Category Archives: Place

Travel Resume

I seem to be in the mood for writing lists.  I am in the process of assessing the direction I want to take this blog, especially as I won’t be doing much actual travelling for a while.  But this is not a travel blog, it is a blog about my travels, so I thought I should make a list of all the places I’ve been and that will make it easier for me to write reminiscing posts about my previous travels.

I also thought I should make it a permanent tab so people new to this site or that are just interested can see where I’ve been and ask question or request specific posts.  I wouldn’t go so far as saying I’m an authority on travelling but I have gained quite a bit of practical experience that I’m willing to share.  And isn’t that what blogging is about?  The sharing of information, experiences and opinions.

So here is a bit about me and my travel history:

In 2003 before I had graduated university I studied my remaining subject by distance and I finally fulfilled a dream.  I participated in an American Summer Camp program through the International Exchange Programs organisation (IEP).  My camp was situated in upstate New York and for 12 weeks I worked as a gymnastic instructor.

After camp, with the new friends I had made, I spent a few days in New York City.  I then travelled to Boston to meet up with one of my housemates from Uni.  She had been an exchange student and I had lived in an international share house.  I spent a week with her at Wellesley College (where Mona Lisa Smile was filmed).  She showed me around Boston and the Wellesley area and I took a day trip to Salem.  My next stop was Buffalo to meet up with my pen friend whom I had been writing to since I was 11.  I spent a few days participating in Uni activities with her and we took a day trip to Niagara Falls.

I then went to Canada.  I had a 12 month working holiday visa.  In 2003 this visa was issued only once in a lifetime.  I spent my first week in Toronto and got a job within 4 days.  I worked making hockey bags in a suburban area of the city and boarded with the sister of one of my co-workers.  After 4 weeks I had enough money to do a trip with the Moose Travel Network.  My tour took me to Montreal, Ottowa, Quebec City, Tadoussac, Mt Tramblant and Algonquin Park.

I was unprepared for the coming winter, sick of meeting Australians and a little homesick so I headed to Minneapolis-St. Paul to stay with another uni housemate.  I arranged to sit my final exam at her college, Macalester.  She was a great tour guide and I got to see quite a bit of this area including the world’s largest ball of twine and the Spam museum.  I also experienced my first Halloween and snowfall while here.  Next stop was LA to stay with another housemate.  I spent 10 days in LA.  I was taken to Disneyland, Universal Studios and Disney studios (which isn’t actually open to the public, her brother happened to work there).  We also did the tourist things you do in LA and wandered Hollywood Boulevard and Rodeo Drive.

2007 was my next big trip.  I had been franticly saving to go to England to visit my friends from camp but in February that year I got seriously itchy feet and decided that for the first time in my life I needed to take a summer holiday.  I spent four weeks in the United States between August and September.  I spent a week in NYC with a side trip to Pennsylvania.  I then did the two week Southern Dream tour, a west bound cross country trip with Green Tortoise Adventure Travel. This took me to Washington D.C., New Orleans, Monument Valley and Las Vegas, ending up in San Francisco.  I then spent a week in the place where my spiritual heart now lays, San Francisco.

2009 I finally got to England on a tier 5 working holidaymaker’s visa for 2 years.  In this time I got to see quite a bit of Great Britain including Wales, Scotland and various places around England.  Some of my favourite places include Bath, Whitby, and Oxford to only name a few.

2012 I went to Canada again.  The visa restrictions have changed and are no longer ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ so I wanted to make up for stuffing up the first time.  This time though I started on the other side of the country and arrived in Vancouver.  Again I had a job within the first few days of being there so I travelled to Prince Rupert via Vancouver Island.  After a couple of months I quit my job and took off to Whitehorse, Yukon with a really hot guy and spent a month there then travelled through the Rockies and returned to Vancouver.  Again I left early after only using 7 months of the now 2 year visa.

My future travel plans include driving the Mongol Rally, Travelling the Trans-Siberian Railway, Volunteer trips to India and Romania, and exploring Europe.  I would also like to see more of my home country, Australia, but there is no place like home and I’ll always come back here.  That gives you an idea of my travel history.  I will put up a new Tab for more comprehensive information of where I’ve been and an official Travel Resume soon.

