My second to last day at work

Today, I only had to start working at 5:30 PM so I could spend the morning and afternoon relaxing at home. This gave me the chance to read a little bit more of the book 'Firesong', the third and last book of the series I have been reading here.

I already left for work around 4 PM for several reasons: On the one hand side there was supposed to be a 'Zombie Walk' in Downtown Victoria which I really wanted to see. Unfortunately, I only saw about three people running around the streets with zombie make-up and torn clothes. This was probably due to the weather - it was raining and quite windy outside.
On the other hand side I wanted to pay 'Overboard' a quick visit to find out what to do with my key for that store. While being there, I also chatted a little bit with Jennifer.
My third reason for being early today was that I wanted to buy a t-shirt - I just didn't know which one yet. Consequently, I collected all of the t-shirts in the store that I found remotely interesting in order to try them on. It took me about 20 minutes to decide on a shirt. After buying that shirt, I had to start working right away and I spent about the first 20 minutes of my shift cleaning up the mess I had made trying all these shirts on.
It was only Grace and me working this evening. Grace told me about a baileys and almond liqueur which Kate had brought to the store to celebrate her last day. Grace said that she was a little drunk because of it and that her face had been red right after drinking the liqueur. It sounded kind of fun and when Grace offered that I should go and try the drink as well, I didn't hesitate.
Since we barely had any customers this evening, I checked out some lucky charm tokens and decided to buy two of them. I wasn't really supposed to leave my side of the store but since there was no customer around, I quickly went to Grace's side to have her sell the items to me. Just when the transaction was finished, the phone started to ring and both of us were kind of paranoid, thinking that there had been someone watching us and was now calling to tell us off. As it turned out, it was just a coworker who called to ask something but the whole situation was kind of funny.
So even though it wasn't really busy at the store today, it was still an entertaining and kind of unusual shift.

When I got home around 9:45 PM, I still watched two episodes of 'Suits' with Katrina before going to bed.

Baking plum cakes

Today was a really rainy and windy day. Thus I didn't mind spending most of the day inside baking plum cake. I managed to make three plum cakes - two small ones that I would take to work and a big one I would share with everyone living in the house.
When I was done baking, I read a little bit before going to work. I went there early since I still had to pick up my paycheck. Work was extremely boring this evening. I was working from 5:30 PM to 9:15 PM and there were almost no customers. Apart from that there was nothing that needed to be done. Consequently, we even closed 5 minutes early.
When I got home, I had another piece of cake with some vanilla ice cream which Katrina had bought (this combination is amazing). Then I chatted a little bit with Tuulia before going to bed in order to read some more.

The start of my last week at the gift store

My 8 hour work shift today was rather boring. We barely had any customers and apart from refolding t-shirts and delinting caps, there was nothing to do. However, I did find out that this was my last week at the gift store, which was a bit surprising to me since I had expected to work there at least one more week.
On my way home, I had to stop at the bakery in order to pick up some bread which I had ordered there yesterday. It had been raining all day already so walking to the bakery wasn't very fun. In addition to that I was quite exhausted from work and just getting up early so many days in a row. Thus, I was happy when I was sitting on the bus going home.
I had wanted to bake some cake or something for my last day at work but I fet like my time was running out now as I wouldn't see some of my coworkers again after tomorrow. Thus, I decided to go and buy the ingredients for a cake this evening. Katrina was so kind to drive me to the supermarket where I got the plums I was still missing. We also stopped at two liquor stores, where she got some boxed wine and I got a Merridale cider - my favourite brand.
As I didn't want to bake the cake today, I spent the evening watching tv shows with Katrina again.

Leaving Calgary and arriving in Victoria

I took a short walk to Chinatown and then back to the hostel along the Bow River in order to get a few more impressions of Calgary this morning. I didn't have too much time, though, since I had to check out before 11 AM. In general I liked Calgary but I felt like there were just too many construction sites all over the city.

While going to the airport by bus, I could see the Rockies in the background behind Calgary. At first I was surprised by that as I hadn't seen any mountains when I arrived here. Then I reasoned that this was due to the sky being so grey and cloudy that day - the white mountains hadn't been able to stand out that way.
The Calgary airport is a lot bigger and harder to navigate than the Victoria airport. I also had to wait a lot longer for the security check. But that was ok since I had been at the airport very early anyway.
I tried a Chicken sandwich from Tim Hortons for lunch and it was actually quite good.

The guy sitting next to me on the plane introduced himself with 'Hi, I'm your next door neighbour, David'. He immediately loved my response that there was no door between us. We chatted during the whole flight, which was really nice. He was originally from the Caribbean but had been living here in Canada for 50 years. By now he had a huge family with 16 grandchildren and he loved Canada just like me.

