Hey guys! This will have to be a quick post because its 10.30pm and I'll be getting kicked out of thelodge soon, and I've only managed to score the computer for a few minutes
So I arrived here on a snowing Sunday night after a sweet dinner in Canmore with Uncle Jack, AUnt Shielia and Shannon (Thanks so much for having me by the way guys! And I'm sure I'll be asking more favours of you in the months to come!!:) )
Sunday night we were lucky enough to have a real dorm (cluster) in a real building! But since then Tipi life has begun and so everynight is spent walking through snow that at some points reaches your knee. It has snowed all day every day I've been here except today! So everything is white! which makes things SO COLD but also so beautiful. So far all the nights have been around -10degrees celsius. So I make sure I'm wearing all my clothes and am absolutley covered by my sleeping bag, including your face because otherwise my face actually begins to go numb! And yet the moment the fire goes out I wake up as the temperature jsut drops so much! Today was the first day I have actually used my drink bottle because every morning I wake up the water in it is frozen through...and it's sitting right next to my bed! Anyway so you should just know its cold...I think today is the first day it actually got above zero (to about 2 in the middle of the afternoon! YAY).
So kids arrive on Tuesday every week and each of us leads a group of 9 kids who stay in the tipi with us and we are in charge of for the rest of the week, apart from an hour off on weekday nights when their teachers take them for an activity or something. So we've been learning how to track animals and know what animal males what type of track, adn what type of mood they might be in to make that track. I've also learnt the different steps of different animals (like pacing and overstepping etc). We followed bear tracks for a bit yesterday...that didn't make much sense to me...but I suppose it would be pretty cool to see a bear. They also have cougars around here which are pretty common and more of a worry than the bears. That's a worry.
What else have we learnt...oh yeah HEAPS and HEAPS of games (that's what alot of our dday is spent doing...playing games) and I've learnt facts about the trees around here and there names and properties.
I better go because everyones leaving..and I don't want to walk through cold snow by myself...
Oh and we all have to have 'Nature names" which is what all the kids and other staff call us while we're here.
Mine is Kootenay, Koots for short:)
xx Koots
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Camp Summit
Hey people. I Have finally arrived at my home for the next 6 months, Camp Summit. It is totally awesome, I have a room in a little wood cabin, and when I walk out the door I can look right and see a big mountain with snow on the top looming up above the forest. It's pretty sweet. I'll post some photos once I get my computer out.
Yeah so Camp is awesome. We get our first kids on like the 3rd of May or something so right now we are in training and the site is just being finished off. Things like electricity, heaters and hot water will all be operational in the next couple of days. Yay!
So the training we are doing is a ropes certification that allows me to instruct high ropes under supervision of the main ropes instructor. It's like a Level 1 or something. Hopefully it is internationally recognised so it can help me get some ODE gigs back home. Have to ask Anna and Emma bout that. So today I spent alot of time belaying people as well as climbing on various elements. I also spent a fair while strapped to a pole dismantling a pulley set up. It was pretty sweet because we had to use a cable grab and like pull ourselves up. Good fun, though I semi messed up and let go of the pulley, so I had to like climb right to the top and completely reach out, which is pretty scary when your like over 40ft in the air. But yeah, if I was every afraid of heights I wont be after this summer, although I will probably spend most of my time belaying other kids.
Another plus about Camp, the food is awesome, Chef Marty cooks up all these delicious feasts for every meal. Also we have 3 camp dogs, Marty's Deloughsie, Shannon's blind epileptic chihuahua Zoe and Camus, the carpenter's GIANT labrador. But I still miss my Sammy!!
Yeah so I'll try and get some shots of the Camp up so you guys can see how cool it is. Admittedly weather-wise is a little chilly for me.. the middle of the day sun is like really nice but the second it goes down, man does it get chilly. And the staff lounge is a tent so we are all like sitting watching tv shivering, which is pretty awesome...
Yeah I think the Canadians think us Aussies are massive wimps. But hey.
Oh and my sleeping bag is like totally perfect, I'm mega stoked on it. In fact I think I might go and head to it right now, I've got another day of climbing ahead of me.
Yeah so Camp is awesome. We get our first kids on like the 3rd of May or something so right now we are in training and the site is just being finished off. Things like electricity, heaters and hot water will all be operational in the next couple of days. Yay!
