Leaving Canada

• Mja007's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Calgary

Trip Start Jul 27, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Oct 22, 2007 Next
Entry

  Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Well I have finally left Canada and continued on with my travels. The time spent in Canada since my last entry has been spent in Alberta and split between Calgary and Canmore. Firstly Calgary where I went after I left Fernie isn't a bad city though I did find the road system abit confusing. On Friday I went for a walk around the city to spend some time before my lift to Canmore arrived.
My lift was with Kyle Hobbs and his girlfriend Jamie. Kyle had worked with me at Newlands as a vaction student where he completed his 8 month tenure about a year ago. Kyle had always told me if I came over that his parents had a condo in Canmore where we could hang out.
So Kyle got to Calgary about dinner time and it took us about an hour to head west to Canmore after Kyle worked out how to get out of the city. By the time we got into Canmore which was around 10pm we went down the street had a small meal and went back to the condo

Kyle and I at Lake Grasse (near Canmore)

. The next day we decided to go for a drive around the surrounding area and check out a number of the lookouts around Canmore and then in the afternoon we headed up to Banff which is about 20km further west. We spent the enitre afternoon in Banff which was a really nice town except for the fact they had torn up the main street so traffic was blocked up on all the side streets. Our first stop in Banff was at the Fairmont - Banff Springs which is a giant old luxury hotel. This is where my parents stayed when they travelled through Banff and I now understand where my inheritance is going. After a late lunch in downtown Banff we head back to Canmore and settled in to playing cards back at the condo. I taught Kyle and Jamie what I had learn about playing blackjack in Vegas and Kyle introduced me to Crown Royal Whiskey which was very nice but will never replace Jack Daniels in my liquor cabinet. After a while Jamie got bored of watching Kyle and I play mindless card games so she went to bed so we decided to check out the night life in downtown Canmore. Settle in at the Canmore hotel which was just down the road from the condoand listened to a few live bands which took us through to about 2.30am before the bar closed up and we wandered home.
Now the best thing about staying in someone's condo and not a hotel is there is no check out time which helped us as Kyle and I slept through to about lunchtime. Once we got up we head straight to subway to help fight the hangover before settling in back at the condo for the afternoon

More of the mountains around Canmore

. That Sunday afternoon Kyle dropped us back in Calgary and Jamie and him headed back to Edmonton.
That night I spent quietly in my hotel room in Calgary and was lucky to have a microwave in my room so I trotted across to the Wal-mart across the road and got a frozen pizza which I heated for dinner.
On Monday I went back to Wal-mart and did a little bit of shopping before catching up with some people I had met in Calgary last time I was in town. Mike Young is the GM of an explosvies company in Calgary and had visited Newlands a few years ago. In my last visit Mike took us to an ice hockey game in Calgary but this time around no hockey was playing so we just went out for lunch. After lunch Mike went back to work and I headed back to the hotel to pack up for my trip to the USA the next day. Mike rang me later on and came around and we headed to one of the casinos in downtown Calgary to play a bit of poker. Now these casinos are nothing like the big casinos of Vegas as they a very small but full of local characters especially around the poker tables. We stayed for a few hours and I won some money (especially off Mike) and then head back to the hotel.
The next morning I head over to the airport said goodbye to Canada and flew out for the USA. Along the way I had more dramas with the airlines but that is a tale for another time.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

Mick

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Where my inheritance is going - Fairmont Banff	The 18th fairway at the Fairmont Banff Springs	Three Sisters Mountains (Canmore's version)	Hobbs Family Condo at Canmore (needs a hot tub)
Dangerous Western Canadian Fighting Geese

Slideshow Print this entry Share Calgary hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry