Canadian Travel Reflections: Calgary

Our Canadian adventure was one if the most scenic tours we’ve ever undertaken. 

We journeyed from Calgary to Vancouver and spent a lot of time exploring the mountains rivers, lakes and glaciers of their Canadian Rockies. So, it was a sumptuous dive into numerous natural wonders.

We actually spent several days in Calgary — a sprawling city with a western motif that sort of puts you in mind of Denver, as it is nestled amidst the mountains. Though with its many skywalks (connecting all of the downtown area which is called The Core) Calgary also brings to mind Minneapolis, 

Life seems to move at a leisurely pace in Calgary. The city lacks the bustle of most American cities and is unlikely to be confused with a place like New York, Philly or Chicago any time soon. The Core has a large, impressive indoor shopping mall that stretches over several blocks but it’s largely hidden from the street side shopping district. You sorta have to know the mall is there. Also, the town’s oldest, pre-eminent department store, Hudson’s Bay Company, has gone out of business, a la Wanamakers/Macy’s in Philly.

Calgary has quite a few skyscrapers but it has only recently begun to get some real architectural gems and one of them is not a skyscraper at all but is the town’s distinctive library, an impressive edifice just on the edge of The Core. 

Here are some other observations:

--For some reason there seems to be little statuary in the area of The Core. The only statue we saw was one of Winston Churchill and it was not a very recognizable rendering, Of course, with fewer statues we suppose there is a lesser chance of vandalization or demolition.

--And speaking of such things, Calgary is 100% graffiti free — no graffiti nowhere, anywhere as far as we could tell. We found this to be quite phenomenal as graffiti is present in nearly all large cities in most parts of the world that we’ve travelled to.

--To add to that, Calgary’s Core is remarkably clean and during the summer it is festooned with a dazzling array of real, live plantings. The blooms are everywhere and the colors are delightful. What’s more, the cleanliness seems to be accomplished without trash bins on every corner. People appear to be very diligent about keeping the city litter free.

--Though there is aa good deal of sidewalk dining, there are no street vendors anywhere in Calgary — no food carts and not even any newsstands. In fact, we were hard pressed to find any place that sold so much as a magazine or newspaper. Seems like, more and more, that's what we c an now expect in most places.

--Similarly, within The Core we found virtually no convenience stores and almost no fast food joints or pizza parlors. Far as we can tell, pizza doesn't seem to be a big thing in Calgary.

--Homeless people? Yes, like any large city (this one has about 1.3 million residents) Calgary has its share of homeless, some of who can be found in The Core. And, there is also a drug problem. Sadly, we saw a few people who were totally zoned out on drugs, probably fentanyl.

--Coffee? We didn’t notice an abundance of specialty coffee shops as one would find in a typical US metropolitan area. Tim Horton is the king of coffee shops here and Horton shops are pretty much everywhere, purveying coffee and donuts much on the order of Dunkin. But, not much beyond that. Fortunately Horton’s now also offers its own versions of latte, cappuccino and other concoctions as well as a wider variety of pastries. There are some Starbucks outlets in Calgary but that seems to be about as high end as it gets.

--If Canadians are into ice cream, we didn’t see much evidence of it, certainly not in The Core of Calgary where we were hard pressed to find an ice cream shop, even a franchised operation such as Baskin Robbins. We saw hardly anyone walking about with an ice cream cone even though this is the middle of summer and the weather is quite pleasant.They do have something called “Canadian ice cream” but, we’ve didn't try it. 

For the most part, throughout our trip, Canadians came across as relaxed, laid back and friendly. For one thing, there's a lot more space up there — a WHOLE LOT MORE — for people to live and breathe and roam. And that would seem to make people far less tense and uptight. 

But bear in mind that there also seems to be a lot more government regulation at multi levels. For example, not only are plastic bags banned throughout the country but, also, if you go shopping and need a bag you will be offered the option of buying a paper bag. We had to buy a  small paper.  shopping bag (about 8 inches by 4 inches) and it cost us 35 cents. Also, plastic forks, spoons and knives are also banned, replaced by wooden or a cardboard-like utensil.  Ditto, plastic straws. 

But people seem to be very dutiful about following all the laws and regulations as we observed that folks were even hesitant to cross the street against the light. They waited patiently even when there was no oncoming traffic.Then again, as we mentioned, they seem to be remarkably patient. Here, we suppose it's worth noting that cannabis (aka weed) is legal in every province, so maybe that accounts for Canadia's laid back vibe.