Advertisement
Published: November 11th 2007
Granted, it has taken me a while to start using this blog, but I think it's all about the mindset... well, that's my excuse anyway 😊
Paul has been a champion and set this whole thing up, so it seems to be the least I can do to add some contacts to the list, and create an entry 😊
So, it's been just over a week since we left Australia, and almost a month since we left Canberra. My, how different the world looks! Paul has written about all the stuff we've done, and he's asked me to write about what it's all meant. In one expression, I'd have to say it's like we've been in a crack den. Yes, that's right, a crack den....
The flight to Canada was fairly uneventful. We sorted out all the difficult stuff prior to leaving Australia, and finally managed to arrange our flights and visas so we weren't denied entry to a US port. Our first night in Canada was in Vancouver, a little hostel in an area near 'Gastown' - no, that doesn't mean anything to me either, except, I thought we were going to be mugged. We caught a taxi from the airport, and in retrospect, the cab driver did seem a little surprised at where we wanted to be taken. As it turned out, the room we stayed in at the hostel had a good lock on the door. The place was run by a man who spoke no English, and didn't seem to realise that a big part of the reason for staying in a hostel rather than a motel is so you can access kitchen facilities. Oh well, we didn't get there till about 9pm (it takes a while to stand in immigration queues at Vancouver airport and be issued with work visas), and left at 9 the next morning. One thing included in the room rate which I didn't expect was the couple having noisy sex down the hall (we were three rooms away and could hear them loud and clear).
Moving on... we didn't have any trouble getting to Calgary, and the flight even had TVs on the back of the seats (I watched Ocean's 13 and caught up on my Brad and George fixes..mmm). Once we arrived in Calgary we had to catch a bus and a train to the hostel, and I think I learned something - I really don't know how to pack lightly, but that may have something to do with not packing until late the night before we were due to fly. The hostel in Calgary was pretty good, even though Paul and I were in different rooms - unisex dorms are clearly not the done thing in Canada. We went for a walk for a few hours that night, partially because we wanted to look around, and partially because it took us that long to find a place to get any food! We ended up having 'dinner' (???) in a restaurant in China Town where the specialty was pork flavoured bread. No, I wasn't tempted.
Sunday we got the bus to Lake Louise, and again, had to lug our stuff for kms around Calgary first, looking for the bus terminal. We managed though. The bus trip took about 2.5 hours, and was gorgeous. As soon as you leave Calgary you are surrounded by the rocky mountains, most of which were capped with snow. Once we arrived in Lake Louise we had to find the staff accommodation - not easy considering there were no signs.
To describe the accommodation is difficult. As a start, the name - Charlestown, aka 'Chucktown'. It's like a terrible school camp, but with people old enough to drink. When we were taken to our unit, we were introduced to the others already there - there are 7 people per unit, and I am the only female. Ahh, share housing with boys. The loungeroom floor was covered in a vomit stain (and related smell), and one entire wall was stacked with empty beer bottles. The state of the accommodation isn't something I want to dwell on, but I will say that there were a stack of other people our age who checked out the same day they checked in - why we didn't must be due to insanity.
Since then, we've looked at some other accommodation and employment options, and we'll keep you updated...
We've done a week of training now, and the season officially started today. It also snowed all day, and the town/resort looks amazing - just like the tourist brochures. The jobs we have we could do with our eyes closed, and in some respects, it's a nice change from what we're used to. We went to visit the Chateau yesterday, and felt like millionaires when we decided to go to one of the bars and have drinks - we felt like homeless people when we had to pay the bill 😊
Anyway, time for me to sign off - there is a massive queue of people waiting to use the internet (there are 4 computers for about 300 people, and the computers only work about 40% of the time), and I'm going to guess you've all had enough of reading this anyway.
I'll add more stuff soon, and I look forward to hearing from you all!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0621s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ryan
non-member comment
Re: Accomodation
Accomodation sounds great ey' Ill make sure when i head over i dont work in the ski fields, and get a real job hehe And yes i forgot to tell you that the mobile phone plans suck over there. you pay for everything grrrrr. By the way, gastown is the oldest part of vancouver. There is a clock on the sidewalks that is run on steam... quite kool... lots of souvenir shops there. checkout www.monster.ca. huge job website for canada. you will definately find something there if you want a change :) anyways take care, speak to you soon Ryan