Downtown??

The way they say it: "Lets go downtown" or "It's downtown" or just "Downtown" is enough to confuse any Aussie who is used to "the city" and "the country".

When i first arrived i thought "downtown" was applied this way: "we are going downtown to ........." or "It's downtown in ......." but its actually a place. Downtown is Downtown Vancouver. I guess its roughly equivalent to the Melbourne CBD. But in Australia you don't say "Lets go CBD" or "It's City".

Anyways, i went downtown the other day. One of my room mates took me to Robson St which is the main street here in Vancouver - kinda like Bourke St in Melbourne. We had some lunch at a korean restaurant, it was delicious. For $20CAN ($24AU) we had enough food for the two of us for lunch, and we took half of it home with us for dinner! Whats more, my room mate was complaining about how expensive it was! You can get a good meal here for $6 ($7AU).

Robson St is nothing special really, just shops and malls etc, except i hardly recognise any of the brand names.
Stanley park however, our next stop, is something else. 1000 acres of pristine park and forest right next to the city. It's amazing. So big that i'm sure it will take several trips there to see all the cool stuff. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium which is in Stanley Park. Saw all the local marine life, and dolphins, otters, seals and the white Beluga whales. They are the fat bastards of the ocean! You can see the blubber sloshing around as they swim!
I haven't been downtown since then - been busy with international orientation and all that, but there is heaps to do downtown.
Here are a few pics of my first trip downtown. Two from the sea wall at Stanley Park, and one at the Aquarium. Downtown.....