Ahhhh!

We awoke at 7.30am and didn't get ready till eight, we still had all our packing to do and get to the greyhound coach station by nine!..it was AWFUL!, we were rushing around and just shoved all the food in my bag (which caused all my clothes to become sticky cause the sugar and oatmeal and syrup burst everywhere!!!) which frustrated me!. We then managed to get to the greyhound coach on time and arrived at the station at 9.15am impressive!..We got on the coach to lake louise which took around 45 minutes...so we jumped off and due to my research the night before i had managed to get directions for the hostel, a guy tagged along with us cause he had no idea where he was going (we have known him bout four hours and we don't even know his name!)...haha, we then booked our canada day tickets and went to the information centre where we asked for things to do in Lake Louise...the guy brought out a map and basically scribbled out all the entrances to the town..cause of bears!, bears have surrounded lake louise, lets hope we don't run into any in our hikes...! the hostel is really pretty and big...theres a sauna in it and two games room and a massive screen tv..however IT IS SNOWING!!!!!....we are gonna be in for a cold night -1*C here!...brrrr..glad i brought a jumper!...we have looked around and its really pretty, might go see a bear safety film thing tonight...or go on a midnight hike with the hostel!!..:D

we went for a meal last night..and got a starter, two loafs of bread, a main, a dessert, two cokes, a coffee..all for just £12 (£6.00 each) which was super!!!!

Ain't how fast i get there, ain't about whats waiting on the other side! its the climb! (8)

Well what can i say! today i am so proud of myself we walked up Sulphur Mountain which is:
Starting elevation: 5200 feet
Terminal elevation: 7484 feet
Distance: 3.4 miles (one way)
Difficulty: moderate to strenuous!

(i dunno if taht means anything to you but IT WAS BIG!)

oh and lastest update as i forgot to put it in!

when i was running for the bus my shorts fell down! it was so embrassing cause they are wayyy to big for me!...it was so bad!

Steff freaked out when she saw a moose so we had to walk in a different direction which added like 100 mintues to the jounrey cause she is a scardey cat!

The hike was awesome...we had a full FREE breakfast(the most expensive thing on the menu) ! (eggs, sausages, the works!) and we headed up, it took us 1.30hrs when it was meant to take 2-5 hours so we were proud of ourselves...it was hard work but i felt disappointed when at the top of Sulpher Mountain we saw the mountain we climbed 2 days ago and it was tiny!, however Suplhuer Mountain was easier which i didn't undertsand probably due to the fact that on the top of the mountain theres a place to sit! and we brought a drink and realised we didn't have enough for the gondola (the transportation which takes you down) so we walked down and it took us guess how long??!......3 hours! thats cause we were tired and couldn't be bothered!...on our hike we saw 7 mountain goats some chipmunks (which nearly bit off a child's finger) and some birds which creeply followed us on the trail!.

rafting was funnnnn!

i am exhausted after the hike, certainly cause we did it in non-hiking stuff...it was rather hard! we then sat outside a very posh hotel and we looked a state! and felt very standing outsidish with sweaty hair and red faces!, there was a deer stopping all the traffic!...which was funny!,

to be honest Banff is great, the people are lovely and theres so much things to do, tomorow we are heading to Lake Louise! where we are staying for Canada day which will be great!

we heard england got kicked out the world cup...awww ahahahahahahahah!!! and i don't know why you are cheering those from scotland as they never even got into it! mwhahaah!.

i have to tell you about this convo between our (new zealandish)rafting instructor and a man named ward..
RS: have you seen any bears (cause he is new zealandish it came out beers)
Ward: yes i have had some beers
RS: No Beers..like the big grizzly things that go rawr
Ward: oh you mean bears?
RS: Yes beers

haha :D it was classic!

photos will be up as soon as possible of rafting!

28 June Evening

Emily made fahitas that were surpsingly amazing! if i must say so!, we shared them with a girl named Kathyrn who is from England, it was nice to talk to someone else from the UK. I tried my first piece of beef jerky today, i can say that it is something i can live without! bleck i don't see how anyone can eat it!....we went to a sweety shop and brought sticky rock!, it was really good....i think i'm gonna have an early night! tomorow we are planning to hike to Sulphur Mountain! which is ten times the size of the one i did....

