Thorvald Balder

CN tower

justnorthofreality — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:46:50 +0100

CN tower

Farewell

justnorthofreality — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:35:33 +0100

Warning: fairly long update ahead

Sooooo it’s been what, 3 days since I updated? I have some catching up to do.

So let’s see, well on Wednesday we made our way to Vancouver, that took most of the day,when we got there we were taken on a tour of the city, including visiting Stanley Park ( where all the totem poles are)
After a quick stop at the hotel, we set out in search of dinner and once full we headed back to the hotel, stopping in shops along the way.

Yesterday was a lot more hectic. We met with the group at about 9:30am where we were taken to the world famous Capilona ( I hope i’ve spelled that right) suspension bridge. Gran,Barbara and Victoria all made it across, but me ( being the huge coward I am) waited on solid ground for them to return. Next was Grouse Mountain; where we had to go up in a cable car to get to the summit (I held on for dear life, closed my eyes and had my MP3 on as loud as it would go) Once up there we went to see two bears who’d been raised there, I could’ve watched them for hours. There was also a Lumber Jack show (what I mean by that, I’ll leave to your imagination :p) after that we had some free time to get some lunch or shopping before heading back down the mountain and back into town; and after we’d cleaned up , we all headed back into town for our last dinner (Yum Steak :P)

Today has really been a day for wasting time; Our flights not till 6pm ( errr about two hours to go at time of writing). So we’ve been sitting around at the airport for a while.

See you all on the other side.
And thanks for reading.

Melissa.

Rawr

justnorthofreality — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:31:01 +0100

We started yesterday off by visiting the Buchart Gardens, a beautiful place with millions (exaggeration!) of different types of flowers and trees from all over the world.

After we returned from the gardens, we wandered down to National British Columbian Museum; It’s a HUGE place, the 1st floor was just for the gift shops
And cafe’s. The second floor was for a special exhibit on Dinosaurs!, I could’ve spent hours wandering around this exhibit just staring at all the fossils and displays, but we still had another floor to see so we made our way upstairs.

The top floor was a mix of different exhibits; the first one was still being set up, it was on the Queen for her Diamond Jubilee. The next was on the first nations people and their culture, lots of creepy masks everywhere; this exhibit then merged with another exhibit on fashion and hobbies throughout the last 50(ish) years,one of the displays had a lot of toys and posters from the 90’s, which included a lot of toys I either owned, or still own( it’s an odd feeling seeing your childhood in a museum); this exhibit opened up into a huge street all decorated like something from early Victorian times, as we wandered around, me and gran pointed out that some of the carpets closely resembled ones that have been in either my home in Kent or my great grans house.

The final exhibit was a Maritime one, the first thing you see is a giant re-make of the back half of the HMS Discovery, all the displays showed some of the styles of clothing worn by captains from different Era’s.

After the museum we wandered back up the main shopping street and back to the hotel, Gran wasn’t feeling too well, so the rest of the day was spent at the hotel watching TV or sleeping.

Today we’re heading back over the sea to Vancouver, our last stop on this holiday; I’m hoping the weather cheers up, it’s raining at the moment :s

Later.

God is a Scottish drag queen!

justnorthofreality — Tue, 29 May 2012 06:28:50 +0100

( The title was on a poster we saw this evening)

Hihi,

Today was a nice day.

We got up early in prep for a long coach ride down to the coast in order to get the ferry across to Victoria.

We stopped at a tiny town called Hope for lunch, the town was very quiet and had an eerie feel to it (at least to me it did);After that it was back on the coach and off to the docks.

The ferry ride was about an hour long, as we went we passed several smaller islands some of which were Canadian owned, others were a part of the US , you could also see Washington D.C in the distance.

We reached Victoria at about 5pm, we wandered around town for a bit and eventually stopped for dinner at a lovely fish restaurant ( we all had fish and chips, yep we’re definitely british :P)

Tomorrow we’re going to a garden in the morning, then we decided to go to the National museum ( Dinosaurs! Eeee!)

Later.

I'm gonna need a bigger boat!

justnorthofreality — Mon, 28 May 2012 16:07:18 +0100

Yesterday was rather slow. We went on a boat around the Okanagan Lake and then………we went back to the hotel. There’s not a lot to do in Kelowna.

Today we get the ferry across to Victoria.

Later.

Warning : Long update ahead!

justnorthofreality — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:09:30 +0100

Time for a big update, sooooo let’s jump back a few days to Banff.

Well we left Banff on the 25th and headed towards a small town called Golden which was our stop for the evening (becuase Kelowna was more than a days travel by coach), we stopped at a place called Johnstone Canyon, which had a lovely walk to a waterfall ( I never made it up there, it was a very steep climb).

