A Visit to Vancouver

I had a great time visiting a college friend in Vancouver this past month. Here are some highlights from my trip!

The City of Vancouver is a major tourist destination, and it is very beautiful. Vancouver tends to have a mild climate year-round, with warm summer days, and a rainy winter season. The city is very walkable, and there are bike lanes everywhere. Driving and public transportation are other options to get around Vancouver. In addition, there are many parks all over the city.

Vancouver

Grocery prices in Vancouver are quite high, although I did make some interesting finds, including this marinated cabbage, primed for fermenting.

Marinated, sour cabbage

On my first full day in Vancouver, my friend and I visited Granville Island Public Market. You can get to Granville Island by walking, by public transportation, and by ferry. I enjoyed going to Granville Island Public Market, and I went there twice during my stay. The public market features homemade products and independent food vendors. I had a delicious focaccia from Terra Breads at the public market, and the best chocolate covered mocha beans I've ever had from Bon Mano Bon.

Granville Island Public Market

My friend showed my around Vancouver, and we visited several cultural landmarks, such as the Inukshuk.

Inukshuk

We also went to the International Summer Night Market in nearby Richmond, British Columbia, which was a blast!

International Summer Night Market

I found out that Lululemon stores offer complimentary yoga classes once a week, so that is what I did the following morning. For lunch, my friend and I had delicious lunch sets at Kingyo, which offers Japanese cuisine. We both ordered Kingyo's assorted deluxe bento box for lunch (limited to only 10 sets per day). It was amazing.

Kingyo's assorted deluxe bento box

After walking off some of our lunch, we decided to have gelato at Bella Gelateria, which has been voted to have some of the best gelato in the world. Mmmmmm.

Akbar mashti (rosewater, saffron, pistachio, and cream) and black sesame gelato

I also did some explorations of my own. This included renting a bike and biking around Stanley Park, and visiting the Vancouver Aquarium.

Anemones and rockfishes at the Vancouver Aquarium

I stopped by VanDusen Botanical Garden, which originally was a golf course before the site was transformed into a botanical garden and opened to the public in 1975.

VanDusen Botanical Garden

 There are many gorgeous flowers and plants at VanDusen Botanical Garden.

I visited the University of British Columbia (UBC) as well, which has a nice campus.

University of British Columbia

At the University of British Columbia, I went to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, a natural history museum. At the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, I saw numerous preserved animals and skeletons, and I was lucky to catch the beginning of their Herbarium Project exhibition.

Rattlesnake skeleton

I also went to the Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC, which is beautiful!

Nitobe Memorial Garden

For my last dinner before I left Vancouver, my friend and I ate at Nuba, which provides Lebanese cuisine.

One course of "La Feast," a vegetarian mezze sampler at Nuba

For dessert, we had donuts from Cartems Donuterie, including a Vegan Earl Grey donut and a Honey Parmesan donut. Yum!

I enjoyed seeing my friend and traveling to Vancouver. It was a relaxing visit, and Vancouver is a great city to explore and to eat delicious food!