 The plane landed just past 2 PM. I loved being back in Victoria. Especially the slightly salty smell of the air was just amazing.
The bus ride home was quite long but I was used to that by now. Since I also picked up some groceries on the way home, it was past 5 PM when I arrived.
At home I did my laundry, took a shower, unpacked, and cooked some healthy dinner. I then spent the evening watching 'Suits' with Katrina.

Spotting wildlife and more around Banff

I got up early this morning in order to check out the place Cody had shown us for seeing elk. It was about a 30 minute hike from the hostel. I knew that I would have a better chance if I arrived early but I only managed to leave the hostel at 9 AM. I still hoped that this would be early enough. At first I couldn't see any elk but that was due to their color blending in with the surrounding vegetation. When I got a little closer there were at least 20 elk. There was one male elk with extremely big antlers and the rest of them were female. Apparently I wasn't the only one who came to that spot in order to see elk - there were two older people who were taking pictures as well. They advised me not to get too close as the male elk can be dangerous but I already knew that. After a few minutes the elk herd started retreating.

I decided to keep walking and a few minutes later, I also saw two deer - a male and a female one. There was a 'Marsh Loop' a bit further down the road. It was a nice 2.3 km hike close to the Bow River and offered some nice views of the scenery and surrounding mountains. The only annoying thing was that the trail was also used by horses and very muddy. So walking there wasn't too nice even though the mud was mostly frozen.
Shortly before I reached the end of the trail, I saw an extremely cute squirrel which was carrying a big nut in his mouth.

Next I arrived at the 'Cave and Basin' a National Historic Sight. Unfortunately, it turned out to be closed today. Consequently, I couldn't enter the cave. However, I could still walk on two broadwalks that lead me around the site. That way, I could see 'the Basin', a natural hot spring pool, as well as several holes in the ground filled with hot water. The natural hot springs emerging in that area were filling up those water basins. Furthermore, they were flowwing down into the marshland and creating a unique ecosystem that offered many warm loving species a habitat. I didn't stay close to the springs for too long, though, as they were smelling like sulphur, which wasn't a nice smell.

The second broadwalk lead me through the marshland and offered a few chances to see and find out about the birds and fish living there.

When I had seen everything I could see in that area today, I decided to walk back in the direction of Banff. 

I arrived back in Downtown Banff around half past noon and against my better judgement, I decided to walk to and then try and climb the local 'Tunnel Mountain'. I was already exhausted, so I wasn't sure if I could do it. However, I still had a few hours until my bus was supposed to arrive so I thought this was a good activity to fill the time. The trail wasn't too hard but as it was going uphill the whole time, it was still very exhausting. The view I had on the way was well worth it, though. After about 3/4 of the way, I saw the cutest chipmunk. It was running around really quickly and eating some buds, which was just adorable to watch. When I reached the top just before 2 PM, I was extremely proud that I did it. After a really short break, I climbed back down, which only took 35 minutes now. 

On the way to the Samesun hostel, I stopped at the supermarket to get a late lunch snack. I only picked up my suitcase at the hostel and then walked to the Greyhound bus station, where I arrived around 4 PM. 

My bus was supposed to leave at 5:35 PM. After waiting until around 6 PM, I was told that the bus had broken down in Lake Louise and they would send another bus from Calgary, which would take another 1.5 hours. So I had to keep waiting even longer.

As we were still waiting by 7:30 PM, the bus driver brought donuts and muffins for everyone.

The bus finally arrived at 8:30 PM but it still took a little while until it left Banff: The 9 PM bus would only make it here around 4 AM due to the highway being closed off. Thus we were waiting for potential passengers of that bus as well.

I arrived in Calgary around 10:30 PM and then still had to get to the hostel. Getting from the Greyhound station to the tram stop was kind of tricky and I was quite sure I took a path I wasn't supposed to take but at least I got there somehow. Getting to the hostel from the tram stop was easy and I arrived just around 11:15 PM.

Takakkaw Falls, Emerald Lake, and the hot springs

Last night was the worst night I ever had in a hostel. The bed was extremely uncomfortable. I couldn't really sleep as there were huge gaps between the wood of the slatted frame, so that no matter how I lay, I felt like that frame cut my blood circulation. In addition to that, my key card had stopped working in middle of night, so that I had to wake my roommates up in order to get back into the room after using the washroom. Due to all that, I actually wrote a bad review for the hostel on Facebook this morning - something I had never felt like doing before.

As some people of the group were taking their time (again), we had to sit in the bus for a while before we could really start our day. Since we hadn't managed to go to Jasper yesterday, we couldn't do any of the originally planned activities today.

