My Favourite Place on the Waterfront

Printer-friendly versionThis is my submission sent to CBC on their “Think Vancouver” series:

Third Beach is a place with great significance and fond memories for me. That’s where we saw the ocean for the first time, walking through Stanley Park in September 1972 after we arrived here from Germany. Our joy at seeing the water and the view over English Bay on a sunny and warm day in September was a stark contrast to our arrival at the CN Station on Main Street. It confirmed our resolve to make Vancouver our new home.

Coming from Europe we assumed that the train station was located in the city center. Our first impression of Vancouver was disappointing. We did not arrive in the best part of the city and had not yet seen any of the waterfront. We proceeded to look for a place to stay and found a furnished unit at forty-seven Dollars a week in a four-story building on Broadway near Main, the walls painted “institutional green”, smelling of Lysol, with a fire escape right outside our bedroom window. Soon after, we found our way westward, discovered Stanley Park and the West End with “vacancy” signs everywhere. We settled for a one-bedroom suite (at hundred-thirty-five Dollars a month a bargain compared to the weekly rental on Broadway) in a high-rise near Robson and Denman, overlooking Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains.