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.