So the training we are doing is a ropes certification that allows me to instruct high ropes under supervision of the main ropes instructor. It's like a Level 1 or something. Hopefully it is internationally recognised so it can help me get some ODE gigs back home. Have to ask Anna and Emma bout that. So today I spent alot of time belaying people as well as climbing on various elements. I also spent a fair while strapped to a pole dismantling a pulley set up. It was pretty sweet because we had to use a cable grab and like pull ourselves up. Good fun, though I semi messed up and let go of the pulley, so I had to like climb right to the top and completely reach out, which is pretty scary when your like over 40ft in the air. But yeah, if I was every afraid of heights I wont be after this summer, although I will probably spend most of my time belaying other kids.
Another plus about Camp, the food is awesome, Chef Marty cooks up all these delicious feasts for every meal. Also we have 3 camp dogs, Marty's Deloughsie, Shannon's blind epileptic chihuahua Zoe and Camus, the carpenter's GIANT labrador. But I still miss my Sammy!!
Yeah so I'll try and get some shots of the Camp up so you guys can see how cool it is. Admittedly weather-wise is a little chilly for me.. the middle of the day sun is like really nice but the second it goes down, man does it get chilly. And the staff lounge is a tent so we are all like sitting watching tv shivering, which is pretty awesome...
Yeah I think the Canadians think us Aussies are massive wimps. But hey.
Oh and my sleeping bag is like totally perfect, I'm mega stoked on it. In fact I think I might go and head to it right now, I've got another day of climbing ahead of me.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
SNOW
Hey guys, Alex here. I thought I better put a post up because Whit will scold me if i don't..and I want to of course.
So yeah, as Whit said is was an early 4.30am start for me but luckily the taxi came on time and all went smoothly. Apart from the driver presuming I was from England...I corrected him, but he thought he knew better..."No, you have an English accent, you're English"...So apart from that it went smoothly...
So I arrived at the airport checked in and found my gate. This was the first chance I've had this trip to read my book! The flight was very short, only 1 hour, and the seat next to me was free so there was a bit of room for me to fidget around in. There was a middle ageed man sitting on the other side of the empty seat though and after 30 mins of silence he passed me the newspaper he was reading and pointed out an article. "People are crazy" followed by the classic "they didn't do that in my day!". Intrigued I read the article and it was about two young people being found naked in a dumpster together. So that was a bit awkward but I agreed it was strange and from then on to the end of the flight we were very good friends.
Flying into Calgary, my new friend had heard about my enthusiasm about snow and pointed out the window as we were descending...SNOW. Not the full winter, everything was covered, kind of snow, but it was still snow. And I was still very happy about that.
So after picking up my bags I sat down and waited for Jack to come and pick me up. Seeing as I wasn't sure what uncle Jack looked like, I kept an eye out for someone who was limping (a clue left for me by Meels and Jute before they left)and who might slightly resemble my dad. In the end it was Aunt Shielia who came to pick me up, she noticed me, probably looking like a lost teenage traveller. We stick out like a sore thumb. Luckily.
Another moment of note was my first real snow experience, which came hand in hand with the buying-of- my-new-computer experience. All day it had been doing what I called snowing, but everyone else called..."more hail", but stepping out of the car and walking to the shop, Shannon (my cousin) pointed out that this was snow. Needless to say I was VERY excited. Everyone else felt it was far to late in the year for snow, and the snow still on their lawns should have melted by now.
Wacthed most of the hockey game of the Calgary Flames but they were losing 5-1, so we turned it off.
Very abrubt ending here because Jack's making waffles for breakie!
So yeah, as Whit said is was an early 4.30am start for me but luckily the taxi came on time and all went smoothly. Apart from the driver presuming I was from England...I corrected him, but he thought he knew better..."No, you have an English accent, you're English"...So apart from that it went smoothly...
So I arrived at the airport checked in and found my gate. This was the first chance I've had this trip to read my book! The flight was very short, only 1 hour, and the seat next to me was free so there was a bit of room for me to fidget around in. There was a middle ageed man sitting on the other side of the empty seat though and after 30 mins of silence he passed me the newspaper he was reading and pointed out an article. "People are crazy" followed by the classic "they didn't do that in my day!". Intrigued I read the article and it was about two young people being found naked in a dumpster together. So that was a bit awkward but I agreed it was strange and from then on to the end of the flight we were very good friends.
Flying into Calgary, my new friend had heard about my enthusiasm about snow and pointed out the window as we were descending...SNOW. Not the full winter, everything was covered, kind of snow, but it was still snow. And I was still very happy about that.
