Skyline, didn't merge overly well but you get the point
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Toronto...Or as the hip and happening call it T dot
Trains, I love trains, no really I do. There is just so much to do on a Train for 30hours. You can sit in the chair, walk up and down the carriage, ummm sit in the chair, oh and you can sit in the chair. Very Exciting stuff. The scenery was great...lots of trees, and lots of snow. Something different from the rest of my travels in Canada, very refreshing. On the whole the train ride progressed without incident, spoke with Keiko a bit, watch a couple of movies, played some nintendo, and ate a whole packet of chocolate coated almonds. Finally we arrived in Toronto, from the outside it looks just like any regular modern day city, ah but from the inside is where the real spectacle is, its incredible, its just like every other major city in the world. It does have a few interesting features though, like the CN tower...more on this later. Keiko was waiting for some friends to come to the train station to meet her, the train was a bit early, so I hung around and chatted for a bit. We headed to the hostel, deciding that given Keiko had her entire wardrobe, and someone else's in her suitcase, we'd take a taxi. Hostel International I said, cabbie replied, $15 sound ok. I didn't know where the hostel was relative to the train station, so we agreed. Turns out it was only 3 streets away. Oh well, we'll know for next time. Having been deprived of internet for more than any nerd should reasonably allow. It was time to chat with the family, and friends. After much chatting and emailing etc, I headed out for dinner sometime just before 12, the local pizza pizza has great pizza, which hence forth be known as pizza pizza pizza. Only had a couple of other people in my dorm room, but we did have our own shower and sink and washroom, a novelty to be sure.
Day one, The CN tower, and just some general wandering around. The CN tower is the largest free standing man made tower in the world, its highest point is something close to 550m off the ground. The view is spectacular. They have a couple of restaraunts, and amusements up the top, the second elevator that goes all the way to the top was close for repairs, so I had to be content with 500m. The view was incredible, I spent quite a few hours up the top, waiting for the sun to go down, incredible. I had the biggest chocolate brownie dessert thing I've ever had. wasn't cheap, but oh it was good. They have a section of floor that is just glass, very very disturbing. When you go to walk on it everything in your body is saying no this is stupid I can't believe your going to make me do this. Once you get on it the feeling lessens a bit, but its still quite freaky, looking straight down nearly 500m below you, with nothing but a little bit of glass to stop you plummeting down. I figured this was an oppotune time to call the folks, and just let them know I was up the top of the tower. It was quite funny watching some people who wanted to stand on the glass, but just couldn't bring themselves to do it. They'd tentativly put a foot on, and then quickly draw it back again. Or they would quickly dart across the very corner, barely touching the glass. I was supposed to be able to go on a lego simulation ride, not quite sure what a lego simulation ride is, but by the time I went back to the bottom of the tower, and made a purchase in the gift shop, it was already closed. Grabbed some dinner on my way back to the hostel, and settled in for a good nights rest.
Day two, I was supposed to go to the zoo today, so much for that happening... Weather was horrible, raining, cold, overcast, oh and did I mention the cold. So I wandered around town for a bit jumping from shopping center to shopping center, trying to maintain some semblance of warmth. Eventually fate took me to the Steamwhistle brewery. Which also had sections closed, so I got a person guided tour of the main foyer, and got to stand infront of some glass walls and look in on the brewing area. They did give me free samples, and didn't charge me for the tour. There is quite a story behind the name of the brewery. Which I won't ruin by telling you my rehashed probably inacurrate version, rather I'll just all suggest you go there yourselves. They make traditional pilsner, a very pale ale, quite nice. I learnt abit about Head retention and colour, and such. Apparently you want to have a good long head retention, so that air can't get into the beer. I bought the token giftshop item, a toque (beanie), and headed back to the hostel.
Day three, again I was unable to get to the zoo, shocking weather again. Spend most of the day indoors, shopping centers, I did however make it to the Hockey Hall of Fame Museum. What a facinating place. Full of Hockey memorabilia, I was in Heaven...ummm not thats a lie, I felt in over my head. After an hour I still had no real idea what the point of the game is. But I did find out that they skate on ice, and hit a small bit of rubber with a long stick into a small net protected by a guy wearing a disturbing mask, and way too much padding. Oh and occassionally they break out into a fight...which every cheers about, until the refs come in to break it up. Or something like that. Tomorrow I was to be heading to niagra, so headed back to the hostel for an early night, didn't have one...but the intention was there.
Look for more adventures of Narco in the upcoming soon to be released Narco and the Falling waters of Niagra.
