Halfway around the world in 21 days
It has, once again, been aeons since my last update, but who am I to argue with tradition? Apparently the universe dictates that my update ought to be sparse and lengthy.
Obviously, most of this update should be about my not-quite-so-recent trip to Canada
I've spent three weeks in Canada and the short version of it is: it was amazing! Since that makes for poor blogging, not to mention contradicts the abovementioned universal law, I will elaborate. Greatly!
The trip can be divided into three segments. The first week was spent in Calgary, where Marieke is currently doing an internship in Molecular Dynamics at the University of Calgary. Alberta has an eight-hour time difference with Wageningen (or technically Brussels, from where I left) so the first two days were characterised by getting up early and struggling to stay awake. I think that on the first day, I managed to stay awake until 19:00. This elicited numerous complaints about boyfriends traveling half-way around the world, only to fall asleep when they get to their destination and how analogous this is to certain other stereotypical complaints. Of course I was asleep at the time, and my silence was interpreted as agreement.
When shook of the jetlag, we went to see the sights. I should start by stating that Calgary is huge. Really! It has about a million inhabitants, but covers more area than New York City. The center (or 'Downtown') has a highrise skyline, but apart from that you hardly see any buildings with more than 3 storeys. Most houses are bungalows, with an extensive basement. I suppose it's easier to keep a basement heated. You notice this as you walk through the city, but it was especially clear when viewed from a height. On day 2 or 3 we went to Nose Hill provincial park. This is a hill in the northwestern part of the city, which is completely empty, by now surrounded by housing on all sides (Calgary is seeing a terrifying population boom!), as you can see here. It's almost four times the size of Central Park. Due to its elevation you can see very far, so you can really see how big and green the city is. In fact, on clear days (and most days are clear) you can see the peaks of the Rockies. Awesome.
The rest of the time was spent eating (you get a main course for 11 CDN$, about 7 euros), fencing ("Let's play until 45! I've been at 3000 feet elevation for three months now, I'll kick your ass on stamina alone." Yeah, guess again... *grin*), seeing movies, bookshopping and lots of sleeping. After a week of doing that, we rented a car to see a bit more of the surroundings. Enter segment two.
First we went to Drumheller, a speck on the map in the middle of the Alberta badlands. The first thing you notice once you leave the city: it's completely empty. There is no town of any significance between Calgary and Edmonton, 300 kms north. There are just some cows, some horses and that's really it. You get the occasional stereotypical red barn, sometimes a village of two or three streets, then more nothing. On the road to Drumheller, we stopped at a sand canyon. There wasn't a clear descent, but we went into it anyway, unabashed. It turns out that trying to move roughly 100 kgs with lumbering steps over a steep slope covered in loose sand is... challenging. Or thoroughly amusing, depending on whether you are said juggernaut or a nimble little girl of almost half his weight. I slipped a few times (Alberta mud is not exceptionally tasty) and apparently injured my Achilles' tendon, although I didn't notice that until the day after.
In Drumheller itself lies the Tyrell museum, which has nothing to do with a fat nobleman and his family scheming for the throne of Westeros, but everything with fossils and the like. The Drumheller area and some parts of the Rockies are treasure troves of fossilized dinosaurs. (You didn't think the Albertosaurus was named after Samson and Gert's hairdresser, did you?) As a kid I always like dinosaurs and, as it turns out, apparently I still do.
After that we went back to Calgary for a day of resupplying and relaxing before taking off to Banff. Banff is a small village in the Rockies, one of two settlements in Banff National Park. It is entirely dependent on tourism, but has something to offer in every season. Hiking, rafting, snow sports or just the hot springs, you can always spend a few pleasant days there. Yikes, I sound like a travel brochure. But seriously, if you find yourself in the neighbourhood, it's a good base of operations.
We did some hiking in the Kananaskis Valley and on other flat stretches. Marieke has no trouble with long and heavy hikes, but not only did I lack training (I can make up for that in mule-headed stubbornness), I was also injured. Any hike of more than 5 miles would have me limping and whimpering with pain. Really a pity, because it prevented us from climbing any cool peaks. Still, it was astonishing, even without the vistas.
After a few days in Banff, we set out for Jasper. Jasper National Park is north of Banff NP, reachable by the Icefields Parkway. It's about 250 kms away and we figured it would take us three to four hours. Bad estimate. After 50 kms, you pass by Lake Louise (the other settlement), then another 50 kms to Saskatchewan Crossing. I don't know why they reference Saskatchewan here (it's on the border of Alberta and British Columbia, nowhere near Saskatchewan), but it is just that: a crossing. Nothing more. Two roads, a roadside diner and a few (meaning a grand total of four rooms) outrageously-priced lodgings. The only thing meriting its presence on the road signs is the complete lack of anything else to mention. When you cross SC, you see a sign saying "Next petrol stop: 152 kms", from which you could correctly infer that for the next 152 kms, there would be just you, your car, the road and stunning surroundings. It's a fantastic road to travel.
