Well, after a rapidly booked flight, and 6 hours in the air (and 3 hours sitting in Toronto airport doing nothing) I finally got back to the UK.
That was a week ago now, and Im still not fully unpacked. Its weird being back in the UK, and Im mainly in danger of being run over by cars as Im looking in the wrong place to see the little man to tell me when its safe to cross the road!
Canada has treated me well over the past year, and Its truly a second home to me now, largely due to all the amazing firends I made over there, so Id like to thank everyone from my floor, and everyone from my course for making me so welcome in that crazy animal infested country of yours, thank you for the good times, the laughs, the tears (Skulk), the drunken antics, and the heart to hearts at 5am. Not to mention the talk of zombies.
Im going to miss you all a hell of a lot, and, as ever, if anyone of you is in the UK, look me up and we can hang out and I can show you some British nightlife! In fact, Miguel is already booking his space with me in October!
Till all are one, Dan
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Friday, 30 May 2008
End of an adventure...?
So again, I neglected the blog for a few days. Sue me. Actually, please dont.
Since the last entry, quite a lot happened; Ive progressed from Montreal to Toronto, and generally been doing all the touristy stuff here, in my final days on this continent. Im looking at flying home tomorrow, but as of yet, havent booked a flight...
Since the last entry, quite a lot happened; Ive progressed from Montreal to Toronto, and generally been doing all the touristy stuff here, in my final days on this continent. Im looking at flying home tomorrow, but as of yet, havent booked a flight...
Friday, 23 May 2008
An Update!
So after a few days of very sketchy internet connection, I have an update!
Im currently in the Hostel in Montreal, so quite a few miles have passed since my last update, so I shall continue from where I left off...
It so happened that my friend from the UofA, Wendy, was in Vancouver, doing work for a gold company, and was also new to the city, so we met up and tramped around town looking for cool things to do, of which there is a lot, the larger bars stay open till well past 3 at the weekend, and around 3ish during the week, and it so happened that the hostel was over one of these bars. Needless to say, there was a hell of a lotta bass coming through the walls! Luckily, the rooms were still pretty quiet!
I was in Van for a couple of days before deciding to hit up Victoria last Sunday, and it wa the right choice! Turnd out it was Victoria day weekend and there was a huge parade on with marching bands etc on the monday, some of whom I seen warming up on sunday evening, and they were pretty good, being all non-standard, and playing Smooth Criminal, Thriller (with hand motions), and Iron Man. to name but a few!
The day after, and my last afternoon there, I went whale watching, seeing a pod of killer whales messing around near the coast, which was pretty amazing!
Getting back to vancouver, I then booked my ticket to Montreal, and got here on wednesday evening, now being only 5hours behind GMT, instead of the 8 in Van, hometime is nearing...
Montreal is pretty crazy, and you have to look at the scycrapers again to make sure that youre not in France. Everyone is really friendly, and thankfully, fully bilingual... My year 9 french just isnt up to scratch, beyond 'parlez vouz Anglais?' and 'Ou et le (insert useful word here)'.
Montreal has an old town, 'Old Montreal', which is the remaining parts of the original city. Usually an amazing tourist attraction, but being from Europe, our cities are somewhat older, so it didnt have the effect on me as some other tourists. That said, Notre Dame Basilica is a sight to behold, and broodingly gothic, although the interior lighting is kind of weird, in a 'electro' way. Im thinking that in some years it would be a prety good nightclub...
Now that the blog has had its blasphemy content fot the day, I was intrigued to discover an underground maze of shopping malls in downtown Montreal today, after deciding not to walk up Mount Royal due to rain. The underground area is comprised of a few shopping centres that extend underground, that have subsequently ebbn connected, and then connected to the metro system, resulting is a labarynthine complex of tunnels, escalators and no windows, many times larger than the trafford centre, and even bigger than West Edmonton mall (lthough its several malls joined together, so its not classed as one entity...). Im glad I was wearing a watch. I also got lost a few times, and just wandered around until found something that looked like natural light and a street name!
