Edmonton and the world famous shopping mall

When someone says to me "world's largest shopping mall", I'm thinking: "I'm there!", but if I had known exactly what it was going to be like, I might not have been so enthusiastic.

While it holds the world record for being the world's largest mall, the West Edmonton Mall is hugely overrated. True, it holds a water theme park, an amusement ride theme park, a casino, a 10-pin bowling alley, a mini-golf park, an ice-skating rink, but I'm not here to play, I'm here to shop!

The shops themselves are nothing to write home about either. Same old shops, and in some cases, there's more than one branch of some of the chain stores, at opposite ends of the mall.

In a word? Overrated!

A village where the sun shines and the snow falls

Tracking down a couple of our IT-consultant-turned-snow-bunny friends provided us with an afternoon of entertaining cold calls to various departments of a certain Ski village, but at the end of the day, we found them, and all was well :)

We enjoyed a day of snowboarding on real snow, on real mountains. Talk about a change from the hills we have back home! Phoebe tried her hand at snowboarding for the first time and managed to stay on her feet for at least half of the day :p

At night we were taken to the only pub on the mountain, and discovered that Dave is a really talented(?) karaoke singer, and that Dave and Joel's room becomes "Club 106" after the pub shuts.

Calgary - home of the '88 Winter Olympics

Calgary is a booming city - suburbia has spread far beyond the "Welcome to Calgary" signs on the highways, but it still has that "growing city" feel about it. We spent two days hanging out with my cousins (who I haven't seen since 1990), and had an absolute ball. Our highlight of the visit would to be the Skeleton at Olympic Park. Think Olympic Luge (that event where they lie down on a sled and slide down an ice track at break-neck speeds), but lying face down on your stomach.

When your face is two inches from the ice and you have no idea where you're going, it really gets the adrenalin going! We did two runs down the Junior track, and I would love to come back and do the full run.

48 Hours - Toronto to Edmonton by rail

After another early morning start we were finally on our way across Canada by train. The scenery was amazing - frozen lakes, snow-covered trees, and rustic wood cabins in the middle of nowhere.

I never thought I would tire of the sight of snow, many hours worth of snow covered trees, we eventually turned to scrabble and card games.

Our first night was a real test of sleeping while seated, half curled up, with legs resting on the seats opposite. Imagine sleeping on a plane, two nights in a row! Oh well, I guess that's what you get for going budget and deciding not to spring for sleeper cars :p

Toronto

Toronto was our first introduction to really really cold temperatures. And we thought it had been cold in New York!

Didn't really do much here, except visit the CN tower, walk around Chinatown, and walk around the city centre. The observation deck at the CN tower has a cool glass section of the floor, which feels kinda weird to walk on, even though they assure you it is perfectly safe!

From the CN tower we spotted an outdoor ice skating pond. That became the mission of the night - to find out where it is and to get there! By the time we found the pond, it was dark, and temperatures were probably subzero, but it was worth it. The pond was huge and even had some slightly uneven hilly bits in it. And what's more - it's free. You just bring your skates and hop on.

Later on we found a place to have dinner and washed it down with some giant glasses of beer...

NYC to Toronto

The train trip from NYC to Toronto was very scenic. Snow everywhere, frozen waterways, and even a fleeting glimpse of the river that feeds Niagara Falls.

New York New York

I keep saying this, and I can't say it enough. I love NY! 10 days just isn't enough :(

We did and saw SO MUCH. Some days were busier than others, but we managed to pack everything in, thanks to our own personal hosts and tour guides, Amy, Henry, Susan, Chi, and Regina.

We did the usual touristy stuff, like museums, galleries, Times Square, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty (from afar), and Central Park. Seeing Ground Zero was a spooky and saddening experience.

Ice Skating at Rockerfeller Center was a big highlight for me. Those who know me well will know that I have a thing for ice skating outdoors. We also found that we loved shopping in Soho so much that we went back a second time to make sure we didn't miss any of the shops :p

On top of all of that, we also saw the NY Philharmonic Orchestra, a Knicks game, and a Yankees game.

So much to do, so little time...

We'll be back!

Coast to Coast - LA to NYC

Another early morning! Not good for a notoriously non-morning person like me! Leaving LAX was a mission... we lined up to check in, checked in, then lined up to get into a queue, went up some escalators to join another queue, then into another queue to get through the security gates!

Arriving in NYC we were greeted by Amy and her Dad. It's so nice to be greeted at an airport! We stopped off at Amy's parents' house for the full Chinese experience - soup, sticky rice, and then oranges for dessert.

Hollywood

Today we found out where the action is - Hollywood!



We took a bus tour down to Hollywood, and saw all the famous sights: the Chinese Theatre, Walk of Fame, Sunset Strip, and most importantly - the Hollywood sign. Apparently the sign was originally erected as an advertising stunt to get people to move to Hollywood. You learn something new every day :)

BUSINESS CLASS BABY

Our long awaited Business Class flight finally arrived, and to say that we were overwhelmed would be an understatement! Twice the amount of entertainment, heaps better food, L'occitane goodie bags... and talk about leg room! Definitely worth the 40,000 frequent flyer points (and numerous phone calls to Qantas :p)

Eleven hours later, we arrived at LAX, ready to live the 4th of Feb all over again! We thought we were wide awake so spent the morning wandering around downtown LA, only to discover that we were REALLY REALLY tired about 2 hours later. Back to the hotel for a quick nap.

Downtown LA turned out different to what I expected. Basically the city centre is a purely business centre, and people only go there to work. So after dark, we were left with a ghost city. As we soon found out, you have to travel out of the city to do the fun stuff...

Auckland... kind of like Sydney but smaller

We spent two and a half days in Auckland, where we had yum cha for the first time since leaving Sydney! Auckland feels a lot like home to me, only less hectic and not as polluted. We spent our time wandering through the city and surrounding areas like Newmarket. We had a very relaxing few days here, which was nice after being on the go for the past few weeks!

From One Tree Hill, you can get a fantastic view of the city. There's a story behind the "one tree" thing, but I can't remember. Anyway, there is no longer a tree on top of the hill, but a memorial, and lots of sheep! Where else can you find sheep in the middle of a city but New Zealand?!?

Nestled in a leafy pocket of Auckland, we stayed with Shane's relatives, whose house is situated halfway down a very steep hill! As a result we did a whole month's worth of exercise just walking up and down the stairs to and from the house :p

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