Happy New Year!

3. January 2016 ~ by Julian ~ Leave a comment

So much has happened in the last few days, I don’t even know where to start. For example, in a final push we were able to finalize all the hard work, dedication, blood, sweat, tears and will-power that went into what we have decided to call ‘Last Year’ and have already started a new, even more ambitious project, tentatively titled ‘2016’. What’s that you’re saying? You came up with the same title for your current project?? Damn… well, anyway: good luck with that!

In their eternal wisdom, the Vancouverites don’t allow for people to burn their own fireworks, so there never were any. This year, however, they decided to compensate their citizens for this unpopular rule by setting up New Year’s Eve festivities – including an 11-minute fireworks display – right in the popular Canada Place of Downtown Vancouver. Party animal that I am, I decided to go… somewhere else. I figured, with everybody crowded together downtown, I’d watch the whole thing from a safe distance in Stanley Park. Luckily, nobody else had that idea, except for the few thousand people around me.

The fireworks were alright, I guess. I don’t really know, they look mostly the same to me. And it’s been decades since I was able to enjoy them without constant misgivings about disturbed wildlife, literally burnt money, and toxic smokes. This one didn’t have Smaug, that much I’m sure of. Not even tiny fiery butterflies. So, compared to the Lord of the Rings, it sucked. But the crowd cheered, so it seems to have done its job. 🙂 Maybe I was just stressed out trying to find a spot where I could put the camera, and then finding the right settings, and then move the camera because someone stepped right in front of it.

When they were done with the fireworks, Coal Harbor had vanished into a thick cloud of… gunpowder residue? Smoke? Fog? Anyway, it was pretty much gone. So were all the people. One second to the next, I was alone in Stanley Park (not because of the fog, but because everybody went home). I figured I’d take a few more photos while I was there. Might as well, Gaga and Albert were long asleep, anyway.

This guy is standing on a large concrete block, which served as a tripod for most of my fireworks shots. I thought he’d earned his spot on my memory card.

The harbor was quite the wraithlike sight in the thick fog. What was even more eerie, though, was when they switched the light off. Which they did. There were still the lights of the city, and of the North Shore, but the complete harbor was suddenly gone. It’s not small, mind you. That was pretty impressive. David Copperfield couldn’t have done a better job.

Finally, I was too cold to take any more pictures and rode my bike back home. And that was how 2015 ended, and 2016 began. And we lived happily ever after, or at least until I bought the wrong cheese for Gaga’s cheesecake. Which, honestly, doesn’t deserve its own photo.

Yesterday, we finally took a bus and left the city behind for a few hours. We went to Lighthouse Park, a dense little forest area with some of the oldest trees in the region and a commanding view of the Burrard Inlet. Point Atkinson Lighthouse was built in the 1900s and was a first outpost in an area still held by natives. It could only be reached by boat. Nowadays, you can reach it on a number of trails running through the park and enjoy the picturesque view.

See? Beautiful. We loved the view so much, we decided to stay and walk one of the longer trails back. (Props to Gagus, she had Albert strapped to her chest.) We even went down to the water, to get a few different angles of this amazing scenery.

Yeah, that’s not us. There were two other tourists enjoying the view. At least they made selfies. We didn’t. We were too excited.

Okay, all joking aside, it’s a beautiful forest with old gnarly trees. And the dense fog, although stealing that apparently really great view from us, made for a beautifully cinematic light at least in some places. Here’s a few snaps.

It wasn’t what we expected, but I enjoyed the silence and nature immensely.

Let’s see, what else can I show… Ha. Gaga’s Christmas tree decorations:

Hand-collected pine cones from Stanley Park, hand-made origami stars and microwave-dried orange slices. I think it was our most beautiful tree, ever.

Also: food! For the 24th, we had Salmon (to honor the Polish tradition of eating fish) and Swabian potato salad (to honor… Swabian potato salad). Albert had… the same.