I finally got to visit Vancouver, yay me.
Definitely waited a long time to see that part of Canada and I promise, there will be more of exploring Canada coming your way on the blog….. especially if the flight prices stay nice and low.
This recap will be fairly short because (sadly) I found out Vancouver isn’t somewhere to actually get into shenanigans and also, three days.
If you want to know what the budget for this trip was, click here.
Friday, May 12th
Let me preface this trip with a little piece of information that will likely come up more than a few times in this post. About two weeks before this trip, I threw my back out. I have chronic back issues, but this time it was much worse. It made standing hard, walking hard and even putting on pants hard. The pain in my lower back really fucked me up and made functioning difficult. Although it had improved by the time this trip came, I was at maybe about 60%.
Now, for people who have a HEALTHY back….. even you know, sitting for five hours on a plane will have you crunched up a little. So imagine me? I was selected to have a nice window seat and I couldn’t even stay there and had to ask to switch to an aisle. I hate aisle seats. But because of my back issues, I had to get up every 30-minutes to walk around so that by the time I made it to Vancouver, I would be able to function AT LEAST A LITTLE.
Something awesome, actually, TWO SOMETHINGS that were awesome happened on this plane ride though. First, when I sat down in my aisle seat it just so happened that the person sitting on the opposite side of the aisle was a blog subscriber. That really made me smile when she introduced herself. Second, as the flight went on and the snacks/drinks service began, the wonderful WestJet flight attendant that was serving us, looked at me and said “The Impatient Tourist, what do you want from the menu?“
The internal squeal that I let out in this moment. That’s so fucking cool.
Shame I was on painkillers or I would have definitely tried to drink on the plane.
I believe I landed at about 1pm and then my friend Jummy landed an hour later. I am sad I was not in the window seat for this because I imagine the views over Vancouver would have been breathtaking.
Due to my aforementioned back issues, there was no transit this weekend. I cannot tell you what their transit is like because we lived in Ubers! More expensive, but, less of a pain for me.
We made it to our AirBnB around 3pm.
This place was really nice! It was the basement of a big house with two bedrooms, a bathroom, full kitchen, laundry and also an extra room with a working desk. Very spacious for us two.
You could probably fit about five people in this AirBnB if you wanted to.
I really liked the checklist that was left on the desk for our arrival that had an outline of all the cleaning that was done. In all the AirBnB’s I have stayed in, this was the first one with a checklist like this. If you’re ever in Vancouver and want to stay here, the link to it is here.
On top of being spacious and clean, the location was AWESOME. It was on this small quiet street, but when you walked five minutes away there was this really big street (Commercial Drive) that had a bunch of food options and also a subway. If you were interested in taking transit, this would be very accessible for you.
With the topic of food, we were really hungry and decided to get some sustenance. Thankfully my best friend is a patient person, because if you saw the way I was hobbling when we just arrived, I was walking so damn slow. But, I got to some food eventually.
We chose to go eat at ChongQing Restaurant.
There was no one else in the restaurant with us, so we had the place to ourselves. We ordered too much goddamn food. I’ll tell you right now.
An unhealthy amount of food was ordered, for there being just two of us at the table. I have no idea what we were thinking. I know we were hungry but damn, if you looked up GLUTTONY – you would see a photo of us two.
We ordered fried wontons, Szechuan fried rice with chicken & shrimp, honey garlic sliced pork and stir fried prawns with red chili sauce.
Do you see how much food that is?
The damn rice alone was the largest portion of rice I’d ever seen in my life.
The food was SO good! My favourite was the honey sliced garlic pork. If you ordered absolutely nothing else, make sure you order this. Wow.
After this gargantuan meal, we decided to …… go get a goddamn McFlurry. I know, it’s not even making sense at this point. This is how much of a sweet tooth we both have.
The new cookie dough flavour had just dropped, I was trying to find out. Please don’t judge me.