Anyways, this extended post pretty covers all of my adventures up till now, I hope youve enjoyed them, and will be reporting back soon!
Dan
Im currently in the Hostel in Montreal, so quite a few miles have passed since my last update, so I shall continue from where I left off...
It so happened that my friend from the UofA, Wendy, was in Vancouver, doing work for a gold company, and was also new to the city, so we met up and tramped around town looking for cool things to do, of which there is a lot, the larger bars stay open till well past 3 at the weekend, and around 3ish during the week, and it so happened that the hostel was over one of these bars. Needless to say, there was a hell of a lotta bass coming through the walls! Luckily, the rooms were still pretty quiet!
I was in Van for a couple of days before deciding to hit up Victoria last Sunday, and it wa the right choice! Turnd out it was Victoria day weekend and there was a huge parade on with marching bands etc on the monday, some of whom I seen warming up on sunday evening, and they were pretty good, being all non-standard, and playing Smooth Criminal, Thriller (with hand motions), and Iron Man. to name but a few!
The day after, and my last afternoon there, I went whale watching, seeing a pod of killer whales messing around near the coast, which was pretty amazing!
Getting back to vancouver, I then booked my ticket to Montreal, and got here on wednesday evening, now being only 5hours behind GMT, instead of the 8 in Van, hometime is nearing...
Montreal is pretty crazy, and you have to look at the scycrapers again to make sure that youre not in France. Everyone is really friendly, and thankfully, fully bilingual... My year 9 french just isnt up to scratch, beyond 'parlez vouz Anglais?' and 'Ou et le (insert useful word here)'.
Montreal has an old town, 'Old Montreal', which is the remaining parts of the original city. Usually an amazing tourist attraction, but being from Europe, our cities are somewhat older, so it didnt have the effect on me as some other tourists. That said, Notre Dame Basilica is a sight to behold, and broodingly gothic, although the interior lighting is kind of weird, in a 'electro' way. Im thinking that in some years it would be a prety good nightclub...
Now that the blog has had its blasphemy content fot the day, I was intrigued to discover an underground maze of shopping malls in downtown Montreal today, after deciding not to walk up Mount Royal due to rain. The underground area is comprised of a few shopping centres that extend underground, that have subsequently ebbn connected, and then connected to the metro system, resulting is a labarynthine complex of tunnels, escalators and no windows, many times larger than the trafford centre, and even bigger than West Edmonton mall (lthough its several malls joined together, so its not classed as one entity...). Im glad I was wearing a watch. I also got lost a few times, and just wandered around until found something that looked like natural light and a street name!
Anyways, this extended post pretty covers all of my adventures up till now, I hope youve enjoyed them, and will be reporting back soon!
Dan
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Vancouver
Hey, so after a 13 hour bus ride from Banff, Im finally in Vancouver, and its as awesome as everyone said! Im staying in a hostel downtown on Granville St, pretty much near to everything. Its a 15 min walk from the Pacific, the middle of the city centre and made of win. The city is a whole lot more energetic than Calgary or Edmonton, and generally cooler, and Stanley Park looks great!
Unsure about going to Tofino now; As much as I'd like to , itll probably be a 1-2day bus ride, which will eat into a lot of my time here. Surfing will have to wait, maybe. Im definitely getting to Victoria though! Time will tell!
Dan
Unsure about going to Tofino now; As much as I'd like to , itll probably be a 1-2day bus ride, which will eat into a lot of my time here. Surfing will have to wait, maybe. Im definitely getting to Victoria though! Time will tell!
Dan
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Mountain Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
Ok, I may have lied about the tigers.
I left Calgary and got into Banff around 1am on the 14th after visiting Drumheller, which was awesome, I hired a little suzuki swift, and burned it down the highway to Drum. Was pertty funny actually, as theres so much construction I was taking that little thing off road!
Drumheller is amazing, and has really weird erosive patterns in the rock, leading to Horseshoe and Horsethief Canyons. I clocked up over 300k in that car...
