SNOW in London! plus a trip to Brussels

It snowed in London today, how cool is that ?! Everything looked so pretty and all nice and white. It certainly made a huge change to the normal greyness of the place and brightened up my day. I've had a lot of stuff on lately with work especially as I'm covering for my boss who's on holidays, but tonight I've finally got some time at home to put up some news for you all.

After returning from Canada I pretty much went straight back to work. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea as it did really tire me out for a few days while I attempted to recover from the jetlag while work went pretty crazy. After only returning from Canada on the Saturday, that Tuesday I left for Brussels. We've got a deployment to do there in a week and so my 'other' boss and I headed out for a round of pre-migration meetings.

Tuesday morning I had to go into work for another meeting before getting on the train that afternoon. Everything was fine, and it got to about 1pm (the train left at 2:15pm) and my boss came to let me know we were leaving soon. As he was picking up his stuff from his desk, he quietly said to himself 'wallet - check', 'laptop - check', stuff like that. Then suddenly I hear 'passport - check' and I stop DEAD! Uh huh, I'd left my damn passport on the bedside table that morning, how stupid can you be!!! My boss noticed my face and after a moment passed, he realised I wasn't joking and started laughing. I was SO embarassed!! (remember the tiredness + jetlag!!!).

There was no way I was going to make it back to Southfields and then all the way back into Waterloo station on the 45 minutes I had left, so I was freaking out a little. Luckily my company buys fully flexible tickets for the trains (as meetings may run over time etc) and so it really wasn't a problem. My boss simply said 'ah never mind, just grab the next one and we'll see you in Brussels'. Phew!!! So despite my pride taking a serious knock and looking like a fool, there really wasn't any major (financial) problem to deal with.

The story doesn't quite end there however as just a short time later, life taught me a little lesson about perspective which almost seemed too amazingly well timed to be just coincidence (fate maybe? karma? dunno). After trundling all way back home to grab my passport, I was then heading into Waterloo station on the tube, feeling rather angry, embarrassed and so forth. I'm sitting there in my own little world imagining the ribbing I'm going to cop from the boss and my colleagues when I finally do arrive in Brussels (I'd already got an sms from my boss saying 'no worries these things happen - to nobbers!!!).

So then a phone rings, and a girl 2 seats away from me answers it. After the usual pleasantries she suddenly blurts out "I've just been fired!" to her friend, and commences to tell the whole train about it. She basically got called into a boardroom, told that the company thought they hadn't 'picked well' when they hired her and that although she was doing a good job (no warnings, no black marks etc) she wasn't required anymore. She was probably in her late 20's, well dressed, all that stuff, basically she looked reasonably successful, so I'd imagine the whole episode was completely unexpected. Shortly after starting that conversation, she got off the train, and I think she was starting to cry.

So there it is - a big fat moral to the story - no matter how bad you feel, there's someone else worse off! (Plus - I'm obviously a self centred piece of crap for worrying so much about something as silly as copping flack from my boss). I must say that when I got into Brussels, they did give me some stick, but I really didn't bite or worry about it as I just thought of the poor girl, and yeah, it didn't seem to matter.

After that, the Brussels trip was all fun. That night we all headed out for an AMAZING dinner at a nice restaurant in town. Brussels seems like a nice mix of old and new buildings and architecture, so I enjoyed walking around the city while we found the restaurant and wasted time waiting for a table. At the restaurant I was lucky enough to try something I've wanted to try for AAAGES. I ate snails!!! They really aren't that bad, you basically don't taste the snail, instead you just eat garlic and butter, with like some sort of 'meat' (i.e. the snail) thrown in. The garlic sauce was so so so amazing that I just had to use the bread to mop it up. It was really strong though, so whew! bad breath city! After the snails we moved on to share two big plates of mussels (also superb), and then for mains I had a 3 fish platter which was very nice. Throw in some expensive white wine with it all, and yeah, it was quite a meal. (Managers travel WELL, much better than we usually do). I didn't take a camera for our first walk, so I didn't get many pics, but right near our hotel was a massive super-blue building. It looked very cool.

After dinner we took in some more sights as we walked the city. I was interested to note that Brussels has a red light district somewhat similar to Amsterdam in that they have the whole girls in the windows thing happening. I haven't really seen that anywhere else. Of course it's the district where all the bars are, so we had a beer in a very empty bar before turning in for the night.

The next day we had scheduled a full day of meetings, and they all went really well. We broke for lunch midway through and it ended up being another lavish affair, this time at an Italian restaurant, which went for two hours. I started with truffle risotto and moved onto a thinly sliced meat and parmesan cheese salad - a really amazing dish. More expensive wine was consumed (red this time) and I was stuffed! That night on the train my boss and the other manager we travelled with fell asleep, so I took a photo for blackmail material just in case the 'remember your passport' jokes get too much :)

I then worked the remainder of the week, and crashed out completely on Friday night, sleeping until nearly midday on Saturday. That night I headed out with friends to catch up after new years and generally chilled out with a few beers, with Sunday following much the same pattern. This week has been straight back into work again, but I was out last night with another group of mates (I've almost seen everyone) so tonight I'm feeling pretty knackered.