If you would like to request a future blog post and read about my experience in any of the places I’ve been, please leave a comment blow.

 

Think global, act local

Recently I had a friend stay with me.  She is Japanese and I met her while I was in Canada.  She had spent last Christmas in Yukon at -40 and decided this year she might need to escape the harsh Canadian winter for a while.  I love my local area so here are some of the places I took her.

I live near Deloraine so inevitably she had to come into town with me.  Deloraine is a sweet colonial, country town.  Honestly there is not a lot to do but it is pretty to look at and wander around.  The tourist information is really helpful with things to do in the area, as long as you have a car and some cash.

Another day I had to go into Devonport to do a few things.  Devonport is my hometown and got slammed in one of the Lonely Planet guides for having absolutely nothing to offer except free wifi at McDonalds.  Which, in my opinion is pretty much spot on but then I escaped as soon as I was able to.  There is though, a lovely walk along the foreshore that takes you to the Bluff, a local beach and the walking path continues another 10km to Don.

On the way home from Devonport we stopped at the House of Anvers, a total chocolate experience, which is just before you reach Latrobe.  It has a café for lunch or dinner or simply for a traditional hot chocolate.  We enjoyed a hot chocolate.  It was a nice day for it given that there was a storm raging outside and I wasn’t keen to be driving in it.  After exploring the museum and watching the chocolates being made we went into the tasting centre to try some fudge.  We both brought a few little sample chocolates.

A little way up the road is The Cherry Shed.  We bypassed this stop.  I’m not a big fan of cherries myself.  They offer a range of cherry related products including cherry ice-cream, wine, port, liqueurs, jam, pickles, chutney, relish, and sauces.  From what I remember they have a lovely café.  The cherries are not grown on site but are grown locally at a nearby orchard.  Due to the soil and conditions some of the largest and richly flavoured cherries are produced.

Just before we got back to my place we stopped into Ashgrove Farm Cheese.  They have a tasting area in the centre of the sales room and there are usually some interesting flavours on offer.  I love their wasabi cheese.  I always find the lavender cheese interesting but cannot bring myself to eat a lot of it.  I also love their marinated fetta.  The other great thing about this place, and there are many, is their packaging.  I picked up a sample pack and my friend brought some boutique Tassie beer, so that was dinner sorted.

Up the road a little way is etc, or the Elizabeth Town Café.  This is my local bakery.  Bread and a range of cakes and biscuits are made on site.  I asked what bread they would recommend to go with all the cheese I’d just brought.  They were very helpful and though I don’t remember the name of the type of bread it was perfect, even if the flour on top made a bit of a mess.

We got back to where I am housesitting for my parents and had a simple dinner of cheese and bread and beer.  There may not be a lot to see while driving on the highway in Tasmania but if you pull over at the various stops along the way there is a lot to eat.

 

A Taste of Tasmania

My favourite festival happens in Hobart, Tasmania for a week over New Years.  Unfortunately this year, due to my financial situation, I am not going to be able to go.  Instead I thought I would reminisce and tell you all about it.

The Taste festival takes place in a big shed on the waterfront.  It is a food and wine festival which showcases the best produce that Tasmania has to offer.  Actually, I don’t think that is necessarily true.  To get a stall at the Taste is very expensive so really the people that can afford to showcase their efforts do.

There is a fantastic atmosphere that surrounds the site.  It is nice to wander the various stalls and taste wines and cheese and various Tasmanian seafoods.  I love the variety that is on offer.  I love being introduced to new wines and to support Tasmanian made.  I loved it when I lived in Hobart I could spend a day wandering around and have something lovely for lunch or finish work and head down there and have something different for dinner.

The sheer size and amount of options can be overwhelming so I have developed a particular way I like to tackle this festival.  I enter the shed and start at my right and do a full lap around all the stalls before I try anything.  I usually bring my own plastic glass but last year I forgot and had to buy a new one.  After my first lap I decide what type of wine I’m in the mood for then will do another lap and have a taste of either whites or reds.

