Arriving to Lake Louise

It has been a couple of days and now that we are finally settled in, I can finally write a post about whats been happening!

So the bus trip wasn't that bad! 16 hours sounds like a really long time but because it's overnight, it went super quick! We slept most of the way and I only needed to watch one movie before we crashing out again and waking up in Lake Louise!! Again... PACK LIGHTER THAN US! I can't stress this enough! We felt a bit lost and with both phones down, I walked the 5 minutes to Charleston Residence (also known as Chuck-town). I had to pull two huge suit cases behind me! So 5 minutes was more like 30 for me. When I finally arrived, I walked back to help Colin with the rest of the bags.

Our new apartment is just what we hoped for! We had 3 room mates when we arrived, Stuart, Dave and Zero. They are the nicest guys and are really tidy which makes life easier for everyone! There is this basic understanding to wash dishes straight after use, to clean messes as soon as they are made, etc. We even have a recycle box for cans, the box is taken for return and we get the tax back, so we use the money each week for communal things like dirty dishes detergent and toilet paper, etc. That's just a nice handy tip for anyone who's living in a Canadian National Park!

So far, its been pretty awesome! Colin and I are getting a small chest of draws for our room so I won't post a photo of it until we are finished making it our own - a couple more days. The weather is definitely colder, its probably hitting the negatives more and more. The other day at 4pm it was -8 degrees! Trying hard to get use to it but I love the warmth so damn much! I had orientation yesterday, it was 7 hours of absorbing information but it was fun! The National Park speakers were really engaging and funny - I actually learnt a lot about the area! I actually really enjoyed orientation, I would like to thank all the National Park Representatives who came in to speak! The video below is one they showed us about Parks Canada - I love it!!!

We also had a lot of safety talks about avalanches, kind of scared the bejeezus out of me! But over all, an awesome first day. Today was actually my second! We spent the day in our sections, mine being a food and beverage cashier. We met our amazing hilarious manager Adrian and we had a nice tour of the lodge. I am actually pretty excited to start work (believe it or not!) The managers seem so nice and comfortable with their staff, we are asked to work hard and be friendly to the guests but that doesn't mean we can't chat to each other whilst working. Also, they try to accommodate days off for couples! This was something I was really worried about because I want to spend the holiday part of my working holiday with my perfect amazing man Colin! Who wouldn't? Happy to hear I will at least get one full day with him!

We finished early today and walked back to Charleston to meet up with Chelsea and Ollie! We all went for a nice long walk to Lake Louise, which is actually quite a bit more up hill than I expected! It took an hour to get there, we were just in total awe of the amazing-ness! The aqua blue of the water is actually caused by the constant friction of the mountains crushing against each other. The dust mixes with the glacier and runs into the lake, thats what causes the great colour! So if you took a glass, it would be clear on the inside - you need the dust to make the magic happen!

We have made heaps of friends! We met Daniel back in Vancouver, he was travelling with Darcy, James and Gill. I am doing food and beverage with Dan and Gill (two awesome peoples). We then have Chelsea, Ollie and April. We hung out with these guys in Vancouver as well, had a family dinner night with them tonight - Chelsea makes an amazing soup! Have become really great fast friends with them and can't wait to hang out with them more! We also met Allen, Bonnie and a couple of others. Allen lives with us in our apartment and Bonnie is working with me in F & B! She also makes the best pastas!! Loving family dinner nights here! Last night we all had pasta and played kings -- ended up being one where we sung our national anthems outside, ran around trying to find the little green man and playing games of I have never. Definitely an awesome night to get to know and just chillax with some really awesome people!

Vancouver to Disaster!

You are probably curious to the title. Let me start at the beginning...

Vancouver was beautiful! We had an awesome easy going trip from Seattle with the Quickshuttle bus services. Our bus was practically empty and our driver was so sweet and helpful! We checked into the Samesun Hostel on Granville St. We did have a little bit of a mix up with our room and was originally put into a 4 share room, this was a nice easy fix though so Colin and I did end up in a private double bed room. Now staying at the Samesun was AWESOME!

