Morning in Edmonton

So I went to sleep last night at about 3:30am as it took me quite a while to upload photos to the blog. The Internet connection where I was staying wasn’t of the fastest.

I believe I fell asleep in an instant as I don’t recall having sleepless moments at all. I was having a great time. Doug (the guy who booked the other bed in the room) didn’t show up, so I was very happy to realize that I basically got a private room.

You know that feeling you have when you fly coach, seated in a row which has three seats in it, and it’s very close to departure time and nobody sits next to you? It’s a nerve‐wrecking moment, knowing that in just a few minutes the doors will be closed and you have an entire row for yourself so you can get some sleep.

So, I had the similar feeling. Except that, in a hostel, contrary to a flight, there’s no “departure time”. People may show up at any time they feel like.

Obviously I’m telling this for a reason, as Doug showed up at 5:30am and woke me up after two hours of sleep.

After about 15 minutes I managed to fall asleep again, only to be awakened again 45 minutes later. I woke up to some sort of a scream. It repeated every few seconds, and sounded much like an animal being tortured. I wanted to jump to the window and see what it was, only to realize that this will make me lean right against Doug’s head and I wasn’t sure that he’d take it well if he wakes up. Then the same screaming voice appeared to come from a few sources at the same time. Turns out that there’s a nest of some sort of a bird right beneath my room.

Obviously I couldn’t sleep anymore. At 6:30am I finally gave up trying to sleep, shaved, packed my gear and off to the checkout counter. The guy at the checkout counter looked as if his aspiration in life is to be Michael Jackson. Nothing else explains the outfit he was wearing, including some fancy hat. Asking him for a coffee shop that has Internet access, he mentioned some name and location but the cafe wasn’t there.

I ended up sitting in a place called “Artisan Cafe & Bakery” on Whyte avenue, right across the road from the Chevrolet dealership. Had a good healthy breakfast, answered some emails.

Now I’m off to Future Shop to buy a carrying kit for my GPS, and then off to Saskatoon.

Later,
Isaac