What to do on the weekend?

Are you guys ready for the weekend yet? If you’re still looking for some stuff to do, don’t worry! I got you covered! 😊

First up, INTERNeX is finally going on another Rockies Trip!!!! 🥳 We’re all super excited, since it’s everyone’s first time in the Rocky Mountains! We’re gonna start our tour by heading to Hope and visiting Kamloops, Spahat Falls and then we’re spending the night in Blue River in mountain cabins! On Saturday we’re visiting Jasper, the Columbia Icefields, Peyto Lake and Golden.
Sunday is probably gonna be the most fun day! We’re gonna see the famous Lake Louise and Emerald Lake! There’s also gonna be a tour of Banff and free time to explore! Let me tell you: there’s a LOT to see in Banff! The city is super awesome! 😄 On Monday we’re gonna make our way back to Vancouver and adventure in the Golden Skybridge! It’s home to Canada’s highest suspension bridges and it was actually added as a new activity to the Rockies Trips this year, so I’m excited to see how everyone likes it!

If you’re staying in Vancouver, I also have some awesome ideas for you! If you’re into sports, I suggesting to watch the Canucks play! Obviously tickets to the actual playoffs games are wayyyy to expensive, so here’s some other ways to enjoy the hockey:
1) Go to a bar! Almost every pub n Vancouver shows the Canucks games and some of them even have really big screens! A good place to go is obviously the sports bar by the arena! Good&Co. Granville also has a huge screen and almost all the Freehouse locations have multiple screens and sound as well!
2) Get tickets for the away game viewing parties! The Canucks have been hosting lots of viewing parties at Rogers Arena when they have an away game. These are super affordable, with tickets only being $15-$20. But you still get the awesome atmosphere in the arena, celebrating together with sooo many fans! You also get a playoff towel for free at the viewing parties! 😉

I also heard that the northern lights might be visible again this weekend, so if you have time, you might wanna head to a beach and look for them! From what I’ve been told, they’re better visible through the phone camera, so make sure to check that! Let week they were visible best around 11pm to midnight, so you might wanna give it a shot and stay awake for a little bit longer this weekend!

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you have lots of fun! To everyone that’s joining our Rockies Trip: I wish you all the best; have fun and make sure to go for some ice dips! 😉

Toodles!

-Talea :))

How was the weekend?

This past weekend INTERNeX went on another Rockies trip and it was quite literally like walking through a stunning winter wonderland!! ❄️

We started Friday morning where we headed from Vancouver to Vernon. After a beautiful and scenic ride through the mountains we checked into our hotel and made our way to a resort to do some snow tubing!! This is a lot of fun and there’s also a few places in/around Vancouver where you can do snow tubing, so I definitely recommend!!😄 In the evening we just had some free time to check out Vernon or just relax in the hotel after an active day outside!

The next day we drove through Mount Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park and saw Lake Louise! I have to say, it looks super different in the winter but still soooo beautiful!! The entire lake is frozen which means you can walk on it and there‘s even the option to go ice skating on Lake Louise!! Truly an incredible experience!! Afterwards we headed to Banff which was obviously also covered in snow but it looked very idyllic with the snow on the rooftops and the streets and then the string lights all around town!🤩 In the evening we had free time again to explore Banff a bit or join our travel group for a night out in Banff, which was super fun as always!!😄

On Sunday there were a bunch of different options as of what to do. We could go icewalking or spend the day skiing or snowboarding at Lake Louise and for non-skiers there was also the option to take the Lake Louise Sightseeing Gondola and enjoy the amazing views of surrounding mountains. Another option was to go on the Banff Gondola that goes to the top of Sulphur Mountain where you can see Banff from above as well as the surrounding mountains!! Such incredible views – Banff looks so beautiful from the mountaintop!🤩 In the afternoon we headed from Banff to Golden where we sat down at a campfire and made some s‘mores with our entire travel group which was a really nice way to end off the tour’s last evening!

Monday was a pretty long drive back but we stopped at Craigellachie and saw the Last Spike of the Canadian Railway to learn about its historic significance for Canada. 

Overall it was an incredible trip and soo interesting to see the Rockies and the lakes in the winter! If you have the time, I absolutely recommend doing a Rockies trip in the winter as well as summer to compare because it really is so different! I hope your weekend was also interesting (even though I know it was super cold in Vancouver!) and make sure to tell me what awesome stuff you did next Pub Night!

Toodles!

-Talea :))

Fall in the Rockies

Can you believe it? We went to the Rockies once again and this time you could definitely feel the crisp autumn weather roaming through the majestic mountains. We were so lucky with the though, as it was sunny and all the leaves were dressed in gold like honey and wildfire. The contrast to the blue mountains and the dark green pine trees made the picture perfect at last. A highlight of the trip was to see Mount Robson’s mountain top which is only visible about 30 days a year! Robson is the tallest mountain in the Rockies and very impressive to look at. That’s not the only cool thing we saw, there were waterfalls and lakes AND we saw two bears, three elk and a mountain goat! They all came out to show themselves before heading into the cold winter season. 