We had delicious food and awesome service at "The Beaver" downstairs and met some of our fellow "Working Holiday Club-ers" heading to Lake Louise (some off to different areas). It was so good to have a drink and just get to know everyone! And so far, everyone has been incredibly nice and awesome! It was also a relief to hit it off with so many people, there is always this worry that you might not get on with anyone and the whole adventure will suck but we learnt something ----- HAVE A DRINK! Oh that's right, we are Aussies, all you need to do is have a drink with someone to become their fast friends!

Because we got in a little late, we didn't bother trying to organise any of the important stuff - just strictly chillax time with our new mates. On Thursday morning however, we had to get our serious faces on! We headed straight down to the Sinclair Centre to get our SIN (Social Identification Number). Here we thought it would be a huge hassle, waiting in long lines and signing heaps of paperwork. It actually went by super quick. We were in and out within 30 minutes and everyone was super helpful. From there we went straight to CIBC to organise our Canadian Bank Accounts, this took a lot longer but wasn't bad at all. I think it took long because we were chatting to our Account Manager quite a bit. But wasn't an issue, we got all our accounts all sorted and ready to go!

Afterwards Colin wanted to go on the Samesun group adventure of the day to Grouse Mountain. We were under the impression that we would be catching a cable car to the top for $10. When we got there, it was a 2 hour strenuous hike to the top! We were going to turn back, both of us in jeans and winter clothing. But there was something in us that liked the challenge! It did take us two hours to travel to the top!! AND it was torturous! We did love the views, the nature, the squirrels and the amazing fresh air but the hike itself was horrible!

The top was stunning! We could see Vancouver and all the amazing nature! Just knowing we hiked a mountain together (without fighting or anything) was perfect for us, so we bought Grouse GRIND shirts. We had the opportunity to see some gorgeous Grizzly Bears as well! Loved them so much! If you're keen for an awesome hike with amazing views, you should totally do it! BUT wear appropriate clothing! Tights and a singlet is all you need!

We reached the Beaver around 8pm, incredibly sore, tired and hungry! This is where we met up with a group of awesome people, played trivia (coming in second!), ate burgers and had loads of drinks!! It was definitely an awesome night to end a pretty amazing day! In bed at 1:30am, we needed to get up early to pack, check out, sort out phones, do some shopping and then catch a bus.

All of this went very well to plan! UNTIL the bus!!

We purchased bus tickets at greyhound.com, confirmation and e-tickets both received and printed, ready to go. We headed to the terminal nice and early!

WORD TO THE WISE:
Don't take heaps of bags! We alone had 4 suitcases over 30kg, then 2 carry on bags. The carry on bags weren't allowed as carry on, and had to be added as luggage. Over all we shuffled heaps of things and ended up having to pay $180 for the bags - so make sure you have what you need and also look at the luggage limits on the buses.

We then had the service woman tell us that we are not on the bus! Just to make our night a little more hectic! We had purchased our tickets through greyhound.com, we had them there with us but they did not register to the manifest on the Canada system. We were then told we should have purchased the tickets from greyhound.ca not .com. This just didn't make any sense to me! Why would anyone sell tickets on a website if the tickets weren't going to work?! I mean, what the hell (excuse my French)!! Shouldn't of it redirected us to the correct page or not allowed us to make the purchase if it wasn't going to work?! GAH!!

We had to wait for the midnight bus which would take 16 hours instead of 14! SO HORRIBLE! We ended up going back to the bar for dinner and drinks until 10:30. The nice part was that Greyhound did mind our luggage and we did spend some more time with our mates. It was bloody frustrating though to be told that THEIR system had f**ked up and we were being punished for it. We later found out that another girl had the same issue.

So to all people going anywhere via Greyhound, call up to make sure your tickets are on the manifest a few days before!

That's why we called it "disaster", it just made our lives a lot harder - but I guess it could have been worse!

PS: If you're looking for an awesome desert while in Vancouver, the Tree Cafe lives up to their reputation to having the best cheesecake! Go and indulge!

Seattle to Vancouver

Seattle is very much a snuggle area! From being in nice hot weather, finally we were in overcast foggy and chilly conditions - which just makes us instantly want to snuggle up and do nothing..

