Before I flew out to Vancouver I read that the Chinese New Year Parade would be taking place on Sunday 22nd February which left me very excited! There had been build up events and stalls spread across town to mark the year of the goat/lamb (this didn’t seem to be clear!) Some signs said it was the year of the goat whereas others said lamb and therefore there was a big display of lambs at one of the exhibition areas and then random posters of goats at other parts. The festival kicked off at 11a.m and if there’s one word to sum it up I would say disappointing. It seemed quite badly organised and was really long that it grew quite tiresome. It didn’t seem extremely professional and at one point there was a worker walking down the parade smoking and just having a general chat on the phone. I do not mean to take this away from some of the beautiful costumes on display as well as the drums and people dressed up as dragons as this was impressive, however the whole thing together did not not flow smoothly and after 20 minutes of watching we grew bored and headed elsewhere.

On Saturday we purchased a ticket to the Vancouver Lookout from the Visitor Centre on Waterfront for the bargain price of $12. If you buy this at the lookout it costs $16.95 so it’s a nice little savers tip. However, you can just go up to restaurant and order something too if you’d like to do that. The soup actually costs £12 but on a Sunday you can only go up there if you want the buffet which was $49.95. What’s great about the ticket is you can buy it for any day and not have to use it on the day of purchase but can use it later on and even better you can go up the lookout as many times in one day as you choose. As we were in the area we decided to go up early afternoon to see how Vancouver City looked from above in the day time. Vancouver Lookout is located in the Harbour Centre at 555 West Hastings Street between Seymour Street and Richards Street. The lift up is glass and you can look out as you’re heading on up and once you get to the top you can walk around the whole thing and read lots of information about all the key places and monuments in Vancouver. We spent a good hour wandering round the lookout and reading about the history of Vancouver including the steam clock in Gastown (definitely worth checking out and especially on the hour as it does something special) as well as learning about Grouse Mountain, the football stadium and many more lovely places to see and explore in VanCity! The lookout was great to see in the day time but you can’t beat going at sunset and watching the day turn to night and the beautiful orange and purple colours spread across the sky. The city really is a wonderful sight at night with all the skyscrapers lit up and the football stadium with its changing colours. It was so peaceful and again we stayed for an hour but this time simply just looking out and watching the colours fade into darkness.