Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Couple days of transit Greece -> Italy

Our last few days have been a bit choppy. At the time of writing we are in Sorrento, Italy. There isn’t too much to report as we have been mainly travelling.

Our last day in Mykonos we woke up late and wandered around for a few hours after checkout before heading to get our ferry. We had pre organised all our ferry tickets and booked the expensive ferry (€60 each) as it was only 2 hours and the normal one took 5. We arrived to the port 15min early to find our boat hadn’t arrived. After waiting for what seemed like an age I asked the box office and they told me our ferry would be in 1 hr late. Not looking promising. Eventually our ferry left the port of Mykonos 1hr 20min later than originally scheduled. We still got into Mykonos faster than the snail ferry but it wasn’t ideal.

We checked into our lovely air BnB in the center of Athens for just 1 night. The air BnB was lovely but the area was very dodgy. The location was perfect, right in the center of Athens; and Our air BnB had a view of the Acropolis from its top floor which was kinda cool for the sunset.

To me Athens is a city of great culture and history; but as of recent it is very run down and dirty. It’s sad because all of the islands are so clean and vibrant but our suburb in Athens was full of graffiti and cigarette butts. On the plus side everything in Athens was super cheap, about a third of the price of Mykonos. I have previously talked about the “Mykonos Tax”, well here they had the “Athens Discount”. We only had one night here so we spent the night and next morning looking around the market stalls, enjoying the last of some Greek food and Katy got her phone re-repaired as the screen she had replaced was faulty (luckily it had a warranty so they fixed it for free).

That afternoon we made our way to the airport and boarded our flight for Naples. We had been told by multiple people that Naples wasn’t a very nice city so we only booked an overnight BnB here. We arrived about 8pm to what seemed like (on the surface) a slightly unsafe/unsavoury city. Maybe our views had been tainted by the opinions of others but this was once again a city that was unclean and has a general bad vibe. We checked into our air BnB and stayed in for the night, we didn’t feel like walking around. Checkout the next morning was 10am which I thought was a bit rubbish but alas we were up and out by 10. We had a few hours to roam around Naples in the day time before we got on the train to Sorrento.

Naples by day was much nicer and less scary. There were a few monuments we would like to see and we wanted to have a relaxing breakfast too. Unfortunately we had our full 15kg backpacks with us so that limited the distance we could walk in the 37 degree heat but we strolled down the main streets and saw a few things while we gathered a better opinion of Naples.

We boarded a train for Sorrento which takes about 1 hr and snakes down the seaside past the infamous Mt Vesuvius down to the point of Sorrento. It was hard to get a picture but the whole way we had this famous extinct Volcano on our side, it was hard to imagine the destruction it created in the 1st Century. All the things I had read in history at school came to a back to me, I didn’t really think that I’d be so casually commuting along side this beast.

The train was long and hot and sweaty but we eventually made it to Sorrento and walked to our newest air BnB.

Although on the top floor with no lift our room is lovely and has a fully functioning air conditioner which we were ever so grateful for! We checked in and went for a walk to get some lunch and see parts of the town and orientate ourselves.

Our first thoughts of Sorrento are very positive. It has such a great vibe, it feels very holiday-y and clean and beautiful. This is a very popular holiday destination for many celebrities and we can see why.

We then made the short walk home and showered and rested for an hour or so before heading out for dinner. Obviously we picked the most authentic place we could and ordered the most Italian food we could as we had been waiting for this day. I had the Gnocchi and Katy had a pizza. Katy even managed to engage her second stomach and have a Lava Cake for dessert. The meal was amazing and very well priced, we were very happy campers!

After dinner it was quite late so we went home to use the WiFi to google information for our next few days here. We found things like bus prices and timetables, as well as tips and tricks for the sights we will be visiting in the next few days.

Watch this space

M 🙌🏼🇮🇹

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

Delos, drinks and dinner

Coming at you with a collaborative effort today. So both Mitch and I will be writing a bit just because it was a big day and there’s lots to talk about.

