I was wrong about the art gallery thing. That wasn’t last night, it’s tonight. Luckily someone looked that up at the pub last night so I just ended up staying there for the night. There was a good band playing from Montreal (the winter gloves), but I wasn’t paying much attention because I was busy talking with several people that are all into local art/food/music. It was a good night.
Today I decided to go for a walk to the “cool” part of town – the Exchange District. It sort of reminds me of cedar riverside back home. Right now I’m enjoying a veggi curry and apple/Ginger/kale juice at a place called Mondragon which is a counter culture vegan cafe and bookshop. I’ve probably eaten more healthy here than at home. If you don’t count the beers that is.
Well it’s the day after thanksgiving and I didn’t see a single sale today. That’s becuase I’m in Winnipeg! They do have a thanksgiving but I don’t know when. Needless to say it’s nice to get away from all the stupid parts of the holiday and have a little adventure in a city I’ve never been to.
It was about a 7 1/2 hours from Minneapolis. 7 hours driving and it took customs around 30 minutes to search my car. They always ask questions like “where do you work?” which seems like such a simple question. I don’t know why I have a hard time explaining. I think I’m going to practice for next time. One of the customs agents pulled a patch out of a jacket pocket that said “$ 0.00 9/10″ and asked me to explain. I tried to explain that i got that at a biking event and it’s suposed to be like zero gas when you ride a bike. He kept looking at me funny and I kept blathering on trying to explain. Eventually he said “so it’s like an environmental thing?”, me “yeah”.
I eventually got to the HI Winnipeg downtowner at about 8pm. Mirriam, the nice German girl working the reception desk started 3 days ago so when the credit card machine ate the paper she had some trouble figuring out what to do.
I decided to go in to the attached pub to get some dinner. I was surprised when I was told they have a completely vegetarian menu, “except for a bison burger”. I ended up having chic pea fritters which was not only really good but beautifully presented. I also had a couple of pints of a local ipa which was also delicious. While there the bartender explained how Winnipeg is similar to Minneapolis in a lot of ways paticularly in it’s thriving arts and music scene. My second surprise was that this little pub is also one of top “cool” spots to catch local live bands. Last night was dj and tonight is live music. This is great I can go out and I don’t have to go anywhere.
This morning I got up and went down to the kitchen to make some coffee and ended up talking for 2 hours to an 85 year old lady who lives in Churchill. That’s the place where the polarbears are. After extracating myself from the conversation I had to dealing with my credit card being put on fraud alert. After that though I did get out and explor the city a little bit.
I walked quite a bit. I went through a mall, through a library and into the skyway system. I went past a young girl playing an accordian, then a guy playing a guitar, and then a guy playing a sittar. I made it back outside and walked down to The Forks. It’s where two rivers combine and there is apparently 6000 years of history here. I wonder if they figured that out when they dug the foundation for the shopping mall.
The mall had a produce market and nice bakery. The bakery was a local/organic kind of place it smelled really good. I ended up buying a loaf of rye sourdough and some fruit to have a little lunch before walking back to the hostle.
My feet are a little sore but i’ll force myself to go out again in a lite bit. Aparently there’s a cool local art gallery thing going on tonight.