Narco out
Day one, The CN tower, and just some general wandering around. The CN tower is the largest free standing man made tower in the world, its highest point is something close to 550m off the ground. The view is spectacular. They have a couple of restaraunts, and amusements up the top, the second elevator that goes all the way to the top was close for repairs, so I had to be content with 500m. The view was incredible, I spent quite a few hours up the top, waiting for the sun to go down, incredible. I had the biggest chocolate brownie dessert thing I've ever had. wasn't cheap, but oh it was good. They have a section of floor that is just glass, very very disturbing. When you go to walk on it everything in your body is saying no this is stupid I can't believe your going to make me do this. Once you get on it the feeling lessens a bit, but its still quite freaky, looking straight down nearly 500m below you, with nothing but a little bit of glass to stop you plummeting down. I figured this was an oppotune time to call the folks, and just let them know I was up the top of the tower. It was quite funny watching some people who wanted to stand on the glass, but just couldn't bring themselves to do it. They'd tentativly put a foot on, and then quickly draw it back again. Or they would quickly dart across the very corner, barely touching the glass. I was supposed to be able to go on a lego simulation ride, not quite sure what a lego simulation ride is, but by the time I went back to the bottom of the tower, and made a purchase in the gift shop, it was already closed. Grabbed some dinner on my way back to the hostel, and settled in for a good nights rest.
Day two, I was supposed to go to the zoo today, so much for that happening... Weather was horrible, raining, cold, overcast, oh and did I mention the cold. So I wandered around town for a bit jumping from shopping center to shopping center, trying to maintain some semblance of warmth. Eventually fate took me to the Steamwhistle brewery. Which also had sections closed, so I got a person guided tour of the main foyer, and got to stand infront of some glass walls and look in on the brewing area. They did give me free samples, and didn't charge me for the tour. There is quite a story behind the name of the brewery. Which I won't ruin by telling you my rehashed probably inacurrate version, rather I'll just all suggest you go there yourselves. They make traditional pilsner, a very pale ale, quite nice. I learnt abit about Head retention and colour, and such. Apparently you want to have a good long head retention, so that air can't get into the beer. I bought the token giftshop item, a toque (beanie), and headed back to the hostel.
Day three, again I was unable to get to the zoo, shocking weather again. Spend most of the day indoors, shopping centers, I did however make it to the Hockey Hall of Fame Museum. What a facinating place. Full of Hockey memorabilia, I was in Heaven...ummm not thats a lie, I felt in over my head. After an hour I still had no real idea what the point of the game is. But I did find out that they skate on ice, and hit a small bit of rubber with a long stick into a small net protected by a guy wearing a disturbing mask, and way too much padding. Oh and occassionally they break out into a fight...which every cheers about, until the refs come in to break it up. Or something like that. Tomorrow I was to be heading to niagra, so headed back to the hostel for an early night, didn't have one...but the intention was there.
Look for more adventures of Narco in the upcoming soon to be released Narco and the Falling waters of Niagra.
Narco out
Monday, March 13, 2006
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Friendly Manitoba - I mean really who chooses that as a slogan
Friendly Manitoba, home to the Friendly Winnipeg. Turns out the slogan is pretty accurate...everyone I spoke to was really friendly. Even on the 17hour train ride it was hard not to start chatting with the assortment of people on the train. Behind me was a young lass, who just started chatting, and opposite me a middle aged gentleman who was rather excentric...but quite a good bloke. Have I mentioned that 17hours on a train is a long time? Just in case I haven't i'm going to reiterate, 17 hours on a train is a long time. I mean the country side between Edmonton and Winnipeg was beauitful, fields of white snow, interspersed between forested areas of snow covered firs, which is great ... for the first few hours after that you start thinking to yourself, have I seen that tree before. After following the advice of the Excentric one who I later found out was John, I managed to get a decent amount of sleep, it was dodgy sleep, but still 6 hours of broken sleep is better than 2. Mid morning the train finally arrived at Winnipeg, I'd managed to watch a couple of movies, (thank you WEM). With my last walking experience fresh in my mind still, (the nightmares still linger), I decided to take a cab to the hostel. Turns out I could have quite easily walked it, being it was only about 4kms, and it was fully paved the whole way. Oh well, I got there dry, another novelty.
A quaint little building housing roughly 40 beds the Ivy House has to be one of the best hostels I've stayed in, but not because of the building, or the coke fridge, or the location, but because of the people I met there. I hadn't been in my room more than a couple of minutes before a real character walked through the door. His greeting was "Hey Bloke, how you going? I'm Bruce." Now I assumed he was putting on the accent, but he wasn't. Not overly surprised that I'd met another Aussie, this is Canada after all. Given it was still pretty early I headed out for a quick walk around town. It was freezing...so It didn't last overly long, had lunch at a burger place...Lonely planet suggested it, had a chat with one of the servers, about Australia, and Canada, and how not to go into the shopping mall across the street because dodgy people go there... Fair enough I thought. I'll go and check to make sure he's not lying. He might have been, he might not have been, I don't really know, but I walked out with all my belongs, and all my limbs so they can't have been to bad.
