Sarah & Alex
On a temperate, October morning, Sophie and I sat sipping coffee in Buttermilk Fine Waffles, our favourite eatery in Calgary, waiting to meet two fellow Brits embarking on a new adventure...
Sarah and I began talking through an IEC Facebook group around September time; she told me that she and her long term boyfriend, Alex, would be settling in Calgary for the winter and that they'd be happy to meet up with Sophie and I to talk travelling. They arrived in Calgary about a week before we were passing through on our way to Banff so the timing worked perfectly. We met at 10:30am and spent the whole morning chatting about our plans for Canada, past adventures and where in the world we wanted to go next...which was everywhere!
I bought us all a drink and asked what Sarah and Alex thought of Canada since arriving. They were staying in an Airbnb while they looked for jobs, found the local supermarket, viewed permanent apartments etc. They said that they were adjusting pretty well and noted how friendly everyone was, with the exception of one snotty flight attendant...but things were going well. Sarah told us how just the next day she was to be starting her new job in an art gallery; "S: I've done it before at home so I was really lucky to find it before hand." Alex was looking for a job, but it was still early days, "A: I've been on loads of recruitment sites online and I'm waiting to hear back basically. [I'm looking for] anything and everything I suppose, I've done loads of customer service stuff like sales but I'd like to do more labour and construction sort of stuff to keep a bit more active."
"S: It's just trying to get into it, he just needs to find someone to get a foot in the door."
"A: Yeah you know some people land jobs and just get lucky sometimes. I've got a friend in BC and he got really lucky, he went gold mining one day and met someone down in the mines and they offered him a job at some oil and gas company and now he's raking it in!"
"S: He's loving life, he barely works and gets paid a lot!"
"A: Yeah they break up for winter and he has the whole winter off, he either gets paid or he's made enough money to support himself."
I was curious as to whether Sarah and Alex had ever lived abroad before as they seemed to have a pretty practical approach to getting themselves started in Calgary, "A: We've done a year in Australia; we worked and travelled."
"S: When we first arrived we stayed with my uncle and aunt for a couple of days then flew out to meet [Alex's] brother and friend up in Darwin, then we drove down the west coast, camping."
"A: All the way through from Uluru then to Brisbane."
"S: Then when we got back to Brisbane we were living back with my uncle and aunt for about four weeks, just working in a bar."
"A: I worked in a drive through alcohol shop."
"S: It was so weird; people just drive up, get a crate of beer and put it in their boot then drive off in their cab."
"A: They're a funny people there!"
"S: Then we lived in Harvey Bay for three/four months which was our favourite place. We had this really cool house that we shared with really cool people."
"A: Yeah we were told the opposite to Harvey Bay, everyone was like 'it's full of old people, you're not going to enjoy it'. We worked in this hostel called the 'The Woodshed' and met the best bunch of people. We worked for our accommodation; Sarah worked behind reception and I worked in the restaurant, and we just had a really good life there; it was really fun and the beach was five minutes away."
"S: So from there we tried to find somewhere we could travel a bit more, settle down, but we ended up in this really bad financial state. We had no money, we were doing more work for our accommodation. Everyone was going out partying and we couldn't afford to, we could not find work or anything. Then we found our lucky break, and for the next five months we pretty much worked for a company and they paid us to go all over."
"A: It was basically free travel and accommodation up and down the country and $1000 bucks a week!"
"S: We stayed in some really beautiful houses."
"A: The Tasmania house was really nice, we went from Cairns down to Tasmania."
This all sounded like such a dream! I've never been as drawn in by the idea of Australia as a lot of other gap-year travellers seem to be. After hearing Sarah and Alex's story it did fill me with a little more wanderlust towards Australia, so I asked more about it, "S: We love Australia don't we? There's a lot of people who were like 'its expensive and stuff' but by the time we got out there its such a great way of life. The money was really good and its not that expensive. We're from Winchester, so we pay London prices and your wages don't reflect it whereas there, some bits were cheaper than back home."
"A:What's nice as well is that everyone's in your boat; they're just travelling, you meet people all the time."
