It’s Calgary….but you can call me Gary!

Well, well, well…

Shall I start at the beginning…somewhere around the time when I arrived at Calgary International Airport only to be met by ‘service staff’ wearing cowboy hats?

Obviously with about 7-8 weeks worth of fun activities I will have to leave some things out (selectively) otherwise this blog post would be a borderline dissertation.

I stayed at Wicked Hostels, Calgary, for a couple of nights before moving into what is my new home at Olympus Hall, University of Calgary. I’m in a 4-bedroom apartment with some Canadian lads. If anyone wants to post me anything…anything! Send to:

Tyler Cameron
3374-24 Av. NW
Olympus Hall, Room 404B
Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4V7
Canada

Things you can send me include but is not limited to: a football, Milo and cash. Thanks

There wasn’t much of an ‘orientation week’ for students other than first years at the UofC so we had to make our own fun! Basically my first week involved: meeting heaps of people, plenty of other Aussies (pretty hard to avoid! haha), house parties, ice-skating, The Den, the Kickoff match (Gridiron) between the Calgary Uni Dinos and Regina Rams & Tailgate Party and our Rez Rodeo which saw all of the different ‘halls’ compete against each other in tug-of-war, tricycle racing, egg catching etc with everyone dressed up in a particular theme.

The weather got cold early… while it was still SUMMER it was snowing out and we had days with max temperatures of 3 degrees very early on in September.

On September 18, I teamed up with a few other Aussies (and one Brit) who are living here and we headed off in Ronnie’s car which he bought for his time here. In the morning we headed to our first destination – the Kananaskis River. There we went white water rafting with Jonesy, our Kiwi guide. We had a heap of fun, got the adrenaline pumping and got absolutely soaked in freezing, glacier-fed water! The crew of us that went along (I will name names because they will be mentioned a bit from here on in): Ronnie (Safewalker) from Radelaide, Ashleigh from Perth, Hanne & Will (Iceman) from Uni of Wollongong, Tall Man (Alex) from Newcastle and Nicola from England.

We then headed to the ‘hot springs’ in Banff which look over the rockies. They are essentially just chlorinated heated pools and once we met up with another crew of internationals who were in Banff for the weekend things began to get a bit rowdy. We hit the town that night, a few chanting Europeans ruined opportunities to get in places but we hit a local pub where we were fortunate enough to meet the Mayor of Banff who gave us some solid advice: “drink, drink as much as you want. I don’t mind!”. Nicola had already pre-empted this advice, however.

The Sunday saw us venture to Lake Louise. It was a cold, overcast day but the lake was beautiful. We had a picnic lunch before packing up stumps and heading back to Calgary. Sorry to go into so much detail for ONE event but it was my first trip into the Rockies.

As many of you are aware… I have been heading along to a fair few concerts. Most of them, luckily for me, are held right here on campus!! A brief summation of my musical experience in Calgary:

• The Gaslight Anthem – I wasn’t allowed to take my camera in because it was ‘too big’ so unfortunately I couldn’t document it! They were great..the sound was slightly off but their overall show was awesome.
• The Flaming Lips – incredible! Probably the best gig I’ve been to. Oversized balloons, confetti guns, and a zorb ball! Amazing. I went to this gig with Rachel Ashwanden from England (actually she was born in Wales, but we keep that on the downlow).
• Hot Hot Heat – I was originally heading downtown to this gig to see their support act Hey Rosetta! but on the morning of the gig it was announced that Hey Rosetta! wouldn’t be playing that night cos the lead singer was ill. I headed to the gig, solo, anyway and had a great time. It wasn’t a huge crowd but the pub atmosphere was great. Hey Rosetta! will be playing a make-up show on Dec 2 which I’ll be heading to.
• Pennywise – also headed downtown to see these punk-stalwarts with Rach…who forgot her ID and had to leg it allllll the way back to uni to get it. She was back before The Riverboat Gamblers (support act) had finished so she did a pretty incredible job. I was front row and they played all their classics! F*** Authority, Stand By Me, Aliens….man…..it was awesome!
• Coheed & Cambria – again at Macewan Hall on campus. Had been hanging out to see these guys for years and they absolutely did not fail to disappoint. I was expected a bit more of a stage/lighting show but otherwise their delivery was amazing. Claudio is just a machine and when he brought out his twin-neck the crowd went nuts. Awesome, awesome, awesome!!
• The Jezabels - an unbelievable Aussie band who are currently smashing it across Australia and are in triple j’s ‘next crop’ for 2010 and we were fortunate enough to catch them here in Calgary where they were supporting a Canadian band. Hopefully they were happy that there was a crew of us there cheering them on! We had the opportunity to chat with them afterwards although, unfortunately, I did not get Hayley’s (the lead singer) phone number.

