I arrived into an unseasonally mild evening in Calgary last night after a pretty painless flight from London. Well, I should say that the flight itself was painless (other than some pretty violent turbulence over Greenland) but the departure was a bit of a stress. Due to the snowy weather in London I would say about 2/3rds of the flights out of Terminal 5 had been canceled and it was pandemonium. We waited about an hour to check in and there were confused and upset people everywhere! In the rush to get to the airport I had also forgotten to print out a bank statement as proof of funds for Canadian immigration so I tried fruitlessly to find a printer - which incidentally is not possible at terminal 5. In the end I left without any proof of funds and decided to sort it out with the immigration officials at the other end. Fortunately it turned out to be no problem at all and there was a very friendly lady who issued me with my 2 year visa without a quibble.
Of course leaving London was not without sadness. Leaving Faine was very hard and it was a pretty emotional flight. It is always such a rush at the last minute of packing up and leaving, that it came as a bit of a hit to suddenly find myself alone, in a little aluminium tube flying away from my loved ones and into the unknown. You will be missed Faine!!!
Of course, it also brings an end to the most recent era of living in the same neighborhood as Guy and Noni, which was a great thing at the time and I'm sure I will miss the regular contact with close family.
So, day one in Canada has been quite productive. I have got myself a mobile phone number (+1403 431 7400), set up a bank account, purchased an electrical adapter so that I can use my laptop and sussed out a few outdoor stores to top up my ski gear. I am amazed at how friendly and chatty everyone is. It is so refreshing after London, and I guess I still have the habit of avoiding any interaction with strangers. I asked a girl for the time this afternoon as I was waiting at a crossroad and she then initiated a conversation as we walked along wanting to know all about my travels and helping me find some stores I was looking for - she even seemed a bit disappointed when her tram came and she had to leave! Calgary is a nice city - it feels very grubby at street level, but everything is inside the buildings. I guess it is normally pretty extreme weather so little shopfronts are not really practical. The other thing that takes some getting used to is that the road and the cars are BIG! My Hilux would look like a toy car on these streets!! The other funny thing is that there are these big wide open streets and there isn't much traffic, but the pedestrians are unbelievably obedient to the crossing signs even when you can't even hear a car let alone see one, they all obediently stand at the corner waiting for the light so change.
So, tomorrow I'll get a Greyhound up to Banff and do a few things in Calgary in the morning before my departure.
It was a beautiful day in Calgary today, I was down to a shirt and singlet - so much for arctic jackets! I took a few snaps from my walk around town.
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