It was by chance that I saw an ad for Calgary folk festival in a magazine I'd picked up!
My first thought was how will I get there & who would be willing to make the trip with me. I'd met this lovely kiwi guy called Nic who was also a lifty.
Total Hipster! Straight out of Melbourne! Real alternative type, but super cool & very chill. haha. Just the partner in crime I was after for our little adventure. I knew he loved music; so I went out on a limb & asked him! YES! He was keen! Next thing we need to sort out was our mode of transport....Although we had ALOT of options, our budget was limited! We looked into hiring a car but that would have been gastronomically expense & had other complications when it came to our foreign licenses. We could ask someone to borrow their car - but we'd already played that card...?
Or we could buy one! Little did Nic know I had tested the waters on our trip to Calgary Stampede. I mentioned I was thinking of buying a car & maybe we could go halves? Although he didn't realise my questions weren't just hyperthetical - he was interested.
So a week later we were the owners of a second hand car - Penny the Bruiser a PT Cruiser!
We got really lucky! A young family was down grading as they owned 2 cars. Thankfully she had no major issues, only a tiny bit of rust on the exterior!
A friend of ours bought a 'cheap' car & now can no longer use it as it has $4000 worth of work that needs to be done! Ouch! So unlucky.
CALRGARY FOLK FESTIVAL:
A mecca for folk music in Alberta! 2 days of Folk music, markets, food stalls & good vibes.
Nic had downloaded the google playlist for Calgary Folk Festival in the lead up to the festival so we were all geared up for a day in the sun, good tunes & festival vibes. The trip down there was a breeze! We rocked up late - about 9pm ish. Found a sweet little pub to have a few bevvies & lubricate the bones after sitting for almost 4 hours in the go-go-mobile. We settled into round two of beers & played a few rounds of pool. We'd thought ahead & parked the car a stones throw away from the car. So a few hours later we got our tooth brushes & scubbed our chompers, got into our pj's, did a last minute pee & climbed into bed (Penny the PT Cruiser)....as the early morning rays beckoned us to wake up we were up & at'em by 7am. Our mission - free wifi & breakfast!
Thankfully we weren't going to back up our next night sleeping in the car; so we ventured around town for as long as our aching limbs would allow before we checked in. Being tourists for the day we saw the sights, had a nap in the park & then started a little pub crawl going from happy hour to happy hour. By the time we got back to our airbnb 'home away from home' we were a little tipsy! Ha!
We quickly had a bite to eat (Mi Goreng! - A backpackers staple food source!ha!), Prettied ourselves up & headed for the festival. Looking quite daper & feeling footloose & fancy free we rocked up to the festival gates, showed our tickets & got banded.
HOly f&%$, City & Color, Basia Bouletwe defintely amogst the highlights. I love discovering new music! We danced our little hearts out,ate, drank & were most definitely VERY MERRY!
Although the exact time & day escapes me Nic & I did stumble upon a sweet little joint in Sunalta called Mickey's. Little did we know when we got there for dinner that they had a jam night that evening. As we had nothing better to do & were both a little curious about what went down at this gem of a venue we went back that evening! Mind Blown! Some of the musicans & singers that night were oozing talent & put of a killer show! It was mix of Blues, Rhythm, Spanish flemenco, & Mexican Rap! So eclectic but also so so soooo good!
Wildlife sightings:
Bear: 0
Moose: 0
Bighorn: 2
Deer: 0
Wolves: 0
