Today we were leaving the city of Calgary and heading into the Canadian Rockies! We had a very relaxed morning. Our bus was picking us up at 12:45 from the greyhound bus station. Had a bit of a lay in before packing up again. Everything is starting to have a place in my rucksack! We didn't have any breakfast as it wasn't very nice the other day. Then headed to the basement tv room, watched tv for a bit as we needed to check out at 11. Of course we played some more pool it free at the hostel, Chris had a few wins so the score is getting a little more even. Chris 7 me 12!
The receptionist ordered us a taxi and we arrived at the greyhound stop the bus was delayed because they needed to do a tyre change. There was a guy kicking off as well, not sure why - but in the end they denied him travel. "Unlucky!". The journey was just under 2 hours so a nice short ride for once. I was really looking forward to getting my first views of the Rockies. On route the greyhound bus went past the Winter Olympic park, as Calgary held them in 1988. It was about fifty minutes before I finally got to see the snow capped mountains in the distance! The mountain ranges just looked stunning, amazing views and I'm still on the bus - breathtaking. We are about to spend the next week in these mountains!
It had felt a little colder when we arrived, but the walk from the Greyhound station to the main bus stop warmed me up. It was only a five minute journey up to our hostel on tunnel mountain. Checked in, we had been given a room in the new wooden building. It was really nice, it was a dorm for 4 people and we were the first to arrive. The room had a bunk bed with a double on the bottom and single on the top! So Chris took the double, and I had the bunk above. We didn't want to stick around the hostel for long as we have lots to explore. Just stepping out of the hostel we had magnificent views! Just across a fence by our hostel was a RV and camping ground, we went over there to take some pictures without the tree's in the way. Our hostel gave us a free bus ticket that we could use on the two routes that Banff has. First stop downtown. We were both pretty hungry by now, and found a small Japanese/Thai restaurant. I had a chicken Thai curry and it was very nice, Chris went for a hot and spicy noodle soup. We decided to check out the town and talk a walk around Banff Avenue which is the main strip, with bars ,restaurants, cafe's, and gift shops. It was very picturesque a real ski resort minus the snow. We also had another beaver tail, we had one back in Ottawa it's a donut that's flat, and covered the chocolate and bananas!
Causally walking down the road we saw a elk walking towards the Main Street eating plants from a restaurants tubs. We must have been about 2 meters away. (We later find out you should keep 3 bus lengths away from elk as they charge at people. We will have to remember this in future)
When the sun is gone down, it gets very cold quickly, during the day your fine in a jumper. We headed back up tunnel mountain and to our hostel. By now we thought that the other beds in the dorm would has been occupied. But no.. Still empty! It ended up just being us 2. So we are paying dorm prices for a private room & it had a en suite toilet!! Result. We chilled out before going to bed, the room was actually cold, so we whacked up the thermostat and hoped the under floor heating wouldn't take to long to come on! I think this has been the nicest hostel we have stayed at so far! Tomorrow an early start and time to so some activities!
This is what I imagined Canada to be like, Rockies, blue skies, lakes. It really hasn't disappointed.. Can't wait for tomorrow!