What Up VANCOUVER? Shopping, eating and searching for Vancouver's best cup of coffee

I'm in Vancouver, Obviously! On my 3rd long layover here, in my career! Originally David (my husband) was supposed to join me on this layover, but at the last minute the flight was too full for him to get on. So I'm here all alone, trying to make the best of my layover, which isn't so hard in this great city! After 10 hours of flying yesterday and a hellish cab ride to the hotel, I stripped down, threw on some comfy walking clothes and headed out! I walked up and down browsing along Robson for awhile, stopping in at Chapters, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (which I'm proud to say I walked out of empty handed, since normally I like to pick up one of their famous candy apples). Then down Alberni stopping into stores like Louis Vuitton and Agent provocateur.

                 

                            Huge view from my tiny "office" window

Welcome to the RMCF- 

Just a selection of their caramel coated apples

... and other sinful treats!

Whether your sweet tooth is begging for fudge, chocolate coated marshmallows, triple
 layered cookies with caramel ganache in the center, or good old fashioned candy apples- You're in the right place!

The RMCF also has other treats such as their own chocolate peanut butter cups, ice cream and filled chocolates, but my fav has got to be the candy covered apples. With probably anywhere from 50-100 different types, they always start with a smooth base of caramel and then add all sorts of fun stuff like marshmallows, smarties, sometimes even 3 layers of different chocolates (milk, dark and white). 

After my long walk I headed to my favorite restaurant in Vancouver called Shabusen! It's a Japanese buffet restaurant with Korean grill. When I walked in, I guess I baffled the Hostess: 
"For one, please."
"Alone?"
"Yes, by myself."
"Nobody else coming?"
"No!"
"Sure?"
"pretty, certain."
"Ok, alone! At the bar."
My Gawd! I guess they don't see a lot of people dining on their own. So if you are like me, you're put at the bar, where you still have your own grill in front of your seat. And you get to talk to the lovely (if not slightly creepy) head chef who's working in front of you the entire time while you gorge yourself on his hard work. 
The price may look a bit steep, but I think it's rather good for all you can eat sushi, BBQ'ed meats, tempura, fried rice and grilled delicacies! For the buffet it is $24, but be careful of the extra charges!! There is an extra charge on the stuff you DON'T eat, and up to .50 per uneaten piece of sushi!! Also, you have a time limit of 2 hours to finish all your food, and they don't let you take food out in doggie bags! I really wish I would have seen this before ordering, because believing it was truly all you could eat, I ordered some stuff just to 'sample' and didn't know I would have to lick my plate clean in order to leave without extra charges. All in all, even though I ate so much I was in physical pain, it was absolutely delicious!

    

        1st dish- Miso Soup! Love

    

Next up: Sushi- California Rolls

    

    NEXT!! : Salmon fried rice and Teriyaki chicken

  Pictured above: Salmon fried rice and BBQ chicken for the Korean grill

Grilling up some chicken!! 

                                              

TEMPURA!!! Potato, squash and zucchini

 Feeling physically ill by this point...

Chicken's almost done...

And the chicken is DONE! Nom Nom Nom

I had to walk off that huge meal, so after a lengthy 1:30 Min walk, I looped back around the city to one of Vancouver's many Cupcakes locations on 797 Thurlow Street for a treat to bring back home to Montreal! *Oink Oink*

I stood outside for about half hour, before I could even stomach going in, because I was so full! Once inside, it was such a magical place for cupcake lovers! Ha! But seriously, there is always people inside and the traffic is constant for these pieces of art! 

Selling Minis, Cupcakes, and the 'Big One', cupcakes has over 18 different flavored cupcakes!

Here's just a couple:

 Red Velvet

Lemon Drop

Blue Hawaii

Sweet 16

Caramella

Mochamotion

Versace

Buttercup

Diva

Mint Condition

Koo Koo

24 Carrot 

... And that was a wrap for Monday! Back to the hotel for some R&R!

The next morning, I set out for breakfast. I stopped at Moonpennies and had an omelette and a rather large cup of coffee. 

