Wow! After only spending two days in Vancouver, I think it must be one of the most liveable cities I’ve been to so far. It beats Brisbane by having a real down town. It beats London by having the crowds and density without actually feeling like it. It beats Calgary by apparently only being 40 minutes from the nearest ski hill. It beats New York by actually being very walkable without feeling like you just completed a marathon. It also has an amazing number of suburban areas, each slightly different and unique. I would place bets that it also rivals the number of coffee stores selling reasonable coffee per capita than Melbourne.

There are plenty things that you may not like about it as well. Apparently it’s a very wet city. For me it rained Saturday morning although cleared up with spectacular results and fortunately making everything appear an intense green. Vancouver also has its fair share of dodgy areas, like on Hastings street that runs between the historic gas town and Vancouver’s vast Chinatown.

I’m not sure where all my time went spent between hanging around the awesome Granville Island Public Market, sitting in a number of cafes (including my, now favourite, Cafe Artigiano), walking around Stanley Park, eating superbly fresh seafood and indulging in the lively atmosphere along Robson. To be honest, I’m not sure if it really matters though with the great time I had there.

View the rest of the photos here.

Restaurants/cafes eaten at:

• Paul’s Place Omlettery
• The Sandbar Restaurant
• Mango’s
• Irish Heather
• Tsunami Sushi
• Cafe Artigiano

Other places I wanted to eat at:

• Vij’s for great Indian
• C Restaurant for seafood
• Tojo’s for atmosphere (and Japanese)
• Chill Winston for brunch