It's been jokingly pointed out to me by a friend that it seems like I'm becoming a "transport geek", highlighting the fact I mention buses, cars and specifically the SkyTrain a lot in this blog. Well, it's not something I wasn't aware of - I've noticed it myself! The thing is Vancouver has great public transport (I joke that it's sometimes just a shame about the 'public' part) and also it has a decent road system. I can't help mention it a lot because it's so important in getting around and exploring this place. Some of the people who've been living here for years don't necessarily think it's too great but when you've come from somewhere in the UK (outside of London) you can't help but notice is a lot more efficient and better run here. There are always (mostly negative) articles about the public transport in 'The Province' newspaper, and I agree it's not perfect but it is a lot better than anything we've ever been used to.
Inspired by that in the back of my mind today we actually went and took a ride on the
Canada line, though Lou was the one to actually suggested it, not me haha! The Canada Line opened last month but we've had no real need to use it and we thought we'd postpone our first ride until the hype had calmed down a bit. Well, today it was still super busy but we still thought we'd give it a go anyway. The Canada Line links the centre of Vancouver with the city of Richmond and also the Vancouver Airport. Family and friends should maybe take extra note about that last part, if you visit we may be telling you to get on there as it's so much easier and cheaper then driving to the airport (I guess it all depends on how sorry we'll feel for you after a tiring 9 hour flight)!
The new trains are also much smarter, bigger and smoother and it's nice that they still have that 'clean' feeling to them, though that obviously won't last too long. On the way there we didn't stand a chance of getting a seat as all the carriages were packed out, but it didn't seem as uncomfortable as some of the Millenium and Expo line ones can at rush hour.
We arrived in Richmond in about 20 minutes and 50% of the ride is underground so it isn't as scenic as other routes. This was our first proper time in Richmond, I don't know too much about the place but it has a 'new' feel to it, there are lots of modern buildings around the area and also lots of construction and on-going road works which tells me there is more coming. Richmond has a really large immigrant community of 59% which apparently is the largest in Canada. Most of the people living in Richmond are either Chinese or Taiwanese, or descendants of. We went to look around the Richmond Mall which is "like Metrotown Mall, except slightly less chaos". We brought a few essential clothes items that we'd been needing for weeks and then made our way back after a couple of hours. 2 Stops north of Richmond is 'Aberdeen' which is apparently a great place for Chinese Cuisine but we'd already eaten and we were a bit tired so we didn't stop off there but it leaves a place for us to further explore in the future.
In the evening we headed out to do our groceries, I got some more driving experience and then we settled down to watch the VMA awards on TV. It was a nice chilled out Sunday, I just wish the weekends were longer!
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