In Yatta We Trust

We got up this morning at 5h30 to go to work, but something was strange. A big chunk of our area (near the Broadway & Commercial cross) was plunged into darkness. A big storm hit the city last night, trees are down, power too. We were lucky to have power in our street! We called the ski phone on the way to realize that the mountain was close due to the storm! Damn, we had to turn back and go back home, we had to jump over a big tree in the dark, there was no traffic lights either, so crossing the 6 lane roads on major intersection was a real survival challenge! It all felt like we were in North Korea or at war

In Vancouver Island, they recorded winds at 154km/h near Victoria!
My French flag is still attached to the balcony, so nothing dramatic on our side...

Some photos from Vancouver under snow! It has snowed for 2 days straight here. Can you believe it!

The weather is a bit crazy in this city, last week we had torrential rains with big winds, it was super hot this summer. And now snow all over the place!

Photos of snow dick coming soon. There is a competition between me and Guillaume (who lives in Sweden). The first who make a snow dick win!

It's snowing! It's snowing! There is a big snow storm today! This is the first time we got snow in the city this year, and its big !
The news announced 30cm for this night in the lower mainland (incl Vancouver).

Last night i went with Chris to see GWAR in concert!

GWAR is a big american punk band, i didn't know them before, but it appears they are quite famous. They are wearing these mad costumes, half soldier half dinosaur! It reminds me of the bad guys in Power Rangers or Bioman. The show was awesome, really funny. They were spraying fake green and red blood on the crowd. I was soaked at the end. I was at the front at some point, everybody was going crazy there. The music was good although i didn't really listened to it at the end, i was more trying to survive!

more photos here
ps for nickiller: I bought a collector Tshirt to add to the collection!

I dont think i told you about Stanley Park yet. Well I wasnt lucky with my camera the last times, but now i got a good photo series from the park and the aquarium. Stanley Park has to be my favorite place here in vancouver, i love it! This is a huge forest stuck to downtown and nearly as big. I think it is one of the biggest urban parks in North America. I went cycling around and inside the park with Jen and my mum as well. The view is fantastic!

In this park we already met raccoons, geese, black squirl, grey squirl, brown squirl, turtles and more ! The squirls are very friendly and come up to you asking for food! I know its bad to give them stuff, but they asked it so nicely! look at this one asking for a cracker

With Jen's parents, we gave some carrots to a family raccoons as well (carrots are good, arent they ?). We found a secret place in the forest full of squirls as well, we sat on a log and then 3 came to see what was going on! very funny to watch! Squirls are like pigeons here. In France, i think i have seen maybe 1 every 2 years here they are everywhere!

Stanley Park is also home to the Vancouver Aquarium. It looks like every other aquarium, but the interesting part is with the canadian animals. Like the beluga wales that lives in the artic, or the sea otters that lives on the British Columbian coast.

Barrie, sorry for the last picture i know you are a spider lover!

Go and look at the others pictures from the park here

This garden is a huge maze of trees, flowers, plants, squirls from all over the world. Very nice and peaceful place.
We went for an afternoon here after visiting the Punjabi market, the indian area of vancouver. Unfortunately there was no market when we arrived but we found a good 'all you can eat' Himalayan Restaurant! yummy!

If you want to look at more pictures from the Vandusen park, check out my flickR gallery here

Louise is gone, we are 2 lonely puppys again We didnt have time to do Stanley Park or kayaking, but we still did some cool stuff over 2 weeks i think. I hope you liked it Lulu!!

I have uploaded photos from our adventure on the top of Grouse Mountain (we didnt climb it... too lazy , we took the skyride). Photos are available right here. we saw bears again, behind fences this time

Yesterday we went to the festival of lanterns with Chris & Cora, in a park near where they live. The place was full of lanterns, torches, candles... around a lake at night, it was spooky!

A few beers and Jameson later, and we were shooting ice cubes at the skytrain with a slingshot (fr: lance-pierre). Chris won the game 7/6 , that was close I guess we scared a few people in the train anyway.

These days there is a big fireworks competition in Vancouver, 4 countries are competing to be champion, so every couple of days there is a huge 30 minute firework display at night. We kinda missed the 2 first ones, i ll try to use my fireworks mode on the camera and see if i can get some good shots. Next country: czech republic! That's the biggest fireworks competition in the world and its here in Vancouver

ps: i shaved today!

halloa

Yesterday, to escape the italians fans, we decided to go to UBC (University of British Columbia). UBC is located at the extreme west of the vancouver peninsula, hidden in the trees. This campus is huge, like a small city. It reminds me of my high school in La Baule, beach, forest...cold doggin style

We arrived at the museum of anthropology but it was closing in 10min. So i guess it will be for next time, maybe with Louise!

We then found a path through the jungle to the beach. The forest looked like the one in Jurassic Park, with huge trees and ferns. Have a look at the album.
On the beach we ve seen a guy, he looked like a survivor from a wreckage. He was totally naked! with long hair and beard and a big stick. Crazy! exactly like tom hanks in Cast Away

We have also seen seals in the sea! the mummy with a baby and some others. That was so strange, we were on the rocks and they came close to us. They even try speaking to us in the seal way "aouuu aouuu aouuuu".

Funny moment: Jen being attacked by a giant wasp If you listen closely you can hear the nasty wasp.

I cant stop crying since 2 days now, we didnt get it!! That was not supposed to end like this! I was already planning to ask Jen to sew a new star on my french jersey. Well I can still do it, it will be funny. I was motivated that morning, i got up extremely early, something like 9h00, i know we are insane! We had french flags painted on our faces, ready to win! but ...didnt happen. awww well, les ragazzos de italia played well, and they didnt get the cup since 24 years so i suppose it is fair.
So we arrived on Commercial Dr. one hour before the match, the street was packed with italians fans and some french, 1 french for 8 italians i think :). every single pubs and restaurant was full to the top. We couldnt get in anywhere. But we managed to fit into the Portugues cafe "Joe", in a room with 200 others people watching the match on a huge 36cm screen, the TV came straight from the 70's see here.
The atmosphere was really good, even if the room was too hot! 130 minutes in a microwave:)
In this pub, i recognized a french guy and his girlfriend ( Matthieu&Elodie), i was reading their website when i was in Ireland and i followed online their little adventure here in Vancouver. So that was very strange to meet them here! the world is so small! So we could cry in group after the defeat! We met later other of their friends, french, canadians, egyptians, Panama's.... It was very friendly anyway, and i think we were the last french in the street. we must have stayed their most of the day, drinking beer, eating sushi and singing la marseillaise Some of us even went live on City Tv (big news TV channel), photos on flickr... hehe (attention images choc!)
We finished the day in Yaletown (south of downtown) in a trendy bar/restaurant eating pizza... ( i know shame on us )

All the photos are online on my flickr album, its here!

Commercial Drive, is the latin area, were you can find the italian, portuguese and brazilians community. The street is full of italian, greek, portuguese, brazilians bar and restaurant. After the brazilians, its the time for potuguese fans to cry on the drive as france has just kicked their ass!!

And soon it is going to be Italy's turn as well. No one will escape
Sorry for the lack of news these days, but we were too busy drinking beer to celebrate