Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - first impressions

This is how summer is supposed to be - 20 degrees Celsius, low humidity, and a little rain now and then and sun in between. I now remember how much I really, really dislike New Jersey summers, especially after the horrible downpour in the dark on the highway this morning on the road to the airport. Six hours on a flight and I am in a different country, both literally (feels like Europe!) and climatically.n Everything is green, deers are not eating all the plantings, I hear seagulls, and I have only been here 6 hours. So far I haven't seen the city, only the airport and the university campus, but I love it. The houses are cool, with cedar roofs and steep angles, lots of wood, not one McMansion seen so far. Even the money is more beautiful - oh, well, most everything is more beautiful than the US dollar bills. With the cooler summer days flowers last longer so everything is in flower everywhere, lavender, spiraea, hydrangeas, and much more. Now I know why my Dad wanted to emigrate to British Columbia as a teenager, but I am also glad he didn't, because then I wouldn't have been born in Sweden. But Canada doesn't seem to be far from Sweden. Oh, the airport, I have to talk about that too - it is CLEAN, nicely designed with stainless steel and glass, SPACIOUS, with over 30 luggage carousels (Newark has maybe 9 in each terminal, always overcrowded), the customs and immigration area is superefficient, etc, etc. Leaving the newest terminal at Newark Airport and arriving her was like going from a tired 1980s-decorated restaurant serving lukewarm canned soup with stains on the tile floor, to a cool and funky-fashionable sushi place with Swiss-designed lamps and perfect floor cleaning habits. Small details can really give big impressions. Like the chair in my room, in one of the student apartments - it is made to lean on if you like! And free internet, and birchwood furniture in clean design, and all for half the price in a regular hotel.

On Thursday I plan to go to the old parts of Vancouver and see the world's only steam powered clock. I also hope to go down the cliff to the ocean close to here and maybe see a sea otter, only issue is that the cliff is very high and the beach below is a nude beach :) But I want to see sea shells, drift wood, and the Pacific waves before I leave. More later...