K – We were up early today to catch the 9am ferry to the island of Delos which is 25 minutes from Mykonos. So with our coffees in hand we headed to the old port which is a 2 minute walk from our hotel. The boat was really busy which would be surprising was it not for the fact they only head to the island 3 times in a day. 9am, 10am and 11am and come back at 12pm, 1:30pm and 3:30pm. The recommended time to walk around and see everything on the island is 5 hours so we did pretty good seeing it all in 4.

A little information on Delos for you. It’s a tiny island only 5km long and during the 2nd century BC (199 ~ 100BC) it was made a free port where merchants from all over Greece, Italy, Syria, Egypt, Turkey and the other settlements of the eastern Mediterranean congregated to trade goods. It is known that it was originally settled around 2500 BC which is hard to fathom, but didn’t come into too much importance until 2nd century BC.

Greek mythology theorises that Delos was a sacred island raised from the water by Poseidon at the request of Zeus. This was so his human lover Leto could give birth to her twins Apollo and Artemis; because Hera (Zeus’ wife) shunned Leto from all land due to her jealousy and anger at Zeus’ infidelity. The island raised was “supposedly” not attached to the ocean floor and therefore not considered land.

Apollo is one of the more important and complex olympian gods. He is the god of light, harmony and balance as well as healing, archery, music, dance, poetry, truth and prophecy. So just a few things to be in charge of.

If you read our post about Naxos and visiting Apollo’s temple; the temple sits by the water and faces out towards his birthplace, which is Delos. However there are more than 10 temples dedicated to him in Greece and not counting those in Italy as he was worshiped in Roman mythology also.

As it usually is with mythology, women are much less interesting. Artemis was the moon goddess in contrast to her brother. As well as this she is said to be goddess of the hunt, archery, forests and hills.

M – Kalispera, we arrived at Delos port and you could see over the main part of the island, complete ancient ruins and we were eager to explore. As with the flavour of this holiday, I got in for free with my student card and Katy was too scared to try and use her expired one so payed the full price (damn morals!) of €12.

We started wandering through the ruins and had saved a podcast on our phone, so we listened to that for the 3min it went for. The podcast gave us a good background of Delos, which we were pleased to know as our backpackers budget couldn’t afford another €18 each for a guided tour. We had a very extensive map and our phones for google so we set off. We actually did the island the opposite way to what the map said as to avoid the hoards of tours going the correct way, we later learned this was a great decision as we had lots of the island to ourself.

We started wandering through the merchant part of the town. All the roofs were missing which you might expect when they’re 2500 years old. We heard tour guides saying they were all shops and markets and trade merchants, many of the rooms looking the same. A famous Greek sculptor has placed random statues of rusty bronze humans around the island- we didn’t really appreciate the artistry behind them as I just found them a tad creepy. They were scattered through various rooms and on ocean sides and mountain tops.

We stumbled across this water well. Still working to this day. The many water wells on this island allowed them to be a fairly well functioning society – clever Greeks!

We stopped at a temple that had a very interesting mosaic on the floor depicting Apollo and a mythical creature.

The tiles are placed at random angles as to have minimal gaps between them- this creates the illusion that the mosaic looks like a painting. Later in the museum we learned that this mosaic was a copy and the real one is in the museum on the island. Here is a photo of the real one that has been excavated and placed in the museum. It was very impressive up close, the colour they used really helped it to look like a painting as they stated.

From this temple our next main stop was the theatre. Again it’s so old that most of it has blown over but you can see how it was built into the hill. The bottom part of the audience seats is where the important people sat and they know this because it’s the only row in the audience with back rests. I tried them out- not that comfy 😎.

Next stop was the highest point of the island. You can see it in the background of the previous theatre picture. On top of that peak was the Sanctuary of the gods and the Temple of Zeus. These were the least impressive of the island as all but a few rocks had blown away in the wind. Nonetheless, the climb up the unsteady rock steps was good to get the heart rate up and the view was awesome.

