Alberta and the Canadian Rockies

Knee deep in Snow....slight twist

After a 5 hour flight from Hamilton "international" airport we arrived in a dark and drenched Calgary. First impressions of Calgary....not so busy! The first couple of days we managed to experience what seemed to be a monsoon, snow storm as well as a heat wave. Thanks to Rick we managed to complete a 3-5 hour hike, whilst in camouflage gear, up onto the top of Ravens End where we were greeted by a the clouds. The following day Rick drove us through both Banff and Jasper national park. The whole journey included breath-taking views and a lot a wild life, such as Moose, Grizzly Bear, white tip Dear and black Bears.

Grizzly Bear eating roots

The next leg of the journey involved a rented car and 5 exchange students. We spent a total of 7 days driving through both national parks stopping anywhere that had great views...so everywhere. Luckily we had great weather throughout our road trip and so we took the opportunity to do as many hikes as we could. The ink pot hike was great because once we arrived at the top there were clear blue mini lakes surrounded my snow covered tress and mountains. The Banff stop was not complete without a dive into Banff's 39 degree hot springs.

Ink Pot Hike, Banff National Park

After another Hike over looking Banff itself and trip to the top of the mountains in a gondola, we made our way to Jasper. Before arriving into Jasper, we stopped off at a Ice glacier as well as Athabasca falls. Once we arrived in Jasper, a small town in the middle of Jasper national Park, we rented mountain bikes. Mountain biking in and around Jasper was amazing. Although i didn't jump into a Lake, the whole experience was surreal. We also made a trip to a new friend who happened to run a cattle ranch. Whilst there we enjoyed angus beef burgers, some shooting and a tour of a real Canadian ranch. So much more happened, but if i wrote about everything in detail we would be here for a while! You'll have to definitely make a trip to the Canadian Rockies to fully appreciate how beautiful it is. 

Canadian Rockies

Canadian Rockies

'Spring' Break?

Ottawa, Canada!

Since the beginning of exchange one question that everyone kept asking was "What shall we do for spring break?". At first we all agreed upon going somewhere hot as we dreaded the perils of the coming winter. Somewhere hot basically meant Mexico or Cuba. Eventually the majority decided that we should brave the cold and get the full Canadian experience! After all we are studying here so we should make the most of it. Plus Selin had just bought her Canada Goose jacket, so she desperately wanted to get her monies worth and Nic had come prepared with an array of winter boots hahaha!

Traditional Native Games

The day arrived where we would once again make the short trip to Toronto in order to catch our bus to Ottawa. This was probably one of the funniest bus trips I've been on. It involved late wake-ups (Mairi), sickness/hungeroverness (Mairi), wrong tickets (Myself and Alison), running around Toronto working up a sweat to print off the actual ticket (Me) and a pacing drug addict at the back of the bus (drug addict). After a lot of trouble, we made it to Ottawa. Considering Ottawa is the capital of Canada, it is quite small. One of the main attractions of Ottawa in the winter is the chance to ice-skate on the worlds longest naturally frozen river! Unfortunately we arrived a bit too late into the winter season to be be able to ice-skate but we did manage to experience the last day of the winterlude! This included native dances, spiritual songs, ice sculpture competitions, free green tea and various pieces of art and history! 

Getting native in a Teepee


After a few beaver tails (no pun intended-its actually a fried pastry dessert) we made our way around the historical parliament buildings of Ottawa and into a deli shop which Barack Obama had recently visited at ByWard market. The stay was brief but just long enough to see what Ottawa had to offer.

 
Chilling at Backpackers Inn

We had a chilled evening in the basement of the hostel after handling a shushing row with the another group upstairs. This was the evening Richard had "An interesting theory".

 

Beaver's all round!

The next stop was Quebec City!!!