Got back to the hostel to find John standing at the front desk checking himself in, with both took a double take, before smiling and cursing at the same time. He had walked. The common room had a few people in it by this time, Bruce, another Aussie Lass Tara (hope thats the right spelling), and Ross, and ex military man from Saskatoon. Quite a few beers under already, they always seemed to be drinking. I usually check the board to see whats going on during the week, nothing usually worth doing, but in Winnipeg that all changed, they had free rock climbing at a local outdoor sport shop. I was stoked. Didn't get much enthusiasm from the other in the common room, so I headed over myself. It started at 6 I was only a couple of mins late, and the only person there, sweet...more for me. I've only done rock climbing once, and hadn't done anything with any sort of overhang, and that was all they had here. Was great to be doing something physical, only got 4 climbs in the end, quite a few people turned up soon after. Somehow I managed to be convinced that I need to said a couple of pairs of socks to someone, because they liked the ones I was wearing, not sure how that happened. Nice lass though, quite a character really. I'd arranged to meet up with Bruce at the Elephant and Castle after the climb, apparently these pubs used to be all over Canada, but they are becoming fewer and fewer over time. Had a couple of beers with Bruce, and had what must be the best Yorkshire pub I've ever had. Had it again the second night too.
Day of of my excursion in Friendly Manitoba was a very quiet one. Was miserable weather outside, so just sat in the common room and chatted with a few of the locals, Bruce had made friends with the owners of a local burger shop, the "Wannabees", so Ross, Bruce, John and myself headed off for a burger and fries. I learned something new in this burger store, I ordered the Chilli burger expecting a normal burger with a chilli sauce on it. Nope...I was a normal burger with a huge spoon of Chilli con Carne on it. And they don't peel the skin off their fries either.
We headed out for the night, John had already moved on again, back to Vancouer I believe, apparently he is semi retired, and just goes for trips on the train for kicks, like I said excentric fellow. Had another gentleman from Quebec join us this evening Frank. First we headed to the Elephant and Castle, seems Bruce was quite fond of the place. After another Yorkshire Pud, a couple of Kilkenny's and a whole bunch of chicken wings, Ross decided it was time to go somewhere else. Now none of us knew the place overly well, so we just walked along the main drag till we found something. First we found Shannons, and being out of towners we got in free, a nice little bonus, except nothing much was happening, so we quickly moved on.
...
I think the name was Garricks, A humble, sleezy, and downright scary pub. The servers all had those money belts that bus drivers used to have. the ones where you feed the coins in the top, and pull them out the bottom. First round of beers had begun, and Bruce was already chatting to one of the locals, and before we knew it the man behind the mic (was Kareoke Night) had annouced that a couple of Aussies were in the house. Every eye in the place turned and looked at us, and a free round came our way. Sweet free beer, no sooner had we sat down than someone had said something unsavory to Bruce, and he was off, back to the Elephant and Castle, we had a word to one of the guys behind the bar, who quite promptly had the offender out of the bar. Wow all this just because we come from Australia. Not wanting to be rude Ross, Frank and Myself all stayed to finish off the free round the owner had bought us. The guys tried to come back in several times, each time the server took off his glasses and promptly escorted them from the establishment again. Time had come for us to move on... hospitality aside we felt a little uncomfortable. Ross had no problems, military training etc, but the rest of us were a little concerned about the ejected fellows. So I headed up to the manager to thank him for his hospitality, but before we left he insisted I sing a song for them all. Oh btw when we walked in we wouldn't have changed the average age of the patrons at all, 50-60 i'm guessing was the average...but with only 3 of us we couldn't affect the average. I'm told that I was up there searching for a song for 2 hours, I've since negotiated this down to a mere 20mins. What can I say, most of the songs were twice my age, and thats being generous. Eventually I settled on desperado. A timeless classic which I preceded to masacre. Anyone who has heard my voice and survived will attest to its devastating force. One song was not enough. While doing my redidion he had found me another timeless classic or so I'm told, I think I've heard it a few times on a wednesday night at home, when dad had the men around. Wake up Little Suzie... Is there nothing else he couldn't have picked. With the death of two songs I new it was time to go. Amongst many cheers, and much clapping, we shook several hands, fearing to break them if I squeezed to hard. Who were these people...
We headed back to the Elephant and Castle to make sure Bruce had arrived without issue. He was quite happly chatting to some other people at the bar. Frank and I had a couple more pints before heading back to the hostel. Apparently the other two stayed out a while longer, and i'm not going to repeat the stories.
