080720041849 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Well I managed to leave Vancouver, as promised!

The train ride was delayed in Vancouver and Jasper, meaning that altogether it took me over a day to get to Edmonton. It wasn't too bad though, the scenery through the mountains was nice, and I ate a lot of junk food on the way. There's only one way of getting out of the Edmonton train station unless you have a ride, and that's by taxi. My taxi driver was actually really nice, and for some reason thought I was born in Vancouver. Must be my west coast Canadian accent, eh?

So I've been hanging with my friend Danielle who has kindly let me stay with her. I've seen Brian who took me for a ride on his motorbike on Tuesday jsut before he left town, and narrowly missed hanging out with Chris (hint: do not try and get three girls ready to go out somewhere for a particular time - especially on a Tuesday - by the time we were all ready, the bar was already closed!). Yesterday we took an afternoon excursion to the famed West Edmonton Mall - the biggest mall in the world. It definitely has to be seen, just for the spectacle of it. It has an amusement park (with the biggest indoor rollercoaster in the world), ice rink, sailing ship replica, submarine rides, huge waterpark, bungee jumping, several movie theatres, every store you could possibly want (except no Wal-Mart!) AND hot security guards. What else do you need in life? Better signage at the bus terminal, that's what. When we got out of the movies, we managed to end up on the wrong bus, which luckily circled back to the mall, after a 20 minute ride. Then we ended up on the right bus, but imagine our horror at seeing the mall appear on the horizon again. In desperation, we consulted the bus driver, and he informed us that if we just stayed on the same bus, he'd go back downtown. Then ensued a lot of finger-crossing and hoping until we finally finished the 2 hour trip home. We'd also not eaten in the last 12 hours, except for coffee and cookies, and then fortune cookies on the several bus rides (the only food we had), so we were starving by the time we got back ... oh well ...