The next stop was Lake Louise, which is meant to be one of the most beautiful lakes in Canada; when we got there well, it was still frozen over!, the whole area was covered in snow and ice, it felt like the middle of december there :P

But when we stopped at our next stop, (which was only about 30 minutes down the road) the Emerald lake, it was completely unfrozen.

We stopped at Golden for the evening, not much to see or do in Golden, its just a strip of hotels and restaurants.

Yesterday was another day on the coach, with a few stops at a rain forest walk; a very bizzare cafe/ hotel (it had it’s own ghost town built next to it); a fruit market (we got some strawberries for breakfast) and the place where the canadian railway was completed.

Last night when we finally made it to Kelowna,we had dinner at a cookhouse, whilst there we were there we heard 5 different tables being wished a happy birthday. We also went to a Walmart, where I lost gran ( don’t worry I found her)

Today we’re going on a boat out onto the Okanagan lake.

Later.

Sorry

justnorthofreality — Sun, 27 May 2012 07:01:53 +0100

Just a quick post to say sorry for the lack updates over the last two days, it’s been busy.

I’ll do one huge update tomorrow, right now I don’t feel too great :(

Later.

The Misty Mountains

justnorthofreality — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:10:39 +0100

Today was a free day, so we decided to wander around Banff. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been great today;It’s been freezing all day with a thick fog over the mountains, and there’s been a bit of rain through out the day aswell.

But we did manage to go to the first nation museum, which was really interesting, and kinda creepy all at the same time (lots of creepy faced mannequins and stuffed animals……ew)

apart from that we spent the day either wandering around Banff, or relaxing at the hotel.

Tomorrow we’re on the road again!

Till then,

Later.

EH!

justnorthofreality — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:34:19 +0100

Oh boy do I have a blog post for you all today!

Today has been amazing!

We woke up early in Calgary, after coffee and muffins at Tim Hortons (a starbucks-esque place, but ten times better) we got on the coach and started our tour around Calgary , which included the stampede grounds, Fort Calgary and the 1988 winter olympic ski jump ramps.

After a quick cup of tea (green tea that is :P) we made our way into Banff. The mountains are breathtaking! Some peaks still even had snow on them.

We stopped in town for lunch,then went back to the coach for a tour of Banff; we stopped at several different sites either for view pictures, or to stop and stare at the elk or mountain goats in the distance :D

It took over an hour to see just two of the lakes in the area, we headed back into town and to the hotel. We had about 45mins to get changed before we had to leave for this evenings meal, with a difference.

Tonights meal came with a show courtesy of “OH CANADA EH?!” A hilarious comedy/musical show that also is a brief history lesson.

The food was amazing, a soup dish, followed by a salad, then onto the main dish of fish beef and chicken, and finally desert with a coffee to go with it.

All in all it was a really good day; Tomorrow is a free day, which means I get to sleep in a bit :D

Later.

Greetings from skyrim!

justnorthofreality — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:54:35 +0100

Well not really, I’m in Banff, but snow, mountains and bears; close enough :P

Sorry there was no post last night, it had been a long day, after 4 hour flight over to Calgary (and the clocks going back 2 more hours) we had to wait on the plane for half an hour due to a thunderstorm, after the red alert had been lifted we were taken straight to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.

There will be a post later on tonight on what has happened today.

Till then :D
Later.

Montreal- Best seen from above

justnorthofreality — Tue, 22 May 2012 02:49:05 +0100

Not much to really report today, all we really did was wonder around Montreal, which was nice, except for all the beggars, and not just any time of beggars , multilingual beggars, in fancy clothes and sipping starbucks coffee.

Honestly montreal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, not much too see except for graffiti & beggars .

Tomorrow we fly over to Calgary.

Later.

I saw a Racoon!

justnorthofreality — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:51:47 +0100

(Yep)

It’s a very hot day today, like 31oC hot (which means it’s even hotter than hawaii here); Though most of today has been on either a train or a coach. After a 5 train ride to montreal,we got straight on the coach which took us around the city as our guide for the day gave us a little history lesson and stopping in various places to let us take pictures or to show us around.

Finally we made it to our hotel, which is quite posh :P, so for now we’re taking a quick rest from the heat and later we’ll meet up and go in search of a place to eat.

Now if you’ll excuse me , there’s a wonderfully comfortable bed that has my name on it.

Later :)

Over the Falls

justnorthofreality — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:56:14 +0100

Yesterday was amazing!

We got up early,jumped on board the coach and headed for the CN tower. My heart skipped a beat as the elevator raced up the building and to the viewing platform. Standing up there was breathtaking , watching cars pass by as if they were ants and being able to see far out onto ontario lake.

