This day we had a long drive from Jasper to Edmonton, so we ate the food we bought earlier at a grocery store, packed and took off. I stopped at an observation area along the highway and took some final photos of the mountains. Then, as we were leaving the Rockies, there was a bunch of cars parked on both sides of the road. A crowd of people were looking and taking photos of something on a nearby rock. As I was pulling over I noticed what everyone was so excited about - a large bighorn ram! We joined the crowd and I took a bunch of photos of the animal, as it continued to eat calmly without paying much attention to the people and cars. There was a bit of a traffic jam caused by a single sheep, which is probably pretty annoying for the locals (and unfortunately happens because of human sheep as well).
The rest of the drive was not a exciting, as the mountains were replaced with hills and nothing much captured our attention along the way
. Eventually we arrived to Edmonton and I got acquainted with its weird roads, crossing and merging with each other at weird angles. We parked at the Edmonton Public Library in the middle of the city (it was only $6, you can't park that cheap in downtown Toronto!) and walked to the city hall. Most of Edmonton's main attractions are located conveniently around the city hall, which has a funky glass pyramid on the top and a tall bell tower. We saw weirdly-shaped Edmonton Art Gallery, Sir Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Public Library, Citadel Theatre, etc. They were also getting a stage ready for a performance right in front of the city hall, some concert based on Disney's music. We saw several Ukrainian monuments, as there's a large Ukrainian community in this area.
To get a better idea of the city, we went for an extended walk. First we walked along Jasper street, lined with stores and office buildings, then visited Alberta Legislature Building (Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, so their government building is here)
. Near the Legislature we saw a wedding party, a bachelorette party and a large group of Mexican athletes who were probably there for the upcoming triathlon. There was also a fountain with a really nice reflection pool.
Then we walked across High Level Bridge to the other shore of North Saskatchewan River and saw several nice high-rise residential buildings as well as a nice view of Edmonton's skyline. However, as we walked closer to historic Old Strathcona district, the houses became smaller, shadier and more run-down somehow. When we got to that district, we discovered that it was filled with local "bohemians": dirty hippies, drug addicts, shady tattooed dudes, drunks and all of the above combined. After a dinner at a local restaurant, we took a bus back to the downtown, picked up the car and drove to the hotel (which was really nice, especially after tiny rooms of inns and lodges in the Rockies).
Overall, Edmonton gives an impression of a run-down, dated city that's mostly populated by bums, junkies, drunks and other shady people. There's a small downtown core surrounded by a ring of private houses and another ring of warehouses, factories and emptiness, so Edmonton seemed pretty depressing to me.
Edmonton
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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