Author Archives: jmatie22

Alberta – 3rd Day

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On this day, I actually went on a hike. We went to the Johnston Canyon, all the way up to the ink pots (it’s called that since they look like ink pots).

The hike itself was paved for half of the way, making the first half easy. The second half had pretty steep hills, but still manageable. The only annoying part of the hike is that it rained on and off (fortunately I had my rain coat).

After the hike we went into town to eat Korean food (originally we were going to get Ramen, but the line was long). Here is the food link:

Seoul Country Korean Restaurant

Afterwards, we chilled at the hotel’s hot tub for a bit before we got dinner.

For dinner, we went to a place called The Bison Restaurant and Lounge. Food overall was good. Here’s the link:

The Bison Restaurant and Lounge

After dinner, we made our way back to The Hidden Ridge since we wanted to finish all the alcohol everyone bought (that’s what happens when you tell people who are working to BYOB).

We spent the night in the Wedding party’s room. One game we played was this alternate life Tinder game (basically what it would have been like if Jon had not met Cyrene). And then we burnt the non-top 4 cards away. Abi ended up winning the game (and Sam came in second).

Afterwards, some of the guys went to smoke cigars, while Abi and I started a game of “Here’s to the Governor”. I sucked as usual, but Jimmy was the worst. Also, Cyrene’s brother (although not playing) made up some complicated rules. I ended up switching out with Jon so he could get a taste of the game.

Alberta – 2nd Day

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The intention of the day was to start at lake Louise and hike sentinel pass. But since I had barely any sleep, I decided to have a chill day.

We started off by going into town (Banfff) and getting brunch at Tooloulous. Here are the details:

Tooloulous

After brunch we went and checked out the Banff upper hot springs (it was only $8 Canadian and government owned). The thing about hot springs is that it is just mineral water with no chlorine.

The view was good, but you definitely get what you pay for.

After, we got dinner at an Indian place called Masala. I actually forgot to take food pics (hence no blog link). The butter chicken was good though (and the texture was very tofu like, which I was fine with).

After dinner, we did a pub crawl to three bars.

The first one was an Irish pub called St James pub. It was a standard Irish pub, but very large. I got a cosmo (which was deemed very non hetero lol).

The second place we went to was called Rose and Crown. This place was fun! There was a 4 player game that you basically try and shoot moose (I think the multiplayer aspect made it fun, although it was $8 a game). I won the first game (see the score below). Drinks at this pace though we’re not cheap for a bar (I ordered two keno drips, each $12.50 Canadian). The other good thing about this place is you can select music (the EDM choices were only the popular songs).

The last bar/pub we went to was the Wild Bill’s Legendary Saloon. Drinks were super cheap ($4 a shot). There was also a live band that played covers for some popular folk songs. They did also have their own songs (one which was called “Tits”, which everyone seemed to like, but I was pretty meh to it).

After the bars we tried to hit up a club called the Dancing Sasquatch. No one wanted to pay cover to we went to the McDonalds right beside it (I ordered a poutine, which was good after 5 drinks in).

After McDonalds, a couple of us checked out a club called HooDoo (same owner as the previous club, but this one was free). The music at the club was top 40 EDM / Pop, and the transitions were actually pretty good.

Alberta – 1st Day

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Arrived in Calgary at around noon. Airport seemed new for the most part.

Customs was fast because of Nexus (although funny story? Yuri slipped his Nexus card into the machine and ended up having to wait).

After customs, I proceeded to the rental car, where I skipped the line because of being an Avis Preferred member.

From the airport, I stopped by a Real Canadian super store to pick up some snacks. I then went to the “privately owned” real Canadian liquor store (which looks super ghetto inside) to grab some liquor (Haneson and some brand of vodka I’ve never heard of.

After, before going on the road to Banff, I stopped by Timmy’s to grab a chicken chipotle wrap, mocha latte, and 20 assorted Timbits.