After an hour of staring out across Toronto & brief incident with gran loosing her camera ( she found it ) it was back on the coach and start the journey up to Niagara falls.

We made a stop at Niagara on the lake for a quick break, a beautiful little town with a christmas shop that’s open all year around (and was busy :P); There was also several bakerys, so we grabbed some sandwiches for lunch and got back on the coach and headed off to our final destination, Niagara falls.

Nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of niagara falls, vast amounts of water rushing off a cliff is an amazing sight. We couldn’t even get close to the viewing point without getting soaked with the spray from the falls. Our guide also pointed out the american falls, just right of the canadian falls.

We spent a few hours roaming the streets and watching the falls before heading back into Toronto. That evening we found a lovely little restaurant called “The Pickle Barrel” and had a wonderful dinner, we also had to locate a pharmacy , as my ear still hasn’t popped from the flight, but hopefully these meds will help.

Right time for me to go, we have to go catch a train to Montreal.

Catch ya later :D

Good Morning Toronto!

justnorthofreality — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:20:31 +0100

Hi all,

It’s currently 6am in toronto, I’m sitting on my bed and watching the sunrise.

Yeasterday was a long day;After a 7 hour flight and an hour waiting for our luggage we met up with our guide for this tour(Called Jenni) and we hopped onto the coach for a 3/4 hour drive into Toronto centre.

Toronto is HUGE; Towering buildings everywhere, streets full of entertainers dancing, playing music or even throwing fire!

After unpacking at the hotel, We(that’s Gran, Barbara ,Victoria & myself) decided to roam the streets and search of a place to eat.

Where did we end up? A food court in the Eaton Centre (a shopping mall) different styles of food everywhere, from Burgers to mexican even several japanese stands; after much discussion we settled for burgers ( I wanted to get noodles :S but oh well :D) which were delicious :P.

By that time it was nearly 9pm; And being all jet lagged we decided to get some rest.

Today we go up the CN tower and later on we Visit Niagra falls, so a very busy day.

Catch you all later :D

Disregard this post

justnorthofreality — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:31:00 +0100

Just a test of my tumblr mobile functions :)

O Canada ~

justnorthofreality — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:49:00 +0100

Yep the Canada trip is actually going to happen!

Granted the holiday is not until next May………Shut up i’m exited!

Anyway i’m going to write up the basic itinerary and put a few pictures up.

So first up we land in Toronto for a 2 night stay

Whilst there we get a chance to visit Niagara falls

Next up we head off to Montreal & Quebec for a night stay

Montreal

& Quebec

After that we take a flight over to Alberta & once we’ve had a sightseeing

trip of Calgary we head off to Banff again for a 2 night stay.

Calgary

& Banff.

I’m really hoping to see Banff national park, well for this

And this

<3 :D

Theen we’re off to Kelowna for 2 nights

and maybe a visit to Okanagan Valley if i’m in the wine tasting mood

( though I don’t really enjoy wine, but you never know :P )

Then its off to Victoria

A two night stay and an optional trip to go killer whale watching and then

we’re off to our final destination Vancouver for the last two night stay.

So there you have it 17th May 2o12 people! i’ll keep you posted on any details or changes.

~Momo

Hello, Hola , 您好,Ciao ,こんにちは & привет

justnorthofreality — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:53:00 +0100

Salut!

This Blog , like Autumn Tokyo, is Designed as a place for my friends and family to keep track of what I’ve been up to on my travels.

If you didn’t read Autumn Tokyo, then don’t worry you didn’t miss much [in fact it never got finished o(0.0)o]

So what does Thorvald Balder mean I hear you ask?

Well to be perfectly honest with you guys , I just When to behind the name and typed the words “traveling ” & then ” world” in and picked two names at random.

Balder is a name used in Norse mythology . Balder was the son of Odin and Frigg. Because of the disturbing dreams he had when he was young, his mother extracted an oath from every thing in the world that it would not harm him. However the evil fire god Loki learned that she had overlooked mistletoe. Being jealous, he tricked the blind god Hoder into throwing a branch of mistletoe at Balder, which killed him.

Thorvald is a Scandinavian name but also comes from the Old Norse name Þórvaldr, which meant “Thor’s ruler” from the name of the Norse god Þórr (see THOR) combined with valdr “ruler”.

So YAY! the name of this blog is completely Irrelevant to the topic, but oh well, i’m keeping it :D

Anyway…..back to the topic at hand.

This Blog Should start running properly around May 2012. I’m Planning on Traveling around Canada for a little while.

So see you closer to the travel date.

Let me know if there are any places in Canada that we should see whilst we’re there.

Ja Matte Ne.