Canada

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Montreal

We arrived n Montreal from London and well my first impressions were that there immigration sucks it took an hour to get up there and then i got completely grilled how long was i staying where had i been how long am i travelling for how did you finance this trip etc i thought the US was bad it was not a great encouragement and for my mind a little bit unnecessary.

So we got through finally and headed to our accommodation Montreal is n the state of Quebec and is French speaking first English second most people speak French but are bilingual. The people did not really endear me the hostel staff were awesome and the odd people i just found a sort of arrogance there like this is France not Canada which i find ridiculous as 90% of the country speaks English even though French is widely recognised.

Okay this aside it is a pretty city and has a large mountain/big hill at the back which you can cilmb up and overlooks the whole city and bay lovely and peaceful. I have to say we walked around did some sightseeing went to a bar here and there where we were staying n the Latin quarter and went out to the Olympic park from the 1976 summer Olympics not a bad structure fori ts time. The fun part was visiting the amazing botanical gardens we got n for free as there ticket system was down. Awesome gardens from Japenese my fav to Chinese some north American really well maintained.

The first thing you work out about Cananda is the tax system everything you see is not the real price for example in Quebec there is the Quebec tax then there is the Montreal tax and there is the Canada tax so 3 taxes in one city ridiculous and i cant work out why they just cant give you the price with taxes included where i come from in oz the price you see is the price you pay. It seems expensive here also i mean oz is expensive but i get the impression our wages are higher. So far Cananda had not lived up to all the good things i had heard don’t get me wrong Montreal is a nice city with some cool areas and bars i guess i i spoke French perhaps the vibe would be different.

Niagra Falls

We decided to skip though Toronto and stay in Niagra which was a great decision. I had been here before on the American side for a day about 7 years ago but Jo had never been. We were l ucky to stay in a basic but nice Hostel well located in town. The ownes Patrick and Shelly made us feel welcome and made some great suggestions about the area not just the falls itself but the surrounding area we booked 3 nights. The first night was just a chill night we went down to the falls and checked them out of course at ten they had fireworks which was great.
The next day we bought a Niagra pass which gave us 4 attractions to see and do as well as a free shuttle bus . The first attraction was the oldest the maid of the mist a boat which has been running since 1876. It basically takes you into the mouth of the falls as far as safety will permit and they give you these blue ponchos to put on at first you feel silly but man they keep you dry except for the hair see facebook photos for a laugh. The awesome power and noise and the falls is amazing and the boat pitches back and forth.

The next thing we did was the walk behind the falls where you get right up close to the falls from below and again get a good spraying and some great shots. You can also go for a 200m walk behind the back of the falls and there are a couple of openings which you can see the falls flowing over its just a wall of white really but very powerful. Then while we were on a roll we did this interactive 4 d thing which is really for kids but was great fun it basically told the story of how the falls were created over time.

Lunch beckoned and i had the worst lunch for a while then we caught the bus down to the white water walk where there is a 500m walkway along St Lawrence river where class 5 and 6 rapids flow down at great speed i was mesmorised. I have white water rafted down the Nile in Uganda but this was something different not something i would attempt to raft to much power we stayed there for a while before heading back. 4 attractions in a day for $40 great value.

The town of Naigra is very cheesy and a bit like a mini Las Vegas with lots of neon and fun attraction type places like ripleys believe it of not , World wrestling , Frankenstein fun parks etc. That night we decided to go ten pin bowling now i usually suck but since Jo showed me how to hold the ball properly bowl better. We had 2 games i one the first and Jo the second, she is a much better bowler than me so it was a good feeling to know i had improved on my previous efforts.

The final day we wanted to get out of town and apparently there is a wine region about so we were tossing up between that and dong a jet boat ride into the rapids which s supposed to be awesome. There was a girl in the hostel Rita so we found out later her and her fellow traveller were looking to go to the wineries so thats the direction we headed in sharing the cost of a Taxi. We got down thee and the town was something like you would see out of the Gilmour girls if you have ever seen that show beautifully manicured lots of pride.

