they were not cheap. But, oh, so pretty, both dress and earrings. I might have to regret this impulse shopping later, when I need gas money to get from San Francisco to Grand Canyon, but now I’m happy.
I also happened upon a used bike market in a park by Commercial Drive. It was so cozy, and I bought a t-shirt with a screen printed tree on. That one was cheap. And I was also running out of clean t-shirts (for some reason I sweat like a pig while traveling – not because I’m hot, but due to some kind of excitement/stress/concentration. It’s strange). It was a cool shirt. That, I won’t regret.
There was a lot of paintings on the houses of Commercial Drive. And I guess you know by now, how I feel about street art.
When I had walked enough on the Drive, I continued west towards Main Street. That’s the other ‘hip’ shopping street in town, apparently, so I felt that it would make a good combination for the day. So I walked through the industrial areas along First Avenue to Main Street, or Soma (South Main) as the guidebook claims that the Vancouverites call it (which is kind of not-cool, since it’s so obviously an imitation of Soho, and furthermore, the name of the pacifying drug that keeps the masses in place in the classic but scary “Brave New World”. And actually, I didn’t hear a single Vancouverite call it that, so the guidebook must be wrong).
Main reminded alot of the Drive. They had some really nice messages on walls and outside stores. And the blossoming cherry trees made the whole place seem kind of romantic and charmingly run down at the same time.
And on a street just off Main and Broadway, I found this wall. Really, Vancouver is a cool city. And a lot more than the glass skyscrapers that make up the Downtown skyline. I really liked Commercial Drive and Main Street.
Katja Malmborg 