So after picking up my bags I sat down and waited for Jack to come and pick me up. Seeing as I wasn't sure what uncle Jack looked like, I kept an eye out for someone who was limping (a clue left for me by Meels and Jute before they left)and who might slightly resemble my dad. In the end it was Aunt Shielia who came to pick me up, she noticed me, probably looking like a lost teenage traveller. We stick out like a sore thumb. Luckily.
Another moment of note was my first real snow experience, which came hand in hand with the buying-of- my-new-computer experience. All day it had been doing what I called snowing, but everyone else called..."more hail", but stepping out of the car and walking to the shop, Shannon (my cousin) pointed out that this was snow. Needless to say I was VERY excited. Everyone else felt it was far to late in the year for snow, and the snow still on their lawns should have melted by now.
Wacthed most of the hockey game of the Calgary Flames but they were losing 5-1, so we turned it off.
Very abrubt ending here because Jack's making waffles for breakie!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Strange Yet Wonderful Things About Canada
Hey folks. Unfortunately today was probably the least blog-worthy day of the trip... I mean, right now I am sitting in my PJs watching 'Ice Road Truckers'. Nuff said.
Alex flew out to Calgary this morning at 7:00am so she was up and about at 4:30am getting ready. I however was slack and stayed in bed until about 90 seconds before she left. So no feast for me.
I'm getting picked up to go to Camp Summit tomorrow at 12 so I had a few chores to do, buying guitar strings and my supplies for dinner and breakfast, which was two apples and a Snickers bar. (Jute and Meels have let me have free rein in their kitchen.)
So some crazy things about Canada. Everything here is big, from the cars to the seagulls, the street numbers (all in the thousands), the roads (think TransCanada Hwy) and the city. Vancouver is so much more spread out than Perth, people actually live in it so its sprawls out over a much bigger area. Also, for some reason, houses are like 87% window. There are some seriously busy window washers around here I swear.
Also they set their heaters to the same temperature we set our air conditioners. Go figure.
Anyway sorry for the boring post, but I just did chores today like buying guitar strings and deodorant, so not very interesting. Alex however I'm sure will have much more to say (the drinking age in Alberta being 18 and all.... jokes!) so hopefully she will put something up to make up for this.
Next time you hear from me I'll be at Camp Summit, but there is no saying when I might get to use their internet so we shall just have to wait and see.
Alex flew out to Calgary this morning at 7:00am so she was up and about at 4:30am getting ready. I however was slack and stayed in bed until about 90 seconds before she left. So no feast for me.
I'm getting picked up to go to Camp Summit tomorrow at 12 so I had a few chores to do, buying guitar strings and my supplies for dinner and breakfast, which was two apples and a Snickers bar. (Jute and Meels have let me have free rein in their kitchen.)
So some crazy things about Canada. Everything here is big, from the cars to the seagulls, the street numbers (all in the thousands), the roads (think TransCanada Hwy) and the city. Vancouver is so much more spread out than Perth, people actually live in it so its sprawls out over a much bigger area. Also, for some reason, houses are like 87% window. There are some seriously busy window washers around here I swear.
Also they set their heaters to the same temperature we set our air conditioners. Go figure.
Anyway sorry for the boring post, but I just did chores today like buying guitar strings and deodorant, so not very interesting. Alex however I'm sure will have much more to say (the drinking age in Alberta being 18 and all.... jokes!) so hopefully she will put something up to make up for this.
Next time you hear from me I'll be at Camp Summit, but there is no saying when I might get to use their internet so we shall just have to wait and see.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Lynn Canyon
Hey everyone. Today Alex and I embarked on a mission to see Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. Amelia kindly gave us some transport tickets so we didn't have to spend a dime.
Cause it was my birthday we decided to buy breakfast... also we had eaten all our supplies. We had our hearts set on waffles since we went past a waffle place in Victoria. We walked up and down Commercial Drive but finally had to settle for French Toast and Pancakes. All for the princely sum of $10.00. We know how to find a bargain.
So we set off on the SkyTrain. Without meaning to, we actually committed the offence of fare-evasion (we couldn't figure out what we were meant to do with our un-validated tickets). It didn't actually matter as no one came to check, but I did wonder if there was a clause in their punishment policy that allowed for confused Australian backpackers on their birthday. I like to think there is.
