Rockies Review – Part 2

Wakey wakey. After our night out, it was visible on some of your faces that the departure at 7.45am from the hotel in Banff was not the easiest. But just like the two days before, we had a couple of hours on the coach to sleep. Even though this was pretty hard for you guys, ’cause the scenery was just too stunning.
We had breakfast at Lake Minnewanka and stopped shortly afterwards at the Two Jack Lake. Impressive views all over again! After another ride on the bus we came to our first active stop of the day: Lake Louise. Half of the group happily accepted the option of hiking up the trail to the Fairview Lookout. After 45 minutes of hiking uphill we ended up at a platform with an amazing view over Lake Louise and the Fairmont Chateau.

Lunch was then scheduled at the Lake Louise Gondola, where we enjoyed a delicious buffet. I really recommend it – so whenever you’re considering riding the Gondola, book it as a ride and dine. 😉 Riding the Gondola was just breathtaking. It was stunning to look around and see all the amazing scenery around you. Snowcapped mountains and Lake Louise just at the foot of the big chain of mountains behind us. Sadly, we did not see any wildlife on our ride in the Gondola – but oh well, you can’t have everything, can you?

The views were great, but we were still ready to see some more, so we took off to Moraine Lake. WOW! Turquoise-blue water surrounded by picturesque mountains and some chiselled rocks. Perfect to just reminisce, look at the beautiful nature or – for the active among us – to climb. I somehow managed to injure my hand, but don’t even ask how it happened – you’ll just get a story about a bear-fight you won’t believe anyways. 😀
Many of you asked me if we just couldn’t stay at this beautiful lake forever – just put up a tent and spend the rest of our lives at this beautiful place. Sorry, to those who wanted to and I didn’t let. But how could I let you miss out on the next stop? No chance…

So, next stop was the most peaceful part of our entire trip: Emerald Lake. Renting a canoe just paddling across the emerald-green lake. I cannot describe it with words. You must do it, to understand what I mean! After an hour of paddling around and enjoying the quiet surroundings, we headed back to the bus and already drove to our accommodation for the last night: The Mountain View Cabins.
They are literally in the middle of nowhere and offer the full nature experience. We had dinner and discovered the environment of our last night’s stay. Hammocks to look at the stars, trails that led “into nowhere”, a grill to roast s’mores and perfect views of the mountains around us. Who would want more? We chatted with each other, enjoyed the location and started playing games. With the hours passing by and the sun setting, we quickly figured what the most charming of the mountain view cabins actually was: the night sky. Just standing on a clearing between the trees – we all got stiff necks – but no regrets. Watching shooting star after shooting star, exploring the star formations and just watching satellites passing by, the milky way in the background – breathtaking!

On Tuesday we already had to say goodbye to the Rockies. We enjoyed breakfast at the Cabins and talked about last night’s fun. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the coach, so we waited about an hour for Lucien to pick us up. Even though we had a delayed departure, we caught up on the schedule quite well. We made a quick break at “The Last Spike”, where the famous Canadian Pacific Railway was finalized, had lunch in Kamloops and made it back to Vancity by 6.15pm. It was sad to say goodbye to Hayley and the rest of the Wolfpack, but I believe we will all keep the memories of this amazing trip in our minds.

I am so thankful for each and every one of you who joined this trip. I hope you enjoyed it, as much as I did. I hope to see you guys on Saturday in CRAB park, or next Wednesday for another PuB NiGHT.

– Elisabeth

INTERNeX International Exchange
International Village,
Suite 2077, 2079 – 88 West Pender Street
Vancouver, Canada -V6B 6N9-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

INTERNeX Goes Rockies – Review (Part II)

Hi people, as most of you probably already know, but I just can’t tell it enough – we’ve been rockin’ the rocky mountains last weekend with a group of 25 INTERNeX’ers and friends. In the previous blog post you can read everything about day 1 and 2 of our trip, click here to read it again! Here is the review of the last 2 days!

Day 3

We woke up in our hotel in Banff, a little bit hung-over from the party but ready to start the day again. From the hotel we directly went to the gondola to go up the mountain. We could walk from peak to peak once we got on the mountain. The view from the top of the mountain was absolutely breath-taking, we were just surrounded by huge mountains. When everyone was done taking pictures of the awesome view, we went down with the gondola again. We got back in Banff and had some time to eat lunch somewhere before we went to our next destination again.

The next destination was Lake Louise! We drove for a little while when we arrived at lake louise; it is this beautiful lake that was still half frozen. However the first few meters of the lake were defrosted, so some people who promised to go into the lake, jumped in!! After Lake Louise we had a little stop at Morraine Lake to take a few pictures.

Next stop Golden, where we had a bbq and campfire! In my opinion the most awesome night of the whole trip! Around 100 people were sitting around the campfire, first doing some games and later we got a guitar and everyone was singing! We did those things that are typical when you have campfire; ghost stories, singing songs, marshmallows etc. We sat there the whole night, because it wasn’t even cold! Also, during the night we had a quick lesson of line dancing by our tour guide Adam. It was so awesome to see about 80 people doing the same dance! It really added to the Rocky Mountain experience. Perfect ending of day 3!

Day 4

On the last day we woke up in Golden after an amazing night with bbq and campfire! We had a quick breakfast and we jumped in the bus again. We stopped at a place where they had the ‘Last Spike’. Our tour guide was telling us that they used to have golden spikes on the railway, but they always got stolen. At the place where we stopped they still had the “Last Golden Spike’’.
After seeing the last spike we jumped in the bus again and we drove to Enderby Flea Market. We were getting a name of someone else in the bus, and we had to find them the most horrible, ugly, weird gift that you can wear! When we got back on the bus everyone got their present and we looked hilarious! Some were wearing pajama’s, others weird hats and Klaas-jan had the honor to wear a bra! Meanwhile we were heading to Kelowna. We grabbed some lunch, took some pictures and got back on the bus again to, sadly, go back to Vancouver again!

We had the times of our lives on the INTERNeX Rockies trips and that is also thanks to you! So, we would really like to thank everyone that joined the trip and we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did!!

Cheers,

Your PR-team

INTERNeX International Exchange
Suite 200-211 Columbia Street
Vancouver BC -V6A 2R5-
Web: www.internexcanada.com
Phone: +1 (604) 662 8149
Email: pr@internexcanada.com