That's practically all we did on our first afternoon! We checked into the AMAZING Hotel Hotel then sat in the common room on our laptops for ages. When it came to dinner time, Colin had to really talk me into going outside for a walk around the streets. We walked around the streets for about an hour and a half before deciding on having pies at Pie - a little cafe pie shop next to our hostel! Amaze-balls pie though! If you get a chance, pop in and grab an English Meat Pie! It actually tastes like a good Aussie one! The staff were über friendly as well, we even cut up and shared our Voodoo Doughnuts with them (partly avoiding eating so many). Afterwards though, we just snuggled up in our very comfortable bed and watched a movie on my lappy. Very chilled night indeed!

Tuesday we had some accomplishments to make. We had a massive sleep in, then went on an adventure to find the Freemont Troll! We made the silly mistake of assuming that the troll was under the Freemont Bridge, we must of been walking up and down and across that bridge for about an hour before we started heading back to our hotel to find a sign pointing to the bridge next to it! We did head over that way and finally found the amazing troll art piece! I have been in love with this troll since I saw it in 10 Things I Hate About You! Unfortunately, someone had spray painted "tags" all over it. ---

That really makes me sick, someone just has to go down to an awesome art piece and defile it because they felt like it. Wow random stupid stranger! You are soooooooooooooo cool for tagging something thats culturally beautiful! Congratulations for being the worlds biggest spoilt stupid moron! I hope someone goes spray paints a giant dick all over your car!!

--- RANT OVER

I am still happy I saw the troll ^-^

Colin and I then headed over to the Gasworks Park, wow this was beautiful! It was almost post apocalyptic. The juxtaposition of nature and machines was just perfect, it gave me goose bumps. Just picture a giant rusted machine of bright oranges and reds mixed against lush nature of bright greens.

Once we had our bit of fun, we had to sink into reality. Re-packing. Not the funnest of things to do, thats for sure. We needed to get the summery stuff out of our "carry on" and put some warmer stuff in there. A bit of a shuffle, especially with all the new stuff we have bought over our little holiday. It was managed though, with a bit of a break even for a nap.

Around 4pm we headed downtown to the markets. WOW! I love markets back at home but here its just amazing! Its huge and with everything you could possibly think of! We did buy a lot of delicious snacks - I couldn't eat dinner I was snacking so much. If you like food, this is the place for you! Wandering the market was probably my favourite part - seeing all the art, food, designs, everything. We bought our first ever christmas decoration as well! It's made by the Glass Eye Studios Seattle Company and is their 10th annual limited edition holiday ornament.

We watched the sunset over the water eating delicious french macaroons. It was a stunning sight. We then had something a little more substantial to eat and headed to the Can-Can for the Tuesday Tease! I love seeing cabarets, I went to one in France, it was so beautiful and elegant - plus - naked woman!! Who doesn't like seeing that? This was a little more down to earth with a rockabilly twist. It was interesting - I do prefer classic though. It was of course fun! The live band and singer were superb, our hostess was very funny and entertaining and the girls were great performers! We started drinking before the performance (wine for me) but I decided to try one of their famous absinthe cocktails mixed with tequila, vodka and other stuffs.. I have never had absinthe before and the last time I had tequila comes with a hilarious story of me. So I have no memory of the night after finishing the drink. I will let Colin tell you what happened..

Jess out..

Seattle is known for its fog, and with that reputation comes jokes that the zombie apocalypse will begin there. It just so happened that when I carried Jess from Can-Can to the car a heavy fog had set in. Once seated in the car Jess started to become heavily animated, she was convinced that zombies were hiding in the fog to get us. This soon became a paranoia and she was afraid of anything that moved outside, it took me nearly 10 minutes to get her out of the car once we got home.

The fun didn't stop once out of the car... Outside Hotel Hotel's front door, the guys from Pie had just knocked off and Jess wanted to hang with her new friends, who were nice people, but we had an early morning and needed sleep. Up stairs we go, and drunk Jess wants ice cream and attempts to climb out the window to get it. After a short wrestling match, a compromise to eat the caramel we had bought in the market we were in bed.

