And now for part 2 of Banff. I will begin within what is the most breathtaking view, in my opinion.
Now THIS is beautiful. This view is in the opposite direction of Banff, with other snow-capped mountains in the distance. Many of my pictures are from this similar view, just at different angles.
Proof that I was there! I am standing here near the top of Tunnel Mountain. Taking my photo was a traveler from an Asian country I will not name here. As I did for most people I met, I asked why he was travelling to Canada. His response? “I want to try weed!” This is certainly the most hilarious and perhaps most honest response I could have received. Apparently people are hung for smoking weed in his homeland. I didn’t get his picture or name though, so if you’re some foreign police force wasting money on cracking down on this, don’t ask me for help!
The beautiful Bow River runs through Banff. In this shot, you see the river in the middle, mountains in the distance, and a still-snow covered shoreline in the foreground. Even without lush greenery, I think seeing remnants of snow is a benefit.
The True North Strong and Free! Seeing Canada through the eyes of a tourist without politics gave me some sense of pride. Places like Banff are what people in other countries see about us in tourism brochures. I think this is a good thing too. Banff is a nice place with tourism done right. The main attraction, the mountains, is free for anyone to use. Your enjoyment of this place is not limited by the amount of money you have.
When I arrived at Banff, it was almost dark. Since I only had about 24 hours here, I didn’t want to waste one night, so I toured the small downtown at night. Driving this motivation to roam about was the fact that the room at the hostel was a complete mess with garbage all over the floor left by previous occupants. So there I was in downtown Banff at 9 PM. Most things were closed, but a fudge shop was open. I bought a block of fudge which turned out to be $10. Ooops! But it was good anyway!
When it was time to return to the hostel, I asked a bus driver when the next hostel bus would come. It was a little while, so I decided to check out the grocery store. Well, I missed the bus. So I asked the first bus driver who came along when the next bus was, and he recognized me. He told me the next bus wouldn’t be for an hour. He felt bad, so he says “Oh what the hell, this is Banff, hop on” and he took me where I needed to go anyway even though it wasn’t his actual bus run. This is what I call hospitality.
That’s all for my trip to Alberta.