We awoke at 6.00am for the day ahead. We were exicted and a little bit nervous, we got our swimming costumes on and headed down for some breakfast. The guy who cooked our meals was very chirpy at 7.30am in the morning, he was very funny and we couldn't help but laugh at him. He asked steff how she liked her eggs and she said soft...she turned bright red as she didn't even realise what he had said...later when he served it he turned to steff and said "here is your breakfast...with soft eggs"..it was so funny. We then rushed to the pick-up point where the bus was going to pick us up. We were even more exicted at the thought of going through the rapids on a rubber dingy...yes we were going white water rafting. We stopped at a cabin where we had to sign a declaration saying in the case of death the next of kin could be informed this freaked Emily out. We then carried on twenty minutes up the road and we passed a strong flowing river..Steff and I became very nervous as neither of us had done it before...when we got there we were greeted by a guy with ginger dreadlocks, he was going to take us down rapids, we were gonna die!...he handed Steff and I wetsuits which were very tight and uncomfy..he asked us what size shoe we were and was shocked when i told him i was a size four, he had to route around for my size. I was panicking the helmet couldn't fit on my head and i kept stumbling, i was worrying..the guy came over and fixed it and told me everything would be fine! he had to go through safety tips and he said "in the event of you being thrown overboard do step 1...." me and steff looked at one another, what had we gotten ourselves into!?. We then climbed aboard...i was shaking like a leaf and managed to hit 3 people including Steff with my paddle!...we entered the water, it was really fun going through the rapids! and the trip turned out safe! the instructor was a nice guy. steff, however steff nearly was thrown overboard but she managed to hold on tightly!.

We then went to the Hot Springs to overcome Emily's fear of being in a public swimming pool..it was her first time in a swimming pool in over 3 years and she was not looking forward to it..on our walk up to the springs we saw a moose!...the Hot Springs were disappointing but we got in free due to the hostel so we decided to go anyway!...I don't think i'll ever go to a swimming pool again!...but i enjoyed the heat!...

Just now Emily is about to make tea! so if we don't blog in the next couples of days its due to her poisoning us!...haha

xx

Banff!

here we are, we are in the beautiful Banff, the lakes are crystal blue, clear as water! and Banff is surrounded by mountains, it is very beautiful, the high street is very old fashioned, its not realistic its like streets in disneyland, full of sweet shops and gadget shops but very old style. very pretty!.

On our journey to Banff from Cranbrook, we passed stanley glacier and steff spotted a bear and a caraboo, and emily was asleep the whole time so she missed out.

We booked white water rafting for tommorow sorry dad there will be a huge gap in your bank account!!....

We climbed tunnel mountain which was EASY (for Steff!) i on the other hand was crying all the way up but we never stopped at all right to the very top! i was about to give up when Steff told me we were half way there! so there was no point in going back!...she motivated me to get to the very top and even tho it was a small mountain, i am very proud of myself for getting to the top! i wouldn't of done it without Steff!...Steff should be a personal trainer...

after all that burning of calories we went to macdonalds! to fill in the extra 1000 calories as all we had to eat was two packets of crisps that whole day!.

It started to rain for 10 seconds then it got really hot!!....

We tried to advoid tempatations but there was millons upon millons of sweet shops and finally we decided to give in and brought a block of cider toffee for our next jaunt up the mountain!....

we met a banjo-playing busker who was rather friendly and was very chirpy and he was dancing on the streets and made us laugh!...

we are exicted for tomorow and i'm exicted for wearing clean clothes that are just in the dryer as i blog!...

After the macdonalds we were high on sugar, we kept laughing and it was nice to feel full and happy...as Steff was becoming crabbit at me! (i'm usually the one that is grumpy when im hungry but durning this holidays its been mostly her!)

well we will blog tomorow if we aren't dragged underneath by the rapids....

i've just realised what kinda hostel we have come too, the iron is chained to a post and so is the ironing board so nobody can steal them :S

Canada day is on July the 1st, which we are both looking forward too!, free food,music,beer,rock and roll, and free stuff! and dooodling on the side paths :D!!

