day 2 saw 3 of 4 of the former "team magnus" members wake up to a beautiful alberta morning. the birds were chirping, the sun was glaring, and the homeless were searching for traces of food in the nearby dumpsters. matt's balcony faces the back of a strip mall, where the garbage bins are a flea market for the unfortunate people that live on the streets.
after breakfast, dave met up with a buddy from the u of a, and matt and i headed to the west edmonton mall where d would meet up with us later. simply put: this mall is fuckin' huge! it spans 48 city blocks, features over 800 stores and 100 restaurants (including 4 mcdonalds), and even has its own amusement park, water park, ice rink, shooting range, and pirate ship. yes, a pirate ship. its purpose is unknown, but it's quite the site to see a 400 foot pirate ship in the middle of a mall.
and this whole "no pst" thing is quite something for out-of-province shoppers like myself. i was able to buy a pair of jeans, 3 shirts (cuban soul revival baby!), and a belt for $100. bargain shopping at its finest.
after the mall, we hit up a safeway grocery store for some fine alberta steaks. now, i consider myself quite the bbq chef, but even my skill couldn't quite compare an everyday ontario piece of meat to the succulent steak we experienced that night. it melted in your mouth. like chocolate... mmm... alberta beef.
saturday was game day. we got to rexall centre around 4:00 and shared in the parties that surrounded the arena. the media circus outside the arena caused quite the panic with the locals. i got my picture taken with cabbie (from the score's cabbie on the street program), and screamed out "carleton u for life" to cu's most famous grad (in my opinion), james duthie, of tsn.
after a couple beers, we headed to our seats. probably the most expensive nosebleed seats i've ever been in, but this is the stanley cup finals after all. i stood in awe as the crowd drowned out the anthem singer for not only o canada, but also the star spangled banner. what a show of respect. never had i been part of such a karaoke experience as this. good show, edmonton!
the game started and not a voice was spared throughout. "go oilers go" was followed by "we want the cup" and "caro-lina sucks". between pans of mark messier and billy ranford the crowd just never let up.
hell, at one point team magnus was treated to a very sexy cat fight. meow! let's just say a beer was thrown, my pants got wet, and one girl was put in handcuffs. very hot!
and oh yeah, the oilers won! almost a forgotten point with all the drama that surrounded this game.
after the game we hit up "the blue mile", or as some refer to it as "the copper mile". either way, it resembled mardi gras with all the flashes of skin we saw that evening. i wish we had pictures of this, but you can find some at bluemile.ca.
all in all, quite the visit. it's a shame it only lasted a weekend. me and d will be sure to visit mattie again sometime in the near future.
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