"S: Yeah you don't not talk to someone, you go out to a bar and everyone's so friendly. We met a couple who turned out to be really good friends, yeah that was good."
Next I wanted to know more about home, after living abroad for year, does the UK still feel like home? or is it something they are searching for? "A: I find home is wherever we go really."
"S: The thing is I grew up in the army so I moved around a lot, so home is wherever my parents have been. Winchester will always be home, we like going back there but we don't want to settle there."
"A: Yeah our main thing is seeing the world really."
"S: Yeah we don't want to move technically home but I think one day we might end up living in Wales, near Cardiff maybe."
This then lead into a full blown discussion of where we had all lived and visited in Britain. There are some truly gorgeous places back home, Sophie agreed that she would like to live in Wales one day whereas for me, Northumberland and Cornwall would be the most beautiful places I could think of living in the UK. Excuse our home pride, but Britain is pretty stunning at times.
Returning to the subject of our newly adopted homeland for the next few years, I asked Sarah and Alex who's idea Canada was and why. They told us that after Australia they wanted to go on another adventure, "S: We were playing between Canada and New Zealand but because Canada was the harder visa to get we thought we'd do this first. I'm running out of time, so it was like 'we'll try get that one, if we don't get it then we'll apply when we're in New Zealand.' I've not got long before I'm outcasted from the age limit."
"A: Yeah cause Sarah's 28."
"S: Yeah its 30 but I can go all the way up to when I'm 31."
Sarah and Alex were already the most adventurous people I know, I wondered how long they planned to stay in Calgary and where else they would go in Canada throughout the time of their visas, "A: We want to base ourselves somewhere so we can save some more money up and get a camper van and then travel round the whole country if we can."
"S: We're thinking of doing the winter here in Calgary, get work over that period."
"A: Yeah it would be nice to be up in Banff or Canmore..."
"S: We want to travel, we want to see as much as we can. We were talking about doing a ski season next winter."
"A: Probably in Whistler because it is so much bigger and better. We drove up to Sunshine Village, but its not really a village. There was three or four buildings and then the gondola that takes you up into the mountains. It's not like if you've ever been to the Alps or the Pyrenees, you just drive up into the towns or the cities in the mountains then the ski runs are all around you."
With so many amazing countries and sights under their belt, I wanted to know which one was their favourite, "S: Oh that's really difficult, I've been around that's my problem *laughs*"
"A: In a nice way!"
"S: In a travelling sense *laughs* I've got different places for different reasons."
"A: Australia has got to be my favourite so far; there's a lot there, a lot to see and do."
"S: Its very surprising as well because there is so much. I went over there a bit like 'umm' and then you come back and you're like 'it's amazing!', Australia's awesome." Sarah continued then to tell me that she was even more travelled than I thought, she used to work on cruise ships that have taken her all over the globe: "S:I worked two contracts, so my first contract I was based out of Texas, and I covered Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Then my second was out of Southampton so we did summer in Europe; Western Europe, Eastern Europe, we went up North to the Arctic then did tours over to the Caribbean, then we went through Egypt and Jordan. Yeah, so many places...I really love Norway, it's beautiful. I like the Middle East, the food especially. And the Caribbean cause it's hot and sunny and beautiful."
I was beginning to think Sarah and Alex had collectively ticked off as much of the world as you could by our age. What could be left on their travelling bucket list? I put it to them: "A: New Zealand."
"S: I've got a whole trip to South America planned out, with loads of places to go and see and do. *Looks at Alex* which you're going to love me for cause we can't wait!"
"A: It'll be so good. I'd like to do a big road trip through America, that would be fun. To go across and then up and down. [The plan for] Canada would be; get a camper van, kit it out, and then drive around as much as we can is possible, do a bit of everything."
"S: We have talked about doing our two years in Canada, travel around, then go down [to the US]."
"A: You can get a 90 day pass/visa into America."
"S: We were going to go from America to New Zealand weren't we? That's the thing, there's so many places in this world to see."
"A: Asia would be another big one."
