Into the Rockies!

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Oh yeah.. I have made it into the Rockies!! What a trip it has been. I had found a rideshare from Burnaby to Kelowna for 15 bucks. It took about 4 hrs and I was driving! Loved it. I stayed at the Samesun hostel for almost three weeks. The first week flew by because the hostel was filled with awesome people and the weather was finally sunny and hot. The second week I bought a longboard (long skateboard) and broke my thumb at two places. A few days afterwards I got to go to surgery, this was on Monday the 27th of June. The third week started off like a blur because of the painkillers. The night after my surgery the icing started to fade out slowly and I was in for a treat. I thought, this whole surgery thing won't be that bad. The surgery itself wasn't that bad actually. I came in, got changed, watched some tennis, in my robe, on the bed. Some nurses came in once in a while to ask me questions and wash my hand. After that, they rolled me into a huge room with glass all around. The view was amazing, mountains, sunshine, wasn't too bad. They gave me an iv and told me what stuff they wanted to pump into me. One minute I was lying there, staring at what they were doing, the next minute I felt them putting on the bandage and I slowly started to wake up again. All in all, smooth operation.

Shelley brought me to the clinic and back, so nice of her. At the hostel there were plenty of people to help me out and distract me. The first few days were really crap. The painkillers made me feel like a zombie and the splint they gave me wasn't done properly. After three days I stopped taking the painkillers, didn't think it was worth it. A week later I was worried about the swelling in my hand and I went back to the hospital. They gave me a new splint and I could see the pins sticking out of my hand when he removed the old one. That was freaky! I can go fishing with my hand basically..

With my new splint on I felt it was time to continue my journey to the Rockies. The lucky bastard that I am, I happened to meet two Aussies that are roadtripping in the same direction for the Stampede in Calgary. They warned me that we might get stranded on the way there because the car they bought had some mechanical malfunctions. Basically the fourth cillinder was broke and oil was getting in places were it isn't supposed to get. The mechanic told them they might have 6 to 6000 km before it will brake down. Very specific indeed.. So I hopped on and we were on our way. This was on Wednesday the 6th.

It was an epic trip with those guys. Too bad I only joined them for three days, I'll miss them. I still can't believe we actually made it to Banff! Every time we had to stop for an intersection the engine turned off and he had to restart it quickly once the light turned green. Also, once we entered the mountains, every steep road turned on this red light which made us slightly paranoid. We had already bought enough food and alcohol just in case we would strand on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. The first night we decided to cherish the fact we made it to Golden and give the car some rest. We stayed in a small hostel that night and had some drinks with the owners. I started to grow attached to these lads, they are an awesome duo.

The next day we made it to Banff in two or three hours. The scenery became more and more amazing. As expected the Samesun hostel here is also really nice. They have a bar downstairs and a lot of travellers from around the world, as always. What is remarkable is the amount of Australians there are here. They can get a working visa really easily so a lot of them work here.

Banff is a really pretty but touristy place. A cute, small town with amazing mountains all around. What I've heard is that Jasper is even prettier and less touristy. I really wanted to go there but I wasn't sure how to get there. It is a two/three hour drive (one of the most scenic routes in the world!) but the greyhound takes about 12 hours to get there with all the detours. That didn't sound appealing to me so I didn't think I would end up going there. Luckily there is this company called Moose tours that offers tours around the Rockies and Vancouver. I hopped on the bus for a four day adventure in Banff and Jasper national parcs.

The itinerary of the trip are on this site if anyone wants to look it up: http://www.moosenetwork.com/content.php?id=15

The first two nights we stayed in the mountains (also known as- bear country) without showers nor electricity. The last night we stayed at the HI-hostel in Jasper where unfortunately the warm water wasn't working anymore.. So we had to drive downtown to the swimming pool to finally have a shower. In one of those open group showers where you normally wash off quickly that is.. But it definitely felt really good. Especially because this was an active tour with a lot of hiking and sightseeing. We were proper sweating every day. Damn was I happy I brought wet naps with me!

The tour started with a full van, Alana our tourgide, two Dutchies, three Brits, two Japanese girls, a German and me. It was so much fun, all the lakes, canyons, waterfalls, wildlife, mountains, trees, rivers, streams.. Sometimes you could get tired of people because you are all constantly together. Some of them took a tour all the way from Vancouver. After four days I was happy to have some time to myself. But still, the tour was incredible. We visited Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Maligne Lake, Lake Minniwanka, Horseshoe Lake, Wapta Lake, Bow Lake, Mistaya Lake, Vermillion Lake, Edith Lake and probably some more. Other spectacles we saw were Mistaya canyon, the Weeping Wall, Icefields Parkway, Columbia Glacier and the Athabasca Glacier we drove on with big explorer vehicles. There is so much more we´ve seen during the trip, it was incredible. And the nights in wooden cabins in the mountains were really sweet. Nice campfire in the evenings with marshmellows and guitars. It felt like a dream, so much beauty in one place. Sometimes I had enough of all the hiking and getting up at 7 in the morning, but it was so worth it! Probably needed this exercise after three weeks of relaxing in Kelowna.

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