I think that'll do for now! As Friday is Australia Day I'm gathering my energy for a massive weekend. A friend of mine has her birthday on Friday too, so she's organised a big Birthday/Aussie Day thing at a pub in town. I'm sure it'll get pretty messy. After that, this Sunday we are thinking about doing a pilgrimage to the Church for a Sunday session. Basically it's a massive old church that is now just a huge pub for a few hours each Sunday, and by all reports it's quite a disgusting and debaucherous affair. Supposedly just going is a rite of passage for any Aussie in London, but on a weekend such as this, it's an especially big deal. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Then next week, I'm off to Brussels for a couple of weeks, followed by Paris for nearly a month. I'll try to keep up the posts. Oh, and google is still being crap and uploading pictures to the blog is painful. My Canada pics are all up on my gallery though, there's a link to it under the 'links' section on the right side of the screen, or you can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/ankaman directly.

Anka

Canada - the violent end

(hmm.. Google is playing up and I could only upload a few photos... I've got them all exported and ready to go, so keep tuned and hopefully they'll be put up sometime tomorrow).

Before I bore you with the last bit of my Canada trip, I'd just like to remind everyone that Australia Day is fast approaching. As I cannot be there to enjoy it (and as many of you know how much I LOVE Aus Day), I'm hereby challenging everyone to get out into the sun or on a boat etc and make something of it before catching the fireworks! Have a few beers for me while you are at it and take lots of photos, I'd love to see what I'm missing.

So back to the final stages of Canada. I'm sorry I haven't got the photos and such up before now, I've just had a pile of stuff to catch up on as I came straight back from nearly a month off and have worked every day since. My boss isn't around so at the moment I'm doing his job, which is more work, but more fun in a lot of ways too. Just for example, I had to travel to Brussels yesterday for a full day of meetings today!! How mad is that??? I had to go to another COUNTRY just for a meeting!!! (even if it is was big one). It just blows my mind.

Aaanyway... Canada.... Well, the day after going to the Vancouver Aquarium was Michelle's last day, so we thought we'd do something a little different and head up to Grouse Mountain (it's a short ferry/bus trip from Vancouver) for a look around. There are a lot of activities which are labelled as being complimentary in the brochure, but we quickly realised that a lot of these involving the snow etc still require gear hire. Oh well, no big deal, it wasn't that much anyway.

The weather was quite clear despite the big snow fal from the previous evening. However, as we got close to the mountain, we became very away of the fact that you actually could barely see half way up it because there was a massive snow-cloud hanging around. We decided to go up anyway (it was one of the last chances) and so ascended the gondola/cablecar to the top. Up top, it was snowing but it was actually semi-clear. As the day went on, it cleared up more and more until we could see a blue sky, however the cloud was still sitting further down the mountain. It's a pretty weird sight to see this cloud just sitting there half way down, but very cool too. Oh, and there were these carved statues of famous sports people all over the place. They are big too, that snow is deep!

So up top there was a pretty cute little movie about two orphaned bear cubs being held in a rehabilitation zone elsewhere on the mountain. There was an ice-skating rink, sleigh rides, snowshoeing (well, trails provided and marked out, we had to hire the shoes themselves) and some other stuff. The snow did look really nice and powdery, but both of us weren't really up for skiing/boarding. Instead, we chose to go snowshoeing! (They did have "liquor training" in a seminar room though?!?!)

The shoes themselves just strap on over your feet and are pretty easy to get around in. We kind of stumbled down the first steep hill, but the rest of it was fine. We were unlucky because the heavy snowfalls had cause lots of avalanche zones to become unstable, so only one hiking trail was open. But off we went.

Although it sounds kinda boring (big deal, tramping around in snow), it's actually awesome fun! Hiking through the snow is just such as different feeling to boarding/skiing and I really enjoyed it. The trail took us away from the ski runs etc so we literally had this lovely peaceful forest to hike through, with the sounds of birds, rivers etc the only distractions. As I said before, the day also cleared up and the sun poking through the trees made for some really amazing views.

Of course, all that pristine snow around me was just too much of a temptation (it was all like fluffy and perfectly smooth on top and stuff), so on many occasions I just had to go climbing/stumbling/running through the powder. Even with the enormous shoes on my feet, I still sunk in some places up to my chest. I had an absolute ball climbing out of that stuff, but it did make my jeans a little cold :) Honestly though, don't be put off by the seemingly 'boring' side of it (sure, it's not quite as good as boarding), but for something a little different and more casual, I really recommend snowshoeing.

One last thing I did on the mountain was sample some fine Canadian cuisine called a Beaver Tail. It's kind of a like a flat donut batter... pancaky thing which they cover in sugar and cinnamon. The oil really gets to you quickly, but I had to eat just one. I actually bought it on a quick stop on the sleigh ride and I quickly spoke to the girl in the tiny booth where they are sold. I asked if she got discounts for working at the resort, and she did, but when I asked if it was worth working in the 'box', she said "no way, I've only got 2 weeks left".

