Real Conversation #10: Nightlife (Gabriel & Lexy)
GABRIEL: Okay Lexy now let's talk about nightlife, here in Vancouver, in my opinion we don't have like a very vibrant nightlife, it's not like, you know, Las Vegas or Miami, but there is still something going on every once in a while, and there are some clubs, there is Granville street where there are many clubs and you know, usually younger people go there though, and there is also Yaletown where people that are a little bit more upscale and older go to, to party, so do you like going out here in Vancouver, where do you like to go with your friends in the evenings?
LEXY: In the evenings I like going to, I like starting off at going to a restaurant first and having some drinks, and then after that I like going clubbing, I go to Granville street, but one of my favorite places is Gastown, which is close to the water.
GABRIEL: Yes, right now I believe that Gastown is a popular clubbing destination in Vancouver, it didn't use to be as far as I remember, but only recently that they started becoming, or the clubs in Gastown started becoming a little bit more popular, so they've been attracting a lot of people over there, and do you go there on a weekly basis, every weekend, how often do you usually go?
LEXY: I usually go every weekend.
GABRIEL: Every weekend?
LEXY: I go out a lot, yes.
GABRIEL: Excellent.
LEXY: It's a lot of fun.
GABRIEL: It's a lot of fun, and when you're clubbing, do you like having a drink, do you like dancing, what is it like, especially I think that this question is good, because for people who are not from North America, they can learn a little bit about it as well?
LEXY: Yes, usually when I go to different clubs, they have different types of venues, each club that you go to, the majority of them specialize in different types of music, you can go somewhere and just have a drink and listen to music, other places it's louder music with a lot of dancing, one of my favorite places I like to go is called Guilt And Co., and when you go there they have live bands, it's different every week and you can actually play board games, which is really fun.
GABRIEL: Right, I've been there once or twice perhaps and it was a lot of fun. The bands, or the band I think, I think there was only one band… it was good, and what kind of music do they generally play, is it jazz or is it rock?
LEXY: It depends week to week, there have been jazz and rock bands, also sometimes there are people that come in and play indie music, independent music.
GABRIEL: Oh okay, indie music, okay right, that's interesting, are they mostly local bands that play in this venue?
LEXY: Yes, Guilt And Co. likes to support local bands, so there are people that sign up each week and they come in and promote all of their music online or selling CDs and it's a lot of fun.
GABRIEL: Excellent, I'm going to have to go there myself, and back to the drinks, what kind of drinks do you like usually, do you like wine, beer?
LEXY: My favorite drink, well I love wine, I'm a big wine fan, red and white.
GABRIEL: Both of them?
LEXY: Yes.
GABRIEL: Excellent.
LEXY: Not at the same time.
GABRIEL: Excellent, I personally love red wine, however I do not like white wine, for me I don't know why, but I've never enjoyed white wine nearly as much as red wine, and I'm a big fan of merlot, I love merlot, and you know, I've tried wine from many different places and countries and I think that I love French wines, Spanish wines, but at the same time I can try wine from everywhere and like it. So do you have any favorite types of red wine or white wine?
LEXY: I like wine especially from South Africa and Italy.
GABRIEL: Interesting.
LEXY: Yes.
GABRIEL: South African wines?
LEXY: Yes, I went to South Africa about eight years ago and we went to a place called Stellenbosch, it's a popular university town that they have a lot of wineries too, so we did a few wine tours and I really like their wine selections, so I bought a few bottles of them to bring back to Canada.
GABRIEL: Interesting, and are you also able to buy this same kind of wine now here in Vancouver, do they import this specific wine from South Africa or no?
LEXY: There are few wineries where you can get wine from in Canada, but some are just exclusive to South Africa.
GABRIEL: Oh I see, because I would guess that if they are a smaller winery they won't necessarily be able to have a really big supply to the entire world, so they will just keep it in South Africa, I would guess.
LEXY: Yes.
GABRIEL: Interesting.
LEXY: Actually when I went to Italy this summer and I also went to Greece too and one of the wineries in Greece, it was this cute little winery and they only produce wine just to sell to tourists and in restaurants, they don't sell it in grocery stores or anything, they kept it more exclusive within the family and for people that come up and have the whole winery experience.
GABRIEL: Interesting, and what city was that, do you recall the name?
LEXY: It was in Crete.
GABRIEL: In Crete, oh interesting okay, would love to go there, I've not been to Greece yet.
LEXY: It's great, everyone is really friendly if you ever need to ask for directions someone will help you, great food and really good nightlife.
GABRIEL: Excellent, and what, uh… do you speak any Greek?
LEXY: No. GABRIEL: Did many people there speak English? LEXY: Yes a lot of people did speak English, yes, you can get around speaking English and asking questions, it's not that bad.
GABRIEL: Excellent, did you go to Athens as well?
LEXY: Yes I did, that was the first stop, it was uh… it's a very busy city, I like going more to the Greek islands, and my favorite island was Santorini.
GABRIEL: I have heard good things about it; did you go in the summer?
LEXY: Yes.
GABRIEL: Excellent, and I would guess that it was very warm?
LEXY: Yes, it was very warm, right now in Canada it's a little cold compared to Greece, so I like hotter temperatures.
GABRIEL: Definitely, but something that I think that is also important to mention is that here in Vancouver we have very high temperatures compared to the rest of Canada, Toronto and Montréal right now, they… I'd guess their temperature over there is -10°, -20°.
LEXY: Yes, people call Vancouver, British Colombia, the “Orange County of Canada”, we have lots of great weather, we get you know a fair amount of snow at the mountains, and our temperatures don't drop below 0°.
GABRIEL: Interesting, it is quite warm over here compared to anywhere else and even our neighbor province, Alberta, is just covered in snow at the moment, meanwhile here we just have rain, I think that the temperature today is around 7°C, so it's, well, it's not as warm as Brazil of course or Greece in the summer, but for Canada it's definitely quite warm.
LEXY: Yes we are very lucky in Vancouver.
GABRIEL: We are, that's true, so that's great thank you Lexy.
LEXY: Thank you.