"S: I really want to see the 'Stans as well; Kazakhstan, all those as well. Omen too, that would be awesome. Bulgaria, Latvia..." so basically that's everywhere right Sarah?
Wanderlust is something I completely understand, there are so many places all across the planet I want to see. It's tempting to sacrifice settling somewhere permanent and building a life there when you're being called to and compelled by countries you've never to set foot in half way across the world. I don't think I've ever met two people however, who have such a desire to see absolutely everything! The world is so wide and diverse that naturally there are some places that don't appeal to us as others do, but that's not the case for Sarah and Alex. I really admired their abundant curiosity and you could see how their travels had shaped them as people and as a couple.
The four of us got along so well and so naturally that the time flew past us. After Sarah and Alex had answered all of my questions we played a game of Cards Against Humanity, (Buttermilk has a selection of board games for customers to play while they enjoy their food), which revealed to us all how similar and potentially weird our sense of humours were! From there we decided to go get some lunch together at a Mexican restaurant further down 17th Avenue which I've forgotten the name of, and spent another couple of hours telling stories and laughing at a few travel disasters we'd experienced.
As Sarah and Alex are only in Calgary, Sophie and I have actually seen them a few times since our interview and we've become really good friends. They rented a car a few weeks after our interview so they could visit some of the lakes near Banff, they picked Sophie and I up later in the afternoon and we drove to Lake Minnewanka were we went for a walk. It was such a windy day that the waves on the lake were causing mist to go flying into the air and across the water. It was great to have a catch up, they told us they were renting an apartment in the city centre and Alex is now working at Patagonia. Sophie and I also had news that we were settled with jobs and accommodation by then so it was lovely to all have something exciting to tell each other about.
Sarah and I began talking through an IEC Facebook group around September time; she told me that she and her long term boyfriend, Alex, would be settling in Calgary for the winter and that they'd be happy to meet up with Sophie and I to talk travelling. They arrived in Calgary about a week before we were passing through on our way to Banff so the timing worked perfectly. We met at 10:30am and spent the whole morning chatting about our plans for Canada, past adventures and where in the world we wanted to go next...which was everywhere!
I bought us all a drink and asked what Sarah and Alex thought of Canada since arriving. They were staying in an Airbnb while they looked for jobs, found the local supermarket, viewed permanent apartments etc. They said that they were adjusting pretty well and noted how friendly everyone was, with the exception of one snotty flight attendant...but things were going well. Sarah told us how just the next day she was to be starting her new job in an art gallery; "S: I've done it before at home so I was really lucky to find it before hand." Alex was looking for a job, but it was still early days, "A: I've been on loads of recruitment sites online and I'm waiting to hear back basically. [I'm looking for] anything and everything I suppose, I've done loads of customer service stuff like sales but I'd like to do more labour and construction sort of stuff to keep a bit more active."
"S: It's just trying to get into it, he just needs to find someone to get a foot in the door."
"A: Yeah you know some people land jobs and just get lucky sometimes. I've got a friend in BC and he got really lucky, he went gold mining one day and met someone down in the mines and they offered him a job at some oil and gas company and now he's raking it in!"
"S: He's loving life, he barely works and gets paid a lot!"
"A: Yeah they break up for winter and he has the whole winter off, he either gets paid or he's made enough money to support himself."
I was curious as to whether Sarah and Alex had ever lived abroad before as they seemed to have a pretty practical approach to getting themselves started in Calgary, "A: We've done a year in Australia; we worked and travelled."
"S: When we first arrived we stayed with my uncle and aunt for a couple of days then flew out to meet [Alex's] brother and friend up in Darwin, then we drove down the west coast, camping."
"A: All the way through from Uluru then to Brisbane."
"S: Then when we got back to Brisbane we were living back with my uncle and aunt for about four weeks, just working in a bar."
"A: I worked in a drive through alcohol shop."
"S: It was so weird; people just drive up, get a crate of beer and put it in their boot then drive off in their cab."
"A: They're a funny people there!"
"S: Then we lived in Harvey Bay for three/four months which was our favourite place. We had this really cool house that we shared with really cool people."
