Image credit: Tommy Au
I'm so excited!!! I'm going to be in my hometown Vancouver, Canada over Christmas! Booked my flight and will be flying out on December 4th, returning December 28th. That's a hell of a long time, but it was the cheapest rate I could find and it's still crazy expensive. Cross-Atlantic travel can be really expensive, especially over Christmastime, but what can you do? On the way home I have a really long stop-over in Amsterdam, so I've decided I'm going to take the train into town if I'm feeling up to it, and do some strolling around the city before my connection flight back to Switzerland - how fun!
I haven't visited Vancouver in years, in fact I can't remember the last time I was there. It must have been over 3 years by now. My family lives there, by now I'm the only one still remaining in Europe. My sister lived in London for a long time, but she recently moved back to Canada for good. So this will be the first Christmas that my family has celebrated together in a long, long time and I think it will be really fun.
Image credit: ~jah
Since I'm going to be there for so long, I'm going to write up a whole list of things I want to do! I'm definitely going to have at least a daytrip to Seattle to do some cheap shopping and visit some American stores, and see if there's a Cosmetic Company Outlet somewhere nearby. (Still have to look into that!) But Vancouver now has a lot of these American chainstores already, like Sephora, Forever21, etc. so I know I'll be doing some major damage.
I also want to eat lots of yummy ethnic food - Vancouver boasts a huge cultural variety, especially in regards to Asian cuisine, and I have been desperately missing that in Switzerland. I am bored to tears of European restaurants here, and there are not many authentic Asian restaurants here where the food doesn't taste like Europeanized crap, and overpriced to say the least! I've been following a really good Vancouver food blog called Ethniceats.ca and I've been salivating and making a list of all the places I want to hit up. I'm really upset the Richmond Night Market won't be on when I'm there, I was planning on gorging myself with authentic stall food! But there's still so many other places to check out. Sushi and Japanese food in general is going to be number one on my list as it comes plentiful and of high quality in Vancouver, followed by some great Indian and Chinese places. I need to have my dim sum fix!! If any locals can share their favorite ethnic food eats in Vancouver, I'd be really happy! Especially for some great sushi, dim sum, Chinese hotpot, and bubble tea places, or any great Vancouver food websites. I'm not looking for swanky, trendy places - more like cheap, good and authentic! I personally prefer hole in the wall places rather than overpriced scenester hangout restaurants with nouvelle cuisine.
Image credit: disneymike
Speaking of Seattle, what are some must see spots I should hit up to shop? I'm definitely going to go to Sephora and MAC and F21, but what are some other great stores? Also, does anyone know if there is a Cosmetic Company Outlet somewhere around or close to Seattle? I found this one in Tulalip - anyone been there before and how was it? I honestly don't plan to do any sightseeing in Seattle, I did that before.
Lastly, I'm thinking about hosting some kind of a meet & greet during this time in Vancouver to meet up with some subscibers - I would of course announce it on my Youtube channel and first see what kind of feedback it gets, if people would be into it. Anyone could come, even if you're in Seattle or somewhere close to the border. It would be super low key and probably be a couple hours at most, just some time to hang out and maybe have a communal trip to MAC or Sephora or something, and have a coffee. Would anyone be into this? Please let me know in comments if you live in the area and would be interested in attending such a function, nothing formal or concrete yet, just tossing some ideas around!
So, those are my Christmas plans. Going to have to tighten the financial belt a bit leading up to December, so I will have lots of spending and "fun money" in Vancouver. I'll be blogging and vlogging hopefully lots in Vancouver, and prepare some makeup videos ahead of time to upload while I'm there so my makeup channel doesn't just "dry up" for all of December! Anyone got any traveling plans coming up? Share in the comments!
