Photos from Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, Banff & Calgary (with running commentary)

It's been a little bit difficult of late to find a computer that will allow us to upload some of our ever growing 800 odd photos, but finally, here in Brampton just outside of Toronto, we have found such so Enjoy!

(I'll provide a little commentary along the way!)

Moriane Lake - Banff

The next couple of photos were taken on the tour we tagged along on that took us to visit Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Even though Lake Louise is the famous lake, mostly because of the uber expensive chateau placed on the foreshore, Moraine lake (in my opinion, Kristian) was the most beautiful lake. The diversity of the area made it unlike anything we'd ever seen. There was obviously the centrepoint - the turquoise lake that run from the glacier just above it between the mountain ridges, you had the endless trees surrounding anything and everything, then a random - but very large- rock pile at the shore, in which most photos were taken off as it provided a very good vantage point.

View from the top of the Rock Pile at Moraine Lake

The photo above and below were the easiest photos I have ever taken. They are two incredibly different and distinctive landscapes, but funnily enough, I had not moved when taking both photos' If you could imagine, I took a photo of the trees and mountains, then literally turned around and took a photo of Moraine Lake. Stunning.

View of Moraine Lake from the top of the Rock Pile

Panorama shot of Moraine Lake

This panorama shot literally blew my mind. It was taken from atop the rock pile of the surrounding area, and to get the full view you MUST click on it to enlarge it. The funny thing is, the water looks almost fake or touched up, but it was literally that colour, it was almost hard to believe!

Lake Louise

Above and below were some shots from Lake Louise. It had a huge amount of natural beauty by itself, but if you look below, the chateau on (almost) the waters edge really made the place stand out. I did feel sorry for the guests at the chateau, paying $450+ a night, the hotel itself and the Lake Louise grounds were a huge tourist attraction, hence there was an immense amount of tourists in the area (and you were even allowed in the hotel itself!), which if I were staying there, would have detracted from the overall serenity of the experience..

Lake Louise

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

Panorama shot of Lake Louise

Like I said before, if you read that that the photo is a panorama in the little caption, you MUST click on it!

Copying the crazy Koreans sitting infront of us on the bus

This photo above may appear kind of bizarre, but this one is merely on here for us to have a laugh. The story behind it was that while sitting on the bus to Lake Louise and moraine lake, we were sitting behind two Korean tourists. They were quite affectionate towards each other, which Lauren thought was nice. However when that affection failed to cease and desist after 50 minutes on a bus, it got kind of weird. Like we're talking 'get a room' kind of stuff every 1-2 minutes over a 50 minute period. And it didn't end there. The girl insisted on feeding the poor man, putting lip balm on his lips, even sucking on his sore bottom lip, and taking endless selfiss,it was just gross. This went on for 4 hours, or the entire tour, and we were stuck behind being forced to watch. 

Our little 'home away from home' in Banff - the HI Hostel.

Nothing too special about this picture, it was our hostel in banff for 2 separate nights in between stays at the Rimrock (imagine how hard it was to go from the Rimrock back to this!). It wasn't a bad place to stay, the only notable thing about the experience was we had one German man staying with us, and the only English he knew (or as much as we could suffice) was 'cool'. So naturally, that made for interesting conversation. Not.

Watching the NY Rangers train in Banff, Helloooo Brian Boyle!

We were very lucky to have seen the NY Rangers in such a small initiate training session like this, and being so close, it was hilarious to watch Lauren crap her pants when a puck would come flying our way.

More of the training session

Banff Greyhound bus station

The apartment block where we were staying in Calgary

This was the apartment block we were staying in when the developing story of Axe Murders was conceived. 

Canada has a crazy amount of squirrels. We are thinking of bringing one home for Jax & Charlie.

This is an amazing action shot. 

Everyone hangs out at the park on the weekend in Calgary

Calgary is a little bit of a strange place. Its not like Melbourne or a lot of other places for that matter, solely based on one thing. The CBD or Downtown is supposedly NOT the place to be. Generally all the coolest places to go/see/eat/drink are always located in the city, and because of such reason, the city is always extremely busy, especially on weekends. Calgary is not like this. Its a pretty city, but damn there is nothing to do! Nor eat, nor anything. If you are looking for something to do, you have 3 options: 1) walk around and view various parks and streets because they look nice 2) walk over the overpasses that connect blocks, in which supposedly Calgary is famous for (and what made me laugh is that this is the 5th best thing to do in Calgary as voted by tourists!) 3) Stay home. Simple. There's a chance youll have more fun (and probably find more things to do, such as wash the dishes, sweep or clean something).

Nonetheless, despite my rather plain outlook on Calgary, it is a genuinely nice place, you should go there, then we can discuss how little there is to do! 

The Peace Bridge - Calgary

This is probably the coolest thing in Calgary, in the least, its probably the funkiest.

Ribs & Poutine (chips, cheese & gravy) have been a staple in Canada

View of Calgary City

This is little Harley, our Air BnB hosts dog. He was a bit of a sweetie

This little guy was incredibly cute, and a refreshing glimpse of our little jaxy boy who is being missed. 

The Calgary Tower

This is one of the worlds smallest viewing towers, ever. Or if your an optimist, its the worlds 55th largest, but does that really compliment its size?

Stephen Ave - Calgary

Funky building in Calgary

These two photos were to basically show everyone that Calgary has a bit of funk. So yeah,. that's it.

On our last morning in Calgary we walked to a diner which we had read about online, and it turns out the 15 minute walk was worth it! Below is the breakfast menu.

Read the second order from the bottom on the left hand side, then scroll down.

Our delicious breakfasts & shakes!

A view inside Kristian's "every topping" omelette

I know I said that weird space age bridge was the coolest thing in Calgary, but I'm wrong, dead wrong. Australia, meet omelette. Or omelette done right by Canadians. I warn you though, it does come with a side of heart attack, and you'll understand why when you read the menu posted just above (Second bottom order on the left hand side). 

Nonetheless, simply divine. Afterwards I didn't need to eat for 11 hours, which must be some form of record for myself.

Yesterday afternoon we left Calgary to fly to Toronto. The flight was a bit over 3 hours which went by very quickly due to the fact we had cable TV on the plane so we could watch a whole lot of shows on hockey.

We are now in Brampton which is just outside Toronto visiting Lauren's friend Andy. Tomorrow we are heading into the city for a few days so we will post again soon.

Hope you're all well.

Kristian & Lauren