My experience in Jasper was…um…interesting.

For once, I didn’t take the Greyhound from Banff to Jasper, but Brewster, because Greyhound doesn’t serve that route (otherwise I would have had to go back to Calgary and via Edmonton, which is only a small detour of a few hundred kilometers). Riding Brewster was great and there were only seven of us on the bus. It was a welcome change, really.

The bus driver, Oli, was also great and showed us at least a few sights along the roadside, including my first bear 🙂 – a cute little black bear nibbling on a bush on the grass verge. Unfortunately (as always when you need it), my camera battery was dead, so I don’t have any photographic evidence. After a few minutes, however, the bear had had enough of the cars and people walking around taking photos and trotted back into the forest.

In Jasper, Oli dropped me off as the last passenger right at the hostel, but not before giving me a little tour of Jasper. And when I say little, I really mean little, because Jasper has about two or three interesting streets with shops and cafés.

The unique feature of the hostel in Jasper is the dormitory with a total of 30 beds. Although they are separated by chipboard partitions, this doesn’t help if you have a lady of the “aggressive snorer” variety in your room. On top of that, I was allowed to sleep in the first “compartment” by the door, where the light from the hallway shone in at first, then the lady with the aggressive snoring pattern came into play, and when I had solved this problem with the help of my earplugs, at 2 a.m. a girl started talking so loudly on the phone that I’m sure the whole dormitory (except for the lady with the narrowed sinuses) woke up (I could even hear her through the earplugs). After 10 minutes of deafening “Oh my god” and little prospect of improvement, I climbed out of bed and went over to the phones (two hallways away). I asked if she could maybe call back the next morning because she was waking up the entire hostel.
The answer was, “Oh yes, I’ll stop right now, but my sister just got engaged – oh my god!“
(And my first guess had been that someone had been attacked by a cougar… well…)

My only full day in Jasper was… wet. It rained all day and even snowed at times. My first act was to take the first shuttle “downtown” to buy breakfast. For some inexplicable reason, I had thought that breakfast was included in the price… but at least this got me out of the hostel quickly, otherwise I would probably have stayed indoors all day.
Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, the internet was also down, both the computers in the hostel and the wireless internet for the general public.

So it happened that we, five Germans from the south of the country, spent the whole morning sitting together doing a puzzle with American license plates. It was quite fun.
But it didn’t help: I had to go back “into town” in the afternoon because I hadn’t booked a hostel for the next day.
So the four of us ordered a taxi and headed back out into the rain. Because I had also missed the last shuttle back by 5 minutes (why does the last shuttle leave at 20 past when all the others leave at 30 past???), I decided to walk the 7 km back to the hostel. I was wearing my rain jacket anyway, and two of the three showers in the hostel were working, so I had a realistic motivating goal in mind.
So, off I went back towards Whistler Mountain…

Apparently, Canadians are sooooooooooooooooooo friendly and immediately stop and ask if they can give you a ride… obviously only if you’re standing on the highway in a skimpy top and miniskirt – and you’re not wet. In any case, I walked the route unmolested, past a few deer or moose (unfortunately, they didn’t introduce themselves), who were hiding nicely under some trees, to the foot of Whistler Mountain. Then, just after the turnoff, a car stopped and a nice local drove me and my wet clothes the last two kilometers to the hostel.
At least there I could take a nice long shower with nice warm water 🙂

What wasn’t happening was the movie night advertised at the front desk (along with a free shuttle twice a day). These were remnants of past ski season days (both supposedly took place for the last time in January). But they didn’t remove the notice from the board… so that the next visitors on rainy days can look forward to a $5 movie in vain…
So the day ended unspectacularly with a bit of reading and an early night.

Since the Greyhound bus to Kelowna didn’t leave until noon, I had a little time to see Jasper in dry conditions, but by the time the bus arrived, I had seen most of the souvenir shops.