Canadian Winter

I have finally experienced a proper snowfall!  In London we had a couple of days with snow but we only ever had a couple of cm's at most that would quickly melt.

Last night it snowed here in Banff and when we woke up this morning there were a good few inches on the ground.  I'm glad I'm in a hostel at the moment as there were loads of Kiwis and Aussies out at 11pm last night throwing snowballs, making snow angels and acting like a bunch of kids, we were all so excited!  It's bloody cold during the day here so the snow has stuck and the city looks so pretty.  

Another part of winter that I'm loving is watching the river freezing over.   It has frozen to about 15 metres off shore so the other day a couple of friends and I went and had a play!  I have never walked on a frozen pond or river before so it was quite the novelty for me!  At first I was nervous and tentatively tip-toed over the ice but soon I realised how thick it was and developed the confidence to walk, slide and jump on the surface.  In places you could see cracks in the ice that gave away how thick it was, some parts seemed more than 4 or 5 inches deep!  In the shallow parts of the river the ice was glass like and you could easily see the bottom of the river bed and tiny fish swimming underneath, then as you went further out the bottom became a mass of blue, quite daunting.  

Aparently later in the year you can ice skate on the river, that would be so much fun and I can't wait to give it a go!

Here are some pictures of me playing on the ice.