The Cyclades islands (the group of islands we have been at in the last month) are named because they are all in a circle around Delos. Placing utmost importance again on the island of Delos. From the peak we could see a lot of the islands- some too far away to see but on the map you can see how they all wrap around Delos

For the next hour or so we snaked our way down the island visiting the various archeological sites such as the Temple of Hermes, Sanctuary for the Syrian Gods and the Temple of Athina.

Eventually we came to the museum which is situated in the middle of this small island. The museum actually had all of the sculptures and precious parts of the sites we had just visited- hundreds of them. We didn’t realised that all of these buildings were riddled with sculptures and various opulent decorations from that era.

That last photo as you may guess is taken from the Temple of Priapus- Greek god of fertility, the son of Aphrodites- the Greek goddess of love.

In this museum was the Naxian lions (Naxian meaning Naxos). They are the poster of Delos, on all of the advertisement and the main attraction. Turns out the ones on the actual island are replicas and the real ones are in the museum as they had already been badly damaged by erosion from wind and sea spray.

The last few stops included the Hippodrome, Gymnasium and Stadium with is quarters. These sites were literally nothing. We walked through a dirt track in the grass without knowing it was the Hippodrome. The picture below is of the stadium, you can see a faint outline of stone walls but as I said, there was nothing to see.

We had about 90min until the boat back to Mykonos so we spent it strolling through the rest of the ruins. This side of the island was seemingly not as important as the other side, it housed things such as the Lake House and Temple of Granite and also a Jeweller. This was apparently the newest settled part of the island and also the most damaged during a fire in one of the wars. Much of this part I believe is reconstructed- we think. The marble and stone seemed too clean and white to be as old as all the others.

We boarded our boat and checked back in to Mykonos. I went for a quick swim at the beach nearby and Katy recharged the batteries. The sun was going down and Katy and I decided to go to Little Venice in Mykonos to watch the sunset. It’s the most famous part of the island to do this and it’s lined with bars selling cocktails for €15 minimum. We knew it was going to be pricey but decided it was worth it for the experience.

We chatted for a good hour while sipping on our expensive cocktails and watching the moon replace the sun. Afterwards we went for a cheap dinner to even out the price of the cocktails.

It was a very big day and we were happy campers by the time we were showered and in bed. We both agreed we were glad to have seen some of Ancient Greece while we were here, as that’s one of the main attractions of this country, it’s rich history and depth of stories and mythology.

Only a couple days left here in Greece 🙃

K + M 😀

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 4 Comments

Athens Day 1

Hey pretty smiling people. Sorry still got George Ezra stuck in my head from Glastonbury. I hope all you readers are well, today Katy and I are in Athens and…. ITS KATYS BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday to my beautiful girlfriend, quarter century and counting- looking finer by the day.

Our day was pretty relaxing, we caught the overnight flight from Edinburgh to Athens. It left Scotland at midnight and arrived in Athens at 6am (4hr flight and a 2 hour time difference). We arrived and made our way to the city centre via the train. The trains were lovely and clean, not busy and on time so what more can you ask for? Also there must have been some fires around as it’s quite smokey around Athina today. As you’ll see in the photos it’s hazy and smells significantly of bush fires. Nothing I could see on the local news so it must not be anything serious.

We were obviously too early to check in so we changed into our swimmers and headed to the rooftop pool to chill out for the day.

Katy’s dad Robert has informed me that when he went to Greece 1000 years ago that no toilet paper was allowed to go down the toilet, that there was a little bin for all toilet paper to go in which was burnt at the end of the day. Ignorantly I assumed this “primitive” way of sanitation would have been updated by now surely, I never thought any more of it. Turns out I was wrong. After doing my research I learned that basically it’s because their pipes are all 50mm wide so things very easily get stuck. To go through the entire city/country and change this would be impossible as you would basically have to dig up EVERYTHING!

