African thunderstorm

African thunderstorm

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Seattle - Downtown

Seattle is a lovely city with that fantastic skyline, you will probably remember from Frasier. The city has a great feel, like things are happening and they are. Loads of stuff started here Amazon.com, Starbucks, Boeing, Microsoft as mentioned in my previous post these are just a few!
The people are friendly and americans are very polite and again loads of stuff you see in the movies is around., the steep streets, yellow taxi's, tons of coffee shops, Starbucks everywhere. Hostess twinkies, remember those from Archie magazines, can you believe kids are still reading those.





Macys - reknown upmarket retail store











Famous Victoria's Secret, very similar to Temptations back home just bigger!

Pikes public market, authentic, no made in china stuff!

Starbucks started in Seattle, this was the very first Starbucks coffee shop!! Just for the recored "The Seattle Coffee Co", did not orginate in Seattle but is a South African company.

See more images here! http://picasaweb.google.com/sbramhall/SeattleDowntown#

Ferry trip from Victoria Vancouver to Seattle - US of A!

Wahoo crossing the border, my first time in the US of A!

The ferry ride from Victoria to Seattle takes 4 hours - there was a special deal $85 usd return ticket, which wasnt bad considering that if you went one way only it would cost the same. Saying that though it only costs about $30 cdn by bus, but i am sure not half the fun. Who would pass up an opportunity to be seasick!!

Well the first 45 mins was abit choppy but thereafter you are travelling down Puget Sound which is mostly flat so very pleasant.

The first sites of Seattle!

Had lunch on the ferry, one of the things they gave me was a tub of apple source um so where's the roast pork to go with it? apparently they eat it like a pudding, just like that, strange!

Seattle the home to coffee shops, Amazon.com and Microsoft and the birth place of Bill Gates to name but a few, definately interesting, Microsoft are not the top earner though, Costco is. Costco one of those mega retailers that rule the world and fill the environment with plastic, yep they are a cross between Makro and Game, but they do have great stuff, geared to part you with your money!

Amazon.coms head office, this building is an old military hospital up on the hill overlooking Seattle.

Luckily for me i am travelling on my british passport so dont need a visa to go into the states, but they have these lovely green cards that are so confusing, i had to fill it in twice before i got it right, somebody did warn me about these bloody things, ah well. I always get abit nervous at customs, as because i have a backpack they always appear more suspicious of me and seem to give me abit of a hard time, getting into Canada was even more of a nightmare, but i got in eventually!

After arriving in Seattle and hooking up with my host family who are great, still managed to fit in an organic market which served wholewheat organic pancakes, yum!

See more about Seattle in my next post.

Victoria, Vancouver Island

Victoria, Vancouver Island, conjures up romantic images, probably because of the word 'island'. The island is 500km in length and about 250km wide so its not that small - however strangely enough Victoria is the capital of British Columbia which is rather large and Victoria is rather far away so go figure.

Horse and carriage in front of parliment buildings



Parliment buildings

The Empress hotel on the waterfront

City hall on the left and all around the city are these fibre glass animals in beautiful colours - when the olympics arrive next year these are auctioned off for charity.

Water taxi that goes to various points around the harbour area.

I think a day, max two in Victoria should be sufficient. Its really pretty especially round the harbour area and there are some fantastic buildings, brilliant architecture and within the city some gorgous cathedrals - saying that though - that was pretty much it for me. You could venture inland by bus to see Butchart gardens, which is a big tourist attraction, my Dad's garden is good enough for me. We have gardens!

The christmas village is an amazing shop which has room upon room of the most gorgous christmas decorations alot of which are hand painted on wood.

I moose you all!

What really made an impression on me as i walked the city flat was the amount of beggar's around, on most street corners, some even young and well fed - i felt embarrassed for them! There are also loads of tatooed types with body piercings, call me old fashioned but i find this element abit scary.

Last but not least there are the buskers, tons of them doing all sorts of things, the best one was a violinist in a darf vader outfit, man what next????

The bronze girl would stand stock still until somebody gave her some money and then should change position, very good.

