I did not expect to find myself in Calgary. Nevertheless, there I was, with a couple of co-workers, walking around the downtown area on a very early Sunday morning, with no real purpose.
Despite being on the road for ten hours from Vancouver to Banff the previous day, and turning in late the previous night, all three of us were out of bed by six in the morning after a sound sleep.
We were dead tired and knocked out the moment our heads hit our pillows after midnight. The following morning, we all sprung to life, fresh from our deep slumber. It was a brand new day and after a hearty breakfast and three cups each of strong, brewed coffee, we were ready to explore again.
We drove to the heart of Calgary first, since we were in there. We had no particular place in mind to visit nor a particular activity to do. We just wanted to get a feel of the city and see what the downtown area was like.
We parked near the commercial core. From there, we walked to the famed Stephen Avenue, the city’s prime retail area. It is a pedestrian road lined with historic buildings, retail stores, art galleries, pubs, and restaurants. Adjacent to it is an indoor complex of two shopping malls. Nearby are landmarks like the Calgary Tower, the Art Gallery of Calgary, The Glenbow Museum, the Olympic Plaza, the Arts Commons, and the Telus Convention Centre. Surrounding it are tall skyscrapers that make up the business hub.
At any given time, this could have been the busiest section of the city. Calgary is said to be the densest downtown area of any city of its size in North America. In fact, it boasts of possessing eight of the ten tallest buildings in Western Canada, and a few of the tallest ones in the entire country. I imagined the streets being jam-packed with pedestrians crossing the streets, workers in business suits scurrying to their office buildings, shoppers lugging bags and packages, families and groups of friends flocking to eateries, passenger line-ups at bus stops, and traffic jams everywhere.
But that morning, it was more like a ghost town. The shops and restaurants were still closed. The roads were almost empty, except for a few taxis and buses running on holiday schedule. Not a soul was around, save for a few street cleaners and some early risers doing their morning jog. It was a Sunday morning after all, and a long weekend at that. Everyone must have been sleeping in.
With nothing to do and nowhere to go to, we loitered around like lost children. We did notice that Calgary has many interesting monuments and statues at every corner, so as expected from bored ladies recently jolted by a considerable amount of caffeine and wandering around empty city streets at 7:30 in the morning, we decided to do a photo shoot. Why not? We had the place to ourselves!
We found the perfect spot at the Olympic Plaza. There sits the iconic “Famous Five” monument. This collection of polished bronze statues commemorates five famous women in history who helped advance the cause for women’s rights. Designed by Edmonton sculptor Barbara Paterson, the women were depicted having a conversation over tea, presumably discussing the signing of the petition. One of the women holds a newspaper representing the moment when they read the British Privy Council’s decision.
We took turns posing with them, each time, pretending to be a participant of the tea party – holding the other hand of the newspaper, sitting on the empty chair listening to the announcement, and warming our hands over the cup of tea on the table.
Next, we found the “Conversation Statue” composed of two plump fellows in business suits and old-school hats standing on the sidewalk. Had it not been for their bronze colour, they could have easily blended with the city crowd, like two office workers continuing their boardroom conversation on the streets. Of course, we had to pose as if we were either listening intently to their discussion, or we were about to interrupt. We wondered what they were really talking about…or at least what the sculptor was thinking of when he designed this.
“The Family of Man” is a group of tall, slender bronze statues that sits outside the Calgary Education Centre. They were originally built for the Montreal Expo 67 and were afterwards purchased by a Calgarian who donated them to the city. Standing in a circle as if they are playing a game, we of course, pretended to join the fun. As the individual statues stand 6.5 meters tall, it was more like us playing with naked giants.
On the corner of 7th Avenue and 6th Street SW, is the “Sitting Eagle” statue. We tried to stand as regally as Chief Sitting Eagle, also known as John Hunter. He was the Chief of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation of Alberta. This was my favourite statue of all. The details on the Chief’s ceremonial headdress and the tassels from his sleeves and the object he’s holding are quite impressive.
Lastly, and the least regal or them all, is a statue of a cow. There were several cow statues in town, which didn't surprise me. Calgary is labelled as Canada's "cow town" because of its long history of cattle ranchers, cowboys, and rodeos, not to mention its Wild West-vibe. If you are a fan of steak, you would know that Alberta beef is one of the best in the world. We picked one cow, inconspicuous in one corner, but nevertheless a useful prop for our pictorial. This was where we had the least glamorous poses, in the form of milking the cow and such.
After our refreshing walk around town punctuated by photo stops, we joked among ourselves that we drove to Calgary to release our subconscious, pent-up, and deep-seated longing to be the next Top Models. But we all had to accept the fact that our modelling skills were only good for goofy shots best stored in the secret family album of awkward pictures. It was fun though! We got the chance to go crazy without the embarrassment of having a random audience around.
Since it would still be another hour before business establishments opened, we walked back to the parking lot and continued our Calgary sightseeing by car, driving around its major neighbourhoods – the Government District, the East Village, Eau Claire, Chinatown, and the West End. It was a perfect thing to do on an early Sunday morning without traffic.
I know this was but a sweep through of the Calgary must-sees. But we did not even have this in our original itinerary, so seeing the city was in fact, a bonus on this long weekend trip.
Photo Credits:
liveatthemet.com, sencanada.ca, heroines.ca (Frances Wright), trekearth.com,
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