We spent the day lazing about napping in the sun, doing some light tanning and observing all the other travellers searching to escape the 35 degree heat at the local waterhole. Since it’s Katy’s birthday we indulged in a cheeky cocktail. I opted for the classic Brazilian refreshment of a Caiprinha whilst Katy went for “Peaches n Cream” Delicious 🤤

Eventually we checked into our room but headed back up to the pool, we’ve been in Scotland for too long so being the lizards we are we couldn’t keep away from the sunshine! Our pool is on the rooftop and looks all over our part of Athens. There’s not too much to look at but we can certainly see everything.

We had a light late lunch and retreated to the shade of our room for a shower and to apply aloe Vera to our sore and sorry skin cells 🙃 lazed about for a bit and headed out to a Greek grill for dinner. We didn’t go for anything fancy just wanted some nice Greek food for a decent price. Greek food is pretty simple and usually involves meat and veg or salad. We got exactly what we wanted and absolutely enjoyed it.

If you know me well you know those tomatoes weren’t even looked at 🤮 but the Tzatziki was amazing on my beef Koftas.

After dinner we passed a Greek bakery type place on the way home and couldn’t go past without sampling some baclava. We just had a little one each as I’m sure we’ll have a thousand more during our month here in Greece. This one had Nutella on top so we were salivating.

We headed home and shot straight off to bed early as we’re pretty tired from our overnight flight and big day by the pool. Tomorrow will be much the same, lazing by the pool until we meet up with our group tour at 7pm.

All the best to you all

Missing you, M 🤘🏼

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Quebec City

Last night I had a very rough sleep as we were in our first and only youth hostel. It costs us $60 for the night and we were only in Montreal for the night so figured it would be fine. The hostel itself was lovely, clean and had wonderful facilities. Had a rooftop beer garden and two separate jacuzzis on the roof, a fully equipped kitchen, bar with free pool table and a car park. The problem wasn’t with the place itself but more the fact we were sleeping in a dorm with 10 other people. I was sweltering hot and didn’t get actually asleep until around 5am which is horrendous. As far as I’m aware Katy didn’t manage too badly and had a nice sleep, I tend to really struggle to sleep when it’s hot and there’s no fan/air con etc.

Anyway we drove the 2.5 hours to Quebec City which is the most eastern point of our Canada trip. As we arrive to the cobblestone streets it really felt like we were arriving in a different country. Everything is 100% French speaking and even the architecture has a European feel to it. It’s magnificently unique with lots to see and a surprising amount of things to do. There seems to be a lot of young people around too. Haven’t yet figured out if it’s because there’s a big uni or if everyone was on school excursions 😂

We are staying at a lovely studio Airbnb right in the middle of “old town” Quebec City which is World Heritage Listed. We couldn’t be any more central it’s perfect. Our little studio is small and perfect for what we need too. The lovely French lady let us leave our bags while she cleaned it and we went exploring.

While we waited to check in we explored all the alleyways and market stalls we could find. Just letting ourselves wander without worrying about where we actually ended up. As expected, we stumbled across most things that we had read were worth seeing. We walked through what is now the Fairmont Hotel (formerly Le Chateau Frontenac). It’s a hotel in the old city center that was originally used as a secure secret conference center for Winston Churchill and the military to make important decisions on World War 2. It’s now transformed into a 5 star hotel in all its opulence. It has various shops and bars and some very interesting art galleries too.

I know mum loves Salvador Dali and they were selling these sculptures for around $60,000. I even got in trouble for taking photos. We glanced passed the bars as we knew we couldn’t afford a cocktail on our backpackers budget but they were all very quaint.

We then kept walking and found ourselves on this pier walk that goes around the old Citadel. I was hoping to check out the citadel but it’s all closed for what looks like safety reasons so I wonder if they’ll eventually turn that into a museum as well.

From the back of the citadel you look over the old town and can see the landscape in all its beauty.

I have included this next photo for two reasons. As you know I’m growing my hair so you can see it’s starting to look nicer. And also I’m modelling my second lululemon garment. My shorts!

