The Vancouver Report for Thursday, April 21

If day one is any indication of the rest of my trip, I'm in for one intense adventure. My extensive planning saw everything work out smoothly timing-wise. The flight to Vancouver was only an hour and 15 minutes and I was able to walk into lunch at the Templeton on Granville right at 3 to meet the newly bearded Peter, a server who I had befriended at my old job at the Keg. On Pete's recommendation we got the $5 Pulp Fiction-esque Candybar Whirl milkshakes which were worth every penny. Combine that with a mushroom burger and garlic mash and you've got yourself one tasty dish to start the trip off right. We proceeded to walk along False Creek while discussing politics. If Pete indeed knows what he's talking about then my advice to you is avoid the Conservative party like a grinning homeless man. I use this analogy because just such a man has approached me as I write this in a downtown Starbucks, perhaps intruiged by the shiny lights of my laptop. I bought the chap a coffee and now he holds a solitary watch over me such that I won't be bothered by anyone else. Continuing on, Pete and I grabbed a drink in the gay neighbourhood aka the West End and I foolishly dropped my wallet while switching tables. Long story short, we called back and they had found it so all it cost me was a $15 round trip cab ride. I'm actually glad it happened because I will be uber-cautious from here on out. The Tame Impala concert was sufficiently badass, they had this video screen that projected wacky lights that were somehow connected to the guitarists strings. All the stoners were cheering at every twang of the strings that was followed by a flash of neon, dancing light. Before the show I bought two damn expensive nutella crepes from a guy fresh off the boat from France. I guess that made them more authentic but it didn't help me stomach the fact that they were $6.50 each. We followed this up with an assortment of Canadian beers and some vodka shot that Peter called a Chocolate Cake despite that fact that they didn't carry chocolate vodka at the venue. I'm certain I pissed of my fellow hostel-ers last night and this morning stumbling in like a drunken fool. I slept in my clothes and made an awful racket in the morning trying to sort out where all my stuff was in my ludicrously oversized backpack. My earl grey tea is running out so I'm going to go brush my teeth in the Starbuck's washroom and hope that my homeless sidekick doesn't decide to turn on me after all. I took a few pictures out on English Bay so I might upload them to Picasa web and post a link so I can test out how that is going to work for the future. The only plan I have for today is to go with Peter in his friend's right-hand drive Skyline to some all-you-can-eat sushi place in East Van. I'm lucky I'll be walking so much because so far this trip has been extremely unhealthy. Last thing I have that is worth mentioning is that Peter used his iPhone to look up which buildings in downtown Vancouver are the equivalent height of my tallest bungee jump, and I definitely had a moment of complete panic when I looked up at them.