Departure!

Friday May 31st,  Day 1

A hectic morning of check, double-check.  We headed out to get some last minute supplies of mini-deodorant and shaving cream before heading to the currency exchange.

Our breakfast of champions included a sausage egg mcmuffin meal for me and a BLT meal for Nita.  We regret it already...

Kit dropped us off early so we stopped by Trainyards for a couple paninis for later.

A short wait and we're on the greyhound.  Excitement is building but nausea is on the horizon.  Today is going to be a looong day of travelling.  5 minutes sitting idle and greyhound memories abound.

Annoyed at me already?

Prediction

 - Nita's heart ring will break before we touch down in Ottawa.  (This never happened)

Nita and Cedrick's European Vacation!

Hello everyone!

So, after 2 months I decided I'd finally start posting the blog.  To be honest, I was typing up the journal posts here and there, so I shouldn't have a problem keeping up to schedule.  That being said, I will be posting this as I did with my Cross-Canada trip.  As of July 31st, the postings will be following along with my trip as I wrote it on May 31st.  Everything in regular text will be what I written (maybe loosely revised for spelling) and everything in italics will be a bit of post-trip commentary.  I will try to get some videos and pictures for posts, and you can click the pictures for the full size.

So, that's it! I hope you all follow me along this trip day by day so that it will be less boring than them all coming at you at once.

Various paper souvenirs collected during the trip.

Banff - End of the Trip!

  I expected the peak to be closed but it wasn't.  The section for sitting was, but the peak path wasn't.  The path to the top was all laid out as wooden decks.  The peak used to be used as a weather station and cosmic ray meter.  Now there sits a little stone structure on the top.  [It was still really cloudy and foggy]

  I was told the way down was 15$, so I set that money aside.  When I was being loaded in, the girl told me not to worry about it.  I guess because there was no view that day.  Before I went down, she took my picture which I wasn't ready for.  The gondola was much smaller than the tram cable cars at the other mountains.  The view was still cloudy and the ride was really long. [At least this time, the cable car consisted of just me]

  I got down and my cheesy bad picture was waiting for me.  As it was the $15 I expected to pay anyways, I got it.  The girl at the desk seemed surprised I'd pay for it.  She was right to be, I wouldn't have paid that much for a bad picture of myself if I had to get a ticket. [I doubt many people actually bothered buying their picture in general]

  I packed my things, called Nita and waited for my bus.  I changed out of my sweaty cold clothes and put on my warm sweater.

  I bussed to town and went to a place called Mellissa's, as recommended by the greyhound desk guy and the local bus driver.

  The place was nice, with a log cabin feel to it.  I came at a weird time between lunch and dinner with shift changes, so it was pretty empty.  I ended up ordering beef stroganaf on a bed of noodles.  It was good, but I didn't expect hwo full I'd get.  My stomach has definately shrunk.  I finished it, but was really full.  A quick stroll through town and I went back to the bus terminal.

[I would love to go back and spend a little more time in Banff, but by the end of this trip, I was pretty done with it after my hike up.  It actually took a lot of will power to trudge through the freezing cold and rain and bus just to get to the foot of the mountain.  I told myself to push on, and once I hit the mountain trail, it was a lot better.  Once again, initiative is my one weakness, which I overcame this time at least]

  I guess there's a school trip because 2 women and a bunch of children came on with me.  Maybe it's through a religious thing, because they're all indian and all girls.  [I had gone outside and played a little guitar by myself waiting for the bus.  I didn't play it much during the trip, but I'm still glad I brought it]

  A bit less than an hour from Calgary where I can take it easy.  This week should go relatively fast.

[Well, this is it for my journal entries, which means that's it for these blog entries.  I know it ends rather anti-climatic. 

In terms of my week in Calgary, it was a lot of bombing around town by myself.  I actually had a lot of fun hanging out with my cousin Polman and his girlfriend Jenny, as well as Bernard and a blast from the past, Alex (who I didn't even recognize at first, even though he looks the same).  There are some good stories, but as I didn't write them down, you'll have to ask me what I did personally.  I doubt many people read this blog in its entirety, but now that it's done, I can save it on my comp and save it for a nice nostalgia a good 10, 20, maybe 30 years from now.]

Banff - Up the Mountain

 I ducked into a mall that was an hour from opening and went into their washroom to wash, change into warmer clothes, and brush my teeth. [It was weird changing and brushing my teeth in a mall bathroom.  I felt very much like a drifter at this point]

  While looking for a breakfast joint, Dad called and I  updated him as best I could.  I'll call him again with set details.  I finally caved and now I'm in McDonalds with my eaten breakfast, writing and waiting for my camera battery to charge.  Hopefully the weather is better now. [I found a random wall plug at the McD's]

-----------------------------

  Well the weather was slightly better. [Still pretty cold]

  I went back to the terminal and stashed my stuff behind the greyhound desk because there are no lockers in town or at the station.

  I got a phone card and some water from a convenient store and called mom then dad.  With my bus time deadline, I bussed out towards Sulpher mountain.

  The mountain was completely covered with clouds.  I found the trail and started up.  The sign said it was a 2h-5h hike, moderate -> strenuous.  I didn't recall such signs on my previous hikes.