I love talking to the stall holders and discussing the flavours and the harvest and what their aims were for each one.  If the stall isn’t very busy they are more than happy to talk about the tasting notes and recommend food that would go with each.  I am by no means a wine snob.  I know nothing about wine other than what I like.  And I like to try new ones and discover new favourites.  I also love wine speak.  Words like robust and bouquet and trying to taste the ‘tobacco overtones’ is for me, a lot of fun.

Last year I had two friends visit so I took them down.  We went on the Saturday so we could wander Salamanca markets then have lunch at The Taste.  We sat in the sun and sipped wine then found something else for dinner. It was a great way to introduce my English friend to something that is uniquely Tasmanian.  She is not a big fan of seafood but enjoyed a wallaby hamburger and the fresh berries with Tasmanian ice cream that was available.

They both got sick of my endless laps pretty quickly and left me to it.  Watching me talk rubbish to someone while I get a free drink isn’t fun for everyone, I understand.  I did find one wine that I really liked and ended up buying a bottle.  I also remember having the Cajun calamari which was delicious, and many other people thought so too because I was waiting in line for a good 20 minutes.

The Taste festival is one of my favourite events in Tasmania.  I love an afternoon sitting in the sun with a crisp glass of white wine with a sea breeze on my face just watching the world go by, or as the case may be, watching the yachts from the Sydney to Hobart float in the harbor.

Entry is free and there is entertainment all day.  I love many things about Tasmania but this event is at the top of my list.  Leave a comment and let me know your favourite festival and why I should go.

Homecoming

There is no place like home…

Once you get settled back in that is.  I like being home but the process of coming home can sometimes be overwhelming.

I’ve been back home for 2 weeks now and I still feel out of sorts and out of place.  It’s a strange feeling because home is where you are meant to feel most comfortable.  After I returned from two years in the UK I found it really difficult to just slot back in.  I did have a rather servere case of Reverse Culture Shock that time though.  I plan to share my experience in an up coming post so I won’t expand on it just now.

This time coming home from Canada was relatively pain free in comparison but still difficult.  I don’t like a lot of fuss or attention.  I prefer to ease myself back in and catch up with family and friends in my own time.  But then I have everything else that needs to be done.  I need to reorganise my life.  Before I’d left I was prepared to be away for 2 years so I am now in the process of undoing all that as well as getting on top of my health again.

Before I go on any trip I make sure I am the healthiest I can be.  While in Canada I experienced 3 months of insomnia, the worst tasting “fresh” food of my life, incredibly expensive dairy products and a poor diet in general because of the expense and availability of food and the lack of opportunity to cook myself anything decent.  So I think my body is readjusting to not only the change in season but my change in diet as well.

So now I am doing my usual round of check ups.  I also broke my glasses while away and can’t drive at night until I get new ones.  I came back in a little bit of credit card debt and managed to get a job after only being home for a week but my new work commitment is now getting in the way of all the other things I want to do, and seeing the people I want to catch up with.  It doesn’t help that I have a slight problem with impatience and I really just want to get everything done now.  And I mean right now.

I really just need to give myself time.  I have a week over Christmas and New Years to get on top of everything.  This might also give me a chance to get on top of my writing also.  I have a new found sense of community and I want to get involved more in my local community and neighbourhood.  I am hoping that over Christmas I am able to catch up with people and after I’ve finished my round of appointments I’m a lot more settled.  Then it’s just a matter of saving more money so I can go away again.

Bondi

‘Time and tide waits for no one.’  This seems quite fitting given the week I’ve just had.  Here I am wanting to write about my thoughts and experiences of Bondi beach and time just seems to be getting away from me.

Last week I was staying with a friend who lives near Bondi so I was able to visit one of Australia’s iconic beaches a number of times.  The weather was lovely for it, though it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.  For starters I imagined that she lived right near the beach.  It turned out she lived 2km away, it was a nice walk along the main road to get to the actual beach, which was smaller than I was expecting.  My friend had warned me that for one of Australia’s most famous beaches there wasn’t much to it and there were much nicer beaches in the area.

The reason Bondi is so famous and iconic is mainly because of Australia’s beach culture and surf lifesaving history.  Bondi was in fact the world’s first formally documented surf lifesaving club with the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club being formed in 1907.  Many of the key features of surf rescue were developed in these early years at Bondi and the surf lifesaving movement spread from here, initially through New South Wales then throughout Australia and the rest of the world.  More about Bondi’s rich history can be read about HERE.

