North of downtown is the 1,000-acre Stanley Park.

This is a bloody great spot with a maze of trails and roads throughout (as well as friggin' huge slugs!). Ahhh if only I had the bike here!

There is also a 9km path surrounding the park along the coast. We hired bikes on our second day here and had a good burn around the town.

Looking across from Stanley Park to West Vancouver. This is apparently where the rich folk keep their mansions, up in the hills there.

Other sights in the city include China Town - the second biggest in America after San Francisco's. We didn't go in and later found out that was probably a good thing. Lisa's mates went in one time, took a wrong turn, and ended up on a street full of junkies. A cab driver later told them they were lucky to get out of there with all their belongings hehe.

Historic Gastown! This area was Vancouver's first downtown 'core' and began life in 1867. It's had an interesting history since then, but today it's full of old buildings, fashion, restaurants, nightclubs, and galleries. Above is the Gastown steam clock. A steam clock is powered by (believe it or not) a steam engine of all things. Only a few functioning steam clocks exist - very odd things. More info here.

After a couple days of wandering I realised this place is a lot like Brisbane! Both city centres are surrounded by water. Brisbane city centre has its botanic gardens at its end and Vancouver has Stanley Park. Both have boats scattered in the city waters...

We caught a train out of the city and ventureed into the outer areas that make up the greater metropolitan area. The trains are completely automated with no drivers - only various safety systems to (hopefully) shut them down if something goes awry. Needless to say, there have been a few interesting accidents over the years as a result hehe.

Someone recommended we visit this mall - Metropolis at Metrotown, the biggest mall in British Columbia. It didn't do much for me but then again I'm a male - I don't shop till I drop.

Not far from Metrotown is Central Park - a far cry to that of New York's but still a nice little spot with more trails and whatnot throughout.

Bicycle etiquette my ass. Here's a bloody walking etiquette for you too:

Pedestrians shall have right of way, provided you don't take up the whole fucking width of the path in which case bicycles may race up behind you, let their air horn rip with a 100-something decibels worth of cardiac arrest-inducing goodness so you jump out of their way, and may kick you at their discretion. It's called a *shared* pathway for a reason dickheads, so don't block it or don't complain if my air horn makes your chest tight.

Cyclists didn't buy a bike only to have a maximum speed of practically walking imposed upon them else they'd just walk wouldn't they, so they may go for their life with no maximum speed at all - thank you for doing your part towards a greener world! Provided you don't block the pathways and you teach your brats to look before they cross the road, there won't be a problem.

Central Park (like most parks here I imagine) are full of squirrels, but unlike squirrels in the UK, these little fellas actually come up to you (cautiously) instead of just bolting away up the nearest tree - so cute!

Some dude with a big DSLR camera was taking photos of them by tempting them over with a bag of muesli, and they bloody loved it! They just sat there and ate right out of your hand hehe.

This is Lisa's mate, Hayley. She's Scottish but after living in Vancouver for two years she now thinks she's Canadian. So I started taking the piss out of Glasgow - the anus of Scotland - and she was quick to jump to its defence hehe.

After a couple of fun days we were back at Vancouver airport for the hour's flight to Calgary. There were a couple of massage chairs in the waiting lounge, one gentle and one vigorous. It looks like the vigorous one rams something up your arse.

Downtown Vancouver again with the Coast Mountains in the background.

Downtown Calgary in the state of Alberta - again very similar to Brisbane in a few ways: the shot on the right looks like Brisbane's Queen Street Mall, there's a river running through the city, and again with the city centre parkland - nice!

We only had the one full day and night here and so did the usual wandering around town. This is Prince's Island Park, where people walk their dogs, and some dogs walk their people...

...and some (weird) people walk their parrot!

The Calgary Stampede is a huge rodeo festival held every July. We were a bit early for it this year but the city was gearing up for it.

While checking out the Stampede grounds we noticed some thick black smoke off in the distance - beauty, so I decided it was time to go up...

...this! The Calgary Tower is just under 200-metres high and dwarfed everything around upon its completion in 1968 (although if you look at my shot of the skyline above that's hardly the case now).

Fear of heights? Stand on the tower's glass flooring for a while hehe :)

As I expected the smoke was miles away. It was accidently started in a junkyard by workers cutting apart cars with saws. The fire was fuelled by tires and other junkyard shit and this smoke was considered toxic.

More views from the tower. Spot the cloud rolling in on the right - it was a sign of things to come.