The coffee there was exceptionally good. That's when I decide I was going to put myself to the challenge of finding Downtown Vancouver's best cup of coffee! 

Wow! I don't think I've had this much time on my hands on a layover, ever!  

Now, Vancouver's no Seattle, Havana, Lisbon, Addis Ababa or Vienna, according to this site, or is it? According to Christine Sarkis, SmarterTravel.com on the last link, "...Vancouver leads the way for a new generation of bean-to-cup coffee fanatics". Once I was finished my breakfast at moonpennies (which for the record wasn't great, I should have stuck to one of their organic baked goods which looked 10x better), I headed literally across the road to Caffe Artigiano's. The staff at the hotel even recommended it to me as I headed out in the morning, (but I opted for Moonpennies seeing that it had a cozier look). As I walked in to Artigiano's the atmosphere was great. Energetic staff, amazing looking baked goods and the coffee smelled delicious!  

I grabbed a medium l roast coffee, and a lemon-poppyseed muffin, and headed for a seat. (Why not? Since it had only been like 12 minutes since I finished breakfast and like 10 hours since my pig out at Shabusen! *Oink Oink Oink*). 

And as I searched like an outcast in a high school cafeteria for an empty place to park myself with my laptop, that's when my love affair with Artigiano's ended! (Because we all remember from last weeks post how much I love being alone in restaurants!). There was no place to sit, move, or turn! So with coffee and  muffin in hand, I headed out doors to the street. Feeling a little dejected, I sat on a random window ledge until I finished my coffee and then headed off again for my next caffeine rush. Next, I walked over to JJ Bean on Alberni, where the coffee was yummy and the staff and atmosphere was lively.Then I took a walk over to Crème de la Crumb on Granville, where i had the best ever coffee (and Croissant, altogether now *Oink Oink Oink*). It looked something like this!

I'm a sucker for great presentation!

 The staff at Crème de la Crumb were pleasant, and hey, at least I got a seat with my amazing coffee! Before heading back to the hotel, I stopped in at 'old faithful' to get a grande latte before operating the red eye home!

Although it seems Artigiano's is the way more popular choice to a lot of Vancouverites, I enjoyed the atmosphere at Moonpennies, the staff at JJ Bean and the coffee at Crème de la Crumb. (Starbucks coming in at a close second!)

Next time you're in Vancouver, take my challenge and see what coffee you prefer!

So, after a long day of walking and coffee exploring I headed back to my room, only to be greeted by a flashing red light on my phone with a message from scheduling, letting me know that my flight was now delayed 2 hours. And with that, and the fact that I had consumed something like 6 cups of coffee in 2 hours, I grabbed my book, and headed to the waterfront before having to leave Vancouver! 

Diary of a Lonely Flight Attendant

FREE Travel, Adventure, Shopping, Paris, Beaches, Geneva, Cocktails, Pilots, London, Celebrities, Museums, Cute Uniforms, Cute passengers, Los Angeles, Designer Bags, New York... did I mention shopping? Hong Kong, Massages, Sight seeing, Pearls, Brazil, Fine Dining, Chicago, Fun, Duty Free, Sydney, Sun... did I mention cocktails?

All things people think are synonymous with a flight attendant's lifestyle, and for the most part, it's not far off.

Over the past, almost 10 years I've enjoyed many of the above mentioned perks of my job. Except the cute passengers bit. David, I have never, EVER looked at the very hot, athletic, wealthy, funny and eligilble men on board!

However, what I find frequently left out from movies, blogs, reality shows and books is: the depressing, unglamorous loneliness that sometimes catches up to you with this job. 

