Canada

Canada hit differently from the moment I landed. The scale of everything — the sky, the mountains, the water — makes you realise how small your frame of reference has been. Banff was the one that got me. Standing at the top of Sulphur Mountain with the whole Bow Valley spread out below, the green-grey river cutting through the valley floor and the Rockies stacked up in every direction, I just stood there for a long time not saying anything. Then we drove out to Lake Minnewanka and the water was this cold flat blue-green under a half-cloudy sky, and those peaks lined up behind it like walls.

Niagara was a completely different kind of overwhelming. Taking a helicopter over Horseshoe Falls was the decision of the trip — from up there you can finally see the whole shape of it, the curve of the Canadian falls, the white chaos of the water churning into that turquoise-green gorge, the tourist boats looking like toys below. From ground level the mist gets in your face and you can feel the vibration through the railing, but from the air you understand why it matters.

Calgary surprised me. I expected a quiet oil town but the downtown core has these sharp glass towers going up against a bright Alberta sky, flower baskets hanging off the buildings, and the streets feel easy and open. It was a good city to just walk around in without a plan. Canada is one of those places where you keep thinking you've seen the highlight and then the next thing is just as good.