So after our illicit activities on the SkyTrain we headed to our second mode of transport for the day, a strange slug-shaped vehicle called a SeaBus. It's pretty much like the ferries on the Swan, except bigger and with a weird cabin on the top. So we piled into this rather absurd looking creature as it crawled across the Fraser Creek. This time we did get our tickets validated... not as bad ass as we thought. The SeaBus was pretty good at giving us a view of North Vancouver. The city is so close to the mountains, you can actually see the ski runs from the street.
Our final step on the public transport front was the 229 bus. We had to ask the driver to let us know when the stop we needed to get off at came up. Luckily for us he was very obliging.
After a few minutes walk we reached the Lynn Canyon Park and Ecological Centre. As it was entry by donation Alex and I decided to take a look. After donating a solid 55c (don't judge us, some more rich looking people than us didn't even donate anything) we had a look around the centre and learnt a few things about Black Bears, the Sulphur Cycle and how slow Canadian forests are at regenerating after forest fires (it can take them like 200 years!!). We also saw part of a tree that was 1000 years old, like it saw the first settlers landing, as well as the start of WWI. It was pretty rowdy, nature style.
So after geeking it up in the ecological centre, we decided to head out and learn some stuff about the area first hand. The Suspension Bridge was pretty damn tall and unfortunately too skinny to be of any use in a game of Pooh Sticks (if you don't know what that is you seriously need to get your A. A. Milne on). The water was rushing like crazy down the granite stones, and even though it looked several metres deep it was like crystal clear. Alex had obtained a little booklet with some info about the trails, so we set off upstream to try and find this pool they mentioned.
A few minutes walk through the dense green forest and we were there. I swear I have never seen anything so darn green. The leaves are green, the floor is green, the water is green even the bark is green with moss, and the stones. So much darn green, so not used to it!
We got to the pool and it was so pretty we decided to chow down on the apples we bought from BuyLo Foods (we managed to spend $5 each on groceries and it will last us to the end of this week. Maaad budgeting skillz). We sort of perched ourselves on a rock and were admiring the view when these 3 kids caught our eye. They were brothers messing about on the waters edge. Their Dad showed them a quarter that someone had chucked in the pool and dared them to go swimming for it. Everyone who was watching chuckled to themselves. There was no way those boys were going in the water, it was so cold, most of it was snow melt fresh off the mountain slopes. Like icier than you can even imagine. However, one of the kids, to everyones surprise, stripped off to his boxers and was seriously about to go for it. We watched on, somewhat tranfixed. Him and his brothers messed about in the shallows a few times until one of them fully stacked it and got soaked. Hilarious.
We decided to stop being strange weirdos watching kids and take the downstream path to the Twin Falls. It was a nice walk, plenty of stairs and rocks to climb over. We eventually came to a small bridge crossing the river. To be perfectly honest I don't actually remember seeing two falls at any point so the twin thing was kinda lost on me... but the water was nice. Some parts looked like 6 metres deep but I swear you could still see the bottom. Crazy glacial water.
We decided to head home but not before we tripped out to 'Dollar Giant' - Alex and my new best friend. You can check out the incredibly healthy nature of our purchases in the photo at the bottom.
Anyway better dash, we're getting up at 4:30am tomorrow to have a feast before Alex's taxi arrives and I am abandoned for the day!!
Alex hiding in a tree stump
Alex with the creek that runs through Lynn Canyon
Me in the greenest place I've ever seen
The pool where the kids were diving for the quarter
View through the canopy
Our fab purchases at Dollar Giant
Cause it was my birthday we decided to buy breakfast... also we had eaten all our supplies. We had our hearts set on waffles since we went past a waffle place in Victoria. We walked up and down Commercial Drive but finally had to settle for French Toast and Pancakes. All for the princely sum of $10.00. We know how to find a bargain.
So we set off on the SkyTrain. Without meaning to, we actually committed the offence of fare-evasion (we couldn't figure out what we were meant to do with our un-validated tickets). It didn't actually matter as no one came to check, but I did wonder if there was a clause in their punishment policy that allowed for confused Australian backpackers on their birthday. I like to think there is.
So after our illicit activities on the SkyTrain we headed to our second mode of transport for the day, a strange slug-shaped vehicle called a SeaBus. It's pretty much like the ferries on the Swan, except bigger and with a weird cabin on the top. So we piled into this rather absurd looking creature as it crawled across the Fraser Creek. This time we did get our tickets validated... not as bad ass as we thought. The SeaBus was pretty good at giving us a view of North Vancouver. The city is so close to the mountains, you can actually see the ski runs from the street.
