I know I haven't updated for a while, I'd like to say I've been kinda busy, and haven't had the time, but to be honest, I've been kinda busy, and haven't found the time. See the statements are similar, but definatly not the same :D.
So without any further guilding the lilly, I give you the Calgary Stampede.
Where to start, some would say the beginning, *shrugs*, thats been done, so lets start about 3/8ths of the way in. Now that would probably put it at about the 10th of July. I can't remember what happened on the 10th of July, so I'll go to something I can remember. All of these events probably happened in a completely different order to how I'm going to recall them, but oh well.
I'd been in canada for 5 monthsish by this point, and was missing the family, and as fate would have it, The stampede was on, and Bec and BJ were on their way over to see it. So I got to see family again. YAY.
It was only a very short visit from Bec and BJ the first time, a quick exchange of gifts/other items, and a quick lunch, before they had to head to the airport for their few days of ranching. Not enirely sure what ranching is, so see Bec or BJ for more details.
Next to arrive to our humble apartment (by our I mean the apartment Dan and Sarah have, that I was able to sleep in till I got somewhere else), was Martina, a young lass from Germany, that Dan and Sarah had met somewhere during their travels. The night of her arrival we had a few drinks, and slept, I had work the following day. The next day saw the arrival of Jen and Kat another couple of travellers Dan and Sarah had met around the place. That brought the total to 6 for a 1 bedroom apartment, I'm pretty sure thats not allowed on a permenant basis, but for the week they were here it was fine. Jen and Kat are Aussies, from Perth. That night I headed out with Bec, and BJ, and a friend Meri, whom I had met when I first came to calgary. We had a few drinks at a pub out near where Bec and BJ were staying before heading to Boston Pizza for dinner. Not an overly late night, we were going to try to go to Ranchmans, a Cowboy themed pub near there, but with a wait line of something like 2 hours, we thought better of it. Friday saw the beginning of the stampede with a parade that shutdown most of downtown. Yay no work till 12. The parade was pretty impressive, floats, and horses, and people, and more floats and more horses and you guessed it more people. Turns out I had a delivery still on from the day before that was tickets to it, so I had to interrupt my viewing to do a quick delivery. But I was right in the spirit of things, and was dressed as close to a cowboy as I could be, even had the big hat thingy on. Anyway back to the parade, did I mention their was lots of floats, and horses, and people. Well in case I didn't I have now. Then it was back to work for the afternoon. That night there was a bit of drinking at the apartment, and time to get to know my neighbours (those sharing the living room floor with me). Saturday morning brought on a few sore heads, and not much movement till around lunch time. But from then it was off to the stampede. My first impression of the stampede was it is pretty much the same as the Royal shows back home, with one major difference. It seems that where ever possible you must be dressed like a cowboy/cowgirl. Our main goal for the afternoon/evening was to go to Nashville North, and also for some of the girls to See Nelly Furtardo, or however it is spelt. We wandered around for a while, looked at the stalls, before standing in the Nashville North line to get into the line, for over and hour and deciding there was definatly somewhere better we could be. So we left, and found ourselves at a pub that had the word Rose in it, thats about all I can recall. We eventually made it home, had another beer or two, then went to bed.
Sunday was my first Rodeo Experience. Bec and BJ had tickets to the chuck wagons and the rodeo, so I got myself some too. The rodeo was amazing. I hadn't seen anything like it before. All the different events, and something that I wasn't expecting was the amount of respect the animals involved in the events received. They were as important as the cowboys themselves. The Bio's and previous events history was given for the rider and the animal. Bec and BJ had had a few quiet ones during the rodeo. A couple of hours later was the chuckwagons, but in the mean time we did a bit of wandering. The Chuckwagons are interesting. They ride in those old style carriges, with a team of 4 horses pulling them, then there are the other group of guys who ride around on normal horses,and put stuff in the back of the chuck wagon when the race starts. Its a pretty tough event, with a couple of animals suffering injury during the course of the stampede. Not as entertaining as the rodeo, but a new experience none the less. Being a sunday night I had to work the next day so the rest of the night was fairly short.
The next week was filled with drinking, partying, and some stampeding. Mid week the girls (Jen, Kat, and Martina) all headed on, Jen and Kat went to Cuba, and Martina I think headed further west. Friday night after work I headed down to the stampede, to watch some more of the rodeo, didn't get overly good seats, but was still cool anyway. Met up with Meri for drinks at James Joyce's place (irish pub downtown) then we headed back to the stampede and did a bunch of those crazy carnival rides that have you going upside down and downside up etc. Oh one thing which I haven't mentioned so far are the mini donuts, they are awesome. Just like normal sized big donuts, except really small. Oh and they have these vibrating chairs that are suppose to massage you, but only make you feel all tingly.
The final sunday Bec, BJ, and myself all headed back to the Stampede for one final hoorrah. We started at Nashville North, probably not the best idea, but turned out to be great. We soon made friends with a groups of people who taught me a new drinking technique. Shoot the Boot. Now for those with a very weak constitution skip ahead about 80 words. The shooting of the boot requires the removal of the boot from one of members of the drinking party, the filling of said boot with an alcoholic beverage, in this case beer. And then the consumption at a great rate of knots of the beer from the makeshift glass, that being the boot. I was lucky enough to get BJ's boot, which I was pretty certain would be several hygene steps above those of the other members of the drinking party. Not something I will do on a regular basis, but something that I can chalk up on the board as a new experience. After still more drinking from boots, we headed into the chuckwagon races. Took some photo's etc, before our hosts decided we should go and meet the drivers/horses. This part was amazing, and I might add it was somewhere we weren't really supposed to be. But we got in, and got to see a side of the stmapede usually kept hidden. They were great, we got to pat and feed the horses, they supplied us with beer, and food, and all in all a great night. Sometime around 12 I headed home, having experienced a side of the stampede very few get to be part of. With the fireworks going off in the background as I headed home it seemed a very fitting end to my Calgary Stampede experience.
Monday saw Bec and BJ leave again, all to soon. But we had an awesome time, and it was great to see family again.
I might update again soon with more experiences from calgary, so stay tuned.
Narco out
Pictures pending....
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