Spring Break in Canada: A Photo Blog
A group of students from around the globe explored Victoria and Vancouver on the annual FIUTS Spring Break trip to Canada.
This year's FIUTS Spring Break trip to Canada included students from France, Taiwan, China, Japan, Austria, Nepal, Vietnam, and the U.S., who spent a week adventuring through Victoria and Vancouver. Take a look at all the exciting things they did on their journey in this amazing photo blog they created!
We had our first stop in Bellingham for pizza and sandwiches and remembered that we had to eat our apples before crossing the border into Canada!
After a quick check in at the hostel in Vancouver, a few of us managed to get some tickets and run down for the Hockey game. We heard some interesting noises of encouragement as though the audience members were howling to each other like wolves or possibly whales as the Vancouver Canucks pulled out a victory against the Buffalo Sabers.
The rest of the group went on a long walking tour around downtown Vancouver. We visited Vancouver Lookout, similarly to Space Needle offering a bird eye view of Canada, walked around Chinatown, Vancouver stadium, international village and Robson, and ended our walking tour with delicious sushi and Mongolian BBQ dinner.
The Vancouver hostel provided some entertainment during our downtime as we discovered the surprising talent of our FIUTS members!
The Lynn Canyon suspension bridge offered a fun and free adventure for the nice warm day in the outdoors.
Hiking was a pleasure as we tested our limits as well as those of the fallen trees around us. At times, a few us ventured a bit farther than the rest of the group were willing to go. Here is Johnny Chou as he jumps bravely into the deep beautiful flowing water. Overcoming the cold, he emerged with a smile on his face and was ready to keep moving.
We later continued our active day by renting some bicycles to enjoy the views next to the waterfront!
The view from Stanley Park allowed us to appreciate the beauty of Vancouver and we also were quite interested in the floating gas station behind us.
Stanley Park even offered some nice sandy beaches to enjoy.Some of us probably could have spent the whole day on the beach if we didn’t have to return the bicycles. The time spent on the beach was well worth the discomfort of sand in our clothes for the rest of the journey!
The Potluck in Vancouver was a great success as we sampled some food from around the city as well as some delicious food prepared in the hostel!
We could compare our experience of the potluck to that of a Potlatch of the natives of the Pacific Northwest that we heard about during our tour of the Museum of Anthropology. Here is a huge food container that would have been rolled into the home and you may notice the serving spoon decorated as the tongue!!!
A trip down to Granville Island was quite enjoyable for our last night in Vancouver. While some explored the island, a few of us enjoyed relaxing while enjoying some gelato.
Our experience between Vancouver and Victoria on the ferry allowed for us to hang out and get to know everyone who had enjoyed exploring Vancouver independently!
We then ventured into the Backstage Lounge as courageous people signed up for Karaoke! It was especially delightful to enjoy the performance as Johnny Chou jumped on stage as the drummer!
While the breeze can be quite cold, the view from the top of the ferry is spectacular!
We spent a lot of time walking around Victoria and were quite fortunate to have pleasant weather walking along the waterfront!
The legislature building in Victoria was quite a pleasure to visit and tour inside.
The Empress Hotel also allows public access and you can run into all kinds of friends near the conference room!
The dock next to the “Red Fish Blue Fish” was about a five minute walk away for some excellent food and beautiful scenery.
Our hostel was quite close to Chinatown providing access to wonderful sites and foods!
We stopped at a Cantonese restaurant in Chinatown for our first dinner in Victoria. Several cups of hot tea warmed us up and got us ready for our family styled dinner with seven courses. The food was so plenty that we had to asked around the table for volunteers to finish the dishes and still ended up with several to-gos.
The food can be very filling but this cafe was a fun way to start our last full day in Victoria!
After such a large meal, it was nice to relax and digest our breakfast and make sure we had everything before heading for a walk in the park.
Here’s the entrance to Beacon Hill Park, although we may recommend that you approach the sign when there is not fresh fertilizer.
Beacon Hill provides some fun areas to traverse.
Whether you’re relaxing by the water, walking across the bridges, or feeding the ducks, the Beacon Hill Park is worth a visit on such a beautiful day.
We could not resist getting close to the beautiful water at the south end of Beacon Hill Park where the view was stunning! We even thought it was time for us travelers to take a tender tango.
We came up Douglas street to check out the mile 0 marker of the Trans Canada Highway.
To see more of Victoria by the water we took a water taxi! We had the whole boat to ourselves for most of the tour! While on the tour, we watched seaplanes taking off and landing. One of our favorite place to see was the harbour with many big expensive floating houses.
Our final Potluck finally included everyone and was a blast! We enjoyed variety of food, including some very creative dishes made by our members!
Thank you to superstar facilitators Jeremy Sculley and Minhtu Nguyen for leading the trip and putting together a great photo blog!
Want to explore the Pacific Northwest with friends from around the world? Check out the FIUTS Calendar to find out about upcoming activities.