Warm Weekend Wanders

So this is the first decently weather-ed weekend which allowed me to wander downtown.
It's not that I haven't wandered around at all, but it's been a while and usually it's rushed. Also, there's a new student in our lab who's a co-op student from out of province (Quebec to be exact). So since she hasn't seen the city too much, I decided to take this opportunity to re-discover this place myself.

So walking around downtown, there's a bunch of random statues, including Animals, humans and...random metal stuff.

Chess People...

Bears...

Freakishly tall people...

Calgary wouldn't be calgary without a horse!

Downtown there's also a main shopping centre that they call "the core/td centre/holt-renfrew". It doesn't really have one name. Apparently It's been changed so many times!

Oh, the unique exterior architecture of the mall is apparently built/designed by a UW student. Woot woot, Represent!

They have a pedestrian only area, which is known as "Stephen's Ave". Nothing too amazing, but there is a very Calgarian/western store there called "Lammele's". Inside they have a sign that says: "If you're going to act like a turd, then go lie in the yard".

Slowly we ventured our way south towards Central Memorial Park.

In this park there's...

A Cenotaph

Home to the Memorial Public Library

Equestrian statue of R.L. Boyle as a tribute to all Albertans who fought in the Second Boer War

And World War I soldier statue in front of the library (which I forgot to take a picture of...)

After that we headed back north to the Olympic Plaza.

For those who don't know, the '88 Winter Olympics were hosted here in Calgary. It's the location for the medal presentation ceremonies and now hosts many special events & festivals throughout the year. It is also a wonderful place to sit and enjoy your lunch during the noon hour. At night it's lit up very nicely. There's a nice little skating rink too! The odd thing is that bordering the rink, there's these pink gofers...


Of course we also passed the Calgary tower. Unlike the CN tower, it's not the tallest structure when looking at the downtown Calgary skyline. Also, the "glass floor" area isn't that big either.


So moving on we walked north to Chinatown. I wouldn't really call it a town... it's more like a China...block. Rumour has it that the rent in this area is really cheap, but they will ONLY rent to chinese people. Kinda sketches me out a little. But in this area there's maybe one "mall" and a cultural community centre. This is the roof inside the cultural centre. It's decorated in prep for Chinese New Year!!!


Finally, we make it to "Eau Claire Market". What's so amazing about it? I have no idea. It's a mall that is barely open. But I guess it's what's behind the mall that is better/more interesting. There's usually a fountain in the warmer seasons and I think little kids tend to wade in the water. There's a little island where you can walk around. It's know as Prince's Island Park.




As you can see, it's a nice scenic stroll.
What's there now? Currently there's a lot of ducks and an area for kids to skate on. In the summer you can even see beavers, and there's apparently concerts and festivals which are hosted there. Oh! And there's also a cute little play ground for the kids. Yes, I did play on the playground.

The thing that made me laugh was that their swings were in the shape of cowboy hats! Only in Calgary, only in Calgary...


We ended the day off with skating around on the river.

I was proud of myself because I didn't fall and I pseudo-learned to skate backwards!!! My friend Melyse used to figure skate as a kid and ranked nationally, so naturally she was amazing! Jumps, twirls, spins, one legged things. You name it, she did it!

So that's my little trip around downtown!

Final Thought:
To skate properly, one should get their skates sharpened. Mine were dull from last year. And... one should properly stretch prior to skating. My body is definitely feeling the aches...