Having spoken with a canadian fellow from Edmonton when I was in Jasper, I was beginning to wonder if the 4 days I was going to spend there was going to be too long. Well it was close...There isn't much to do in Edmonton. Its an Industrial City at the moment, full of huge box shops similar to our Bunnings, with everything you need under one roof. The hostel was on Whyte Ave (82nd), the Hip and Happening Spot of Edmonton. The train ride was good, only about 5hours, got through a bit of nintendo, and a movie. The train station was a fair hike from the hostel, and given it was 8pm I took a cab. Didn't really meet anyone in Edmonton, just did my own thing for a few days, but once I had checked in, I got straight down to business... it was off to the pub, for a good meal and a couple of brews . O'Byrnes, Nice pub all things said and done, they had Kilkenny so I was happy, and the meals were pretty decent, I had the Fish and Chips the first time, went back the second night too, and had the Shepards Pie.
I was pretty wrecked by the end of the day, so headed back to the hostel, and got some sleep. Turned out the walk in Jasper had wrecked me more than I though, had about 11 hours sleep, had a much needed shower and shave, then headed out for a walk around town. It was freezing... not sure the exact temp but somewhere around -10ish, give of take a couple. Probably the coldest so far. Or at least it felt like it. Headed into the old part of town for a bit of a walk around, and some grub. Just wasn't really in the mood for much, so after a couple of hours of walking around, and a short stop in a huge book store, I headed back to the hostel, and had a quiet evening before heading out for dinner at the pub again at about 9:30. Tomorrow would be my trip to the "Greatest Indoor Show on Earth", pretty modest about it aren't they.
My first canadian bus ride, an interesting experience, seems no matter how far you go, its costs $2.25, one stop or 100 doesn't matter. Took about 45 mins to get out to the mall, I had my boardies packed ready for a big day at the water park. Its similar to Wet and Wild, though not as big. Anyway back to the mall. This place encompases 48 hectares, of specialty shops, food outlets, water park, sealion pool, flamingo glass box, a Bourbon Street (complete with the out of place Hooters Bar), Roller Coasters, and probably more stuff I didn't find. Oh yeah and A casino too. Arrived just out after 10am, (thats when it opens), my to my dissapointment the water park didn't open for another couple of hours, so I did a bit of shopping, the train ride to Winnipeg would be 17hours so I got a few dvds for the journey, Blade III, Unleashed and a mega extended edition of Sin City. Before I had walked about 20 meters a young Israeli lass had dragged me back to her little wagon in the middle of the mall, and was washing my hand with a strange moisturizer from the dead sea, apparently it looked like I needed it. Turns out she had only been in Canada a week, and had already landed a job, there is hope for me yet. Had a bit of a chat before moving on, without cosmetics I might add. I'm sure they are great, just not really for me.
Next I found the sealion pool/display/thing, not sure how many were there in total, but it was at least 6. Quite happily playing around and looking at the people how found them so intriguing. They have shows several times a day apparently, didn't hang around to see one though... the water park was almost open. Had a dodgy kebab for lunch, then headed for the water park... NO WAVE POOL, well not one that was working anyway, oh well, I guess I just have to go on the slides then. Lifes tough. Spent 7 hours in the water park, stopped for a beer half way through. Only $11.25 to get in, if you go before 4pm (the rush hour). They only had 4 slides open till 4 when all the school kids arrived (about 15 of them). Then they opened up more of the slides, which was good, had a great time. Took some pics etc. Has the largest indoor bungie over water, and a tabogan etc, they didn't open the speed slide which was dissapointing, had something to do with the power cables running over it. I more than got my moneys worth at this place. They had this really cool slide which was similar to the shotgun ones they used to have at Amazoms for those who can remember except it had a huge bowl at the bottom, so you went spinning around and around, quite cool... Not very many people there the whole day, so didn't have to wait long for slides. Oh and the best part, it was about 25-30 degrees the whole time, not bad considering it was about 40 less than that outside. But at 7pm it was time to move on. Headed back to the food court, but didn't have the Kebab this time. Had Taco Bell instead, I think I'm becoming hooked on this stuff, definatly something we need back home. Did a quick sortie in the internet cafe before going to see Aeon Flux at the cinema for $3.50. By the time it was finished it was nearly 12am and the buses aren't to regular, so it was cab time again. But not before wandering up and down the center a couple of times trying to find a cab rank. Eventually I gave up and called one.