That night, I left Calgary for Banff on the late bus, getting into Banff at 1am, where I promptly went to bed.
Banff is a really cool place, looking like an old Swiss ski resort, kind of. They make all new buildings conform to the older design, which keeps things looking peachy. That, and all the streets are named after animals. Imagine living on the corner of Mountain Goat and Elk.
Anyways, I found, much to my delight, that Lake Minnewanka was 'close by' so I decided to head off it that direction, being told by 2 Aussies in a hotel that it was about a 5k walk, so I set off. Getting to the highway, there is a sign telling people to beware of crossing wildlife; elk, bears, and wolves. Wolves. Why do there have to be wolves? I mean, I could possibly outrun a bear, but a pack of wolves? That just ain't fair! This made me very paranoid, unneccesarily so, and I continued on my way to Minnewanka, crossing the highway. When I got to the gates to the park, after walking around 4-5k, I see a sign telling me that Minnewanka was 5k away. Damn Aussies. It was around 6pm at that time, and I didnt want to be walking past the wolf infested forests in the dark, so I turned back, and went to the bar in the hostel. Banff HI is very good by the way, I fully reccomend it!
Checking out in a few minutes, then mooching around Banff for today, getting the Greyhound to Vancouver at around 8pm, braving the 14hr bus ride, and hopefully getting into Van. by Midday tomorrow.
Dan out.
Monday, 12 May 2008
The Mighty Peter's
So I humbly accepted Deep's offer of seeing the legendary Peter's Drive through. To be perfectly honest, I didnt know what to expect, and thought Deep may just have been bigging up this place, but boy, was I wrong. $4.80 (£2.50) triple cheeseburger, $4.90 (£2.55) Awesome shake (it was soo good) as well as the most disgusting amount of fries you have ever seen, for $6.00 (£3.05). It was ridiculous. When we asked for a large fries (between two, mind) in addition to our cheeseburgers, the lady asked if we were sure, with a slight look of concern. Oh yes, there were that many fries. Imagine a McDonalds take away bag. then fill it with fries (see pic), and thats about how many there are, it was ridiculous! Apparently the fries are for 6-8 people. I still have some, going to eat them soon!
My thanks to Deep for getting me Lunch and introducing me to this palace of unearthly delight, buy him the equivalent of a drink from me!
Being Monday, as it turns out, the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller is closed :-( so Im staying another day in Calgary. I will hopefully be checked out by tomorrow morn, pick up a hire car, and then hit drumheller before heading back to Calgary Greyhound to spend a night in Banff.
Dan out.
Official Sponsors of the DGA:
Shannon
Naren
Dalaney
Deep
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Dan's Grand Adventure Begins!
Huzzah! The moment youve all been waiting for has arrived, yes, Im leaving! Albeit, slowly.
Setting off immediately after a 2 week fieldtrip would have been too gruelling for even me, so I accepted the generous offer of a couch at Shannon's house while I got my stuff together and packed it into the huge backpack generously donated by Dalaney, and hung around with Shannon, Naren, and Shannon's sister, Pam, and her husband John, all cool guys (and John took me paintballing!) So I now proclaim them official sponsors of my cross Canada trek!
Settinng off this morning from Edmonton was kind of sad, like leaving Lister for the last time all over again (but not so rushed this time...) Ive made many, many good friends over here, and now count you all as my extended family, so theres no getting rid of me just yet!
I arrived via taxi at the Greyhound station, and whipped out the ticket to Banff generously donated to my cause by one Mr Peter Buchanan, also a proud (?) sponsor of DGA (Dans Grand Adventure is getting tedious to type...). I was fully expecting to be rejected, as peters name was on the voucher, but when i told the lady my real name, she didnt seem to mind/care. Yay for niceness/apathy!
A 4 hour coach ride, and short taxi ride later found me standing outside the Calgary Hostelling International (HI) Hostel, suggested to my by Mark (whom I thank). After the guy at the desk mixed up room 205 for 203, and my subsequent walking in on an asian family in room 205, then my complaining (and subsequently, their complaining - They must have been terrified!!!), I got the right room and key. Seems to be a lot of people getting 3's and 5's mixed up in Canada - it happened twice, yesterday and today with a taxi firm (Shannons house ends in a 3, and the guy on the phone keeps saying 5, despite me telling him...).
