Edmonton, Alberta - A town around a mall

Edmonton is a smallish city in the province of Alberta, Canada. Kate and I just finished our three day stay in Edmonton, during which time we wandered streets, crossed more very high bridges on foot, sampled a few interesting local restaurants... and went to the mall.

The ice rink at Edmonton Mall

A few Canadians we met before arriving in town insisted that a trip to the mall would be the highlight of our stay in Edmonton. It turned out to be true for two reasons. Firstly because the town of Edmonton is mostly a dull place. On the street where we were staying there seemed to be a repeating pattern of the same few shops; bar, liquor store, pizzeria, bong store, car dealership. Not much else. But the second reason was that the mall really was a lot of fun. It was like all the variety and fun from the whole city was stuffed into the one massive building.

...And the Pirate Ship... also at Edmonton Mall

Wandering the mall was just as much fun as any of the best malls in Dubai, and it was probably almost as big too. Variety shops, numerous food courts and decent department stores were all fine, but there were a few little attractions dotted throughout as well.

A full sized pirate ship which doubled as a cafe was quite amazing to bump into, followed by the full sized ice rink, high ropes course, comedy club, huge video arcade and even mini golf all inside the sprawling complex.

Katie showing how the wave pool is done.

But the jewel in the crown of the mall is The World Waterpark. Yep, a proper water park inside the mall, entirely indoors, open all year round, even during winter while the snow piles up on the glass domed roof.

Thank you Edmonton for suddenly becoming interesting. The water park had a huge wave pool on one side, mostly full of kids sitting in inflatable tubes, squealing every time a wave came through. The other side of the park was more our speed, occupied by a towering network of extremely tall water slides, all held together by a very solid steel framework.

To cut a long story short - we went on everything. Well, I went on everything, and Kate went on all except a couple of extreme heart-thumpers which left me walking like a cowboy for a short time afterwards. The most notable slide of the park is definitely 'The Cyclone', which makes the rider do a loop-the-loop after shooting you out of the starting chamber like a cannonball. I took our new little waterproof camera on The Cyclone with me to let you see what it looks like to ride the thing.

The Cyclone.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a video must have an even better exchange rate, so I'll let Kate's water park montage speak for itself.



Next stop: Jasper National Park. Ready to see some grizzlies!

Till next time!
//Brendan