Day 3 and it was time to do some sight seeing, and I emphasize the Sight part, I could only really find one. The Forks, Situated between the join of two rivers the forks was the local family gathering place for Winnipeg. The river was frozen so they had ice skating, and ice hockey, and even curling. I haven't skated on ice for a long time. But its just like riding a bicycle isn't it. Hmmm, I made my way through the market to the most logical place to hire ice skates... The Mini Donut. Go figure. I slowly made my way along the river, being over taken by 75 year olds, and 5 year olds alike. I managed to make it all the way to the end some 1.2kms, with falling. Maybe it really is like riding a bicycle. I even managed to make it back to the starting point without falling over. Ice Hockey stardom here I come. Ha.
Had a quiet night in, put on Sin City for those in the hostel interested in watching it. Had a few Kilkenny's before retiring, I headed to Toronto tomorrow. Bruce was having dinner with a local food store owner and his wife. Hmmm, interesting. Anyway, stayed up till around two chatting with Tara, and Ross. Was up and ready to go on time, did the walk to the train, and grabbed subway for lunch and dinner on the way. Got to the train station a bit quicker than I was expecting. So wandered around the Forks a bit, got some grub for the train ride, it was 30hours after all.
Stay tuned for the next exciting Episode of ...ummm Narco's Travel Diary
Narco out
A quaint little building housing roughly 40 beds the Ivy House has to be one of the best hostels I've stayed in, but not because of the building, or the coke fridge, or the location, but because of the people I met there. I hadn't been in my room more than a couple of minutes before a real character walked through the door. His greeting was "Hey Bloke, how you going? I'm Bruce." Now I assumed he was putting on the accent, but he wasn't. Not overly surprised that I'd met another Aussie, this is Canada after all. Given it was still pretty early I headed out for a quick walk around town. It was freezing...so It didn't last overly long, had lunch at a burger place...Lonely planet suggested it, had a chat with one of the servers, about Australia, and Canada, and how not to go into the shopping mall across the street because dodgy people go there... Fair enough I thought. I'll go and check to make sure he's not lying. He might have been, he might not have been, I don't really know, but I walked out with all my belongs, and all my limbs so they can't have been to bad.
Got back to the hostel to find John standing at the front desk checking himself in, with both took a double take, before smiling and cursing at the same time. He had walked. The common room had a few people in it by this time, Bruce, another Aussie Lass Tara (hope thats the right spelling), and Ross, and ex military man from Saskatoon. Quite a few beers under already, they always seemed to be drinking. I usually check the board to see whats going on during the week, nothing usually worth doing, but in Winnipeg that all changed, they had free rock climbing at a local outdoor sport shop. I was stoked. Didn't get much enthusiasm from the other in the common room, so I headed over myself. It started at 6 I was only a couple of mins late, and the only person there, sweet...more for me. I've only done rock climbing once, and hadn't done anything with any sort of overhang, and that was all they had here. Was great to be doing something physical, only got 4 climbs in the end, quite a few people turned up soon after. Somehow I managed to be convinced that I need to said a couple of pairs of socks to someone, because they liked the ones I was wearing, not sure how that happened. Nice lass though, quite a character really. I'd arranged to meet up with Bruce at the Elephant and Castle after the climb, apparently these pubs used to be all over Canada, but they are becoming fewer and fewer over time. Had a couple of beers with Bruce, and had what must be the best Yorkshire pub I've ever had. Had it again the second night too.
Day of of my excursion in Friendly Manitoba was a very quiet one. Was miserable weather outside, so just sat in the common room and chatted with a few of the locals, Bruce had made friends with the owners of a local burger shop, the "Wannabees", so Ross, Bruce, John and myself headed off for a burger and fries. I learned something new in this burger store, I ordered the Chilli burger expecting a normal burger with a chilli sauce on it. Nope...I was a normal burger with a huge spoon of Chilli con Carne on it. And they don't peel the skin off their fries either.
We headed out for the night, John had already moved on again, back to Vancouer I believe, apparently he is semi retired, and just goes for trips on the train for kicks, like I said excentric fellow. Had another gentleman from Quebec join us this evening Frank. First we headed to the Elephant and Castle, seems Bruce was quite fond of the place. After another Yorkshire Pud, a couple of Kilkenny's and a whole bunch of chicken wings, Ross decided it was time to go somewhere else. Now none of us knew the place overly well, so we just walked along the main drag till we found something. First we found Shannons, and being out of towners we got in free, a nice little bonus, except nothing much was happening, so we quickly moved on.
...