That night Michelle and I went to a pub night just for a bit of a last drink/laugh. It is a joint thing run by both hostels and it actually turned out to be good fun. We basically met more Aussies (honestly, we are EVERYWHERE in Canada), had a few games of pool and chilled out. I also asked around and a good number of the guys were going to the Ice Hockey game the next night, so that was an extra bonus.

The next morning I saw Michelle off, and then just assed around a little walking around the city just to get a feel for everything. In the afternoon I walked over to the Vancouver Museum to see an exhibit about the First Nation people (Native Americans and other Canadian tribes) which was really really good. They explained a lot about traditions, art, mythology, symbolism, ceremonies, tribal differences and things like that. I was even fortunate enough to catch a tour with lead by a First Nation elder which was REALLY enlightening. Oh, and the jewellery was just amazing.

One of the most interesting things I learnt was that one of the major celebrations they used to have was called a Potlatch. This would be held for births, marriages, chieftain elections and other big events. As a part of normal life, most people would carve/create/accumulate stacks of jewellery, pottery, blankets and things like that. To white people it looked like all the First Nation people were just greedy and they were hoarding it, but the whole point of the Potlatch is to invite EVERYONE to come feast on your food etc, and then to give away basically EVERYTHING as presents. Literally the host would be left with almost nothing, but no doubt within a short time someone else would have a Potlatch, and so they'd start accumulating their stuff again. The guide described it as a culture of giving (where no one accumulated 'wealth' just for the sake of it, instead to give away), compared to the white people's culture of taking (and hoarding).

The remainder of the afternoon was spent wandering along the foreshore. I realised as I was walking just how much I miss the sound of waves lapping at the beach and rocks... I also found it so bizarre to be looking at a sandy beach (of sorts) and having snow on logs (seats) just meters from the shore. Bizarre.

But while all of that was good, Thursday night was the real 'big bang' to finish off the trip - the HOCKEY GAME!!!!!! I was SO excited to go, and the hostel had arranged pre-game drinks at a pub, so I wasn't late! Lots of the guys from the previous night were there, so we all sat down and had a couple of pints, but at the same time one of the hostel employees gave a little tutorial about game and some of the finer points of the rules. We got to ask some questions and at least get a simple enough understanding of the game to follow it.

Walking into the arena/rink (whatever!) was just amazing. They have a MASSIVE scoreboard suspended from the roof, there's people everywhere cheering, there are shops and pubs and even a full brewery behind that stands.... It's super sweet. While our tickets weren't exactly primo-seating, being up high let us track the play a lot more easily than if we were lower (and the tickets weren't exactly expensive either). And yeah, they sell full strength beer there, that's sweet too.

My verdict on the game -> brutal! It's awesome..! Dude's just smash each other into the barricades all the time, and there's pushing, shoving, fouling but also some serious skills and agility on display. Topping it off for the spectators is the fact that the puck moves SO damn fast that you have trouble keeping up. Basically, every aspect is entertaining and we had a brilliant time yelling at the Vancouver Canucks (the home team). It wasn't a good night from our team though, they went down 5-2 (I think). Oh, and while there's no cheerleaders that we saw, there are cute little 'ice chicks' who help smooth out the ice in breaks in play.

After the game, we all headed straight back to the pub and proceeded to destroy several pitchers of beer. I ended up drinking with six or seven aussies and a frenchie (who'd lived in Aus since he was 6 and is a World-Series Debating finalist - there's money in it!) and had a brilliant time. Things heated up a little later when some local-yokels (Canadians) rolled up and somehow I was called upon to do a pint scull. I am proud to say that I upheld the Aussie heritage and slammed it all back. About half an hour later we decided to leave and yeah, it's pretty blurry from there. I just remember getting back to the hostel, climbing onto the top bunk (well, sort of falling into it face down) and going nighty night! I was just resting my eyes! :)


The next morning I was feeling reasonably good actually, and I even had managed to hold onto all my stuff!! - suh-weet. I pulled myself together and checked out before taking a last stroll around the city. After some last photos, my time ran out and the vacation came to a close. Awwww.. Still, that was nearly a month of travelling over Christmas/New Year, so that's a fair whack.

Just as a little final kick to the trip, on the flight back to London the power was buggered on our seats so we couldn't use reading lights or get audio to watch the movies.. poo!

So the final verdict for Canada - surpising and fun. I never really had dreams of going to Canada (not like Europe etc) but I'm really glad I did. The snow is amazing, there's lots to see and do and the people are just really really nice. I would like to go back some time and see it in the summer, so we'll have to see what happens. Also, Alaska would be amazing to check out.

Well, that'll do for now, I'll see you guys later.

Anka

Calgary/Banff - Supercool! (freezing even!)

(ooooh.. it's a big one!!! I haven't been writing down any of the stuff I've been doing on this trip because I've been so busy. This blog entry is a monster because it's kind of a diary to myself of what I've done as these last few days have just been jam packed! So settle yourselves in. As always, photos have to wait till I get back to London)

The last five days have been an absolute blast! I've just flown back into Vancouver this morning and am a complete wreck (we haven't had a lot of sleep lately). We've finally snagged an unlucky day as the weather here at the moment is shocking (super windy and raining all day) with some huge storm expected to hit the city at 2am tomorrow morning. Michelle and I are taking advantage of the situation and actually sitting down and relaxing in a net cafe (ok, and checking on stuff to do over the next few days).

