Snapshots of Vancouver

It was surreal, going back to Vancouver. I arrived early on Tuesday morning and took the Skytrain from the airport with daily commuters. As always, I got off at Vancouver City Centre Station and took the escalator up to Granville Street with my suitcase in tow. The skies were grey, but only the lightest drops of rain fell. It was eight am. I was on my way to the office, following the same route that I took every time I went there in the past four years.

Even though I had just arrived, in many ways it felt like I’d never left.

We left Vancouver for good in February last year, after more than a decade in the city. That decade was split into a few pieces, interspersed with years spent in Paris, but mostly, Vancouver was home. We spent most of our adult lives there. Most of my adult friendships started there. But while I miss my friends, this second, longer visit to the city – I was back for the briefest stay last August – served as a reminder of why we made the decision to leave.

There is so much I love about Vancouver. The shopping is incredible – but the constant temptation and pressure to always have something new can feel relentless, especially since the city is already so expensive to live in. The weather is beautiful – unless it rains, which is so often does. To me, the rain is oppressive. It only took one morning of it to make me remember how hard it was for me to live under grey skies day in and day out for months. (Not to mention that carrying a purse and an umbrella at the same time is a juggling act I do not relish doing regularly.) There is so much to do – but so little to do that doesn’t cost money, unless the sun is out.

We had some wonderful moments. The time spent catching up with old friends was priceless. It was wonderful to be able to indulge in our old favourite restaurants without worrying about how the nights out would impact our monthly budget. But at the end of the week, I was ready to come home.

Vancouver will always have a special place in my heart. It’s the city that allowed me to grow and become the person I wanted to be. But some places are home, while others are just somewhere you live. Paris is home. We just lived in Vancouver. Right now, we’re in Winnipeg. It’s been relatively easy to settle in here. But who knows what might come next?