CANADA Adventures Part1 (Sunday church, downtown fair, HIKING trip and BIKER café)

martaesperanza (65)in #photography • 6 years ago (edited)

Hello there Steemians, time came to share my favorite and most amazing trip up to date, to the beautiful land of Canada! Although I have done travelling to different countries over the years, this one was the biggest one yet! I dedicated a whole month to experience the riches of this place and have so much adventures to share with you!
I will share these adventures over the coming weeks along with occasional up-to-date creative blogs as per usual, so please be patient as there is A LOT coming your way!

(Early morning trip from UK)

I started my journey with a 9 hour long flight, I was fully prepared with my travel backpack to accommodate for any boredom while on the flight, to my surprise I was plenty entertained with the amazing views and the amount of movies available for watching on flight…. The airplane was so fancyyy. So different from shorter commute flights. Hehe

After 9 hours of flying I landed in Canada, Alberta! The tiredness faded and excitement kicked in! I was getting a ride to accommodation me and my boyfriend were staying at, my first thought was ‘’wow…. This place is so flat’’. I don’t think I ever witnessed fields stretching out so far in such a flat landscape…. (mind you, I’m coming from Wales where everywhere you see hills and all the roads are narrow and swirly). Another thought was how grand everything is…. The roads, signs, houses, malls- living in UK for 10 years, in multiple houses and multiple places- the size comparison is mental. Everything in the UK seems so cramped and tiny at this point.

We arrived at the apartment and dropped off the bags and chilled in the garden trying to stay awake as long as possible to avoid jetlag and adjust to time change. Next day I managed to successfully wake up in the morning feeling as fresh as a flower…. I started the Sunday by heading to a church, the Sunday mass is the best way to start off this trip, the community seemed so lovely, everyone was so nice and full of life and joy.

After the mass I headed to the city centre of Calgary where a fair was taking place. Opposed to the quiet suburban streets, the main city roads were closed and cluttered with people, food stands, clothing pop up shops, diy and other interesting gems. I walked across the wide stretch of a road, admiring skyscrapers, and observing the place and people. I managed to have some ice cream and a slush to cool down in the warm day. Walking through people got to be quite tiring after a while, as distracted by stunning surroundings it was hard to avoid bumping into people.

After that walk I found a small park to sit down and relax in, where kids were running into the fountains of water to cool down, some people were laying down in hammocks reading books. I sat there to calm down and regain some energy after that long walk. I admired surrounding skyscrapers, before deciding to head back and use up the rest of the day.

So here I went on a first hiking trip, to Kananaskis Country which was heavily covered in astounding nature, hills and pine trees. I found that route to be quite challenging (due to my weak knee), but with a knee brace I managed well. I found it impressive seeing people with mountain bikes that were completely acing the steep rocky hills I was gasping to walk on.

I walked along the paths, occasionally taking a random turn off-path to explore some of the in-depth forest sights. I managed to see such beautiful sights of nature, trees, rivers…. It feels as if I was in a real life fairytale… such a beautiful route.
I kept walking until my legs were giving up, and it was time to turn around. The air was crisp, fresh with a little scent of pine and moss. I was taking deep breaths in awe by everything I was witnessing, the warmth of the sun was hitting my shoulders, warming me up. I was exhausted after about 2 hours of trekking back I reached the entrance of the route… right where I started.

I had a quick look at the surrounding path… there’s sooo many. I was in such excitement but also a little bit of a dilemma. My heart was telling me to go explore more paths, but my legs and body were like…’’STOPP THIS NONSENCE NOW AND LAY DOWN’’. I listened to my body and decided to not push myself too far on the first day. Preserve the energy for another day and another trip.

On a way back I needed some more energy intake and it was time to hit a café and test out some coffee. Yes, I had two main items on my goal list to experience while in Canada… one was to experience as many trekking routes as possible…. The other was to experience as much coffee as possible, and with the never-ending refills, it seemed like I was in heaven.

I went to a place called biker café, where so many bikes were parked outside and tough guys were smoking cigarettes, it felt like I was entering a movie set. This setting seemed so perfect yet surreal to me. I ordered a coffee and sat on a table, observing the surrounding. On the table there were magazines of the bikes and car sort. Everything was themed I loved it all. I felt like I could really channel my inner badass in this place. I wish UK had more themed cafes of this sort. The coffee was delicious, and well deserved after that tough hike. As if I could top of this deliciousness even more, I went outside to surrounding shops which were very western-themed, to get just about the BEST ICECREAM I TASTED IN MY LIFE. I think the last time I hit that flavour jackpot was when I was in Italy, and that’s a tough competitor. Well done Canada, it’s been one day and I officially love you.