Sunday May 8th

I had decided I’d like to start my last day off with a nice breakfast. The girl at the hostel reception recommended a place called ‘SugarBow’, about a 15 minute walk away, so off we headed. When we arrived, there was a queue of locals waiting for tables – always a good sign! After about twenty minutes we were seated, and then had the hard decision of what to order for breakfast. Everything on the menu looked good (rare for me to find so many options), and we all chose completely different options, myself having French toast on home-made cinnamon toast.


We enjoyed the café’s ambience for an hour, salivating over the beautiful meals (the French toast is a tie with the French toast served at Gus’ in Canberra as the best ever), and then headed out for a walk along Whyte Avenue. Whyte Avenue was very much a Chapel Street, with trendy shops and cafes. Luke headed back to the hostel for a nap whilst Amanda and I looked in at the stores. I finally scored a pair of stirrup leggings at American Apparel (they are impossible to find!) and found an amazing pair of shorts in Lululemon, but unfortunately they didn’t have my size.

Heading back to the hostel, I needed to start tackling the list of things to do before I left for Calgary the next morning (and a whole new country, USA, in the afternoon!). Whilst Amanda and Luke went for a walk into the city, I tackled the job of packing. Since we’d had the car since leaving Whistler, the three of us had bought additional items with us – for example, snow boots, jackets, and food. The leftover food went in the ‘free food’ cupboard in the hostel kitchen and the boots and jacket were discarded, and I worked my way through the rest of my clothes and make-up, working out what would be coming and what would be staying.

I then retreated to the common room to use the internet. This was a real down-fall of the hostel – internet wasn’t available in the bedrooms. (There were plenty of other downfalls – no free breakfast; only one washing machine and dryer; thin, old towels; etc). I loaded all of my photos onto the laptop; synced my iPhone with my iTunes library; and even booked my flight home to Australia, having spotted a bargain flight on Expedia. (I was starting to get worried as the flights were hovering around $1200, which was much more than I expected to pay!)

When Luke and Amanda returned, we headed out for an early dinner – we’d skipped lunch, as breakfast had been so good (and big). During the past few days, every time we’d walked past a certain Mexican restaurant on Whyte Avenue there had been hoards of people waiting for tables. Since a queue of locals is always the best sign of a good restaurant, we were keen to try it, and at 5:30pm we were granted immediate entry. The food came out amazingly quickly but was a bit hit and miss – Amanda and my burritos were fairly average, but Luke’s enchilada was good.


Back at the hostel, the Monopoly cards came out for one last play before we retreated to our room to entertain ourselves. Let’s just say there could be some video evidence of me and some very crazy dancing!! Then it was time for bed, ready for my early start the next day …