So they’re the ones I’ve been to here in Calgary so far. And I have many more coming up including  John Butler Trio w/Mat McHugh from The Beautiful Girls, Bedouin Soundclash, Alexisonfire w/La Dispute & Norma Jean and, of course, the make-up gig with Hey Rosetta!. Can’t wait!

 

Mum & Dad got to Calgary on October the 1st…day of the AFL Grand Final. We’d found a pub the week before which had it on the big screen. A huge contingent of us from uni headed down and, for the most part, had a good time and despite me being crushed by a ‘draw’ I was happy that the Saints had fought back. The replay however, was a different story. Shattering. I’m glad I was on the other side of the world though…I was fortunate enough to avoid the carnage that the Pies supporters would have caused throughout Melbourne.

Dad hired a car here so, because it was a weekend, we headed into the Rockies to a town called Canmore. We basically just walked around the river and looked at the mountains. It gave the folks a good chance to experience the Canadian Rockies and also threw Dad head-first into driving on the opposite side of the road.

During the week Mum let me skip class (thanks mum – although is it called ‘skipping’ if you don’t usually go anyway?) to go on a day trip to Lake Louise/Moraine Lake/wherever we end up. Rachel Cook, another Western Australian, came along for the ride…basically because the Cameron’s are awesome people to be around. This time we were fortunate with beautiful weather. Seeing Lake Louise this time was a completely different experience – I could actually see the HUGE glacier which towers above the lake.

They stayed in Calgary for 10 days then unfortunately I had to bid them farewell. They went onto Vancouver Island before heading back home to reality. It was great to see them and I really appreciate them coming all the way over to Canada to see me!

The facilities at the University of Calgary are amazing. They pump a lot of money into their Kinesiology department and are, thus, pretty successful in varsity sports. As many of you may know, a fair bit of Cool Runnings was actually filmed right here on campus….pretty cool if you ask me. I’ve skated on the same ice as Sanka! The ice-rink, which has the world’s fastest ice, is a mere 70m away and it’s free for me to use. I only have to pay $5 for skate hire! I have the skating down pat…but I can’t quite stop yet.

The first dump of snow happened a few days after mum and dad flew out. It was pretty awesome to wake up to. A few of us went out and threw snowballs etc. but unfortunately by midday most of the snow had melted. We’re all hanging out for the first huge dump of pow so we can make snowmen and, most importantly, hit the mountains. I bought myself a new snowboard so I’m chomping at the bit to get up there. We’re heading up to the Marmot Basin Ski Resort next weekend for our first time on the mountains!!

Halloween has just came and gone. The amount of effort people go to over here for it is incredible. My Halloween was pretty low key… just kidding. It was awesome. On Friday night a bunch of us headed downtown to see Switch @ Flames Central which was co-organised by the UofC Ski Club. It was an awesome night and it looked incredible with everyone dressed up as anything from a clown, ragdoll or zombie to robots, deadmau5 or alan ‘fat jesus’!! I wore a suit and had my face painted as a skull – a little political satire for ya’ll. We all had a ball and thought it was necessary to head back to Willy’s where he mixed live for us in his bedroom…good times! If you’re into electro/dubstep/dutch you can check Will’s stuff at: http://soundcloud.com/willapede

Saturday saw us recovering but still eager to make the most of the Halloween weekend. The apartment below mine where my housemate’s girlfriend lives had decided to throw a party. They decorated it up with cobwebs, pumpkins etc. and we had a ball yet again. Many of my mates had opted to go on one of the many halloween pub-crawls which were happening downtown but $50 was too pricey for my liking and I’m glad I stayed on rez.

