[The Intense Summer] VANCOUVER DAY 13

7/23/2014

My trip to Crystal Mall on Wednesday had intended to be a short one, but my original plans didn't end up following through as nicely as I had hoped.

The day had started off on a rather dull note, with a few grey clouds more than the day before and not a ray of sunshine in sight. I hopped onto the bus umbrella-less, but realized that it had started raining slightly when I reached the Metropolis at Metrotown bus terminal some forty five minutes later. At that point, rain had yet to become a concern of mine.

My second realization was that Crystal Mall wasn't as close to Metrotown as I had initially thought. And only after spending a good 15 minutes of trying to pinpoint my exact location on Google Maps and rerouting was I able to find myself where I wanted to be.

Something I noticed while walking along the streets bordering Metrotown was how bleh the stores appeared. It seemed as if everything that existed outside the malls belonged to a completely different world; Burnaby wasn't as glamourous as I had once though after all.

My primary reason for visiting Crystal Mall was to pick up GOT7's album from KR Multimedia, also known as my favourite K-Pop store in Vancouver. However, they were closed for lunch when I finally managed to find my way, so I too decided to take a lunch break and made my rounds to the food court.

Word of Warning: Steer clear from all Chinese food in the Crystal Mall food court. In addition to being disgustingly greasy and foul-tasting, it also happens to be inexplicably pricey. Instead, go for the food options that are located off to the side of the food court, close to the shops. While equally un-budget-friendly, these are the places that will satisfy your gustatory senses.

For the first time ever, I decided to give this off-to-side crepe place I try.

The girl working there wasn't particularly friendly, and the crepes, selling at about $5 each, weren't cheap either. But I didn't regret ordering there one bit.

Crispier than any crepe I've ever tasted, I could immediately tell that the girl had not used traditional crepe batter.
She might have used egg waffle batter instead, as she was also selling various flavours of the sweet snack there, but I can't be sure. A hint that caused me to conjure up this possibility was how she placed the crepe in front of a small fan after assembling it.

I had ordered a Chicken, Corn, and Lettuce crepe, and even with the sauce and everything, it had managed to stay crisp down to the very last bite. Amazing.

And because no meal is complete without a drink, a Strawberry Slush (made from real strawberries instead of that powdered dust powder) was purchased from Tea Plus, our favourite drink place at Crystal Mall.

Back at KR Multimedia, I was told that there had been an order mixup, and they had been sent the wrong album instead. Either way, I had already travelled a good distance to get there, and proceeded to pick up some things that my friends requested me to buy for them.

In case you're curious about their selection, they have the greatest number of K-Pop posters, fan goods (both official and unofficial), and albums that I've ever seen in Canada. Most places don't carry fan goods for rookie groups, but KR is an exception - they actually have a pretty good selection of GOT7 items!

And yes, they have more K-Pop-related merchandise than Broadcast at Pacific Mall.

After making another quick round about the mall to see if anything would catch my eye, it was about time to head back.

But, alas, it had starting raining quite heavily. And here I was, umbrella-less.

Making two more rounds around the mall to see if the rain would lessen in the meantime, it became a fact it wasn't going to lighten up at any time soon, thus forcing me to purchase a cheaply-made one for much more than it was actually worth for the safety of the poster I had just purchased.

When I got to the Metropolis bus terminal, the bus back to Richmond had already left. Being the impatient one, I went up to the SkyTrain platform to see if transferring between lines would be faster. It wasn't. So back down I headed to wait for the next bus.

Once I finally got back to Richmond, I met up with my aunt and grandmother for afternoon tea. She drove us down to Vancouver to this cozy little tea house by the name of Adonia.