Saturday, October 29, 2011

The arrival: a complete day

Dear family and friends,
It's been two weeks since I arrived to the end of the world Australia.

Australia

It's been a little bit hard to find my way around here, but I suppose it has to do with the hangover after the two months in Canada. This time the adjustment had not to do much with the jet lag but with getting used to the warm Australian spring, after having left behind the fresh Canadian fall. Right at the airport, my Australian hosts were waiting for me. From the airport we drove straight to the Sydney Fish Market.

Fish Market
Fish Fish Fish

Crazy place! We got cooked king prawns, bread rolls and sauce, and went to eat them on one of the thousand beautiful parks along the thousand beautiful bays of Sydney harbour.

Fence
Bocata de gambas

At the end of the day, I was honoured with a homemade pavlova, with lots of fresh passion fruit pulp. It is so delicious!

Pavlova

A complete day. I was a little bit disoriented but very well taken care of ;-)
If you like to see more pictures, visit the Australian album which I try to keep up to date. Regards!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

The day I didn't exist

If everything goes according to plan, today it should be October 15th 2011. Well then, today won't exist for me. I left Vancouver yesterday, October 14th at noon and will arrive tomorrow, October 16th, after 26 hours flight (adding up flights and transits). Where did my October 15th go?
Apparently this is what happens when you cross the International Date Line each time you fly from North America to the west.

While preparing the trip, I read a comment on a book from someone joking about the possibility of flight companies putting a warning on the flight tickets saying "Passengers are advised that on some crossings twenty-four hour loss of existence may occur". I refuse not to exist, so I've figured out a way to avoid it and this will be to leave some evidence of my existence in this blog. And now that we are talking about existence, let's talk about food. To be more precise about two meals I had in the past two weeks that will go directly to the list of "Great meals in Vancouver".

The first one a hamburger 777 in an old-fashion diner, The Templeton.

Markierte Fotos25
Markierte Fotos24

And the second one a hot dog Japanese style at Japa Dog, one of the most popular food trucks in the city.

IMG_8681
IMG_8673

By the way, Vancouver seems to be a good place to try out different street food options, there are many food trucks with a huge variety of food. If you are interested, take a look at a map with the locations and different styles. I will exist again soon and send you a postcard from my new destination. Regards.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Postcard home

Dear friends and family,
I arrived one week ago to Vancouver but it seems to me it's been a month. It does not have to do with the time going slowly, not at all, it has to do with the sensation of me feeling home. I think that one can get practice in arriving to a new city and finding your way in. I think I'm getting good at it. However, I suspect in Vancouver there is another reason for me feeling home so fast and it's the fact that it reminds me so much of my hometown in Spain, the beautiful city of Santander in the Northern of the country. I know what you are thinking, that comparison can't be serious! Well, keeping differences in mind, both cities have some very similar points in common, like the fact that they both are at the seaside, at an important Ocean, both have a really spectacular bay, a very similar climate, and grandiose mountains behind them.

Vancouver Skyline
Salish Sea

As I wrote in my last post from Montreal, my first day in Vancouver started with a date. Destiny wanted that Ajonjoli and D., from the blog La flor del calabacín, arrived at Vancouver the same day I did. Who would have said when we started our blogs at the same time some years ago that we would meet each other on the other side of the World. It was amazing to meet at Granville Island to have lunch together (eat, what else!) and stroll along the city during the whole weekend.

After that, on Monday, I stayed on my own, again (to that I'm not getting used, spending very short but quality time with friends and saying goodbye again, and again, it's killing my emotional balance ;-). However it was time to start looking for all the things I had planned to see before my trip, so time to work! I hope I will be able to show you more tasty things before I leave Vancouver, there are plenty of them. Until then, greetings from the West Coast.

Fish & Chips
Go Fish

Fish & Chips at Go Fish, near Granville Island, and just in front of the place where Greenpeace started its first action.

Greenpeace