My friend is ex-Air Force and still likes to keep fit so my first trip to Bondi was one morning in the role of spectator.  I like to walk rather than run and my fitness levels are not what they once were.  I enjoyed sitting with my coffee and my guilt while watching slim, bronzed Aussies running around the beach.  Actually, Australia is such a multicultural nation so I am just presuming here.  But it was a very active place to be.  I watched people take surfing lessons, do surf lifesaving training, and right in front of where I was seated there was a personal training session going on.  I felt sufficiently lazy by the time I’d finished my coffee.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Bondi on not a very nice morning

On the walk back to my friend’s place she pointed out Bondi Icebergs Club, a building and pool at one end of the beach.  Here there is swimming all year round, as it was first developed as a place for surf lifesaving members to keep fit during the winter months.  It is now a winter swimming club open to anyone who is willing to uphold their strict membership.  You are required as a member to swim 3 Sundays a month over a 5 month winter season.  So it is a commitment rather than just an annual membership payment.  Also, the Bondi Pavilion that was built in 1929 in Mediterranean Georgian Revival style, it seems pretty swish to be just a changing room and toilet block but I’m sure it’s used for many other things.  There are also the houses of the rich and famous, Hugh Jackman is said to have a house at one end.  I did entertain the thought of running into Sarah Murdoch though I had no luck.

A few days later on a very warm afternoon my friend and I wandered back to Bondi as she wanted to show me more of the area.  Bondi is generally for the tourists.  The shops opposite the beach along Campbell Parade are full of tourist tack, beach balls and buckets and spades.  They also look like they haven’t changed much in 3 generations.  So she took me for a walk along the coastal path that takes you from Bondi all the way to Coogee Beach.  We didn’t go that far.  We walked around the cliff top path while she pointed out Waverley Cemetery, (which kind of looked like an olive grove to me), and told me about events that have gone on in the area.  We watched a lizard try and catch a spider and we were both amused by the shock of the passing foreigners who all thought both the lizard and spider where “huge”.  Both were quite small by Australian standards.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Tamarama Beach

We continued on past Tamarama Beach where my friend explained that it is quite a small beach, about 80 meters of shoreline making it one of the most dangerous beaches because if a rip comes through it takes up the entire beach.  It is also quite deep and the waves don’t roll in so much as just dump right on top of you.  We stopped for a look but then kept walking to Bronte Beach. Bronte was really lovely.  It is smaller than Bondi but bigger than Tamarama and partly shaded by the sandstone cliffs, and surrounded by a grassy park.  It has a nicer atmosphere to it and seemed more family orientated.  We stopped for a while and just watched the people.  My friend was tempted to jump in the water but after dipping our feet we decided it was a bit too cold and the afternoon was cooling off slightly so it might take a while to get dry again.  After some time we decided to walk back to her flat.  There were some really lovely looking cafes across the road from the park and it seemed like a nice spot to spend an evening.

I enjoyed my time wandering around.  I would say that Bondi is a nice place to go just to say you’ve been there but don’t forget to have a look at the rest of the area, there are some other lovely beaches hidden around the cliff tops.

Sydney Writer’s Walk

Sydney is a fantastic walking city.  I like to just pick an area and just have a wander around.  The other day I decided to wander around Darling Harbor.  I was just strolling along besides all the shops and restaurants then just kept walking.  I ended up walking around the water’s edge and got to The Rocks.  I kept to the water’s edge, wandered under the bridge and stumbled across large metal discs in the pavement around the International passenger terminal.  As I am not one to miss out on anything literary in any place I go to it seemed I had stumbled upon the Writer’s Walk.

The Writer’s Walk is an intuitive undertaken by Arts NSW as a way of acknowledging “in a permanent way the immense contribution the authors have made to our national identity and cultural landscape over generations.”  Late last year 11 additional plaques were added so now there are 60 plaques that are imbedded around the Circular Quay area from the International passenger dock to the forecourt of the Opera House. “The Writers’ Walk was created 20 years ago to commemorate the lives and achievements of authors who either lived in Australia or made a contribution during a visit or period of residency”

As I was walking around the Quay I stopped to read each plaque which was probably annoying to the people around me.  Circular Quay is a very popular area for tourists and you get views of both the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.  It is also where the ferries leave from so there are a lot of people in this area.  Then you get someone like me who stops dead in the middle of it all just to read something on the ground.  Out of the 58 plaques I managed to find I only had two people crash into me or tell me to get out of their way.

