More importantly though, my mate Dean tells me it unofficially heralds the start of summer. Yeah righto. That would be the summer that brought Calgary the glorious temperature of 16 degrees on that weekend. Better watchout I don't get heatstroke.
In any case, it has been warmer of late. It was 23 degrees last saturday, and every man and his dog was out and about in summer clothing enjoying the warm weather. Of course being Calgary, it switched very quickly back to cold weather, and we even had some light snow on thursday. As I've tried to explain to people, back home in Adelaide, we can see the weather coming 5 days in advance. It's all very weird. My mate Josh says that's because Australia is flat and we can see from one end of the country to the other. Cheeky bugger.
Anyway, enough about the weather.
Stability has returned after the tumultuous few weeks spent living with a crack head.
I have moved into my new (normal) place, and whilst my roommate who is sub-leasing the place gives me the shits, it is an island of tranquility compared to my previous lodgings. My roommate is 30 something woman who’s life revolves around television and her small yapping shitsu, and who considers herself an expert on Australia just because she spent a few months in QLD 5 years ago. Grating, to be sure, particularly when she proceeds to bag my homeland based on one experience in a small part of a big country. But it could be worse. My room is small, which isn’t an issue – one of the best parts of being a traveler is the lack of material possessions needed – give me my mp3 player, my favourite newspaper (which my dear parents send me every week) and a couple of beers and I’m a happy chap. But the house is very close to downtown and there is a supermarket and liquor store around the corner.
I’ve been keeping myself busy on weekends catching up with friends and doing some touristy things around the city. Last weekend I went to Fort Calgary which was the first outpost before the Canadian Railway was laid that linked the east with the west. It was very interesting. (I will put some photos on facebook). The best part though, was that it was all in English; none of it was bilingual. What made me even happier was angry Quebec-ers complaining about that in the visitors book. Sick it up I say – some local governments in Quebec have already stopped printing materials in English so I say f*ck em. Secede; see how long you last with your big spending, socialist government you twats. (This topic in Canadian politics is the only thing that gets me riled up as Australian politics).
Work is going along swimmingly. Well I say swimmingly. I probably mean tediously. I give administrative support to a bunch of accountants, and it’s pretty slow going apart from at the end of each quarter when the financial statements have to be prepared and sent to the board. They had 2 people in my position previously, so I was guinea pig to see if it could be done by one person. Apart from 4 or 5 hours overtime at the end of the last quarter, (I worked until 7pm one night – outrageous! Where are some cumbersome, irrational, Labor-like industrial relations laws when you need them?!) things have been pretty slow. So I get lots of time to check to see what the Gillard government has f*cked up this week and post stupid things on facebook. And of course take a few smoke breaks, and browse the internet some more.
I am glad to report though, that those who complain about the government sector and hold the private sector up to be a shining example of efficiency, clearly have no idea what they’re talking about. Out of all the departments I worked for in the South Australian government, none had such piss-poor HR and IT procedures as the mob I currently work for. So to me, that’s all very interesting. In any case, they have hired a new permanent Admin assistant to replace me, but have extended my contract to mid-july which is just about perfect. Stampede starts at the middle of July, so I’ll be here and earning money for that and then once my contract finishes, I’ll do a couple of small trips into the mountains before taking off on my Canadian adventure.
I’m using my free time at work to plan that at the moment actually – So far, my itinerary includes leaving Calgary on the 1st of August and getting a bus to Vancouver. It is much more economical to fly, but I am told there are some must see places on the way where I’m going to stop for a few days each. Here is the route I’ll be taking -
https://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=calgary&daddr=lake+louise+to:Kelowna,+BC+to:Vancouver,+BC&hl=en&sll=51.232688,-115.133972&sspn=1.27436,3.556824&geocode=FYjiCgMd-p8z-SnVP4SfA3BxUzE6tlK2sTttJg%3BFT-PEAMdCrsS-SkRzuGgKF13UzHmvGVjezw3PA%3BFdA6-QIdtaLg-CmzMMfjtox9UzH3xLTaPeX4Tg%3BFaqq7wIdOW6p-CmzT6lD8XOGVDGL84Gb6paRuw&oq=vancouver&mra=ls&t=m&z=7
So my first stop is Lake Louise. The name kind of speaks for itself – there’s a big arse Lake, and the pictures look amazing, so I’ll be looking to take a cruise on the Lake and just take it easy and wander around a bit.
It’s interesting. It’s only really dawned on me that for the first month, my trip is going to be a relaxing, wandering kind of holiday. In Europe, it was constant action with all of the history and culture to learn about. Whilst I’m certainly interested in Canadian culture, it’s the geography and the extreme difference between the lay of the land between our two countries that interests me the most. Plus Canadian culture is really just hockey, bad coffee, hockey, the constant implication of boat ownership (a-boat instead of about) being incredibly nice and hockey. Well, there’s probably (definitely) more to it than that but that’s certainly the broad impression.
In any case, after a few days at Lake Louise, it’s down to Kelowna, in British Columbia (the eastern most province) which is apparently wine country. So I will do a winery tour and take in the surroundings. It’s then onto Vancouver, which I have seen parts of, and where I will catch up with another friend, Catherine, who I met on my travels in Europe. The best part follows though – Vancouver Island. Ever since I decided that Canada would be my next trip, I have been eagerly awaiting my trip to Vancouver Island. Again, the photos I have seen have been of such natural beauty. There is a ferry that goes directly from Vancouver to the Island and I’m thinking that I’ll hire a car to get around the Island – there are buses that go between the towns and indeed the capital of Victoria (which is actually the capital of British Columbia, even though Vancouver itself is much larger) but I did some rough math and it wouldn’t be much more expensive to hire a car and go at my own pace. It also means I’ll easily be able to get into the national park which is a drive out of the closest towns; better yet, I’ll have some much anticipated freedom. The idea of being able to come and go as I please and stop at places along the way is just magic – just like heading down to the yorke peninsula back home.
After a week on the Island, I have a train trip booked to go from Vancouver over to Saskatoon, in the province of Saskatchewan – it’s about 3 times the cost of catching a plane, but this train goes through the Canadian rockies and I’m told that the scenery, again, is stunning. And it will be nice to have my own cabin and watch the country go by (and I'm also going to make 2 stops in Jasper & Edmonton). Here is the where the train goes - https://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=Vancouver,+BC&daddr=Jasper,+AB+to:Edmonton,+AB+to:Saskatoon,+SK&hl=en&sll=50.272865,-118.580685&sspn=5.20324,14.227295&geocode=Faqq7wIdOW6p-CmzT6lD8XOGVDGL84Gb6paRuw%3BFa3fJgMd6ED2-CkpPlVoCCuDUzGCKBkLvQIgHw%3BFZXaMAMdoCA8-Skj_96ARSKgUzFdFfZKDKAfQQ%3BFeKBGwMdmK-k-Skrme1Hv_YEUzGQJneVMp4EBQ&oq=sask&mra=ls&t=m&z=6
After that, a few days to catch up with another mate in Regina (not far away from Saskatoon) and then onto Toronto to see Dean & Alex and then plan my way around the east to see the French bastards and some of the more remote provinces.
There is a huge, blinding light at the end of the tunnel and I can’t bloody wait.