I think the name was Garricks, A humble, sleezy, and downright scary pub. The servers all had those money belts that bus drivers used to have. the ones where you feed the coins in the top, and pull them out the bottom. First round of beers had begun, and Bruce was already chatting to one of the locals, and before we knew it the man behind the mic (was Kareoke Night) had annouced that a couple of Aussies were in the house. Every eye in the place turned and looked at us, and a free round came our way. Sweet free beer, no sooner had we sat down than someone had said something unsavory to Bruce, and he was off, back to the Elephant and Castle, we had a word to one of the guys behind the bar, who quite promptly had the offender out of the bar. Wow all this just because we come from Australia. Not wanting to be rude Ross, Frank and Myself all stayed to finish off the free round the owner had bought us. The guys tried to come back in several times, each time the server took off his glasses and promptly escorted them from the establishment again. Time had come for us to move on... hospitality aside we felt a little uncomfortable. Ross had no problems, military training etc, but the rest of us were a little concerned about the ejected fellows. So I headed up to the manager to thank him for his hospitality, but before we left he insisted I sing a song for them all. Oh btw when we walked in we wouldn't have changed the average age of the patrons at all, 50-60 i'm guessing was the average...but with only 3 of us we couldn't affect the average. I'm told that I was up there searching for a song for 2 hours, I've since negotiated this down to a mere 20mins. What can I say, most of the songs were twice my age, and thats being generous. Eventually I settled on desperado. A timeless classic which I preceded to masacre. Anyone who has heard my voice and survived will attest to its devastating force. One song was not enough. While doing my redidion he had found me another timeless classic or so I'm told, I think I've heard it a few times on a wednesday night at home, when dad had the men around. Wake up Little Suzie... Is there nothing else he couldn't have picked. With the death of two songs I new it was time to go. Amongst many cheers, and much clapping, we shook several hands, fearing to break them if I squeezed to hard. Who were these people...
We headed back to the Elephant and Castle to make sure Bruce had arrived without issue. He was quite happly chatting to some other people at the bar. Frank and I had a couple more pints before heading back to the hostel. Apparently the other two stayed out a while longer, and i'm not going to repeat the stories.
Day 3 and it was time to do some sight seeing, and I emphasize the Sight part, I could only really find one. The Forks, Situated between the join of two rivers the forks was the local family gathering place for Winnipeg. The river was frozen so they had ice skating, and ice hockey, and even curling. I haven't skated on ice for a long time. But its just like riding a bicycle isn't it. Hmmm, I made my way through the market to the most logical place to hire ice skates... The Mini Donut. Go figure. I slowly made my way along the river, being over taken by 75 year olds, and 5 year olds alike. I managed to make it all the way to the end some 1.2kms, with falling. Maybe it really is like riding a bicycle. I even managed to make it back to the starting point without falling over. Ice Hockey stardom here I come. Ha.
Had a quiet night in, put on Sin City for those in the hostel interested in watching it. Had a few Kilkenny's before retiring, I headed to Toronto tomorrow. Bruce was having dinner with a local food store owner and his wife. Hmmm, interesting. Anyway, stayed up till around two chatting with Tara, and Ross. Was up and ready to go on time, did the walk to the train, and grabbed subway for lunch and dinner on the way. Got to the train station a bit quicker than I was expecting. So wandered around the Forks a bit, got some grub for the train ride, it was 30hours after all.
Stay tuned for the next exciting Episode of ...ummm Narco's Travel Diary
Narco out
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Edmonton - Home to the largest Mall in the world, well not anymore but it used to be
Having spoken with a canadian fellow from Edmonton when I was in Jasper, I was beginning to wonder if the 4 days I was going to spend there was going to be too long. Well it was close...There isn't much to do in Edmonton. Its an Industrial City at the moment, full of huge box shops similar to our Bunnings, with everything you need under one roof. The hostel was on Whyte Ave (82nd), the Hip and Happening Spot of Edmonton. The train ride was good, only about 5hours, got through a bit of nintendo, and a movie. The train station was a fair hike from the hostel, and given it was 8pm I took a cab. Didn't really meet anyone in Edmonton, just did my own thing for a few days, but once I had checked in, I got straight down to business... it was off to the pub, for a good meal and a couple of brews . O'Byrnes, Nice pub all things said and done, they had Kilkenny so I was happy, and the meals were pretty decent, I had the Fish and Chips the first time, went back the second night too, and had the Shepards Pie.
I was pretty wrecked by the end of the day, so headed back to the hostel, and got some sleep. Turned out the walk in Jasper had wrecked me more than I though, had about 11 hours sleep, had a much needed shower and shave, then headed out for a walk around town. It was freezing... not sure the exact temp but somewhere around -10ish, give of take a couple. Probably the coldest so far. Or at least it felt like it. Headed into the old part of town for a bit of a walk around, and some grub. Just wasn't really in the mood for much, so after a couple of hours of walking around, and a short stop in a huge book store, I headed back to the hostel, and had a quiet evening before heading out for dinner at the pub again at about 9:30. Tomorrow would be my trip to the "Greatest Indoor Show on Earth", pretty modest about it aren't they.