exercise-filled day

Today we spent the day walking around, i'm loosing my flab each day! YAY! (haha...i wish) we did some running around the hostels racetrack and it was my first time running a track without giving up and i managed to get round the track 3 times(pretty good for first time i'd say!) with steff motivating me to move my bum!, it was very tiring and i was sweating very much, i couldn't breathe when i was running so i was panting. We then took a walk to get tags for our bags walked back to the hostel then back again to get a mcflurry, all the fat we burned was put straight back on but we didn't care it was worth it!. This has been the first day where its been super hot and i've not been sunburnt!, ok the sunscreen has finally come out the bottom of my bag and its being used. I somehow managed to splat mcflurry all over steffs face, don't ask me how i managed to do it!. There was a spider in the room and Steff was freaking out as she thought it was a black widow spider..(it wasn't) but i removed it and i got no thanks for it just an order to make coffee! haha (i love steff really) :D. Emily managed to put the cheese and the ragu sauce in the freezer so it was all minging haa silly me!...

The guys round here have really big cars...haha Steff: "they have big cars to make up for the size of the trouser area" hahahahahahhahaha

In Cranbrook Safe And Sound! Banff Tomorow!

We are in Cranbrook which is a highstreet of shops and mountains, there is hardly anyone around and even the hostel/college we are staying at is completely dead, there is sometimes not even any staff, yesterday we had our first day of doing nothing but relaxing we were both very tired for some odd reason. We have started to have an unhealthy obbession with oatmeal, its so good! we eat it all the time! and this is all due to a girl named leanne who made us oatmeal for breakfast in Nelson.

Next time i go on a trip remind me to take less clothes, my suitcase is bursting at the zip and everytime i go to pack it takes me like 10 minutes to do the zip up! theres no space in it! argh!.

We finally met Bryce (one of the night staff who arranged to let us in) we thanked him for letting us in and he was really friendly and gave us directions to the mountains to hike(me and steff hiking..:S haha), we don't have the clothes to do a real hike!...he warned us that it would be very noisy at night cause there was a graduation party going to happen, it was really quiet! i must have been very much asleep...

I am exicted as we are heading to Banff tommorow! Steff says that Banff is really beautiful and we can maybe do our big event here (we get to choose one big ting to do but we still haven't decided what to do).I am exicted to move to a new place..not looking forward to trying to fit everything back into my suitcase! but yay...the greyhound coach is at 8.30AM, i haven't seen that time in a long while!, but it gets us into Banff at 12 noon so we have the whole day left to look around! and take alot of photos :D

Tonight it is my turn to cook, and my choice of meal is Fahitas, lets hope i don't burn them and set the fire alarms off!! :( haha

Your Talkin Crazy MAN!

Yesterday we packed and met Marie-Claude,she gave us french lessons and taught us french card games. Nelson was very beautiful, it was our last day in nelson so we decided to apperictae the scenery, its a very beautiful place with green mountain sides, blue water and yellow sand......and a HUGE...red bridge!. As Nelson is a small place it didn't take long for us to appreciate the scenery so we got an icecream afterwards. We phoned Cranbrook and found out the hostel did not open when we were due to arrive so already we had started to panic. We hung around for the greyhound coach which as usual we arrived two hours early for. Durning this wait we managed to devour a whole loaf of bread which was not so good. The bus driver looked the spitting image of Wario. The greyhound set off and it was full off rag tags including ourselves. Within the first ten minutes steff had been offered some jeigermeister from the hippy sitting opposite her on a non drinking bus...great!...this was the start of an eventful journey, this was a clearly a sign to show how the journey would be. As the journey continued so did the mans drunkness pyhcotic behaviour, he began preaching about peace and love and calling everyone brothers and sisters then he began (suprisingly well) playing the harmonica. As the bus rolled into its first stop Emily jumped off the bus to get some dinner while Steff looked after the bags in the seat, Emily returend to see the drunkard had occupied the seat next to Steff, steff looked terrified. He wasn't even speaking english, he was speaking in gibberish clearly he was semi pyhcototic and not just a drunk, he smelt really bad and had grass in his hair, while remaining calm we were patiently talking to him hoping he would go away. After 10 minutes of talking to him, the bus driver beckoned for him to approach the front of the bus. The bus driver asked him to leave the bus, next minute he was being abusive and rolling about on the floor and shouting at the bus, even tho the bus driver wasn't on the bus. The police shortly arrived to remove the man and his stuff, and the whole bus breathed a sigh of relief. The journey contiuned...where a man mistook Steff and I as twins..i was very flattered. The sun began to fade and we were approaching Cranbrook..tired and wanting a bed! the night staff never answered his phone so we were panicking even more but there was a guy waiting with the hostel door open for us. We were very thankful and he gave us our room keys and we were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows after a stressful and eventful day.:D

