Edmonton adventures 01

I have successfully arrived in Edmonton. This is the first time I've taken an intercity bus between Fort Mac and the provincial capital, and let me tell you, it's a much better experience than flying in general. Is it a 5 hour ride? Yeah, sure. Is it much more comfortable and low-stress than flying is? Definitely. And like... let's be real, when it comes to flying, by the time you're finished faffing around with checking in, waiting, sitting on your ass, planing, deplaning, and then getting transportation from the airport to wherever it is you're going, it's practically been 5 hours anyway. So.

Plus, like, I'm not going to say that being forced to sit and do nothing much for 5 hours fixed me, but it didn't... not... fix me. I think I might have needed a break from constantly Doing Things. (I mostly read a book; it was a very good book. Which I will hopefully write something about later.)

As I've mentioned before (I think I mentioned, anyway) I've never actually been to Edmonton. So, this'll be some new discoveries, hooray.

So far I have done the following:

+ Successfully picked up a 5-day ARC card/bus pass. Taking public transportation in a city unfamiliar to me is always very stressful, but I fully intend to get my money's worth out of this because honestly, November isn't the best time of year to be walking 20-40 minutes to get somewhere. Right now it's very sloppy and wet and eugh outside.

+ Found an excellent bookstore. And bought some books that I really didn't need, whoops. And passed up on still more that I do want to read but figured I should exercise some restraint. If you ever happen to be in Edmonton, do check out Audreys Books on Jasper Avenue, it's lovely. And also it has a decently-sized LGBT2QA section. I actually just missed a book launch that they hosted the other day for Cruising the Downtown: Celebrating Edmonton's Queer History by The Edmonton Queer History Project (Book details). I was thinking about buying that one, but now that I consider it a better idea would be to ask the Fort Mac library to add it to their collection - I think there are some other people who'd like to read it too.

+ Found an excellent place to get coffee, which I badly needed (Ayco Cafe on Jasper). After that bus trip I was pretty ravenous and caffeine-deprived. It has lots of seating and the food is delicious but it's also quiet, or at least the vibe is low-key and chill when I happened to be there. I really wish we had this sort of place in Fort Mac - every cafe in town is so stressfully busy and loud and obnoxious that I just plain can't do the whole "coffee and chill and write" thing I used to do, and it makes me sad.

+ Successfully found somewhere to eat. Much like using transit that I'm unfamiliar with, going to restaurants I haven't been to before activates my anxiety like whoa. It can make going to new cities kind of stressful. So I'm really pleased with myself for kicking anxiety to the curb and stepping foot into a pub near my hotel rather than picking up something microwavable from the nearest Shoppers. Much like everything else, now that I've done it once, it'll be easier (ish) to do it a second time. Funny how that goes.

+ I have made a schedule and, while I do have some flexibility, I'm mostly going to stick to it. I'm here to see Sigur Ros on Monday, but since Edmonton is a pretty big city, there is a ton of stuff to do, and I fully plan to take advantage of that. My family seems to be under the impression that I'm going to be spending most of my time shopping, but that is Not The Case.