My first canadian bus ride, an interesting experience, seems no matter how far you go, its costs $2.25, one stop or 100 doesn't matter. Took about 45 mins to get out to the mall, I had my boardies packed ready for a big day at the water park. Its similar to Wet and Wild, though not as big. Anyway back to the mall. This place encompases 48 hectares, of specialty shops, food outlets, water park, sealion pool, flamingo glass box, a Bourbon Street (complete with the out of place Hooters Bar), Roller Coasters, and probably more stuff I didn't find. Oh yeah and A casino too. Arrived just out after 10am, (thats when it opens), my to my dissapointment the water park didn't open for another couple of hours, so I did a bit of shopping, the train ride to Winnipeg would be 17hours so I got a few dvds for the journey, Blade III, Unleashed and a mega extended edition of Sin City. Before I had walked about 20 meters a young Israeli lass had dragged me back to her little wagon in the middle of the mall, and was washing my hand with a strange moisturizer from the dead sea, apparently it looked like I needed it. Turns out she had only been in Canada a week, and had already landed a job, there is hope for me yet. Had a bit of a chat before moving on, without cosmetics I might add. I'm sure they are great, just not really for me.
Next I found the sealion pool/display/thing, not sure how many were there in total, but it was at least 6. Quite happily playing around and looking at the people how found them so intriguing. They have shows several times a day apparently, didn't hang around to see one though... the water park was almost open. Had a dodgy kebab for lunch, then headed for the water park... NO WAVE POOL, well not one that was working anyway, oh well, I guess I just have to go on the slides then. Lifes tough. Spent 7 hours in the water park, stopped for a beer half way through. Only $11.25 to get in, if you go before 4pm (the rush hour). They only had 4 slides open till 4 when all the school kids arrived (about 15 of them). Then they opened up more of the slides, which was good, had a great time. Took some pics etc. Has the largest indoor bungie over water, and a tabogan etc, they didn't open the speed slide which was dissapointing, had something to do with the power cables running over it. I more than got my moneys worth at this place. They had this really cool slide which was similar to the shotgun ones they used to have at Amazoms for those who can remember except it had a huge bowl at the bottom, so you went spinning around and around, quite cool... Not very many people there the whole day, so didn't have to wait long for slides. Oh and the best part, it was about 25-30 degrees the whole time, not bad considering it was about 40 less than that outside. But at 7pm it was time to move on. Headed back to the food court, but didn't have the Kebab this time. Had Taco Bell instead, I think I'm becoming hooked on this stuff, definatly something we need back home. Did a quick sortie in the internet cafe before going to see Aeon Flux at the cinema for $3.50. By the time it was finished it was nearly 12am and the buses aren't to regular, so it was cab time again. But not before wandering up and down the center a couple of times trying to find a cab rank. Eventually I gave up and called one.
An interesting cab ride, the cabbie, it turns out has a wife and kids from OZ, although he was Canadian, Apparenly Australia wouldn't let him stay, not sure why he seemd like a nice enough bloke. Oh well he didn't seem bitter about it...ha. Got back to the hostel, and fell asleep pretty quickly.
Today was a very slack day on my behalf, sat on the net all day talking to friends and family. There was a local cafe, with free wireless if you bought something, having already been here once I was quite happy to stay for a while, had breakfast and lunch there. The bloke behind the counter was a brit, who had moved over here, for work etc. So had a chat for a while with him, about places to go see etc, the list for edmonton wasn't very long at all. Had subway for dinner, not as good as at home, I think the bacon must have been male, and left outside cause it was all shrivelled and pretty useless....hahaha. The lady who was served infront of me was downright rude, something definatly not going right, had a chat with the canadian fellow about it after she had left. Anyway moving on... Oh did I mention it was bucketing down outside or at least it would have been if it wasn't so cold instead there was just heaps and heaps of snow, not sure the exact figure but by the following day there was about a foot more than the day before. Still sounds funny when they refer to it as a storm. No lighting, not thunder just snow falling. Odd.
Final day in edmonton, train didn't leave till around 6pm, so I had a bit of time to kill, headed over to downtown, across a bridge over an almost frozen river...see pictures. Downtown was pretty much like anywhere else... The legislative building had some cool architecture if your into that sort of thing, I have since decide that the building is a common design because it was the same in Winnipeg too.
