Vancouver

Located in a traditional territories of the Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh), Musqueam (Xwméthkwyiem) and Tseil-waututh (Burrard) people of the Coast Salish group, Vancouver got its name after famous British Royal Navy captain George Vancouver, who explored the area in 1792.
The area known to First Nations as S'ólh Téméxw was inhabitated between 8.000 and 10.000 years ago – some traces of settlement around mouth of Fraser river date from that time. Some of the main parts of Vancouver today were actually small villages that depended to different tribes. Squamish people had a village X̱wáýx̱way known today as Stanley park, Xats'alanexw (Kitsilano) was named after Squamish chief who was, actually born in X̱wáýx̱way and Point Gray, even though named after captain George Grey, a friend of Captain George Vancouver, is according to a legend, a "Battleground of the West Wind." There was also a village near Capilano river mouth, Xwemelch'stn (Homulchesan) – "Fast Moving Water of Fish". Beautiful names hard to spell, that are mostly forgotten these days and completely unknown outside Canada.

totem poles at Museum of Antropology at UBC
Vancouver today is eight among Canadian cities with about 500.000 people, and about 2.1 million living in metropoliten area. Its growth started when Canadian Pacific Railway decided to make its terminus near a small settlement Gastown. They`ve thought that Gastown was not appropriate name for their terminus so they proposed a new one: Vancouver; on April 6th, 1886. a city was incorporated with its new name. Three months later a Great Vancouver Fire destroyed the most of the city but later it proved to be beneficial, for it was an opportunity to build a city with modern water, electricity and streetcar system.

When I arrived to Vancouver airport it was night and cloudy so I couldn`t see the most spectacular view to mountains north of a city, known as The Northshore Montains and their most famous peaks – The Lions (1654m). Rain dominates Vancouver climate – as well as the rest of the area – and no one was surprised that it rained almost a week since I arrived. Fortunately, during my second week of stay, weather changed and I could understand why people in Vancouver procrastinate all their chores when the weather is sunny. One could never know when the next opportunity will appear…

The Lions
Few more facts about Vancouver that I didn`t know: Port of Vancouver is the bussiest and greatest in Canada, also the forth largest port in North America; even though forestry is main industry, Vancouver is highly ranked in the world for a quality of living; tourism is second-largest industry, it is a third-largest film production centre in North America ("Holiwood North") and 52% of people do not speak English as their first language :eyes:

Granvile island marina
I didn`t have much time to enjoy in city itself because jetlag and exhaustion from The Longest Day hit me with full force and made me fall asleep whenever opportunity appears :whistle: On tuesday morning, we hurried to Horseshoe bay where one of the two BC ferry terminals is. We caught an early morning ferry to Vancouver Island where our important destination was: Tofino :happy:

a view to a Horseshoe Bay and Northshore Mountains from ferry