I was struck by the amount of famous writers that had come to Australia and been profoundly affected by this country.  I was surprised by the knowledge and inspiration that this country had provided to some of Australia’s greatest writers.  I had never considered Australia to be especially unique or special in any way.  I just thought it was the hot chunk of land at the end of the world that I had happened to be born in.  But coming back from Canada I can look at my own country with a new appreciation.

The surprises for me were the presence of Charles Darwin who visited Australia in 1836 and it was this visit that help form some of his theories on evolution.  Robert Louis Stevenson visited Australia four times in the early 1890’s.  My favourite man of verse, Rudyard Kipling visited Sydney in 1891 and mentions his experience in Something of Myself (1937), he also influenced Australian poet ‘Banjo’ Patterson.  Mark Twain came to Australia on a world lecture tour in 1895 and his impressions were recorded and published in Following the Equator (1897).

I imagine that travelling during this time would have been difficult.  It is not the luxury we have today.  I may whinge about a 19 hour flight but that is nothing compared to months on a ship that these men would have had to endure in the name of adventure and discovery.  What comes to mind is the fact that some of the places that these men may have seen might still remain unchanged today.

The plaques also acknowledge famous Australians such as ‘Banjo’ Patterson, John Williamson, May Gibbs and Colleen McCullough.  But there were a few I had never heard of but now want to read and others where I hadn’t realised the true extent of their work.

My favourite plaque had this example:

“In Sydney Harbor… the yachts will be racing on the crushed diamond water under a sky the texture of powdered sapphires.  It would be churlish not to concede that the same abundance of natural blessing which gave us the energy to leave has every right to call us back.”  Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs, 1980

If you would like to learn something about Australian history or literature than I highly recommend this walk while you are in Sydney.

And the winner is

Sydney

As far as my home country goes I haven’t actually seen much of it.  There are cities here that I love.  I love Hobart.  I love Melbourne.  I’ve lived in both and know how to get to where I want to go.  But I’ve never spent much time in Sydney.  I was here for a week when I was 19 and considering quitting Uni but I wasn’t a tourist.  So now it’s time to give this great city a chance.

There has always been a rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney so because I love Melbourne so much I figured that I wouldn’t like Sydney.  But I’m from Tasmania and as the rest of the country pretty much ignores us down there it really doesn’t matter what I think.  I’ll tell you what I think.  I think I really like Sydney.  I love a city you can walk around and for this Sydney is great.

I arrived on a rather dreary day so it was perfect to recover from jetlag.  The next day though was beautiful. The sun was shining and it was warm.  I went for a walk.  I walked all the way up the street that my hostel was on and ended up at Circular Quay and was greeted by the Opera house and the Harbor Bridge.  No two iconic structures say ‘Welcome Home’ in quite the same way.  I sat around the harbor and just watched the world go by.

An add on my map told me there would be a free walking tour leaving from the nearby Customs House at 2:30, so I had 2 hours to kill before then.  That wasn’t hard to do.  I’m back in a country that has a rather serious coffee addition.  I found the meeting point at 2:30 and spent 3 hours learning all sorts of things that I didn’t actually know about my own country.  The first stop on the tour was to the place the flag was planted in order for the British to claim the land.  As Australia has no sense of history and are generally too laid back to care the spot is actually used as a bus stop.

The rest of the tour wandered through the historic area of The Rocks, then down through the central business district and then through the botanical gardens stopping at a great place to view the harbor.  The tour was informative and the guide was really helpful and willing to answer any questions or take photos or make suggestions on how to spend your time here.

I love walking tours anyway, so I usually encourage other travellers to try them as well.  Most of the time the guides aren’t paid but tips are appreciated.  I think it is a great way to get your bearings in a new city and learn a little about the history.  I was not disappointed.  I had a great time.  I will write more about Sydney in future posts.  For now though I must go and enjoy the sun.