However... you might not want to drive there in the last week of October, at night, with gusting winds and moderate snowfall. I wasn't scared, but I was hard-pressed to remember the last time I had been so nervous! In the end, we managed to get to Jasper just in time to grab a burger (a real one!) and get some sleep. The day after, we decided that it was too expensive and too risky to stay there any longer (you don't want to get snowed in), so we drove back again, this time in daylight. Those two trips combined may well be the best part of those three weeks. Then more hiking around Banff, up Sulphur Mountain. I actually managed to make it to the summit, only to find out the true power of wind chill and the practicalities of not leaving your wind-tight jacket in the car. I must admit that we took a gondola down, but as a scientific experiment, to see if the gondola view would be as amazing as the view from the ground and not at all because I was too tired to walk down again. Honest!
Back to Calgary to return the car, a farewell (for me, at least) dinner with Mariekes wonderful colleagues and the bus to Vancouver, marking segment three. We were planning on flying there, but the air fare was a bit higher than we expected. Vancouver was really different from Calgary. Alberta is considered to be a kind of 51st state of America by the rest of Canada and you really see why when you go somewhere else. The first adjective to came to mind when I was walking through Vancouver was "European". It looked like Paris, London, Amsterdam for all I care. Ok, granted, there were crossings with a Starbuck's on two of the four corners and another coffee shop on a third...
We spent two days in Vancouver, then took the bus-ferry-bus to Victoria. It's a smaller city, on Vancouver Island, and feels very colonial. It's the capital of British Columbia and the government building is really old and beautiful. It's very rare to find old (as in: over 100 years) building in those areas, so we were pleasantly surprised. After spending two days there, we went back to Vancouver for the last two days of my trip and from there I flew back to Brussels.
Well, there's a lot more to tell, also about the Intercity tournament that we hosted two weeks ago (33 people, not bad at all), but I don't have the time. Marieke is coming back tomorrow. To be precise, she's already left Calgary and is at this very moment in or very near to O'Hare airport, Chicago. I'm going to pick her up tomorrow morning at 9:15 (ye gods!) and before that time I need to clean my room, set up the bed, make the bed, buy food, ..., ..., ...
More news, SOON™
Obviously, most of this update should be about my not-quite-so-recent trip to Canada
I've spent three weeks in Canada and the short version of it is: it was amazing! Since that makes for poor blogging, not to mention contradicts the abovementioned universal law, I will elaborate. Greatly!
The trip can be divided into three segments. The first week was spent in Calgary, where Marieke is currently doing an internship in Molecular Dynamics at the University of Calgary. Alberta has an eight-hour time difference with Wageningen (or technically Brussels, from where I left) so the first two days were characterised by getting up early and struggling to stay awake. I think that on the first day, I managed to stay awake until 19:00. This elicited numerous complaints about boyfriends traveling half-way around the world, only to fall asleep when they get to their destination and how analogous this is to certain other stereotypical complaints. Of course I was asleep at the time, and my silence was interpreted as agreement.
When shook of the jetlag, we went to see the sights. I should start by stating that Calgary is huge. Really! It has about a million inhabitants, but covers more area than New York City. The center (or 'Downtown') has a highrise skyline, but apart from that you hardly see any buildings with more than 3 storeys. Most houses are bungalows, with an extensive basement. I suppose it's easier to keep a basement heated. You notice this as you walk through the city, but it was especially clear when viewed from a height. On day 2 or 3 we went to Nose Hill provincial park. This is a hill in the northwestern part of the city, which is completely empty, by now surrounded by housing on all sides (Calgary is seeing a terrifying population boom!), as you can see here. It's almost four times the size of Central Park. Due to its elevation you can see very far, so you can really see how big and green the city is. In fact, on clear days (and most days are clear) you can see the peaks of the Rockies. Awesome.
The rest of the time was spent eating (you get a main course for 11 CDN$, about 7 euros), fencing ("Let's play until 45! I've been at 3000 feet elevation for three months now, I'll kick your ass on stamina alone." Yeah, guess again... *grin*), seeing movies, bookshopping and lots of sleeping. After a week of doing that, we rented a car to see a bit more of the surroundings. Enter segment two.