The road to Banff was pretty straightforward. Going on the trans Canada highway was cool (the speed limit was 110 Km at some points, and the scenery was awesome).

After an hour and a half, I arrived at Hidden Ridge Resort. Since I had a smaller room booked for the first two nights, and a larger one booked for the last night, they let me upgrade the first room for only $90 Canadian so I could stay in the same room!

The room itself was pretty big. The rest of the day we had a barbecue and drank at the wedding party’s room (basically my room but mirrored).

Third Day in Miami

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Started off my 30th birthday eating at this Mediterranean restaurant:

Saffron Mediterranean Grill

Then, we headed close by to south beach, where we Stopped by the Versace mansion, then strolled by the beach.

Shortly after, we made our way to Ultra. Gotta say, Ultra isn’t as big as EDC. Although I did really like the main stage setup (but it was a bit crowded to say the least). We saw Armin, Hardwell and Virtual Self. Also, it’s worth mentioning that some unnamed person lost their phone :/

Second Day in Miami

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We started off the second day eating at a restaurant called Nusr-et. It’s a Turkish meat house, located in downtown Miami. Here is the review:

Nusr-Et Miami

Have to say, I really like how big, developed, and clean Miami is (both downtown and south beach area).

Afterwards, we spent the day at 1 Hotel South Beach with Kaskade. Not much to say, except the music was obviously good, but the drinks were expensive ($10 for water and $15 per drink). Overall though, a fun experience 😉

After, we grabbed food at a Ramen place, where we also celebrated me leaving my twenties, and turning thirty 🙁

K Ramen Burger Beer

First Night in Miami

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We landed in FFL at 5:30pm (and arrived at the gate at 6pm. Jet blue overall was a good flight experience with the their unlimited snacks, free bottled water, and slightly over priced, but really good turkey sandwich. However, actually leaving SFO took a while, and reaching the gate was bad. Sam’s flight left 30 minutes later than ours, but ubered out of FFL before us).

From FFL, it took about 60 minutes to reach Four Point hotel. On the way to the hotel, the “Welcome to Miami Beach” sign was pretty cool to see on highway 195.

At the hotel, they didn’t honour the adjoining rooms request.

We went to Bird and Bone for Dinner. I got their “Hot Chicken” dish and strawberry smash drink.

After, we stopped by Walgreens to get some supplies. Unfortunately they did not have hard liquor.

At 10:00pm, we headed to SOHO Studios for Heldeep vs Monstercat. The venue was definitely a very rave atmosphere. They sold some rave gear, but it was over priced.

Between all the DJs that played, Sunburn and Oliver Helden were the best.

We went back to the hotel at 2pm, and ordered and artichoke pizza from Artichoke Pizza place.

Last Day in Bogota

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We started off the day getting caffeine at Juan Valdez near our hotel.

Then we went to venture off around Usaquen, where we stopped by a “Mac Store” (where it was basically an Apple store, but they did not have any iPhone X).

We grabbed a light lunch at Osaka.

And then stopped a nearby shopping center called Hacienda Santa Barbers.l (where they also had a La Plaza de Qudres).

On our way to the museum of Gold, I thought it was interesting that people sell things on the roads:

At the Gold Museum, it was super cheap to enter (like $1.50 USD or 4000 pesos)

After the Gold museum we went to a a church called Catedral de la Virgin.

We went our way back to Zona Rosa, where we stopped by a Taco Bel and I got some Nachos and a bunch of candy (the equivalent to Hershey’s in Colombia is Jet):

We then got a full body massage at Chairama spa (it was $151000 pesos, which I though was a bit pricey for Colombia).

After the massage, we stopped by a bar called La Cerveceria.

The last bar we went to was called Cabrera Resto Bar, where they had really good deep house music (much like Roxanne, except they had a DJ).

To end off, some interesting things I thought I should mention:

  • Empanadas are more corn-like in Colombia compared to the US
  • The exchange rate was about 3 times the US
  • Alcoholic drinks were almost the same price as the US, but good in general was cheap