by Joshua Griffiths

Recently we had our reading break at UVic, giving us three days off classes and work, and during that time I went to Vancouver with some friends for two days, which ended up being a very hectic trip.

I was asked to join them on the trip late at night the day before we were leaving in the morning, giving me very little time to pack and get everything I needed together, as well as getting only a few hours of sleep as I had to be up at 6 in the morning to catch the bus to the ferry with them.

The 1-and-a-half-hour ferry trip from Vancouver Island to Vancouver was nice with clear skies and sun, arriving in Vancouver around midday. Once we landed, we had to sort out transportation around the city, which required us to get a pass to use the SkyTrain and bus system and figure out how they worked.

Once we figured that out, we made our way to the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet near Vancouver International Airport for lunch and to have a look around at the stores.

From the outlet mall, we made our way into Downtown Vancouver to check in to our hotel and drop our bags off before going for a walk into town to look at some stores, which we did for the rest of the evening before heading out to dinner at a Greek restaurant called The Greek Yaletown, which I recommend to anyone who finds themselves in Vancouver and the Yaletown area. After dinner, we went back to the hotel to rest before the next day as we had a lot planned.

On the second and final day of our trip, we planned to visit a cat cafe and the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. After waking up very late, we quickly packed our bags to check out of our hotel room and get to the cat cafe, where we spent about an hour and a half having drinks and playing with the cats. After the cafe we went to the food court at the mall we were in to have lunch, where we then found out the Botanical Gardens would be closing early that day to prepare for the light show there, stopping our plans as we had to find out something else to do. This meant we had to quickly find something else to do in Vancouver before leaving, ultimately settling on an escape room, which we completed but not in enough time to get on the leaderboard.

After the escape room, we discovered we probably couldn’t catch the 5pm ferry anymore like we planned as bookings online were completely sold out, leaving us to either head there and chance getting on it a 5pm by buying tickets at the terminal or buying tickets online for 7pm, which is what we decided to do.

With a bit longer in Vancouver, we looked at a few more stores before getting back on the bus and SkyTrain to head towards the ferry terminal, stopping to get an early dinner before reaching the terminal. At the terminal we got on the ferry, all of us exhausted and ready to get back to UVic, getting back there around 10pm where we all unpacked our things and went to sleep.

Despite how hectic the experience was, I enjoyed myself in Vancouver and would recommend it to others coming to UVic to do the same if they get the opportunity, as the ferry trip is relatively short, making it easier to go to Vancouver for a weekend for a break from university and work.