Back from Vancouver Island

Back in Vancouver after spending the last four nights on Vancouver Island - two in Tofino on the west coast, two in the capital Victoria.

Tofino is a surfie town, surrounded by temperate rainforest.

Was in Victoria for a weekend long music festival. The best act was actually an aussie - Kate Miller-heidke. Lots of good local acts too.

Pics from Rockies

In Vancouver now, but here are some more pics from the Rockies:

At the top of Johnston's Canyon
















Lake Morraine

















At the top of Sulphur Mountain next to Banff. It says Canberra 13,312 km.

Rocky Mountains

I'm really achy and tired. Walked over 15km since arriving in Banff in the Rocky Mountains yesterday, and a lot of those metres have been vertical ones. View definitely worth it once at the top.

Flew into Calgary late Monday night, but didn't get to the hostel until after midnight. The hostel check in said they would wait up, but they hadn't :(

So drove around Calgary and took some photos to say I'd been there and kept driving towards Banff. Didn't get too far until too tired (after 2am) and slept on the side of the road (and it's friggin cold once the car heater is off).

The sun woke me up and looking out the car windows ..... I'm in the middle of huge mountains! Snow tipped, pine covered mountains! And they just got closer and closer.

Stopped into Lake Minnewanka (pronounced Mini-wonka ;) on the way to Banff and that early in the morning their was Elk and other smaller deer. So the lack of sleep was worth it.

Banff from Sulphur Mountain (yes, I hiked all the way up):

In Quebec now within the very touristy old walled city. Much preferred Montreal.


Other stuff from Montreal:

Amazing amount of boutique shops, especially clothes, in Montreal. There was a whole series of shopping centres along the main street (usually 2 to 3 levels underground, and the same above), all connected underground, so you don't even have to brave the freezing weather in winter.

The undergound walkways are also extensive around the metro stations. Sometimes after getting off the train it can be hard to find an exit that will GET ME TO THE SURFACE!
















All the houses had stairs to the front door (though not always this impressive), maybe to avoid snow drifts in winter?

Public transportation















Bums playing Stratego
















These guys are more common than rats.














A more uncommon beggar.

Montreal

Arrived in Montreal yesterday afternoon, and wandered around the streets near the hostel to get dinner. Something I actually hadn't expected (and in retrospect should have) was how French it is. Street front dining, bicycles attached to posts everywhere, people wandering around with toy dogs, no english on street signs or menus (though most people do speak it well).
The contrast between Montreal and Toronto six hours away constantly amazes me.

Niagara

Had an awesome time in Niagara Falls, mostly due to the really helpful people working at the hostel. I highly recommend the jet boat up Niagara River, splashing through the 2m high standing waves in the narrower parts of the river. The pressure of the last wave of water coming down on me hurt my eyeballs for 5 min. Dave took aboard his water proof digital SLR and took some great photos, this is my favorite (it's not me in the photo):

Hi from Canada

I did the required "I'm in the USA, I'm in Canada. I'm in the USA, I'm in Canada" as I walked across the bridge over the Niagara River between the two counties.

It has finally cooled down from a horribly humid 35 degrees (Celsius), and rained instead. But it didn't matter because I was already soaked from Niagara Falls.

New York exceeded my expectations. Lots of tall buildings, lots of people, lots of yellow taxis, New York diners, and an extensive subway system. Some subway stations had 3 or more levels underground, and rickety trains. My one regret is I wasn't there long enough to do a tour of abandoned sections.

The morning I left New York for Buffalo, my alarm didn't work but luckily Dave woke up half an hour before the train left. In that time we managed to get changed, pack up, catch the subway and arrived just in time. I still can't believe we made it.

Off to Toronto tomorrow, then Montreal.

The picture is from the Empire State Building. The green patch in the background is Central Park, and my hostel was near the top, left corner of it.

LA

In LA! Probably won't actually leave Hollywood for the two days I'm staying here.

Took 2 1/2 hours to get out the friggin LAX airport! At the very first traffic lights saw a McDonalds and a Hummer.

Went out last night to Sunset Blvd, listened to live rock/country (well, it was just rock but the accent made it sound countryish). It was awesome. Made me feel like I really was in the US of A!

Other observations:
Hollywood - touristy but fun
Madame Tussauds - creepy
Star spotting - Justin Timberlake

View out the hostel window as I'm posting this:











The Kodak theatre is where the Academy Awards are hosted.

(Something failed with the photo upload. Will put up a better one when I can)

I'm alive!

Going to resurrect this blog to tell everyone how good being in Canada is :) Leaving on the 26th August - two weeks to go!

Hopefully I will have time to post. As you can see below, I wasn't very successful when I went to Europe two years ago. I'll try though.

If you happen to be looking through the older posts below and get to the one about a new blog .... don't bother. It is dead, very dead.

After Europe

Arrived back home this afternoon and the post holiday let down hasn't hit yet, probably tomorrow.

I'll provide a lot more info as I transfer some of my journal notes here, but here are some stats:

29 days
6 countries
13 cities slept overnight
5600 photos
I'm not yet considering the final monetary cost :)

Further adventures

Very busy, I'm not even up to date on my trip diary, let alone this blog.

