Mallrats of Edmonton

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Edmonton doesn’t have a reputation as being the most happening city, and well, that is a fair enough point. We had booked into the hostel for 5 nights and after the second day we were scouring the tourist magazines and the Lonely Planet for things to do over the rest of our time there. The hostel was near Whyte Avenue; a rather funky part of town; and as such has the requisite funky shops, bars and restaurants that two Australian Gen Yers are attracted to.

We visited the Alberta Legislature building and took in the free guided tour, in which we again learnt how similar the Canadian and Australian political systems are. Thank you Westminster tradition. There is only one house in the provincial legislature and the current Government has 72 of a total of 82 seats. So we’re guessing that legislation is sailing through very efficiently at the moment.

Alberta’s biggest tourism attraction is not the Rockies; but a suburban shopping centre just out of Edmonton. The West Edmonton Mall, or WEM, is huge, with over 800 shops, its own hotels, themed inauthentic Chinatown, Europe and New Orleans areas, an indoor amusement park, indoor water park and a myriad of other entertainment venues. The WEM is the largest shopping mall in North America and the fourth largest in the world. Apparently it was the world's largest mall for a 23 year period from 1981 until 2004. This was the ultimate mallrat hangout, and mallrat we did. There was no shortage of T.S, Brodie, Jay and Silent Bob types looking for mischief. We walked around; played some glow in the dark golf (yes it is a cool as it sounds), checked out the amusement park; had some take-away yum cha, had a look at the water park and walked some more. The WEM seems like a fitting tribute to the excesses of the 80’s, especially when you consider the fact that the biggest mall in the world at the time was located in a city with less than a million people.

We also tried to get some NHL tickets to see the aptly titled Edmonton Oilers play, but at $104 each, we instead decided to go the tightarse option and see the Edmonton Oil Kings for $20. The Oil Kings play in the junior feeder league to the NHL, and unfortunately they lost that night to the Saskatoon Blades. They can still pull a healthy crowd that most Australian junior sport would be jealous of. We were entertained by the game but also the club mascot Louie (a big hairy lion which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with oilers, oil or anything remotely Albertan), a bit of biffo, and the hockey fans sitting next to us who were obviously under the misconception that you had to visit the concession stand in every break and that not buying something from every roaming food salesman would be just downright rude.

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Photos

Glow in the dark mini golf
See how much fun it looks!

The Prairies
View from the Greyhound

Comments

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