Here it is, a full report of my 10 day trip to Canada! I'll try to keep it as short as possible. It was almost a year ago since my departure from Canada and it sure was good to be back!! Even though it was only for 10 days. I'd never been to west canada before so I decided to visit some friends in Calgary. And ofcourse you gotta visit during the stampede!
Day 1: Arrival at 12.30....when I arrived I was like, where the hell am I ?? Cowboys greeting me, and when I went through the gate there was a live band playing Johnny Cash and some mad woman "branding" people with her stampede poke. First surprise....my phone did not work here!! I could not find Myles, it was so crowded! Panic, aaarghh! Found a payphone and called Myles who was standing in the crowds and did not see me either. Probably because I was running from the mad lady with the poke. But finally we found each other and we were on our way! Good to see those bright blue canadian skies and sunshine...aahhh Arriving at his apartment, I decided to take a little nap since they wanted me to go out with them that night. Was a little bit jetlagged...timedifference with the UK is 7 hours. After my nap we went to a restaurant/pub in the neighbourhood called Wildwood's for some food and drink. Here we go, the first tequila shots. Afterwards it was too late to go to stampede so we went to sit on top of cemetary hill to watch the fireworks that apparantly never came that night. So was back nice and early.
Day 2: Now the stampede parties start kicking in! Myles had one company party after another, so his buddy Chris called and invited me out for breakfast. We went to this greasy spoon place. Called Matt to join us, had some catching up to do!Apparantly it was hit the bar-time after breakfast. After all it was already almost 1 o clock! Went to this bar called Melrose. Everybody is just in a partymood during stampede! Cowboys and girls everywhere! Ofcourse I had to adapt. Shottime! Tequila...sambuca...jager...wash it all down with vodka lime..oi! I was still extremely jetlagged and baking away in this heat...after all, we barely see the sun in Scotland. I was K.O. by 6 o clock. We were about to head out to go to the stampede and were waiting for a cab, when i had to go in and use the bathroom. Walked through the restaurant but apparantly never made it cause I fainted somewhere in the middle. Probably thought yaaah...this looks like a good place for a lil nap. Apparantly banged my head pretty hard against the bar or a chair or something...they had to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital. I was out for quite a while, maybe half an hour or more. Dont remember any of it, except waking up in the hospital when they wheeled me to the ER. Remember Chris panicking and Myles showed up halfdrunk after they called him haha. 6 stitches and 6 hours later I was released. Since Chris' house was closest by and somebody had to watch over me in case I had a concussion, I slept on Chris' couch. Thank god I didnt have a concussion, that wouldve sucked!!
Day 3: Woke up pretty early...mainly because Chris' dog Molly was jumping on top of me and licking me all over. He took me back to Myles' apartment where I pretty much slept/rested all day. God, had quite a headache.
Day 4: Was feeling a little better today so its time to go out and explore Calgary! Myles lives quite close to downtown so I could walk. You couldnt really get lost cause the streets are all numbered. As long as you head towards the Calgary tower you'll get there. There aren't that many attractions in Calgary really. First went up to the tower. Was standing in line to wait for the elevator come down and all the sudden a cowboy on a horse came out of the elevator! Only in Calgary folks! He was just taking her up to walk around and enjoy the view. Why the hell not eh.I probably dont have to tell you it wasnt smelling like roses afterwards in the elevator. Upstairs you had a magnificent view of the town and the rockies. And a glass floor, that kinda makes you dizzy. After the tower I walked to Stephen Avenue, the historic part of town with lots of shops and patios. Lots of malls, all connected. In one of them you had the Devonian Gardens on the top floor, which was quite nice. It started to rain and after I went home.
Day 5: Walked to Chinatown today. Wasn't that big or that interesting really.Bought some lunch and walked along the Bow river to Prince's Island park. Ate my lunch and sunbathed for a while. Walk back via the other side of the centre towards home and made a stop at lougheed house, this "old" historical house. Quite a hike today!
Day 6: Zootime!! Myles gave me a freepass, which he got from work. The entrance fee is 18 dollars!! It was a very nice zoo though, superbig. Walked around most of the day. Getting burned cause it was really hot! Wasnt too close though, quite a walk. Walked through Inglewood, the neighbourhood that used to be the centre of Calgary. Now its filled with restaurants and antique stores.
Day 7: It was raining and thundering today. So I decided to stay in. Couchpotato-ing can be nice sometimes too! Watched a lot of movies.
