Goodbye to Waterton.

Our managers, Claudia and Darcy.

Yesterday morning, we said goodbye again, and forever. We had a lovely holiday in Waterton, and we did stop to think whether we should be leaving such a lovely place when summer's just beginning. But then we came to our senses, and remembered we don't want to work for a company we don't believe in, with co-workers who don't care about their jobs, sharing a flat with drunk, stoned teenagers. Waterton is lovely in summer, too lovely to have to spend 40 hours a week working. We spent our holiday walking, eating, talking, playing Monopoly, wildlife-spotting and spending time with awesome people. Hopefully the rest of our travels can be just like that...

And now we're in Banff, and I realise how much better Waterton is. Banff is beautiful, but crowded and touristy, and there's no deer on the pavements, and no community (I doubt the postmaster here would care about me). Ok, so I like peace and quiet, but even objectively, Banff is not as beautiful as Waterton. Waterton is so small that you're right in the middle of the mountains. In Banff, everything good is out of town. Apparently, the town has more gift shops than any other similar-sized area in North America. It's horrible.

But, we're having fun. Last night we went to a pub quiz, and won the first round but lost the second round. Today, we paid a stupid amount of money to ride the gondola up Sulphur Mt, and took lots of photos whilst surrounded by Australian and British middle-aged tourists. There are British people EVERYWHERE. Although, Banff gets so many Japanese tourists that there are actually shop signs in Japanese, and menus have Japanese-language versions. There was a question in the quiz yesterday about which nationality spends the most money visiting other countries, the answer being Japan, which is truly highlighted everywhere you look in Banff. I think Germans must be next in the list. Every hostel is Canada is full of Australians, Germans and British (the Japanese must stay in the nice hotels, hence spending the most money).