You won’t believe what happened at McDonald’s.
We get there and Jummy orders an Oreo one and I order the funfetti cookie dough one. The place is packed and the small lady behind the counter is not loud and also has a mask on. We can barely hear her.
At one moment I thought maybe they called our number so we got closer and a guy WHIPPED by us and took one of the prepared McFlurries, so we didn’t think anything of it. It is a warm day, people want ice cream.
Tell me how….. this guy took MY McFlurry!! I was robbed. The McFlurry bandit! The ice cream cat burglar! How dare he?
It’s really not that serious, they made me another McFlurry but imagine? Of course this would happen to me. The damn flavour wasn’t even good enough for all this hassle.
The post-food nap was outstanding. We hit the super comfortable beds HARD.
We woke up just in time to go to our evening reservation.
The Uber took us over to Calabash Caribbean Bistro.
Have to say, the drive there and surroundings on arrival were, interesting.
I don’t know much about Vancouver, but this area definitely was slightly sketchy. But you know what’s worse than slightly sketchy? Pee. Yes, pee. The first thing we smelled when we got out of our Uber to go to our dinner was urine.
I’ve been to New York many times and I have to say, I smelled urine in downtown Vancouver more than I ever did in New York. It was disgusting. I especially don’t understand how that is possible, when one of the things I was really impressed with Vancouver (that really sucks in Toronto) is the accessibility of public bathrooms. During the weekend I even pointed out to my friend that it was so cool how there was street signs saying ‘walk 500m this way for bathroom‘ etc. We definitely do not have access to them like that in Toronto, but we don’t smell like urine so like?????? Not the best impressions on this Friday night.
We went into the restaurant and it is a total vibe inside. It is so chill, the music is great and the servers are really nice too. Unfortunately, the ONE DAMN ITEM I was most excited for —- they were out of. I was devastated. I didn’t even look at the rest of the menu, I had my stomach and heart set on trying the jerk mussels. That was not happening.
I decided to order a dark n’ stormy to drink and we got coconut dumplings, jerk fries and jerk wings. Suppose I am slightly spoiled because I live in Toronto when it comes to Caribbean food, it was just OK here. Do make sure to order the dark n’ stormy drink though. I’ve never seen it look as fancy pants as it did here and it tasted great.
We obviously didn’t order a lot of food, since we had eaten enough for six people earlier in the day. But this would suffice before a night of drinking, we thought.
Calabash has a DJ on the weekends after 10pm but it was still early so we decided to take a walk and then return a bit later to party here.
Another observation about Vancouver is that I don’t think they like patios as much as we do.
It was a PERFECT 28 degrees with sunshine and no humidity the night we were walking. Legit, perfect evening.
We went walking and all of the patios had barely any people on it. What the hell is up with that? In Toronto if it gets to 13 degrees and even if it’s cloudy and might rain, if you don’t have a reservation for a patio? You will not be getting a seat.
I initially thought it was because they are spoiled with their milder weather so it’s not as impressive to them. But we spoke to a couple of people who mentioned that they had five months of rain and gloom? How the heck are you not out and rejoicing on patios when this ended? Strange.
It kind of feels like Vancouver is not a real big city. Even in Montreal you feel the vibe and the busyness of it, in Vancouver you just don’t feel that. I can see why this would be attractive to so many people, but for a Torontonian I was wondering where the debauchery was at.
** I have a coworker who recently moved there that kept defending Vancouver saying that they rather be on a beach than on a patio, so I know he is reading this and getting ready to defend again. If you’re reading this, unless it is a beach in Europe or the Caribbean, it just isn’t a beach spending a Friday night on. Sorry. **
Am I a total beach snob? Yes I sure am. Too bad.
Above are some of the photos I took during our walk.
It’s a beautiful place, just, oddly empty for my liking. Also, we definitely walked through some questionable surrounding areas. Should have stayed our asses at the bar.