Would i come back? maybe to other parts of the island if there was something really worth visiting. Also it doesnt really feel like Canada, i could have been walking around at the Waterfront in Cape Town, oh but there was one reminder that i wasnt, the american tourists who descend on Victoria from their cruise ships like locusts, consuming and buying everything in their pathway. One chap walking along was talking so loudly he was shouting, i was shocked that nobody had ever told him not to turn his megaphone voice down.

Ah so, good fun really and rather amusing. I think I have been away from SA too long, cause Cape Town rocks in comparison!

House boats on the water

Vancouver downtown - Canada

Doing touristy stuff in downtown Vancouver!

As i am currently staying in North Vancouver, in order to get to Vancouver downtown i have to catch the seabus which takes about 12mins across - its great as you get spectacular views of both North Van and the city.

Vancouver downtown, is the main shopping area and central hub - of course there is alot more to Vancouver but this day was focused on the downtown area. Why do i think this is a great city? Well almost anywhere in the city you can always glance up and see snow capped mountains which is so exceptionally bloody wonderful! There is something about snow capped mountains, dont you think. So what else....

Canada place is really a landmark where the 10 sails you see represent the 10 provinces of Canada - the views from here are spectacular and there is an Imax theatre inside. The cruise ships also leave and arrive here.

Stanley Park - its so big, you need to bus or drive round it - its about 10km in circumference and you can walk it, within the park are restuarants, an aquarium with Beluga whales (havnt been yet), returants, totem poles, cycling paths and so forth.

Yaletown - a yuppy seaside area right on the harbour, pretty walkways.

Granville Island - basically a small island which you can walk onto and its made up of tourist shops, resturants, delhi's and a massive food market.

Chinatown - this is apparently the second largest in North America and it runs for 4 or 5 blocks - will be doing a detailed trip here in the near future.

Gastown - this is a historic area with great old buildings and a clock which runs on gas - again lots of tourist shops and resturants.

Eating is definately a selected pasttime here, i havnt had so many bagels and cream cheese and tarts and just yummy stuff, needless to say i am now just eating fruit as am starting to pay the price of my gastronomic indulgences!



Robson street - this is the main shopping area and very touristy - all the brand shops can be found here, Gap, Lacoste, Diesel, Levi and so forth.

Why is the word "like" abused and overused in Canada and the US!

The wonderful world of Like!
Often when canadians and or americans and its usually the younger element tell a story, they often us the word 'like', for example - "We were going down the road and 'like' my hair was blowing in the wind'. Hmmmmm so does this then mean that the hair was actually blowing in the wind or something similiar (like) to hair blowing in the wind, you got me! Anyway they use this word alot, right!
Ah yes "right', i like this one though, for example - "I was going down the street, right" (that doesnt mean turning right or on the right side, its more of a confirmation that you understand what the speaker is saying, right!)

So, from a South African perspective, mine actually, never having been in the US and Canada prior to this, but having formed impressions based on movies and tv, i have to laugh when i see certain things, which are just straight out of the moves, right!

The school bus, even seen this in horror movies!

Tiffany & C0 with a yellow cab

Scout leader, Charles - Scouts, Cubs, Beavers etc -is really big in Canada, the reason for this pic though is the hot dogs. Popular fare, often ladened with tomato sauce, mustard and relish!












I even managed to get a pic with a young cub, actually thats Jen, my host family's daughter!

Ah Canada!

If there's any doubt as to where you were when arriving in Canada, believe me it wouldnt last long, these people are soooooooo patriotic! You see this flag everywhere, all the time, on a daily basis - its out there!

Vancouver is a gorgous city, lots of water, lots of mountains with lovely snowy mountain peaks and you can see these snowy peaks from most locations around the city!

There are 80 Starbucks around the city, they are on most corners and if you dont see one for 10 minutes, for sure when you turn the next corner number 79 will be there!

Consumerism is big here in Canada - i have never seen so many options of food, drugs, brands - shops are really geared up to part you with your money, of course this happens all over the world, but here, you would be hard pressed to ignore the attraction.

I think one of the best examples of this is McDonalds very strategically placed in Walmart (a very cheap shop playing to the masses with so much plastic its really scary!)

I must say the Canadians are really nice, very friendly, kind and honest. Vancouver has a really good infastructure with regards public transport and comms - very cheap and easy to stay in touch all over the world.

Robson Street, one of the main shopping and tourist streets in downtown Vancouver.

More to follow...