Canada

Hard to keep up to date on the blog when your Snowboarding, eating and drinking.....

Well from Nassau in the Bahamas we flew to Vancouver and headed straight out to Whistler. Fresh off the winter Olympics this place is considered on of the best ski resorts in the world. We settled into our cool little apartment complete with fireplace and spa access. After a quiet day there we headed into one of the village pubs for the triple j hottest 100 countdown. With the time difference and a village full of young party loving aussies Australia day celebrations start on the 25th eve with the countdown and follow though until the end of the 26th. So after a relaxing time in the Bahamas we both found ourselves very inebriated and passing in and out of the top 10 at about 3am on the 26th. The start later that morning was slow to say the least and we arrived at the major Aussie day pub party at around 11:00am (late considering the die-hards were there from 9am). Quite a unique way to drink on Oz day. A chocka block pub full of young Aussies drinking the day away with the chairlift to a mountains of snow a mere 20 metres away. So a messy day it was as you can imagine. The next 4 days was all mountain. We got a couple of good days and a couple of crappy days weather wise. All in all Whistler was great fun and great to catch up with Rhi's cousin Deano who has been in town for a couple of snow seasons.

We headed back into the city momentarily before heading on the ferry out to Vancouver Island for a couple of nights in the cool little town of Victoria. We explored the city and agreed it would be even better in Summer when the killer wales are jumping. The Ocean Island Hostel was a great place complete with cafe that hosted an open mike night whilst we were there. The host had got all his OMN mates together and the 100 crowd crammed the small cafe for 20+ acts on the card. I ended up on stage with a full band doing one of the lesser impressive versions of 'How to make gravy'. Earlier that same night we went to some local Ice Hockey which was very entertaining with prizes given away every minute in various entertaining ways and the solid hits on the ice also made for good viewing.

We returned to Vancouver and spent 3 days checking out all that this very cool city has to offer. We enjoyed the cool bike ride around Stanley Park and also a visit to Granville Island markets. I also had my first superbowl experience at the hostel bar which was great considering that my Giants (I watched NY weeks earlier when they chose me as a supporter) had a great victory. There was also great restaurant strips not far from our hostel and one night I hunted down one of the best deserts ever to cross my lips. It was a fancy donut jobby with a butterscotch dipping sauce.

After Vanny we headed for 'Big White' mountain to catch up with Mark (Box) Bennet. We had a great couple of days there carving up the awesome snow that has some great variety and tree runs that we both enjoyed. We had a couple of dinners and plenty of bevies with the box and met all his great housemates along the way. He has a great place there, only 1 minute away from ski-lifts, pub and spa. Everything a single box could need. One evening we all got a lift from Box's landlord in his bus down to Kelowna city for some more brutal local ice hockey. The last night there we had dinner at a place famous for their gun-barrel coffee's. A coffee is poured, creme and a couple varieties of grog and then added and the final selection of boose is lite and poured down a double barrel shotty. A great mountain and village Big White is and a great choice for Aussie's who want to do a season on the slopes.

 Another long Greyhound ride took us to Lake Louise where we met up with Sian and Dan (friends of ours and the Bunbury crew). We decided to have the first day off as a rest from the slopes and the 4 of us hiked up to the Lake. We had a wholesome pub lunch and then spent hours skating on the lake. I hired a stick also and played plenty of Hockey with some locals. The following day we jumped on the mountain and concurred its every face.

 A small bus ride away and we rolled into Banff. We relaxed and checked out the local shops. The girls spoilt themselves on valentines day by hitting up the local hot springs for a manicure. We also visited the local movie theatre and Indian restaurant. All in all Banff was a relaxing couple of days for myself.'

After saying our goodbyes to Sian and Dan we headed for our last stop of Canada, Calgary. Lisa (who for a period I lived with in London) and her family took us in to their lovely home and treated us as one of their own. She showed us the cool parts of town as we explored pub by pub and tapas by tapas. So after plenty of white snow we were ready for some lovely LA sunshine.