I hadn't been on a plane since the fall of 2019. Although it was going to be a very short flight
I would be lying if I said there wasn't a tiny bit of nervousness. Would turbulence
bother me more now that I haven't flown in a while? After getting through security fairly
quickly we had time to grab a different flight at the Stanley Park Taphouse in the airport.
As I didn't manage to snag any good seats during check-in I got the middle seat between
a man making pre-flight business calls and a guy superimposing images of fish heads onto horses
on his laptop. Luckily the flight to Calgary from Vancouver is only one and a half hours long
and I can report that it was a smooth flight.
Calgary is a western Canadian city in the province of Alberta
right next to British Columbia. Due in large part to Alberta's oil and gas industry,
Calgary apparently had the most millionaires out of any Canadian city in 2015.
I had only ever stepped foot in the Calgary airport during stopovers on my way to Ontario
so this would be my first time visiting the city and I was curious to see what it was like.
After a 30-minute bus ride, we arrived at our Airbnb:
a basement suite and a townhome located in the Beltline neighbourhood.
Once we were checked in we walked down to 17th avenue to find dinner.
17th ave is the southern boundary of the Beltline and is, from what I had heard,
where Calgarians go for a night out as downtown actually empties out after the work day is done.
So Calgary has a carshare kind of like Evo in Vancouver. It's called Communauto. So I signed
up and I get this sign-up deal where I can get unlimited first 30 minutes free,
so we're gonna take this to brunch where we're going for brunch in Inglewood. So
I'm gonna book one right now. I think this is the closest one
and it can block it for 30 minutes. This one is an eight-minute walk away.
Let's go.
If you have seen my other videos you may have noticed that I use Evo the carshare
in Vancouver quite frequently. Using Communauto was a very similar experience other than its home
zone being limited to a much smaller area in the city and of course a different car.
Our next stop was the Calgary Zoo, not only Canada's most visited zoo but internationally
recognized by the science journal Nature as one of the top zoos for conservation research.
Of course if you know me you'll know the real reason I came to the Calgary Zoo.
The penguin plunge is home to five different species of penguins
and on this particular day they were all situated inside the cold climate-controlled habitat.
As we went through the airlock and rounded the corner awe hit
me as the squabbling king penguins came into view.
To see the sub-antarctic bird that I've only ever seen on screen live in person is something else.
And of course you couldn't miss the big fluffy baby king penguin
already the size of an adult and looking like a member of the night's watch.
In the corner gentoo penguins were industriously collecting pebbles for their nests and if you
watched carefully you might even catch when stealing a pebble from their neighbour.
The Humboldt penguins stood in a group each taking turns to show off their vocal skills.
And last but not least the small northern and southern rockhoppers
seemingly the most well-behaved of them all.
From the zoo we took the Ctrain,
Calgary's light rail rapid transit system back downtown to find a spot for dinner.
We really felt like having Mexican food and ended up at a place that we
just walked past and thought it looked pretty cool inside.
Taqueria El Chefe
really hit the spot.
After visiting with a friend of mine we stopped by Nose Hill Park
in hopes that we could get a view of the city.
Little did we know I had parked on the opposite side of where the views were and to cross this
giant hill of grass would take much longer than we were willing to walk through this wind for,
so we turned around and headed to a different scenic spot.
For dinner I had a specific location in mind. I had read Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui not long ago
and according to the book, ginger beef is a uniquely Canadian dish invented right here
in Calgary, specifically right here at the Silver Inn. Ginger beef was the result of
modifying the traditional Chinese dish to cater to western palates, a practice that
many immigrant chefs have taken to in order for their businesses to survive in a foreign place.
You'll recognize this in dishes like General Tso's chicken, chimichangas, California rolls,
and American spaghetti and meatballs. So I didn't come here with any particular
culinary or authenticity expectations, I came for the history. But i will let you know that
I did enjoy the ginger beef. It was crispy with a sweet sauce and very slightly spicy.
Morning. Good morning.
If you are into design and architecture you might like to see the Calgary Central Library.
Opened in 2018 the light-filled building has since won a number
of architecture awards and is a joy to be inside.
I'm a sucker for old things. Vintage things, retro things, you get the gist. I couldn't pass up an
opportunity to visit Peter's Drive-In. Hi you had a cheeseburger, a double cheese, two small fries,
a vanilla strawberry banana shake, and a maple walnut butterscotch oreo? Yes.
All right thank you so much. Yes, have a good one. You too. It opened in 1962 by Dutch immigrant Gus
Pieters and it would seem to have since become a Calgarian institution. While it doesn't have
servers roller skating out to deliver your meal on trays, they do give you the option of mixing up to
three different milkshake flavours, resulting in thousands of possible flavour combinations.
One thing you might notice around Calgary's downtown are these pedestrian overpasses.
They are everywhere. It turns out Calgary has something called the plus-15, a network
of weather-protected and climate-controlled pedestrian skywalks connecting buildings downtown.
They are so named because most of the skywalks are built approximately 15 feet above street level.
Some people have attributed decreased street life to these skywalks but one can't deny
their convenience. We decided to try it out for ourselves on our way to Major Tom Bar.
We're gonna walk through all the way.
Here we were treated to a complimentary glass of prosecco just because it was our first visit
to the restaurant. The views were excellent and I'd highly recommend it if you like rooftop bars.
That was our last stop before our flight out of Calgary but I have omitted something...
did you think we'd come here and not see the Canadian Rockies and badlands?