Jess comes to... With a sore head and no memory of the night before, and on that note we say goodbye to the United States of America!

The Road to Seattle

Los Angeles to Las Vegas, desert. Los Angeles to San Francisco, as boring as the desert. 10 hours from San Francisco to Portland, breathtaking!

Jess signed off staring down the barrel of a 10 hour drive to Portland, and neither of us were excited to spend an entire day driving. For those that haven't seen the Californian country side, once you leave the Cities and the Townships it is boring. Our trip was spent on the Interstate 5, so that is what my opinion is based off.

It wasn't until we passed the town of Redding that things started to change. We entered the mountains of Shasta Lake and what was originally barren plains of farmland became lush forests. Americans refer to this time of year as Fall, for us Aussies it is Autumn. It was hard to find the right words to describe how the forest lit up as the sunlight hit it. The reds, oranges and yellows set the forest ablaze with colour in amongst the green pines. It was just beautiful, and this scenery carried on all the way to the border. This was how we met Oregon, a brightly coloured beautiful State.




Before we reached Portland for the night we stopped in a town called Salem for Applebee's. No this wasn't the same Salem as the Witch Trials, however it was the first time we ate at an Applebee's! Our general opinion of the experience was great! Cheap tasty food, friendly service and a fun atmosphere mainly because the Colts beat the Broncos. At this point it is 9:30pm and we still have another hour to drive before we reach our pit stop in Portland.


Portland unfortunately wasn't a big stop on our trip, it was an overnight break at Hostelling International's Portland Guesthouse before heading to Seattle so in total we spent maybe 14 hours there, including sleep. Definitely our biggest mistake of this trip. Portland is the kind of city you want to live in, its a Big City with the Small town feel. So let me wrap up our experience there...














10:30pm we check into the HI Northwest Portland Guesthouse. It is one of three stunning Heritage listed buildings on the block that have been converted into hostel style accommodation. Sleep!

7:30a.m Alarm goes off... Sleep..
8:17a.m Wake up realizing we have no time. Showers are had, teeth are brushed, car is packed, we check out and buy a coffee from World Cup Tea and Coffee across the road. Relax... Walk in Couch Park across the other side of the road.

10:30a.m We arrive at Voodoo Donuts. Now these guys have revolutionized the idea of a donut! It's funky, it's original and best of all inexpensive! As with anything worth having in the States there is a line. Thankfully it wasn't an hour and a half like Mama's (not complaining) but within 20minutes we had a box full of donuts and we were ready to go for a walk in Forest Park.























11a.m Jess and I both love nature, Jess being a photographer likes taking photos, I like making stupid jokes about everything. We went for a lovely walk through Portland's Forest Park. It is huge, we only saw like a shard of ice after the titanic hit the tip of the iceberg kind of huge. Words do no justive so look at the pretty pictures below.

 12:30p.m. Goodbye Portland! We will be back! And we drove.

3:30p.m Three hours later, 43 punch buggies and an empty tank of Gas we reached Seattle. And yes we counted punch buggies, anybody that knows Jess and I knows that we have intense games but neither of us could believe how many we saw.

Stay tuned for Jess's post on what goes on in Seattle.

How to do San Francisco in a Day

Before we could reach beautiful San Francisco, we had to say good bye to our new friends at Pod Share (check us out on their site: http://thepodshare.com/2013/1635-1636-collin-jessica/) and walk down to see the Hollywood sign one last time. We may have stopped off at Santa Monica Pier along the way as well.

Six long hours later Colin and I found ourselves in an abundance of traffic coming over the Bay Bridge. Turns out the Bay Area Rail Transportation were on strike, so traffic wasn't so fun. Tired, hungry and frustrated, we slowly made our way to our destination. The roads remind me of a maze, and thats exactly how it felt trying to find Hostel's International on Mason Street. We had to park two blocks away from our hostel and to add to our frustration, the weather was a lot colder than what we packed for. The valet rushed us out with only summery warm clothes to walk back to our hostel. By the time we finally reached our room, I was ready to call it! I was so excited to come to the beautiful San Francisco and I just felt deflated and disappointed. Luckily though, I have the amazing Colin with me. He was in a better frame of mind and pulled me out of bed to find somewhere to eat. Now this is where everything turned around! We ate at Lori's Diner just up the street! Best burger, salad and milkshakes ever! It was our first diner experience and everything was delicious! It definitely set the mood for the next day.

