What was your biggest surprise/favourite thing about the cities you've visited?

[Tony]

Originally Posted by The S'toon Goon

St. Catharines: My wife hails from here and what surprised me the most from my first trip there was how many flowers and plants there were just around the town. My second trip there was for Christmas and I was surprised at how nice the winter weather was! Coming from the prairies anything is nicer, but when the snow melts before I feel obliged to shovel, I am quite happy! Lastly, a night at Port helped me forget how much of senior citizen's town it really is!

Yup, it's called the "Garden City" for a reason. During the winter, the Niagara Escarpment helps create a micro-climate for the area so it gets slightly more mild winters.

Port is the party area of the city, filled with the Brock & Niagara College kids.

[Doug]

Travelling outside the Prairie Provinces, I am repeatedly surprised by the British influence in Canada, even in Quebec: ex. references to Kings and Queens and other aristocrats, stone buildings, residual class conciousness.

[vid]

Originally Posted by matthew6

If the city planners what better foresight they would have made the area surrounding the falls a large park - or even a provincial park.

We've got Kakabeka Falls for that. Except for the bridge that goes over the river just before the falls, it is basically unchanged from when it first became an attraction, and it is illegal to actually go near them. (Mostly due to the danger of the crumbling rock. There are fossils in the rock so some researchers get permits to view them.) You can probably get closer to these than to Niagara Falls but there is no "maid of the mist" type thing.

Kakabeka Falls is Niagara Fall's ruggedly attractive younger brother.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/e_bass/

This thing also has a hydro dam associated with it, and alternates from "this looks like a cliff, where is the water?" to "I thought there was an island in the middle of it?"

It is also three falls, a tall one on the right and two short ones on top of each other, separated by a pool, on the left.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Doug

Travelling outside the Prairie Provinces, I am repeatedly surprised by the British influence in Canada, even in Quebec: ex. references to Kings and Queens and other aristocrats, stone buildings, residual class conciousness.

I assume you mean that the British influence is present elsewhere as it is on the Prairies. Because there is lots of British influence there too.

[samne]

Calgary, cause its the most recent place visited this year.

I was surprised by the amount of visible minorities. Just didnt expect that many.

I was also very pleasantly surprised by the C Train, especially in the downtown core. Very cool, efficient and well used. Love to see our new LRT operate like that.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by samne

I was surprised by the amount of visible minorities. Just didnt expect that many.

Yup. No matter how many times we tell people - it's just not something people seem willing to believe until they see it for themselves.

[kool maudit]

i feel like the acknowledged presence of numerous "visible minorities" (to actually use this clumsy, dehumanizing phrase) is quite nakedly becoming this sort of funny vanity-totem in canada (among white people especially, but others too).

"look at them! look at us! it's working out so well! this sure isn't mississippi! and it's so not-boring! did you go to the festival? i love spicy food! when i go to the roti place the guy doesn't even make it "white people spicy" he makes it "jamaican spicy" because he knows how much i appreciate it all!"

the circumstance of mass global immigration is interesting enough, and does, to be fair, bespeak a high level of function on the societal level -- but the way we fall all over ourselves about it is really something. people in and from other countries think it's funny sometimes. it's very obvious that this is filling some dispersed cultural need.

[vid]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

it's very obvious that this is filling some dispersed cultural need.

We collect ethnic restaurants and cultural festivals. It's bizarre, but oh, so Canadian.

[kool maudit]

it's not that it's so terrible -- i mean, i live in the balkans, i get that it could be worse -- but it's very cloying.

[freeweed]

I ain't using it as a totem, just responding to the ever present stereotype of "Calgary is nothing but white people!!!".

And... getting back to another recent thread - it's part of our country's identity. The fact that so many other peoples find it funny - that's precisely WHY it's such a defining feature in Canada. It's not filling some cultural need - it's part of our culture at this point. Whether that matters to anyone outside of Canada... well, I don't personally see what the big deal is with wooden shoes, but the Dutch seem to have an affinity for them.

[agrant]

[QUOTE=freeweed;5788152][QUOTE=samne;5788132]I was surprised by the amount of visible minorities. Just didnt expect that many.

Yup. No matter how many times we tell people - it's just not something people seem willing to believe until they see it for themselves.

Google Calgary Stampede 2012 images...

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by agrant

Google Calgary Stampede 2012 images...

Trying to show some folks in Houston what Calgary is like... hopped on Streetview, figured I'd show them 17th Ave. Well, turns out much of that imagery was taken during Stampede (not sure which year). I believe it was around 4th St that the party of 5 cowgirls wearing barely nothing showed up.

I now have bunch of Texans who want to visit Calgary next July.

[jeremy_haak]

My biggest surprise the first time I visited Parliament Hill was the cat sanctuary. It's probably my favourite part too.

[brannelford]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I assume you mean that the British influence is present elsewhere as it is on the Prairies. Because there is lots of British influence there too.

