Monday, June 5, 2023: Received by the Queen!
Info:
The Queen City is the capital of Saskatchewan, but only the second largest city in the province after Saskatoon. With about 230,000 people, it looks cozy. Great importance is attached to the design of the public space. Culture and science are of great importance – which is reflected in the cityscape.
My opinion:
By now, the list of places I’ve gone and immediately felt comfortable is quite long. Lunenburg in Nova Scotia, St. John in New Brunswick, Quebec (in Quebec), Kingston, New Liskeard, Kapuskasing and Thunder Bay in Ontario, Vermilion Bay, and now Regina. Named after Queen Victoria – yes, there was a queen before Elizabeth II, but we don’t remember her personally. The Queen City is simply a beauty. With a normal volume of traffic. I was there for two days and I could have definitely lasted longer!
Diary:
I had prepared myself for a dull ride across the prairie. Many people had warned me: just flat, just bland.
It is not boring at all! There is so much to see! If you look to the right, you can see the plain to the horizon. If you look to the left, you can see the plain to the horizon. Alternating grass and fields. Silos of enormous dimensions every few kilometers, making the associated residential building look like a doll’s house. A lot of foxes roaming around within sight of the road. And above it all, a lot of sky. However, it occasionally shows itself with grandiose cloud formations, for which I am grateful, because the ten-minute downpour saved us (again) the trip to the car wash. There are, as already mentioned, a lot of insects here. And every one of those that abruptly end their existence on Annie Way’s windshield subsequently sends the entire kin after me to stab me in the legs just before sunset.
I stopped for a night in a place called Virden – another pretty little town!
With Manitoba we also left the time zone. Now we are in the Central Time Zone and already eight hours after Linz … this has the strange effect that sometimes in the evening I am in contact with friends who just got up the next day. Or that after waking up I find out what happened in Austria in the (for me coming) afternoon.
But now to Regina!
I had chosen a small campground a few miles east of town. It’s called Buffalo Lookout and, how could it be otherwise, it’s right on the Transcanada Highway. I am sure there hasn’t been any Buffalo to look out for since the last millennium. Still: We had a great view of – You’ll never guess! – the plain with grass and fields! And on very much sky above. Not to mention that two women from Quebec suddenly waved as I returned today with Annie Way – I know them from Winnipeg, and they are also headed to Alaska. Is everyone here headed to Alaska?
Still 32°C in the shade of the trees on the prairie. The first afternoon I was at Lake Wascana by the university, took a long walk and looked at the university buildings from the outside. It was Sunday, everything was closed.
On the second day I went to the city center. No problem given the traffic. Annie Way can park really well now, and I know my way around parking ticket machines, so it usually works out after the third try to get the ticket. The trick is to slide the credit card in and pull it out instantly. If you leave it in for even a fraction of a second, the machine refuses and tells you your credit card is invalid. So you have to be so fast that it doesn’t even realize that the credit card could be invalid. Which it isn’t. And anyway. Given the prices of food, which are about half of those in Austria, and the cost of diesel and campsites, which are also much lower than I had calculated, and the things I need otherwise – tickets, tours, etc.. – that don’t cost half as much as I expected, my credit card is not only valid, but can be maxed out!
In the middle of the city there’s a park surrounded by the most important buildings, all less than twenty stories high and architecturally very imaginative … and what is most beautiful: they are painting their city.
I think I’ve mentioned several times how excited I am that art seems to play such an important role in Canada. Public space and its design are of great importance. In addition to the many sculptures that can be found everywhere, one constantly comes across local art projects. Murals are especially popular.
Not only the walls in the city center serve as a “canvas”, but also the sidewalks!
In the residential areas around the relatively manageable high-rise center there are trees everywhere, whose shade made this day with 32°C in the shade almost bearable.
When it got too hot, I escaped to a mall and came out with new trekking sandals and a repaired watch. I am no longer timeless. And the gentleman was so nice that he didn’t even ask for anything. When I gave him ten dollars anyway, he was totally happy and thanked me several times for the bill, which matches the watch so nicely (purple). Still, it was so irritating to know what time it was that I stowed the watch in my backpack after half an hour. I can do without the ravages of time!
And finally, after a long walk, I ended up back at Wascana Center, at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. There they have the world’s largest Tyrannosaurus Rex on display. Scotty is his name. They didn’t find a lot of dinos in Saskatchewan, but they did find this giant. And … please, how do I get that out of my brain? … The excretions of a Tyrrex. Petrified. Which doesn’t make them any less so.
But what it was really about was the evolution of Saskatchewan from a billion of years ago to today. So about geology (alas!), paleontology, climatology, biology and human settlement. Until now, I thought it was proven based on genetic comparisons that the first humans migrated 18,000 to 15,000 years ago, but in the museum there was talk of 30,000 years ago. Exciting in any case.
The museum was really cool. They didn’t want an entrance fee from me, but if I wanted to, I could donate something. I donated. Less than a ticket would have cost in Austria. That’s when they got all excited because it was so much.
Annie Way had a visitor later in the afternoon. Actually two visitors. At first there was a bumblebee or a hornet in front by the windshield, I’m not sure, and since I like bumblebees but have quite a bit of respect for hornets, I opened the two front doors and the sliding door, hoping the bumblebee or hornet would find its way out. No sooner were the doors open than a blackbird suddenly sat inside. Also at the front by the windshield. Now not only was Annie Way’s windshield stained on the outside, but so was her dashboard on the inside.
In any case, I strongly hope that both animals, the bumblebee or hornet and the blackbird, flew out again. Because I didn’t see them fly away. But when I cleaned the dashboard, no one was there. Whereas it could be that the hornet or bumblebee could have hid somewhere. There must be some slots, because parking tickets and such always disappear after a day or two without my removing them. But maybe they’ll show up again someday. After all, the socks have returned.
One more success story: I figured out how to turn on the refrigerator! Makes sense at 32°C in the shade, even more so as Annie Way is often not in the shade at all.