fire alarms and the works

ok there is not much to do in Nelson but walk...and walk a little more so thats what we did!...we went to look at the street market and lots of people were playing banjos....i wanna learn to play the uke!...it was all very interesting...we overslept and we awoke at 9.30am!!....which is a first!...we can no longer say the reason we are tired is cause we are jetlagged cause we have been here 2 week, we are more or less locals now....a man with a plastic lizard named Frank told Steff that the lizard liked her hat.. which was funny....we then decided to use the left over cereal so we made crispy cake but we left the chocolate in the microwave and forgot bout it until we saw it was puffin smoke and the whole kitchen was smokey...then steff kept singing "Minnie was in love with Smokie even tho he was a cokey"...today has been very sunny and hot!, lovely weather!...sorry this is short its 22.46pm and i'm falling asleep while i'm* Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

*typing this

"What Are Crisps, What Is A Crumpet??"

i asked Steff what we should write in the blog today and this is her input:

When i woke up this morning i said when i woke up this morning...i heard a disturbing sound..the sound of the jingle jangle of a thousand lost souls!

(ok.....)

Well we walked alot today, the whole of Nelson is on the base of a mountain even tho the shops are 5 minutes away its just up! straight vertical up!...my feet were killing by the end of it, we walked up past the shops, past houses till we reached a path (exactly like the railway) and walked along that until we heard a hiss of a snake and the (what steff thought) was a roar of a grizzly bear turns out the path was straight next to a road...haha silly Steff. We went to see the waterfalls, they were very pretty...we then went to sit on a bench beside the water...Steff has magically managed to get massive bruises on her knees..i think she may have fell when i wasn't there to look after her....and my back is all blistery (euck) cause it was a warm cloudy day so i wore my dress and didn't think i needed suncream cause it was cloudy haha guess i was wrong..guess i'll have to wear tshirts for a while until it heals....we then found an extra $100 in the bottom of my suitcase so we were plesantly suprised!!...there are so many ginger guys! i thought that nobody would have ginger hair...i think my sister is colour blind cause i said "hey look that guy has ginger hair" and she replied "no his hair is purple!" (in a non sarastic tone)....or she may just have been trying to be funny...we spoke of Kelowna and the people we had met and the giggles we had!, then we laughed at how Steff slaps anyone who invades her personal space, she has done it to alot of people..that is why nobody wants to talk to us..maybe that is a reason...Steff spotted an opsrey catching a fish, a small caterpillar on a leave and a huge snail...she is now called "Jedi" (reference to "men who stare at goats"). We love to sing, we both sing all the time certainly when we are making dinner!, we have arranged to meet up with Mark and Mike in Vancouver so we are exicted bout that! fun times :).

(side note to mum & dad: we hope you had a great time in Italy and took lots of photos and kissed the ash people in Pompei! :P we have phoned cranbrook! we are having an amazing time! love you guys!)

Silly Questions,Big Cakes And Good Food :)!

For the last two weeks, we have been living off pasta for dinner so we decided to make a change and we brought some proper food, steff made an awesome shephards pie, it was delicious...she was an master chef extradionair!, today we went to look around, we had breakfast with Leanne (the woman we went for dinner with last night) and then we walked, after four days of sitting on the beach, we realised how hard it was too walk and we both had become very relaxed and ok with the idea of not walking far, we both became out of breathe really quickly, and boy its nerve racking that we are meant to be going on a 2 hour hike tomorow and we can barely walk uphill to our hostel!...we decided we would take a walk to a bridge, when we got we realised we had forgotten the camera!, so no photos have been taken of Nelson yet!!, outside our hostel was a bunch of hippies who were all crowded together with signs and a fire engine and music was playing, someone even had bagpipes! we travelled eight hours just to get away from them and here they were right outside The Dancing Bear Inn, at lunch we decided to treat ourselves and brought two cakes the size of our heads literally, no joke!. They were huge!!! and we also had coffee! it was awesome!!!, we are really enjoying ourselves, we keep excepting to see people we know from Kelowna when we walk down the streets, but its gonna take a while to get used to the idea that we might not ever see them again!, the weather has been really sunny today!...
"Do you get sheep in Scotland?"
"Do you get planes in Scotland?"
"Do you get lobsters in Scotland?"
"Do you have marmite in Scotland?"
"Do you wear kilts and play bagpipes in Scotland?"
are some of the questions we have been asked....we find it funny the idea people have of Scotland!!..

