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Published: July 15th 2011
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Hi all.
O.K I will admit I have absolutely no idea how to start a blog for the first time. I suppose convention dictates that introductions are usually the first priority. I'm Richard and I'm currently participating in the international volunteer programme at Banff
national park. In probability if your reading this then you are either a future volunteer on this programme, a friend back in England with to much spare time, or a relative who is reading this as confirmation that I am in fact still alive.
The point of this blog, or at least the intention for the first few of these is to give an honest version of life during this course, thus to limit any shock that may happen. Hopefully you will be given the details of where to read this before I have finished writing all of the blogs, that way you can be sure that what is written is my honest opinion. As the programme is open it has the ability to change person to person therefore you should always know that if you are planning on taking part your experience will not be the same as mine. I would also
like to take this
Banff hill view
Taken from the top of the mountain that the Juniper is at the bottom of opportunity to thank Tina for approving the idea, as well as Tim who did a great job of showing myself and Mari round on our first day, the staff at the Juniper hotel who made us feel welcome and everyone who works for park Canada who have all been very open and friendly.
So to properly start off with I arrived in Canada on the 9th of July by flying into Calgary airport. I decided to fly into Calgary because although flights to Vancouver were marginally cheaper, the additional cost and inconvenience that the bus journey meant Calgary was the better option. Upon arrival I eventually made it through security and immigration and I must admit the personal at the airport were far from pleasant (be prepared you may have to answer questions such as what are you going to do if a bear suddenly appears within touching
distance? And a response such as well that depends on what type of bear only aggravates them further) But I did make it through without to much time wasted and was able to board a Brewster bus 2 hours earlier then the one I had booked. If your wondering why I chose
Banff
View taken looking down Banff ave from the park administrative building Brewster's over greyhound buses, it is because Brewster's pick you up from the airport and I didn't fancy trudging into Calgary with my backpack during stampede, without having slept for 16 hours (including a 9 hour flight) using public transport in a city i have never visited before in order to find a bus station. The Brewster bus was very nice if a bit of a luxury trip. There were only 9 people on the entire bus if my memory is right and the additional benefits of having wifi and no luggage costs made no difference to me. One very nice benefit was that they dropped me off at my hostel, which Tina kindly booked for me. *remember that you are allowed an additional nights accommodation that is included in the programme*
I stayed in the Samesun hostel in a 6 bed dorm room which was perfectly adequate. The hostel was clean, there were lockers to store valuables (they weren't big enough to fit a backpack but easily large enough to fit a day bag.) The hostel had 2 computers where you could assess the Internet at $1 for 10 minutes. I also believe that breakfast is included in the price although I never worked out where to get it from.
The following day I was picked up from Tim from the Samesun hostel. Tim works for the Juniper lodge and has been a resident of Banff for many a year. He took me to the staff accommodation at the Juniper lodge, showed me around before leaving to pick up Mari from the bus station. The accommodation that I'm staying in is fantastic considering its free. I have been a university student for the last three years and this accommodation surpasses anything I encountered
during my student days. Everyone has their own room, however the kitchen and bathrooms are shared. I ought to point out that I am using 'shared' in a very loose fashion. The main kitchen is shared, however everyone has there own fridge, electric hobs, sink and microwave in their rooms, as well as cupboards of course should they not wish to use the communal kitchen. Although there is only a very sparse amount
of cutlery in each room. And the bathroom that I share is only used by myself and one other. The staff accommodation also has a desktop computer that anyone can use as well as free Internet and television in the communal lounge.
Ok so I have realised how much I have just rambled on for and you have probably lost interest by now so I shall go over the final two points very briefly even though they are probably more important to people than all the rubbish I have just written. Firstly the rest of the day was spent with Tim driving around seeing some of the local sights such as; spring hotel, some shops in town, tunnel mountain, lake Johnson, etc. Basically it was a very good brief look around so you could get your bearings and have a general idea about places, names and some local knowledge. Despite my brief description this tour was extremely valuable and interesting and I'm sure anyone else who is lucky enough to experience it would say the same.
The second and last item I shall mention is food cost. Remember if your planning on doing the trip that food will cost more than you expect it will. Banff is very ecological and has tried hard to keep big corporations out and use organic products. This is a very nice idea but for those of us on a shoestring budget it is not the most useful thing in the world. So expect to be paying $6 for a frozen pizza, $5+ for any type of meat. and I spent $6 on a loaf of bread, 3 apples and some bananas today. These are just to give a vague idea.
Anyway that's all from me for this blog, I need to post it to stop myself rambling on continuously and give me a chance to move onto my first proper day. So hopefully you didn't find this too boring and I promise that in the future these will be more concise and relevant to anyone that's interested.
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