Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Day 7 – Calgary and Basketball

So we’ve been away for a week already! Time flies when you’re unemployed and having the time of your life; but at the same time it feels like we’ve been away for ages. Probably because we’ve seen so much and been in 3 different cities already.

Sunday morning we woke up in beautiful Banff, honestly the views of this place are out-of-this-world! Everywhere we went you could see another snow covered peak of another mountain which is surprising since the weather was a toasty 24. When I packed I was expecting Scotland weather: bit of sun, some rain and mostly just ok weather but we’ve had some really hot days already. Me being me (a cold frog) I’m almost too scared to wear my shorts in case it gets chilly.

Here’s a pic of Mitchy enjoying his fruity cocktail and simultaneously slow roasting himself.

Back to the story – we left Canmore (just outside Banff where our Air BnB was) and drove back to Calgary where we met up with all of our housemates for the week. We had breakfast in the garden and chilled for the afternoon before heading out to watch the basketball.

For those not in the basketball scene, like moi. The Raptors are Canada’s only professional basketball team playing in the NBA. Surprisingly they’re doing very well this year and have made it to the finals which for some reason takes like 7 games to prove your the winner.

We spent the night eating nachos and drinking cocktails (ok that was just me) off of a converted pool table while watching the Raptors play game 2 in which they played well but ultimately got whooped in the last 2 quarters :(.

Here is all of the housemates enjoying our front row TV seats.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this baby update of Calgary. Hopefully we’ll have more to show you this week coming! – Katy xxx

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

Calgary & Banff/The Rockies

Hi folks, sorry I missed a day, we were too busy having fun. We bring ourselves to the end of day 6 of our travels and it really does seem like it’s already been a lot longer. Sorry if there’s not many pictures I’ve been terrible with the lens recently.

Yesterday we got to the airport and saw on the news that there was raging bushfires in the Rockies and the smoke from those fires had blown across to Calgary. So our friendly aeroplane ride was turbulent as we came into land. I personally think the pilot did well to get us down onto the ground as visibility looked to be about 10m no joke!

Trents girlfriend Morgan and her mum were nice enough to pick us up from the airport. We acquainted ourselves and were shown through the house after a small drive through smokey Calgary. We waited until Trent had finished work and then headed out to the pub that Morgan’s mum owned. It was a lovely, wood finished large pub with a lot of character and personality! It was also right in the middle of a “happening” part of town which made it a great spot to be. After we had had diner and a few drinks we were informed that Morgan’s mum had picked up the entire bill which was so lovely of her. We spent the night visiting various bars where our friends either worked or were regulars. When we got home post midnight there was a loud chap on the door. It was their 69 year old widowed next door neighbour. She says that she has her fire pit going and would be offended if we didn’t join her for a drink by the fire- so we obliged.

After a late night and a much needed sleep in, we jumped into the car and headed for the Rockies. We had an air BnB booked in Canmore which is the next town down from Banff.

We drove to Lake Minniewanka which is just outside of Banff and stopped for a photo shoot. All the while hoping to see some of the wildlife such as a bear or mountain lion( from a distance).

Morgan told us that by the time you see a Mountain lion or a Grizzly bear the best you can hope for is a quick death-if you can see them it’s because they want you too and they’ve seen you long before. (Side fact- there’s also never in the history of hiking been a bear attack on a group of 4 or more people so.. yknow, the odds were in our favour. Similar to getting eaten by a shark or killed by a redback spider in Australia. It’s rare!). We did manage to see a few chipmunks and rabbits which were cool and much less terrifying, the lake was absolutely amazing and the colour of the water was a strange blue. Photos definitely do not do it justice.

Afterwards we drove to Banff to have a look around and eat some lunch and sit in one of the various beer gardens to have a beer. The views in Banff are spectacular. Everywhere you look the backdrop is the Rocky Mountains. It almost looked fake because they were so close and so ginormous and belittling. We met up with Tommo (yes the same Tom from Vancouver) as he had driven back across from his holiday with his parents.

Our time in Banff had come to an end. I think it’s wonderful and kinda reminded me of Queenstown in NZ. It had this lively alpine atmosphere where everyone is so happy and friendly. The weather was also stunning 24 and sunny so I manage to work on my tan sitting on the patio too. We drove back to Canmore and checked into our BnB, which was comedically difficult as if they’ve made it a riddle.

Enter the elevator and insert the key. Pull it up and turn to the left 1/4 turn. Floor 3, exit the elevator and turn towards wild rose room

-Direct quote from air BnB mans manual. It was extensive and ridiculous believe me.

Our Air BnB has a hot tub so we decided to soak up what was left of the daylight in a very very hot spa. It was lovely at first but we didn’t last long because we were absolutely roasting. Not to mention we were hungry and ready to walk down the road for dinner.

Tonight didn’t consist of too much, the 4 of us walked around town which is only 1 street. We had a delicious dinner and had 1 or two drinks then headed home as the unanimous decision was that we were all exhausted.

Not sure what tomorrow morning will entail, it’s looking like we aren’t going to get up to Lake Louise which is disappointing but you can’t do it all and and we’re pretty strapped for time, it’s another hours drive away from Calgary to get there. We were thinking of doing a short hike around here because they’re all meant to be amazing but we might be pushed for time as we have a dinner reservation in a sports bar with about 20 people as the Toronto Raptors are playing in the basketball finals. So we need to be back in Calgary for 4pm.

Love to all.

Check back in soon for the next installment

M 🤘🏼

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Transit

Glasgow-Reykjavik-Vancouver. The first leg was easy for some (me) as I slept the whole 150min. Poor Katy had to endure her own entertainment methods without a pal to annoy.

We stepped off the plane and had 1hr in Iceland to grab a bite to eat, jumped back on the exact same plane we disembarked and headed for Vancouver. Luckily we ate a very expensive sub roll because it turns out Iceland Air doesn’t serve any food on an 8 hour flight (no wonder they’re all skinny). As we flew over Greenland the pilot announced to look out our window as we were directly over the Glaciers. They were magnificent, our altitude was 11,000m and we weren’t much higher than their peaks.

We landed in Van and devised a plan. As we usually do in a new city, suss out our location, see what’s close and go grab a small amount of groceries for our Air BnB. We’re staying in Yaletown which is as central as you can get so we are deep in the dense concrete jungle 16 floors high to be exact.

Tomorrow should involve seeing the beaches that are in walking distance, checking out any tourist attractions worth seeing and investigating how we are going to see Stanley Park (Vancouvers version of Central Park). It’s meant to be 23 degrees so you better believe I’m dusting off the havaianas and getting some sand between the toes!

Peace out

M 🙂