time is flying by so fast, we have almost been here 2 weeks, it doesn't feel like it, it feels like we have only been here like four days, we have done so much so far, we are wondering if we should rent a boat and go riding on the lake...or ride in a helicopter, i don't think i am brave enough to do a bungee jump :(, id of liked too but!!...

well goodnight from us and good morning to you all and hope you all have a great day!

Bye Bye Kelowna,Hello Nelson

We said goodbye to Kelowna which was a very hard thing to do as we had become attached to the people at the Same Sun hostel, emily didn't want to leave neither did steff, we all met people we will never forget. we headed to the greyhound stop which was about 5 miles from the Same Sun hostel and we walked, without water and it was so hot, but it was a very enjoyable walk, we then sat on a coach for 6.40hrs to reach Nelson. We had heard mixed things bout Nelson so we were kinda worried, some people say its full of druggies and theres nothing to do (hey! sounds like the hillfoots) and others were saying it is a very pretty place. after the journey, we heard a woman saying she was going to the dancing bear inn so we walked with her to the hostel, the dancing bear inn is really small and cosy, but there is only one shower with a lockable door! which is awesome! and space enough to put your clothes without them getting wet!, it is very homely, we then placed down our stuff and went out for dinner with the woman, it was delicous and cheap! but to have something other than pasta was awesome! :), not that i am complaining pasta is awesome!!...when we arrived at nelson it was thunder and lighting!!, it was very beautiful, everything is like a 5 min walk from the hostel which is superb!!

what'ta day

Today the weather is hot hot! Steff got sunburnt and she looks funny. Emily awoke at six AM in the morning and got ready and went down stairs and was greeted suprisingly by a guy she met yesterday named Mark. Mark asked her if she wanted to go for a walk and she went with him and steff stayed in bed, Emily arrived back at 8.30AM where Mark made her pancakes..how lovely and then Emily and Steff went to the beach alone where they sunbathed and ate like 300 packs of crisps...(Emily went to the counter and said "can i have a large chips please" and the guy handed her over a packet of crisps :S) Mark told us that they do not use the word crisps..infact he had never heard of it. We then went back to the hostel where Joel and Chloe invited Emily to the beach, she wanted to go but then they disappeared so Emily, Mark, steff, Brice, Johnny and Steven all went to the park to play frisbee and rugby. Emily and steff then decided to go for a swim leaving the guys but they soon appeared not long after they realised we had disappeared. LAST NIGHT EMILY PLAYED PINGPONG WITH A FRENCH GUY AND THEY MANAGED TO REACH 50 NON STOP PASSING IT FORWARD AND BACKWARDS....THEY STARTED PLAYING AT 7.30PM AND DIDN'T FINISH TILL 9.40PM. Today we met the guy Emily played ping pong with and this other guy, and they invited us for dinner but we declined but it was a nice offer!...

18th June 2010 Evening: Swimming & Spagetti

Well the night has dawned on us...the time i now 18.20 :) We both have had a very good day, we spend the afternoon swimming in the lake..it was VERY cold and nobody else was in it :)!, it was really awesome...then we had spagetti for tea and it was very messy and i had sauce all over my chin :( BAD TIMES!...tonight we are going to play snooker i think! again!, or do some karaokeee!, woo!...we are moving to Nelson in 2 days!...:D "the home of the hippies" or so we have been told!....

