Edmonton

The Labor Day long weekend (5-7 Sep’09) was just a week away and we weren’t even aware of it. After a frantic search, we nailed down on visiting Edmonton. Sharan’s colleagues assured him that it was a bad choice. “There’s hardly anything in Edmonton”. they said. But we were determined to go and more importantly, have a good time. Sharan did most of the research by burning the midnight lamp. I just booked the hotel from the shortlisted ones for 1N-2D due to the high costs of last minute booking. We packed our bags in the last minute as usual. Sharan took hazaar (1000s) print outs of maps (which was extremely handy in the end). Luckily for us the company car was also free.

We started around 7:00AM. With a couple of brief stops, the drive to Edmonton was more or less peaceful. We reached outskirts by 10:00am and headed straight to the Queen Edmonton Cruise (not quite straight as we lost our way inside the city). Since we hadn’t had any breakfast we ordered a sandwich and some coffee/beer (you can guess who had the beer) on the cruise. It was a pleasant day, with localities either jogging along the river, or musing over life at the banks, or even playing with their pets in the water. We spotted many ring billed gulls basking in the sun as well. The cruise lasted an hour and wasn’t really money’s worth (CAN$18/- per head, http://www.edmontonqueen.com/) as it was not only slow but the path was too short because of the slowness. We would recommend canoeing or kayaking down the river as a better option for those interested.

After the cruise we checked into the hotel (very good rooms) and quickly freshened up and headed to Whyte Avenue. This place seemed to have all the buzz. We chose to have lunch at a much recommended Greek restaurant called Yanni’s. The food was indeed outstanding but with a farily slow service. But I don’t really blame them because of the rush they had. We then headed to the Winston Churchill Square. It’s adjacent to the city hall and is a huge open space with beautiful landscapes. They also have a small open air amphitheatre and in evenings a large screen is put up for viewing movies on the square for free. Most of the time latest animation movies are played here. The art gallery is close by as well.

We then headed to the Beaumont Blues Festival after a short stop at the hotel for freshening up. The festival was located in a picturesque place – in the middle of farms just outskirts of Edmonton. There were grasslands till the horizon in every direction. It started to get cold in the evening with the open surrounding and wind. The festival had some stalls at one end, a beer garden at another end (surprising to see how popular Beer is despite the cold). Most people had got foldable chairs (a must buy for us now) and fleece rugs to keep themselves warm. Though we had a mat and fleece rug, we had to drink lots of HOT coffee to keep ourselves warm. Music was of superior quality. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. (http://www.beaumontblues.net/)

Next day, checking out of the hotel early, we went to a popular breakfast joint by the high level bridge in downtown Edmonton. The food was again note worthy. After a scrumptious meal, we walked up to the legislature building which is on the other side of the high level bridge. It was a very enjoyable walk across the Saskatchewan River and back. We then visited the famous West Edmonton Mall (WEM, http://www.wem.ca/). It supposed to be the largest mall in the world. I don’t have a doubt. Hosting over 800 shops, it also has an amusement park and water park inside the mall apart from host of other things (ice skating rink, sea lion show, a ship replica, etc). We strolled around for an hour or 2, tried a hand at adventure golf and saw the sea lion show. We finally reached the water world park. This park has some amazing water slides. Slides are marked as beginners, intermediate, advanced and dangerous. I tried mostly the last 2 categories. It was tiring to climb stairs for each of the rides but it was well worth it. The wave pool was also good and the hot tub relaxed our aching bones.

We left back to Calgary after a quick and short meal around 7:30pm at Funky Pizza (nothing worth talking about). We managed to keep ourselves awake through out the return journey despite being exhausted from all the stair climbing and adereline pumping water slides. And for all those people who said Edmonton would be boring, we had a splashing time.

Link to our photo album: http://picasaweb.google.ca/akshatakaranth/LabourDayWeekendAtEdmonton

Fact File:
Edmonton is the capital of Alberta Province in Canada. The Saskatchewan River flows through its centre dividing the city into half. Though known mostly as the home of the largest mall in the world, Edmonton has more to it than just the mall. The Old Strathcona area and Edmonton Oilers (NFL) are popular as well.

Getting there: Edmonton has an international airport. Greyhound Canada buses also ply to and from various destinations. Edmonton also has a small train station. Edmonton is 300 kms from Calgary by road.
Transport: Edmonton has city buses running every 30 mins and a 10 stop LRT. Taxis are plenty.
Attractions: Old Stathcona, Royal Alberta Museum, Murrat conservatory, North Saskatchewan River, Alberta Legislature, Edmonton Art Gallery, Ukrainian Heritage sites, Alberta railway museum and West Edmonton Mall (WEM)
Getting away: Red deer, Yellowhead Hwy & Elk Island National Park are nearby places of visit.
Know more from: www.edmonton.ca or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton

First visit to the Rockies

Our new friends Mujir and Avanti were really keen to go out of town since they just got a car. We instantly jumped at the idea. Always ready to go somewhere, see a new place or do something different. So we met on Friday over some really sad Chinese dinner to plan it out. We decided to go for the GlobalFest’09 on Saturday and to Lake Moraine/Louise on Sunday.

