The Fair at PNE

The Fair at PNE is an annual two week event that combines an adventure park, carnival, food festival, marketplace and animal show. It takes place in East Vancouver and is far enough East that the less desirable members of Vancouver street life aren't bothered with it. They are visible having the craic (so to speak) on the bus journey though.  Once you get to the Fair a general ticket will set you back about $20 and you can eat until you are obese, get nauseous on a rollercoaster or some other deathtrap, catch some washed up bands like Hanson (LOL), lose all your money trying to win a bigass stuffed panda, buy a schticky (LOLOLOL), go for a stroll with a snow cone corn dog deep friend mars bar lemonade and generally re-enact any North American first date/romantic comedy. EVERYTHING costs extra, but you can get 'ride tickets' or something like that. And tbh you could bring a lunch and just spend the day wandering.

You can also see some crazy animals like 'sheep', 'chickens' and 'cows', that all live in a building called a 'farm' and it's where you get dinner from. Because even the thought of a hula hoop makes my stomach churn, I sat out all of the adventure park rides except the Ferris Wheel. I could have sworn even the Wheel itself contrived to look patronising as I struggled to calm my treacherous insides during the slightest rocking motion.

That said, this was a great slice of (North) Americana. It is an assault on all the senses and (though I hate the phrase) FUN FOR ALL THE FAMILY. There are beer gardens, EXTREME stunt riders, acrobat and animal shows (not together, unfortunately) loads of food stalls to keep little people full of sugar, animals, games etcetcetc. I didn't have my camera with me this time, hence the odd collection of photos from my phone.

Those white and grey things in the sky are called 'clouds'. Apparantly they become quite common around these parts in another month or so.. I tried my hand at a few of the games and won about 100 coupon tickets. That entitled me to 5 hamburger yo-yos, some pencils or two weird alien figurines. Despite my best protests I was not allowed to cash them in for 5 hamburger yo-yos :(