What to do on the weekend?

Another week has passed, another weekend ahead! That means lots of new things to explore! But we’re gonna start with something familiar, that also took place last weekend.

The Honda Celebration of Light started last Saturday and happened on Wednesday, too. The last firework will happen tomorrow on Saturday 29th, so it is a great opportunity to (re-)experience this unique event! Those of you who saw the latest blog post know we got some New Kids who will have the chance to get to see it for the first time, but you’re as welcome to join in if you’ve already seen the fireworks and want to do it again! Here is a quick reminder what the Honda Celebration of Light is about:

It is Vancouver’s biggest and most famous fireworks event and has been held since 1990. It’s a fireworks competition and is also recognized as the longest running off-shore fireworks competitions in the world. The Celebration of Light consists of 3 nights of fireworks and involves 3 competing countries, which are Australia, Mexico and the Philippines this year. Laura will be at Sunset beach in the evening in order to watch the sunset and the show afterwards, so make sure to join her! You are also welcome to bring some snacks and card games, to enjoy the evening even more :). Since it’s our last day in Vancouver the three of us (Nadine, Elias and Roman) are not sure yet if we are able to join you guys at the beach, but we’ll try to make it happen!

If you’re looking for something to do before watching the fireworks, here’s a suggestion:

‘Car Free Day New West’, a fairly new event in Metro Vancouver, is a free summer block party with food, drinks, music and other activities in New Westminster. The second annual edition of the event takes place on July 29th. The event will take place along Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC between 4th Street and 8th Street. It will last from noon to 8 pm and includes vendors, food trucks, exhibitors and interactive elements! There will also be some live acts and dance performances. If you are looking for some great vibes and atmospheric ambience, this is the place to go!

Do you feel like a relaxed and quiet day in nature with a short walk? We have the right thing for you: Vandusen Botanical Garden, which is certainly worth a visit.  You can stroll through the garden and admire the huge variety of flowers or check out the VanDusen maze with its 3000 pyramidal cedars. There is also an observation terrace where you can overlook the maze. Or you have a look at the Scottish shelter and the stone garden. The area next to the Stone Garden is the second highest point in Vancouver, by the way 🙂 The Vandusen botanical garden also offers a sculpture collection and wildlife. Additionally, there are some food trucks, so feel free to bring a blanket to enjoy a picnic on the lower Great Lawn or wander through the garden and enjoy your food on the way. This is a great chance to enjoy the sun, have some food and take a few pictures of the beautiful garden.

If there was nothing for you so far we have one last suggestion! We (Roman, Nadine and Elias) did this on Thursday and really enjoyed it, that’s the reason why we can recommend this activity. Of course you want to know what we’re talking about, so we don’t let you wait any longer … We’re talking about kayaking at Deep Cove, a small cove in the north east of Vancouver. You can rent single kayaks, double kayaks or stand up paddle boards there for two hours, three hours or a whole day. We rented three single kayaks for two hours, which costs $55 per person with taxes included. If you want to have more freetime at one of the beaches you should rent them for three hours. But for us two hours were enough, especially when you consider that paddling in the long way will be very exhausting.

Whatever you do, we hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Nadine, Roman and Elias

What to do on the weekend?

Our first recommendation is the PNE amusement park which we will be visiting on Saturday!

We are planning on meeting there around 12pm so there will be plenty of time to check out everything before heading back for the Whitecaps soccer game in the evening.

PNE is an amusement park where you can try out lots of different activities such as riding a roller coaster, a ghost train or going for a carousel ride as well as many other activities! One of the main attractions in the park is the ‘Playland wooden roller coaster’ that is made of wood and will give you an adrenaline rush for sure. Some other exciting rides are the ‘hellevator’ which is a free fall tower and ‘atmosfear’ that’s a carousel which brings you up in the air, so you can have an awesome view while spinning above the park. If you like to take things more slowly you can still get a nice view riding the ferris wheel :). There are also lots of food trucks where you can try different kinds of sweet or hearty dishes such as hot dogs, slushies and ice cream.

Another great event for the weekend is the soccer game of the Vancouver Whitecaps. On Saturday they’ll play in an official MLS (Major League Soccer – the American soccer league) match against LA Galaxy. The game starts at 7.30pm in the Vancouver Whitecaps Swanguard Stadium. Roman, Nadine, me and a lot of British and German guys are going to watch this soccer game after the PNE. The price for a ticket is around $35 CAD, so think about whether you want to watch the game too. We think it’ll be such a nice experience to watch a soccer game in North America, also for people who don’t know much about soccer because sports events here in Canada or the USA are always different to those in Europe. There’s always a lot of shows around the actual event. By the way, the next home game will not take place until August 20th. 

Another recommendation for this weekend is the night market in Richmond. This annual event which is by the way the  largest outdoor night market in North America is this year under the theme “Summer Wonderland”. In addition to 110 food booths and food trucks with street food from all over the world the event also offers entertainment and a candy-coloured forest. So there is a huge variety of food and activities, so it certainly won’t be boring. On this weekend the market opens at 6 pm on Saturday and 7pm on Sunday and lasts until late in the evening. Enjoy some culinary snacks and stroll through the night market in Richmond. Let us know what your favourite booth was. 😉

We hope you have a nice weekend!!

Roman, Elias & Nadine

How was the weekend?

Hi Internexers!

Another Monday, another week has passed… which means it’s Blogpost time :).

This weekend was pretty adventurous, but we’ll get to that later.

First of all Elias and me (Roman) want to give you an insight of the bubble tea festival we visited on Saturday.

The festival took place at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby and was active for the whole weekend.