First we went to Drumheller, a speck on the map in the middle of the Alberta badlands. The first thing you notice once you leave the city: it's completely empty. There is no town of any significance between Calgary and Edmonton, 300 kms north. There are just some cows, some horses and that's really it. You get the occasional stereotypical red barn, sometimes a village of two or three streets, then more nothing. On the road to Drumheller, we stopped at a sand canyon. There wasn't a clear descent, but we went into it anyway, unabashed. It turns out that trying to move roughly 100 kgs with lumbering steps over a steep slope covered in loose sand is... challenging. Or thoroughly amusing, depending on whether you are said juggernaut or a nimble little girl of almost half his weight. I slipped a few times (Alberta mud is not exceptionally tasty) and apparently injured my Achilles' tendon, although I didn't notice that until the day after.
In Drumheller itself lies the Tyrell museum, which has nothing to do with a fat nobleman and his family scheming for the throne of Westeros, but everything with fossils and the like. The Drumheller area and some parts of the Rockies are treasure troves of fossilized dinosaurs. (You didn't think the Albertosaurus was named after Samson and Gert's hairdresser, did you?) As a kid I always like dinosaurs and, as it turns out, apparently I still do.
After that we went back to Calgary for a day of resupplying and relaxing before taking off to Banff. Banff is a small village in the Rockies, one of two settlements in Banff National Park. It is entirely dependent on tourism, but has something to offer in every season. Hiking, rafting, snow sports or just the hot springs, you can always spend a few pleasant days there. Yikes, I sound like a travel brochure. But seriously, if you find yourself in the neighbourhood, it's a good base of operations.
We did some hiking in the Kananaskis Valley and on other flat stretches. Marieke has no trouble with long and heavy hikes, but not only did I lack training (I can make up for that in mule-headed stubbornness), I was also injured. Any hike of more than 5 miles would have me limping and whimpering with pain. Really a pity, because it prevented us from climbing any cool peaks. Still, it was astonishing, even without the vistas.
After a few days in Banff, we set out for Jasper. Jasper National Park is north of Banff NP, reachable by the Icefields Parkway. It's about 250 kms away and we figured it would take us three to four hours. Bad estimate. After 50 kms, you pass by Lake Louise (the other settlement), then another 50 kms to Saskatchewan Crossing. I don't know why they reference Saskatchewan here (it's on the border of Alberta and British Columbia, nowhere near Saskatchewan), but it is just that: a crossing. Nothing more. Two roads, a roadside diner and a few (meaning a grand total of four rooms) outrageously-priced lodgings. The only thing meriting its presence on the road signs is the complete lack of anything else to mention. When you cross SC, you see a sign saying "Next petrol stop: 152 kms", from which you could correctly infer that for the next 152 kms, there would be just you, your car, the road and stunning surroundings. It's a fantastic road to travel.
However... you might not want to drive there in the last week of October, at night, with gusting winds and moderate snowfall. I wasn't scared, but I was hard-pressed to remember the last time I had been so nervous! In the end, we managed to get to Jasper just in time to grab a burger (a real one!) and get some sleep. The day after, we decided that it was too expensive and too risky to stay there any longer (you don't want to get snowed in), so we drove back again, this time in daylight. Those two trips combined may well be the best part of those three weeks. Then more hiking around Banff, up Sulphur Mountain. I actually managed to make it to the summit, only to find out the true power of wind chill and the practicalities of not leaving your wind-tight jacket in the car. I must admit that we took a gondola down, but as a scientific experiment, to see if the gondola view would be as amazing as the view from the ground and not at all because I was too tired to walk down again. Honest!
Back to Calgary to return the car, a farewell (for me, at least) dinner with Mariekes wonderful colleagues and the bus to Vancouver, marking segment three. We were planning on flying there, but the air fare was a bit higher than we expected. Vancouver was really different from Calgary. Alberta is considered to be a kind of 51st state of America by the rest of Canada and you really see why when you go somewhere else. The first adjective to came to mind when I was walking through Vancouver was "European". It looked like Paris, London, Amsterdam for all I care. Ok, granted, there were crossings with a Starbuck's on two of the four corners and another coffee shop on a third...
We spent two days in Vancouver, then took the bus-ferry-bus to Victoria. It's a smaller city, on Vancouver Island, and feels very colonial. It's the capital of British Columbia and the government building is really old and beautiful. It's very rare to find old (as in: over 100 years) building in those areas, so we were pleasantly surprised. After spending two days there, we went back to Vancouver for the last two days of my trip and from there I flew back to Brussels.
Well, there's a lot more to tell, also about the Intercity tournament that we hosted two weeks ago (33 people, not bad at all), but I don't have the time. Marieke is coming back tomorrow. To be precise, she's already left Calgary and is at this very moment in or very near to O'Hare airport, Chicago. I'm going to pick her up tomorrow morning at 9:15 (ye gods!) and before that time I need to clean my room, set up the bed, make the bed, buy food, ..., ..., ...
More news, SOON™