Winter Worktrip #2 to Freezing Canada – Vancouver Layover
[Photos taken on 20-21 January 2018, posted on 11 13 August 2018. Norðurbakkinn is today’s hideout, yet agin. Started working again after the summer holiday.]
Icelandair suspended their 6-hour long direct flights to Edmonton from January to March just as myself and my colleagues needed them the most due to a large project that was ongoing all past winter.
Instead we ended up flying to either Vancouver or Toronto, and then “hopping” over to Edmonton. This particular outbound trip took me to Vancouver for the first time, and I was very grateful to have a layover there, as the 8-hour long flight over left me nauseous and exhausted.
Due to the time-difference, I woke up at 4 am the morning after, had an early breakfast, and then went on a walkabout, largely dictated by missions in the GPS game Ingress. (56 images total)
Saturday 20 January 2018
Flying over the east coast of Greenland. It’s always spectacular… and somewhat freaky.
Backing up, the trip began rather tumultuously as, I’d forgotten my wallet at home in my coat with all my cards. (My new phone didn’t fit in the wallet anymore.) As I was short on time, I called Finnur, who very kindly drove the wallet to the airport while I waited in the check-in area (I’d taken a taxi to the airport).
A sight for sore eyes!
I made it to the gate in time, with a few minutes to spare to download some work code that I’d forgotten to export.
Oh snapchat, why must you always mirror everything?
Surtsey was my plane.
I got ridiculously lucky, as I’d been assigned a middle seat, but the window seater never showed, so I ended up with a window seat with an empty seat next to me!
Goodbye Iceland!
Some 8 hours later, we’d reached Vancouver.
Touchdown.
Goodbye airplane. I think the plane, and the crew, stayed there overnight, as I vaguely recall driving past it parked on the tarmac the next day.
I’d chosen a hotel downtown that was near the airport-downtown train. It looked a lot fancier than I’d realized when booking.
Pretty nice. I forgot to take a photo of the three identical flower photos that hung up on the wall you can’t see.
Clean bath.
I was starving, so I trip advisored myself to a fairly nice restaurant nearby.
The decor was loud, but the food was good.
After dinner I took a quick walkaround, grabbing a few Ingress portals, in the rain.
Downtown felt fairly quiet.
I vaguely recall this being the building my hotel was in.
Sunday 21 January 2018
The breakfast buffet. I’ve seen more exciting stuff, but it was free, so no complaints!
The view out of the breakfast room window. Must be fun to work in offices where everybody can see you…
By 8 am I had exited the hotel to walk around. This fancy convention center by the sea seemed busy.
Obligatory Snapchat selfie. Mirrored as usual…
Next to the convention center is another large structure/convention center called Canada Place. I began by attempting to walk around it.
The tip of Canada Place had funky benches.
The other side offered a view over the harbor cranes.
It was a lot windier on that side. That space ship disk is an observation deck. I meant to go visit it, but didn’t make it back in time from my walk.
Eventually I stumbled upon this sign, and decided to just retrace my steps back.
Standing between the two convention centers.
Selfies are tricky! (Automatically created collage by google photos.)
Weird blue needle droplet thing, overlooking Canada Place. Yes, it was an Ingress portal.
I kept walking west (I was south of the water) around the convention center, and found these adorable floating air-taxis.
Probably very very very expensive apartment blocks.
Funky artwork.
The wooden boards had occupations engraved on them.
Looking back from where I came. I can’t figure out how I managed not to photograph a single jogger or biker, as the path was crawling with them!
A little further on was a small harbor. I liked the house-looking boats!
A bit of nature, while looking north. That’s about when it started raining, and I discovered that my new coat was not close to being waterproof.
Apartment blocks everywhere!
I decided to walk back a few roads inland, to see new things.
Fancy water-feature.
Shortly before 11 am I made it back close to my hotel.
There was no way to not visit the Chocolate Cafe! By that time I was both cold and wet. Silly old-ladies store down coat!
Ahhh, hot chocolate makes everything better!
When I exited the cafe, the sky had blue spots!!
This was the daytime view from my hotel room window. I finished packing up, and then walked to the airport train-station.
It was an uneventful train trip.
Funky structures at the airport. Yup, Ingress portals!
Not-terribly exciting airport terminal.
More funky structures!
Getting closer… These boarding groupings are always a bit mysterious to me.
The view out my window. The trip was about and hour and a half, very doable.
Goodbye Vancouver!
A little while later I was at my final destination. Good night!
Meanwhile in Iceland…
Icelandic dirty snow.
