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I'm in Canada at the moment, and due to return to the UK next week. I'm now back in the UK from Canada. My original intention was to stay for a year since I had a work visa, but I ended cutting that short - I like Canada, but I just didn't find a place I wanted to stay for an entire year, so quickly decided to have an extended holiday rather than an entire year.

I started in Toronto, and BUNAC organised for travellers on the group flight (I think around 12 of us) to stay in the Global Village Backpackers Inn, which was so terrible I abandoned my further night's stay in search of somewhere without rodents or giant centipedes infesting the beds. This kind of put me on the back foot from the beginning, although I did stay in Toronto for a total of around three weeks before moving on, so I feel I gave it a good shot. It was just too big and noisy for my liking, coming from smaller cities in the UK. Once I'd gone into tourist mode, I strangely started enjoying the place a little more though - the CN Tower is probably the most touristy thing to do in Toronto.

I then met up with three other people that were on the same flight who had similar feelings as I did, and we visited Ottawa, then Montreal, before returning back to Toronto. Ottawa and Montreal were nice enough places, but again didn't have the 'this is where I want to stay' feeling. It was at this point I'd decided a year wasn't going to work, and chose an extended travelling holiday to explore the country rather than making use of my work permit to stay for longer. Given the stories I've heard from others that have chosen the opposite, I feel I made the correct decision, even if it was a waste of money sorting out the visa.

Next stop was Niagara Falls.

Impressive falls and cheap accommodation, which was nice. The town itself was tackier than Blackpool if you can imagine that, but it was a decent enough place to stay for a week. I went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour for free too, since of the group of 49 people ahead of me, only 46 showed up so the next three in line received free tickets. It was very wet, but spectacular. There were fireworks on the Friday right by the illuminated falls.

From Niagara Falls it was back to Toronto for a short stay, enough time to visit the Toronto Islands at sunset, shortly before taking the four day train across to Vancouver.

It was surprisingly pleasant on the train to say I was stuck there for so long. I also came to the conclusion that I've enjoyed the travelling more than the actual destinations. I'd much rather have had a more definitive plan set out before leaving to see much more of the country, stopping off at places for two or three nights before moving on. For this I think I would have needed to rent a car, which would have also provided more freedom of where to go. Churchill is one place in the middle of Canada I would definitely have liked to have gone, for example - to see the polar bears and northern lights.

Anyway, Vancouver.

Vancouver is a city of two very distinct halves. There's the part you're supposed to see, which looks like the photos I've taken, and then there's the part nobody wants to see, with homeless people, many of whom mentally ill, that the government doesn't visibly appear to be doing anything to help. The downtown and harbour areas were pleasant though - I rented a bike to go around the sea wall and see the Pacific ocean for the first time.

I also saw some raccoons in Stanley park.

At this stage it was clear city life wasn't really for me - not the cities of this scale anyway. So I went to Banff, mostly because of the images I've seen of it. It was easy to take similarly spectacular photos.

The reality of Banff is that it looks exactly like the photos you might find on Google. Very picturesque, so I stayed for a couple of weeks and climbed mountains, rented bikes and went on the cable cars. It's a shame the ski season wasn't on while I was there, since I think that's the main reason to be in Banff - and also the reason that after two weeks, I felt there was nothing more to do, so headed back to Vancouver for my flight.

I've enjoyed Canada, it's a nice country with mostly friendly people. I'm looking forward to going home though, you forget the little everyday things you miss that you take for granted.

Lift ride down, it went at 30km/h apparently. It felt like it when it stopped, my stomach was still at the top.

Think grandad would love it, especially the bit with the glass bottom where you look down and see the tiny people like ants below you.

The Biodome (cost me $9 to get in instead of $12 because I walked - eco friendly 25% discount):

The F1 circuit!

Downtown from a distance:

A lock outside Houses of Parliament:

Houses of Parliament:

Parade:

CN Tower:

And I didn't fancy taking photos of much else.