Oh! Canada.

Friday, we entered Canada. After many hours of flat rural driving, we finally saw Calgary on the horizon. The plan was to stay with Pam and Chuck--friends of friends. They lived in a suburb about 15 minutes from downtown. They had yet to call us back, but we had their address, so we decided to just drive around and find it. We turned into Maple Place, and took a left on Maple Creek passing every variation of maple there is--Mapleton, Maple Crest, Maple Village. There were endless Maples, but no Maplehurst. Perhaps their house was in the adjacent maple suburb. We decided we would head into the city and find Pam and Chuck later.
The traffic was horrible. Luckily, the Calgary folk surrounding us were extremely entertaining and made the time pass. In fact, as we were eye flirting with the many shirtless men in trucks, we didnt realize that we had passed the city entirely by about 40 streets! We pulled off, switched drivers, vowed not to be distracted by Canadian men, and headed back into the city.
At this point, plans had changed and we were unfortunately no longer staying with Pam and Chuck. We decided this would be a good night to not camp and headed for the local hostel. Rachel and I went in and found out that the only three beds they had left were separated--two in the girls room and one in the coed. It was probably for the best that we didn't stay because it was in a shady part of town. While Sophia waited in the car for us, she saw three drug deals go down and had made elaborate plans of what she'd do if someone pulled a gun on her.
By now, we were exhausted, starving, and extremely dirty. We were sick of navigating through a strange city, so when we saw the Marriott a few streets away, we decided to just splurge. It was amazing. Perfectly fluffy white pillows, fancy bottles of shampoo, and delicious smelling body cleansers.
After we each took advantage of these luxurious amenities, we went to find some good ol' Canadian cow and nice cold Canadian beer (I'm legal here!!). Dinner was delicious, Calgary nightlife on the other hand, was a bit disappointing. After going to a few bars that looked promising only to be let down, we finally asked some locals for recommendations. They took us to a local club that was supposed to be "really cool" (insert strong Canadian accent). We walked for several blocks with them, listening to their adorable Canadian accents and quizzing each other on how many states they knew versus how many provinces we knew. I am proud to say that I could name all 10 provinces and three territories, while they could not even name 8 states. Once we got to the club we realized we didn't want to spend any money, so we said goodbye to our new friends.
The rest of the evening was kind of lame. Two separate groups of people commented on our age, saying we looked too young to be out--the drinking age in Alberta is 18! We were all pretty offended. Calgary closes up pretty early. By 11:30, just as the sun was starting to set, everything was closed. We called it a night and headed back to our amazing beds to eat oreos and watch TV. It was perfect.