"A: Yeah we were told the opposite to Harvey Bay, everyone was like 'it's full of old people, you're not going to enjoy it'. We worked in this hostel called the 'The Woodshed' and met the best bunch of people. We worked for our accommodation; Sarah worked behind reception and I worked in the restaurant, and we just had a really good life there; it was really fun and the beach was five minutes away."
"S: So from there we tried to find somewhere we could travel a bit more, settle down, but we ended up in this really bad financial state. We had no money, we were doing more work for our accommodation. Everyone was going out partying and we couldn't afford to, we could not find work or anything. Then we found our lucky break, and for the next five months we pretty much worked for a company and they paid us to go all over."
"A: It was basically free travel and accommodation up and down the country and $1000 bucks a week!"
"S: We stayed in some really beautiful houses."
"A: The Tasmania house was really nice, we went from Cairns down to Tasmania."
This all sounded like such a dream! I've never been as drawn in by the idea of Australia as a lot of other gap-year travellers seem to be. After hearing Sarah and Alex's story it did fill me with a little more wanderlust towards Australia, so I asked more about it, "S: We love Australia don't we? There's a lot of people who were like 'its expensive and stuff' but by the time we got out there its such a great way of life. The money was really good and its not that expensive. We're from Winchester, so we pay London prices and your wages don't reflect it whereas there, some bits were cheaper than back home."
"A:What's nice as well is that everyone's in your boat; they're just travelling, you meet people all the time."
"S: Yeah you don't not talk to someone, you go out to a bar and everyone's so friendly. We met a couple who turned out to be really good friends, yeah that was good."
Next I wanted to know more about home, after living abroad for year, does the UK still feel like home? or is it something they are searching for? "A: I find home is wherever we go really."
"S: The thing is I grew up in the army so I moved around a lot, so home is wherever my parents have been. Winchester will always be home, we like going back there but we don't want to settle there."
"A: Yeah our main thing is seeing the world really."
"S: Yeah we don't want to move technically home but I think one day we might end up living in Wales, near Cardiff maybe."
This then lead into a full blown discussion of where we had all lived and visited in Britain. There are some truly gorgeous places back home, Sophie agreed that she would like to live in Wales one day whereas for me, Northumberland and Cornwall would be the most beautiful places I could think of living in the UK. Excuse our home pride, but Britain is pretty stunning at times.
Returning to the subject of our newly adopted homeland for the next few years, I asked Sarah and Alex who's idea Canada was and why. They told us that after Australia they wanted to go on another adventure, "S: We were playing between Canada and New Zealand but because Canada was the harder visa to get we thought we'd do this first. I'm running out of time, so it was like 'we'll try get that one, if we don't get it then we'll apply when we're in New Zealand.' I've not got long before I'm outcasted from the age limit."
"A: Yeah cause Sarah's 28."
"S: Yeah its 30 but I can go all the way up to when I'm 31."
Sarah and Alex were already the most adventurous people I know, I wondered how long they planned to stay in Calgary and where else they would go in Canada throughout the time of their visas, "A: We want to base ourselves somewhere so we can save some more money up and get a camper van and then travel round the whole country if we can."
"S: We're thinking of doing the winter here in Calgary, get work over that period."
"A: Yeah it would be nice to be up in Banff or Canmore..."
"S: We want to travel, we want to see as much as we can. We were talking about doing a ski season next winter."
"A: Probably in Whistler because it is so much bigger and better. We drove up to Sunshine Village, but its not really a village. There was three or four buildings and then the gondola that takes you up into the mountains. It's not like if you've ever been to the Alps or the Pyrenees, you just drive up into the towns or the cities in the mountains then the ski runs are all around you."
With so many amazing countries and sights under their belt, I wanted to know which one was their favourite, "S: Oh that's really difficult, I've been around that's my problem *laughs*"
"A: In a nice way!"
"S: In a travelling sense *laughs* I've got different places for different reasons."
"A: Australia has got to be my favourite so far; there's a lot there, a lot to see and do."
