Adventure Vacations | Crazy Travel Stories

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a major city with people as they were in Vancouver. Let me give you a few examples:

Falafel un-Nazi

Remember that Seinfeld episode with the soup nazi?

Well, we came upon a falafel restaurant that looked much like the soup nazi’s place, except it was even smaller.  There was a line out the door two nights in a row, so we figured the food had to be good.  When we made our way to the front of the line, the shop reminded me so much of the soup nazi’s place that I timidly asked the cook if I could take a picture.

Here’s where I discovered just how different these guys were from the soup nazi: they didn’t just allow me to snap my shot; they invited me behind the counter to pose with one of the cooks for a picture.  Afterwards, as we were paying and they were handing us our food, the cashier asked if we needed anything else.  I noticed that they had put napkins in the bag, so I said that’s all I cared about.  But then he grabbed a big handful of more napkins and threw them in the bag too.  Great example of small stuff that didn’t cost them anything, but made me happy.

Helpful Strangers…on Public Transportation?!

The public transportation in Vancouver is quite nice.  The subway/lightrail system is clean, quiet and easy to navigate.  So are the buses.  However, despite the logical layout, we still weren’t completely confident finding our way around.  Rich and I would be on a bus, looking at our maps and discussing street names, and how to get where we needed to go.  And on three separate occassions, a stranger would actually volunteer information to help us get there.  Would that ever happen in Boston?  New York?  Even Denver?  No way, Jose.  You’d be lucky in most major cities to have someone give you directions if you approached them nicely.  But to have strangers offer to help?  Unheard of!

Sandwich-Maker/Information Booth Worker/My New BFF

If you’ve never been to Stanley Park, that’s reason alone to visit Vancouver.  It’s 10% bigger than Central Park in NYC.  And it’s awesome, with water surrounding it on 3 sides.  It’s scenic, peaceful, quiet, and there’s some type of activity for everyone there.

We only had 2 full days in Vancouver, and this was high on the list of sights we wanted to see, so before our cruise ship left at 5pm, we walked to the park.  We didn’t have enough time to see the whole thing, so we stopped at an information booth to ask how to maximize our time there.  The worker there must have spent 10 minutes showing me the map and giving me suggestions.  There were several people in line behind me, but no one so much as snorted that I was taking too long.

And as it turns out, I actually wasn’t at an information booth at all – it was a little sandwich hut.  All the more reason for people to complain, or for the employee to tell me to get lost.  But she didn’t, and they didn’t.

Of course, I ordered a sandwich.

I also had an avacado in my purse, so Rich asked for a knife.  In true Vancouver form, she not only gave us a knife, but also a spoon and some citrus salt, which she said would be fantastic on an avacado (it was!).

How do they get a whole city to voluntarily go above and beyond?  Is there some sort of secret mandate that outsiders don’t know about?  Is there heavy peer pressure to be nice?  Or does the goodwill just rub off from person to person?  I think that’s it.  Rich and I aren’t generally friendly, outgoing people, but we found ourselves warming up to strangers a bit during our short stay there.  And it felt good.