The event itself was mainly designed for children since there were some “olympic” competitions like a race or a drawing challenge that’s why there were mostly families. Nevertheless the event was pretty fun. There were a lot of bubble tea stands where you could get all kinds of tea as well as some food stands that offered some delicious food. The most fun part was bubble soccer where you could climb into a huge bubble and bump into each other. To be honest it is way harder than it looks because the balls are quite heavy to lift :).

Our main event of the week was the trip to Lindeman Lake that we did on Sunday. We started off pretty early at the University of British Columbia where our 2 hour bus ride began which was really fun (shout out to Hunter who gave us access to the bus radio so we could play some music on the ride). The ride itself was scenic. We were going along a nice river in the Chilliwack area. 

Speaking of that, a quick reminder that we will be going to this same river for our big INTERNeX trip in two weeks. We will go river rafting and enjoy an awesome time together, including a night of camping, hopefully with campfire and s’mores, so make sure you join :). For further information stay tuned, we will be posting more details at the group chat.

So we got to our starting point for the hike to Lindeman Lake and it was a surprisingly difficult trail. The path itself was only about 3,5 km long but it got very steep at some point. Nonetheless all of you made it to the top, so hats off, you did amazing!

We then got our well deserved reward when we got to see the lake. It was so beautiful in its turquoise, green and blue colours. It was very clear, too, so you could see until the bottom of it. Most of us went into the lake, though it was freezing cold. But I think it was also a really nice refreshment after the hike :).

When we got home from our trip we decided to play some football at UBC. We played a game of 5-a-side, which was so much fun, but quite competitive at the same time, which made it an even better time.

To sum it up, it was a very exciting but also exhausting weekend, which was definitely worth its time.

Greetings, 

Nadine, Elias and Roman

What to do on the Weekend?

For Sunday we’ve planned a nice little hike to Lindeman Lake. It’s a beautiful place east of Vancouver, about 2 hours away from the city that offers beautiful turquoise water, surrounded by dense forest and mountain peaks. The trail is a popular and scenic route in Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park. The hike is 3,4 km long and ends at Lindeman’s. Once we get to the lake you will have plenty of time to chill, swim if you dare and enjoy some snacks or your lunch and relax. Don’t forget to bring plenty of water and some food with you. Maybe you also want to bring a blanket (in case you have one), so you can sit down properly on the rocks or forest grounds. 

For those of you who want to refresh themselves in the cold glacier water remember to bring a swimsuit and a towel, or some clothes for changing with you.

From the lake you can also hike even further as there are some trails going even higher. We might check out one of them ourselves. All over please make sure to wear comfortable and functional clothing that is appropriate for a hike in nature, e.g. wear hiking boots or runners, no sandals, flip flops, etc. Layers are always a good idea since temperatures can fluctuate. 

If you won’t be joining us, here’s another beautiful idea of what to do on the weekend: It’s the beautiful Lighthouse Park in North Vancouver with the Point-Atkinson-Lighthouse, located in West Vancouver. From Downtown it’s a 50-60 minute bus ride. Once you arrive you walk about 15 minutes to get to the Lighthouse. You have a fantastic view overseeing many small islands of Vancouver. If there´s good weather you can also look over to the city or watch airplanes taking off. We recommend you to go there in the late afternoon or evening to enjoy the beautiful sunset on the rocks. Make sure to take some food and drinks with you to enjoy this place even more! For us it’s one of the most beautiful places in Vancouver to end a fantastic day.

Another activity we would like to mention briefly is Khatsahlano street festival on July 8th. It’s a giant music and arts festival that takes place on West 4th Avenue in Vancouver’s Kitsilano district. Khatsahlano Street Party features multiple stages with over 50 local performing artists as well as market vendors, street performers, food trucks and an artisan market. That’s definitely worth a visit! be aware that it might get crowded, but that shouldn’t keep you from enjoying the atmosphere. If it all gets too much just grab some food and go down to the beach to calm your senses a bit.

Alternatively you can check out the Bubble-Tea festival that will be this weekend at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby. If you need more information on that, you can visit this page: https://www.vanbubbleteafest.ca/

Have a nice and relaxing weekend!

Nadine, Elias and Roman 😊

How was the weekend?

Hi guys, how are you doing?

So last week we got to experience a very special day of the year in Canada: Canada Day celebrates the establishment of the nation of Canada from previous British colonies. That’s why it’s a national holiday! We hope you guys enjoyed your day off after the weekend. 🙂 We started our Canada Day celebration with a little gathering at Green Harbour Park which is right next to Canada Place where the centre of celebration in Vancouver took place. We met up in the afternoon and played some soccer, frisbee, as well as UNO that you guys brought with you (thanks for that). Or you could just chill on some blankets and enjoy a sunny afternoon in an atmospheric Vancouver. After that we headed over to Canada Place to experience some of the events.

At first we watched some dancers that performed on Canada Place surrounded by a crowd of people, but we still managed to get some nice photos for this blog post, since the show was pretty impressive.

Afterwards we grabbed food at one of the numerous food trucks that were located all around the area. There were lots of dishes from many different cultures that you could choose from. There were taco stands as well as a place that offered cheese sandwiches and many more. We decided to go with a Donair which was very different from the ones we are used to at our hometowns in Germany but it was still very tasty.
The centre of the celebrations took place at the main stage, where different performers played live music for the large crowd that was already gathered when we got there. There were even some pretty famous Canadian musicians like Tegan and Sara that played great music. Other than that you could enjoy yourself watching one of the street performers that were located all over the place and provided a good vibe all around the festivities.

After the celebrations, those of you who felt like it could go partying in one of the clubs in Vancouver or just enjoy the rest of the evening after a pretty exhausting but very fun day :).

We’d love to hear about your Canada Day experience and the rest of your weekend at our next Pub Night!

Greetings,
Nadine, Roman and Elias