Calgary and Vancouver

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Ah Canada.

My last couple of weeks in Calgary were mostly taken up with working a lot, with only a couple of days off. In my last couple of weeks, which is all I can really remember, I worked 8 days in a row, had a couple of days off for Easter, and then worked another 5 days before leaving Calgary! As you can tell, it was pretty hectic, with a lot of Canadian beers to sample before I left. At the time of my last entry I had not yet bought my tickets for South America, which, of course, meant that I had not organised my Brazilian Visa. Which was also a bit of an adventure. Though, I´m very happy to say that I did manage to have a day skiing at Sunshine, the ski mountain down the road from Banff, which I´ll let you know was absolutely amazing. I left Calgary on the 28th for Vancouver, flying out on Monday the 31st.

A couple of days after my last entry I had a day off and finally had the time and the willingness to organise my tickets and my Brazilian Visa. I had to get the tickets before I could organise the Visa, and that went great, with a great price to boot. I ended up paying US$850 for Vancouver - Toronto- Sao Paulo, and Cartagena (Colombia)-Miami-Washington, so I was understandably rather chuffed. The only problem, that I later realised/was pointed out by my relatives Ian and Donna, was that I had only left the Brazilian Consulate two 4 day weeks (Canadian public holiday and Easter) to process my Visa, when they wanted a minimum of 10 days. In the end, I organised them to hold the Visa in Vancouver (they decided to open a brand new consulate there, just after I had left for Calgary 2 months earlier) instead of mailing it back to Calgary. And thankfully, they were pretty quick with the Visa, and rather open to discussion on the phone (you had to make sure that you didn´t ring while they were all on lunchbreak, or use the telephone number provided on the Brasilian Consulate website (it didn´t work).

The store I was working at, RnR (at the Southcentre Mall) was moving 3 stores down, so our last couple of weeks were pretty hectic, with 60 percent off sales and angry women who were surprised that we sold out of their size. I took up as many shifts as I could, thinking of the money. I worked 8 days in a row, had 2 days off for Easter and Skiing, and then worked another 5 days in a row. I quite liked working at RnR, I was surrounded by lots of great people, my lovely friends Theresa, Tali, Amy, Nancy, Sam (the new girl) and my manager Chris. It was great fun, with enough boy issues around to keep even the quietest of days interesting and productive.

When she started working, Sam was disgusted by the fact that I had only gone to pubs, and thought that it was a must that I see some clubs. So a few days after she started working, she took me out on the town with her boyfriend Tyson, and we ended up at the Roadhouse, a cowboy meets short-dress´d city girl kind of club, which was described to me as a bit of a candybar. By the end of the night Sam (about half my height) and I (in my green zip-off pants) were on top of the speakers, getting our freak on. Ah, what fun. If only I didn´t have to open the store the next day. The next week we went out again, but this time first to the Ship and Anchor, where we got talking to these two guys at the bar. Well, it turned out that one of them had lost his job that day, and was keen to buy as many rounds of drinks for us as he could. We had jagerbombs, we had minty deliciousness shots, we had this and that (i can´t quite remember all the ones we had...). We were having such a great time with this chap that we followed him to the next pub, and the next, and the next. Conveniently Sam lives a walkable distance to all the clubs, so I ended up getting to know her couch pretty well. I also got to try some rather interesting Rickards Red when I went out with Steve, Anna, and Jamie Rae from Second Cup.

Nancy, my lovely assistant manager, took me out a lot. We went out for St Patricks day, and drunk quite a bit of green beer. We also would venture out to the local pub, the Lighthouse (where apparently you can get the cheapest pint in Calgary) for karaoke fun. I never sung, of course, as we all know I can´t. Nancy also took me to the Ship and Anchor, an English themed pub, where, as a joke, she ordered pints of Alberta Genuine Draft. We were both laughing about it until we each took a sip, at which point the bounce fell out of our bungees and we both fell into a deep melancholy. We turned the tables on our sorrows when we had each finished and could order something else.