Having lived in both the Prairies and in Ontario, I have to say the British influence is much less pronounced in the Prairies. Outside of Quebec, I think Saskatchewan is the only other province that doesn't have a British ethnic majority, as German, Scandinavian, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish dominate. Orthodox churches dominate the rural skyline, just as much, if not moreso than the spire from an Anglican cathedral. Manitoba and Alberta can't be much farther behind.

Alternatively, EVERY Ontario town seems to have a King Street and a Queen Street. A lot of small towns still fly the Union Jack beside the Canadian flag. Even Ontario's provincial flag still has the Union Jack embedded (as well Manitoba's flag still has this too). The British influence is especially noticeable in the string of towns between Toronto and Ontario, along the Loyalist Parkway, but also throughout Southwestern Ontario.

Even in parts of Quebec, like the Eastern Townships, there is still a noticeable British influence (albeit from the much distant past).

[brannelford]

I've travelled across most of this country, and have had some pleasant, as well as not so pleasant surprises.

From West to East:

Victoria - I was surprised that there was no beach within city limits.

Spokane Washington - the string of skywalks connecting buildings in the downtown core.

Medicine Hat - a veritable oasis in the heart of one of the driest parts of the southern Prairies. The river valley made for a scenic backdrop. I'm not sure I was expecting much of anything as we approached Medicine Hat - but I remember being pleasantly surprised.

Moose Jaw - at one time Moose Jaw was just as big as Regina or Saskatoon. I wasn't expecting to see larger historical buildings in the core of a town this size (i.e. especially compared to Grande Prairie)

Winnipeg - Incredibly Flat. In fact, Saskatchewan is almost mountainous compared to how flat I found it around Winnipeg. The only place I can compare this to is parts of the Netherlands. (p.s. Flat refers just to the geography, not the people! )

Chicago - I had expected this to be somewhat of a gritty city, with a typical urban mix of 70's style Sears Tower (sorry Willis Tower) like highrises interspersed with parking lots and rundown smaller buildings. What I did NOT expect was the level of historical highrises, art deco detailing on buildings and walkability of the core. I could have easily spent a few more days in this city.

Hamilton - the number of historical buildings in Hamilton astounded me, especially since most Torontonians led me to believe it was an industrial armpit. Hess Village had a nice vibe with all the sidewalks pubs.

Guelph - I wasn't expecting so many older buildings in the core. Also, a lot of Ontario towns have redbrick, so Guelph's abundance of historical fieldstone buildings gave it a unique charm. The old fieldstone church overlooking the downtown not only provided great views, but also made a great photo opportunity in and of itself.

Niagara Falls - I wasn't expecting the level of kitsch, especially more pronounced on the Canadian side - but Clifton Hill was a riot, once we got ourselves in the right mood. I take visitors here all the time now.

Montreal - I had only ever seen pictures of downtown Montreal, so I thought their oldtown consisted of the older buildings on Ste. Catherines and Sherbrooke. Imagine our surprise on our second trip when we discovered the "real" old town )

------

I've never been to Quebec City, as I'd tended to hear negative things about it... but based on some of the positive comments from certain posters - I'm thinking this city might become my next urban destination to explore in Canada.

[Nouvellecosse]

The string of towns between Toronto and Ontario?

[jeremy_haak]

I think he meant Kingston?

[brannelford]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

the circumstance of mass global immigration is interesting enough, and does, to be fair, bespeak a high level of function on the societal level -- but the way we fall all over ourselves about it is really something. people in and from other countries think it's funny sometimes. it's very obvious that this is filling some dispersed cultural need.

yeah - from a North American standpoint this is probably true, but I'll take it anyday - especially compared to some of the blatant ethnocentrism and xenophobia in parts of Europe... so much so that "balkanize" has now become a descriptive word in the English language.

[brannelford]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I think he meant Kingston?

Yeah - I meant to say between Toronto and Kingston, Ontario - along the Loyalist Parkway.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by brannelford

yeah - from a North American standpoint this is probably true, but I'll take it anyday - especially compared to some of the blatant ethnocentrism and xenophobia in parts of Europe... so much so that "balkanize" has now become a descriptive word in the English language.

yes, i suppose it is better than, like, world war one. but europe is europe because its various cultures developed in suspicious (relative) isolation for so long. the funny thing about "diversity" is that, the less you have of it on the micro level, the more you tend to have on the macro. driving from, say, kiev to madrid is really a rather "diverse" experience: culturally, linguistically, historically, architecturally and on pretty much every other human measure.

as an aside, though my location (accurately) says "pristina," i am a canadian from montreal who was born and has lived 31 of his 34 years in canada... so the mild defensiveness exhibited in your post is a bit unnecessary. i mean, is this really how bumptious and smug we are? "well, huh huh, i mean, sure, we might look a little silly sometimes, but at least we're better than kosovo!"

it would be better if it wasn't.