A Second Chance

For Vancouver:

While in Banff I had big plans to go to the hot springs and go to Canmore and go on the gondola.  I did none of this.  Banff is a lovely town with a great atmosphere and a really friendly hostel but after almost three weeks of not doing much it was time to move on.  I had plans to move on to Calgary but my lack of motivation didn’t really inspire me to go somewhere else just to do nothing so I opted to go back to Vancouver.

When I arrived in Canada I landed in Vancouver and at the time it felt like I had landed on my arse.  Jetlag took days to get over and it was raining and I didn’t really feel like doing anything, so I didn’t.  Vancouver deserved a second chance.

The 12 hour bus from Banff to Vancouver was awful.  For starters it was over an hour late so there was an hour sitting in the cold and wet in Banff, then I got almost no sleep.  But I arrived to a lovely crisp autumn day in Vancouver, complete with sunshine and blue sky.  I had breakfast and a shower to clean the bus off me and I was ready to make the most of the day even if I was tired.  I got talking to a girl in my room and we headed to Granville Island where there is public market and a fantastic art scene.  We spent a few hours wandering around.  We parted ways after the ferry ride back she had something else she wanted to do.  I was happy to make the most of the sunshine so I walked along English Bay.

The other reason for me to head to Vancouver was because I knew GG was going to be there and I really wanted to catch up with her.  In a stroke of fate we were actually staying at same hostel.  The next day we met for breakfast and as it was a lovely day we went to West Vancouver to walk around Lighthouse Park.  It is a really nice area if you like trees and water.  I just liked having something to do and catching up with GG.  By the afternoon I was tired but happy.

The next day was my run around day.  I had mail to pick up, things to post off and stuff to organise.  I did have plans to wander around bookshops and have a look about but after a sleep in and a bit of procrastination on my part I found time limited.  I met GG for dinner at a bar around the corner from the hostel.  I found it last time I was in town and for some reason I just love it.  I has great, cheap food with the sports/dive bar atmosphere.

This now brings us to Saturday.  I spent the morning writing e-mails and researching my next location.  By the afternoon I was bored so I decided that I would go shopping for a new pair of boots.  Not that I could afford any such item but I was sitting at a café and watching all the people go by with their lovely footwear and thought I might like to have a look at some shoes for a while.  I did buy new socks though, which I got strangely excited about.  All my socks have holes in them so new ones, given the season, were needed.  That night I had a $2 slice of pizza for dinner.

Sunday it started to rain.  I met up with GG and we wandered around Gastown, the older part of Vancouver.  I like this area.  I like the atmosphere and it actually came recommended to me by a friend back in England.  GG and I sat and had coffee or tea and just chatted.  It was really nice catching up.  She told me about the things that had happened after I left my job and made me even more glad I left when I did.  We went and did what we needed to do and met for dinner that night.  She had discovered a small Chinese restaurant that made their own noodles by hand.  She enjoyed watching the noodles being made and the meal was delicious.

That brings me to today.  The weather is shitty which doesn’t inspire me to do much at all.  I’m leaving tonight so I won’t get a chance to wander around Chinatown or check out the little shops along Commercial Drive or go for a bike ride along the Sea Wall but I’m sure I will be back again at some stage.

I’m glad I gave Vancouver a second change.  It made a difference that the weather was lovely for most of the time I’ve been here and I was slightly more motivated this time.  But for now I must be movin’ on…

Trees and Water

The bus from Jasper to Banff

I took a tour bus to get to Banff.  Without a car the Rockies are difficult to get around, so a tour was my only way to see a few things.  I don’t know why it is, Canada just doesn’t do much for me.  I’ve been to some nice places but I think it has been the people I’ve met there that have made those places special for me.  I was expecting Jasper to be amazing because everyone goes on about it, but for me it was actually a little underwhelming.

I got picked up at the hostel in Jasper at 9am and the first stop was Athabasca Falls.  It is a 25 metre waterfall with a short interpretative walk.  The significance of this place is that the river runs north.  Most rivers in Canada run mainly east or west.

The driver of the bus commentated all the way.  It was interesting and informative.  He talked about the ecology and geography and about glaciers and what they have done to carve out the landscape.  Well, it was interesting when I was awake enough to listen.  I figured I wasn’t missing much of the scenery, from what I’ve seen Canada is just different variations of trees and water with a few mountains thrown in to mix it up a bit.