Cold is definitely the right word to describe the temperature at the Athabasca Glacier that most of us visited to grab some pure clear glacier water and experience walking on the blue ice. The rest of us decided to take a walk to the foot of the glacier wich was beautiful but so windy that we had to hold on to our hats very tight. 😀 The Athabasca falls on the other hand were not that cold, they were just beautiful with their turquoise green colour of the water and strength, going down the cliffs, even creating a little rainbow. 🙂 

We arrived in Banff on day two in the evening and after an eventful day we started the night slowly with dinner and drinks at a bar. We tried Elk meat on Pizza and Burgers which is very typical for Alberta and of course we enjoyed a few beers with our food, enough to get us going to the club afterwards! This night we danced and drank and talked like we had all the energy in the world. We also met the people from the other tour that went to the Rockies, so that added extra fun to our night. 😉 

The next morning was not quite as much fun as you can imagine. Most of us slept for only three hours when we met on the bus to go have a lil breakfast at beautiful Lake Minnewanka. Two brave polar bears even went for a dip in the ice cold lake! The same two won our lake challenge which was going into every lake on our trip. There were 4 in total. The first one was Bow Lake, then there was Lake Minnewanka, next up was Lake Louise and the last one was Moraine Lake. I mean who can say they’ve swam in Canadas most beautiful glacier lakes? Not many, because trust me they are super COLD and you have to be a little crazy to do that. We even had people watch us go in cause they thought it was amusing watching us suffer in the cold water. 😀 The feeling when you get back out is indescribable though, the cold disappears and you feel like a new person. I highly recommend trying a cold plunge sometime as it also has many health benefits, but maybe start with something a little warmer than a glacier lake. 😉

The gondola was next on the itinerary blessing people with beautiful mountain views and an almost 360 degree platform to catch every single mountain top around. After being high up, there was some free time to enjoy the town of Banff with its cute shops and cafes. That day we also had our Thanksgiving dinner in Golden with the classics: turkey, mashed potato, gravy, squash, carrots, cranberry sauce and stuffing. It was delicious and the whole restaurant was booked just for us. 🙂 For dessert we had s’mores around the campfire and some used the appliances in the hotel including a hot tub, sauna and pool with waterslide. After all the dips in the cold lakes that must’ve felt really good! 

Overall it was an amazing trip with so much to see and so many fun activities to do. We had an unforgettable time and know we’ll be back one day. Now it’s winter season in the Rockies, we caught the last nice weekend before snow hits soon. But for all who couldn’t go in summer/fall, let me assure you, the Rockies are beautiful in the winter as well, actually I’d say they’re always worth a visit. 😉 

I hope you had a great weekend as well and I can’t wait to hear more about it at Pub Night.

Cheers, 

Laura 🙂 

The Rockies – weekend review (Part 1 of 2)

Hi everyone!

Wow, what a breathtaking weekend! Such a beautiful trip together with Moose Travel organized by INTERNeX; a road trip filled with so many sights and loads of activities along the way.

I am happy that I got the chance to experience this with you guys and I hope there will be many more, the Rockies is a blast and you can’t miss it!!

Day 1

We left Vancouver behind for a whole weekend on a road trip and our first overnight stop; Jasper, Alberta.

Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park

On the way we make our first stop in beautiful Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park, which is not that far from Vancouver. A magical forest that gave us a beautiful start to our journey,  with huge trees and a waterfall that reminded us how beautiful Mother Earth is. 

Our bus ride continiues with great Indie music as the weather gets warmer, we stop at Clearwater for lunch and a fantastic swim in the lake. A lake located among forests and mountains, wow, definitely worth a swim! I regret that I didn’t bring my swimsuit with me from Sweden. I didn’t expect this summer heat at all here in Beautiful British Columbia, because in north Sweden we already have Fall, haha! 😉  

As the tour continues we are getting closer the Rockies and Mount Robson Provincial Park, which was one of the first mountains we saw on closer sights. Mount Robson is about 3954m high and we were thinking; “hey, why not take a group picture?”. So up on the bus we go! A fun little experience with the participants and our guide in front of the mountain, and the result you can see here:

As our first day comes to an end we finally arrived in Jasper, Alberta. A little surprise was waiting for us 10 minutes from HI Jasper where we were going to spend our first night; a star gazing event – a planetarium. The event reminded me so much from back home in the arctic in Scandinavia. It was such a beautiful event with storytelling about history from our ancestors, northern lights, stars and the universe and a lot more, thank you!