So off we went Rita her fellow friend an Irish guy Andrew me and Jo we tried to rent bikes initially but non were available till later in the day, so we walked about 3 kms to the 2 closest wineries which was really weird i have never walked to a winery before. The region is famous for its ice wine a liquer style desert wine where they pick it frozen and extract the juice sounds like hard work. They also do some whites and reds although the whites were better and the ice wine fabulous.
We had a tasty lunch and got a call to say we could hire some bikes which we did and it made the day as we could roam a lot further and do more tastings getting merrier as we went . Over all the first winery was the best and it was a great day Rita and Andrew were great company and i think they had a great day also. Its sometimes nice to spend a day with other people as much as Jo and i enjoy each others company its always good to break t up a bit.

That night on recommendations of Patrick and Shelly we went to the Keg restaurant which has an amazing view of the falls. We waited a while to try and get a window seat but ended up getting another one as we were just too hungry. The food was amazing one of the best cooked steaks i have ever had and the service was first class so and in all was a great night and meal. We ran into Rita and Andrew in the restaurant which was funny. All in all our stay in Naigra was great and was good not to be in a big city which was next as we headed to Toronto.

Toronto and Calgary

We got the bus up to Toronto and were only staying one night so all we had was an afternoon thats all i wanted really we ventured down to the harbour area it was a public holiday Monday and there were a few people out and about. We ran into this girl Adrian who we met in the Hostel in Montreal and got together for a few beers in the afternoon/evening which was cool swapped a few travel stories etc and said our goodbyes. I don’t have much really to say about Toronto its a really big city with big buildings and thats about it. The next afternoon we flew to Calgary to use to go and travel the rockies. Calgary is very small and well boring there isn’t a lot to do in the town so i don’t have a lot to comment on about it bring on the rockies.

Banff and Jasper

Right o the bit i have been looking forward to nature and the mountains. We hired a car out of Calgary for 9 days and headed for Banff or little Australia as a i like to call it. Banff is situated about 130 km east of Calgary and sits in the rocky mountains as part of the Canadian rockies so you picture it pine trees, fresh air mountains and blue lakes and thats exactly what it is.

The first day we got in the afternoon and chilled out checking out the town etc which was really nice a couple of long strips with heaps of shops and places to eat. The hostel we were staying at was really well decked out with large common areas its own cafe and a huge downstairs kitchen encouraging you to cook which we did a lot. There are some nice walking trails in the area mainly along the bow river before that we went up the Gondola to the mountain which escapes me now anyway it is one of the steepest gondolas in the world and was a bit hairy but we got there.

The view is breathtaking overlooking the entire valley north, south ,east and west peaking at 2700m which is about 200m higher than Kosciosko. We were lucky that the weather was perfect very clear and blue skies pretty well everyday. There is something peaceful and commanding being on top of a mountain or hill like you are the king of the world or something cheesy like that. Dont know what we did in the afternoon prob had a nap lol.

So we cruised up to lake louise in the afternoon of the next day this was after a long walk down the river and then back again up some steep gradient, anyway its about 50km from Banff and when you get there and see that view its amazing. Turquoise blue water with a back drop of mountains and at the top of those mountains are glaciers that have been there for hundreds if not thousands of years. We took a 4 km round trip walk along the lake with a view to hike up to the top of the trail to the 6 glaciers lookout the next time we came.

So the second part of the trip was to visit Jasper about 288km north on the icefield parkway. Now i have to say it is one of the most scenic drives i have ever been on. To your left and right are huge mountains 3000-3500m high lots of them have glaciers on the top oh for the definition a glacier is not frozen water but compacted snow over a long period of time. So along the way there is the Columbia icefields which stretch for 100s of km.

The Athabasta glacier is the only one that tourists can drive up on in specialised vehicle a big thing with big tyres basically. So we stopped and went on up. The distance is deceptive and when you get out there its cold obviously as it is ice but magnificent, i loved the 20 minutes or so we had on the ice we had to stay in the controlled area as its very unsafe underneath with false rivines etc. Another one of those magnificent things you do when you travel. I have been on a glacier before in NZ but this was much larger.