Got back to the hostel to pick up my pack at around 3pm, giving me plenty of time to bus it to Kingsway Mall, then walk the few kms to the Train Station. Ha ... in hindsight, next time I'll take a cab. The bus ride was interesting. Couldn't sit down, because I didn't know how far I was actually going, and didn't want to have to put the pack on again. So stood in an out of the way area next to the disabled seats. They didn't look disabled but the sign said they were... Just a little joke there. Anyway, two how do I put it politcally correctly...I don't think I can, anyway these two huge ladies got on the bus, neither fitted in a double seat let alone two. After much shoving and allowing gravity to slowly do its work, they made themselves comfortable. And proceded to complain about just about everything. There was a sign about being a vegetarian, to which they both decided a huge burger was better. Like we couldn't see that from a mile away. Then the bus driver had a few bunny hopping incidents, which resulted in much cursing by the ladies. Eventually I made it to the shopping mall, didn't realise it till we had already stopped. Standing at the bus stop purusing the map to figure out the best way an elderly canadian fellow picked up one of my padlocks, and handed it too, he gave me directions on which would be the best way to get to the train station which was on the other side of the airport, just behind the mall. Taking his advice into consideration adjusting it based on the alcohol content of his breath I headed off, Turned out he was actually right, there were no footpaths along the side of 3 lane road I chose to walk along. With the foot of snow from the night before, it became a very interesting walk, fell over more times then I can remember, oh I wasn't wearing my boots, just shoes with no grip on the soles. I have learnt one thing from the experience. TAKE A TAXI. I struggled for close to an hour and a half before finally gaining a foot path, I only walked about 3kms in that time, With only an hour till the train leaves, and nothing till when I was supposed to check my bags in, and still a km to go, I was finally starting to waver. Got there in the end though, absolutely wrecked, sweating like crazy in -10 degree temps, the "dickie"/"snood" I was wearing around my face had started to freeze, and the bottom of my jeans were already frozen. I will re-iterated for those who missed it the first time...TAKE A TAXI.
At the time it sucked, and I know dad will say its a character building experience but bugger that for a joke. TAKE A TAXI. Anyway I'm over it... Had a good train ride if a long one. Got through a couple of movies, and watched another in the activity car. Played some nintendo, and slept. Met a couple of nice people on the train, one a real character from vancouver...late 40's found out later he was staying at the same hostel in winnipeg. But more on him and winnipeg later.
Narco out
I was pretty wrecked by the end of the day, so headed back to the hostel, and got some sleep. Turned out the walk in Jasper had wrecked me more than I though, had about 11 hours sleep, had a much needed shower and shave, then headed out for a walk around town. It was freezing... not sure the exact temp but somewhere around -10ish, give of take a couple. Probably the coldest so far. Or at least it felt like it. Headed into the old part of town for a bit of a walk around, and some grub. Just wasn't really in the mood for much, so after a couple of hours of walking around, and a short stop in a huge book store, I headed back to the hostel, and had a quiet evening before heading out for dinner at the pub again at about 9:30. Tomorrow would be my trip to the "Greatest Indoor Show on Earth", pretty modest about it aren't they.
My first canadian bus ride, an interesting experience, seems no matter how far you go, its costs $2.25, one stop or 100 doesn't matter. Took about 45 mins to get out to the mall, I had my boardies packed ready for a big day at the water park. Its similar to Wet and Wild, though not as big. Anyway back to the mall. This place encompases 48 hectares, of specialty shops, food outlets, water park, sealion pool, flamingo glass box, a Bourbon Street (complete with the out of place Hooters Bar), Roller Coasters, and probably more stuff I didn't find. Oh yeah and A casino too. Arrived just out after 10am, (thats when it opens), my to my dissapointment the water park didn't open for another couple of hours, so I did a bit of shopping, the train ride to Winnipeg would be 17hours so I got a few dvds for the journey, Blade III, Unleashed and a mega extended edition of Sin City. Before I had walked about 20 meters a young Israeli lass had dragged me back to her little wagon in the middle of the mall, and was washing my hand with a strange moisturizer from the dead sea, apparently it looked like I needed it. Turns out she had only been in Canada a week, and had already landed a job, there is hope for me yet. Had a bit of a chat before moving on, without cosmetics I might add. I'm sure they are great, just not really for me.