And this brings us to now…I’m sure I’ve missed out on a lot of things and if I can remember anything interesting I’ve done then I’ll be sure to post it up. I finished my midterm exams last week and now I have 3 papers to write in between my impending trips to Jasper/Marmot and Lake Louise for snowboarding. But alas, a pass is a pass!

In the mean time, I miss you all. It’s only 7 weeks before I fly back to the motherland and as much as I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and getting a tan (like that will happen anyway..) I would be silly not to make the most of my time here.

From Calgary, Alberta, Canada,

Peace, Love and Respect,

T-Bones
T-Rex
T-Dizzle
Tyler Cameron

 

real-life snow

 

 

Toronto, eh!

Hey, yet again.

You’re probably all getting sick of me, eh?

After an amazing time in Montreal I endured the 6 hour bus ride in a rather sombre state. Nothing could top Montreal..and frankly Toronto didn’t. But my expectations were not for it to be like Montreal.

I spent a bit more in Montreal than I had planned so I decided to lay low in Toronto which was a good idea. The hostel was great but the dudes in my dorm decided it was a good idea to switch off the air-con, even though it had been 35 during the day with a humidity of 80%! Smart idea lads.. real smart. So I had 3 nights worth of terrible sleep. But…

I did a few touristy things. I went up the CN tower which is (now) the second tallest building in the world. It was pretty high up…and had a great view of the city but because of the heat and I think because of the bushfires which are raging in Canada at the moment there was a bit of smoke haze so visibility wasn’t great.

The thing about the province of Ontario is that there are very few places to buy beer from. So I spent my days in Toronto dry which, to be honest, was probably a good thing for the liver and the bank account.

I met old mate Carlos in my hostel room who had spent 7 weeks (or months, lost in translation) backpacking around and was about to fly back to Spain and would arrive at 8.30am…he was then going to be at work by 10am. His theory made sense – to avoid jetlag – but none-the-less, what a crazy bastard.Employee of the month? I think so.

On my last day in Toronto (I only had two full days there) I went on a tour to Niagara Falls which is about a 90min bus ride from the city. The falls are pretty spectacular…a little bit more spectacular than the water feature out the front of my house. I took out my camera and realised I had left my memory card in my card reader back at the hostel – but luckily I had a smaller back up card on hand…only to have my batteries go flat not long after. It was a hot day so it was good to go on the Maid of the Mist cruise which goes right up under the Falls…it shouldn’t be called Maid of the Mist, it should be called Maid of the Torrential Downpour because everyone gets soaked!

After a fair bit of time at the falls where I happened to bump into some dudes who I had met in Montreal and then bumped into in Toronto and then spent a bit of my time reading we all jumped back on the bus and headed to Niagara-on-the-lake which is a township on the river/lake and is very 1700s-esque. Large buses aren’t even allowed to drive through the town, they have to park outside. It was a nice little town where the average age of visitors would be 60. Then we headed to a winery for a wine tasting session. The winery, 20 bees, has produced a Dan Aykroyd line of wines. He is part owner in the parent company so he has like 6 wines to his name…didn’t try any. But I did try ice wine which Canada is famous for.. it is a dessert wine which they make by letting the grapes remain on the vine until the middle of winter until they’re frozen and then they go out and harvest them by hand in the middle of the night and press them immediately so they don’t thaw. The result is a wine with a sweetness rating of 28…your common white wine has a rating of 2 or 3. Anyway, that’s for all you wine connoisseurs out there who may care. Either way, I got 4 free samples of wine .

