What to know when going from California to British Columbia (neighborhoods, buying)

[redg415]

So I lived in san francisco(no I dont mean daly city or whatever LOL) till I was 18 and still live in the bay area. this passed month I drove to canada and stayed in vancouver.(On a side note their border was nicer to me than my own border that even had me pull over and searched my car on the way back). Here are a few things I learned while there and some tips. So to start off I loved vancouver, if i could i would live there a few months out of the year in my innermost fantasies LOL. But I hear that just like San Francisco there is a gentrification problem. It is pretty expensive to live there and there is nothing like home, and the bay area is a great place to live. (I actually met a handful of people from the bay area who had moved there when they saw me wearing my giants, niners, warriors gear and they seem to like it alot but come back often since it's just great here and i don't mean the dumb laws and high taxes, i mean the things to see and do here in california and jobs)

Neways, I bank with B of A, Scotiabank is their partner in canada and I didn't get charged atm fees my bro paid 3 canadian dollars so it's not too bad, find yourself a atm and withdraw from there don't take USA Dollars. Oh and they use coins for one and two dollars, and their bills are made out of plastic. i remember withdrawing 300 canadian dollars and it was only 240 american dollars.

They have safeway's(Von's if you're from LA) all over vancouver (you do not need a safeway card and things are packaged differently as in salt in a box oh and french/english labeling) I feel that food there is more expensive but better quality. I also suggest not buying there and instead go to walmart or the better alternative the Real Canadian Super Store which is Walmart's competitor there, it's pretty cool. They got a costco too and a great neighbrhood chain drug store either london or shoppers pharmacy that are also focused on cosmetics. You will also find alot of the same stores you find here like old navy and victoria secret but they have their own stores too, oh look out for their sizes ok, and there are some great stuff you can buy there and not here in the USA. Oh also go to the metrotown in burnaby(the city right next to vancouver) it's the second biggest mall in canada and it really is huge and one of the biggest malls I have ever been too. I also suggest walking and shopping on robson street in downtown vancouver it is fun and nice and lots of things to see and do and eat and you can even catch a movie, parking there is 9 canadian bucks for like 12 hours in the parking lot, its more expensive to park on the street.

Oh and drinking/gambling age there is 19 not 21 like in the US, I saw alot of drunk ass 19 year old's at the best if not only latin club in town which was actually really good. Last call is 3am and you can buy beer at most regular grocery stores like the big ones i mentioned, not the smaller ones which look like liquor stores from here but just sell food and lottery tickets, but if you wanna buy anything else you gotta go to a an actual liquor store that remind me of mini BevMo's LOL, some close at 7pm some at 11pm but thats the latest one i seen open and it's more expensive than here. On that subject their buses and Skytrain (kinda like bart but cleaner and better) run pretty late Idk if they run all night but I think they do. Oh I actually felt alot safer there than i do here oh and there if you are blood alcohol level is above 0.05% (not 0.08% like here) it is illegal but the laws are different too I hear. Taxi's are expensive. Have a car when you are in vancouver even though their public transit seems great i am not familiar with it and i liked feeling a little independent and going where and when I pleased.

On the matter of latin people....I did see a few and actually ate great salvadorian and mexican and colombian food there but you mostly see white people (canadian,american,european) or asian (chinese,japanese,Indian,Filipino etc) and blacks here and there. Lots of mixed couples and I must mention lot's of beautiful women, and great food, you must have a Japadog, and poutine or however they spell it. Oh they do have Mcdonalds and most fast food chains we do here, but nothing beyond Dennys or Starbucks I think, but they got their own chain stuff like Jim Hortons is the bomb and Boston Pizza is ok and swiss chalet too. But I mostly either cooked my food or went to a local restaurant.

They are on the metric system so you will have to do some conversion sometimes while driving or cooking, some signs are in proper english (centre instead of center) and in french too. Oh and pay very close attention cuz drivers there are crazy, a different crazy, sometimes there are no actual left turn lanes and these people suddenly stop and put on their turn lights, oh and flashing green means your lane can go and if you have a hand stop signal you can go when it is safe. People drive slower there, there is traffic all over the city, like driving in SF kind of as in lots of cars on the road. Oh they use the same electrical outlets we do. Oh I have metro pcs and for 10 dollars a month you get world calling, I was able to use my phone in canada just fine, however my roaming 200mb of data was done after a week i used it mostly for gps or go online too look up stuff or social media I shouldve had just bought my gps and not use my data so much, but i was still able to call and text normally just fine, my gf has at&t my brother has sprint and they both had to pay 30 bucks just to use their roaming stuff and idk if that included other charges so I was the one with the phone over there, but it just ran on a 3g network which was actually really good. They do have 4g networks btw.

I rarely heard the "canadian accent" that is portrayed in certain movies or whatever. Some people refer to the USA as America and like to ask what differences or weird things we have noticed there, they seem like they really want to know, alot of them want to come visit here and ask questions. They consider vancouver like canada's san francisco and it does have some similarities(liberals. the way certain neighborhoods are laid out, they have a chinatown and commercial drive aka the drive reminde me of height st and their west end is their castro) but in general they are also their own thing. People seemed really nice there, i don't think anyone was a racist there and people were more open to experiencing things from other cultures.

Things to see and do, go to stanley park and queen elizabeth park both are very beautiful and have thigns in them to see and do, stanley park has the vancouver aquarium which is awesome and queen elizabeth park has the Bloedel Conservatory. The Telus world of science is mostly for kids in my opinion. West vancouver is beautiful and a quick visit to richmond and burnaby is worth it. I did not go to granville island or go to the whistler or go to the suspension bridge walking thing among so many other things I would love to do they day I go back.

All in all I loved vancouver, it was a great city and I really liked it alot and there is alot to see and do and its great being in another country with the same amenities we have here and yet be so close to a beautiful natural landscape. I wrote this article to inform you on some things I noticed and some tips for people from california/usa who want to visit british columbia/canada, and vice versa. And I would really like to go again someday.