We did return to Calabash for ‘the party’ time.
Lol.
Let me tell you something, my friend Rebeka puts on events in Toronto. If she had a space like Calabash has, with the good drink prices and the good DJ that was playing? There would be a line outside and down to Whistler to come to this place.
In total, for the evening, ten people came into this ‘party’. That is including us two, and eight other people who maybe had dinner and figured they’d see what’s happening downstairs in the dance area. Real damn shame.
Luckily, I was about three rum and cokes in at this point and my back magically felt normal so I took advantage to dance a little. In a corner. Just me and Jummy loving it and also being the ONLY people in the club who knew what the DJ was playing. Strange.
Vancouver nightlife – 0/1
Vancouver food – 1.25/2
Time for sleep.
Saturday, May 13th
It felt like Friday was the longest day ever.
With being up early to fly to Vancouver, plus the time change, we were feeling it.
Thankfully we didn’t have brunch reservations until noon today. I knew we would regret having something super early.
Next stop for today was Community Taps + Pizza.
This place was about a 20-25 minute walk from our AirBnB so I made the effort to do the walk, little less hobbled than the day before.
Another thing that Vancouver has over Toronto was that the locals are very nice. Toronto people are not nice. We walked by many people smiling at us and also saying good morning/good afternoon. I think that is such a warm thing and it felt good to see and hear.
The Saturday morning was perfect again outside too. No humidity, sunshine and like 24 degrees. Beautiful. I wish I could have weather like that everyday of my life.
When we made it to Community Taps, we both had one thing we wanted to order. We had randomly seen this place on TikTok and yeah, CHOCOLATE STUFFED FRENCH TOAST. Read that. Get that. It’s that bitch.
And it is not just chocolate, it is stuffed with Nutella. Do you know how much I like Nutella? I like it so much that my mom used to buy me the Costco tubs of it. Exactly.
I have no idea what anything else on my plate tasted like because this Nutella stuffed French toast was soooo goo and so filling.
Really filling meal and nice surroundings because you get to sit outside at a picnic table and there’s a park next to it. Beautiful way to spend a Saturday morning/early afternoon.
From this spot, we took an Uber to Stanley Park!
This place did NOT smell like pee and it was stunning. Legitimately, stunning. What a great thing to have in someone’s city. I know there are amazing places to visit on the outskirts of Vancouver, but because of my back we just didn’t do any crazy excursions or anything that would require me to sit for long periods of time in a car to get there. But Stanley Park? That was accessible and close by.
I can see why all we saw in Vancouver was FIT people because, everyone here was either biking, rollerblading or walking their hearts out. I think if you have something as nice as this park was close to you, must take advantage.
We ended up walking (and occasionally sitting for me) for no less than four hours in and around the park.
There were lots of people, it is very clean and it just has a very nice feel and atmosphere being there. I do like that they have separate walking and biking lanes as well……do keep an eye out when crossing the bike lanes though, I almost caught many a deffaz for not paying enough attention. Shout out to Jummy for yelling ‘BIKE LANE‘ to me so it didn’t happen. Appreciate it.
We had walked a lot and ended up passing this big bridge, and that is when we realized we had no idea where or when the walkway would end? Being tired we tried to walk back to civilization.
Somehow we got to the middle of a forest-area where there were cars and managed to call an Uber to come get us. Very thankful that a driver was able to pick us up where we were because there was no way we could have continued walking. But I want to pat myself on the back for the walk, that was the most activity I had been able to do in two weeks. It was a big deal to me.
Another thought I had to myself this moment was, ‘where were these damn pick up options when my friend Sherry had me scaling shit and walking too damn much in Banff and I was tired?‘
Naturally, it was time for another nap.
It was also at this time that Jummy and I realized we really fucked up on some our planning for the Sunday.
In our mind, we thought that getting a late-night flight would be awesome because then it’s like an extra day in Vancouver to gallivant. We didn’t account for that fact that it was 1) hot and 2) we’d have to walk around with our damn backpacks all day.
