Why, you ask? Well, for starters, 'cause I heard it's absolutely stunning. And photos like these only serve to confirm that notion:
(This shot comes from a series of breathtaking shots taken in 2008, as collected by the Boston Globe.)
Vancouver has been, for some time now, the next Great North American city to cross off my list. It just sounds perfect: a bustling, vibrant city intimately enveloped in the beauty and grandeur of its surrounding environs.
I'm in need of a change of scenery, if only for a few days. And Vancouver strikes me as the perfect getaway from LA. From what everyone tells me, I won't be disappointed by it.
It's funny to think how we tend to idealize far-off places. We often set up lofty expectations for what are essentially unknown quantities in our otherwise-known worlds, because, hey, these getaways seem to be the perfect antidotes--the perfect escapes--from the places we're stuck in now. In the song "Boston," the lead singer of (adult contemporary) rock band Augustana sings about leaving California and moving to Boston (he claims--contrary to what TV's Cheers would have us believe--that it's "where no one knows my name"). In Jonathan Larson's rock musical RENT, the young bohemians of New York City's run-down Alphabet City sing of leaving the rats and roaches of the East Village and heading out to Santa Fe (a detail which, when I someday meet Larson in that great big Life Cafe in the sky, I'll have to ask him about: Johnny, I know it's a complete 180ยบ from NYC, but as someone who grew up in the Southwestern U.S., I ask...really? Santa Fe? Why not Santa Barbara?).
I have a few of these (perhaps over-) idealized getaway places myself, places that I'm dying to see at some point in the next few years. Biloxi, Mississippi. Savannah, Georgia. Boston. (Sure, why not?)
And, yes, Vancouver, BC. I'm excited to see if it really is as amazing as I imagine it to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment