BANFF

GUYS!

I've been back about a week, as you all know, so this is almost like... what's the point. But the thing is, I feel like the blog has been a big part of my experience, and it's important that I document the last part of it as well, especially because it was actually really cool.

In my last week, I went on a four day tour around the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. The tour left from Canada Place in Vancouver at 7 am (actually 7.30, since we ended up waiting for someone, but regardless it meant that I was up and moving at a VERY early hour. You should be impressed). We spent most of the first day busing. Most people slept, but I found the view outside completely entrancing and just watched that for most of the eight hours we spent on the bus that day.

We got to a place called Golden in the late afternoon and checked into our motel. It was awful. Let's skip that.

I went out to dinner at the local pub with our tour guides and a couple of cool Brazilians from the bus and then got an early night. Sleeping was not easy because I was sharing a room with three other girls (strangers, and significantly older than me) and also sharing a bed with one of them. I slept for like an hour and then they came in and were loud and turned on all the lights.

So after about four hours sleep, I guess, we woke up bright and early to get the most out of day two. We got to Lake Louise around midday and got to spend a couple of hours there, walking around the lake and ice skating for those who are more co-ordinated than I. Our tour guide was like 'are you sure? I really recommend it' and I was like 'yeah but if you knew me, you wouldn't'. The lake had an ice castle and a bunch of ice sculptures around it and it was really amazing. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Amahzing ice castle

These are just some of them. There were many.

We then drove another 45 minutes into Banff, and settled into our second hotel, which was much nicer. Howevee when I collapsed on my bed and immediately opened my laptop, DISASTER STRUCK. Some of you know I was having blue-screening issues with that laptop shortly after buying it, and this time I opened it to see a massive black stain thing on the inside of the screen. I didn't drop it or drop anything on it, so I didn't and still don't understand how that could've happened. I was pretty gutted.

So I was then faced with the choice of staying in, catching up on some sleep and sulking about my broken laptop, or going out clubbing with everyone else. I did the latter, and - not going to lie - it was freaking awesome. You know how you always think clubbing is going to be amazing, and then it's always kind of lame? It was like that, except without the last part. It involved (moderate) drinking, dancing, The Beatles and hot Brazilian guys. This was another highlight of the trip. Fuck, if clubbing was like that every time, I might actually do it more than, like, twice a year.

So after meandering back to the hotel, I slept like a rock till ten the next morning (which was really nine, since Alberta is an hour behind BC) and then hopped back on the bus to make our way back to Lake Louise. We stopped off at Mount Seymour and went up on a gondola, seeing some incredible views and creating new phobias when the gondola stopped half way up and just rocked back and forth for five seat-clenching minutes. Apparently it's supposed to do that. Would've been nice to have a head's up.

LOOK at that.

From there we went to pick up all the people who had spent the morning skiing or snowboarding (again, not me. Same issues, plus expensive). We spent a little while shopping in the surrounding market and then settled into our motel. This one was nice, and also the first to have a locking bathroom, so I took advantage of that and had a nice long bath while the other girls in my room slept (they'd gotten back from the club some two hours after me). Later I voyaged out on my own to find somewhere to eat. The only open thing I could find was a petrol station, so dinner was an iceblock, a danish, and apple and a bag of candy covered sunflower seeds. It wasn't very good. Then I had to make my way back to thehotel, and pretty quickly got disasterously lost. The fact was everything was covered in huge amounts of snow, and this made it very very difficult to tell one street from another. Plus it was dark.

We're talking a LOT OF SNOW!

As this was the last night, we had a nice campfire together and then got some sleep before heading out at seven am (again, really six) the following morning. The last day again was pretty much all driving, and by this stage the windows were too filthy to really see out of, so I read and slept a lot. But we did stop off briefly to go snow tubing, which is like the best fun ever. I don't have a good photo of that but you can google it if you don't know what it is.

