hung out with the hippies!

today i met up with two fellow dundonians that i met at the swap meeting on friday. we had previously decided to head to a street carnival that was happening on commercial drive. this is an end of vancouver that i hadnt visited before. after walking quite a distance and a bit of a round the world for a short cut i eventually met up with kerry and grant. we dandered across to commercial drive, about half an hour or so walk from where we met and found the street carnival. we didnt really know what to expect or how big it was going to be. commercial street in known to be the hippy end of vancouver and it certainly was! it was a car free day in vancouver so a few different streets had been closed off for the day - this was one of them! instead it was taken over with tonnes of stalls and live bands, acts, drummers, roller bladers, dancers, hula hoopers, everything! there was a lot of stalls for green peace things, eco freindly, places selling sofas for $75 etc!! a complete random mish mash of everything. it was amazing just walking up and down the street and watching people. it made me wonder what these people actually wear normally or if this is their norm!?

we walked up and down the street about two times - it was a rather lengthy street and constantly found new things to look at and entertain us! some of the bands and drummers were amazing. as brazil had won their football match there was a lot of people with flags etc dancing on the street along with the drummers. it was amazing to watch people just having such a brilliant time and completely going for it with the dancing! i have to admit as tempting as it was to join in, we resisted!

the favourite sight of the day had to be the roller skaters, there was an outdoor roller disco going on, there was even a human disco ball! (see pic) the people all dressed up in rather interesting attire - guys in shiny cycling shorts etc (i hang my head in shame as im pretty sure i had a pair very similar when i was about 6) but it was brilliant to watch no less. some of them were brilliant, others thought they were brilliant and others looked like they had never had a go before! but everyone mucked in and helped eachother up when they fell!

another bonus of the day was that we didnt have to buy lunch, lots of freebees took the place. eco freindly/"uber healthy" crisps, granola bars and "happy planet" radience shots saved us our pennies! tho kerry and i did invest in a hugeee ass slice of melon each! (see pic) it was a bit of a mission to get our mouths around them and to get to the centre of the huggee slices but it was super yummy and a bargin at a doller per slice - or so we thought, we later saw full water melons for 89cents - bargin!!!but it was still very yummy!

by the end of the walking about and people watching extravaganza we decided it was time to head home. sore feet and needing the loo badly made it a relief to get home but it was a brilliant day!

its brilliant how there always seems to be so much going on here, lots of people watching has been happening! there are sooo many cultures here, yet everyone is SO friendly. even today it just seemed like everyone knew eachother. its really cool to just be able to stand back and watch it all going on around me as well as getting involved! just incase your wondering, dont worry im not going to come back a hippy - as tempting as it was to get the roller skates on, a few dreadlocks put in and to buy a lifetime supply of 100% natural happy planet energy shots i dont think that will get me a job! (my mission for tomorrow - bring on some more sore feet and some more miles covered!!)