some waterton pics

waterton national park

in a word: amazing. deer roamed the streets like it was nothing special and the population of the town, 35 ppl, behaved like it was nothing special. insane. if it hadn't have been for alexa working there i would never of heard of it and certainly never have gone. thanks lexi!
it was a fantastic few days of visual and culinary pleasures!!! and of course excellent company ....
did a hike in the rockies to bertha water fall. went kayaking in cameron lake. had a near disaster where i nearly ended up disappering up the creek. but all was not last although kate did nearly have a heart attack from the safety of the bear inhabited shoreline). i paddled my way into the middle where i was technically speaking in america-montana to be precise. it was all too much hard work and made my way to shore. much to kate's relief.
we did a romantic sunset cruise around the lake. it was all so stunning and so much to take in.
i sampled bison steak : much the same texture as beef but a little denser and subtler taste.
i partied it up with alexa in a great bar of waterton, that is the only bar in waterton, the thirsty bear. and had many the glass of canadian wine. thumbs up!

calgary

i stayed three nights in Calgary-it has absolutely nothing going for it, at all. i arrived the day after the stampede finished so it was a bit of a ghost town. the one good experience i had in Calgary was an amazing cupcake while watching people rehearse mid summer nights dream on prince's island park. kate affectionately referred to it has Alberta's armpit. very fitting indeed. met 'aunty kate' in Calgary and i jumped on her holiday band wagon (a Chevrolet's trailblazer to be specific) and we headed to waterton national park in the Rockies.

on the way

whitby

ahhhh home comfort. home cooking, comfortable bed, sofa: need i say more!

had a great time with the fam in the burbs. many a bottle of wine was drunk, many a large packet of crisps was eaten, much time was spent lounging with family including the extended canine family. and they sent me on my way-refreshed, revived and fatter.

toronto

had a mini whirl wind tour of toronto. got the night bus from montreal. what hell.

arrived in and was greeting at a ridiculous hour in the morning by stephen. a nap was priority number one. post nap there was stuff to be seen. went downtown and managed to catch a dog show! had a general wander around and then got food in china town. hung out that evening in kensington; extremely hip neighbourhood. had drinks and caught a gig.

more sleep and onto the burbs for some quality comfort and down time!

book 5

the road by cormac mccarthy

(what a read-thanks jenny!)

some newfie pictures

sunrise on canada day from signal hill in the fog:



me on st vincent's beach:

cape spear:

st john's from signal hill:

lake on memorial university of newfoundland campus:

fog

the week panned out quietly enough. i did the irish loop tour. www.theirishloop.com
which was me and two other mature ladies being driven around in a car. can't beat that for local service.
i couldnt believe the differences in landscape only a half an hour away. it was went from beautiful port towns, to mountainous forests, to barren bog land, to shale beachs, to mountians again. it was just incredible. i even manged to see an ice-berg, a small one in the distance but an ice berg none the less!
i spent a lot of time sitting in a great cafe, have jave, and eating their amazing turkey sandwiches. maybe thats because i was hung over a lot of the time and incapable of doing anything else!
i did however also manage to do a small hike trail, historic walking tour, celebrate canada day and go to a film festival. www.nickelfestival.com there were even a few irish films being screened. also visited cape spear which is the most eastern point of north america-next stop galway!
one thing that remained a constant through out my week there was the fog. it rolled in at least once a day. mostly in the morning and was burned off by about midday. i did enjoy waking up to the sound of the fog horn though.
on the day that i tried to do a whale and puffin tour the sun was beating down in st john's so i got a lift to the bay of bulls where one of the boats leaves from, which is half an hour down the road, and the fog was so bad the trip would have been a waste of time. i was pretty gutted when i had to return to the sun shine in st john's.
i would definetly live there.

st john's, newfoundland.

when flying over newfoundland's coast on the way into the airport i felt the most amazing feeling. i exhaled once quite deeply and it was as though my shoulders fell to the position they should always be in, my hands unclenched and my muscles relaxed. i felt a connection with the place immediately. in some ways its quite like ireland and scotland maybe thats why i felt that connection. but its also strikingly different. the only comment i'll make on the crazy accents is this- 'could you say that again?'
i was looking forward to my week.