Next I found the sealion pool/display/thing, not sure how many were there in total, but it was at least 6. Quite happily playing around and looking at the people how found them so intriguing. They have shows several times a day apparently, didn't hang around to see one though... the water park was almost open. Had a dodgy kebab for lunch, then headed for the water park... NO WAVE POOL, well not one that was working anyway, oh well, I guess I just have to go on the slides then. Lifes tough. Spent 7 hours in the water park, stopped for a beer half way through. Only $11.25 to get in, if you go before 4pm (the rush hour). They only had 4 slides open till 4 when all the school kids arrived (about 15 of them). Then they opened up more of the slides, which was good, had a great time. Took some pics etc. Has the largest indoor bungie over water, and a tabogan etc, they didn't open the speed slide which was dissapointing, had something to do with the power cables running over it. I more than got my moneys worth at this place. They had this really cool slide which was similar to the shotgun ones they used to have at Amazoms for those who can remember except it had a huge bowl at the bottom, so you went spinning around and around, quite cool... Not very many people there the whole day, so didn't have to wait long for slides. Oh and the best part, it was about 25-30 degrees the whole time, not bad considering it was about 40 less than that outside. But at 7pm it was time to move on. Headed back to the food court, but didn't have the Kebab this time. Had Taco Bell instead, I think I'm becoming hooked on this stuff, definatly something we need back home. Did a quick sortie in the internet cafe before going to see Aeon Flux at the cinema for $3.50. By the time it was finished it was nearly 12am and the buses aren't to regular, so it was cab time again. But not before wandering up and down the center a couple of times trying to find a cab rank. Eventually I gave up and called one.
An interesting cab ride, the cabbie, it turns out has a wife and kids from OZ, although he was Canadian, Apparenly Australia wouldn't let him stay, not sure why he seemd like a nice enough bloke. Oh well he didn't seem bitter about it...ha. Got back to the hostel, and fell asleep pretty quickly.
Today was a very slack day on my behalf, sat on the net all day talking to friends and family. There was a local cafe, with free wireless if you bought something, having already been here once I was quite happy to stay for a while, had breakfast and lunch there. The bloke behind the counter was a brit, who had moved over here, for work etc. So had a chat for a while with him, about places to go see etc, the list for edmonton wasn't very long at all. Had subway for dinner, not as good as at home, I think the bacon must have been male, and left outside cause it was all shrivelled and pretty useless....hahaha. The lady who was served infront of me was downright rude, something definatly not going right, had a chat with the canadian fellow about it after she had left. Anyway moving on... Oh did I mention it was bucketing down outside or at least it would have been if it wasn't so cold instead there was just heaps and heaps of snow, not sure the exact figure but by the following day there was about a foot more than the day before. Still sounds funny when they refer to it as a storm. No lighting, not thunder just snow falling. Odd.
Final day in edmonton, train didn't leave till around 6pm, so I had a bit of time to kill, headed over to downtown, across a bridge over an almost frozen river...see pictures. Downtown was pretty much like anywhere else... The legislative building had some cool architecture if your into that sort of thing, I have since decide that the building is a common design because it was the same in Winnipeg too.
Got back to the hostel to pick up my pack at around 3pm, giving me plenty of time to bus it to Kingsway Mall, then walk the few kms to the Train Station. Ha ... in hindsight, next time I'll take a cab. The bus ride was interesting. Couldn't sit down, because I didn't know how far I was actually going, and didn't want to have to put the pack on again. So stood in an out of the way area next to the disabled seats. They didn't look disabled but the sign said they were... Just a little joke there. Anyway, two how do I put it politcally correctly...I don't think I can, anyway these two huge ladies got on the bus, neither fitted in a double seat let alone two. After much shoving and allowing gravity to slowly do its work, they made themselves comfortable. And proceded to complain about just about everything. There was a sign about being a vegetarian, to which they both decided a huge burger was better. Like we couldn't see that from a mile away. Then the bus driver had a few bunny hopping incidents, which resulted in much cursing by the ladies. Eventually I made it to the shopping mall, didn't realise it till we had already stopped. Standing at the bus stop purusing the map to figure out the best way an elderly canadian fellow picked up one of my padlocks, and handed it too, he gave me directions on which would be the best way to get to the train station which was on the other side of the airport, just behind the mall. Taking his advice into consideration adjusting it based on the alcohol content of his breath I headed off, Turned out he was actually right, there were no footpaths along the side of 3 lane road I chose to walk along. With the foot of snow from the night before, it became a very interesting walk, fell over more times then I can remember, oh I wasn't wearing my boots, just shoes with no grip on the soles. I have learnt one thing from the experience. TAKE A TAXI. I struggled for close to an hour and a half before finally gaining a foot path, I only walked about 3kms in that time, With only an hour till the train leaves, and nothing till when I was supposed to check my bags in, and still a km to go, I was finally starting to waver. Got there in the end though, absolutely wrecked, sweating like crazy in -10 degree temps, the "dickie"/"snood" I was wearing around my face had started to freeze, and the bottom of my jeans were already frozen. I will re-iterated for those who missed it the first time...TAKE A TAXI.
At the time it sucked, and I know dad will say its a character building experience but bugger that for a joke. TAKE A TAXI. Anyway I'm over it... Had a good train ride if a long one. Got through a couple of movies, and watched another in the activity car. Played some nintendo, and slept. Met a couple of nice people on the train, one a real character from vancouver...late 40's found out later he was staying at the same hostel in winnipeg. But more on him and winnipeg later.
Narco out
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