Tennis Ball Time

Hi its 3pm i know its a bt early to blog but steff has wondered off so i decided to blog while i'm here by myself...i'm off in five to maybe go swimming BY MYSELF :(! or read in the park...Today has been kinda dramatic, I swished the bread with my suitcase so we had flatbread for lunch!, ahhh! its better swishy then none at all!, well in the morning me and steff went our seperate ways for the day, we decided we would do what we both wanted to do today as i think she wanted a break from my stinky smell! :P, she went to climb a mountain...and i have been out wondering seeing Kelowna afraid that i might get killed!...not really..we then met up for lunch and she played catch we me with a tennis ball she had stolen from a young boy!..while i was wondering around i decided to sit on the grass and sun bathe when a old man came up to me and was like sorry we'll have to move you...he looked like a bouncer and was scary! not really...he was nice bout it!...Me and Steff believe the hansomest guys in the hostel are those with scruffy beards...! the kinda scruffiness that makes them look like travellers and it turns out those guys are the most nicest!...haha, well i gotta go i might catch up with Steff if i know how to follow a map correctly!...i hope you are all doing well! and we look forward to seeing yu all when we get back! :)

Skating Granny!!!

well well well, its been a good day :)!. We went to find a mountain to climb up but walked through an idustrail estate and thought better of it, so we then went for a wee wander, and we saw a roller blading granny!, she was old and was skating really fast!!!, we then fed some fish some grass...(not the drugs, the long stuff you get in fields)!, We then went to the beach and Emily wanted to go swimming in the lake but it was raining and Steff said no!!!!. We then went and brought a giant watermelon and shared it with a guy named Tom, He is from England and he is really cool. we then decided to play a game of snooker and attracted a big gang of drunk people who all insisted they could play better than us so they challenged us. Obv me and Steff won...not really, i would say we epically failed, we then met this tibetan dude called Phillip and this german guy called Yehn, they both played a game of snooker with us and we met our new inmates...who we never really spoke to as they kinda put their stuff down and ran out the room. Emily hit a guy's leg with the snooker pole...then he was like teasing her saying he couldn't go to work. Steff chatted away and everyone asked her to repeat herself at least several times as nobody can undertstand her scottish accent!. The funniest quote of the holiday so far must of been from Steffs friend Mike "Me and Steff can get a drink *pauses looks at Emily, and stops her*and YOU can get a pepsi how does that sound?"....Today was great, there was alot of people to talk to, i'm thinking tomorow nobody will remeber who we are but hey it was nice to talk lots of people...The weather became sunny in the afternoon and so we sat on the beach....the time is now 23.11pm this is the latest we have ever stayed up! in Canada...lets hope tomorow brings more sunshine and more sociable times!..

Sorry About The Delay

Well its been two daysish since we last blogged and i'm really sorry about that...we completely forgot!. Well yesterday was our last day in Jerico Beach and so we packed and got ready for the move to Kelowna, Kelowna is a small i dunno not a city...but in the hills next to a huge lake, its really pretty after a six and a half hour coach journey to the hostel coming into kelowna it reminded me of home, but it was much more prettier, Steff is feeling a bit strange as this hostel is where she met friends from the last time she was here and nobody is here and she is and its kinda weird, i hope you are all doing well, its been a week now we have been away from Scotland i hope you are all missing us. We were both tired when we got off the coach so we got a cab, LAZY! we know :)!, this hostel is different from the others, its very hippish, it is definately Emily's place to be, on the walls are sayings like "grab life and live each day to the max!" and "we are all under one sun". The music is playing into the window, i haven't heard music in a while so its all nice and its all songs from the UK so its familar songs which is nice. The dining area is all in one large table so means we can talk to people!. The saying "everywhere you go always take the weather with you" is true!.The weather is rainy just like Scotland blek!, which depresses us! our dream of swimming in the lake under the sun will never come true! lets hope it shines tomorow!! :) We never made it to the Buddhist Temple as Emily asked the receptionist behind the desk said it was REALLY far away like a days travel...:)! we will be updating tomorow...we hope you are all enjoying Scotland!....

