Spontaneous trip to Vancouver

by Matt Dela Peña

On Monday night during the week of Thanksgiving break, my friends and I decided to celebrate the end of three months worth of torturous lectures and anatomy lab sessions with [Insert celebratory beverage here]. I was particularly keen on becoming carefree that night after having just finished two grueling hours of poking around a cat's reproductive system.

By the time I was free of said care, one of my friends, Devan, cunningly asked me if I wanted to drive up to Vancouver, B.C. over the weekend. You know... just because. Anyway, I guess I agreed to do it because that Friday, we were legitimately cruising through I-5 headed straight for the Canadian border. The rest of that night was forgotten history, literally.

With the trip planned out throughout the rest of the week, Kelli, another friend that tagged along had to ship her passport in from her home state of Hawaii, you know, in order to legally surpass Canadian border patrol (who are, in fact, a lot nicer than their American counterparts). But by the time Friday rolled in, still no passport. When it did arrive, and God help the UPS carrier, our planned departure of 9:00 A.M. ended up becoming 3:00 P.M. We were off to a great start!

Finally! Never again, UPS...

So, why Vancouver of all places? Well, since I am of legal age to say it having already crossed the border and all, I can say that we went to Canada for one reason and one reason only: pub crawl. Big surprise? I think not. If the world can agree on something, it's that the United States has its laws on minors in possession all messed up.

Cheers to that.

We stayed at Hotel Ambassador, a charming little hostel perched on Granville St., (a.k.a. Partytown Blvd., eh?). We arrived at the city on a Friday night when quite possibly all of Vancouver was there going to nightclubs, which Granville St. apparently has quite the abundance of. In what was perhaps my friends' first culture shock experience, many of the Canadians we saw were uncharacteristically rude and didn't say "eh" at the end of every sentence. Oh, the countless cases of public intoxication and puking out on the streets also surprised them.

Granville Street at night (Not the best picture, but you get the idea. Sorry!)

After we recovered from the initial shock and settled in, we found a bar called The Moose which had a $5.95 menu, All Food All Day, and of course, a lot of booze. The prime rib dip, which I ordered, was a little bit on the salty side and the restaurant played very loud music which prevented me from hearing what anyone was saying.

Meanwhile, a fight almost broke out between two guys that sat to the back and front of our booth, which amounted to a very amusing scene when "Open Arms" by Journey started playing in the background. Anyway, onto the reason why we went:

But first, a word to the wise: the legal drinking age in British Columbia is 19. It does vary by province. For foreigners barely hitting that age, you will likely get carded. In all cases, you need two forms of identification: passport and driver's license. Carry both.

What I find interesting from the bars we hit is that they never show the price for their drinks. So, you can easily break the bank if you're a noob like us and have no idea what you're ordering. The Blue Hawaii, which I got, was like $12. I mean, I'm no expert on booze, but that seems a little heavy on the wallet for a small cocktail. And even if it is a reasonable price, most college kids getting by on ramen would really appreciate knowing how much it costs to get wasted without having to sacrifice next week's food budget.

$5.95 meal, say whaa?

But that's not all we did. The last time I went to Vancouver was in 2006, and frankly, my stupid 13-year old self failed the appreciate the beauty of city and travel, something my 19-year old self now holds dear to heart. So, cheers to you as well, Vancouver, one of the most beautiful cities in the Pacific Northwest.

Granville Street during the day.

Vancouver skyline from Stanley Park with Devan and Kelli.

Lions Gate Bridge from [the other side of] Stanley Park.

However, I did say that the trip was spontaneous, ergo, not enough time was spent in the city to take it all in. In fact, most of the trip was spent driving. Next time for sure.