We arrived in Calgary quite late last Thursday evening, and we're greeted by a cheerful lady holding a sign reading 'Brett and Michelle'. It turns out that their mum's friend (who was putting us up in his apartment) couldn't make it and so had sent a friend to get us. It turned out John (the dude with the apartment) was calling in to work (he's a pilot) so his friend just drove us to his place and let us in. None of us had met John before, and yet, here was are standing in his apartment!! It was really bizarre! The thing was, all the beds had a pile of little towels on the ends, folder into fans! bottles of water next to them etc.. the whole place was immaculate. It was almost SO perfect, we started to worry! After a little bit of deduction, we worked out that it was a fully serviced apartment and John had simply asked the housekeepers to set up beds etc for us. Whew, he wasn't a weirdo Canadian/UK pilot murdering neat-freak!

After a really good sleep, we surfaced late the next day just in time for John to get home around noon. He made quite a first impression, sauntering in the door with a massive sombrero on. Apparently he'd had to fly to Mexico, and it was all very stressful sitting on the beach having a drink or two between shifts.... We all quickly warmed to him however, he's a cool guy, and shortly afterwards he took us for a bit of a cruise around the city as an introduction.

The main city centre is actually quite small and there are pieces of urban art (like sculptures etc) everywhere, I was really impressed. All of the major buildings are connected with covered walkways and in the upper floor of one of the major malls there's even a full tropical garden. That was pretty cool to walk around. After that we headed to a favourite restaurant of John's called 'The Keg'. It was a mega busy steakhouse which really lived up to the reputation. I ordered a 14oz steak (one massive hunk of meat) and it was bloody superb - the meat barely needed pressure to cut it was so tender! After everything I waddled out feeling extremely carnivorous and satisfied. John then took us to a favourite cowboy bar of his called 'Ranchers' (I think that's the spelling). It was hilarious! People really do walk around in cowboy hats and flannel type shirts, they even squaredance! We had a couple of beers and checked the place out, but as we were quite tired we eventually headed back to the apartment for relax/crash after deciding that tomorrow we'd go skiing.

Friday morning we got up nice and early and headed towards the Sunshine Ski Resort. It's near a town called Banff (which is approximately 1.5 hours away from Calgary) and has is John's favourite resort in the area. We found out on the way there that it was the last weekend of school break and when we arrived, it was super crowded! The drive to the resort is amazing though, you go from cruising over flat plains and seeing moutains in the distance, to the mountains just getting bigger and bigger, until you are driving between them as they tower over you. The sense of size is just scary as they just seem to continue to grow a you approach and I've never really seen anything like it (the Austrian alps are big, but I've never approached in quite the same way).

Back to the skiing/boarding. I'll try not to exaggerate when I talk about it, but MAN IT WAS THE BEST BOARDING I'VE EVER DONE! Seriously, like the best best best snow ever.... The West Coast of Canada has been getting record snow falls so far this season, and the entire two mountainsides of Sunshine were just COVERED in super soft snowy powder. Boarding in it was totally weird at first, it feels so different, but after a run or two you just feel SO cool about it, the soft snow gives you awesome control and you can just grip with the board much more easily.. it's brilliant! The other bonus is that for someone like me who's all about learning to jump off anything he can find, falling over really doesn't hurt very much as the soft snow absorbs the impact (my bum was thanking me).

By the end of the day I was throwing myself off just about anything. A lot of the runs at Sunshine are reasonably long, but almost all have trees etc somewhere on them which are great sources for jumps (the snow piles up between them etc). There were also a number of places where snow had packed up almost like a sand dune and so after coming over the crest, there was a big dropoff on the other side (some of them were like 6 foot drops). One of the main challenges I've been trying to do is jump or go off a dropoff and land 180 degrees. I managed a couple during the day and was totally happy. But by far the best thing was a straight jump I took towards the end of the day. I really launched off the jump and because I had speed, flew a long way before perfectly landing it in the soft powder. It felt _SO_ amazingly good I gave a little 'wohoo' as I landed and I even managed to get a 'Whoah!' out of Brettski as I sailed past, so it MUST have looked awesome!!! *strut* Yup folks, snowboarding rocks!

Now that my head is massive, I will try to delfate it by telling you that at numerous times during the day I went the proverbial 'ass over tit'. I even managed to properly finish off the wrist guard that snapped in Quebec by snapping the other part of it late in the afternoon. As I didn't fall anywhere near as heavily as I did in Quebec, we figured that the guards couldn't handle the cold temps (it was -15 or something on the slopes) and so got brittle. Powdery snow can also make things very diffcult as you can be cruising along, when suddenly the board can just sink into a powder depression you're up to your waist in snow (or if you wipe out, you're head deep in it). It does take a LOT of effort to get out of that stuff! Brett had an awesome wipeout late in the day when he sunk right up to his chest (he skis, so it's even harder to do this) in the powder. One ski snapped off in the process and Brett then had to go digging in the snow to find it.. it was hilarious as we honestly thought it might be gone!

