Day 14

Netflix doesn't work in Canada. Blame Canada!

Well the day before i left portland i met up with aaron and we walked a lot and took the FREE!!! public transportation. we went and did some shopping and drinking in the downtown area. we stopped at voodoo donuts, which is hilarious. some will be covered in bacon, some in cereal, they have 'cock and balls shaped donuts."

i met back up with morgan for a drink and then danced to 80s all night. eventually we went to the roxy for some food after dancing. it's drag/quinton tarentino themed. the service and food were not good and i thought it sounded way more interesting then it actually was.
i took a lot of days in portland so i could check it out as a place to live. everyone talks it up so much i expected a lot from it. it wasn't a lot. there's hipsters riding bikes to cafes and sitting around drinking coffee and having beers everynight. there's a downtown, then there's places away from the downtown that are still fun. It just seems like it would be another las vegas to me: people into their 30s still doing coke and drinking a lot because being a bartender or waitress still pays better than any other job. it's pretty small as well. but from what i'm told, there's just so many outdoorsy things to do in the summer that it makes up for the cold and rainy winter. aaron lives there, and is a lot like me, and agrees that i wouldn't like it. but anyway, i'm heading back tomorrow to see the show is the rainbow!! i didn't really see much while i was there, so hopefully we can go to the beach and then some good themed bars/restaurants. i will say that my breakfast was pretty damn amazing.

aaron and i left for seattle and i was soo amazed at the city when we drove in. the skyline is right on the water and it was such a beautiful day. we spent the first part in and out of all the kitchy/touristy shops. one called the 'ye olde curiosty shop' had random things like shrunken heads and mummies, but then postcards/shot glasses/tshirts. we ate amazing mussels, clams, shrimp, and crap at 'the crab pot'.




then we headed to pike place but it was closing down. we found out where we were staying and eventually took a bus to pioneer square-which is where all the bars are. we went in central which is usually a great place for bands, but it happened to be country night! so we just walked in somewhere else for drinks. i think if we had known more where to go then it would have been a little more fun. the next day we woke up and went to pike place. there's a lot of fresh fish but i missed somebody catching one! there were tons of flowers and crafts, coffee shops. we walked around that area then headed to the space needle. since it's hella expensive to go up, we went over to the science fiction museum/jimmy hendrix music experience. somehow we started walking up the exit and had completely bypassed paying to get in to the music experience. it explained all about the early blues and jazz era and then pictures and pictures of the grunge area-seemed pretty awesome to be living there at that time. we could play on guitars/keyboards/electric drums. it was pretty neat.


then we left for poulsbo, wa to see leslie, my high school friend. i had to drive on a ferry which i was totally nervous about, but was really easy. it took about 4 hours to get to that area and we made a last minute decision to all go camping! i...have never been camping before. meanwhile, men were walking in this bar with fresh oysters and were offering me some. that was after they made fun of me for my red hair and nose rings. oh smalltowns...
we ended up camping out on leslie's boyfriends farm because stateparks were closed by the time we figured everything out. we toasted some marshmallows and hot dogs and after a couple sips of wine i was passed out. aaron and i slept outside to make it 'real authentic'-basically we were on sleeping bags in the middle of a field on a sloping hill. we would wake up almost falling into the fire pit a few times. at 5:30 the sun was up and it was had to sleep much after that, so we just headed for canada.


we did the good old currency exchange-got less canadian dollars back then i had for american. these 1 and 2 (loonies and tunies) coins are kind of annoying. it makes my pockets heavy! well our hostel is right downtown, it's pretty cozy but everyone isn't as nice here as i thought. we walked around last night and found the shopping districts, harbor area, and the place all the locals go to party. apparenlty it was queen elizabeth's birthday and everyone in the city partied so hard sat and sun that no one wanted to come out on monday! that sounded pretty ridiculous to us, but all the bartenders insisted that's what the deal was. then we found some bar called the railway that usually has good bands. i went to order beer and asked for the trashiest cheap beer. she was like oh my god,ew well...i have canadian. we were like oh perfect!! well a bottle was $5.20. and this is a divebar?? the cost of alcohol is definitely not cheap. so we went back home a bit drunk, and totally dissapoitned that there wasn't much around.
we woke up today and went to some shops on Robson. We walked all the way to Stanley Park, which is sort of like Central Park. We found the aquarium and then took a bus to Commercial Drive. On the way is Hastings, which is the most amount of homeless people/drug addicts i've ever seen gathered in one area. They were trading clothes for food with each other. Saw someone shooting up heroin-yup it was great. They didn't bother us-but i was glad i wasn't alone. Commercial Drive ended up being shops and restaurants-and since a dress that would $50 US costs $150 Canadian, i didn't want to shop. We asked a local where some good bars were-but no one knows anything. They're all telling us about this pub down the street. We'll try to hit that up tonight but maybe pregame. Even though the liquor store prices are $24 for the smallet vodka bottle and MGD is about 24 a case here haha.
Soo....there's not a whole lot to do on a weekday in Vancouver. It's pretty damn expensive. But gas is $1.34 a gallon!!!

and here's posts of good pictures along my way so far
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26633085@N07/sets/72157605092614859/