We had a taxi booked for 7.45am to take us to the Greyhound station. Our driver was asking us how we liked Edmonton and had we seen much. I hadn't the heart to tell him how I really felt as although originally from India he had been living in Edmonton for the last 31 years so I figured he must love or at least like the place! He told us how he had watched the city grow from 30,000 people to 1 million! I cannot believe 1 million people live in Edmonton. We got chatting to an Irish couple in our hostel and they were saying that they had a really good vibe about the place and were planning on sticking around for a while, but then they had only been to Calgary for a few days before and nowhere else in Canada! I think from now on everywhere will have to live up to places like Banff and Whistler.

I was happy to leave but I wasn't holding out much hope for Calgary because again we had been advised not to go there. We were seeing it as more of a stop off. Before getting off the bus I knew instantly that I liked it more than Edmonton. Everything seemed cleaner and brighter, and I just had a better feel about the place.

The hostel is pretty basic but we're only here for one night. We dropped our stuff off and walked into the city centre to find a supermarket so we could stock up on supplies- we head to Toronto tomorrow and it's going to take 2 days and 4 hours!!!! Neither of us are looking forward to it. 19 hours was one thing but 52?! I also feel tired already because we were so settled in Banff and we don't really feel rested now because it took us 12-15 hours to get to Jasper and we were only there 3 nights, then over 5 hours to get to Edmonton and we were there 2 nights, then another 5 hours to Calgary and we're only here 1 night, and then its 2 days on a coach!!

The city centre is quite nice, there are some nice buildings and shops.

We've just found out that the HI-Toronto hostel we wanted to book isn't available so we're hoping the one we've booked is ok.

We had a pleasant surprise when we walked into the kitchen earlier as one of the people we befriended in Banff is now at this hostel so it was really nice to see a friendly face. I think that's about it for today. Probably going to get all my stuff ready now and have an early night.