One of the other amazing things that happened to me during the day was that I was caught in my first whiteout/snow blizzard. The winds had been getting stronger all day and late in the afternoon at times you could literally see them coming as they whipped down the mountain picking up snow like a wave as it advanced. It's quite spectacular to see it coming at you and at times it had picked up so much snow you literally couldn't see what you were boarding on (yeah, you can't see the snow under your feet!) - i.e. whether there's a dip or rise etc coming up. It is a very freaky experience as just just have to ride and trust the board to keep going under your feet.

However the worst white-out incident happened in the middle of one run where I had stopped to speak to Brettski before tackling a jump. Brett sailed over the jump and just as I was about to go, suddenly the world just went completely white. Somehow I was caught right in the middle of a snow tornado/willy willy type thing and I literally couldn't see ANYTHING! Brett said he turned back after going over the jump (so he was less than 20 meters away) and he couldn't see me anymore! I could barely see my board in the snow (on my feet), or my own gloves etc and the snow whips around so much the goggles get pelted by a little sea of white flecks so you are totally blind.. If that is a taste of what a real snow blizzard is like, count me freakin out! It was really quite scary and thank goodness I wasn't actually moving at the time (as to the left of the jump and just past it were trees and you had to veer to the right).

After all that I boarded out the day without any serious injuries. John took us into Banff for a quick beer after the resort closed before we heded back to Calgary to meet up with Damo and Zac who had just flown in from New York. On the way we were trying to think of a place to go for dinner, and finally it was agreed - we're off to Hooters!!! (I made a call, I just _had_ to do it for kicks). Damo and Zac eventually woosed out of dinner, and man did they miss out! Let me just say that Hooters is bloody shocking. I mean REALLY shocking. The food really isn't even food, it's deep fried roadkill/cardboard/i-can't-believe-it's-not-roadkill type stuff which is just not good. The waitresses also aren't exactly the brightest bunch in the word, so it is nice to know that all my preconceived notions regarding their 'recruiting policies' were spot on. But I guess in that department things really aren't too bad, so I do recommend that guys should at least go there once, just for the experience. I couldn't resist getting a picture with all the ladies ... (yup, all of the chicks are certainly 'out there' with the cleavage, it's a pity they're not exactly stunners).... Oh, and the Koala is called Zac, he's Michelle's Aussie mascot who's been travelling with her for the last nine months. OH I just remembered something else, this really sums it all up, the Hooters advertising slogan is "delightfully tacky, yet unrefined"... I couldn't have said it better myself.

After Hooters, we decided that we'd go and hit Ranchers properly! Yup, we got pissed! I met quite a few interesting people in there but I couldn't manage to get myself one of those 'Stetson' cowboy hats off anyone (except a barmaid temporarily - see photo). I did meet a bunch of cheerleaders though, so here's a photo... they were hilarious, "Hooray for everything!... yay!" :) John was the devil of the night as he maliciously got us plastered with tequila shots, it was NASTY!

Sunday morning things moved VERY slowly. We managed to eventually get into town to hire a car, then get Damo and Zac from their accomodation in the suburbs, then head towards Banff. We didn't get there till quite late in the afternoon and even once we were there, things still moved slowly. Unfortunately Brett and Michelle were really feeling the bad side of the previous night so we didn't really get much done. We did have a look around town, book some trekking and stuff for the next day before heading out and finding the hot springs near town. A sort of swimming pool has been built which is fed from the spring where the water is almost 40 degrees. No one had bathers though (and Brett and Michelle were in the car feeling evil) so we didn't go in (we later found out we could have hired them, but oh well). Given the activites scheduled for the next day, we then headed back to Clagary for dinner (some NASTY NASTY chinese) and a semi-early night.

The activities we'd arranged for Monday were the Grotto Canyon River Hike and Husky Dog Sledding. The hike pickup was in Banff at 9am, so that meant we had to be up at about 5:30am in Calgary to give us time to get the guys, then get to Banff. It was an early start, but the drive was really good as there was hardly anyone on the roads, so I could just speed like mad.

The trek itself is amazing. We got driven out to a dry river (I'll explain later) which has now frozen over in the winter. You also given spiked soles which strap onto your shoes to give you grip, and then you just walk up it! It the summer, the river is 'dry' because the water actually flows underneath the ground in the rock. In the winter as the ground freezes, the holes etc in the rock get filled up, and the water starts to get forced up to the surface. This then freezes, and so a dry river somehow has an ice covering - pretty neat eh! The climb itself is quite amazing and you get to see the rock formations, learn about wildlife from the guide, literally see sections of ice where just below the surface water is moving, or air bubbles are trapped (the ice cracks as you walk on it), see some native rock paintings and then right at the end, see a frozen waterfall. Now that is REALLY impressive. People apparently often climb the ice pillars and just as we left, two guys appeared with climbing gear but we couldn't stay to watch.