We got back to Vancouver around eight pm, and then I had to go immediately to try and return my laptop before the store closed. I was not successful. This is sort of a sore point with me. I'll elaborate tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm planning to recap my last day in Vancouver and the emotional upheaval of coming back, as well as the feelings I have about it all now, a little while after returning to regular life. And then that's it for this blog! It's been a wonderful journey and I've loved reading all your comments along the way.
                                                  

Whistler/Victoria

Guys I'm really sorry it took me so long to write about this. I don't even have a decent excuse this time. I just didn't feel like writing. Also though my stupid new laptop wouldn't let me upload photos straight from the card, so I had to do it the long way. Anyway, here's what's been going on.

For my birthday (23rd here, 24th in NZ) I went to Whistler for a night. Whistler is a beautiful little village and ski resort a bit north of Vancouver. I had to catch a bus that took the best part of three hours to get there, but it was worth it. I fell asleep for a little bit of it, and then when I woke up, all of a sudden, snow!

This thing I saw in the mall on the way scared the crap out of me until I realised it wasn't a real person.

It was about five pm when I got there and I was exhausted straight away. Travel does that to you somehow. I never figured it out. Anyway I checked into my room, spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to log on to the wi-fi (the French girl in my room said the password had a 'double-v', meaning 'w', as I eventually figured out), and then pulled on a pretty dress and some make up before going out to meet my friends. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of myself all prettied up, but there is one glorious shot of the three of us on facebook, me with my eyes closed and mouth open. I love it.

So I got a bus down to the village and met up with Rob and my very good friend Eilidh. We went out to dinner (chicken ceaser salad - pricey but delicious) and then back to the UBC lodge, after a very precarious trek up a snowy ski hill (I was in flats, so yeah, not my choice. But I was already a little tipsy so they swung me round. I didn't fall.). The UBC lodge was fun and cosy and filled with old familiar faces and new friends. Everyone there was a post or present UBC student (obviously) and most of them were other exchange students as well. We ended up with quite an exotic group going out that night.

The second day in Whistler was spent collecting last last minute gifts in the Whistler village (EVERYTHING SO EXPENSIVE OMG) and generally enjoying the snow. It was my first time experiencing actual falling snow. I was a big fan for about a minute. Then it was just like soft rain and as I did not have a hat or a hood or umbrella, it got old fast. Similarly it turned out my impenetrable boots were not so weatherproof after all. I had to buy clean socks for the way back and my feet were still numb some four hours later. Nonetheless, FUN! Here is the first ever snowman I made with Rob.

I got back to Vancouver at about 7.30, just in time for Christmas eve dinner and to totally crash. Christmas was a quiet day, characterised by rain and failing internet, which after a couple of hours of pretending we didn't need it drove us all to the nearest Starbucks in search of wifi :P I also got some really lovely things from my family (here and back at home), including The Big Lebowski, an album by the glorious Mountain Goats, and like a lifetime's supply of body butter.

So a few days after Christmas, on the 30th, I set off with a few other people to go back to Victoria Island for take two. I'd been wanting to go back for quite a while and I'm really happy I got the chance to, since it is one of the most beautiful places I've encountered here. The people I went with this time were all from the UBC exchange students facebook page. We had two Aucklanders and two Germans, which was... interesting. We saw some of the things I'd never gotten round to the first time, like:

And we were there for New Year's eve, which was quiet, since none of us felt like braving the bars and it turned out there weren't going to be any fireworks out on the harbour. We went back to our youth hostel (WHICH, BTW, considered a 'double room' to mean one twin bed with about six inches of space on either side of it [and a leaking heater. Unrelated, but still worrisome, right?]) and shared some of our favorite youtube videos and got a relatively early night. Sort of. Actually I stayed up till about four am talking to the other girl from New Zealand, which made me pretty cranky at breakfast the next morning. We caught the ferry back at one, and after a long bus trip on either end and then the skytrain and then the seabus and then another bus (North van is faaar) I was finally home.