love & raindrops for christmas

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welcome to part trois of my december/january journey

monique and i melted down from the snow into the rainy days of vancouver.

we settled into the cambie - a backpackers in gastown (love!) - and soon became best buddies with all the staff at the bar downstairs...

the wintery rain that is vancouver in dec

our beloved hostel that became our home for xmas

at the cambie bar, rocking the canadian beer

iconic brick walls of the cambie bar - interesting reads

(love the hubert cumberdale signature)

when the rain did cease a little, we ventured outside to wander around the area of gastown. we fell in love with the cobbled pavements, vintage lamp posts and artsy stores. again - like most of the places we travel - we want to come back and live here for a year or so! just another awesome place to add onto our forever growing list of places to live...

the best antique store i have ever had the privilege of entering

filled with trinkets and truffles (serisouly, they were scrummy)

if only we had room in our suitcases to bring it all back home

umbrellas - essential goodness

we hid in the hostel a little more than we should have as it was hard to bear the windy rainy weather, and mons and i felt a little isolated with not knowing anyone in the city. however, we redeemed ourselves by randomly gaining a crew of aussie's and kiwi's on christmas eve in the cambie bar (plus a few others of various nationalities). at the end of the night it was as though we were all old friends. it's a christmas eve that will be hard to beat.

christmas day was an odd one for both of us. it wasn't our typical kiwi barbie on the beach surrounded by family day. i don't think it really registered that it was christmas day for us at all... we slept our hangovers off for the most part and wandered around the ghostly gastown streets of vancouver. mid afternoon we exchanged gifts and then had a quiet night in the cambie. it was different, but it was still nice. we were besties together again overseas and that's what made our christmas.

our assortment of pressies

love you sweet pea and thanks for the best christmas away from home

xxx