Our final step on the public transport front was the 229 bus. We had to ask the driver to let us know when the stop we needed to get off at came up. Luckily for us he was very obliging.
After a few minutes walk we reached the Lynn Canyon Park and Ecological Centre. As it was entry by donation Alex and I decided to take a look. After donating a solid 55c (don't judge us, some more rich looking people than us didn't even donate anything) we had a look around the centre and learnt a few things about Black Bears, the Sulphur Cycle and how slow Canadian forests are at regenerating after forest fires (it can take them like 200 years!!). We also saw part of a tree that was 1000 years old, like it saw the first settlers landing, as well as the start of WWI. It was pretty rowdy, nature style.
So after geeking it up in the ecological centre, we decided to head out and learn some stuff about the area first hand. The Suspension Bridge was pretty damn tall and unfortunately too skinny to be of any use in a game of Pooh Sticks (if you don't know what that is you seriously need to get your A. A. Milne on). The water was rushing like crazy down the granite stones, and even though it looked several metres deep it was like crystal clear. Alex had obtained a little booklet with some info about the trails, so we set off upstream to try and find this pool they mentioned.
A few minutes walk through the dense green forest and we were there. I swear I have never seen anything so darn green. The leaves are green, the floor is green, the water is green even the bark is green with moss, and the stones. So much darn green, so not used to it!
We got to the pool and it was so pretty we decided to chow down on the apples we bought from BuyLo Foods (we managed to spend $5 each on groceries and it will last us to the end of this week. Maaad budgeting skillz). We sort of perched ourselves on a rock and were admiring the view when these 3 kids caught our eye. They were brothers messing about on the waters edge. Their Dad showed them a quarter that someone had chucked in the pool and dared them to go swimming for it. Everyone who was watching chuckled to themselves. There was no way those boys were going in the water, it was so cold, most of it was snow melt fresh off the mountain slopes. Like icier than you can even imagine. However, one of the kids, to everyones surprise, stripped off to his boxers and was seriously about to go for it. We watched on, somewhat tranfixed. Him and his brothers messed about in the shallows a few times until one of them fully stacked it and got soaked. Hilarious.
We decided to stop being strange weirdos watching kids and take the downstream path to the Twin Falls. It was a nice walk, plenty of stairs and rocks to climb over. We eventually came to a small bridge crossing the river. To be perfectly honest I don't actually remember seeing two falls at any point so the twin thing was kinda lost on me... but the water was nice. Some parts looked like 6 metres deep but I swear you could still see the bottom. Crazy glacial water.
We decided to head home but not before we tripped out to 'Dollar Giant' - Alex and my new best friend. You can check out the incredibly healthy nature of our purchases in the photo at the bottom.
Anyway better dash, we're getting up at 4:30am tomorrow to have a feast before Alex's taxi arrives and I am abandoned for the day!!
Alex hiding in a tree stump
Alex with the creek that runs through Lynn Canyon
Me in the greenest place I've ever seen
The pool where the kids were diving for the quarter
View through the canopy
Our fab purchases at Dollar Giant
Thursday, April 23, 2009
More walking...
We were attempting to be out the door nice and early this morning, maybe 11am, to climb up Grouse Mountain on a trail known as The Grouse Grind. This is meant to be a gruelling climb up the mountain which is supposedly like climbing up stairs for 2 hours (the fact that it's only a 3km track might give you an idea of how steep it is!). We got ourselves all pumped up for this extreme experience, we had our backpacks with water, lunch, hats and jackets and were ready to bounce out the door when Whit went to turn off the computer. She accidentally scrolled down on the webpage and their lay some words in fine red print that stopped us in our tracks. 'The trail is currently in full closure for the winter.' So that kind of hindered our leaving the house a bit.
Instead we decided upon another day of some epic walking. No buses for us! After some quality salt and vinegar chip devouring/Sense and Sensibility viewing we took a walk to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op). This was a rather eye opening yet devastating visit. Walking through the city block sized store, we couldn't help but notice how everything was hundreds of dollars cheaper than it would be in Australia even if it was on sale! I nearly cried.
On the upside Whitaker bought a sleeping bag for a well spent $140 dollars...plus tax of course.
