The weekend after finals, a group of people from my floor had planned a trip to go camping. We originally wanted to camp in Jasper, but camping season hadn't started yet and the only one we could find was in Banff. Some of us were very worried because a lot of people were saying it was going to be very cold and not the right time for camping. Nevertheless we went camping! This was my first time camping (if you don't count a school trip), and I was very excited - it was also my first road trip without family.
There were five of us, and truth be told not all of us were very close to each other, but we made the weekend really fun! It took us about 5 hours to get to Banff, and we started out pretty late too, so by the time we arrived it was about 5pm. We set up the tent in no time (before it got dark) and ate dinner at Banff town. Arriving back, it was getting a little cold (about 4 or 5 degrees) and we got the fire pit going. The fire probably helped us to forget how cold it actually was, but we were reminded when we went into the tent to sleep. It was pretty tight for five of us, and very uncomfortable with all the layers I was wearing. I think I slept the least, but my friends were saying they didn't sleep much either though snores could be heard throughout the night. The biggest problem was 1. how tight and uncomfortable I was and 2. my feet and hands were really cold.
The next night we decided to sleep indoors, and originally booked a space at a nearby YHA, but our leader/driver found a chalet which was cheaper in a neighbouring town (about 30 mins away). That was really nice, and we even got to see a fox at night!
So during the time we were there, we visited most of the lakes, ate a lot of food, and had tons of fun. We cooked (or rather mostly I cooked) dinner and breakfast at the chalet. And on the way back we went from Banff to Jasper and drove through the magnificent Canadian Rockies! It was such a beautiful drive, and thanks to our friend, because he was the only one who drove! First 4 hours through to Jasper, then a break for dinner and another 3 hours into the night to Edmonton where we arrived at 1am. It was such an experience with many breath taking views and much bonding in the car. Though my other three friends were like little piglets sleeping at the back every time we were in the car.
It also turned out that the theme for our road trip became 'contemplating life', and the word 'contemplation' came up a lot. This was because we would spend quite some time in silence just looking into the fire pit, and our talks leant towards, 'what is life?' Plus the song 'what is love' came up on the radio, which had only three phrases throughout the song. I don't know why but that was pretty much our theme song too, we would just randomly start singing that song whenever. This trip was so much fun, and is what road trips are about, listening to songs and contemplating life.
