Explorin' Edmonton, The Festival City

 The terrain changed on the way from Jasper to Edmonton. It became drier and flat. I didn't really know what to expect. Definitely I didn't expect it to snow again.

 
5 hours later, I was in Edmonton.

Greyhound station there didn't have any town maps. I didn't know my bearing so just hailed a cab to the hostel. Good thing I did coz apparently the hostel was south of the N.Saskatchewan River. With the weight I was carrying, walking it would have killed my shoulders.

The snow was melting on the streets of Edmonton. A few potholes were evidence of winters roughness. The HI was located at 81 avenue, parallel to the known Whyte 82nd Avenue where shops, cafes and pubs were located.

 Edmonton is known to be the gateway to Northern Canada and is the Northern most city in Canada too. It is also a major centre for oil and gas industry which explained it's earlier title of "oil capital of canada" in the 1940's. Majority of the people I met in the hostel were working on contracts with oil rigs like the camps in Fort McMurray. The girl I met was working there as a cook. She described it as remote, cold and nothing to do in the camps. Also, it's a kind of work where you'd be lucky if you get to stay in a camp with good people. It got me intrigued. But she was looking for another job. The pay is good she says. I was thinking more of the experience. But not sure if it's a market I can penetrate.

Edmonton is also nicknamed the Festival City because of its year round festivals. It houses the once biggest mall in the world known as West Edmonton Mall. It is also has Canada's largest living history museum - Fort Edmonton Park

I quickly went out and looked for late lunch. I decided to pass by the grocery store and pharmacy as well. It was windy outside, and I found it colder even than Jasper. I sent Jean a message that I arrived there earlier than I initially planned.

Another 2 girls arrived in the room, both from Australia. I forgot their names, too tired to get absorbed at that point. I felt like I had to recharge coz I was so tired from the bus ride and waking up too early. Anyway, they've been staying in a van and driving around the Rockies. They felt eeky and stinky so they decided to stay in the hostel for a night and have a hot shower. It was really funny because  they said they had pizza the other night with the hope it would trigger the bears fancy in the national park. Silly girls. Well, lucky them bears were not interested :D They were asking me what my plans were for the night, I said I wasn't in the mood to go out. I just wanted to chillax on my bed.

Later that night Camilla arrived. It was her first time to travel outside of South Africa. I was dozing off by 8 pm.

Out and About in Edmonton

I woke up the following day to blue skies. But of course, I wasn't getting fooled by that anymore. I knew it was chilly outside.

The 2 girls from Aus were up and got showered again. Had to maximize time with the hot showers I suppose. Camilla was up and the girl who worked at the oil rig didn't come home last night. None of my business I know haha.

I went down to the laundry and washed my clothes which I didn't bother cleaning from Jasper. I left it running and rushed to cook breakfast. I was trying to fit in everything and aim to be at the Assumption Catholic Church for Sunday mass.

Muttart Conservatory

I was late for mass grrrr. The church wasn't filled up. I quietly sneaked in the back pew. There were a few Filipino families I can identify. I made my 3 wishes, as Mom said if it's your first time to visit a church.

From there I walked all the way to the Muttart Conservatory. That was one of the activities I had in mind when I researched about Edmonton. It's a cool horticulture museum, 4 pyramids stood still a few areas still surrounded with snow. I stopped for a few photos oppts coz it had a good view from there with the skyline of Edmonton in the background.

There were 4 sections. Temperate, Tropical, Arid and their Feature pyramid had the yellow flowers for Cancer awareness. It was amazing to see and even feel the actual temperature for the said climate. What made it more interesting was how they've designed the areas to give it the same feel.

It was my first time to see the Corpse Flower, said to be the largest flower in the world, and only to be found on the lands of Indonesia. Nobody can ever tell when it would bloom. But for sure, the smell would stink. Ironically, it bloomed later that day if I recall right. And will only last for 2-4 days.

From there I walked around the River Valley and the parks around. Evidence of winter still remained, with melting snow and brown grass. Sheets of ice flowed on the North Saskatchewan River and Canadian Geese lazed around allowing the current to take them wherever before they take flight again. river valley constitutes the longest stretch of connected urban parkland in North America, and Edmonton has the highest amount of parkland per capita of any Canadian city; the river valley is 22 times larger than New York City's Central Park.