Damo decided to uphold the Aussie stupidity image by sliding down the thing on his stomach... here's some pics of it all. Overall, the experience was totally unique and therefore, totally awesome. Our guide also gave us a really handy warning about upcoming weather. Apparently a cold snap was coming to Banff and it was expected that the temperature on Thursday would be -28degrees... thank goodness we were leaving!

After lunch we had also arranged to go on a husky sledding trail. This too was a totally unique experience as we got to help saddle up the dogs, connect them to the sled, drive the sled while it was going while talking to our guide the whole time (Joel was a young guy, very cool) as we swished along the forest trails. I must say it wasn't as quick as I'd thought it would be (but there were two massive aussie dudes and Michelle in the sled, plus the driver to pull) but it really made you aware of the stupidly difficult time people used to have moving around and living in the mountains. Just getting supplies anywhere would have been a long and arduous task.

The best bit of the sledding though was the frozen lake they took us to. Without a guide, there's no WAY I'd ever set food on any frozen water body as you just don't know what the ice thickness etc is. The lake they took us to had ice over a foot thick (according to the guides) and we literally walked straight out to the middle of it. In certain patches the ice is totally clear and you feel like you are literally standing on NOTHING over this inky black, freezing cold water. You can't help but think in your head - "what the hell am I going to do if this breaks!". After starting a little timidly, soon we were all running around sliding on the slick patches, it was awesome. There was even an ice fishing shack out there on the ice which had been blown over for us to check out. One intersting fact from the guides - apparently you only need four inches of ice on top of water and you can drive a car on it! It's that strong!

Sledding took a few hours, so by the time we got back, helped unhitch and feed the dogs etc then get driven back into Banff, it was past 7pm. We grabbed a quick beer and met up with John and his mate Monkey (Steven really) before heading back to the Hot Springs we'd been to the previous night - we'd all brought our bathers this time. After a LONG day in the cold (it got really cold in the afternoon), sinking into 38 degree water was just heaven. We soaked and soeaked for hours, and it was amazing (something about being able to climb out of a hot pool and grab some snow is just weird!). I did a bit of an experiment, and by standing up out of the water, my hair actually froze on my head (icicles were in it and everything) bit I was warm because of the water. We also amused ourselves and a few other patrons by using Damo's waterproof camera to take group photos underwater, they were very cool I thought (well, I took the first one, in the second some lady took the picture and I'm almost cut out in the bottom left corner).

Eventually the 'prune-quotient' was reached and we decided we had to get going, people were kinda hungry too after a LONG day of activity. So we headed back into Banff to a nice pub and had one last civilised dinner together (ok, semi-civilised because Damo dragged everyone down). It was really nice but a little sad as I realised that it was the last meal with everyone on the trip, and things were coming to a close. Sniff....

By the time we all finished up, it was nearly midnight and we still had to drive back to Calgary. It was past 2am before we eventually dropped Damo and Zac off (Bye guys!) and made it back to John's apartment. As our flight was at 7:45am, we had to be up at 5:30am to be at the airport by 6:30ish, which was just a bad idea to contemplate. Sure enough when the alarm went off at 5:30am, I wanted to smash it! The final kick in the pants was that the flight here to Vancouver was really bumpy. The bad weather made the landing really pretty rough, and one lady on the plane was freaking out a little (apparently just repeating "oh my god, oh my god...").

Brettski isn't staying in Vancouver with Michelle and I, he's already started the journey home this afternoon. *sniff* Cya Brettski! (was awesome hanging with you and the boys again!)

Rather than waste a day feeling tired, Michelle and I headed to the Vancouver Aquarium this afternoon. I heard somewhere it's one of the largest in the Northern USA/Canada or whatever, and it is pretty cool. The best thing is that they do lots of shows with Dolphins, Otters, Sea Lions and even Beluga Whales. I've got a lot of photos of the animals but they don't really look that good as it was hard to get good shots. The weather was already getting nasty at that stage and although it was quite warm when we left the hostel at midday (like positive 9 degrees or something), the wind was howling along and freezing us right through our clothes.

Just as I was writing this earlier it started absolutely belting down with snow. Massive fat flakes (biggest I've ever seen) which fully smacked onto my head and face as I stood outside watching them - I had to go out there. And yeah, you can catch them on your tongue! Then suddenly, it just stopped. I think we're in for a strange night with the weather.

I think that's enough of a novel for the moment. Hopefully the weather will fine up a little for the last few days of the trip, but it has been on amazing experience. While sometimes I feel homesick for the warm, sunny beaches of Perth, every so often (liek the snow tonight) I am reminded of the really amazing stuff that is out there in the world, and I really want to go and see it!

Cya's round. Thanks to all of those who came all the way from Aus, it was amazing catching up again so please continue to keep in touch. My trip is almost over! - "Canadia eh?? what's all that aboot?"

