Not seeing Calgary, and Astral Harvest

So I was sitting at the station, deep into my book, when I noticed a figure appear out of my peripheral vision, sit next to me, and nonchalantly mutter "What's up".

Pulling myself out my book, I realised that it was Rach, and I gave her a big hug and we wandered out to her car.

I wasn't actually staying in Calgary much, as the following morning, myself, Rach and her girlfriend Steph were heading to a music festival. However, we went to a couple of their friends' houses and were treated to wine, pizza and a great game called Washers (which I'm totally going to recreate in NZ) and although my back was giving me serous grief, it was a great evening.

The following day was Canada Day, so for the long weekend, we were headed out to an electronic music festival. Now, this is really not my type of music. Not even a little bit. I find the doof doof beats really get incredibly annoying after appoximately 2.5 seconds, and the base carries everywhere, making it impossible to sleep at night. I am much more of a live music girl, but in spite of all that, and not being able to move that much, I had a great time there, and met some awesome people.

Rach at the Festival

Rach and Steph

There were a couple of good workshops as well, during the day, including a brilliant one called Laughter Yoga, where, as the name suggests, you simply laugh in a variety of exercises for an hour. It was awesome and everyone had a huge smile on their face afterwards. The festival did not have anywhere near as many workshops as Confest, an amazing festival I have gone to a couple of times in Australia, but it was pretty cool.

We camped in this awesome pull out trailer thing called Lionel, next to some good friends of Rach and Steph's, called Nate and Carey. Nate is a DJ and actually his set (which we all went down to listen to) was amazing. A little less doof doofy and more musical and I chair danced for the whole hour and a half. I also took lots of photos which kept me amused.

Rach standing outside our trailer Lionel

Nate Djing his very cool set
my bucket chair where I danced to Nate's set

My back even got better on the last day, as I took it pretty easy, and now it is pretty much healed and back to it's normal lower state of pain.

Rach and Steph were incredibly generous and kind to me, buying me wine and sharing their food with me, as they knew I was broke. It was great to see Rach (whom I met first in London but is from NZ)and to get to know Steph a little better (I met her in Auckland when they were living there and I visited Rach).

All in all it was a great (but very tiring) festival. I didn't get too much sleep because the bass really did carry all the way to me, but I countered it by putting on headphones and listening to The Black Seeds (NZ funky reggae/dub), which by the way, is an excellent counter music if to want to sleep during doof doof music festivals.

So, I had a great time, didn't get to see any of Calgary, but more importantly, got to hang out with Rach, Steph and some of their friends which was very very cool.

hula Hooping Girl
beautiful Belly Dancers in the parade
Cute little boy ever looks concerned as big weird creatures surrounds him
So here I sit, in their little lounge, at midnight, supposed to be packing, but procrastinating on here instead. Tomorrow I begin the long trek home. All in all, including travel/waiting and flying I had about a 26+ time frame ahead of me before I reach Christchurch.

It has been a fabulous trip! I have caught up with some amazing friends and made some great new ones. Having said that, I'm looking forward to my room, not having to pack my bag every few days and seeing my friends and family back in New Zealand.