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Waking up top of my game it was time to explore Calgary. We got up and had our free breakfast; this hostel was impressive as you could have the normal toast and stuff as well as pancakes! I made one and it was alright, think it could have done with a little more cooking. We didn't want to waste the time we have left in Calgary. We decided to hit the Calgary Zoo. It was only 3 stops away on the trams. The tram station was actually the start of h Zoo. We had picked up a 25% off voucher for the zoo which saved us a few dollars.
The first animals were penguins. There were loads, Chris managed to get really close to one. It was a big enclosure and they seemed to have loads of space. My favourite were the king penguins, that were just following each other. It was now time to explore the Canadian wildlife. We saw massive goats (they would do a mean curried goat!) elks, bison, and wolfs. But we finally saw a bear. They were massive - the seemed a little distressed as just walked along the same bit of track at the back of their cage. It could have been dinner time. It was freezing today, thank god we had gloves & scarfs. It was trying to snow. It was time to walk around the African and Asian parts of the zoo, and of course we saw all the normal animals. Elephants, zebras, giraffes, were all cool, but the tigers were so cute, there was mum with 3 baby cubs. We had to clap and shout a bit to get them to wake up, but managed to get them to wake up! They just went back to sleep. Very cute. We had been walking around for hours and started to get cold. The zoo must have been in a low season, as there could have only been about 50 people in total. We had a hot drink before making our way to the science museum. It was only a 10 minute walk away. Except when we arrived they weren't letting any more people in as they were closing within the hour. We decided we would go up the Calgary observation tower. We headed into the city and took a look at the tower. No where near as big as Toronto & it was expensive for what it was. So we decided to do the next best thing. Head to an underground basement bar called Bear & Kilt. We had been told about this bar by a guy at the hostel. It was a really nice old bar, a little Scottish, with old ales etc. I'm sure my Dad would have like some of the beers in this place. We had a couple of pints of Kokanee. This is one of the nicest beers we have been having. They had a special offer of wings and beer of ten bucks. It was 4pm so we ordered them, we had only had breakfast so far. I had Cajun chicken wings that burnt my face off. They were so spicy.
Maybe they don't get many British guys in this bar, we seemed to be a little like celebrities, everyone wanted to talk to us. They were all really nice, the main two were a couple of bearded guys & I think they must have been in their 60's. We talked about everything, and we had a good laugh. They were talking about things we should do. One guy talked very slowly, and ended everything with eh?. He had one of them voices that whistled at the end. A real character. At one point Chris went to the toilet and I went to the bar to get the next round. A women (she was very drunk!) at the bar said hello, so I said hello back. Then she said I love your accent! Lol. We must have been talking to them for hours. Then me and Chris noticed they had a pool table. We had now drank 3 or 4 beers and started up the Harper & O'Sullivan pool tournament. Except we didn't know the code of the Canadian pool table. There was a couple of cues on the table with the white ball. This apparently meant the couple that were playing before us hadn't finished. Yet - we just started playing (they had no coins on the side of the table!). Anyway once they realised we were English they were ok. We started to play doubles with them. We must have played 6 games. The beer still flowing, and it was still early. Starting to feel a little pissed.
Then a guy in a suit started watching us play pool, he said he was some kind of pro, and was giving everyone help when in fact we didn't want it. He was banging on about being amazing. Chris had a game with him, and he was actually pretty crap. After this game we decided it was time to leave. Plus we could play at the hostel for free. As we were walking out the door we saw that Gesa had arrived at the same bar. Out of all the places in Calgary we meet each other in this bar. When we got back to the hostel, pretty pissed. We cooked our pasta dish. It was a cheese and garlic sauce and actually it was discussing. And I could have done without it. It left the worst taste in my mouth. It was quite late when we headed to the dorm. I remember waking up in the middle of the night needing a bottle of water! Night all. Canadian Rockies tomorrow!
Chris got locked out again needing the toilet this time he just went and slept in the TV/Quiet room. Ha ha. Only Chris could let it happen twice. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning this time though.
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