Wednesday, April 11, 2007

stanley park

handed in my feminist theory essay thismorning (bumped into a couple of the women from my class. we stood in the hallway and giggled for about five minutes before dropping the essays into the mailbox. i love this class) and randomly decided to celebrate by going for a bikeride around stanley park. i've been meaning to do this ever since i got here. stanley park is a vancouver icon, and The Book (ie. the lonely planet guide) was very enthusiastic about the cycling. also i miss my bike something chronic. have i mentioned that?

i hired a bike, stuffed my pants into my socks and headed off along the seawall. the path follows the beach, nice flat path, stunning views out to the mountains, lots of people mucking round on rollarblades. beautiful sunny day. then there was a detour through the centre of the park, which turned out to be a really steep gravel path, but through the most amazing forest. it's huge! look at these trees! and it smelt so good, all green, with occasional whiffs of the sea.



i realised the reason there was a detour was because stanley park got really beaten up in all those big storms we had late last year, and lots and lots of trees came down. so lots of the paths were closed, and there were fallen trees everywhere. you could even smell sawdust (which always reminds me of my childhood).

one hell of a storm, cos they're not small trees:

i got back on the seawall towards the end, and look, VTA's future home! (the building shaped like a hut):

oh and there were raccoons (not in a cage, just behind the little fence on the edge of the path). and while i'm blathering about size, i always thought raccoons were cat-sized, y'know, but really they're more like small-to-medium dogs:

it took about an hour, i probably went 10k, rental was only $10 cos a student (yay!) and i feel like a better human. huzzah for random cycling!

and now back to the study. one paper down, one to go. plus marking and whatever. i have been reading stuff about charlemagne, the european king from the 8th century. it's *fascinating*, all this religion and imperialism and politics. i have decided that it is a very bad thing to be a young royal. you tend to get disappeared.

me in downtown cafe w/ _Charlemagne: Empire and Society_.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, big trees. that coffee looks nice, was it? i'm going to the cafe at some point this weekend, i promise to take some photos of coffee for you, and white beans! mmm, beans.

Anonymous said...

10 km - that's a long ride!! Looks nice place to ride though. I have been thinking for about a week that I'd better be on my bike! Might start riding to work again next week. Was going to start this week but it has been too hot still - 29 today and it is all uphill on the way home!! That's my excuse for this week anyway!!
Grot and I had lots of nice coffee and poached eggs and muffins and foccacia last week.
Crin in Canberra this week learning how to process defence housing. Snef has 4 dogs to mind. Mia heading home after a "fun" holiday!!!
Am posting a small parcel to you today.

Anonymous said...

Spring in Canada. With racoons!

For the first time in 20 years, I feel homesick.

I've got to remember - I have no homeland. There is no home.

Anonymous said...

and you haven't replied to this one, which wasn't just one self evident word, and also included a question. so clearly we are both right and wrong.

gumtreefid farmer said...

hi itchy,

the coffee is pretty good, especially for vancouver. this was in a nice cafe near the art gallery. i suspect the entire staff is australian.

do send photos of coffee and beans! i think i have a photo of those beans somewhere. . .

love gtg

ps. haven't commented cos *crook*. and cross-referencing doesn't count!

gumtreefid farmer said...

jt,

it didn't seem that long. how far is your ride to work? i have been looking into buying a bike, for weekend jaunts at least, but i don't know if i can afford it.

29 is too hot. god, i can't imagine being temperatures that hot now-a-days. it has been 10 and raining here. bah.

glad the family is entertaining themselves. say hi to snef and the dogs!

looking forward to small parcel. eee!

lots of love

gumtreefid farmer said...

oh jin, i'm sorry. will you ever come back for a visit?

sometimes i think the no homeland thing is the way to go, but homesickness does tend to undermine that. much more often, for me!

nice to see you here. any requests for photos? do you get the cherry blossoms in manitoba?

Anonymous said...

Why did I read that as "stuff a sock into your pants"??

The raccoonies are cute, I'd ask you to bring one back for me, but I hear that they can bite and carry rabies :(

gumtreefid farmer said...

everyone loves a rabid raccoon! i will pop one in the post for you asap.

nah, you need to check out my halloween posts for socks down pants. . .

good to see you, ellox!

Anonymous said...

excellent looking coffee. Hope it tasted as good as it looks.

BBB

Anonymous said...

oh can we go there? that's looks fantastic!!

I am so excited!!

vegie taco xo