I have just spent two weeks working in Calgary (Alberta, Canada), followed by a few days of my own time driving through the Rocky Mountains, taking lots of photos. While I'm sitting in the airport at Vancouver (local time in Vancouver is nearly 10pm Thursday night), waiting for my flight to Sydney, I thought I'd take the time to jot down a few observations from my time in Canada.

Note that the last week was unseasonally cold for this time of the year, with maximum temperatures in Banff and Lake Louise only a few degrees above zero in the last few days (although the previous two weeks were quite a bit warmer). It also snowed most days this week too.

On with the observations:

1. Snow squeaks underfoot.
   
   
2. Icy snow crackles underfoot.
   
   
3. Icy snow is very slippery to walk on.
   
   
4. Driving on snow makes you realise how slippery it is.
   
   
5. A car handbrake can be fun in an empty car park (see previous item).
   
   
6. The wind on a glacier is very cold! [1]
   
   
7. The sun shining on snow is very bright.
   
   
8. Sports shoes are no good for walking in the snow, as you get wet feet when the snow soaks through the top and sides of the shoes.
   
   
9. When driving through falling snow, it looks like the snowflakes are coming straight towards you.
   
   
10. Driving on the right (wrong!) side of the road takes a bit of getting used to. [2]
    
    
11. The average-sized car on Canadian roads is larger than in Australia. [3]
    
    
12. Parking spaces in car parks are larger than in Australia (see previous item).
    
    
13. Cars are cheaper in Canada.
    
    
14. Petrol is cheaper in Canada. [4]
    
    
15. When paying with a credit card, never once was my signature on the receipt checked against the signature on the back of my credit card.

I was intending to post more photos from Canada during my time here in Canada. However, despite calibrating the screen of my (work) laptop before I left, I'm not particularly happy with the colour rendition of it, and hence cannot be confident that the colours of a photo are correct (changing the viewing angle of the screen changes the colours, and particularly with photos of snow, it's important to get the white balance correct).

Also, I don't have Photoshop on this laptop, which significantly restricts my ability to post-process photos. I have about 20GB of photos taken while in Canada, and am intending to post some of them over the next few weeks.

1. Glacier photos to come in a future post.
2. I'll be writing a separate post about my driving experiences in Canada.
3. Lots of big "pick-up trucks" and vans on the roads in Canada.
4. Petrol prices in Calgary were typically around CAD$0.88 per litre (approx AUD$1.00), and as expected, were higher in remote locations such as Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. At the time of writing, the FuelWatch website indicates that the average price of ULP in Perth is $1.225.