So further along not too far from Jasper we visited a couple of waterfalls really cool its funny after doing canyoning in Austria everytime i see a waterfall i think could i jump off that most of the time the answer is no but its good to think. So we arrived in Jasper late in the day another great looking town. The hostel we stayed at was a wilderness retreat which meant no running water and no showers also we had to put all our food in a safe place in case of bears it was exciting.

We explored the area the next day doing some walking exploring the awesome scenery we ventured further out to lake Jasper about 30km from town. This was great we stopped and saw all these people standing in the middle of the lake even though it looked like it had water in it. So of course we had to do the jesus walk looked funny as i say made for good photos. We also went for a walk along Maligne Canyon a very picturesque 5km walk there and back.

And so it was time to go back to Banff for the remainder of our time in the rockies. The drive back was a lot quicker than the drive there. Once back in Banff we visited lake louise again the next day to do the more extensive walk 15km in all. % km of this was purely up hill and i loved it there is something about climbing up hill that gets my adrenaline going i am very unfit but seem to find something extra i just take off. The climb was well worth it breathtaking right up there still a fair way from the glacier itself. We actually heard a few small avalanches but did not see them as they were on the other side of the mountain.


So getting back that night we were exhausted and slept well, the next day we visited the hot springs near where the Gondola is and it was raining so that made the experience all the more pleasurable,honestly it seems like ages ago we were there so i cant remember much apart from drinking coffee and relaxing. We drove back to Calgary preparing ourselves for the 16hr overnight bus trip to Vancouver. The bus trip was well gruelling i didnt get any sleep and was exhausted when we got there luckily we had fore thought to book the night before so we could check straight in at 5am in the morning.

Vancouver

So the west is a bit friendlier and accommodating than the east but in the fip side the area we stayed in Cambie was right on the border of well dodgy ville a few blocks the wrong way and you just want to get out of there, apparently its because of the homeless people in the area. Well its a pretty city has a massive bay area surrounded by mountains where you can ski in winter its the ultimate summer and winter city. The first day was spent orientating and recovering checked out the harbour walked around and caught a movie pretty boring really.

So finally we got out shit together and went to the Capilano Suspension bridge its about 50m up and 120 m long and sways and swings like it should. Now Jo has a fear these types of bridges and i wasn’t sure how she would go but she did great and walked across that bridge even managed to stop and take a photo of me very impressive. The area has some tree top walkways ponds and other stuff you can do the whole thing in an hr which we did. We then decided to go up Grouse mountain where all the Vancouver people ski in the winter and hang out in summer.

We caught the bus up there to discover the only way to the steep top was by Gondola or a 3 hr walk upwards we chose the large Gondola which holds 100 people. The top has various activities you can do from small hikes to eco walks, there is a also a 30 min lumberjack some which was highly entertaining they have free chair lifts and well a great view of Vancouver was a fun day but not finished. I forgot to mention we were staying at a hostel which is directly above the oldest pub in Vancouver the Cambie which was handy for a feed and the odd brew.

So we recharged for a little bit before heading to an Ice Hockey game up the road. The Vancouver Cannucks V The Calgary Flames a rivalry match and a pre season match but there was still a big crowd. The arena was amazing and great viewing from anywhere. We really got into the atmosphere of the game and had a nice guy Ron sitting next to us explaining the game which was great. The pace was fast and Vancouver got out to a 3-0 lead before relaxing and letting Calgary back in the level . Then they scored again and hit the front with only a minute left it got desperate and shot after shot by Calgary was saved until with 1 sec left Vancouver scored to send it into extra time.


The scores were still tied and so it went to penalties 3 shots each and after this it was still ties so it went to sudden death and finally Vancouver won thanks to their keeper what a great day and night. The next day we rented bikes and rode around Stanley park a massive park similar size to Kings park in Perth. There are great views and lakes and some challenging terrain good fun. Vancouver also has lots of day trips on offer weather it be Whistle 2 hrs away or Victoria island 3 there is heaps to do and see and i enjoyed my time. We managed on one of our last nights to catch up with some people we met briefly in Cinque Terra Italy and had a nice dinner with them which was great. Alright i think i have talked enough spelling mistakes and all hope you enjoyed.

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