And that was my Toronto. Unfortunately I didn’t get to catch up with Sean Foy, an ex-Menzies lad, who lives in Toronto but I did get to catch up on my reading. I started reading a book called Silent Spring by Rachel Carson which I bought from a book store in Montreal. It was written in the early 60s and raised the alarm of the man-made environmental impact and the repercussions on the environment, the economy and mankind. It’s funny how almost 50 years on we are still yet to make any significant progress and may have actually gone backwards.

Anyway, enough politics.

I arrived in Calgary last night and am staying in a hostel until Monday (6th Sept.) when I move into my accommodation at the University of Calgary. I’ll be sure to update this every so often because I’m sure I’ll be getting up to plenty more exciting shenanigans.

GO SAINTS!!

Peace,

t

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?

No, I didn’t actually say this to anyone in Montreal but unfortunately (or not so unfortunately) it is the only French I have. I feel that if I did build the courage to say this to anyone I may have ended up being slapped….or really lucky!

Montreal was…awesome. I decided to spend a full week there instead of splitting it between Quebec City and Montreal. I’m glad I did. (By the way…for all you nuts who are fluent in Francais…I am not going to use the correct accents on words )

I met some Aussies on the bus (seriously, we’re everwhere) and one lad, Rory, was staying at the same hostel as me so we spent our first day cruising around the city, looking like tourists, checked out a basilica, were fascinated by squirrels and caught up with one of Rory’s mates for a casual beer in a random beer garden. Then BAM….a dude from the hostel in New York was there! Talk about a small world… of all the bars in Montreal (it has the highest density of bars per capita than anywhere in the world) this dude was there. It was a tad awkward because I forgot his name… I shouldn’t have, it was Timon…like Ty-man. Anyway.. enough about that and how small the world is… actually no, not enough about that, on a bar crawl (mum, I know you said I seem to be drinking a lot but it’s just that… umm…) a girl from GUNBOWER was there…for those who don’t know Gunbower is about 20mins from the small country town, Kerang, that I grew up in. So that! is how small the world is. This small: ><.

The next day Rory and myself teamed up with some Scottish girls, Paula and Kim, to check out some sites: Notre Dame Basilica, Vieux Montreal (old Montreal) and we hired some bikes to ride along the canal to the Atwater farmers market. Vieux Montreal is cool, with a very European feel – obviously – and would be pretty wicked in winter with a bit of snow about. DID very nearly stack it hard core on the bike. Oh and we watched a Loch open.. it’s not very impressive.

As some of you may know, actually no one cares about Nascar, the Nascar was in Montreal over the weekend so a couple of streets were shut off and were dedicated to high octane, short dresses and free Dr. Pepper samples..I refused the Dr. Pepper and told them we stopped selling it in Australia years ago because it tastes like shit.

I spent a day trying to find how to get to the top of Mont Royal, rather unsuccessfully.

Sunday was Tam Tam day. If any of you have been to Montreal in summer you’d know what Tam Tam is. For those of you who haven’t then words will not do it justice. Basically, every Sunday in Summer the locals (and tourists) head to the park at the plateau of Mont Royal (like the base of it) and chill out. Everyone brings drums, bongos or percussion of some sort and just jams. IT’S NUTS! Thousands of people just chill out, drink beer and smoke a funny smelling herb (not everyone). Young and old, big and little, black and white. It is truely music at it’s roots. For anyone who is heading to Montreal, make sure you stay there for a weekend and head to Tam Tam.

After gettin’ my dance on for a while at Tam Tam I decided to conquer Mont Royal once and for all! I started walking up what looked like a normal path. Mind you there are no signs that say “Summit > ” or anything so it is all guess work. Then my trail got a bit steeper, and a bit rougher and then it felt like I was sneaking into the Falls festival…and then I thought “what if there are bears (in the middle of the city) or what if I get lost and I look like one of those duds who has to get rescued (Tim Holding)” but alas, as I reached what I presumed to be the peak of a mountain bike trail I heard a dude saying “coooooold water, cooooool water”….I have never heard such sweet sweet words coming from a man with dreadlocks since I last listened to Jamming by Bob Marley. This, however was not the summit. But at least there were people there and there was a road….which I decided not to follow. I again went off course but this track looked a little more worn and after while found the real peak of Mont Royal which has views across the city. At the top there is a huge, grand hall….with nothing in it.. It has little ornamental squirrels though.