This was the landscape. You can see the old town underneath and Le Chateau Forntenac in the background

We headed back and rested in our Airbnb before heading out for dinner and to watch the Raptors basketball game. The 6th game out of the finals series. THEY WON! They won a very tense game that was neck and neck the entire way and this mean that they’ve won the entire finals series 4-2 in a best of 7 series. The first time the Toronto Raptors have ever won the NBA Championship.

We had a great night watching the basketball on the big screen sharing a delicious nachos over a few drinks in the nearest Irish pub.

Still have two more days in Quebec City so we will be exploring and eating our way through the best parts of what seems to be a very foody city 😋

Au Revoir

M 🙂

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 2 Comments

Last day in Calgary

So today we woke at a reasonable hour (10ish) had a shower and headed north towards the Rockies!!

Trent and Morgan had pre organised an “easy” hike for us to get a taste tester of the hiking season they enjoy during the summer here in Calgary. It was about an hour drive up to the foot of the Rockies and by following our maps Trent had taken us right to the bottom of one of the many mountains. We set off on this hike and it immediately became apparent that we’d been lied to and this wasn’t an “easy” rated hike. About 45min up this mountain I built up the courage to ask the real rating and Trent blessed us with an honest answer of “well it’s rated hard on the hiking map”. I don’t know about anyone else but for mine and Katy’s second hike ever, a hard rating is probably much harder than necessary.

The beginning had a few steep bits and some nice trails where conversation was flowing. Fast forward another 30min and conversation was completely halted by the absolute gradient of this slope. I’m no engineer but I’m guessing the gradient of this slope had to have been at least 50/60 degrees. It was excessively steep and an absolute workout on the calves,quadriceps and hamstrings. At this point the only thing keeping us going was the occasional dog going down that wanted pats. We would stop every dog possible, giving us the happiness required to continue and not throw Trent off the side for luring us into an easy hike that’s actually classed as difficult.

Bear spray firmly in hand, we confidently proceeded up this mountain with haste. Morgan assured us that the bears and deadly cougars know there’s lots of humans on this route so they tend to avoid it if possible. The “if possible” made me a little uneasy but we continued nonetheless. Eventually we made it to the top of this beast and were graced with a breathtaking view. It was a lot colder on the top and the clouds were obviously rolling in. We stopped for a few quick photos and a bite to eat of the sandwiches Trent had premade for us as a picnic on the summit.

After a few quick photos and munching down our picnic it started to snow! Yes, you heard me it started to snow. At my best guess it was probably about 5 degrees up the top which is strange considering 2 hours ago we were on the ground worried about sunburn. We decided we didn’t want to hang around too long while the snow picked up so we quickly started our descent of Prairie Mountain.

The descent, although very tough on the quads, took considerably less time. It involved quite a bit of skill to trek down a very steep mountain without rolling an ankle and we all managed to achieve the base without a hiccup. All in all it took about 3 hours, probably 2 hours up and 1 hour down.

Katy and I were stoked to have conquered our second mountain (after Ben Nevis; Scotland’s highest mountain. See https://bennevis.co.uk/ for more info on that great peak) and no matter how much we complain we will always enjoy the experience and reflect on how beautiful and peaceful the hike was. We drove back to Calgary and quickly had a shower and prepared for our last night in Calgary.

After a short intermission at home we headed to one of Toms friends house. Conner Christmas! The same dude that joined us for the Ocean Alley gig yesterday. He had invited us all to his place for an open fire pit bbq with burger buns and salad etc so of course we accepted. We absolutely destroyed a few burgers and a couple beers before heading off to see a part of the city called Ingleston. It’s on the other side of town from where Trent etc lived but seemed like quite a happening place.