Day 8: Stampede time!! Met up with Matt around lunchtime. Myles only lives 5 mins from the stampede grounds. Rodeo started at 1.30 and all the regular tickets were sold out. We had to get so called "rushtickets" which means standing places. There are only a limited amount of seats available on these tickets, but we were too late to get them. But we were almost up front though. Forgot my cowboyhat, and Matt didnt have one, so we bought one there. You really needed one, we baked away in the sun for hours. Probably was around 30 degrees. The rodeo was awesome, you had different categories too. Bullriding and barebackriding, barrelraces etc. Very cool to watch. Something you dont see everyday. In between they had some shows and there were indians dancing. After the rodeo we had about half an hour to grab a bite and stand back in line for the chuckwagon races. Waited in line for 2 hours, good times. After we got to buy our tickets we had to wait in the second line up to get in and run for our seats. Thank god we managed to get some cause we've been standing in the heat all day. The chuckwagonraces were pretty cool, and apparantly dangerous too. They said every year somebody dies. Didnt see anything though. They only take one lap around the course and thats it. It was done around 8.30 and we stayed for a bit and walked around the stampede. We went up in the skylift so we could see the whole stampede. It was very big. The sun was just going down so everything had a nice glow.
Day 9: Today we were supposed to go up to Banff. But Myles' car broke down the night before...so we had to arrange for another car. That took a bit longer than expected and it was too late to go to Banff so we decided to grab some lunch at the Ship and Anchor. Sat out on the patio cause it was another gorgeous day. 9 hours later we were still there lol. Jeff and Chris came up for a bit to join us, and many other people joined us in between. People that were waiting for a table and asked if they could share the table with us. So met a lot of nice people that day. But I did drink H2O all day, was feeling like gettin hammered in the hot sun again lol.
Day 10: Finally, Banff today! Got the van from the garage and headed to the mountains with Myles and Ali.Its about one hour from Calgary. Very nice drive, especially when you approach the Rockies. A little bit higher than the highlands I tell ya! Drove through Banff National Park and stopped at some lakes. Saw some Bighorn sheep on the side of the road. Banff is a really nice but really touristic town. We had some lunch on the rooftop patio of the Rose and Crown. Nice views!Myles was whining cause he was so hungover hahaha Suck it up!!We walked through the town and went to another rooftop patio for some drinks, before we headed back. At night we were goin to the bar, since it was my last night there. And surprise surprise, the bar closed at 11!! Apparantly the whole town is in deep coma after the stampede to recuperate. Ah well, guess I'll go to bed early then!
Day 11: Leaving today 
First I slept in for quite a while, figured i could use it since i can never sleep on the plane. My flight wasnt till 10.30 pm, so I kinda hung around doing nothing all day. Myles had to go to the office and he picked me up at 6 pm to go get some food. Went to the Cactus Club, close to the airport. Very different and excellent food! And not all that expensive, compared to others! Everything is really expensive in Calgary, you can barely find a breakfast under 10 dollars. I flew with flyglobespan, the first and the last time i tell ya!! They really suck!! Both ways they were more than an hour and a half late! Didnt get to leave until 1 am that night. Dozed off for like 10 mins when we took off, and all the sudden bright lights on and they turned on the tv really loud with airplane-exercise on it! WTF?? One hour later they shove a hot meal under your face, wether you want it or not. Cant even choose chicken or beef. They also gave u some snack, a piece of cake, some cheese and crackers. I was like, good, i'll save them for later on and put them on my tray. Dozed off again. Woke up to find my trash AND my snacks gone. Again, wtf?? 2 hours later it is light outside and everybody is wide awake. I had the worst seat in the house too, both ways. Middle row! No sweet views outside. And boy, were they ever sweet. We flew over Iceland, Greenland, the Arctic and Churchill. Spectacular views of Iceland. Nice snowy mountaintops sticking out above the clouds. Saw a lot of icebergs. Note to self: bring binoculars next time. Because my plane had an hour and a half delay, i just missed my bus to Greenock at the airport by 5 mins. Ah well, only had to wait another hour and a half for the next one. No biggie. Welcome back to rainy old Scotland! Back to work tomorrowmorning, jetlagged as hell...
Calgary was nice and all, but a bit boring. Especially without the stampede. I wouldnt want to live there. People just work there and its really expensive. Not enough culture. So Im gonna head to Vancouver this december folks, stay tuned!
