A check of the thermometer at 7.30 when we get up shows that our bodies are telling us the truth and it's cold. We're at 0 degrees and we waste no time in getting sorted out and packed up ready to head back to Vancouver. With it being our last night in Canada we decide to treat ourselves and book an exquisite, boutique hotel in town. Now, fair enough, we haven't paid exquisite, boutique prices but you'd still expect to have some kind of quality. Sadly there's none, so the only recommendation for the Howard Johnson hotel in Vancouver we can make is to not go there.We weren't going to let the poor hotel ruin our last day though so we headed off and explored some other areas of town including Davie VIllage and the waterfront. We've got great weather again so the stroll around town is very pleasant and the temperature is pretty much perfect. We're passing the time until the main feature of the night, which is an ice hockey match. We go with a couple of other people from the youth hostel and get a quick introduction into what we should be looking for and how the game works. The reputation of hockey games for fighting is pretty strong so we were hoping for some fisticuffs at some point and we had to wait for all of...5 seconds. Literally from the face-off (check out my grasp of terminology) there was a fight. Apparently it was leftovers from the previous day when the Vancouver Canucks played the Edmonton Oilers for the first match in the series. The game is pretty brutal but as with the baseball is governed more by the TV channels than the umpires. When the game had inexplicably stopped for a third time we asked what was going on and were told that it was an advert break. It was really good fun though and there's no doubting the North American's ability to put on a show. The fans are funny too with insults being traded as if they were in high school, the strongest one being, "Edmonton Sucks!" That told them. In the end Vancouver won 4-1 and we'd had a great night out.
24/7: Despite hotel's best efforts a good day
Sunday October 14th
So here it is, our final day in Canada. The last 6 weeks has absolutely flown by and we've seen and enjoyed so much that it doesn't feel like we've been here that long. On the other hand when we look back at photos from the start of the trip it seems like a lifetime ago we were in Halifax.
Our flight isn't until the evening so we decide to head back to our favourite part of Vancouver (once we'd found it) Granville Island. Enjoy the market again and buy a few supplies for the flight(s). Before we know it it's time to head to the airport and endure the nonsense that is American customs. We have to stopover in Honolulu so have to fill out American visa waivers and customs forms, etc. We also get funnelled into a separate part of the terminal and for a moment think that we've missed the chance to enjoy the Air Canada lounge that Andy had given us passes for. Thankfully we find the door to the promised land and have a good 90 minutes prior to the flight relaxing with some glasses of wine and free food. Well it's rude not to isn't it? Then that's it, time's up and we're boarding the flight. We can't recommend Canada highly enough and in particular the more out of the way places. Highlights have definitely been Algonquin Park and the walking in the Rockies, but we've surprised ourselves and enjoyed Toronto and Vancouver too, which for non-city people was a surprise. There's still plenty of things we'd like to do here so will be back at some point in the future. For now though the next stop is Australia...24/7: 6634km, 6 provinces, 4 timezones. Canada...done!
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