We went to a dog friendly bar in Ingleston after Conner’s Bbq, which was obviously going to bode well with Katy and myself as we are both dog lovers. We had one quick beer here and it was time to go and see Conner’s comedy show. He was part of this new act that was started tonight called “ugly duckling comedy” in Ingleston. It’s basically a bunch of comedians getting some time to tell their jokes and start something brilliant. Honestly this show was funny! I like to think of myself as a comedy connoisseur and Katy and I went to improv comedy in Copenhagen a while back that was genuinely not funny. These few comedians were all funny. I had an absolute ball and laughed till my abdominal muscles were sorer than the legs that climbed me a mountain earlier. Conner’s set was hilarious and obviously so was the headliner. Many lols were had.

A link to his Instagram if you’re interested.

My particular fav of the stand up was when Conner talks about his name and how his full name is Conner Nicholas Christmas, his dads name is David Murray Christmas (Merry Christmas) and his mum is Dayna Christmas (Day Christmas). I later found out that that’s no word of a lie and his family are all genuinely named after the festive period 😂.

We went back to Kensington pub, which is the pub Morgan’s mum owns and the pub where we know everybody. We had a few drinks and said our final goodbyes as everyone knew we are heading off east on our flight tomorrow.

Everybody has been so lovely and they we’re so happy to have met us. We had such a great time in this place and our friends here have such a close knit family it’s been nice to be a part of. They’ve definitely looked after us as one of their own, can’t thank them enough. Calgary has been a great city and I honestly couldn’t think of a single fault other than downtown wasn’t as busy as your usual city, it was weirdly quiet. I think probably getting the locals tour for the week has been the best way to see everything so we have our friends to thank for that.

Off toToronto tomorrow where we pick up our car (and Kirsten) and drive through to Ottawa, Ontario which is 4 hours drive.

Check back soon

M 🙂

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

Walking tour of downtown Calgary

Today was Monday which meant that all our friends had to be shipped off to their employment with sullen faces and a slouch in their step. Thankfully, Katy and I are officially unemployed which meant we got to go and explore the city as we hadn’t seen downtown yet in all its glory with sunshine and greenery.

We took advantage of a much needed sleep in, had some breakfast and planned on our maps where we needed to walk to see everything. We knew it was a long way but didn’t mind because we like walking, it’s the best way to see a new city plus it’s good exercise and means we can taste all the good foods without feeling guilty. We later leaned that by the end of the day our trusty Nike trainers had taken us approx 16km!!

We started off down towards the river and followed that towards downtown whose direction was obvious thanks to the skyline in the distance. The water in the river was beautiful and the weather bought out all the joggers, cyclists, ducks, geese and tourists.

With twin pineapples (Katy) beside me we walked all the way into the city and around to a neighbourhood called “Eau Claire” which Keiran had previously told us was great to visit for parks and various sunny sitting/eating spots. We passed the “peace bridge” which was an attraction and sat by the river in the sun, dog watching and enjoying the vitamin D being soaked into our pores.

From what we could see the council were working on things for the upcoming summer. The winter snow has only just finished melting so we walked passed many places planting colourful flowers or garden beds and even 2 separate places cleaning an empty public pool and refilling it again.

Downtown Calgary is quite a city; filled with towering skyscrapers and many a businessmen hustling passed you fuelled by their 6th coffee for the day. Having said that, from our view it wasn’t a busy city, at least not at lunchtime on a Monday. It’s very clean and as always with the Canadians; everybody is very polite and friendly. We may have spoiled ourselves a little by starting with Vancouver because we kept finding ourselves saying we preferred Van over Calgary. That’s not to say we don’t like Calgary there just seemed to be a lot more happening in Vancouver.

We walked quite literally, everywhere. Saw where the Calgary Stampede is famously held every July and both its main shopping and restaurant districts. We stopped in the food court of a shopping center for food. The shopping center has a complete glass roof and made it very open and inviting.

On the top floor they had gardens you could sit with once you bought your lunch. Katy and I decided we needed a healthy green lunch so we picked up the most delicious salad from an independent food chain called “culture”. 100% healthy fast food, it was delicious! We sat by the garden/carp pond and enjoyed our lunch as we watched those same bustling business people rush to get their lunch in before they had to hurry back to work.

