Thursday, January 01, 2009

Calgary Dec. 2008: Departing downtown Calgary

Downtown Calgary, AB Canada

I departed the hotel room at 9:30a and by the time I got downstairs and outside, the train was at the station. I ran as fast as I could and caught it. Knowing that it would leave quickly, I got on without buying a ticket. This is O.K. as I am within the free zone. There is an area from 10th Avenue to 1st. Ave where taking the train is free of charge.

When I got a little further, actually at the last stop in the free zone, I got out of the train, bought the 2.50 CAD ticket at the kiosk and ran back into the train.

The rest of the journey to the airport was incident free and I took photos all the way back. There was a guy on the train that kept coughing, I thought he was going to die or something. There was quite a sigh of relief when he got off the train.

At the Whitehorn stop, I disembarked and went upstairs to wait for the #57 to the airport. The next bus was not until 10:25. It was 9:57a and the bus before the 10:25a was at 9:55a; we had just missed it.

I started talking with two guys who were immigrants to the area. One was from Mexico City, Mexico, the other from the Middle East. We chatted about the weather, etc. until 10:20a, when we spotted the bus coming.

Once on the bus, I showed my ticket and then took a seat. At 10:50a, we pulled into Bay 20 at the airport. Other travelers were waiting to take the same journey I had taken the day before.