winnipeg

Date traveled: October 24-26, 2018

The only time I’d ever been to Winnipeg was a quick drive-thru to basically say I was there. It was summer and I remember it being lush and sunny, and I’ve carried that image of Winnipeg with me over the last several years, despite contradictions from the general sense I’ve gotten of it from other people.

I didn’t spend much time there this time either – less than 48 hours – and I only really traversed maybe a ten block radius. But when you’re somewhere for a short time, every hour and every experience has a giant impact on what you remember and take with you as what that place is.

Winnipeg is now, to me, a super industrial city with a high proportion of Indigenous people. The core definitely wasn’t as green or sunny as I remembered it, but the grunginess made me feel like I was living in a Nirvana song.

I was surprised at how much I liked the architecture. It was brutal – not sure if I’m using the term correctly – very no-nonsense when it came to the older buildings, but adjacent to new glass hi-rises, which is a familiar sight in most gentrifying areas. I didn’t know this about Winnipeg, and I wonder how much it holds true outside of Portage and Donald.

In a kind of funny example, here’s an old facade that was kept while a new glass building was built behind it.

There’s something about the intentional re-design of a city to give it a certain appearance that interests me. It tells a story about municipal and cultural values, the people there, the money, the weather. It pushes two centuries together, sometimes in an obviously disjointed way.

What I liked best was a lot of the buildings had ads painted on their sides, like permanent billboards.

I went to a bar alone for, I think, the first time in my life. It was actually quite freeing – no pressure to talk to anyone or to do anything, just sit and watch hockey. I ended up talking to this recently retired man for a couple hours and never even asked his name. It was like the ultimate conversation-only one-night-stand.

He did a biking trip across Canada a couple years ago. He didn’t like Ontario because it was the least bike-friendly province.

I’m not sure if it completely fits the bill (it probably doesn’t because its a capital), but often in poorer cities there is a strong sense of community, kind of like a fuck-you to the people who shit on it. In Winnipeg there was a fair amount of public art and some hip coffee shops, giving me enough of a sense that people there cared about where they lived.

Another one of the things I noticed was the walk-thrus that connected the second stories of a lot of buildings. I remember seeing the same thing a lot in Calgary. It’s pretty practical, I assume, because of those prairie winter winds. Brutal.

I saw online that Portage and Main (just a few blocks from where I was staying) was the coldest intersection in the country. Staying indoors when possible would certainly help with that wind burn.

Overall, the people I met were friendly. The weather was warmer than it was in Ottawa at the time. The hotel was really nice. I felt like I could’ve spent a couple more days, especially since I was so busy with work most the time.

I have no idea if/when I’ll go back, but if I do, I don’t think I’ll complain about it. Unless of course it’s because I had the choice of between, say, Winnipeg and Vancouver, in which case I probably will.