The Museum Of Anthropology

Another glorious day here at Jerico Beach, We decided that today we would spend the off the beach as Steff got sun burnt "like a scottish red lobster with claws". The sun shone and we awoke for the first time at a normal time around 8.30am. We walked to The Museum Of Anthropolgy which was really amazing, altho the tour guide was quite dull, we saw lots of museumy stuff. On the way we walked through a "clothing optional" beach fully clothed and it was strange. We read a sign that said beware cyotees and Emily screamed when she saw a domestic dog cause she thought it was a cyotee...Steff said that she could live in Canada forever, i agreed its so pretty and it makes you wanna go and do exercise with the sun, the promanade, the beach, the sea, the hills..everywehre we look people are windsurfing, running, skating, jogging, volleyballing, hiking...what a different world it is from home, the most exercise anybody gets is turning on the tv, we really fancied going for a run when a guy named Rob asked us to join him but we are both really unfit, Steff is talking to alot of new people, i am however finding it hard to create a convosation as i am so shy but i am trying my hardest...we had lunch out for a treat then decided to go back to the hostel...later there is a get together outside so we probably will go, however last night we missed out on the movie night as Emily fell asleep :).

Lets Not Go To Work This Morning, Lets Not Wait And Head Out The City.(8)

we packed and got ready to say goodbye to Vancover Downtown. We looked back on the few days we had been there and we had a great time, we were even more exicted knowing we were moving to a new place. The place we are now staying is a place called Jericho Beach, yes you guessed correctly it is right next to a beach. I would say about a five second walk literally!. We go on the bus with our heavy suitcases and i found it a bit weird that the bus driver never spoke to us, i missed the hillfoot chattering bus drivers. What was more weird was you just place the money into a slot without even talking to the bus driver, it was all a bit weird. We got off and walked to our new hostel where we will be staying for the next three days. As soon as we entered the hostel it was a complete change in atmosphere from the last one, we got greeted by many people in the lobby and we felt extremely welcomed, this hostel is definately more warmer than the last. We then entered our room which is really big, big enough to breathe. We then headed to the beach for a walk and to explore. Taking my shoes and socks off and walking barefooted through the sand was an amazing feeling, We then found a place to lay and looked at the blue cloudless sky above us and looked at the view, in the distance was the city we had left. We were completely relaxed and care free. I believe that this is the best feeling someone can have, nothing to stress or worry about, it was extremely awesome. We felt like we belonged. We stayed at the beach for a long time until we decided that the sun was just too hot, so we headed back to the hostel where it is movie night so we are going to watch The Road and make some new friends hopefully.

A Long Hike and a Familiar Face

Another day awake at 5 40am, although this is a 10 minute improvement compared to previous nights, we went down to brekky around 7 45 which is also quite an improvement on the usual down-an-hour-early.
Today we decided to conquer emily's fear of heights and headed to the capilano suspension bridge, the weather was set to be roasting so we set off around 8 30am so it would still be cool for our hike there. The hike there was a little longer than expected, its funny how on the map these distances look so short, it turned out to be a 6 mile uphil treck which took us the better part of 2 hours from the hostel, we were both fairly knackered. Once we got there we got$10 discount for just being scottish (AMAZING) and we had a tour around the "temperate rainforest" surrounding the bridge.
Emily: i conqured my fear as i walked across the shakey bridge 150ft above ground level, which is "twice the size of the tajmahal" or so we were told. I was scared to start off with as it was rickety and higher than anything i have walked over before and it looked really unstable but i started to relax my grip on the rope when steff reminded me the tour guide said it could hold a boeing747.
It was a lovely day out, and we headed back to the hostel for something to eat. When we got back we heard that 1 of steffs freinds from last year was in vancouver at the same time as us so we decided to meet up. AND HE BOUGHT US ICE CREAM! Em thoguht he was going to be a weirdo but he turned out to be a very friendly guy. And we had a good catch up and em made a new friend.

EM GOT REALLY SUNBURNT!