By the time we got home we'd clocked over 4km and it was 3.30pm. Last night Jute had told us that New Moon (the new movie of the twilight series) was being filmed at a school 'around the corner'. This we would come to realise was a 4.5 km trek each way. Unaware of this we again set off for a test of our physical limits (I refer here to that little mountainous bike ride around Saltspring Island you may have read about). On the way we took a walk down Commercial Drive which is full of shops and places to eat. The best of which we found to be the $1 store, where absolutely everything is $1! Including Mars Bars, Snickers, Kit Kats, shampoo, colgate toothpaste, EVERYTHING. So we've planned a shopping trip there tomorrow to stock up on all the important stuff (mainly candy bars). We quickly regretted leaving our wallets at home for this particular walk.
After an hour we finally reached the school, although there weren't the tents and vans that Jute had mentioned, it was a thursday afternoon after all... but we did still have a look around the school. It is set right near the Vancouver mountains which provide a pretty epic backdrop to the place. I don't know how the students there get any work done.
So then came the walk home. It was 5.45pm by this point and we were both fairly sick of walking and pretty eager for some dinner. I proposed we try and be home by 6.30 which Issy swore wasn't going to happen but we set off at a very swift pace unwilling to try shortcuts as we had no phone or money, or sense of where we were, past the few streets we had walked to get there. After nearly collapsing on the walk and fantasising about food, Edward Cullen and not having to walk anymore, we stumbled across Windsor st (our street!). We had 5 minutes to reach home by our deadline of 6.30pm so we broke into a run and sprinted down the street. Amelia was walking into the house at the same time that we ran into view and looked a little confused as we huffed our way through the gate and collapsed in the house. By now they understood our reluctance for paying for buses, so no questions were asked.
Hi, Whit here. Alex is just having a shower so I'm finishing up. After our solid 13k day we had a delicious BBQ meal of hamburgers and chicken wings to refill the tank. Alex and I are in awe of the wonderful Canadian hospitality we continue to recieve... though I suppose Jute and Meels are technically Aussies... but either way we are super lucky and very grateful!
Catch you all tomorrow for my Canadian birthday!!
Here are the photos:
Christening the new sleeping bag
A busy Vancouver intersection... complete with mountains
Alex and I tried to be subtle taking a picture of the Twilight school, so we took this picture first
Templeton Senior School, where the Twilight film was made!!
Alex in front of TSS
Me putting my Hedgren bag to good use!! Thank you Andersons
Instead we decided upon another day of some epic walking. No buses for us! After some quality salt and vinegar chip devouring/Sense and Sensibility viewing we took a walk to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op). This was a rather eye opening yet devastating visit. Walking through the city block sized store, we couldn't help but notice how everything was hundreds of dollars cheaper than it would be in Australia even if it was on sale! I nearly cried.
On the upside Whitaker bought a sleeping bag for a well spent $140 dollars...plus tax of course.
By the time we got home we'd clocked over 4km and it was 3.30pm. Last night Jute had told us that New Moon (the new movie of the twilight series) was being filmed at a school 'around the corner'. This we would come to realise was a 4.5 km trek each way. Unaware of this we again set off for a test of our physical limits (I refer here to that little mountainous bike ride around Saltspring Island you may have read about). On the way we took a walk down Commercial Drive which is full of shops and places to eat. The best of which we found to be the $1 store, where absolutely everything is $1! Including Mars Bars, Snickers, Kit Kats, shampoo, colgate toothpaste, EVERYTHING. So we've planned a shopping trip there tomorrow to stock up on all the important stuff (mainly candy bars). We quickly regretted leaving our wallets at home for this particular walk.
After an hour we finally reached the school, although there weren't the tents and vans that Jute had mentioned, it was a thursday afternoon after all... but we did still have a look around the school. It is set right near the Vancouver mountains which provide a pretty epic backdrop to the place. I don't know how the students there get any work done.
So then came the walk home. It was 5.45pm by this point and we were both fairly sick of walking and pretty eager for some dinner. I proposed we try and be home by 6.30 which Issy swore wasn't going to happen but we set off at a very swift pace unwilling to try shortcuts as we had no phone or money, or sense of where we were, past the few streets we had walked to get there. After nearly collapsing on the walk and fantasising about food, Edward Cullen and not having to walk anymore, we stumbled across Windsor st (our street!). We had 5 minutes to reach home by our deadline of 6.30pm so we broke into a run and sprinted down the street. Amelia was walking into the house at the same time that we ran into view and looked a little confused as we huffed our way through the gate and collapsed in the house. By now they understood our reluctance for paying for buses, so no questions were asked.
