After returning from my brief weekend in Vancouver island (more on that in the previous post), my friends and I started truly arriving in Vancouver. The city is very livable, ranking highly on the annual report on the livability of different cities – but that is no coincidence: There are laws that restrict the height of the buildings so that there is more (of the anyways scarce) sunshine and so that the mountains which surround the city are still visible, and the skyscrapers’ glass is blue, as studies has shown that blue light increases the happiness of the population.

Vancouver, being the main city at British Columbia’s coast has ferry connections to most of the islands offshore western Canada. However, there is a much quicker alternative: Seaplanes. As a matter of fact, the harbour of Vancouver is the city’s busiest airport, with much more flights departing and arriving than at the city’s international airport. And a bonus is that the scenery is simply epic.

Oh, that city that you can see in the background is not a part of Vancouver. That is North Vancouver, an entirely different city – reachable via the Lion’s Gate Bridge, or by ferry.

Also in North Vancouver is the Capilano Regional Park. The temperate rain forest, which also makes up this park, covers pretty much the entire west coast of Canada. What makes this bit of rain forest especially well-known, though, is the Capilano suspension bridge, which spans the – surprise, surprise – Capilano river. If you are afraid of heights, this will probably not be at the top of your list of things to do in Vancouver. But for all others, I would say that this beautiful bit of forest is a must visit.

But apart from the bridge, the park also has a whole lot of nature to offer. If you are lucky and there recently was some rain (which is quite often the case in Vancouver), then you may be able to find banana slugs. As their name suggests, they are quite yellow and some have brown spots – just like the fruit.

Sometimes, the park rangers may also present some birds of prey to you, like this eagle-owl and peregrine falcon.

And even without animals, there is plenty of pretty nature to admire.

Vancouver itself is a very modern city and overall very safe, with good public transit. However, homelessness has always been an issue, and especially so with the exploding housing prices in recent years.

Another interesting fact is that there is no highway going into Vancouver which not only means that there is often too much traffic on the roads leading to and from the city, but also that most major industries that have to deliver or receive goods by truck are located outside of Vancouver where they are closer to the highway system. However, the city is very biking friendly and has biking lanes along most roads.

And the city has a whole lot of different people of all sorts. There are countless different ethnicities living together peacefully, with around a quarter of the population being of Asian descent.

I’ll admit that I only added the above few paragraphs because I didn’t have a proper transition for the remaining photos I wanted to include in this post. I also don’t have a proper ending, which is why I will just leave you with the remaining photos. At least it will keep the suspense up for the coming post.