Author Archives: Katja

The poutine is a traditional Canadian dish, or so I was told, so one afternoon I went to a tiny restaurant called La Poutine to try it out. It turned out to be fried potatoes with a cheese quite similar to mozzarella, completely drowned in gravy. I wouldn’t call it a dish. It’s more likeContinue reading “Chapter 50: At La Poutine”

Mr. P found the museums in Edmonton quite dull, excepting the orchids in the conservatory. But seceretly, he found the street art both exciting and daring. He wouldn’t admit it to me, but I think he loved it. There is a little rebel underneath that polished surface of his.

They seem to be everywhere. The screen prints, beautiful pictures or political messages. Many of them have a feminist touch, too. Oh, how we would have loved them, me, Kirke and Hanna at fifteen. We wanted to do street art, but never really dared. Now I can enjoy the decorated dustbins and street lamps withoutContinue reading “Chapter 48: The street art of Edmonton”

If downtown Edmonton feels big and a tiniest bit unfriendly, the area around the university campus is a really quaint and cozy place. There are some high apartment buildings, but mostly the area is made up of small residence houses and a few businesses here and there, everything built in different styles. Taking an eveningContinue reading “Chapter 47: By the university campus”

There are a lot of busses to ride on in Edmonton. And even though Mr. P preferes to travel by horse and carriage, the bus is a better way of transportation than all this incessant walking that I’ve been doing. In Mr. P’s huble opinion.

I’m a very easily satisfied tourist. Give me a map, and I’ll find things to do for several days. With my free of charge tourist map I walked around downtown Edmonton, visited museums and checked out the most prominent landmarks. No guide needed. I’m a true geographer that way. The architecture in Edmonton isn’t likeContinue reading “Chapter 45: A two-dimensional tour of Edmonton”

On Thursday night, we went to a real Canadian sports bar called Hudsons. Thursday is the MBA night, for the Master of Business and Administration students, and since quite a few of Frida’s friends are MBAs, they go to Hudsons together almost every Thursday. I have no experience of sports bars at all, so for meContinue reading “Chapter 44: The night habits of Canadians”

  Because he’s so fond of his own orchids. Despite the fact that they blossom so rarely. The first two orchids are from the temperate pyramid in the conservatory, and represent two species that are native to Alberta. The rest are from the tropical pyramid.

Thursday afternoon: I’m sitting in the temperate pyramid greenhouse at the Muttart Conservatory, Edmonton’s botanical garden. It’s slightly cold, but with my Peruvian alpaca sweater I won’t freeze. The smell in here is heavenly, a combination of pine and herbs and the early blooming daffodils. It’s not big, the conservatory, with four greenhouse pyramids: theContinue reading “Chapter 42: At the conservatory”

On Monday, I went to the tourist information center in Edmonton. There, I talked to a really nice guy who told me that if I wanted to see some typical Canadian suburban architecture, I should take a tour with the 151 bus. You see, before I left home, Elin gave me the mission to goContinue reading “Chapter 41: Elin’s mission – On the 151”