Banff !

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G'day !!

I'm in Banff at the moment and absolutely loving it ! It is very pretty and is in the heart of the rockies. Snowy mountains everywhere. It is very touristy here, alot like a Port Douglas.

I've been here just over a week, just been chillin' out with my cousin from Melbourne Shannon. He is working at a local restaurant/bar called "Bumpers" so whenever he goes to work, i've just been trying to keep myself busy. We've been out a few times on the town having a few (or alot of drinks) meeting and catching up with the locals.

We've been drinking alot of hot chocolate's and coffees here, it is so cold it isn't funny. Abit of a change from hot and humid Cairns where all you ever do is drink icy cold drinks and stuff !

One of the local young Canadian girls (who works with Shannon) took us up in her Jeep one day to Lake Louise which was very pretty. There was one problem though, the bloody thing was frozen !! We were able to walk all over it and stuff. I'll have to try to get back there in summer. Apparently it is beautiful then.

Yesterday Shannon and I went up the local Gondilia (or Skyrail) up to one of the mountains here. It was scary, we walked from the township to the bottom of it but took the wrong street so we ended up hiking though these icy cold woods for a short cut. We didn't have a clue where we were going (and there were bloody tracks everywhere) and I was so paranoid, looking around for Bears and Cougars, phew we finally made it. It was really steep up the slope and my heart dropped a few times because we were so high up in the Gondilia. We walked around up the top, took some photos overlooking Banff and the surrounding mountains and then had a bite to eat.

Thats about it for Banff so far, just watched a couple of DVD's and been to the movies once and saw "Inside Man" with Denzel Washington in it. Allan, You'll be pleased to know i've been showing a few of the local Canadians your awesome movie too mate. They love it !!

Shannon and I are planning on staying here for another 2 weeks or so and start heading over to Montreal and meeting another cousin Ben. Then for Shannon's birthday in May we're going to head down into the United States to New York and a huge Heavy Metal Music Festival (Shannon loves that sort of music.. I don't too much, but it will be an experience). We'll also try to see some Wrestling and I would love to see a concert from my favourite band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Bye and take care !

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