I and
Ali G. traveled to
Banff and
Lake Louise on Sun. Morning. That was my second trip and his first. Ali G. has been living in
Canada for almost
12 years. His family still lives in
B. C. We first went to Banff Ave. parked there and took a look. Then went to Banff Spring Hotel and around. The hotel itself is amazing. The building reminds you of old
German or
Austrian castles and is built from stone. The hotel is decorated with old fashioned furniture, paintings, curtains, etc. I forgot my flash in the car so didn't take any photo from inside.
After that we went to Banff Gondola. There was a short line and we rode all the way up while it was snowing. Then the clouds went away and shine shone and I took some photos.
Ali G. decided to stay over night while I was worried about my car, parked in a mall's parking lot. I made a few phone calls to Calgary Police Service and also the mall security to make sure that the car won't be ticketed or towed but finally decided to stay, although I wasn't sure what will happen! We had our dinner at
Old Spaghetti Factory, an
Italian restaurant as it's understood from it's name because
Ali G. is a very hard guy on food and doesn't eat everywhere.
Then had a room in
Banff International Hotel, a nice and not expensive but clean and quiet place to stay (We only pay
$139 for a large room with two queen size bed!) then we went to a bar with incredible live music.
Ali G. was not a good companion there. I insisted on drinking but he refused. There were too many beautiful young
Canadian girls there that we could have had a good night but he's not good at that either. So I only enjoyed the beer, the music and watching dancing girls. Although the band was an amateur one but they were so good. They even played
Highway to Hell of
AC/DC.
We left at about 02:00 AM and that's the time bars close in
Banff. One interesting thing: The town of
Banff is a smoke-free environment and of course all bars. There were many
Aussies and
New Zelanders there working as waiters, waitresses, cashiers and other temp. summer jobs.
The other day, after having our
breakfast, we headed to
Lake Louise while we had a plan for going to
Columbia Icefield but I saw reluctance in
Ali G. and I guess it was because he didn't want to drive that long (almost
2 hours) and didn't want to put more miles on his
Mercedes!
I was expecting a long challenging hike but very soon I noticed that
Ali G. is a sissy boy! So we hiked for about an hour or a little longer, took some photos and returned to
Calgary.
(Photo: A golf course in mountains! I took this photo behind Banff Spring Hotel)