Hi, Whit here. Alex is just having a shower so I'm finishing up. After our solid 13k day we had a delicious BBQ meal of hamburgers and chicken wings to refill the tank. Alex and I are in awe of the wonderful Canadian hospitality we continue to recieve... though I suppose Jute and Meels are technically Aussies... but either way we are super lucky and very grateful!
Catch you all tomorrow for my Canadian birthday!!
Here are the photos:
Christening the new sleeping bag
A busy Vancouver intersection... complete with mountains
Alex and I tried to be subtle taking a picture of the Twilight school, so we took this picture first
Templeton Senior School, where the Twilight film was made!!
Alex in front of TSS
Me putting my Hedgren bag to good use!! Thank you Andersons
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
City Walks
Today Alex and I woke without much planned so as usual we got off to a bit of a slow start. We decided we needed to get to the Visitors Centre to get some info and a bus schedule. The visitors centre is about 6.5km away so we decided we'd take a bit of a stroll through the city on our way. We walked through downtown Vancouver until we reached the city, passing GM Place (the home rink of the Vancouver Canucks) and then onto the city centre. There is some serious construction going on in the city because of the Olympics. The 'Canada Line' train is being put in underground.
We figured out why its sometimes called the City of Glass, every building is basically all windows.
I think the coolest thing about Vancouver is how you can look up from the dirty urban tangle of concrete buildings, chain link fences and broken glass to see the unspoilt wild mountains rising from the rooftops. I think you can kind of see it one of the photos below.
So once we made it to the Visitors Centre and scored ourselves some extensive bus schedules that we could barely understand, we hit up the food court. A few tacos and some unimpressive Starbucks cake later we hit the streets with a plan to catch a bus back to Amelia and Jute's place. Because we couldn't figure out the busses (and Alex's personal vendetta against Canadian busses) by the time we walked to the line we thought we were going to catch we were a quarter of the way home so we figured we'd just walk all the way back again. I think walking through the city is a good way to orientate yourself, getting to know the street names and where some of the shops and other things are (especially the $1 pizza slice store) as well as saving $5 (the busses over here are a rip!).
So yeah not much to tell today apart from our epic walking... which I already mentioned. Oh yeah and we had pizza for dinner. And walked Maggie. Yeah...OH aaaannnnnddd, they don't have crinkle cut Salt and Vinegar chips over here!! They just don't exist. Unheard of even. What kind of country is this?
Vancouver mountains from the city
Not a great photo...not even close...but we figure we needed one of us...
Alex doing some wicked sick maneuvers on the rails of the Canucks home ground
The Canucks home rink
OMG we found Milo in Canada...for $7 a tin though...not including 12% tax, and that's Canadian dollars...:O
We figured out why its sometimes called the City of Glass, every building is basically all windows.
I think the coolest thing about Vancouver is how you can look up from the dirty urban tangle of concrete buildings, chain link fences and broken glass to see the unspoilt wild mountains rising from the rooftops. I think you can kind of see it one of the photos below.
So once we made it to the Visitors Centre and scored ourselves some extensive bus schedules that we could barely understand, we hit up the food court. A few tacos and some unimpressive Starbucks cake later we hit the streets with a plan to catch a bus back to Amelia and Jute's place. Because we couldn't figure out the busses (and Alex's personal vendetta against Canadian busses) by the time we walked to the line we thought we were going to catch we were a quarter of the way home so we figured we'd just walk all the way back again. I think walking through the city is a good way to orientate yourself, getting to know the street names and where some of the shops and other things are (especially the $1 pizza slice store) as well as saving $5 (the busses over here are a rip!).
So yeah not much to tell today apart from our epic walking... which I already mentioned. Oh yeah and we had pizza for dinner. And walked Maggie. Yeah...OH aaaannnnnddd, they don't have crinkle cut Salt and Vinegar chips over here!! They just don't exist. Unheard of even. What kind of country is this?
Vancouver mountains from the city
Not a great photo...not even close...but we figure we needed one of us...
Alex doing some wicked sick maneuvers on the rails of the Canucks home ground
The Canucks home rink
OMG we found Milo in Canada...for $7 a tin though...not including 12% tax, and that's Canadian dollars...:O
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)