Arriving in Calgary, Canada: June 21st – June 23rd

So, where to begin? As I’m writing this, we’re in Canada for over a week now and  so much happened! It was the week of firsts. 1st time so far away and outside Europe (at least for me, not for Philipp), 1st time at Walmart, 1st time drinking Root Beer, 1st time camping in Canada, 1st time in the Rocky Mountains, 1st time seeing plenty of Canadian animals, and so on….

It was definitely very exciting and we’re psyched what is yet to come! 😊

But let’s start right with the beginning. On June 21st we travelled from Dresden to Berlin and flew via Paris to Calgary. Before, I promised my niece to take a picture of the Eiffeltower if I saw it, but sadly, we didn’t. Despite of that, everything went according to plan. Our first glimpses of northern Canada from above were stunning. Ice, glaciers and wildlands as far as you could see. The closer we got to Calgary, the more civilized it looked. Although it looked quite odd to us how the landscape is basically divided in squares by streets and highways. When we finally arrived in Calgary, we were relieved, excited and whacked (because of the Jetlag) at the same time. Our first BnB was quite good. First thing I had to laugh about was the 2 kg glass of peanut butter in the fridge! So much about stereotypes…But I have to admit it was very tasty, especially with maple sirup, yummy.

On our first day in Calgary, we went equipment shopping. The first outdoor store we went to (MEC) was like a dreamworld for me. So much cool equipment! There was a whole huge wall with cams, nuts and other stuff in each brand and size you can imagine, even the REALLY big ones. But the most important thing was getting a tent and bear spray. After that, we still had half of the day left to explore the city. As the weather was great, we went to the beautiful Prince’s Island Park, where we spotted Canadian Geese and relaxed a bit in the sun. In the evening, we went up Calgary Tower to see the sunset over the city. There, we could also catch our first glimpses of the Rocky Mountains: the real ones and my favourite 2 towers in the city, whose roofs are shaped like mountains and shining white like snowy peaks at night.

On the next day, we did a free walking tour which was quite interesting. Before, we wondered why the city seems so empty when you’re strolling in the streets. But that’s simply due to a “second walkway system” with bridges between the skyscrapers 15 feet above the streets (called +15) which was actually really busy when we entered it. It was kind of the aha experience of the day. All in all, the architecture in the city is so variable from old “Sandstone City” buildings to skyscrapers and modernly designed buildings like the Public Library. In the afternoon, we visited the music museum “Studio Bell” also hosting the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Our exhibition highlights were an original piano played by Elton John and the Corey Hart’s sunglasses from “Sunglasses at night” (Well, now I’ve got that song stuck in my head again...). The most fun thing there was the possibility to try out a lot of instruments, which kinda made me feel like learning the drums and bass sometime…