To fill in the rest of our day we ventured through the city and took photos of all the quirks we saw along the way. I can tell this city loves summer just by the way they’re setting up in preparation for the sunshine. I wonder if they love their -30C winters just as much?

By 6pm we had seen everything we wanted to and thought it too early to eat dinner. So we went and got some food from Safeway and walked back to the house. All our mates were home from work and happily enjoying their dinner so we joined them around the kitchen bench. After dinner we played a drawing game on our phones that was all linked up to the tv which was an absolute laugh and went to bed. Hopefully this sunshine continues into our week here.

I absolutely love unemployment!!

-Mitchel T

Until next time

M 🙂

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 · 1 Comment

North Vancouver

The first point I’d like to note is that over our 4/5 days in Vancouver, according to our health app on our phone we have done over 50km of walking. Next stop- Olympics

Yesterday we decided to head north over the river to North Vancouver where the mountain ranges start. Kind of resembled Dandenong in Melbourne but more… Americanised with the towering pine trees, countless pickup trucks and cars driving the wrong way down the road 🙃 We caught a ferry across the river and then a bus all the way out to Lynn Canyon Valley. There was two options; Capilano suspension bridge which cost ~$18pp or Lynn Valley suspension bridge which was free. We had heard from multiple locals that the Lynn Valley one was better anyway so we decided to go for the free one. So we checked we knew our bear safety facts and headed into the woods.

My fav photo of the day taken with the 10 year old GoPro. Yes mum, it was high and Yes mum, it was wobbly.

We walked through the national park which was full of beautiful thick forestry. It sort of had an easy path to follow with occasional wooden steps as an aid.

We stopped at “30 foot pool” which was a crystal clear natural lake at the bottom of a mini waterfall. Water was too cold, we didn’t even consider dipping our toes in.

We saw a lady walking her Hungarian Vizsla puppy (which was striking) and bundled her up for a few questions (and pats). She was lovely and answered the many questions I had about training and energy and separation anxiety etc. End result was I now want a Vizsla even more!!

We trekked through the winding paths filled with tree roots and potholes and thought we were doing well to not roll an ankle before we saw a man with his 3 year old in this purpose built child carrying hiking backpack-we were impressed.

Eventually we made it to the suspension bridge. Katy confidently strode onto the bridge while I gathered the courage to follow. We did all the necessary pictures and it was a sight to behold once I got over the whole looking down thing.

We followed the “bear trail” home which sounds ominous. Contrary to the name there are no bears on the bear trail- luckily. There were also no beavers on the beaver trail so I’m guessing they’re not named for those reasons 😂

North Vancouver presented us with some markets with different shops and food stalls. We roamed around and all the food looked delicious but being the smart woman she is Katy had packed us a bagel lunch in the backpack. So we saved ourselves money by eating the packed lunch although that couldn’t stop us from sampling the finest blueberry nutty dark chocolate. Yummm

We boarded our ferry back to our side of town and set home (via the shops) for a midday kip as we were exhausted and had planned to meet my friend later in the afternoon.

Tommo had been fighting traffic and got into his BnB later than expected but it didn’t bother us because the sun was out and we were off walking around the beach eating an ice cream.

Eventually we met up with Tom and his parents for dinner and went to a Tiki bar afterwards for cocktails. I was friends with Tom in Mackay and he moved to Calgary a similar time I moved to the UK. We are staying with Tom and Trent in Calgary next week but just so happened to be in Vancouver at the same time because his parents are visiting so he is travelling around.

No photos from the second half of the day so I apologise for that. I’ll pick up my paparazzi game in the following days. It’s morning at the moment and our last full day in Vancouver. We are going to head out for breakfast and then just cruise around the city-nothing special planned. Will most probably not post again today so next time you hear from us we will be in Calgary- Yee Haw.

M 🤙🏻