The view to the city was pretty awesome. So when it came time to leave I thought I head out the back way….which took me through nice park where there were another few thousand people just chullin’ and then to the middle of nowhere. My map came in handy and I am forever grateful to Mr. Map… who needs a NavMan?

So you’d think that once I got to around 2 blocks from my hostel I would have headed straight there and curled up in a ball…no, I caught the Subway back to where I started so I could get some food at the awesome vegan restaurent called Aux Vivres…at the top of Sainte Laurent. Great food. The waitress was alright too.

So that was Montreal. Enough time to want to stay longer but not enough time to figure my way around. It has probably been my favourite stop of the trip and was fortunate enough to meet a heap of great people. Four of which I have since bumped into at the hostel I am now staying at in Toronto!

So now I am back in English speaking Canada so the language barrier is less of an issue but I am definitely missing the European style. Anyone want to move to Montreal…just for summer Tam Tams?

Peace out and stay happy.

Tyler

There is a squirrel by the tree

Graff

Notre Dame

yeah mahhhn

Tam Tam

Finally at the top!

Not a tourist in Boston

Hey again,

I caught the BoltBus from New York to Boston which takes a few hours. Jimmy Walsh picked me up from the bus terminal. For those of you who don’t know who Jimmy is he lived at Menzies College first semester 2009 while he was doing his study abroad so it was set to be an awesome catch up. He lives with his folks in a suburb called Braintree…sounds like an intelligent flora species. His parents Nancy & Jim are lovely people and made me feel right at home. It was good to have a proper bed and house, even if only for a couple of days.

We didn’t have any plans so basically we just went to bars, played pool, I’d win, we’d drink more and that was it. Seriously. We went to a Boston Red Sox game but it was rain delayed after 3 innings…so we went to a bar. On Saturday night we caught some bands and rocked out, started a bit of a mosh and then caught a $55 cab home…nasty.

But Boston was a cruisy affair…didn’t get up to much but was good to relax and catch up with Jimmy for a couple of days and beat him at pool consistently.

A huge thank you to him and his parents for all their hospitality. My clothes even got washed (trust me, I tried to say no) and I left with a Boston Bruins (hockey) sweatshirt. I dunno whether the Calgary Flames’ fans will be too impressed if I wear it often but I’ll wear it on the sly.

Heading back into Canada now…destination Montreallllllllllll.

Peace and etc.

Tyler

P.S. I did not actually take ANY photos while I was in Boston, because I was practically a local…so look up google images to get the idea

Big City Lights

Sorry I have been AWOL for a while. The wireless net at my hostel in Montreal has been down and I didn’t want to post a blog without at least a couple of pics for you.

New York:-

I stayed at the New York Loft in Brooklyn which is a real cool hostel in a real cool area. Brooklyn is full of artists, musos and other interesting characters and isn’t busy like Manhattan.

In many ways I found New York to be a huge let down. If you want to put corporate America onto one island…it would be Manhattan.  Full of huge skyscrapers, billboards and hoards of people who seem so busy Manhattan would definitely not be my choice of city. However, I think if I knew someone there who was in a ‘scene’ and knew the right places to head to, the right people to meet and the right money to be able to afford it then I could possibly have had a different perception.

Manhattan is purely massive. Looking at the subway map I thought I was just a short walk from somewhere and it would take me about an hour. The breakdancers in Central Perk (see what i did there… ‘Friends’ reference??) were wicked and funny and I bumped into the filming of some tv show/movie of which I had no idea who they were but people were standing around watching so I thought I’d do the same. It wasn’t Harry Potter anyway so wouldn’t have been worth it. Speaking of movies…I watched the Fantastic Mr. Fox on the plane on the way to Vancouver and it was brilliant…hot tip.

Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, Staten Island, Statue of Liberty. Did it all. The Staten Island ferry going back into Manhattan at night is pretty cool and to be honest Times Square is pretty impressive all lit up at night with about 400,000 other people cruising around.

