Canada Again!

Yes, that's right a couple of weeks ago I set off on my 3rd trip to Canada since leaving home. What can I say I love it there. Sticking to the western part of Canada I flew into Calgary where Will met me at the airport.

After a lovely (almost missed welcome) we drove up to Edmonton. There's not much going for Edmonton (excpet for oil) however I had arranged a suprise for Will - which truely was a suprise as he had no idea. That night we went to see the Killers which I will have to say was really one of the best concerts I have been to, even in a ice hockey arena they sounded amazing. Better than on CD.

The next morning it was a drive to Saskatoon which is in the provence of Saskatchewan. It was a 6 hour drive and was very flat and quite lifeless. Will hates Saskatoon and is always harping on about how backwards it is and horried. I thought it was quite nice. There's a nice tree lined river, it's quite pretty. Granted that said there is not a whole lot going on there. It's quite small. We had a nice time though, cooked some lovely food, went out for dinner, a walked along the river. We spent 3 days there and then set off in the car again this time for a bit more of a spectacular drive.



We then drove back to Calgary. Another flat not so exciting scenery. We drove through Calgary to Banff, now this is my 3rd time in this part of the country and it is rather spectacular. Both times before I have been here in the heart of winter for ski season so it was interesting to see it in Autumn when it was nearly summer. It's still beautiful and there was still a lot of snow on the mountains. After Banff we kept going, and drove through the ice fields parkway to Jasper national park. I had wanted to do this drive for a long time and I had never had the opportunity to do it both times I'd been there before. It really is amazing it's so many mountains and beautiful landscapes.



What I was extra excited about was the fact that I got to see animals!!!!!! As I have said I have been to Canada 2 times before and I have seen none! none of the classic Canadian animals I was somewhat bitter about this. However I was lucky that this time I got to see some bears (they were little brown bears but I was still excited) a moose bum, only saw him from behind, some deer and some mountain goats. I was rather disappointed that I did not get to see a Beaver I really really wanted to see one. We spent the night in Jasper, then the next day we drove back to Calgary. I drove for a few hours, it was a bit weird driving on the wrong side of the road but I think I did alright, although Will may have been a little freaked out.




When we were back in Calgary we jumped on a plane and flew to Vancouver. Now my previous experience of Vancouver involved rain rain and more rain. This time the weather could not have been more perfect. I was staying with my friend Carolyn and on our arrival we managed to interupt her and Bucky getting engaged! A little awkward but it was a very happy occasion.



While we were in Vancouver we walked around Stanley Park in the beautiful sunshine, did some shopping & walked around downtown. Ate street meat Vancouver style - soy hot dog! As well as eat in some lovely restaurants. We went to the Aquarium. I got to see an otter so that was cool, it almost made up for not seeing a beaver.



It was also Carolyn's birthday so we celebrated by going to the local nudie beach. Yes it was hot enough to go the the beach. I kept my bathers on but I did see a lot of saggy scrotums. There were also people selling beer, food etc nude apart from a little bum bag for their money. That night we went to a fantastic seafood restaurant on Grandville Island to celebrate some more. It was so lovely to see Carolyn again, when her and I get together it's like the time apart has never mattered, we always manage to have a lot of fun and get up to old tricks again.



I had such a fantastic trip and I now have a new found love for Vancouver. I always did like it but you really see how spectacular it is when it the sun shines upon it. It was very hard to leave this time, a very very sad occasion.