TravelStream™ news feed for member rokstr_1234 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/rokstr_1234 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:09:37 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rokstr_1234/1/1215093600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rokstr_1234/1/1215093600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rokstr_1234/1/1215093600/tpod.html Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:09:37 -0400 Canadian Journey

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Calgary, Alberta, Canada

On the 3rd of  July we played in Heritage Park on the outskirts of Calgary, a small themed village which tries to imitate how the city looked in the past. It has many real western-frontier buildings and its authenticity is pretty good, but it is the kind of place where, for a price, you can see everything in about an hour and never need to go back. It was fun though, 
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Glasgow, United Kingdom

This was the day we were flying to Canada. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, I had never flown for more than an hour and a half before, and I am not a great flyer anyway; I don't find the idea of being in the sky for long periods of time very appealing. So nine hours was going to be new to me. I was with the Lothian School's Strathspey and Reel Society- a fiddle orchestra- and we were about to begin our orchestra's 25th anniversary tour of the second biggest country in the world- although, only a little bit of it. The flight was from Glasgow International Airport, and we ended up having to wait there for about four hours before the flight- lots of card games and cups of coffee! There was a Cafe Nero there which was a relief, and to save a bit of money I made one coffee go a long way by constantly filling it up with milk. However, the wait wasn't all bad. I had just bought a new camera, a beautiful Fuji Finepix S900 digital SLR, and so I had plenty of time to try it out. I tried not to be hurt by my friends calling it a "beast of a camera", and I did get a few great pictures during the long hours, one of my double bassist friend Timmy- Great photo! :)
                      And then, coincidently, I met my friend Jan, who was off to Lanzarote for sun, sea and sand. And drink. Not my type of holiday! We were going to the west of Canada, flying to Calgary city and from there, exploring the sights. The itinerary looked great. Obviously, being a tour, we had no say in the developing of it, but our leader Yla had lined up some amazing things for us. The trip was going to last two weeks, a bit short for me, but it would show us a glimpse of the amazing country. 
Although I wasn't too excited about the flight, the flightpath was sure to be amazing. As it is much quicker and shorter to fly over the earth rather than around it, we were going to fly north across Iceland and Greenland, before crossing Hudson Bay into Canada. This also limits the amount of time flying across open ocean, so if something were to go wrong we wouldn't need to find a floating runway to land on. Once we had finally taken off and had been flying for a few hours, our wait was rewarded with spectacular views across Greenland, and I think we annoyed the other passengers as we leant across the seats to constantly take photographs. There were some amazing mountains as we first crossed into Greenland, I don't know what the range is called, but some of the mountains in the south of the island are pretty high! We could see hundreds of  lakes and rivers, and several glaciers too, all very far below. Sadly, I have read that the glaciers in Greenland are receding at a rate twice as fast as they were just 5 years ago, and if we allow global warming to continue then these amazing ice flows will disappear into the Atlantic Ocean. However, saying this, doing things like flying to Canada isn't helping much. I think the glacier I photographed may be the Jacobshavn Glacier on the West coast, but I may be completely wrong.  This last photograph is my favourite, it is the view back across the island as we head across the Davis Strait towards Baffin Island. I like to think that is the curve of the earth, although its probably not. Not at our altitude anyway.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rokstr_1234/1/1215037800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rokstr_1234/1/1215037800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rokstr_1234/1/1215037800/tpod.html Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:17:20 -0400 Canadian Journey

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Calgary, Alberta, Canada

After the tiring 8 hour long flight, (thankfully not 9, due to good flying conditions) our fiddle orchestra arrived in Calgary International Airport. As someone who has never travelled outside of Europe before, it was a strange feeling stepping into North America. I suppose that travel between continents must be a normal thing for most people, but being new to long haul journeys, it really felt great! It seemed to take forever to get through the airport (even though it wasn't half as long as the time spent in Glasgow!), and as if to brighten our spirits we were met by a exceedingly energetic Canadian woman after customs, who 'branded' us with a "Welcome to Canada" stamp, as we entered the country. This was accompanied by a cowboy folk band with a large pretend donkey. It was wierd, and great! 
 We were seperated into pairs, and I joined my friend Takuji before meeting the family who would be hosting us for the next 4 nights in Calgary City. We were handed over to the Newson family, the son Owen who was our age and played fiddle. They told us that our accents weren't as strong as they had anticipated, they had expected not to be able to understand the Scots tongue! :) And all we could think as they drove us down the highway to their home was how big everything was! Roads, cars, buildings, people... (ok, there weren't that many fat people :) ). There were some amazing views of downtown Calgary from the highway, and after arriving at the house we went walking to find more views- The sunset was being reflected in the glass of the buildings and it was really spectacular. We went to bed as late as possible, trying to get into Canadian time as easily as we could. That didnt stop almost the entire orchestra waking up at 1 a.m. however! Our timings were so messed up at the beginning, :)
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Calgary sightseeing and flight
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Bus journey back to Calgary, farewell ceilidh
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Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

RCMP, Regina
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Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Bus to Regina
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Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Visit to windmill museum and red rock coulies. Social event and concert.
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Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Bus journey to Medicine Hat, Prairies
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Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Athabasca Glacier
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