On my last Saturday in Calgary I took the day off and caught the bus to Sunshine Village, the closest slopes to Banff. The day before I had gone to the Customer Service centre at the mal, and had asked for the phone number for the company that runs the bus from Calgary to Sunshine and back. Luckily enough one of the girls at Customer Service told me that she was going the next day too with her friend from the Netherlands, and invited me to tag along with them. That worked out really well, as they were both intermediate skiiers like me. Sunshine was absolutely amazing. From the car park and base area at 1660m above sea level, you catch a gondola that takes you up to where the chairlifts start, which take you to the very top of 3 surrounding mountains. I only went to 2 of them, the third having pretty much all double black runs (bloody scary!). The top of Lookout Mountain, which has a few intermediate runs, is 2730m above sea level. Exciting stuff eh? When we arrived at the top it was lightly snowing, before quickly clearing up into a beautiful and warm day. With the snow there was a lot of powder on the ground. With the mountains around it felt like skiing on top of the world. At the end of the day I skiied down to the car park from where the chairlifts were, a very beautiful 15 minute decent along a narrow track through the forest. I got home to Calgary sunburnt, exhausted and wearing a wide grin that had engulfed my face.

The next day was Easter Sunday, which here in North America is taken a bit more seriously in general than in Australia. It was lovely to be able to sleep in and relax. My relaxation was rewarded later that evening with the whole turkey dinner shebang. I worked the following 5 days, my last in Calgary, as we moved the old store 3 doors down. Moving stores was rather interesting, as we had to work around the electricians and builders who still had work to do even after we opened the new store. Altough I was under the impression that moving would be a rather effortless affair, I came back to reality when I discovered that we had to help build the damn thing. My days where spent carting shoe boxers, straight-lacing shoes, building ikea bookcases, tagging clothes, assembling stands, building shelves, assembling wall displays and unpacking and assembling manequins. I spent my last night in Calgary with Ian and Donna before a half day at work, as I had to catch the bus at 6:30.

The overnight bus to Vancouver was pretty packed, so I found it a bit harder to sleep, but it arrived an hour early after a rather quick 13 hours (which definitely beats the 18 it took to get to Calgary 2 months prior). After an elongated breakfast at maccas (it was only 7:30!) I went to the Metropolis at Metrotown (a big shopping centre with a large-sounding name) before meeting up with my friend Emma, who I originally met when couchsurfing with Alex, downtown. She had offered to put me up for a couple of nights, so we journeyed through West Vancouver (its west of north vancouver) to Horseshoe Bay, a quaint hamlet of mixed commercial and residential, with many forested hills around. We spent the two days downtown, at Lighthouse Park (a protected area of old growth forest, with a lighthouse (surprise) and many trails) and watching Flight of the Conchords, a rather hilarious drama/musical about two musicians from New Zealand trying to make it big in New York. I got up early on Monday, heading downtown to pick up my Brasilian Visa from the consulate before making my way to the airport for my 1pm flight to Sao Paulo via Toronto...

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Photos

Okotoks Curling Club
I went to Okotoks for a hair appointment with Donna´s friend´s relative, and we passed a curling club! Would you like some maple syrup with that Canadian experience?

Sunshine
Me and my Beanie/Helmet family combo. Delicious and satisfying, I say. My hair by the end of the day was amazing too.

Leslie and I
Leslie from customer service and I, on the chairlift ready to break out some gnarly turns.

Sunshine
Chairlift with the mountains behind.

Sunshine
Sunshine, mountains, and snow.

Sunshine
Chairlift at Sunshine.

Sunshine
The snow and I.

Denna and I
Denna and I, and our touching farewell.

Broard and I
Me and a broad I found.

Out and About
The lads and lasses from Second Cup Southcentre and I. Jamie Rae, Steve, Anna and (boyf).

Steve and I
Steve, my man from Second Cup Coffee Co, yo!

My Dirty Work
Yes, I put a hole in the wall at work with my arse. Its really big, round, and high up (the hole).

Amy, Theresa and I
Amy and Theresa and I, hard at work.

Ian, Donna and I
Ian, Donna and I and the backyard in Calgary

Emma and I
Emma and I in Vancouver BC, where I spent my final days in Canada.

Starfish
Purple starfish, which had colonised West Vancouver´s rocky shore.

Comments

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Beanie helmet
Hi Mark I saw real beanie helmets called Helts as a complete product at the ISPO 09. Check out: www.helt-pro.com Cheers!