An interesting cab ride, the cabbie, it turns out has a wife and kids from OZ, although he was Canadian, Apparenly Australia wouldn't let him stay, not sure why he seemd like a nice enough bloke. Oh well he didn't seem bitter about it...ha. Got back to the hostel, and fell asleep pretty quickly.
Today was a very slack day on my behalf, sat on the net all day talking to friends and family. There was a local cafe, with free wireless if you bought something, having already been here once I was quite happy to stay for a while, had breakfast and lunch there. The bloke behind the counter was a brit, who had moved over here, for work etc. So had a chat for a while with him, about places to go see etc, the list for edmonton wasn't very long at all. Had subway for dinner, not as good as at home, I think the bacon must have been male, and left outside cause it was all shrivelled and pretty useless....hahaha. The lady who was served infront of me was downright rude, something definatly not going right, had a chat with the canadian fellow about it after she had left. Anyway moving on... Oh did I mention it was bucketing down outside or at least it would have been if it wasn't so cold instead there was just heaps and heaps of snow, not sure the exact figure but by the following day there was about a foot more than the day before. Still sounds funny when they refer to it as a storm. No lighting, not thunder just snow falling. Odd.
Final day in edmonton, train didn't leave till around 6pm, so I had a bit of time to kill, headed over to downtown, across a bridge over an almost frozen river...see pictures. Downtown was pretty much like anywhere else... The legislative building had some cool architecture if your into that sort of thing, I have since decide that the building is a common design because it was the same in Winnipeg too.
Got back to the hostel to pick up my pack at around 3pm, giving me plenty of time to bus it to Kingsway Mall, then walk the few kms to the Train Station. Ha ... in hindsight, next time I'll take a cab. The bus ride was interesting. Couldn't sit down, because I didn't know how far I was actually going, and didn't want to have to put the pack on again. So stood in an out of the way area next to the disabled seats. They didn't look disabled but the sign said they were... Just a little joke there. Anyway, two how do I put it politcally correctly...I don't think I can, anyway these two huge ladies got on the bus, neither fitted in a double seat let alone two. After much shoving and allowing gravity to slowly do its work, they made themselves comfortable. And proceded to complain about just about everything. There was a sign about being a vegetarian, to which they both decided a huge burger was better. Like we couldn't see that from a mile away. Then the bus driver had a few bunny hopping incidents, which resulted in much cursing by the ladies. Eventually I made it to the shopping mall, didn't realise it till we had already stopped. Standing at the bus stop purusing the map to figure out the best way an elderly canadian fellow picked up one of my padlocks, and handed it too, he gave me directions on which would be the best way to get to the train station which was on the other side of the airport, just behind the mall. Taking his advice into consideration adjusting it based on the alcohol content of his breath I headed off, Turned out he was actually right, there were no footpaths along the side of 3 lane road I chose to walk along. With the foot of snow from the night before, it became a very interesting walk, fell over more times then I can remember, oh I wasn't wearing my boots, just shoes with no grip on the soles. I have learnt one thing from the experience. TAKE A TAXI. I struggled for close to an hour and a half before finally gaining a foot path, I only walked about 3kms in that time, With only an hour till the train leaves, and nothing till when I was supposed to check my bags in, and still a km to go, I was finally starting to waver. Got there in the end though, absolutely wrecked, sweating like crazy in -10 degree temps, the "dickie"/"snood" I was wearing around my face had started to freeze, and the bottom of my jeans were already frozen. I will re-iterated for those who missed it the first time...TAKE A TAXI.
At the time it sucked, and I know dad will say its a character building experience but bugger that for a joke. TAKE A TAXI. Anyway I'm over it... Had a good train ride if a long one. Got through a couple of movies, and watched another in the activity car. Played some nintendo, and slept. Met a couple of nice people on the train, one a real character from vancouver...late 40's found out later he was staying at the same hostel in winnipeg. But more on him and winnipeg later.
Narco out
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