Saskatoon Shiners #exploresk

Saskatoon is a beautiful city, so don’t let these photos fool you. Every city has a few shiners here and there. “There”, in this case, is downtown.

This is the Holiday Inn Supermax Prison. Don’t worry, it only looks like a prison from the outside. You can leave, unlike the more picturesque Hotel California.

Here’s one of the more beautiful parkades with a cell phone tower behind it.

It’s January, and the snow has retreated into puddles due to the unseasonal temperatures, but the gang activity hasn’t retreated.

The people of Saskatoon are friendly, and will accommodate you whether you’re addicted to tobacco or real estate.

The Sturdy Stone isn’t going to see you, so you should go see it.

The HMCS Unicorn will be grinning at you when you walk by.

I was in Saskatoon Thursday evening, off the STC. I’d just figured out which bus to take using the STC free WiFi, and hoofed it over the 2 blocks to the transit street terminal downtown with about 2 minutes to spare before they all pulled out. I couldn’t find the 80, because it was on a perpendicular street around the corner, but a driver pointed it out to me so I knew where to go in 30 minutes.

The Saskatoon Public Library was open for another 10 minutes, so I walked across the street to freshen up and use the WiFi. The first bathroom I found had just been closed for cleaning, so I found the other one downstairs, and got into my skipants for my upcoming walk when I got off the express bus. I never really needed them it turned out, the temperature was nearly melting.

The second time I’ve tried to put coins in the “new” Go Card (R-Card) fare boxes, I learned why people are asking for a funnel back. My first coin first sat sideways blocking the coin slot, and sliding it back to upright jammed it at a 45 degree angle! I pulled it out after removing my glove, and put the three loonies in after about twenty seconds of what should have been a 3 second task.

I then attended the Urban Transportation and Design conference I’d set out to participate at. After, we walked over to The Bassment bar, and then to the bus terminal.

The WiFi on the trip home wasn’t working, the portal page wouldn’t load, but my travel mate had a hotspot to share.