Anka

Leaving Quebec/Montreal for Vancouver

Hello everyone, I thought I'd just throw down a quick post from Vancouver as we're passing time in an internet cafe until our flight tonight to Calgary. We haven't really had a chance to see the city as we arrived late last night on a flight from Montreal and just jumped on a City Sightseeing Bus today for a broad overview. I have 4 days here though after I return from Clagary so there's plenty of time yet to see everything. It does seem like a pretty cool place though, so I'm looking forward to it.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the coolest bit!! I've managed to get a ticket to an Ice Hockey game on the 11th!!! I can't WAIT to see it, it's gonna be SO awesome watching those dudes all smash each other around. I only know the basics of the game, and as the hostel organises it there's drinks and a familiarisation session prior to the game which I'm sure will help. I'm getting all hyped up just thinking about it!

So back to what's going on: I'm still recovering from the week of intense exercise/pain/fun/crazyness of snowboarding. I don't if I remembered to mention it, but in case I didn't, I'll just let you know that I managed to snap one of the wrist guards I was wearing. I don't remember exactly where or when I did it as there were a number of things which could have caused it (I have a theory though that it happened on a jump where I almost landed on my head), but I can say that if it is definitely snapped then I am definitely gald I was wearing it. I presume that without it I would be typing this with one hand, which would just be annoying (to say the least). So yeah, snowboarding is still awesome and I wouldn't stop it, I just need a new set of guards before the next trip :)

After leaving the ski resort - Stoneham - I volunteered to drive from Quebec to Montreal to return the car etc. While there's no problems driving because the roads are good, one thing I did get was a big shock when I discovered why there is a rule in Canada that you have to scrape the ice from the top of your car. As we were cruising along at about 120km/h, up ahead a truck had a massive sheet of ice/snow just lift up off it's top, and catapault behind it. Our car was way back but the cars just behind the truck suddenly had this shower of ice/snow fall right on top of them. I don't think it damaged the cars, but where it all hit suddenly there was just a massive cloud of pure white snow which you simply couldn't see through. It cleared quickly as all the snow fell, but for a few seconds there those cars would have been totally blind and anything could have happened. Even something like 100meters back (where we were), it was difficult to see what was going on. So scrape your car tops people!! (well, those in Aus are safe I'm sure).

Aside from that the drive was pretty but uneventful. On the way into Montreal we stopped by Krispy Kreme for some donuts (they are some of the BEST donuts man, almost as good as Uncle Murry's) and then went McDonalds for lunch (we hadn't eaten and we left around noon from the ski chalet). While Maccas is a poor choice of food, we simply had to do it as we'd heard that they served McPoutine. For those of you who don't know what Poutine is, it's a Canadian dish where they get chips, smother them in gravy and top it all off with cheese curd. As the curd melts, it makes the gravy thicker and yeah.. it's good! But for your reference, McPoutine is just bad.. don't try it! Oh yeah, and the other thing they have different in Montreal is a double meat Big Mac! I naturally had to try it and take a picture of it (I'll post it later).

After that we returned the car and headed to Michelle's friends place where we were going to crash for the night (hi Ali). We sorted ourselves out and relaxed in front of tv for a little bit before heading out to another friends place (Joelle came up to the chalet in the last couple of days to board) for dinner. It was an awesome dinner (a nice hot curry to ward off the cold) and I learnt a lot from the conversations going around the table. For future note, someone from Quebec is called 'Quebecois' (Quebec-wah), not a Quebeccian or anything weird like that!

Unfortunately I'd picked up a bit of a sniffle from Michelle or Joelle (both had sore thoats on the last day of skiing) which started to get me the next day. Despite feelnig pretty flat we eventually got ourselves together and headed out for a quick walk around Montreal. There's a big mountain/parkland basically in the middle of the city, so it's a good place to start. Climbing the paths was a little interesting though.. lots of ice!

So yeah, the park is really cool. People crazy carpet/toboggan/tyre tube down the hills or even on some of the pre-prepared tracks they create near that main lake. Beside the lake is an artifical ice skating rink, however apparently once the lake completely freezes over, they skate on that too. The view from the park is really nice too, and on the return trip Ali took us through the university where she's currently studying (she's on exchange).

After a few hours walking it was time to head back to Al's, get our stuff and head to the airport. Joelle kindly gave us a ride so it was all totally easy (and somewhat luxurious, Joelle's dad's van was super comfy) before getting on the plane.

The bad part of the day? The entertainment system on the plane! It kept crashing out and we couldn't watch movies or anthing properly. After loads of restarts etc, I managed to see The Last Kiss (with Zac Braff) in it's entirety, even if it did take 5 hours to watch a 1.5 hour film! It is a pretty good movie, but I keep looking at him and expecting him to be in a Scrubs uniform :)

That'll do for now I think. This cold is really annoying me but I got some drugs today so hopefully it'll rack off. We haven't really organised anything for Calgary, so I'll have to just let you know how it goes!

Bye for now.

Anka

Snowboarding in Canada eh..?

It's over! I've now completed my six days of snowboarding in Canada and I'm certainly feeling it. We had another new experience today, and that was snowboarding in the rain!! Yup, you read that right, it rained here.... It's been something ridiculous like -12 or -17 degrees for most of the week, however apparently this morning it was a stupidly mild temperature of only -2 degrees! From what I've been told, snow usually forms around -3 degrees so this morning there was actually rain coming down (it was like a light mist).