Funnily enough, as I walked to a general store to get a padlock for my room locker, there is a Geological supplies shop roughly a minutes walk from the hostel. It was closed, but then, its a geology shop on a sunday. Business cant exactly be booming.
Im booked into the hostel for tonight and tomorrow night (12th) and will be hopefully be aiming to get to drumheller tomorrow, if not, ill stay another night, and go the day after.
The Hostel is on 520 7th ave in Calgary, pretty hard to miss, and Ill be around seeing the sights for a few days, anywhere I should go?
Dan
Official Sponsors of the DGA:
Shannon
Naren
Dalaney
Setting off immediately after a 2 week fieldtrip would have been too gruelling for even me, so I accepted the generous offer of a couch at Shannon's house while I got my stuff together and packed it into the huge backpack generously donated by Dalaney, and hung around with Shannon, Naren, and Shannon's sister, Pam, and her husband John, all cool guys (and John took me paintballing!) So I now proclaim them official sponsors of my cross Canada trek!
Settinng off this morning from Edmonton was kind of sad, like leaving Lister for the last time all over again (but not so rushed this time...) Ive made many, many good friends over here, and now count you all as my extended family, so theres no getting rid of me just yet!
I arrived via taxi at the Greyhound station, and whipped out the ticket to Banff generously donated to my cause by one Mr Peter Buchanan, also a proud (?) sponsor of DGA (Dans Grand Adventure is getting tedious to type...). I was fully expecting to be rejected, as peters name was on the voucher, but when i told the lady my real name, she didnt seem to mind/care. Yay for niceness/apathy!
A 4 hour coach ride, and short taxi ride later found me standing outside the Calgary Hostelling International (HI) Hostel, suggested to my by Mark (whom I thank). After the guy at the desk mixed up room 205 for 203, and my subsequent walking in on an asian family in room 205, then my complaining (and subsequently, their complaining - They must have been terrified!!!), I got the right room and key. Seems to be a lot of people getting 3's and 5's mixed up in Canada - it happened twice, yesterday and today with a taxi firm (Shannons house ends in a 3, and the guy on the phone keeps saying 5, despite me telling him...).
Funnily enough, as I walked to a general store to get a padlock for my room locker, there is a Geological supplies shop roughly a minutes walk from the hostel. It was closed, but then, its a geology shop on a sunday. Business cant exactly be booming.
Im booked into the hostel for tonight and tomorrow night (12th) and will be hopefully be aiming to get to drumheller tomorrow, if not, ill stay another night, and go the day after.
The Hostel is on 520 7th ave in Calgary, pretty hard to miss, and Ill be around seeing the sights for a few days, anywhere I should go?
Dan
Official Sponsors of the DGA:
Shannon
Naren
Dalaney
Monday, 3 March 2008
Mo' Bloggage.
Okay, so in the infinite crapness that is my ability to keep a regular blog, I have decided to try and make a few short posts every week, instead of my longer rants.
Reading week and exams are over, and I have just gotten back from a field trip in Kananaskis in the Rockies, which was amazing.
Being in the mountains was so refreshing. When I was walking on my own away from the rest of the group I was with, I was amazed at how quiet it was. Thats something that just isnt seen anymore. I need to get back there, to play in the snow and just to relax.
Being back in the city of Edmonton, with University upon me once again, I turn to both 5000 word papers that I have to write in the next month, and the 30-45 minute presentation that has to accompany one of said papers. This is going to be an interesting month, as I just cannot seem to apply myself to the papers, and 10,000 words isnt something that you can pull an all nighter on and finish...
Anyways, the pictures of the beautiful mountains are on facebook, and if all has gone to plan, some should appear next to this text when I publish this post.
Keep well, and Ill hopefully post again soon.
Dan.
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