When you first start out, there's a lot of excitement. Everything is new. Everything is a fun, first time experience. I've experienced layovers all over the world that have been absolutely thrilling! Layovers where, the party starts on the crew bus before even getting to the hotel*.  I have visited some of the worlds finest museums, dined in the classiest restaurants**, and (window) shopped in designer stores. I have schlepped through a 'Souq', gone 200 meters down into a very rare and beautiful salt mine in Bogota, haggled in a Chinese market for the latest electronic gadget***, been to a Beer Garden in Germany, and swam in the Dead Sea. I have seen the famous Christmas window display at Harrods, met celebrities, taken pictures with, under, beside, in front, and holding the Eiffel tower. I have ridden a double decker bus, been to a mosque in Turkey, I have used my layovers to visit friends and family that live all over the world that i don't otherwise get to see regularly, and I wouldn't trade those experiences for the world! But the reality for the average flight attendant is not the above mentioned lifestyle, it's spending countless nights in a hotel room in Saskatoon/Milwaukee/Winnipeg/Omaha/or Regina, and that's when layovers lose their charm... Fast!

When a layover hotel is awkwardly located, especially in a boring city, being at the 
hotel for 13+ hours can become excruciatingly long. Even when it's centrally 
located, some cities just don't have much going on. The novelty of room service wears off after about 2 months into the job, when you realize the only thing you can afford on your beginner salary is the burger, or the club sandwich... again. The hot tub and hotel pool quickly lose their charm as well, when you realize that it always seems to be just you and the very amorous honeymooners in the water. AckK! Then there's retail therapy, which puts a huge dent into your wallet, but somehow makes you feel just a little better about being away from home, friends and loved ones. It also helps the time to pass quicker! But even the high that shopping brings can eventually fade, when you have to lug all that junk you 
just bought around for the next few days, or more depressingly, when the credit card bill arrives. For the person who hates eating in public alone****, you learn there's no escaping it. Eventually, you prepare yourself on a regular basis for the occasion. By always having a magazine, good book, iPod, iPad, iPhone or in my case all of those things, because I much rather look busy then look lonely.                        (What do you think I'm doing right now!)

If you're a flight attendant, you understand other flight attendants constant tweets, multiple Facebook updates- a day, and even blogs. They're probably killing some time, and lonely. If you're not a flight attendant, now maybe you can understand!

                              
The big factor that makes a trip lonely or Amazing is the crew, or lack thereof. 

With a good crew, either front end or back end (front end: pilots, back end: flight attendants) even a five day trip can feel like a day long, fun, vacation with friends. On a trip with a 'not so fun crew' or a '1 flight attendant trip' (basically means you're an orphan and belong to no one) a two day trip can seem like a hellish eternity. 

I've also noticed, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) back at home can add to the feeling of loneliness. An otherwise, fun trip seems to be dragging on and on when you know everyone back home will be out on Friday celebrating so and so's brithday party, Jodie's Bachelorette, or any major holidays. Weekend trips seem to be the worst for this, it seems every time you call back home people are out, or just on their way out. The absolute worst is, when you try to call a few different friends and realize that they must be all together.

At the end of the day, you have to take the good (shopping, travel, cocktails, ect.) with the bad. And the bad, for the record, (in case anyone out there thought I was trying to flaunt my glamorous lifestyle) can be really bad.

                                       

So for good measure, In my almost 10 years: I have Slept on a stained, lumpy mattress (in a motel). I have been bitten by bed bugs. I have had to wash clothes and under garments in a hotel sink. I have stayed in Deer Lake (look it up). I have been punched by a deranged passenger. I have gotten an intestinal parasite abroad. I have had my wallet stolen. I have broken up fist fights (between 2 senior citizens). I have been yelled at more times then I can count. I have been poked, more then a pin cushion. I have experienced turbulence that made me hit the ceiling and then smash me onto the floor. I have (my all time favorite) been thrown up on. I have been reduced to tears by collegues. I have cleaned up everything from vomit, feces and blood. I have gotten lost and ended up in some very unsavory areas (Ramallah). I have pulled back the sheets in my hotel bed to find a used condom. I have scrounged around trolleys for uneaten food. I have been involved in a Chinese market raid, and subsequently had to hide under a table for four hours clutching my fake Prada while people around gotten taken to jail. And have been permanently jet lagged since being hired.
Ohh, the Glamour....

*I have never partaken in such crew bus Shenanigans. ;)

** And when the bill came, subsequently soiled myself in said restaurants.

*** Which didn't even turn on once back at the hotel.

**** ME