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Published: April 12th 2015
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Wow, what a place to stay for 10 days! Banff, all I can say to describe this little gem of a town is WOW. We arrived here at 830am after an overnight bus trip from Vancouver, and to our delight everything was white, covered in fresh fluffy snow! It had snowed all the night before and we were stoked! The second thing I noticed was that we were literally surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains. Holy crap what a sight! The third thing I noticed was that suddenly we were FREEZING. Haha.
It was Easter Sunday when we arrived, and we meandered through the snowy streets, marvelling at how truly pretty this place is. Absolutely incredible. I've never seen or been anywhere like this place. We got some brekky and then heard church bells. Best timing. We followed the sound to a cute church on the main street and joined the service to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus our Lord. I thank Him every day for this incredible opportunity to travel His beautiful world.
Eventually we were able to check in to our hostel, gladly because we were absolutely buggered. The first couple of days in Banff we
simply walked around and explored. We went window shopping in all the cute little gift shops and found a cafe that makes delicious hot chocolates. We strolled across the wooden pedestrian bridge over the Bow River and walked up to the Tunnel Mountain District. Everywhere we look is so pretty!
Wednesday we caught the bus over to the Sulphur Mountain Gondola and rode the glass gondola up to the peak. Wow. 360 views of all the mountains surrounding us. We could see all of Banff as well. We had a beautiful clear day so we could see for miles and miles. We did a short walk up to the oldschool weather station which had even BETTER views if that's possible. It was snowy and slippy and so awesome. Sooo worth it.
Friday was even better! We had booked a tour to Johnston Canyon for an ice walk. Our tour guide picked us up outside the hostel and drove a little group of us half an hour away to the canyon. Here we strapped ice cleats to our boots, grabbed a hiking pole and then walked a 5km or so round trip to the upper falls. It was sensational.
The canyon is half melting so we saw stunning scenes of icy waterfalls and flowing rivers still with chunks of ice. The sights were mind blowing. We were literally walking on ice most of the time and it took some getting used to with the ice cleats. I nearly fell on my face haha. Our tour guide was the best, and at the end we all had a cup of delicious hot chocolate. Such an amazing day that I will never forget.
We've been chilling out ever since, enjoying hot chocolates and walking around town. Tomorrow we pick up a hire car so we can drive the Icefield Parkway. It's one of the most scenic routes in the world so I am excited! We will drive through Banff National Park towards Lake Louise, and then drive along the parkway to the Columbia Icefield Glacier. Eventually we will end up in Jasper. More photos to come because it's going to be amazing!
Tuesday we will drive the hire car to Calgary and drop it off there before our flight to Vegas. Yewww Vegas baby! More updates soon!
The hostel we're staying at has been okay. We are in
a 6 bed dorm and have had mostly nice considerate roomies. We had one very inconsiderate one and unfortunately she stayed for like 5 nights. Hostel living! Lots of Australians here! We made friends with a cool chick called Jacqueline who is also from Australia, it was a shame she only stayed a few days. Anyhoo signing off, update again soon.
Ciao for now
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