vancity - part 2

the plan for the night:  ride bikes all night through stanley park decked out in our DDP gear and shoot fireworks for canada day.  and stick to the plan we did.  there wasn't an extra bike for me, but there was a random tandem bike...which meant martin and i had to figure out quickly how to ride it and show it who's boss.  we picked up the tandem and rode over a few blocks to gary's to put on our banana suits and everyone else put on their gear.  the majority of the group below..

the all-night ride was super fun.  stanley park.  lookout by the bridge at night with the lights sparkling on the water.  outlook over the trees.  fireworks.  preventing martin from dying trying to climb onto trees.  playgrounds at 5 am or something ridiculously early.  2nd beach.  more fireworks.  killer raccoons.  breakfast at denny's.  it was a good night and a good way to spend canada day.

monday - after that martin and i walked through chinatown and had a second mini-breakfast at the community center.  then he dropped me off at the hostel and i grabbed a shower to head out to granville island market.  should i have taken a nap?  probably.  did i?  nope.  grabbed the bus and went to get my culinary shop on.  tried rose chocolate.  whiskey chocolate.  sockeye salmon jerky.  fish and chips.  clam chowder.  maple walnut ice cream.  stopped by the granville island brewery to try some of their beers and got to talking with this guy at the bar about what i'd done this weekend.  he didn't believe me so i started to show him pictures.  his tab comes and by this time he's dying laughing so he says "put hers on my tab, this is pure entertainment, totally worth it."  as soon as he leaves the bartender comes up to me and says "well played."  why thank you, mr. bartender, i thought so too.  as i'm eating the aforementioned fish and chips i'm literally falling asleep bite by bite, so i figured it was about that time to head back and finally get some sleep.  between my arrival friday night and this time (monday afternoon) i'd had about five hours total of sleep so it wasn't too unexpected.  had to crash some time.  six hours later i woke up and met martin for all-you-can-eat sushi at this freaking delicious place he knew.  basically talked about life and stuffed ourselves to the brim (pun intended) and then went to sleep "early."

tuesday - said bye to my new british friends that were only around for a day to get their bikes put back together.  they were biking from vancouver to san francisco and then deciding where to go from there.  crazy, but they seem like driven guys so i think they'll do just fine.  as long as they carry their good luck charms, the "oh, henry!" chocolate bar and pippin the penguin.  you can follow their travels at robbieandhenry.wordpress.com.  well-rested, i headed out to hike around grouse mountain.  thanks to the DDP, i knew how to catch the sea bus to north van and then rode the bus to the suspension bridge park.  it was pouring, so they gave us these awful fashionable yellow ponchos upon entry.  this particular area of the park wasn't huge but i did spend about two and a half hours just walking around exploring.  the mountains are always beautiful, but this one was actually classified as a rainforest.  there were strange bell-shaped flowers, giant trees, a rushing stream below, magnificent rocks (i like geology, don't judge), and a stream of smooth rain falling on me.  i could hear all the sounds of nature growing around me the further i walked.  i could see my breath.  meanwhile in texas it was about 100 degrees and here i am in a rainforest at about 50.  it was magical.

but after i'd checked out all the open paths to that part of the park i went back to the city and somehow navigated my way to gary's.  didn't do much but sit around, but really that's all i was looking for.  watched blair edit the AMD edition DDP video, ate ants on a log with gary (thank you gary!), and took home a sweet boombox.  chris, one of the friends i made at the party, had invited me to a couchsurfing meetup at the cinema pub so i went straight there instead of stopping by the hostel.  which meant taking the boombox with me.  hell yes.  had a good time catching up with chris and meeting some other vancouver couchsurfers, then we walked back towards the hostel...in a roundabout way...with some french guys we had met at the pub. once back at the hostel i found my hostel friends downstairs and called up martin to make it just in time for last call.  things i learned that night:  1 - no one knows how to two-step in vancouver; 2 - canadians don't belt out journey songs like we do in texas; 3 - the world is tiny, and when someone says "you don't know my town" it's always worth a shot.  to cillian -  i met someone from athlone, ireland, and he almost didn't believe that i knew someone from your town.  it was a good, chill last night in canada.  but not forever, just for a while.


wednesday - slept in a bit, still wasn't ready to give up my time in canada so i just went walking.  i left the hostel and just started walking down the street, up and down random crossroads, up to the pier, along the water, through any areas i hadn't found yet and through places i'd made memories.  spent some time chatting with one of my favorite hostel employees, brian, about his home country - ireland - and our favorite places there.  as much as i tried to put it off, it was time to head out to the airport.  checked my bag so i could carry on my boombox, which once again got lots of attention.  go ahead and just look at it.

thanks for the good times, canada.  til we meet again.

don't forget to keep checking out theddp.com and following Tom&Gary to see when the next DDP will come to your city...or where you can go to meet up with the DDP.

vancity - part 1

the trip to vancouver was a rush.  it may have started out a bit slow and frustrating, but it quickly picked up and turned around.

