Vancouver Trip 2010 part 2 - City (1)

The first few days in Vancouver was to stay on the mainland before venturing to the islands. My friend/colleague studies at UBC, so it was only natural we did a campus tour. As spring is, lots of flowers, with tulips everywhere. We visited places like the Irving Barber Centre and Museum of Anthropology on campus. An ex-colleague happened to be taking his PhD at UBC and we met up with him as well.

Near campus was also Wreck Beach where we took a morning stroll, checking out the North Shore Mountains and sea. It's actually a nudist beach where "clothes were optional", but we didn't see anything lah.

We found out a little more about the natives of the land, or what they call "First Nations" and ate a sumptuous meal of First Nations food at this place called Salmon & Bannock (1128 West Broadway). Interestingly, they opened not too long ago for the Winter Olympics and since then have been quite popular. Definitely, since they are so hospitable! The food was delicious, with the hot favourite being the salmon mousse with fried bread or bannock. There's also this thing called Indian candy, which is actually a thicker, sweeter version of smoked salmon.

Besides these, we visited Granville Island (which really isn't an island), False Creek and Steveston Village. Granville Island is like an artist town, with Emily Carr University there. There's also, however, the Granville Island Public Market where lots of foodstuff and other local produce are sold. Steveston used to be a major salmon canning centre. There's a pretty well-known fish & chips eatery called Pajo's, which was indeed good.

We ended off this part of our trip with a meal at Excelsior Restaurant in Richmond, which was a Cantonese restaurant.