Roooooad Triiiiip

So this weekend a few (and by a few I of course mean 14) of us rented 3 cars and drove to Banff on Friday, about an hour and half away, West into the MOUNTAINS, and then way up to Jasper on Saturday. We left our halls at about half 5 on Friday afternoon and had the sun going down as we drove out of the city and into the Rocky Mountains. It was pretty amazing... We also managed to go during the single week of Autumn Calgary seems to get - BUMF IT IS WINTER - and got some intensely beautiful colours. There are of course many pictures. Look, there's one:

We eventually managed to find the hostel in Banff, Hostelling International FTW - I may have to work in one when I finish studying here. or just for the rest of my life... We got there pretty late and after the least successful cooking of a pizza ever [first the oven was in fact off. then that problem got solved after 10 minutes of 'cooking' and it got set to 200 degrees. Farenheit. So after almost an hour it was beginning to get warm. Then we realised, overcompensated and burnt it. Spectacular work ladies.] there was only thing to do. NINETIES KARAOKE. Now I personally wouldn't class "Where Is The Love" or "Summer of '69" as 90's, but I guess they were just abiding by the national law that BRYAN ADAMS MUST BE PLAYED EVERY HOUR ON THE HOUR. Dunno what the fuck the Black Eyed Peas thought they were doing... Various intoxicants made this into quite an exciting evening, don't worry I didn't get up and sing. I just sat on the windowsill where I was and sang. Loudly. And brilliantly. With gestures. Especially for 'I Like Big Butts' - Linda was sitting next to me and laughingly said "this is a stupid choice of song, no one knows any of the words after the first ver-" then turned around to see me NAILING THE ENTIRE RAP. Good times.

Got up at a pleasant 7am (at times it felt like a bit of a school trip [in germany in 1942]) and it was soooo fucking cold - there was such poor visibility, with low thick cloud surrounding us. The first part of the road, to Lake Louise - was terrible/just white. BUT the lake itself looked really ethereal and misty. It was overcast but really incredible. It didn't come out that well.

As the drive went on, with 200km ahead of us, the weather continued. So we decided to just head to the glacier which was halfway, as it would have been pointless going to viewpoints. Then suddenly, having been immersed in white for about 40 minutes since the lake Vicky suddenly cried "blue sky!"at a tiny patch peeking through. Then- we could suddenly see the mountains! And the sky was coming out and all of a sudden it was clear and we were greeted by this:

which was quite nice.

The rest of the road was absolutely amazing and the weather was incredible. We stopped at various glaciers and waterfalls and viewpoints. I think the most brilliant were: Peyto Lake, which reflects glaciel sediment or something fantastic which makes it look like THIS:

... And then the most mind boggling and insane was the Athabasca Glacier on the edge of the Columbian Icefield, which is 125 sq mi and 350 m deep. which is as thick as the Eiffel Tower. It also feeds into THREE oceans. It is not near the coast.

and it's receded this ridiculous distance, all the way across a big flat expanse, the highway and a fat carpark. Since 1844 I managed to drop my hat while we were there. 2 down one to go... We stopped at 2 beautiful waterfalls, the 2nd of which was in a page of 25 amazing nature photographs Luke randomly sent me the day I got back and was telling him about it. COINCIDENTAL? I think not... clearly MAGIC AFOOT. I wish I'd taken it and that it looked quite this good. It did also sound fantastic:

We headed to our cabin by about 6pm. The road it's on is right up into the mountains, for about 40minutes of winding off the Freeway. We knew it was in the middle of nowhere but this was insane! We ended up practically at the foot of the 2nd tallest peak in the province at a full-on cabin in the woods with no real electricity, no running water and a very real risk of bears.

Following rules at a hostel like that doesn't piss me off cos they make SENSE - Don't leave food in your room, cos a bear might break in. LOGICAL.

We consumed [inhuman amounts of] pasta and beer and campfire, and a small child playing on his Gameboy DS with my friend Beaver having an in depth conversation with him. 'Lonely Nick', the guy that ran the hostel (it was a Hostelling International hostel! so brilliant) explained to us that bears don't like the smell of people, unlike him. Bit of a legend, I liked him. He was also good enough to come running when our fire alarm started going off in while we were all outside huddled round the campfire, because Alex and Beaver made the fire in our hearth in the cabin, but had then left the newspaper on top of it - which of course burst in to flames. There was a bit of a drama, where every testicled person expect the single asleep under 10yr old, fast-man-walked to the cabin to stood heroically and watched the paper burn out from a safe distance. Brilliant.

I also had the most paranoid and terrified journey to the loo/outhouse/longdrop across the car park (past the kitchen where all the food was locked) in the middle of the night, utterly convinced I was being watched by a bear...

We woke up in the morning and it was snowing. It was the 19th of September. THIS COUNTRY IS RIDICULOUS. Nick invited us all back there in the spring saying we should go when they open it but it's just for the people who can reach it, by cross country skiing. It's amazing. AMAZING. The other thing that is amazing is the sheer delicious extravagance of Canadian breakfast. We all went for a spectacular one (I had Eggs Benedict thanks) down towards Jasper before heading back south. We drove to Banff (4 hours or so) stopping only at the glacier half way so I could FIND MY HAT. oh yes. THAT'S RIGHT. Got that brown bad boy back!

Then from a toilet and Safeways stop (of some tension, though I personally was feeling more relaxed than I had done while desperate for a wee for the previous 2 hours) we got back to Cascade! Epic haaaaaul!

In other news I've had to drop my Geography module [due to some silly contract I signed promising to do at least %60 relevant courses] and lose $90 because I got all keen and installed the authorization code for my online textbook, which instantly makes it NONREFUNDABLE before finding out I shouldn't be doing it. But I am now doing a module in DETECTIVE FICTION. So I gots to read Hound of the Baskervilles. HELLZ YEAH SHERLOCK. Awesome.

Got a winter coat today which is A WONDERFUL THING. Went shopping for 6 HOURS because I went with AUSTRALIAN BOYS and they are massive retail WOMEN. To be fair it was snow gear shopping including snow boards. But wow. My legs ache so very much, and we ended up trying to get an all you can eat buffet in a Casino. Desperation and possibly insanity had begun to set it.

And I just watched Cool Runnings with my mate Tyler. I am so very very happy.

Big shout out to the studious Louise Dickinson for catching up on my blog, raise a glass of champers for me would you darling? Thanks everyone who's been reading this and saying lovely things :)

LOVE YOU ALL MUCHLY, have fun all of you who are wiggling your ways back to Leeds - HAVE A FAT ONE FOR ME PLEASE.

Feel da rhythm, feel da rhyme...