We planned to leave early so that we could cover both the lakes and also get back into town to get ready for yet another work week. We finally left at 7:00AM. Our first impression of the Rockies was that they were really rocky. It reminded me of one of my most favorite trips - to Uttaranchal. The towering Himalayas seemed just as or rockier. There were hardly any snow capped mountains on this fine summer day, making it look more barren than ever I suppose.

Our first halt was Lake Moraine. The cold hit us as we got of the cozy car. I was shivering to the bone despite having a pull-over and a bandana. So we decided to start with a packed breakfast from home and HOT coffee from the café there. Soon Avanti and I got busy making sandwiches and little did we notice a squirrel quietly sneaking behind us to steal one of the sandwiches. Only when some of the other visitors squealed did we realize. We hastily tucked in our breakfast as the squirrel didn’t seem scared to take more. We then decided to take the walking trail around the lake. As we walked by, the weather seemed to get better and that’s when we realized the turquoise blue color of the lake. It was stunning. Apparently the rocks beneath the lake give the color effects. We soon heard a cascade/water falls nearby. We walked to the end of the trail to realize that the sound was of the white water river which fed the lake. The source was a glacier nearby. We walked on the wild side for a bit and for some photos before retracing our steps to the car.

Our second halt was Lake Louise. This was more “touristy” than Lake Moraine. There were thousands of visitors around. The lake was bigger than the one before. It was blue too – but a deep blue. The lake was surrounded by coniferous forests on 2 sides, glaciers on the 3rd side and we stood on the 4th. It was a spectacular view. We decided to return to this place every season as we are sure each season will bring in a different charm to the place. Hunger and huge crowds made us leave the place soon.

Our final destination was Banff Village. We basically went there just to eat. We found a quite French restaurant where we devoured our Fish n Chips, Veg Pizza (made on a bed of potato, not bread) and sandwiches gleefully. We did realize that Banff is a very picturesque place with lots of eateries and stores showing how important tourism is for the village economy. But we didn’t go around the village much as we had to head back home.

We reached back by 18:00, a day well spent in the Rockies. Hopefully the next time we visit, it would be for camping.

Here is a link to our photo album: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/akshatakaranth/LakeMoraineAndLakeLouise#

Calgary’s 2009 Global Fest

Calgary hosts an annual multi-cultural festival which includes a fire work festival in August. The first of its kind was back in 2003 and it has been growing ever since. Its main focus is to bring about a cultural awareness and the more obvious economic development for Alberta province. This year the fest was held 14-29 August. It had its customary firework competition as well. We managed to go only for the finale on 29th August 2009, which assured of cultural performances from different countries as well as a fire work display at the very end.

We decided to go with our new found friends Mujir and Avanti. Since the tickets weren’t available online, we bought them at the nearst Co-op store (a co-operative provision and grocery store). As suggested by the event organisers, we parked our car at a nearby mall and took the shuttle service provided to reach the place – Elliston Park, East Calgary.

The park was very pretty – developed around a large pond, they had put up tents (pavilions) for showcasing participating countries’ specialities, there was a separate set of pavilions dedicated to food – where each tent was allocated to a participating country. The food was surprisingly good. Though Sharan and I weren’t very hungry, we tried the food Mujir bought – South Indian Kababs (tasted similar to Empire Kababs) and Cuban Samosas (not sure what they are called). The organizers had put up 3 stages to showcase the music and dance of the participating countries. The atmosphere was vibrant – people were really enjoying soaking up the sun. There were many weirdly dressed people as well.

We parked ourselves near the stage in the beer garden. The most interesting dances were the Ukrainian, Russian and the Salsa dances. The MOST terrible was none other than Indian. While all other countries preferred their professional troupes to participate, our Indian association decided to put up a kids’ talent show like you would see in an apartment complex. The dancers had no rhythem, expressions, training and common sense. The “Punju Aunty” who choreographed the whole thing stood by proudly and animatedly prompting the next steps. GOSH! It was such an embarrassment.

After the torture, we decided to head towards the waterfront across which the firework display was set up. More than half of Calgary population seemed to be there too. The max no. of people we have seen since we came. People sat all around the water front. They were fully equipped with portable chairs, blankets and camera. We just had the camera. The display was spectacular – though we have seen lots of fireworks back home, this was something unusual – it was automated – not sure how. More importantly it was synchronized to music. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

At the end of the display, it took us nearly 2 hrs for us to get back to the car park and then home. Though it was a long day we were all excited about our trip next day to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine – our first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains.

Info: http://www.globalfest.ca/
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/akshatakaranth/GlobalFest2009?feat=email#