  The trail itself was relatively clean and a bit gravelly.  It was basically a whole bunch of switchbacks all the way up the mountain face [switchbacks are those sharp U turns that makes you go back and forth slowly up the face].  Also it crossed under the Banff gondola (cable car) for much of it.

  I realized on my way up that this was my 3rd mountain in one week.  The path was tedious and leisurely.  I rarely had to stop at all for the first half.  The view was of course bright fog, so I didn't take a lot of pictures.  At one point I saw a side trail leading to a cool waterfall and view.

  The trail suddenly got steeper a bit before or after the half way point, but it was still very managable.
  At about an hour and a half.   I saw saw some french hikers going down.  Apparently I was only 10 mins away.  This home stretch was very muddy for some reason.  I saw a couple coming down when I was on the last switchback, and he said the peak might be closed from fog.

  I finished in about an hour and 40 mins.  This surprised me because I didn't feel I was going all that fast.  It must have been my lack of breaks.

  The clouds were just as thick at the top.  There was a little gift shop so I bought some mineral salts from the mountain (there are natural hot springs at the base of the gondola) for Nita and Colette.

To Banff!

September 19th Sunday
[This entry is overly long and detailed because it was an awful awful night.  No pictures too, so I doubt many people will read this one]

  Last night was awful.  Probably my worse greyhound experience.  My first bus was fine, until I switched to the Calgary bound.  At the station I played some Strikers 1945 III and re-acquainted with Tuba's funky ape picture.  I was starving so I bought a tuna sandwich and a V8.  As much vitamin A and C you get, that v8 splash has a crazy amount of calories and sugar, which was fine since I needed it.  The girl at the cashier looked pregnant but I think she was just fat.  I didn't ask of course.

  So I got the call to board and stood in line as the passangers that were already on it got on.  This is where the trip got bad...

  I go on and it is pretty full.  Up until now I've always been able to get dibs on some prime front-half seats.  I knew I didn't want the back with people shitting near me, but I found 2 completely open seats, which was weird for a bus that full.

  I took the seat, but an old couple came by and I let them sit with each other.  I moved across the aisle to sit beside this fat older-than-middle-age woman.  The bus driver asked who didn't give him a ticket and she raised her hand briefly before he could catch her, but didn't say anything.  He started checking everyones ticket until he got to her, delaying the ride.  A brief chat and I realized she was nice enough, if not a bit stupid or not all there. [Pretty sure she wasn't all there]

  Before we leave this transient drifter looking dude gets talked to by the driver.  He had long gross hair and looked disheveled like he was homeless, but clean shaven.  After a minute I realize what was up.  The driver grabs a Fucking Knife! from the dude.  It was just a paring knife, but what the hell!?  I felt so bad for the old bald guy beside him.  If it were me, I'd constantly be worried of sleeping and getting stabbed in the chest.  The driver stored the knife under carriage and left him on.  [To put this into perspective, a dude going to Edmonton wasn't allowed on for a knife half the size inside his bag.  They wouldn't even let him just throw it away and go on, so he had to wait for the next bus]

  It was occurring to me that that indian body smell was pretty strong.  Now, I have a pretty good tolerance for the curry smell from indian people, hell, I had curry that morning.  This couple beside me though, they were older and the smell was rank.  It was like this woman across the aisle never showered away her B.O., but instead just covered herself with cumin to hide (but not really) her B.O.  to make things worse, the fat woman to my left had a disgusting odour too, like rotten burgers or something.

  I fell asleep as it was close to midnight when we left Kamloops, and woke up at 2am.  By this time the smell was overwhelming.  I just kept thinking that I was sandwiched between the two most repulsive women on the bus.  That word kept popping up as the rotten curry-burger B.O. smell just attacked me mustilly.

  On top of this, I got a sense of claustrophobia with my legs.  I've never really had leg room, and when I did sit beside someone before it didn't bug me THAT much.  This time however, I couldn't take it.  I couldn't touch anything with my knees without feeling like I was being bound up. [For those who don't know this feeling, it's like hell]

  And then? the fat smelly lady beside me turns to face the window and eats into my seat by 1/3.  Because I was so repulsed by her I didn't want to touch her, so I spilled my legs into the aisle. To give her the hint I stuck my elbow at her and leaned.  How does someone have that much fat on their back!?!
  She didn't get the hint and wake up so I leaned my head against the seat in front of me and kept wishing these 2 women would just disintegrate or disappear or just teleport 10 feet out of the bus so they could fall to the road and die. [over.. and over again]

  One hour later of no sleep and torture we finally stopped.  I rushed out for fresh air and saw the front seats were empty.  They had 'reserved' stickers on them.  The bus drivers were switching and I asked them if someone reserved the seat.  The new driver said it was priority seating, but I could use it until someone else needed it.  I JUMPED at this and quick-snatched all my stuff.  The difference was incredible.  I had fresh air from the front, tons of leg room and could put my seat back with no one in the one seat behind me.  I fell asleep hoping the smell didn't carry onto me.  I woke up 6 hours later here in Banff.  It's freezing!  I walked into town shivering looking for a breakfast diner.  All the places here are night time restaurants.  The one place open for breakfast had 11 bucks for a standard 2-egg sausage... really?!?