The next stop was the Columbian Icefields.  There were not many trees here but it was mountains covered in frozen water.  We stopped at the tourist information and interpretive centre.  There was the option to take the ice explorer tour which would drive you out onto Athabasca glacier, and you could have a walk on it as well.  I didn’t do the tour, but I had a look around the interpretive centre and found out about when the glaciers in the area were discovered and the history of the area.

There were seven people on the bus and they were all Australians.  I could tell the ones from Queensland because they were the ones to get the most excited about seeing snow.  It was a good group of people with a mix of ages.

After the Icefields we drove to Lake Louise.  I had changed my plans while I was in Jasper.  I was going to stay in Lake Louise overnight but decided I couldn’t afford two bus trips.  It turned out to be a good choice and I still got to see the lake.  There isn’t much to the town but the actual lake is beautiful.  It looks better in real life than it does in the postcards.  It was the best trees and water moment I’ve had.  I walked around the lake a little but I would have been just as happy to sit and just stare out.  This is one place I would like to come back to, but it was enough for now.

The tour then went to Banff.  I arrived about 4pm.  It was a really good day trip and I got to see more than expected.  When I arrived at the hostel I got settled in and got chatting to a girl in my room.  Banff has a different feel and I hadn’t even left the hostel and I’d already decided that I like the place.  I then went to the hostel bar for dinner and a couple of pints.  I got talking to a few Australians.  Usually I try and avoid Australians but I have accepted that in Banff that might be hard to do.  These guys were actually really funny and I had a good night and stayed up til midnight and met loads of people.

I am booked to stay at the hostel for two weeks.  The girls in my room are all pretty cool.  There are three others booked in for a couple of weeks and we are all looking for work.  I just need something temporary so I can get a bus in a few weeks.  I’m sure something will come up.

Jasper

I took the bus to Jasper from Prince George.  The lady I had been staying with in Fort St James had appointments in PG so I got a ride.  The bus left in the evening and arrived in Jasper at 2:40 am.  I did have all intentions of passing the early hours of the morning at Tim Horton’s but I had a rotten cold that had been trying to take hold for a few days, and when I called the hostel before my bus I was told there would be nothing open.  So I did the sensible things and got a taxi to the hostel.

My first day was not exciting.  I slept in.  I had arranged on the phone to do ‘work for stay’ so I work in order to get free accommodation.  I did that then went back to sleep for a while.  The HI hostel is situated about 11km out of town on the way to the Tramway.  I was happy to have a day to myself and not do much at all.

The next day I took the free shuttle into town.  I walked along one of the main streets looking in all the souvenir  shops looking for the sew on patches I like to collect.  I then had a walk around the rest of town.  It is a small place and there really isn’t much to it.  I went to tourist information to get a few ideas then went to the Bear’s Paw Bakery to check out their baked goods that I had heard a lot about.  I then decided to walk the Discovery Trail which goes around the town area.  I got to one part and noticed a picture of a bear on the signage.  I took this as a warning that there were bears in the area.  I decided I didn’t want to risk getting attacked so I went back to town.  Turns out it was just part of the sign.

The rest of the day I just did what I needed to.  I found a supermarket and picked up what I needed.  Food is more expensive than I was expecting so I didn’t get a lot.  I also sat and had a beer at Jasper Brewing Co.  I managed to kill a bit of time but I still had 4 hours until the free shuttle went back to the hostel.  The quilt shop in town wasn’t open and I didn’t see the point wasting time at the library so I paid the $15 for a taxi back to the hostel.

Jasper is a nice place to look at but to be honest it does nothing for me.  Also I had arrived during the ‘shoulder season’ so all the summer things had closed and all the winter stuff hadn’t opened yet.  I got talking to a girl in my room who changed my mind about going to Lake Louise and now I think I will head straight to Banff.  I need to pick up a bit of work for a month or so.

The weather isn’t much and I can’t afford taking a taxi to and from town just to do nothing.  I’ve got a couple of days to get organised and work out some sort of idea for Banff and I will make the most of my time bumming around the hostel to drink tea and write.