October 2004

Big White

Hi All.

The big news of the day is that I've landed a job at Big White. WOOHOO!!!

Over and Out.

Canadian Rockies

Finally, i've managed to schedule a day of downtime on my trip. Today's sleep in was a gift from heaven. The last few weeks have been really hectic, and I think my body is really close to giving up on me.

OK, so my original plan was to fly from montreal to Calgary, spend a few days there and then fly to Edmonton to catch a train to Jasper. All that was thrown out the window when I discoverd the Moose Network. Basically it goes around all over the place and picks up Backpackers and takes them on a road trip. I signed up for 4 days of hiking through the Canadian Rockies in Banff and Jasper national parks, and we were blessed with 4 perfect days of sunshine. What made it even better was the fact that it had just recently snowed, so the mountains were all glistening white.

I can't even begin to describe the beauty of these mountains and lakes, even the photos I took don't capture the scale and splendour of them. The water is a turqoise blue from the minerals that accumulates in the water as it flows towards the lakes and rivers. Each lake is a different blue depending on the geological formations that the water passes before it accumulates in the lakes.

Over the four days i walked on a glacier, saw a huge glacier avalanche, hiked peaks, swam in a 9near freezing) lake, sat in hot springs. it was a totally amazing experience.

now begins the task of finding snow season employment. Hopefully I'll find something soon...

Kingston & Quebec City

Just a quickie so I can start writing about the rockies. I was expecting to relax a bit in Kingston, but instead I ended up writing myself off night after night. had lots of fun, apparently. Started a few rumours going... classic.

Quebec City was great. Cruised around town with two english girls, Tanya and Kirsty. Took a bike ride to montemercy falls, which is 1.5 times as high as Niagra falls, but not nearly as wide or impressive. The city itself is awesome, the Chateau looks like a castle surrounded by the defensive walls.

last 3 weeks...

Hi All

OK, since leaving Boston / Wood's Hole, there's lots been happening. My next stop on the road was in New York, NY. One of my favourite cities in the world, it was lovely to be reacquainted with the hussle and bussle. I toured most of tne city with one of the guys from the Hostel, Gary from Northern Ireland, who had the thickest North Irish accent I've ever heard. I probably only understood every 3rd word or so.

Anyway, toured the UN building, which is really kitsch. The decor is straight out of the 50's. Even the knobs on the seats which are used to select which language you hear through the inbuilt handset (if the handset hasn't been ripped off already) is just a wooden dial on the arm rest. No digital here folks. It was all donated by Norway when the building was constructed, and it feels as though no-one is willing to renovate the room lest it upset Norway. It was kind of symptomatic of how the UN operates these days.... Everyone's commited to supporting the ideals, but noone really wants to commit any resources. At the end of the day, the UN begs a lot of nations for resources.

Other than that I rented a pair of skates and decided to skate Central Park. One frosty morning, I started out for the central resevoir in the middle of the park, and when I found it the fog was so thick it covered the edges so I couldn't see the ends of the lake. In the end I decided to skate in one direction, figuring that if I skate for long enough I'll eventually skate around it. Anyway, after skating for about half an hour, I reach the end of the park, and I still haven't circled the lake. I'm thinking, damn, I'll never be able to skate the whole park before I have to return these skates. It's then that I look into the horizon and I can vaguely make out the Washington Bridge. I was actually skating down the Hudson River and was well and truly in Harlem. Anyway, after skating back down through Harlem, I eventually found the oasis that is Central Park.

Later that day, I caught the bus to DC. After not skating for many years, my legs were VERY sore on the bus. It wasn't helped by the fact I was sitting next to a man that should've been forced to buy 2 seats, so I had to sit sideways in my seat with my legs in the aisle.

I don't remember much about that night in DC, except that Miles, you throw one hell of a party. So much so, I was well and truly hung over until Sunday. Washington is a great city if you have a local to show you where not to go... Only about 1/4 of the city is actually nice. The rest is one large ghetto. The best thing about DC is all the museums are FREE. That's right FREE. My favourite was the National Air and Space Museums. That's right, there's 2 of them. Between the two of them, I saw some of the historic airplanes and space craft of the last 100 years, from the Wright Flyer, Spirit of St Louis, Enola Gay to the SR-71 Blackbird spyplanes. I could've stayed there for weeks admiring all the work that's gone into each one of those machines.

I almost got arrested whilst in DC too. Due to 9/11 fears, a lot of the footpaths are closed off, meaning a lot of detours for pedestrians. Anyway, Miles and I decided that we would take a shortcut, which the police weren't really pleased about. Within a few seconds, we had an unmarked surveilance van and 3 squad cars surrounding us. We managed to talk our way out of it, but not before about 5 or 6 other groups of people took the same shortcut we were planning in the background.

From DC I overnighted to Niagra Falls by Greyhound, which I'll never do again. I ended up having to change 4 buses, which meant I only slept in 2 hour blocks all night. Anyway, Niagra Falls is beautiful, but I would recommend it only as a day trip. There's not that much to see here once you've seen the waterfalls. The volume of water here is incredible, and the speed at which it moves is scary. If you fell in, there would be no hope of making it out alive. I rode on the Maid of the Mist which was really cool to get that close to the base of the waterfalls. They don't give out blue ponchos so everyone can look like smurfs. I was thoroughly soaked, and my camera came out second best (the lens wouldn't retract for about half the day). One thing that surprised me was that if you go 2 streets away from the main tourist traps, the city is quite ghetto. Lots of abandoned shops, homes and sketchy characters. I honestly felt safer skating through harlem than walking around the backstreets of Niagra Falls.

From here was Toronto. I don't have many good things to say about Toronto. It felt like a city with no soul. Having said that, the CN tower was very cool. On the observation deck about 300m up in the air, there's a section which is made of perspex, so you can see straight down to the ground underneath your feet. It was a bit of a mind f*ck at first, but once you began to trust the perspex you feel confident that you're not going to plummet the 300m to your death. Having said that I crapped my pants when I jumped on it, only to hear the plastic creak under my feet.

I met up with Gilesy for a weekend of keg parties in Kingston. Once again, I can't remember much about this, except I had a good time. Thoroughly recommend going for the weekend just to join in the keggers.

Hmm.... lots more has happened, but I'm running out of time here at the net cafe.

Went to Quebec city rather than Ottawa. Had a great time. The walled city is fantastic for cruising around (but once again quite a tourist trap). Took a bike ride around. Met cool People.

Back to Montreal, returned Katia's key. At the subway, I saw a lady fall onto the tracks and the train literaly pulled up 2 feet away from her. I seriously thought she was going to be run over, and my body was in shock for quite some time after that.

Now in Calgary. Decided to bail on Edmonton and go straight to Banff. A longer account of Kingston and Quebec City is needed, but that'll have to wait till next time.

Cheers
D