Today is the last full day in europe. In Berlin, and flying out tomorrow.
I take off tue afternoon, but don't land in Sydney until thurs morning!

Where I've been since the last post (nights stayed):
Nice, France (2)
Turin, Italy (2)
Freiburg, Germany (1)
Munich, Germany (3)
Brussels, Belgium (2)
Bruges, Belgium (1)
Antwerp, Belgium (1)
Aachen, Germany (1)
Berlin, Germany (3)

See ya

Update

Have been spending too much time eating, drinking, sightseeing to update this blog. Sorry!

Quick update:

In Paris until Tue 3rd. Hectic, trying to fit in all the sights.
Train to Lyon. Was here two nights relaxing. Hostel on hill overlooking the city. Drinking bottles of 4 euro wine on the balcony. Beautiful!
Travel to Carcassonne yesterday. Hostel within the citadel. Taken gigs of photos.
Current plan is heading tomorrow to Nice, then Turin in northern Italy.

London

I flew into london on tuesday morning and John arrived in the evening.
I'll be catching the tunnel train to paris in a couple of hours.

London was how I expected it to be:
Pubs with character on every second corner.
Room temperature beer.
Red double decker buses and black taxis.
Amazing old buildings.
The sky is overcast.

Some unexpected things:
Beer really cheep.
Police constables everywhere.
Seeing the queen drive into Buckingham Palace.
It hasn't rained much.

I'm love the history.
We're staying in a backpackers that used to be a courthouse where Charles Dickens once worked.
Visited a war museum which had the ship gun that fired the first allied salvo in World War One.

Blogging update

I haven't blogged in a while and my main blog page is currently bust, but since I'm currently travelling europe I will resurrect this one to share my adventures.

Enjoy

Permanent blog now ready

My permanent blog has finally been set up!
Find it at www.sachqua.com/blog

Viking, um, ship?

Sounds like fun?

A viking ship made out of 15 million ice cream sticks, stuck together with 6 tons of glue, is seeking crew members to sail across the Atlantic from Holland to Canada (via Greenland).

Touted on the web page as the world's only "Full Size Recycled Ship".

Snow report

More snow last night!
Covering the hills on the way to work, and very icy roads. No accidents, though, everyone driving at 60-80kph. Took lots of photos.
No snow in town, but long icicles on everything and our sloped driveway was slick with ice. Just about went arse up getting into the car.

Edit: There were accidents. The local paper reported 10 crashes in an hour. And everyone I talked to had a few fun fishtails while getting to work.

G. I. John

Though he is actually "Private Chow"























John is back after surviving four weeks of basic training for the army reserves.

I went down to Kapooka (in Wagga Wagga) this weekend to see his matching out parade.

And then went out drinking with about 40 people who hadn't seen a beer, and been going non-stop, for four weeks. Good fun was had by all.

He's survived, and I think somewhat enjoyed, his time a Kapooka, despite being yelled at, never having 5 min to himself, and gaining a cold/flu and twisted ankle.

At the marching out parade, the Chief of the Defence Force was attending. Apparently this is quite a treat, because he hardly visits Kapooka, let alone for "lowly" reserves.


















There were some surprised reactions from people at the mine about John being in the army reserves. Some reactions:

"He's doing WHAT?"
"The thought of John with a gun is scary"
"He's mad"
























I'm glad he's back, even though he is having to learning again how to sit still.

Bad drivers

No more snow yet, but did have frozen dew on the lawn this morning.......

I couldn't open the car door because the rubber seal was frozen to the car frame. And no wiper water, cos it was also frozen in the tubes.

This blog is somewhat in response to Jad's comment about road conditions.

NSW roads are almost always in bad condition. For everyone in Western Australia, don't complain about the extra few cents you pay on fuel for road tax, it is very much worth it. The only good roads are the toll highways in Sydney, so you have to pay extra to use them anyway.

The speed limit on the road out to work is a 100km/h, but in WA it would probably be 80km/h. It's narrow, winding and potholed.

I have occasionally heard Perth drivers been accused of being bad, and having driven in Sydney I can understand why. In Sydney, there are so many cars, close together, going fast that you have to be continually alert, and take even the smallest opportunity to turn or change lanes. There is no margin of error.

In Perth, you have the luxury to hesitate, wait for a better opportunity and become rather lazy about driving.

But this also means that NSW drivers, especially Sydney drivers, are extremely bad country drivers. Driving too fast, or very close to cars in front, and overtaking dangerously.

And then you add ice.........

There are always a few bad accidents every winter. But there are also lots of accidents even on dry summer roads just from people being dickheads.

They don't salt the roads as they don't usually get too icy. I haven't experenced any icy roads yet *cross fingers*.

Snow

We had a snow fall last night!
Only a couple of centimetres, enough to thinly cover flat ground with tuffs of grass poking through.
It wasn't at home or work, unfortunately, but on the side of the road on the way to work.
The road gets to approx 1000m altitude before descending into the valley where the mine is situated.

Prediction is for more tomorrow morning. I will try to remember my camera!