Trippin': Vancouver - Gastown

The oldest area of Vancouver would probably be Gastown. It might be an old area but it's spewing with the greatest little thrifty consignment shops and cozy restaurants and cafes. There are also more trendy stores such as "You And Whose Army" where I probably spent the most money out of all the places I went to on my little vacation. The tourist stop here would be the steam clock. It was built by Raymond Saunders who is a Canadian horologist. There's a freakin' scientific name for a person who studies TIME!. They must be as useless as meteorologists. The guy has his steam clocks all over the world. The clock is powered by steam (duh) from an underground system of pipes that supply steam/heat to buildings in the area. It goes off 15 every minutes and a cloud of smoke comes billowing out. When it's night time and it's freezing cold outside, 15 minutes can be a looong time. Fortunately for us, we waited about 5 minutes.




Beware of the angry and furious steam clock!



The life of Gastown dies pretty early. I think it was about 5:30pm or so in this photo.



You can't tell from this next photo but Robson St in downtown Vacnouver is busy busy busy. It was around 9pm on a Sunday evening and people were shopping like mad. Does no one have to go to work the next day?