Starbucks, downtown Calgary 9 AM
Wednesday (?) the 20th of May 09
Day 27
Wednesday (?) the 20th of May 09
Day 27
After leaving Nelson (...) I saw the Kootenays fade into the night. By the time we got to Creston it was too dark to see (...). So I tried to close my eyes and relax. It was a rought night 'till 3AM. (...) kept turning and waking up startled. Eventually I ripped off my eye-band (the one that makes everything dark) and lost it. too bad.
But, more surprising was waking up at 6 AM. Not only was it bright day, it was... really bright. And I was shivering. My feet were suddenly so cold! I looked outside and there it was ... SNOW! LOADS OF IT! It was all white, very very white! I was in what they call High RIver, 2 hours south of Calgary. I got very very alarmed. It was winter! i just landed on an alien planet called ALBERTA. The horses and cows on the snowey ranches were strange. And it was all there was: ranches! It was like Texas, but cold?
It wasn't as unlikeable as people said it was. I liked seeing the flat land, after being stuck in the mountains for so long. It must be nice here, in the summer. Ih, wait, do they have summer?
Thankfully the snow eventually disappeared and Calgary had just one flake falling here and there. The bus station was all indoors (here everything seems to be inside) and it took a bus to get to the city center. (...) But before I went into a bathroom and put on an extra pair of winter socks [ which I miraculously had on my bag], a shirt and a t-shirt over the tank top and under the flannel shirt I had on. Raincoat over [4 layers of summer clothes under] and ready to go.
But it was still cold! The bus driver was very nice and pointed out things for me as we went along and told me how to get back(...). Here is my firts impression of Calgary:
-nice ample streets
- old good-looking robust buildings
-general neatness (...)
- a bit stuck in the 90's (must be the skyscarppers)
- not much besides malls - commercial streets are the important beautiful and historical thing here.
- no homeless - they dies [because of the cold]
- not half as cosmopolitan as Vancouver
- full of offices and oil-connected buildings
-some people biking: too cold to walk?
- a lot of people underdressed - they seem to have lost all sensitivity to temperature
(...)
I need to buy some warm clothes. I do. I need it. God knows what Banff will be like! (...) That will be my next mission before 12:00 - find clothes (a warm sweater) and some food.
In Nelson I had told Lilith how I felt: a bit tired. Nelson was great! A blast really. But I felt tired of travelling. I felt like going home. And she said I sounded a bit homesick. And you know what? I agree. I have been travelling for a month. On my own. And it is less than 2 weeks 'till I go home. I am homesick, i am entitled to be. (...) Oh, great, now they are playing CSN [Crosby Stills and Nash]. I miss Portugal just because it is time for misssing, it is time to go back. And I am going, soon.
Filipa
[ P.S. The "cold" described in this post was later found to be somewhere around -4/5ºC]
But, more surprising was waking up at 6 AM. Not only was it bright day, it was... really bright. And I was shivering. My feet were suddenly so cold! I looked outside and there it was ... SNOW! LOADS OF IT! It was all white, very very white! I was in what they call High RIver, 2 hours south of Calgary. I got very very alarmed. It was winter! i just landed on an alien planet called ALBERTA. The horses and cows on the snowey ranches were strange. And it was all there was: ranches! It was like Texas, but cold?
It wasn't as unlikeable as people said it was. I liked seeing the flat land, after being stuck in the mountains for so long. It must be nice here, in the summer. Ih, wait, do they have summer?
Thankfully the snow eventually disappeared and Calgary had just one flake falling here and there. The bus station was all indoors (here everything seems to be inside) and it took a bus to get to the city center. (...) But before I went into a bathroom and put on an extra pair of winter socks [ which I miraculously had on my bag], a shirt and a t-shirt over the tank top and under the flannel shirt I had on. Raincoat over [4 layers of summer clothes under] and ready to go.
But it was still cold! The bus driver was very nice and pointed out things for me as we went along and told me how to get back(...). Here is my firts impression of Calgary:
-nice ample streets
- old good-looking robust buildings
-general neatness (...)
- a bit stuck in the 90's (must be the skyscarppers)
- not much besides malls - commercial streets are the important beautiful and historical thing here.
- no homeless - they dies [because of the cold]
- not half as cosmopolitan as Vancouver
- full of offices and oil-connected buildings
-some people biking: too cold to walk?
- a lot of people underdressed - they seem to have lost all sensitivity to temperature
(...)
I need to buy some warm clothes. I do. I need it. God knows what Banff will be like! (...) That will be my next mission before 12:00 - find clothes (a warm sweater) and some food.
In Nelson I had told Lilith how I felt: a bit tired. Nelson was great! A blast really. But I felt tired of travelling. I felt like going home. And she said I sounded a bit homesick. And you know what? I agree. I have been travelling for a month. On my own. And it is less than 2 weeks 'till I go home. I am homesick, i am entitled to be. (...) Oh, great, now they are playing CSN [Crosby Stills and Nash]. I miss Portugal just because it is time for misssing, it is time to go back. And I am going, soon.
Filipa
[ P.S. The "cold" described in this post was later found to be somewhere around -4/5ºC]
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