After debating whether to actually head out, and feeling a little sorry for ourselves as a result of the drinks last night, we did get our collective butts into gear and managed to get down to the slopes. The rain had lightened off a little, but it was still falling as a mist. As rain can make conditions a little tricky, I decided to ditch my ski's and go back to snowboarding. This turned out to be a very wise decision as I found out later on in the morning.

So there we are, heading up the mountain with a light rain falling on us thinking "what the hell are we doing?!". Once at the top I got my first taste of what rain does to snow, and it's not very nice. It basically falls, melts the very top of the snow a little and then re-freezes. This creates a sort of crust on the top of the snow which isn't very strong, but which is amazingly slippery. It also makes it almost impossible to ski down the run without getting your vision obscured by water on your goggles (which then freezes and makes it even harder to see past). Wiping them with a ski gloves doesn't really help that much :( It all combines to make for some very interesting times....

The way to beat all this is to really use your legs a lot to push the edges of the snowboard deep into the snow. This will then break the crust allowing the board to sink into the softer snow underneath and then grip. It sounds easy, but in practice usually one of three things happen: 1) you manage to break the crust, get grip and the board swings around (that's good), or 2) you push too hard, the board digs right in and you can potentially overbalance (and fall), or 3) you don't push hard enough and the board slides out across the slick crust... and you fall pretty hard. It took a run or two and about 5 stacks to get the feel of the change in the snow, but after that I was ok, it just a LOT of work on my legs.

We boarded for a few hours in the morning (the rain got worse for a while) when suddenly, we could feel the temperature drop and all the icky light rain turned into snow! Hurrah! So then for the next half an hour we had snow falling and making a nice little covering on the ground.. good boarding! Eventually the snow stopped and everything cleared up. The runs were still a little icy on top but it was no where near as bad as the morning. So for the remainder of the day I jumped around all over the mountain trying to land small jumps, step-overs and just fanging it around the runs.

One section of the run we'd nicknamed the 'Forest of Death' as it was a trail off to the side of the main run which ran through a whole lot of trees. It's supposed to be a kid training area however the turns are tight and the trees everywhere make things really freaky. But between trees etc you get piles of snow which make excellent jumps, which is the main reason for going in there. In the previous days there'd been a nice covering of snow on the ground so we could (fairly) easily turn between trees etc and make it through in one piece. The area had really iced up today and it was so nasty. I had several near misses with quite large trees etc and had to save myself a couple of times by fully bailing out and jumping to the side. Still, with lots of hard leg work i could get through and jump off a few of the mounds... it was still great. I figured it was worth mentioning because it was the main contributor to the pathetic state that I'm in this evening (everything is sore!).

But things weren't finished yet with the weather, and around 3pm a massive thick fog rolled over the mountain. It was absolutely amazing to see this 'cloud' sitting right at the top of the mountain, but everything below being completely clear. You start the chairlift at the bottom, ascend into the clouds, snowboard down the run not seeing more than 10 meters in front of you (but hell, we knew the run so there wasn't that much to surprise us), and then suddenly, BAM, you've dropped below the fog line and it's all clear and crisp. On one of the final runs for the day I put on my headphones, whacked on 'Best of You' by the Foo Fighters (up loud) and just carved my way down (with a little speedy jump at the end). It was SO sweet as there was no one around and I had basically the whole run to myself. I love snowboarding!!!!

So as I said, that's it for the first part of the Canadian Odyssey. Snowboarding here is a completely different experience from Australia and Austria. It's far colder but the snow we've had has been of a really good quality. From here on I've no idea what we are doing, but hopefully I won't get stuck in any more airports! :)

I hope to also get some pictures up soon, but for now you'll just have to make do...

Happy New Year (again).

Anka

Happy New Year all!

Happy New Year to everyone from Quebec Canada. It's about -8 degrees Celsius here and we're all absolutely knackered from a day of snowboarding and skiing.. but we made it to the new year..

Today was a really amazing day because I actually tried something I've never done before - skiing! I'm getting pretty comfortable on a snowboard now and am starting to do small jumps and things down the mountain.. it's great. For a bit of a change this afternoon I switched over to ski's and got some tuition from Jo (a friend of Brett and Michelle's who's ski'ed and boarded since she was a kid). After an hour or so on the practice slope Jo suddenly says, "ok, lets go on a run". I felt ok on the practice slope.. but to go on a run....?!?! That was a little freaky.

I made it down the first run without major incident and was pretty damn happy with it! I'm far from being graceful or in any way looking cool, but hell, I can at least get from top to bottom. We then went on a second run on a slightly harder run but because there was a lot of ice, it was a lot harder. But still, I managed it down with only one stack - even if it was one I manufactured by deliberately trying to just hoon down the hill (despite the fact I kinda knew I couldn't handle the speed). But the stack wasn't too bad, I wasn't hurt and just pushed on.

So there it is, a new year and a day of trying to ski... both good things!
I hope the new year brings peace and prosperity to all. I'll talk to everyone soon.

Anka