"S: Its very surprising as well because there is so much. I went over there a bit like 'umm' and then you come back and you're like 'it's amazing!', Australia's awesome." Sarah continued then to tell me that she was even more travelled than I thought, she used to work on cruise ships that have taken her all over the globe: "S:I worked two contracts, so my first contract I was based out of Texas, and I covered Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Then my second was out of Southampton so we did summer in Europe; Western Europe, Eastern Europe, we went up North to the Arctic then did tours over to the Caribbean, then we went through Egypt and Jordan. Yeah, so many places...I really love Norway, it's beautiful. I like the Middle East, the food especially. And the Caribbean cause it's hot and sunny and beautiful."
I was beginning to think Sarah and Alex had collectively ticked off as much of the world as you could by our age. What could be left on their travelling bucket list? I put it to them: "A: New Zealand."
"S: I've got a whole trip to South America planned out, with loads of places to go and see and do. *Looks at Alex* which you're going to love me for cause we can't wait!"
"A: It'll be so good. I'd like to do a big road trip through America, that would be fun. To go across and then up and down. [The plan for] Canada would be; get a camper van, kit it out, and then drive around as much as we can is possible, do a bit of everything."
"S: We have talked about doing our two years in Canada, travel around, then go down [to the US]."
"A: You can get a 90 day pass/visa into America."
"S: We were going to go from America to New Zealand weren't we? That's the thing, there's so many places in this world to see."
"A: Asia would be another big one."
"S: I really want to see the 'Stans as well; Kazakhstan, all those as well. Omen too, that would be awesome. Bulgaria, Latvia..." so basically that's everywhere right Sarah?
Wanderlust is something I completely understand, there are so many places all across the planet I want to see. It's tempting to sacrifice settling somewhere permanent and building a life there when you're being called to and compelled by countries you've never to set foot in half way across the world. I don't think I've ever met two people however, who have such a desire to see absolutely everything! The world is so wide and diverse that naturally there are some places that don't appeal to us as others do, but that's not the case for Sarah and Alex. I really admired their abundant curiosity and you could see how their travels had shaped them as people and as a couple.
The four of us got along so well and so naturally that the time flew past us. After Sarah and Alex had answered all of my questions we played a game of Cards Against Humanity, (Buttermilk has a selection of board games for customers to play while they enjoy their food), which revealed to us all how similar and potentially weird our sense of humours were! From there we decided to go get some lunch together at a Mexican restaurant further down 17th Avenue which I've forgotten the name of, and spent another couple of hours telling stories and laughing at a few travel disasters we'd experienced.
As Sarah and Alex are only in Calgary, Sophie and I have actually seen them a few times since our interview and we've become really good friends. They rented a car a few weeks after our interview so they could visit some of the lakes near Banff, they picked Sophie and I up later in the afternoon and we drove to Lake Minnewanka were we went for a walk. It was such a windy day that the waves on the lake were causing mist to go flying into the air and across the water. It was great to have a catch up, they told us they were renting an apartment in the city centre and Alex is now working at Patagonia. Sophie and I also had news that we were settled with jobs and accommodation by then so it was lovely to all have something exciting to tell each other about.
*Album cover*
Only in Canada would you find a BBQ on a boardwalk in the middle of a huge lake.
As Lake Minnewanka is 35km in circumference we didn't get all the way round it that day, next summer however the four of us have vowed to hike it together. As we drove back towards Banff we had to pull up behind some stationary traffic who had all stopped to take pictures of some male elk who were grazing just beside the road:
It's already been incredible to have met some great people through this project and Sophie and I have made some really good friends in Sarah and Alex. Coming to Canada has introduced me to some of the most amazing and like-minded people, I'm so grateful to have them all in my life. The people I've met have definitely made my time here and there's so much to learn from everyone you meet, they inspire me constantly and all in different ways. Sarah and Alex definitely inspire me to take on every adventure possible; they have some amazing stories and I now have a few more places on my bucket list thanks to them!
I have linked to Sarah and Alex's Instagram accounts at the bottom of this post so you can all follow them on their adventures in Canada, I have no doubt that there will be plenty of them in the future. Thank you all for reading their story and supporting this blog with your time as you have.
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