After having met in the shower in Taiwan in March I now spend a great week with Carrie and her family in Calgary.

Known as cowboy and oil town the capital of the province Alberta proved to be really different than the very European Montréal. Just founded in 1875 Calgary actually is a very young city (Hamburg e.g. founded in 500) – originally the territory was owned by the Blackfoot aboriginals.

At this time more and more originally Europeans were populating the prairies as farmers, ranchers or cowboys. Every summer Calgary city celebrates this heritage with the Calgary Stampede – a 4 days lasting festival with bull riding competitions. What a pity that I missed that great spectacle.

In 1940 the discovery of huge oil stocks modified the image of Calgary and the former cowboy town become the oil metropolis of Canada. In downtown skyscrapers of BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil and other oil companies like Husky are dominating the skyline of the city. Despite the economical crisis (Canada’s economy was really effected by the low oil price) construction is still going on everywhere in the city. Some people say its either winter or construction season.

A smart tunnel system connects most of the skyscrapers, museums and malls in downtown and provides a good way to face the harsh Canadian winter. To be honest – cities like Montréal or Québec were a bit more appealing to me regarding the architecture. Beeing close to the great national parks Banff and Jasper (my next destinations) Calgary seems to be a pretty good mixture between modern still developing city business live and being close to nature.

 

A huge thanks to Carrie and her family which made me feel home in cowboy town. Who ever experienced Chinese hospitality can tell that it is something great and coming from the heart! Thanks to you guys for being such heartwarming hosts form my week in Calgary.

Coming back to the headline of the blog post – unfortunately we had a pipe breakdown with flood in the cellar – never thought that I would fight any flood during my travels 🙂