Whatever, worry about that tomorrow.
We woke up from our nap to go to our next reserved food outing, Zarak by Afghan Kitchen.
This was the star of the weekend. I would fly back to Vancouver, just to eat here again. If you eat nothing else in Vancouver, MAKE TIME TO COME HERE. MAKE. TIME.
Thank goodness Jummy had made reservations for this place because as we arrived, there was no seats available. The people in front of us got turned away and it isn’t really big. Make sure if you do come, make that reservation.
The place is so cute and the staff? Wow. 10/10
From the hostess at the front, to the servers and we even met the owner who told us how his mom is the one in the kitchen cooking. I love that.
Let’s talk the most important part of this, what we ordered and how good it was.
The first thing we indulged in was a little drinky drink. This week they had a new cocktail and it was named the Kohi Safi – Pineapple Rum, Flor de Cana 5 Rum, Purple Yam (Ube), Coconut Cream, Umami Bitters. Would you not have ordered this as well? Look at this photo below, it was like a liquid work of art.
For our starters we decided on the Mantu Dumplings – Cumin Spiced Beef, Charred Onion and the Potato Bolani – pan-fried flatbread with this delicious sauce on the side for dipping.
The Bolani was great, but those dumplings? Top 10 things I have ever eaten in my travels. Easily. If I could have eaten 15 of them, I definitely would have tried to. But, two sufficed in this case since we had more food coming.
Oh yes, there was still mains to be had.
Jummy ordered herself the Chicken Breast Kebab – Saffron Marinade, Pickled Pomegranate and I ordered for myself the Brined & Sous Vide Sablefish – Turmeric Saffron Aioli, Afghan Risotto. Her kebab was great, but listen, MY FISH? It tasted like someone had just gone to the water, caught it and immediately put it on my plate. I barely even had to chew, it melted in my mouth.
The greediness continued, because I wasn’t leaving without a dessert.
I chose the Mum’s Secret – Tres Leches Cake.
Listen, mum? Don’t ever give this secret up. The cake is delicious. I could barely breathe when I finished all the food.
So good.
I thought the price of the dinner was good as well. I am accustomed to Toronto-pricing for a good meal like this and I’d say Vancouver was at about par for everything we had to dining out.
The plan after the meal was to walk over to another nightclub. We had high hopes today because, what could be worse than TEN people total in a nightclub, right?
Jummy puts the place in her Google Maps and says that it’s a 40-minute walk. We had time to kill and we were so full, so the walk was fine with us.
What the goddamn map DIDN’T say was that in the middle of this walk, we’d have to climb a bunch of stairs onto a highway???? To cross a bridge into the Granville Island area. That was an interesting walk.
Don’t get me wrong, I love an adventure but I really didn’t need those damn stairs to get me sweaty and tired walking to the club.
We eventually made it to a place called Cinema Public House for their weekly event called Shayo Saturdays.
This event says on the flyer that it plays ‘Afrobeats, Amapiano, Dancehall & HipHop’. Fantastic! Sounds like our kind of party.
Also, like Calabash, we got in with no cover. Score. Love that.
This place is pretty big and I liked the set up. There was a DJ playing Afrobeats when we got there around 1130pm and there was about 20 people or so inside. This was already double the night before and on their TV screens they had videos of various dancehall and soca artists. I thought this would be a super good night just from that alone.
The drink prices were good and even with 20 people there, 7 of them were dancing. Fun.
As it got to midnight, the place started to really pack up.
Unfortunately, tonight we ended up having a completely different night from Friday.
On Friday there were no people and great music, tonight there was lots of people with not necessarily BAD music, but no variety whatsoever.
The flyer specifically said ‘Afrobeats, Amapiano, Dancehall & HipHop’ —– the last two did not happen.
