Good evening!

I have had a busy day of sightseeing around Banff and have decided that I LOVE Banff!! I clearly should have started here rather than Whistler and got a job here for the season... Never mind. It has a shop dedicated to cows!!! Very random but also very funny. There is even a Tony Roma's here... Yes this is very exciting for me! I even asked if they needed a waitress who has already worked in Tony Roma's in Glasgow. They said not for another 2 or 3 weeks yet - never mind!

Once again there are a lot of people staying in the hostel looking for work for the ski season, some have been looking for a month now! Crazy!

Giving up on the job hunt, I decided to enjoy the sights instead. I went for a walk around Banff this morning, taking lots of photos of all the trees and surrounding mountains. It reminds me a lot of the Alps actually, more so than Whistler did. There's lots of trees here (mum, you would like that!!) I walked along the stream that is semi frozen and saw this mini waterfall :-) On my walk I met a lady from Winnipeg so I was chatting away to her about Canada and the different places to see. She said I may as well skip past the next 2 states and just go to Quebec and Nova Scotia! We walked up to the Fairmont Chateau which looks like a big Disney style castle in the middle of the huge mountains. It looks very impressive. Then the nice lady (her name is Violet) invited me for lunch in the Fairmont (it is where she is staying and I guess she just wanted company for lunch as she was on her own) So I got to enjoy a lovely lunch in this fancy hotel overlooking the Rockies. The decor inside this hotel is beautiful and is all decorated for Christmas :-)

After lunch I walked back towards town and got the bus to the gondola which takes you up Sulphur Mountain. I tried to go later in the afternoon in the hope I might witness the sun set behind the mountains... it didn't. But the view was still spectacular.

I am now sat in a cosy bar enjoying a nice drink and doing some research for the next few days. I want to ski in lake Louise this weekend so that I can also watch the men's skiing World Cup (and support Dalcin of course). In the meantime, I have 2 days to kill... I want to see the Icefield Parkway which is the road from Banff to Jasper surrounded by Glaciers. There are no tours this time of year so it means braving it, hiring a car and driving thsi icy road myself :-S I wish I enjoyed driving then it wouldn't be an issue. So I am not sure where I'll be tomorrow yet... depends how brave I am feeling :-)

In terms of the Northern Lights, I have been told not to head so far north because seeing them is all about luck and I may just see them in Jasper or in Edmonton, especially if I have a car and can go for an evening drive away from the light pollution of the towns. As for the polar bears, it looks like I have missed the season to see them :-( So, next years holiday for mum and I will have to be an arctic safari :-P Haha!

TTFN!

Elodie

XxX