It's definitely not summer in Canada

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Yes I know I have been rather slack in getting the travel blog up and running.

Well as you can see we have well and truly arrived in Canada. After the longest Friday in recorded history (I belive about 40 hrs worth) we arrived in Vancouver to which I must say is one of the dodgiest hostels Liz and I have ever seen. But being too tired to really care we settled in for the night only for Vancouver to put on its best weather face and it did not stop raining the whole time. But not having time to spare we had to head to the airport again the next morning for our flight to Calgary.

In Calgary the hostel was an excellent improvement and we spent the whole afternoon exploring the city centre of Calgary. We managed to discover that not much goes on the centre of calgary. Even trying to find a place that sold anything but a giant bit of Alberta beef (the local specialty) was almost impossible till we managed to locate a combo bakery and restaurant in the middle of chinatown (their specialty was pork flavoured bread rolls???????). Still being rather tired we spent the night talking to a Canadian guy at the hostel. He works on the drilling rigs in the far north of Alberta and the artic circle. He enlightened us with stories about polar bears and other less savoury tales from the wilderness.

Our recommendation if you are ever thinking of doing something like this is just rock up Banff or Canmore and look for a job in the towns rather than the mountains. The pay and the accomodation is way better (really hard not to be). The accomodation at Lake Louise is rather like a really, really bad school camp. While Lake Louise is a beautiful place to visit it is way too small to live in. We would go nuts if we stayed here for 6 months. Also you have to travel 60km to Banff to get any grocerys that do not cost an arm and a leg.

For all of these reasons and a few more that Liz could put in words better than me another time, we are going to hang around for a few weeks and hammer some powder when the resort opens before we will quit and probably head off east. At the moment the most likely destination seems to be Ottawa. Why???? Sounds interesting and is rather close to a lot of places to travel to on weekends.

Neither of us will ever complain about Australian banks or the cost of a mobile phone again (80% of the mobiles phone plans make you pay when you recieve calls). But we have managed to get it sorted and as of today we have a mobile phone number that will not disclose on a public blog but will email out in the near future.

Well we are about to head back up the mountains soon from Canmore. As a final thought, people from Manitoba have the best accents and keep using the phrase "that just peachy". Funniest thing ever.

Paul and Liz

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Photos

Liz in Calgary
A bit of white to wake up to for our first morning in Calgary

Rocky Mountains
Taken from the skinny dog on the way to Lake Louise

Morning sun
Morning sun in Lake Louise trying get burn through the clouds

Comments

[Jono]

Greetings
Hi Paul and Lizzie I looks a bit colder there than a few months ago. Hope you enjoy the snow and survive Lake Louise!! Look forward to hearing more about your adventures Cheers Jono