Calgary, Alberta

In November of 2014, life moved me in another direction: specifically, west.  I had grown tired of sitting at a desk all day surrounded by the same old same-old. I was bored and a bit miserable so I took a leap, sold everything that didn't fit neatly into a paper box, and moved to southern Alberta.

I flew into Calgary, where I was picked up by my cousin and promptly delivered to her apartment in the big city for the night. She had to work the next day before taking me to my more permanent destination, so I thought I would take the opportunity to get myself and my camera lost in a new city which, it turns out, absolutely must have been built to look good when snowed on.

Well, hello there, Calgary!

 

  

The people were also made to be snowed on. Yup, this guy is on a bicycle.

 There was also this:

to remind me, and probably a majority of the population on some level, of why we were here in the first place.

And one of these:

which I don't know was ever used, but I thought was the coolest idea for old payphone housings ever.

I walked for hours that day and, in doing so, discovered what Maritimers meant when they said the cold 'out west' was "a different kind of cold." The air is dry, and gets right into your bones. You can't just pop into a coffee shop and warm up: it hugs you right from the inside out and sticks with you through coffees, showers, and for hours after you're inside. With that lesson learned early, I dug out my layers of mittens and woolies, and braced myself for a winter like nothing I'd seen before.