Last day in Winnipeg

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Waiting for the train
Spent lots of time at the Forks
Train to Edmonton.

I didn't have too much planned for today since the "main attraction" of getting on the westbound train towards Edmonton wasn’t to happen until about 5PM. So Natalie, Laura and I took our time packing up our stuff and having a leisurely breakfast before heading over to the train station to check in our bags.

At breakfast we chatted up this cool retired couple from New Zealand. They've been travelling around Canada and the US for almost five months now. They bought a used camper van and have logged about 27,000 km so far on "Kathleen." They started in Calgary and did a lot of exploring of Western Canada up to the Yukon and Alaska then back down the west coast down to California then across the south through Texas. From there they continued their travels to Florida and then up part of the east coast a bit to North Carolina and then went inland and made it to Winnipeg to catch the train to Churchill so as to see the polar bears. I'd love to go on a road trip like that one of these days. Who knew you could park your campervan in the Wal Mart parking lots with no hassle. Plus a lot of them in the States are 24 hour Super Centres. Anyhoo...

By 11AM Natalie, Laura and I were ready to check out. So we turned in our sheets, got our towel deposits back and were out the door with all our stuff in tow...heavy stuff I might add. We decided to get a bit of exercise and save a few bucks in the process and walked to the train station. The plan was to check in our bags and then find an internet for those two so that they could download some of their photos to free up space on their memory cards. So while they did that, I enjoyed a hot chocolate and found a nice spot to sit down on the sofas and do a bit of reading.

Hmm, now it's only about 12:30. Now what? Let's go to the Forks Market for some lunch. We wandered about the food area for a while trying to decide what to have. I ended up having the Sri Lankan food. Some curry noodles, mushroom curry and devilled chicken with some mango juice to drink. Yummy! It had a little bit of a kick to it which was nice after having had some pretty bland foods as of late.

Hmm, now what? Natalie wanted us to see this skirt that she really liked and saw in one of the stores last week when she was in Winnipeg so we did a little shopping around the market. That took about half an hour. Enough time for me to digest a bit and it was perfect timing for some frozen yoghurt! We ended up sitting around the Forks Market until about 3:45 when we decided to try and find something to pick up to eat for dinner and then head to the train that was set to depart about 5PM.

We couldn't have timed it better. We only had to wait around the waiting area for about ten minutes or less before being able to board the train. We saw another guy from the hostel (I can't remember his name so I'll call him "Nathan") waiting at the train station as well. We were all lucky and managed to get two seats each to ourselves. Then of course that's when all the chatting and snacking started. We chatted until about 10:30 when we were asked to keep it quiet or move to the dome car. So we called it a night...

"Nathan" is on the beginning of his round the world trip. He's just two weeks in. Starting in Canada then about four months in South America, and he'll also be stopping off in Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and who knows where else or for how long. He currently has a year off from work but is now thinking of taking the Trans Siberian train home...how cool would that be?? But he could potentially take off up to five years! Wow! But if he took off that much time he'd have to re-qualify as a paramedic. He said that it'd be possible for him to go without working for that long since he just sold his house before he left. Wow, what a thought!

Natalie is currently on a mini vacation and is almost done too. She's been travelling I think since April (or maybe earlier...) and has been through Nepal, China, England and now Canada. She's looking forward to being home for Christmas in Australia but still wants to continue travelling. Her line of work is to do with gene therapy. Wow! She potentially could have a three year job lined up in Ottawa but is still unsure if she'd take the job if it was offered to her since three years is a long commitment and Ottawa is really far from home. Mind you she did mention that job prospects for her back home are not looking too good for her at the moment.

Laura is in Canada for the winter season and will be working in Invermere at Panorama as a bartender. She just finished school and was studying genetics in Edinburgh. Wow! I've been hanging around a bunch of smartie pants this evening. lol

Me, I'm almost home!

It's a bummer these guys are all going straight to Jasper while I'll stop in Edmonton. But that's okay. It'll be easier to get my own shopping done. Mind you I'm envious that those three may rent a car together and check out the Icefield Parkway and Banff as well. Oh well, I'll check that all out at a future point in time one of these days...

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