The sun finally shone

we awoke at 5.30am, this is certainly a habit we are getting into, we decided to get up and ready, so yay warm shower.....we fell out in the second day cause Emily had lost the conditioner and the body wash, i fully believe it was my fault, i take all credit for loosing the items. We arrived only an hour early for breakfast, in time to watch mixico and south africa at the world cup and some very lively supporters for 7 in the morning. We then headed out around eight to book greyhound coaches for the 5 weeks ahead....we took the "scenic" route through gastown. Gastown is very beautiful however as you get further away from the city the more you start to notice little things: spray paint on shops and the very tasteless outfit of the lady infront of you. We felt very uneasy and both of us were not speaking to one another, a quick glance around and we could see that it was the wrong way to go, couldn't look anywhere for fear of the gangs and Emily tried not to look to the floor, we held our backpacks close to our hearts, Emily even broke out in a sweat, You could fell the tension and the intestity of walking through a place with so many gangs shouting at each other, Steff was quicking the pace, we were truely terrifed. We sighed a breathe of relief as we were out the rough bit, we were giggling just cause if you can't laugh then it will haunt you. Em was almost in tears and decided to go to the science musuem, which noticing the average age of the people around us was probably 5 we thought was a silly mistake, but it was fun. Altho we were the oldest there. We headed back to the hostel for lunch the long way trying to avoid the scenic route. When we returned we checked how far we had walked according to the map and steffs ruler we had walked 27 miles, we were pretty impressed until we realised the scale was not 3miles but .3miles so we had only walked 9 miles. We then decided to go back out again and took a walk around stanley park, which was 9 miles long. We saw toten poles and boats and the sun was shining, Steff was dressed for winter with her hat and jumper on she was melting, it was a lovely walk. 'Steff Norris can just scare away crows', 'Steff is coolier than Chuck Norris' haha, on our walk baby ducklings fell from the sky, it was raining ducklings, this woman caught one in her hat, and they must of been seperated from their mother. It was upsetting. We asked this family to take a photo of us and the camera was on the mode smile detection....we were smiling but the photo was not been taken, and the man who was taking the photo wouldn't give it back until he had fixed it, he reminded us of Dad. It was really sunny. We went to the shop brought fusty strawberries and then went to the beach where we spent a few hours, now we are eating pasta and playing card and vlogging :)!. Updating tomorow :)

The Rainiest Day in the World

After waking up a couple of times during the night emily decided that going for breakfast at 5 in the morning was late enough (breakfast doesnt start til 8). And so our first journey out of the hostel began at aroud 7 50am... and ended around 8 05am for a brief return because em forgot a belt... and neither of us had packed 1 so the hunt was on for string/twine/shoelace/DUCTTAPE!. After walking approx 500000 miles to try and find something to keep ems trousers from falling off completely we finally bought some rope. It worked for about 5 hours and stopped working at the rainiest part of the day: the long journey back from wherever we had walked to. Dispite a bumpy start, jetlag and terrible weather the day was a success. We went to the aquarium, which is better than Deep Sea World (sorry scotland), and steff attempted to feed emily to a giant plastic mosquitoe but it didnt work, shemay have to try harder next time. On the way to the aquarium we had a lovely walk through stanley park which would've been even more lovely had it not been so rainy you couldn't see 2 ft infront of your face, lets hope the sun shines a little for us tomorrow =)

Setting Off and Getting There

We waited at the airport, nervous and exicted to start our five week trip around Canada. The younger sister couldn't stop clicking her knuckles while the better sister sat calmly waiting for the call to our gate. We were exicted, we were on our way, on the plane we met this really friendly candian woman who told us about the weather, we were shocked when she said when she it had been snowing, we both looked at each other...our suitcases were full of summer clothes...we were heading for disaster. The flight went well, apart from the young sister puked her guts up :). When we landed it was 11.03am when we left it was 10.30am, we had just been on an 8 hour flight to arrive an hour later....it was strange. We got off the plane and asked for directions and got on this strange tranporting device like a monorail, it felt like a rollercoaster, eqvilent to our underground but above the bulidings.....it was smooth and cool. We then walked to our hostel which wasn't far but the younger sisters suitcase kept turning on itself. First impression of Vancover was that it was very busy, and it was not like what we had imagined don't ask me what it was cause i don't know. When we got to the hostel, we booked in and we realised we were here, we could relax and start the holiday. We went for some exploring and came across a shop so we decided to buy pasta and creme soup aka mushroom soup. What a banter we had when we returned to the hostel, we cooked the pasta and the younger sister found a tin opener to open the soup, however it was blunt so the tin did not open, so the better sister got a knife and tried to open it with a knife but it failed, we laughed and noticed a guy was looking at us strangely,we told him we couldn't open it and the better sister put on her damstrel in distress act and the guy took the tin and opened it. I personally felt embrassed but we said thank you and ate our pasta, it was delicous for some quick dinner we had just made up.