Destination Canada!

More than a year has passed since my last trip (http://docte-gaby.travellerspoint.com). It's been too long! After a very busy year at work, I'm desperate to get away from it all. To be back on the road, exploring remote wild areas... To relax, oxygenate and refresh my poor atrophied brain...

This time, I chose to go to the Canadian Rockies! As big an impression as the vast desert spaces of Arizona and Utah made on me (and I definitely think I'll go back to it at some point), I've been longing for some "proper" mountains! Rocks, lakes, streams, pine trees... I expect the Rockies to be both similar and different to my beloved French Alps. We'll see.

Departure is set this coming Saturday! Although my tickets were booked a while ago, I've only recently started preparing seriously... :-D So I'm quite busy and tired right now. So far, everything seems to go well. :-)

I'll try to write more here later, but my brain is fried for today and I gotta go do some more shopping and a packing test (will it fit?)... See you soon!

Pour une approximation Googlo-Francaise:

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgable.travellerspoint.com&sl=en&tl=fr

N'oubliez pas de mettre ce lien dans vos marque-ta-pages!

I went to bed at 2 AM yesterday... packing, triple-checking everything and deciding what to put in my iPod. That last thing took the longest time!

I hope I won't have to pay extra at the airport for my luggages. I took a fair bit more than last year (but I'll be much more comfortable!), and I'm a bit over the 20 kg limit... We'll see I guess.

So that's it now, I've started my journey! There is no coming back. I've left home this morning. A friend gave me a lift to work (thanks Hemal!). Another friend (my new boss actually...) is giving me a lift to Cheltenham's bus station (thanks Prashant!), where I'll take the coach to the airport. Then another ride to the nearby hotel... My plane will take off tomorrow morning, 11 AM. Hopefully, I and all my luggage should be aboard.

I'll be travelling with Maxwell. Remember on my last trip how I said I wish I had some company? Well, now at least I'll have someone to take in pictures. :-) Maxwell comes from Canada and is going home to his family. He's very excited about travelling in the cabin, rather that stuffed in a Fedex cardboard box like when he came over here...

So now he's with me all the time. Today, he's been trying to prevent me and my colleague Jason from working...

I don't know when will be the next time I've got access to the internet, so stay tuned!

The project I've been on at work since January must have drilled holes into my brain... I guess it just goes to show how much I need proper holidays!

I left Cheltenham as planned on Friday after work. At the time, I was a bit stressed and down because my iPod was nowhere to be found. After all the time I spent filling it up with good tunes! Listening to songs while driving in remote locations epitomises the spirit of freedom I love in my trips. So losing my iPod, nevermind the money it represents, was a big blow. I had my "taxi driver" :-P make a detour by my place to double-check I hadn't left it there. But it was nowhere.

Some time later, the 222 coach was taking me through the Cotswolds, heading to Gatwick airport. The lady driver was fun and accepted Maxwell onboard provided he was well behaved. The country side was alive with sun light, sheep and green pastures. I was cursing my bad luck banging my head against a wall tagged "What the hell can I have done of this bloody iPod?" It was not at home, not at work, not in Hemal's car, and not in any of my bags.

Thinking about my Yoga lessons, I tried to accept the situation. In that I failed. So I tried to accept the fact that I refused to accept the situation. That worked and I felt a bit better. Then a little voice told me to look again in my bag.

With less frenzy than before, I looked carefully. The bugger had found its way inside a half-open cardboard pack of biscuits! Woohoo! Now I was fine. I was on my way, the real trip can commence!

Arrived in Gatwick airport, it was easy to find the shuttle service to the hotels, and I finally made the hotel at 10.30 PM.

I was trying to get used to people's reaction to Maxwell... I was carrying a bit backpack on my back, and a smaller one on the front. The small backpack is actually designed to carry a snowboard, but I used it to strap Maxwell, like a baby. The result was quite funny! :-)

So here I am at the hotel. "Your booking is for yesterday", the receptionist tells me with regrets. I start denying. It can't be possible. But there it is, on the paper I printed myself: Thursday 24. How could I make such a mistake? With even more regrets, the guy informs me that they are fully booked tonight. Great.

The guy called 3 other places and eventually found me something. In the end I just lost an hour of sleep and 50 pounds. It could have been worse! :-)

Saturday starts better. No problems at the airport. No charges for the luggages. No one asks Maxwell for his passport. His label says "Made in China", so maybe they could have been difficult.

Maxwell went through the X-rays at security. I took a picture, but the security guy had me erase it (and he checked). After the X-rays, a security lady took the bag with Maxwell. I smiled and asked if he did something wrong. It turned out I had forgotten a bottle of water in my bag. Maxwell's integrity was therefore preserved.

Maxwell was eager for take off!

The flight was okay, but boring. The entertainment system was not very good: it was more like TV than on demand video. You couldn't pause, or rewind, or add subtitle. You couldn't start a movie at the beginning, unless you happened to start watching when it was starting. And the selection wasn't very good. Canadian Affair, boo!

Watching Buzz Lightyear!

I'm not sure Maxwell was supposed to do that...

8 PM. Time for... lunch!