You can go your own way...

I can't believe we have been here for more than two weeks now. In this short amount of time, we have noticed a strange phenomenon - the sidewalks are chaos!

On one of Ben's first days at work, a manager of his said, "Have you noticed Calgary's sidewalk culture yet?" Ben was puzzled and said he had not, to which the manager explained that people walk all over the place and will just as soon run into one another as move out of the way.

I had been very careful about walking on the right side of the road and obeying street signs - I've visited enough metropolitan, pedestrian cities to know that urban dwellers tend to get peeved if you meander around or walk the wrong way on a crowded sidewalk.

Ben and I started paying closer attention as we walked around town, and have indeed observed a complete lack of logic behind pedestrian traffic. It's quite strange - and frustrating, actually - the way people wander every which way and will not scoot over to avoid a head-on collision. I guess it's every man for himself!

But hey, we are just happy that there's a walking culture at all. This is a really manageable city to get around. Locals complain about the lack of public transit, but I am pretty thrilled that we are within a 20-minute walk of about everything we need, and that there are huge sidewalks and a sense of public safety that make walking (or biking) pleasant - and preferable to driving.

There are also plenty of buses and the C-Train, which runs north to south through the city, hitting suburbs, shopping centers and parks alike. I suspect we'll learn more about these options when the real winter hits (-30 degrees c, eek!) and I will have to be bribed to even walk out of the door!