We had been planning our San Francisco day based on an article by Josh Quittner - 10 things to do in San Francisco. We stuck to most of his plan:

6am - wake up and prep yourself for the day ahead! We caught the 6:53am cable car, get it done early (gets super busy later!) Jumping off at Bay Street, we started the walking part of our day to Pier 39. Here we saw the funny sea lions playing and barking at each other on their own little pier. We were also lucky enough to see the sun rise over the Bay Bridge in a bright glowing gold that leaked and flowed in with the water.

7:50am - Time for breakfast! We read and researched so much about Mama's that our minds were set on going there!! They opened at 8am, so getting there 10 minutes early would be fine right? WRONG! Turns out Mama's is THE BEST! It's where people line up and wait hours for their glorious breakfast food! The line we started in was pretty long, and thats with the restaurant already full and open. But our hearts and stomachs were set on having only the best of San Francisco to start our day. And I can tell you now, the wait is well worth it! We waited a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes before we were seated and ordered our food. I had the vegetarian eggs Benedict and Colin had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup! In a way to describe how good the food is, as you take the first bite and the flavour melts onto your tongue, I guarantee you will have a "the hills are alive with the sound of music" moment. You won't be disappointed!

10am - Head to Lombard Street! WARNING! This is where we realised that the map of San Francisco was completely inaccurate in showing the hills that make the city! We probably walked for 30 minutes, all up hill to the famous Lombard St! Full of tourists of course, so we didn't spend too much time there. We turned around and started walking down hill and back up again until we finally reached (puffed and red faced) Coit Tower. It is only $7 per person to go to the top and if you want a really good 360 look on the city, it's well worth it!!

11:30am - From Coit Tower, walk down the 400 steps of Telegraph Hill! Keep your eyes out for beautiful birds in the amazing flora as well! Everything there is so lush and green, its well worth it after walking up so many hills. At the bottom we then made our way to the Embarcadero to catch a bus/trolly to Castros!

12pm - Have a giant black penis for lunch! If your Aussie, it tastes like a giant lamington!! Hot Cookie is amazing for its yummy desserts and is famous on Castro St! It right by the trolly stop as well so you won't need to walk far! We bought a penis, cookie and pair of nickers! From there its a nice long walk up hill to Haight and Ashbury!

1:30pm - Your calfs and feet are probably feeling the burn now. But here you are in hippie central! It's a really groovy area with lots of cafes and cool little bizarre shops to go in. We were pretty buggered so we continued all the way to the very end at Golden Gate Park!

2:30pm - Golden Gates! There's so many beautiful things to do here, we only saw a few! Hippie Hill was a must as well as the carousel and the flower conservatorium. Here we found a nice spot to relax in the sun and eat our delicious cookies! We would have liked to have gone to the very end and of seen the windmills, but we were nackered! We had seen everything we had set out to in San Francisco.

We caught the trolly to Union Square where we stopped at Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop! for $25 you can fill a tin with the amazing chocolate!! We walked through the shops and finally got back to our room for a break at 4:40pm! I even napped for an hour from how tired I was! Colin and I decided to see a movie in the city before ending our night. We saw the new adaptation of Carrie! If you have read the book, you will (hopefully, like me) enjoy it thoroughly! It was really well done compared to the older version. I may be a little bias because I love Chloë Grace Moretz! She is so beautiful and such an amazing upcoming actress! We had minnie cupcakes for dessert and then headed to sleep.

We loved loved loved San Francisco! The European homes, the food, the history... just perfect. We were however shocked at the amount of homeless people in San Francisco. We aren't use to being begged for money at every turn, it was sad and even a little scary at night. I hope that doesn't come across wrong, one man even yelled at us for not having change and blamed our skin tone. We wish we could have given more change but unfortunately we ourselves didn't have that much to give. I guess here I am just saying be prepared for the shock.

Off to Portland!! 10 hours of driving .... not looking forward to it haha.