I enjoy Afrobeats and Amapiano, don’t get me wrong, but I also want to shake some ass. This would require the other two.
We got I think one Serani song and one Rihanna song. That was about it. I definitely don’t listen to enough Afrobeats (except Burna Boy, love you) and Amapiano to have a WHOLE NIGHT of knowing the songs. Both Jummy and I had gone to ask the DJ when the Dancehall would play, and got nothing. Zero. Zilch. The funny thing about it is that Jummy is Nigerian and actually listens to lots of Afrobeats and goes to Afrobeat parties, and she was like ‘this song selection sucks‘. And she is my soul mate so like, she knows best.
I wish they had put on the flyer ‘WE PLAY AFROBEATS AND AMAPIANO AND THATS IT’, then I would have probably left earlier instead of staying and hoping the DJ would switch up. Fail.
I will never ever take Toronto DJ’s for granted again. The mixing of songs was awful. At one point the DJ stopped all the music, to switch songs??? The heck.
So we leave the bar to head back to the AirBnB and wait for an Uber. And wait. And wait. I think we spent 30 minutes outside waiting for an Uber to accept our ride and nothing. We ended up having to take a taxi because nothing else was available. Can’t say I’ve ever had NO Uber available to take me home in any of the cities or countries I’ve traveled to. This was new.
Vancouver nightlife – 0/2
Vancouver food – 3.25/4
Sunday, May 14th
Not even going to lie here, today was a long day and we really could have been smarter about it. We have no one else to blame but ourselves.
Check out was 11am.
We had plans on where to go eat a little breakfast. Then we had reservations at 4pm at a next place we wanted to try, and then our flights home were at about 10pm.
We did make it to the breakfast spot, Little Café on Robson.
The reason for this choice was their beautiful croissants. I think Jummy got the strawberry and I got the chestnut one. SO GOOD. The place is small, so you’ll be lucky if you can get a seat. We were lucky. Got to sit there and eat our croissants and plan our next move.
You know what our next move ended up being with our backpacks on?
To go sit in Nordstrom’s. That was the best plan we had. It was pretty bad.
Because of the huge sell off of items going on at Nordstrom’s, there was lots of people sitting on their couches just chilling and some even on their laptops. We figured we could just people watch and sit here for the next four hours until our next reservation.
We made it exactly one hour. We said fuck this and cancelled our reservation and headed for the airport. I am sad we never got to eat at the next place, but sitting in that liquidating department store was depressing.
I’m not sure what the international side of YVR airport is like, but the Canadian side is really quiet and empty. We found a totally empty area with no departing flights, and with LOTS of chairs that didn’t have the middle thing between them. There was a food court nearby and we could relax. This ended up being so much better than sitting in a department store. Shocker.
So please listen to me, unless you have a very specific place, you catch an early ass flight and get home ASAP OK? Don’t be like us. You will hate yourself.
We both made it home just fine on Monday and that’s nice. Yay back to Toronto.
So, I hope folks don’t get mad, I think Vancouver is beautiful and has delicious food.
But all the Tesla’s, nice weather and good food couldn’t get me to like this apparently as much as so many people I know do. I know folks who LOVE Vancouver and I am so happy for them.
I know I shouldn’t maybe compare it to Toronto? But like. That is always the comparison EYE have to hear, so I do the same back.
Also, that East Hastings Street? We drove through that on the way home from Stanley Park and a wave of sadness hit me. I know Toronto has a housing problem and a lot of homelessness, but I have never seen anything like that street before in my life. Very sad. It is sad to see that anywhere, but seeing it in a place like Vancouver with their fancy pants condos (like us) is really shameful.
I’d go back to Vancouver one day, probably to eat and also with a functioning back I’d go to Whistler and Victoria Island. I know there’s SOOOO much more to see. I know that very well. This was a very limited experience. Because just looking at the mountains from the airport can have you in awe.
I will just avoid downtown and nightclubs next time.
- Mirna