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THURSDAY 8TH JANUARY 2009
I left Erica at the airport early on Thursday morning, sad to be leaving after such a short visit. The flight to Vancouver was very short but there was a horrific 2 1/2 hour queue to get through customs on the other side. To top it all, when I did eventually get through none of my card would give me any money and for a brief panicky moment I thought I'd be stuck in the airport for the rest of my holiday. However the situation was soon sorted out, banks can be very annoying with the security alerts and not listening to the information you give them sometimes, and I was shortly on my way in a taxi to my hostel in downtown Vancouver. Having settled in to my surprisingly nice dorm, where there was only one other girl, I took a brief wander up and down the main street before hopping into bed to get some rest after what had been a pretty stressful day.
FRIDAY 9TH JANUARY
After waking up late this morning, I ventured around town not really knowing where I was going but taking in the surroundings nevertheless. Vancouver is the largest city in British Columbia, with around 700,000 inhabitants, and is also the biggest seaport in Canada. At the moment it is preparing to host the 2010 Winter Olympics which will also bring a lot more focus and income to the area. Unfortunately while I was out wandering it was raining consistently and very cold so it wasn't long before I headed back to the hostel for a warm shower and to enjoy my now empty room. In order to have something to do in the evening, I had booked myself tickets to go and see the Vancouver Canucks, the local ice hockey team play against the St. Louis Blues. At around 6pm a group of us headed to the stadium, General Motors Place, to experience, what was for me, a new and previously unwatched sport. The ice hockey stadium was immense, holding over 18,000 people, and what immediately struck me was the focus on advertising. This focus even seeps into the game itself, with intervals in the middle of thirds solely for the purpose of advertising breaks...this wouldn't happen at home. The game of ice hockey itself is pretty bizarre. Very fast-paced, substitutes roll on and off at random times to make up the 5-a-side teams which to me seemed to create more confusion than anything else. It also appears that anything goes, you can touch the puck with your hand and your foot as long as you don't pass it that way to someone else and it is perfectly acceptable to have a full-on punch up whenever one feels like. Unfortunately the Vancouver Canucks, my new ice hockey team, are in the middle of a bad losing streak, and ended up losing the game 6-4, playing very poorly in the process. It was good fun all the same and maybe I'll get to see them win before I leave the country. After the game, we made our way through the crowds to home, where, after chatting to a random people, I soon fell asleep, ready for the journey I had to make tomorrow.
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