Met some cool people at the hostel and me and Scotty from Perth had an unsuccessful adventure into Manhattan one night. Over here, bars close at 3…and they’re like “oh my gawd it’s so awesome that the bars are open til 3!” and I get all up in their grill and say “well mate, Pony’s open until 7am. snap”.

Overall, New York was okay but after all the hype it was a let down. If you’re a girl and want to shop or just like Sex & the City then you’ll probably like it. If you have a beast load of money you’d head to the Meatpacking District for a night out and probably love it. But I had/am neither.

Next up: Boston

Peace and Love,

Tyler

Possibly famous people?

A leaf.

The Eiffel Tower

Brooklyn Bridge…I think…well some bridge.

The Seattle Scene & Woven Bones

Seattle days 3 & 4

Hey everyone,

So I’ve been in Brooklyn, NY, for a few days but will give you the low down on my last couple of days in Seattle - because Seattle was awesome!

So I’ll pick up where I left off…I picked up the street press magazine to check out what gigs were on and they recommended a band called Woven Bones who were playing at a place called Wildrose on Saturday night. So I chucked on my flannie and skinny legs and cruised on up to East Pike St and rocked out to the support act ‘Idle Times’ and had a few beers and took a few photos. It turns out that the Wildrose is Seattle’s oldest and only surviving lesbian bar but they’ve been supporting live music for years so it’s not really something that you notice right away because there’s so many different people there. The DJ set was being run by Hardly Art and the dude spun vinyl…yes, vinyl…it was refreshing to here something from the turntable that sounds how it is supposed to sound. Then Woven Bones come on and the room filled up fast, it turns out these guys & girl have released an EP and 2 LPs and are signed to a label so no wonder there were a few people about. I got nice and close to the front so it was fun to rock out and the lead singer would run into the crowd (see picture). Afterwards I was hangin’ out the front like a dodgy bastard and the drummer came out and had a chat, so if I’m ever in Austin, Texas, I now know some people, wooh!

On Sunday I went up through Belltown again and ate at the same Japanese restaurant and, rather embarrassingly (cos the waitresses are hot) had to ask for a fork because my hand was cramping from the chop sticks! I headed to the Space Needle but wasn’t willing to fork the cash to go up it, so instead I headed to the Experience Music Project (EPM) which is basically a tribute to the Seattle music scene and a big tribute to Jimi Hendrix. This place was pretty cool, packed with awesome memorabilia and a cool interactive area which allowed me to play the drums for 10 minutes! The Jimi Hendrix section was cool with mini movies, his guitars and footage from Woodstock. Next door, and included in the admission price to the EPM, was the Seattle Sci-fi Museum…so I ran in, took some pics of the Star Wars stuff for my cousin Kade and then ran out, true story.

On my way back from the EPM and my weird sci-fi experience I walked through the Belltown festival band and came across a band called Dog Shredder…yes, Dog Shredder. Possibility the shittest band name I have heard in a while but these guys were good. They played epic, hard hitting, often hardcore instrumentals and then it all kinda slowed down into the prog-metal goodness and the dude had an awesome voice. Not bad. Shit name, good band, sick drummer.

Sunday night saw a crew of around 35 of us from the hostel go on a bit of a bar crawl. It was a sunday night so the bars weren’t exactly going off except with us. A french dude got kicked outta the second place for being a general menace. We finished the night at Cha Cha, with Simon from Williamstown heading off with an American girl.

Monday was my last day and I had verrrry few plans…actually I had planned on seeing Tokyo Police Club and Freelance Whales play a free instore show but I couldn’t find the place and just ended up cutting up laps around Capitol Hill (it pays to use google maps). I headed down a bit of an alley way and came across the Market Theatre which has it’s walls COVERED in chewing gum…like, covered. And the whole alley smells soft and fruity, but the concept is kinda gross…people were going up and touching it *vom*. I then went on a tour of the ‘underground’ because where the sidewalk sits today is actually 15 feet above where the buildings of Seattle were originally built **insert history lesson here** yada yada yada, there is an underground that you can walk through, pretty crazy really.

