In June of 1996, an airplane landed at YVR from Dubai. We carried only the name of a hotel and a few suitcases. While overseas, we had looked and called to reserve a cheap hotel in Vancouver. We'd had a Vacouver tourist book for at least a year. Yet, we certainly didn't know much about the area.
A taxi driver dutifully brought us from the airport to the Patricia Hotel on Hasting Street. The facilities seemed adequate as we'd booked for a week. Not having a clue as to where we would eventually move, we figured that 'budget' was the way to go. We didn't know that we had picked a part of Vancouver which is often referred to as Canada's worst postal code. We could view the waterfront but, from our third story window, we could also see hookers and drug dealers. It was quite an eye-opening welcome to Canada!
Then, we scanned the newspapers and found an "agency" that would provide lists of rental apartments. We paid a small fee and walked away with a listing that would contain the apartment which we'd eventually first rent.
The next step involved searching around for those places. We did this by transit and had come to know the SkyTrain. We marked off places which were near the Expo Line. One such place was in New Westminster. We settled on an Agnes Street address as the price was $550 per month and it was just 25 minutes from downtown. A week later, I rented a car so we could lug suitcases to the new dwelling which was, of course, without furniture.
Over the next two years we came to love our adopted, small city and purchased an apartment that is within sight of this initial living space.