I can add that I learned to listen to nature as a youth, and being in nature is still one of my favourite places to find strength and peace so I had a little tears of joy moment during this event, it was so beautiful 😉 A perfect end of day 1, I must say!

Day 2 

08.00 am; an early morning we had some time to do grocery shopping in Jasper before we continued our tour toward Banff, Alberta. This morning was a bit colder than the day before which was super nice, especially for us sitting in a bus for quite a bit of the day, haha! But nah, we were enjoying our short stops along the way which included a lot of hikes, swim spots and more.

The first stop on our second day we reached a beautiful Canyon were we took a group photo. Unfortunalty we didn’t gather the whole group but still it was an amazing view early in the morning with morning fog all over the river and mountains, such a breathtaking moment! 

After a short bus ride it was time for a brake along Sunwapta River with a view of a glacier in the background, wow!

Another spot that also was a perfect start of the day; Tangle creek. A beautiful waterfall with a little bit of rock climbing which was great experience that brought new energy.

As we were getting closer to our destination we stop at Highway 93 for a glacier experience. It was a bit of a “wake up call” to see how much the global warming affects our home. As I can tell; it is not much left of the glacier!!!

Then it was time for our lunch stop not too far away. Our lunch spot hits us with a combo of a picnic style as the sun gets warmer, with a stunning sight with a view and I can tell that I am really happy to be a part of the INTERNeX team; It gives me a great opportunity to be with our participants which brings a great chance to know all of you better. I also get loads of time to capture beautiful content alongside our journey that we can go back to remember by viewing photographs and videos from our trip.

As our bus tour continues, we reached another beautiful canyon along the way – along Mistaya river, also called a meditation spot I would say.

One of the last but not least; Peyto Lake, also a breathtaking moment. Some of you might recognize this lake from pictures or you might already have been here before but this lake is decently a big recommendation to visit!! Thank you for taking us here! We even saw a chipmunk running around the rocks, haha!

Before reaching Banff we definitely had to make another stop; this time at Bow Lake – a great swim spot in a glacial lake. Have you ever tried ice swimming before? This was such a refreshing moment and it was definitely worth it after a long bus ride.

At last, we reached our final destination were we stayed for two nights; Banff!!! Wow, totally something different from what we’ve seen before on our journey. In Banff, the same evening, we had dinner all together before catching the night bus into town for a Pub Night! We had so much fun dancing together, definitely a great night out and a great end of the day!

(part 2 is coming up next!) // Ida

Candidate Exposé – Tatjana Schmitt

Today I would like to share my own experiences and give you an insight into all the special moments I had when I visited Canada back in 2017.
Firstly, I have to say that Canada especially Vancouver, even 4 years later, is the best place I’ve ever been to.
My name is Tatjana, I am 23 years old from a small town close to beautiful Heidelberg in Germany. I already finished my bachelors degree this year and for now I’m very excited what to expect with my Master’s degree at the University of Tubingen.

After my graduation I primarily decided to go abroad to improve my language skills. While looking for the perfect place to stay my parents gave me the decisive hint. Since they had been to Vancouver before and highly recommended this city to me my decision was made. I chose the volunteer program because I wanted to explore Canadian nature and learn more about Canadian wildlife. The combination of 4 weeks language school and 3 more months of volunteer work was the perfect opportunity for me to reach my goals. I really enjoyed working at the Wildlife Rescue Association helping injured animals which were found e.g. on the street and brought to us. During my time there I learned before all that it can be fun working outside even if the weather is bad (yes, my time fell in October/ November – which means rainy season in Vancouver 😀 ) Anyway, I was able to acquire communication skills, learned interesting facts about Canadian wildlife and learned to handle new situations much better. It really was a successful stay.

For me, definitely the best memory was the Rocky Mountains trip right at the beginning of my stay. I was completely overwhelmed by the Canadian nature – it looks like it’s photoshoped but it’s real! I have to admit; I took like a thousand photos 🙂 Another memorable thing was spending many evenings at Sunset Beach or watching an open air movie at Canada Place. In view of my activities I have to say that I fell in love with hiking. My hiking adventure already started on day one with a hiking trip with my host family to Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. Not a bad start for a stay abroad at all 😉 I also enjoyed all the INTERNeX pubnights as well as the bike tour or inline skating in Stanley Park.

Furthermore, I want to say thank you to all the amazing people who made my stay this wonderful and also a huge thank you to INTERNeX who offered me the possibility for my current internship as an PR- Coordinator 🙂 If I had to describe my stay in 4 words I would say happiness, overwhelming, wonderful and a great chance to broaden my point of view.
Vancouver is a really interesting place where you can learn so much about Canadian culture and nature and much much more. And of course have a lot of fun with people from all over the world 🙂

Cheers,

– Tatjana

INTERNeX International Exchange
2005-689 Abbott St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 0J2
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com