My flight from Seattle to New York was the redeye 11pm-7am flight and it was a bit cramped, so only got a little bit of sleep and once I finally made it from JFK airport to my hostel in Brooklyn I found out I couldn’t check in until 3pm (I was at the hostel by 9am)…shattered…I slept in the TV room until I could check in.

So anyway, now I’m in New York (I’ll save the NYC stuff for a different post) but I have to say that Seattle was awesome. Pretty cool people, pretty cool places to hang out and always something to see. I am shattered however, that in just 2 weeks the Bombershoot festival is on there featuring Bob Dylan, The Decemberists, Neko Case, Hole….and a huge huge huge list of others. Bad timing? I think so.

Peace out from Brooklyn ya’ll.

Hardly Art – Vinyl DJ, hells yeah

Woven Bones rocking out

some chewing gum stuck on the wall of the theatre

The Sites of Seattle…and the Temper Trap!

hi again,

so I arrived in Seattle yesterday and it’s pretty bloody hot here! I thought I’d just cruise around for the arvo so I headed to the famous Pike Place Market which is a really cool..market! There’s plenty to see and do and there are musicians everywhere! The atmosphere in this city is great, you can tell that they really do have a passion for their music. From there I cruised up the street and came across the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) where they had a Kurt Cobain ANNND and Andy Warhol exhibition on! It was pretty cool to go to Seattle and come across a Kurt Cobain exhibit and needless to say that as my bus pulled into the city I cranked a bit of Nirvana on my ipod.

I met an aussie named Simon who informed me that beer here is cheap. I went up to IGA (yes, there’s IGA here..?? Independent Grocers of Australia??) and scored myself 6 pint sized cans of beer for $5.45!!! You can also get pints at some pubs for like $2! And then it was decided…Simon already had a ticket to the Temper Trap but it was SOLD OUT! The venue is just around the corner from the hostel I’m staying at, the Green Tortoise, so we cruised up and came across some scalpers who wanted $80 for a ticket, when they only cost $22 originally. I haggled and haggled and walked off and they eventually gave me mine for $45 which, at the end of the day was worth it. They rocked. It was awesome to see an aussie band packing out a big venue in the States.

The accent works better here than in Vancouver; I think that’s because there are so many Australians in Van. But I ended up going on a bit of a bar crawl with some girls before coming back to the hostel.

Today I headed up to Belltown where they were holding the first Founders Day festival. I came across a band called I See Elvis playing to about 5 people in a tiny alley next to a pub where they were selling $2 pint sized cans of beer. These guys were awesome! It was their first gig and they absolutely killed it. They were a 2-piece and definitely did not need bass. Then I watched a couple of bands which were part of the festival and generally just stood in awe at some of the cool tatts some people had.

I was trying to get tickets to the NFL match tonight between the Seattle Seahawks and the Tennesee Titans but had no luck unfortunately. Instead I’ll probably drink some cheap beer and find a gig to go to, find the next Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Death Cab for Cutie…..aosidhaodha.

Peace, love and rock’n'roll,

T-Bonez

Bet he can’t do that standing on his head.

I See Elvis

The Vancouver Canadians and the Sunburnt Australians: Days 3 & 4 in Vancouver

hey everyone!!!

…or someone….!!

Day 3 of my trip saw myself, Paul and Persia (2 other aussies I met) head along to a minor league baseball game. We watched the Vancouver Canadians play the Everett Aquasox and I’d like to say that I had a ball (a currrrrve ball). I wasn’t expecting much but there were so many things going on and we actually got into it, pretending we knew what we were on about! We bought tickets of some dodgy dude out the front and got the price down to $10 a pop and breathed a sigh of relief when they worked at the gate. It was typical baseball. Hotdogs, cotton candy, popcorn and beer. I just had the popcorn and beer, until I spilled the beer in the popcorn trying to catch a pair of sunglasses they were throwing out..I didn’t catch them.

