NEXT DAY (Today)
I woke up and packed. I went out to call Nita and eat some Taco Time. That place is so much better than Taco Bell, but more $ [Mexican fast food hierarchy: Taco Bell, Taco Time, Mucho Burrito. ranked lowest to best in price and quality... although all 3 are delicious in their own right].
Afterwards I went to the forestry park and zoo. The place is basically a massive field and park with a cricket area, baseball diamond, picnic/bbq areas and gardens. You can even buy permits to fish in their ponds. Because it was late morning on a school day, it was only me and a few others there. All of the others were just 1 parent and 1 or 2 young kids. I assume the other parent was working and the kids looked too young for school. It was a really nice day, so all the animals were lazing around. They weren't doing much, but since it was so quiet that day, they were all out where I could see them (except the grizzly bear and a few birds) [The grizzly bear could SORT of be seen as a shadowy lump in a giant concrete tube]. Watching all the sleeping lazy animals made me miss my lazy sundays with Nita.
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OMG |
I bussed back into town and grabbed my junk [My bags, not my crotch] and now I'm waiting for my greyhound to meet Wakana. I should probably grab some food first [ended up eating at a mall fast food cafeteria, and had a veal cordon bleu, that was alright]. Also, the pygmy goats were my favourite.
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| I found the Shire! |
Sept 8th
Last night it turns out that the observatory was only open on saturday. [Bad timing, as that was the synchrotron and the observatory I missed] I did spend alot of time in the arcade though. It is run by this really nice couple. It's equipped with some really fun oldschool games like strikers 1945 II and III as well as puzzle bobble and DDR. One game I found amazing was 'Super Bishi Bashi'. It's a japanese game purely in Japanese[I'm really stupid, it was korean, and very obviously in korean]. It's basically a bunch of strange mini-games that only use 2 or 3 buttons. In the back there is a set-up for LAN that has a feel of a net cafe. What a good and dangerous idea... LAN on campus. Got back and did some late night laundry.
I decided to walk to the U of Saskatchewan. The campus was HUGE, and it was the first day back, so I got lost constantly. There was an agriculture section with bales of hay and farm animals! I took pictures, and got crazy muddy [This was a decisive moment, because my shoes got super dirty]. So much for my sparkling white adidas. After a long trek I found the printing office and got my discovery pass laminated. It sort of looks photocopied now because the ink bled. I hope they still accept it. To kill time I wandered into an on campus building. I heard choir singing and walked towards it. I came out looking down at a prayer group. I'm pretty sure they didn't notice me. While looking through the wildlife building, they made me sign in as a visitor. Everyone looked at me suspiciously when I said I was just looking around becaues there were just offices there, so I signed in as Cedric Liu. I wanted to see the SYNCHROTRON! but it was closed and only toured mondays and thursdays. By the time I made it to the main road, it was 11am and I had been walking 5 hours. I took a quick bus and asked to check-in. The manager was a condescending passive aggressive bitch, and basically shoo-ed me away till 1pm. I bombed around the (now open) downtown area and went back at 1pm with my bags.
I was worried because my credit card didn't work at the breakfast and BMO machines. I called mastercard from BMO and he assured me the account was valid, and I could punch in the number if the strip was dead. When checking in, the bitch said they don't punch in the numbers even though I could sign and had 2 picture ID's. Luckily the card went through. I had been walking about 7 hours by now, and took a much needed shower and fell asleep. I woke up and tied some loose email ends and just finished dinner at a thai/laos place. Gonna try the uni-observatory (open @8pm) and do some laundry in the sink. They charge for washer but not the dryer. I also bought Hebs/Wakana a little vinyl toy, and one for Rachel. Good dinner, I'll save half for later.
Sept 7th Tuesday
Arrived at 5:45am-ish. Everyone here at the bus station is really helpful and genuinely wanted to help me out. The driver (from Saskatoon) recommended I visit the University of Saskatoon. The ticket lady and security guard showed me directions on how to get around. The guard even showed me the broken bus locker that didn't charge, but still locked. [Free locker w00t!]
[Found an old TMNT game at a stop the night before]
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| Dalai Lama... for some reason? |
My first goal was to set out and find a place to stay. Saskatoon didn't have any HI-Hostel, so I decided to stay at a hotel/motel. After wandering downtown and checking out all the stores so I could go back when they opened, I narrowed it down to 2 choices. Both hotels were downtown located so I could access the bus easily. Unlike the other hotels that averaged $130, the hotels were $105 and $75ish. I decided to splurge because the cheaper one was attached to a liquor store and looked sketchy. [It was also attached to a club that looked like it'd be loud]
In the end I'm glad I took the nicer one. With a checkin at 1pm (it being 8:30am still)
[Split this one into two, it was a long day]
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| Took some pictures before the boat filled up. |
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| Free tickets to a boat dance! |
This cruise is alright. 2 hours is a bit long when going solo. [I didn't expect the cruise to last 2 hours... after an hour of factoids, it was an hour of just drifting around on a boat with a bunch of people I didn't really talk to. I did however meet some french Quebec guy who competed and won awards in arm wrestling] It's probably better I kill more of the day. [At the end, the captain was giving out free tickets to a boat party in a few weeks. I decided to nab some and give them to the hostel]
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| I like the faces on the sides. |
Took the rest of the day to wander in and around Winnipeg. It was busier than the morning, but still nothing that could be considered a crowd. I went down to the "Forks" which was a huge park. There were a lot of families there, and even a skatepark. From what I could tell, the stores weren't open there either. [I didn't really look for the market area to be honest] I did manage to stand in the windiest corner in Canada. It was windy, but nothing spectacular. I can only imagine if it was an actual windy day. The corner was filled with flagpoles. [The picture makes it seem windier than it was]
I decided to take an earlier bus out to Saskatoon as I pretty much tapped out Winnipeg. I took a bus halfway to the terminal because Marnie (the local I met going into Winnipeg) said that the 'Salisbury House' was a Winnipeg thing. I ended up walking about 20 mins with my full pack on, but I found it pretty quick. The place was basically a Denny's or Perkins type of diner, as downplayed by both Marnie and the waitress. I felt a sense of obligation to order the salisbury steak and got veggies and hash browns [as my side selection]. The food was decent, slightly cheaper than Denny's but also slightly better in taste. The best was that the hash browns tasted very buttery [SOOO buttery, it was heartstopping goodness and I got a really bad heartburn attack]. A quick taxi to the terminal and here I am at midnight blowing through the prairies. I'm supposed to get to town at around 5am, so I hope I get some sleep tonight. [Everyone told me how boring the prairies are, and Charles said it goes by like that. I ended up passing through it in the pitch black of night]
