so i was in calgary (just for fun) last weekend (friday the 19th-sunday the 21st) for just over 48 hours and i tried to cover as much ground as i could even though most of saturday i was really hungover
here's the impressions i got from the city to hopefully add to this discussion..
flying over the NE section of the city upon descent at 8am what struck me:
-bumper to bumper traffic.
-new roads, subdivisions and cloverleafs u/c like MAD.
-skyline and mountains beckoning this manitoba boy as we pulled up to the gate.
thoughts on the airport:
-clean, convenient, cowboy hat-clad tourist info people were easy to find and helpful.
-help wanted signs all over already in the airport.
-plane-themed marry-go-rounds as i got off the plane, dinosaurs hanging from the ceilings and alberta-themed displays at the luggage pick-up bays cluttered the place up a little too much for my liking (TACKY!), but overall it's a nice airport =)
then we walk outside to catch the bus to the ctrain station:
-it was -30 in winnipeg when i left and in calgary it was -6 and barely any snow.. that sure did help me feel welcome and i mean that with all my heart.
-bus whisked me to whitehorn station in under 20 minutes where a ctrain was promptly waiting to take me downtown.. side note: i always paid my fare, but seriously, if i wanted to all the times i took the ctrain over the weekend, i could've easily not paid at all as nobody or any machine checked if i had a ticket or transfer. what's up with that? they rely on you being honest and pay your fare or did i just accidentally sneak in somehow? no clue here.
-ctrain got me downtown in roughly 20 minutes, at 9am i was expecting it to be packed but i was able to get a window seat, it was pretty clean and easy to use for this first time ctrain user.
-all in all, from the airport to downtown it took me maybe 45 minutes during the morning rush for $2.25. NIIIIICE!
so i got off at the city hall station, dropped off my luggage at the hotel (marriott fyi) and spent the rest of the day exploring downtown to waste time til i met up with my friends at 5pm. impressions of downtown:
-feels A LOT bigger than i woulda thought for the size of the city, but i was expecting that.. almost thought i was in minneapolis at some moments!
-stephen ave. ped mall was great with its two to three blocks of nicely preserved and human-scaled heritage buildings. very busy and clean too. BUT! i was asked for money on the same scale as walking down portage avenue in winnipeg just walking between centre st. to the barclay mall. so it's not as bad as we think fellow winnipeggers!
-the core malls were good the odd hour or two i spent kicking around in them.
-the plus 15 system is so extensive! i had a good time getting lost in there and i love how the logo for it has that guy with the cowboy hat on it. very unique!
-eau claire market = blah.. i know it's winter and i was told it wasn't worth checking it out, but i was curious.
-walked through prince's island park and then on up the seemingly thousands of stairs to crescent road to check out the views and they did indeed impress me! (
no i didn't have a camera with me at any moment over the weekend.. i'm in the process of getting a new one as my last one is no longer working good) the homeowners up there are sure lucky.. really is a million dollar view.
-walked through the glenbow museum after for a bit.. it's big and one floor was closed for construction, but other than that, it needs to be brought out of the 70s badly, most displays were quite lacking as well. MB museum for comparison is waaaay more focused on quality and detail, even though it too needs major upgrading.
-all the downtown construction sites intrigued me too.. there's pretty much one per block. boom is right! made the city feel quite energized compared to what i'm used to. centrium in person isn't at all what the renderings would lead you to think tho...
friday night = drunken haze so no major impressions from that night.
satruday during the day i took the ctrain to the chinook centre mall from the 7th ave free zone - now that's a good way to get people to take transit! good on calgary for that one! impressions:
-INSANITY! but that's to be expected at any mall on a saturday - lines for everything, help wanted signs everywhere once again, weird design, small foodcourt and confusing layout. like the airport, if it got rid of some of the clutter it would be a lot nicer. besides banana republic and a couple other stores, no real difference in shopping choices as compared to winnipeg's polo park mall. i wasn't in town to shop anyway.
sat. night went to joey's at eau claire for supper (hot staff as to be expected
), downtown was surprisingly dead even by my humble winnipeg standards.. but i guess everyone was gone to the red mile or whatever it's called instead of downtown. never got a chance to make it down there =( then once again for the remainder of saturday night i don't remember much due to a couple stiff drinks.. speaking of drunkeness, a 2-6 of smirnoff vodka was like $27 as compared to ~$22 in winnipeg. did i get fleeced or something? i thought booze was cheaper in alberta =(
then sunday, didn't do much but pack and head to the airport for my flight out at 3pm.
overall impressions: i liked it! there's a certain energy you can definitely feel in that town, but it does lack the depth and grit of winnipeg in that it feels so new and is growing so fast. lastly, one thing that really jumped out to me and the fellow winnipegger i was with was how white the population of calgary seems to be - downtown, the malls, the bars - a lot more caucasian compared to what i'm used to in winnipeg. anyone else notcie that?
so that's my take on calgary. i could've gone on in a lot more detail but those are the main things i observed =)