I crossed the bridge. A few afternoon joggers were havin' their exercise regime, some just walked around on a bluey Sunday arvo. I walked up a bit and found the Chinese garden which I knew for a fact would be really pretty when in full bloom. I took a few photos and imagined the dark brown trees blossoming along that alley where the lamp posts kept them company. I have a thing for lamp posts by the way.

I continued on up the stairs. My knees were a little bit tired already but I still went up. I found The Convention Centre and Canada Place, where all of the certain government agencies/orgs can be found.

Looking on the map, I found the Citadel Theatre and found it so cool that it was designed with glass all around. You can see right through it and well of course they can what's happening outside. I could identify a design where it looked like alleys inside because of well potted plants. I didn't go up anymore coz I found myself gazing at another structure. The Art Gallery. It was pretty amazing in the middle of downtown to see that building. For certain Edmonton has a lot of interesting building structures and I noticed that they seemed to like the Pyramid design. Coz there was another one of that in front of the Art Gallery and even the West Edmonton Mall had it too.

I lingered around and found myself at the square. I saw tents perched up so decided to check it out. I remembered it was a Sunday, so there must be some happening around. There were  a few barricaded sections, and in one of them were 4-5 guys dressed as vikings, having a duel. It was so cool!!! Apparently they were having the Knights of the Square event, and the people who were dressed up in the tents were all actors/actresses from the Theatre. Some I later on learned were volunteers.

Kights in the Square

A few steps away were 2 big chessboards where 2 different groups played. I stopped for a while and took some photos. It actually reminded me of Sydney :)

I decided to walk on and look for the Legislature Building. I walked all the way there just to find they were having maintenance works on the dome. I wanted to take some photos but I said to myself I won't be able to really give it justice if I were to take out the dome from the picture. So I just checked out the perimeter and headed back to the hostel. It was a fair bit of a walk I'd say and I found my ear getting numb when I crossed the bridge again. It was around 5 pm when I got to the hostel. I was famished coz I only had a granola bar for lunch and after all of that walking I needed something more energizing than that.

Camilla was in the bedroom when I arrived. I quickly went down to the kitchen and started to cook lunch/dinner whatever. I decided to keep quiet and just eavesdrop on a conversation. Paul was working as a surveyor in the oil rig and he was chatting with an Asian guy. I focused more on my cooking, tryin to figure out how to cook to the packet of rice.

Paul and I ended up chatting while eating dinner. He's been around a lot of countries already and is very healthy and fit with his cycling. Fleeting as it may seem, we really had a deep conversation about Canadian culture, about Sudan, travel, the youth, weed… but the most important thing I got out of the conversation was about "time".

The following day I accompanied Camilla to get her Social Security number at Canada Place and explained to her the bus system in Edmonton. She explained that back in South Africa, they never used public transportation, so this was all new to her.

After all of the errands, we went back to the hostel and snoozed on the couch in the common room. I was so tired and drowsy with the antihistamine I took that morning.

O'Byrnes Open Mic

Robb

I decided to check out the Sunday night open mic along Whyte Avenue. Camilla decided to come along for 1 drink. Good thing the pub was just close by.

I learned that Camilla got accepted for a job in Jasper, in one of the lodges there. It would be a year, which was good I said, coz she's have enough time to save up but also see  the change of seasons. I showed her a few photos of Jasper and told her she'll love it there. She showed me later that night a few photos of her family and friends back in Johannesburg. Apparently she didn't like beer, but decided to have one that night. She did like Stella though. :)

The guy Robb was the open mic organizer for the night. He wore a cap and had bright blue eyes. Seemed to be going to the gym a lot because of his physique. I played 3 songs after him. The next guy played the guitar and 3 instrumental pieces on the banjo. Then followed by another guy who had a full table of his mates because one was celebrating his birthday. I actually liked the lyrics of his songs, upbeat and had happy verses to it. About love found and what the Universe had in store.

That was also one of the things Camilla and I talked about. She had a tattoo on her nape that said "If it's meant to be, it will be". Yes. So true. So true. But I guess in life sometimes there's this acceptance stage that people need to go through just to realize if there's something out of our control, then that's when we let the Universe work its magic and take us to the path where we should really be, or even direct us to the person who we should be. I'm letting things be.

We slept like babies when we got back to the hostel.