Edmonton

So I thought that I will be horribly jet lagged and slumped today, but contrary to my expectation, I was jumpy enough :) figured out lots of stuff today. Bus, train, calling card.. not bad, feeling quite uppy about it!

Edmonton is a vibrant city - a lot of culture - concerts, street plays, theaters; the whole city is also kind of built around the Saskatchewan river; at any point, you can reach riverside by walking for about a half hour. Where I went today there was this street corner where there was a live band and random couples were dancing salsa! Nice. People are extremely friendly and answered questions like - "does the bus driver give me a ticket?" 'No, there is a box where you put exact change'. And, even better - 'the ticket machine at the station - does it give back change?'. Pat came the reply - 'As long as you don't give it CD$100'.. lol..

So more on the river - it winds through the city and its banks are still left green.. So to get down to the river bank, they have made wooden stairs that do not disturb the underlying greenery at all! very nice. And yes, I am lucky enough to be here during the Edmonton jazz festival. Since today is a Saturday, there were concerts all day. I was there only in the afternoon - but it was awesome to walk around the river, with the music playing in the background. I did that for about 2 hours without realizing it! If you cross over the river to the other side there is a botanical garden called Muttart Conservatory - very nice, set amidst rolling grassy hills. Once on this side of the river you wont feel you are in the capital of a province! The conservatory had quite a nice concept - glass pyramids depicting various biomes, each with humidity and temperature controlled as much as possible to the natural conditions. Nice. I went just before closing and the last half hour is free - that was good!

Before going to the river, I walked up and down downtown Edmonton. The heart of it is called Jasper Avenue. All around are interesting places - the Winston Churchill square, full of these old quaint buildings; the Art Square, which has many theatres and also hosts an on-the-street art exhibition where anyone can exhibit anything. City Hall at Edmonton has a mall (why am I not surprised?) which extends over many levels and is beautifully organized (was like an un-crowded Mantri if you can imagine that! I got the calling cards there from a Pakistani 'dude' ;). Had lunch in the food court at this place called the Mediterranean, run by - get this - a Gujarati couple who immediately asked - "are you from South of India?" - I think with the nose stud I leave very little in doubt! So I had falafal for lunch (remember Rachel's sis and Ross in Friends?).

So there is one thing about Edmonton in general that I really liked - murals. Everywhere! There are so many of them. Every brick a different story, a whole wall without windows that is painted, sometimes according to a theme and sometimes completely random, which is even more interesting. Also, the city is obsessed with sports, with state of the art stadiums and clubs that people actually use! Separate set of summer and winter activities, which is also nice. And finally - lots and lots of open spaces, mostly green. Very very pedestrian friendly; most of the places also have a separate cycling trails. Oh I forgot to mention, there is an awesome network of small urban parks that run all along the river, right in the middle of Edmonton. Lovely! And even better, there is a superb cycling trail that runs through them all. The jazz thing was happening in one of these parks. Free music; a lot of stalls all around, people wearing comfy clothes (read almost no clothes) lounge around and enjoy the music however they want!

Overall I walked lots and lots and had a great day. Super sleepy now but wanted to put all this down, more for my memory than anything else! So before I go, I will just tell you one more thing that I noticed. There is an ad for a management institute that is stuck all over the place. Guess what it reads - "your business future will most likely be connected to Asia, a dominant force in the today's economy. How are you going to get a competitive edge?" - so this place offers a six month project in India/China. How about that!!!