friday - on the flight in i sat with an older couple going on an alaskan cruise out of vancouver.  they were from mississippi, and the wife kept feeding me snacks from her snack bag as if i were one of her grandchildren.  at first i felt bad for taking her snacks, but then i saw my weakness - a nature valley oats 'n' honey bar in that shiny green wrapping.  i can't resist those so i gave in and took it.  she gave me her phone number in case i met some crazies in the hostel and needed a hotel room to crash in, which was super sweet, but this wasn't my first rodeo.  customs was a trip - got held up because the agent didn't believe that i was going to vancouver "just because" and by myself...clearly he doesn't know me.  the conversation ended once he asked what i did and i responded "i'm a rocket scientist." and then further explained what i did.  he then just handed my passport back and called the next person haha!  once i finally cleared i hopped on the sky train to waterfront station and after a half hour  got off and turned left towards cordova and cambie.  by this time it was 10 pm, and the bar at my hostel was alive and kicking.  i must have looked pretty ragged from just traveling all day because i definitely got some looks walking in.  no worries.  a few minutes after dropping my stuff off in my room and i was ready to go!  went downstairs to the sardine-tight packed bar, grabbed a cambie beer, and scouted for some fun looking people.  i met vancouver natives bruce and rob...soon after we recruited troy and a few of his friends...and by the end of the night our entourage was about 12 people and we closed down the place with our singing and whatnot.  sadly, i never saw them again, but they were good people.

saturday, the actual day one of the trip, i went out to walk around the downtown area in the morning.  not five minutes down the street, this couple stops me to ask for directions.  "uhh i'm from dallas, texas, this is my first day in canada ever."  "oh.  we're from houston."  i get mistaken for a native a lot, but the closeness of that encounter was probably one of the best short conversations i've had from that mistake.  around 1:30 pm i made my way to the vancouver art gallery, ready to get to dancing in my neon headbands, bright blue tights, and hot pink legwarmers (thank you tabitha for letting me borrow them!!).  decentralized dance party #50 was imminent.  little did we know, slut walk had also chosen to set up in the same spot.  so here we had an awkward mix of girls dressed as sluts pissed off and yelling about sexualization of women (while topless...umm what??) and people dressed in neon workout gear with boomboxes ready to dance.  the dynamic was very interesting.  the news crews were beyond confused.  once the slut walk departed, the happy, bright group of people started getting out boomboxes and turning them on.  if you don't know what a DDP is, essentially it's a giant dance party that moves.  every boombox is tuned in to an fm transmitter that sends out mindblowingly awesome dance music and everyone dances for about 10 hours throughout the city.  if that explanation doesn't make you want to drop everything and dance, check out this video.  a few days before the event, i had submitted to become part of the banana task force, a small group of bananas that dance their asses off to keep the party going when some get tired.  van pulls in, banana suit goes on.  boomboxes passed out.  fitness equipment ready to rock.  the rain tried to rain on our parade, but we started DDP50 anyway.

through this collection of amazing people and hours upon hours of dancing, i had my first ride on the sea bus, got to attempt to sing the canadian national anthem for the first time, watched a guy get arrested while screaming political rants at the police (not connected to the party), saw the olympic village, rode a gazelle on the sky train, partied on party island, took pictures with a lot of strangers, crashed a jazz festival, watched sunset on the west coast, stood next to a good friend as he sang meatloaf to the cops in an attempt to negotiate for a few more minutes of DDP (it worked), and rode a party cab.  i'd say it was a pretty kickass way to do my first day in canada.  some great pics by my friend abi of abi rhi photography are located here!  the pics of the party from my camera aren't anywhere close to the caliber of hers, but if you haven't had enough DDP pics, mine are here.  the rest of the night consisted of going out to the town to keep dancing in our banana suits and shades, and taking even more pictures with strangers.  everyone loves seeing bananas.

sunday - happy canada day!!  downstairs at the restaurant, i found martin - one of my fellow bananas - and joined him in watching spain slaughter italy in the final eurocup game.  while he went and took a nap to recover from DDP, i went with a few of my friends from the hostel to check out the official city activities down at canada place.  there were tons of people milling about, but no one was actually doing anything....a song would play every 20 minutes or so, no one would dance, and there were no events.  just people walking around aimlessly.  very strange.  so after an hour of that i started the walk back to the hostel and decided to stop into steamworks pub to grab a pint and see who i could find.  found this really funny aussie who was on a layover from a few months in toronto and on his way back to his homeland, so we chatted for a bit and then headed over to the cambie to meet up with martin.  i stopped off in my room to drop off some stuff i'd picked up and rounded up two more aussies to join us.  the five of us went to the bar next door for dinner and caesars, wishing everyone who passed by us on the patio a happy canada day, and just talked about random thoughts.  it was a good time.  but then the solo aussie had to catch his flight and martin and i had to head out for our plans the the ddp crew.  we headed out to martin's where i got to see the city from the rooftop as the fireworks started, which was one of the best views i had the whole trip (thank you martin for sharing it!)  then we caught a cab over to gary's for a great canada day night....