The first thing we did after buying lunch in the Lake Louise village was to stop at the Takakkaw Falls. Apparently, we were lucky that the road was still open. This way, we got to see the second highest waterfalls in Canada and the drive to the falls was already very scenic.
At first we walked along the river and I tried to get closer to the water. This wasn't the best idea since I couldn't really get back to the road from where I had walked. Thus I had to walk back a little bit. The waterfalls were just a short walk further along that road. At first we marveled at the waterfalls from the lowest point possible. Then a few people started climbing up the rocky path next to the waterfall. After a while, I decided to follow them, although I only climbed up halfway. I already had an amazing view of the waterfall and the river below from there and I just didn't really dare to try and go up higher. Getting down from this height was already hard enough as all of the little rocks made it easy to start slipping. I still made it down and then back to the bus without too much trouble.

Next we hiked around Emerald Lake. Me and a few other people had started walking right away. After a while we got a little worried... We were not sure if we were just at the front of the group or if we were lost since the rest of the group was nowhere to be seen. As it turned out, they were just super slow and finally caught up with us after about a fourth of the way. The hike was rather easy as it wasn't really steep or anything like that. It was still very fun since the ground was sometimes quite wet and muddy, which forced us to try and find the best way without getting too dirty. As there was no snow anymore around this area, I really didn't have to worry so much about getting my feet wet anymore, which was nice. We were back at the bus after about 1.5 hours but we still had to wait for a few slower group members.

The ride back to Banff took quite a while so I was happy when we finally arrived at the Samesun hostel around 4 PM. However, I didn't get off the bus then. Instead just a few people got off the bus and the rest of us went to the hot springs.
Being in the hot springs was amazing! The water was about 40°C, which was a welcome contrast to the cold air. The spring water was actually in an outside swimming pool and it was just the weirdest feeling to be out there in a pool while it was snowing! I knew from my last hot spring experience that it would not be good to stay in the hot water for too long, I went out a few times and took a short refreshing walk around the pool. Walking in a swimsuit outside while it was about -5°C seemed crazy but it was actually very nice. Going back in the hot water afterwards was an even better feeling.
I left after a bit less than 30 minutes in the pool in order to get a shower.
When Cody picked us up again to drop us off at the hostel, he had a cute little dog called Cinnamon with him.

Later that evening we had a group dinner at the hostel. I had ordered the 'gourmet cheese', not knowing what exactly it would be. As it turned out, it was a grilled cheese sandwich with jalapenos, which was definitely too spicy for me. I tried removing the jalapenos as good as possible and still ate the sandwich with a lot of ketchup.  Consequently, I wasn't really happy with my dinner and it also made me feel a little sick afterwards... but at least it was free.
Some of our group still planned to go out later tonight but I was feeling really exhausted from last night and since the hot springs had really relaxed me, I felt like a quiet evening would be a better choice.

Stuck in the Lake Louise area

The day had started quite nicely: The sky had cleared up, which gave us another chance to really see Lake Louise. 

We also stopped at Moraine Lake and Bow Lake. There was still snow everywhere, which looked just fairytale-like. Unfortunately, my shoes weren't as waterproof as they had been yesterday, so I had some trouble trying to stay out of the really wet spots in order to keep my feet dry.
While we were riding the bus, we also saw a wolf which was crossing the street.

When we stopped for lunch on the way to the Icefield Parkway, our tour guide found out about some kind of bus accident further up the road. As no one knew if we could go on or if we needed to turn around, our lunch break was prolonged while our tour guide Cody had to try and call his boss. Our lunch stop ended up taking almost 2 hours.
It was decided that we couldn't go on further up North in the direction of Jasper. Instead we turned back the way we had come from.

On the way back, we made a stop at Mistaya Canyon, which was just breathtaking. However, due to the high snow, my shoes and feet were really wet after walking around the Canyon.
After that, we still had a stop at Peyto Lake. Before returning to the hostel in Lake Louise, we had another stop in the village to get some groceries.

It was kind of weird that we couldn't go to the hostel in Athabasca Falls tonight as I actually hadn't really wanted to go there since the hostel was supposed to have no wifi and no running water. So I was kind of glad how it turned out even though I would have liked to see Jasper. In addition to that I had really hoped for snow before coming here and we just got way too much snow.
I guess there is a truth to the saying 'Be careful what you wish for'.

In the evening, we ate again at the hostel's restaurant. I had some pasta with vegetables which came with a salad and a scoop of ice cream, so it was like a three course meal.
Afterwards, I joined the others watching the US presidential debate.
Later on we still had a little campfire outside. We were sitting there for a while talking bout former tour groups Cody had had, politics, stars people from our group had met, and really bad hotel experiences. I was one of the first ones to leave after a bit more than 1.5 hours. It was just getting too cold for me and the smoke of the fire got really annoying.