Unfortunately the Canadians went down…quite considerably…but if you have never thought about going to a baseball game and have a chance…do it! Can’t wait ’til the hockey season!

We then walked back to downtown from the stadium through the suburbs of Van..then along the esplanade…then to Granville Island…then from Yaletown back to the hostel. I now have 3rd degree burns! People look at me in the street and say “shit” and I say “I know”!

My last day in Van saw me, Paul and Persia again walk to Stanley Park and then hiring bikes to cruise around on. It was a nice day but we were pretty knackered by the end. We finished with a $4.95 meal at The Warehouse on Granville Street (all their meals are $4.95…bargain?).

After that I spent my last few hours booking accommodation in New York and sussing out how to get from Boston to Quebec before sinking my last beers at The Beaver, the hostel bar. Oh, then I saw a punch on between two girls and a guy…that was interesting!

So now I’m in Seattle after a 4 hour bus trip. Seattle doesn’t have that constant smell of weed hanging around like Vancouver but I’m hoping the people here are just as chilled.

peace out from the states,

t-bones

**click the little thing down there for pictures.
***PS…foudn Craig the Scotsman.. He’s safe and well and has headed to Whistler

carrrrn Canadians!

some ugly dude

Vancouver!!

Hello from Vancouver!!

I arrived nice and early Monday morning and found my way to the Samesun backpackers hostel in Granville Street. It’s a cool hostel with a bar at the bottom called The Beaver and quality beer on tap. I couldn’t sleep on the plane so had a bit of an afternoon nap before hitting the street… there are about 10 pizza shops on my block..and a quality falafel store too. Monday night got a little crazy. I met a rad Scottish dude named Craig and his female Vancouver friend came along. We had a few beers at the Beaver before heading to the Cambie which is another hostel but has a huge bar at the bottom of it. At the Cambie we met 4 swissmen…3 of them named Markus. I don’t know what the other one’s name was. And that’s where it ends. Drank responsibly and went to bed early…..

Yesterday (tuesday, day 2) I forced myself out of bed and hit up Gastown which is a historic suburb with heaps of cool…well buildings. But they still looked cool. Backtrack… as I was walking down Granville St I came across a live band set up outside of some office complex, they were called Redgy Blackout…and they had horns. And also, it was the corporate office ‘Ice Cream Day’…so they had little ice cream stands cordoned off for all the suits to go down and get their maxibons! I highly recommend this ‘Ice Cream Day’.

From their I headed to Grouse Mountain, yes it is called Grouse Mountain but due to Canadian accents they say Gross Mountain. It was just a few blocks, a seabus, a bus ride and a cable car journey away! but it was awesome! Grizzly bears, bald eagles, a huge wind turbine and the best part, the World Famous Grouse Mountain Lumberjack Show. These guys put my wood chopping skills to shame. Think…the car show at Movieworld…it’s nothing like that. There are some photos which I will upload when I can.

Anyway, today I’m heading to the baseball with Craig (if I can find him, he’s AWOL atm), his friend, and two aussies I met last night. Australians are everywhere in Van, especially at this hostel. Oh, also met a French girl last night who was a dead ringer for Alicia Keys, the hat and all!

There is currently a whole heap of Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic merchandise ON SALE at ridiculously low prices.

Peace out.

x

crazy cats

Hello world!

Hi all,

So here is my Travel Blog which you can all check back to regularly to see how my trip is going and to see some of the photos I take.

Soon I will take my backpack and head off for the adventure of a lifetime. I’ve been waiting a long time for this but as it is fast approaching I’m beginning to feel a little nervous!

My study exchange is at the University of Calgary in…well Calgary, Alberta, Canada – the beef production capital of the nation. Alberta is also the oil production capital of Canada….so for all those who know me you’d understand that I’m definitely stepping outside of my progressive La Trobe Uni comfort zone.

I’ll be backpacking for a month through Canada and the United States so I’m sure I’ll have many stories to tell.

So, copy and paste this URL into your favourites: http://tbonestravels.wordpress.com  and be sure to check back often after August 9th.

Until then,

Peace.

Tyler

Just stretching up..