Thoughts on Calgary
I have to say, Calgary is a pretty strange city. To be fair, I went during the week that Calgary Stampede had started but man, it was weird. I arrived to see people walking around town, decked out in cowboy boots and cowboy hats, everywhere. Among the the first people I saw was a Chinese guy and there’s something very funny about a Chinese cowboy. It’d be more accurate to say wanna-be cowboy because the majority of people who dress up are not cow wranglers or farmers. Calgarians tell me that people don’t dress up all year round. I mean, you have the one-off guy who does but it’s mostly just a two-week long St. Patty’s day for the whole town. And just like how everyone’s Irish on St. Patties, I guess everyone’s a cowboy or a cowgirl. That, and common between both holidays is that everyone’s very fucking drunk. And everyone’s in on it. Apparently workplaces are prepared for their employees to be drunk and not be productive at all during this time of year. When I say everyone’s in on it, I really mean everyone. There are paintings of horses and cowboys wrangling horses on windows all over the city. Restaurants and stores put bales of hay outside their establishments. I passed by a cosmetic surgery clinic that had bales of hay too. I wonder about the people who are capitalizing from all this. Is there one guy painting horses for everyone? Or a hay wholesaler? Bales-R-Us? Speaking of which, people were selling cowboy boots everywhere. And boy, they weren’t cheap. I think the average price was around $30CAD for a hat. That was just the price for a standard hat. There were much more expensive hats, some costing over $100 that were adorned with stones, gems, jewels or trimmed with leather, etc.
Even the government is in on it. You know that human figure in signs like in a pedestrian crossing sign? In Calgary, they have cowboy hats on them. Even the the bike lane sign had a little human figure, holding his bike with a cowboy hat on. (Wouldn’t a hat fly off cursing on a bike?)
Here’s an example of one of those signs. In Calgary, these +15 Walkway signs are everywhere. They basically mean that any building with this sign is connected to a public pedestrian walkway system. These walkways are weather protected and provide alternative routes to get around the downtown area.
The Calgary Stampede itself was a typical carnival-type event (very much like CNE for my home friends), complete with food vendors selling bizarre things and carnival games that make you lose money. The Stampede though, definitely has more of a country vibe and had more events that had to do with farmers or Western culture like the Heavy Horse Show. Besides everyone dressing up, the Stampede was a lot less cowboy-y than I thought it would be but it was definitely a lot of fun to check out. I spent my day watching tractor pulling, a talent search, winning money at the horse betting wheel and ended the night eating ribs in the women’s washroom, hiding from the storm. .w.v
That’s all I really have to say about Calgary. There are some really amazing food spots in town to check out. Here are some of my recommendations:
sweets @ Ollia, Mari Bakeshop
breakfast @ OEB Breakfast Co., Blue Star Diner
dinner @ Calcutta Cricket Club, 10 Foot Henry
cocktails @ Proof, Milk Tiger Lounge, Model Milk
Also found out that Nickelback is from Calgary. I can’t help but to think that it makes so much sense now.