Calgary is often nicked named the Texas of the north. Like its southern friend this city’s economy is largely drive by oil. With over 1.3 million people, Calgary is actually Canada’s fourth largest city. It’s downtown which is packed with several skyscrapers is more impressive than I would have thought!
Calgary was inhabited around 1875 and became a city in 1894. Buildings like the Grand Theater that was founded in 1912 is about as old as you can find here! The building was a center point for performing arts, protests, and even political rallies. It almost met its end in the early 2000’s due to its aging infrastructure. In 2005 over 12 million dollars was raised for restoration, and since 2018 is has called itself the Grand.
I kind of hate myself for not doing more in Calgary. I was here for several days but was hit by the lazy bug for whatever reason. I didn’t really do anything touristy and ended up going out a lot to local bars and restaurants, and had a few random walks around the city. These two photos are also from the downtown. One of the city’s trains above, and a blurry photo of pedestrians below.
Something a bit unique to Canada when I was walking around where warning signs of falling ice. I suppose living in a colder climate and having ice falling off of buildings makes sense, but unless you’re constantly walking with your head straight up I don’t really see how it can be avoided. What I also liked about Calgary was that several of the buildings were all internally linked via walkways like this one below. That’s one way to avoid falling ice.
One thing I did was spend some time along the frozen Bow river, and cross Calgary’s Peace bridge. The bridge was built in 2012, and is nicknamed the finger trap bridge due to its appearance. There were a fair bit of pedestrians on it, and even more Canadian geese. I saw some impressive flocks that included maybe two dozen flying in a v pattern. They always seemed to be flying sideways or at an angle that I couldn’t capture them, so the best I got were these four!
