(Not so) warming huts 2

Warming curtains?

View of the legislative building from the river walk

Osborne Bridge from below

More warming huts 

(Not so) warming huts

4:30 a.m.

A couple years ago I used to work in a coffee shop that opened early. I’d have to leave my apartment at 4:30 to open the store.

Since I didn’t have a car, public transit didn’t run early enough, and I was too poor to take a cab, I had one option left, walking.

I’d walk from Osborne Village to Portage and Main. I know you’re thinking, "damn that’s super sketchy." I thought it would be too, but it wasn’t bad.

For the most part, I didn’t see anyone. The things I did see though were weird, funny, and borderline terrifying.

 Sometimes I saw a woman jogging, and she’d yell/sing Eye of the Tiger. I consider it a particularly good rendition coming from someone gasping for breath. I have a feeling she’d start when I came into view, but part of me wants to believe that’s just what she does.  

I only saw Wolf Man twice, but that was enough. I'd walk over the Osborne Bridge, and hear a wolf call. I looked off the edge of the bridge and there was a man standing calf deep in the river, howling at the moon. I saw him again a few months after that. Admittedly I was scared at the time, but now I think he’s amazing.  

Do you know those huge awful bugs that hang out in concrete areas? I think they might be June bugs. I tried looking them up on Google, but the pictures made me feel like they were going to crawl out of my couch so I stopped.

Here is a brief description: 

• Awful 
• About 2 inches 
• Brown or maybe grey
• Hangs out in the dark 

Anyway, one time—not while I was walking to work—I saw a woman outside of the Toad. Upon seeing one of those bugs she yelled “is this real life?”

The day I stepped on one while walking to work, I asked myself the same question. Before I looked down to see what happened I knew, and that's the worst thing that happened walking from Osborne Village to Portage and Main at 4:30 a.m.   

Blast from the past

Retro Winnipeg videos are my secret (I guess not any more) addiction. I can't say it's nostalgia, because I was born in '91...
But I love the idea that some of the places I see now were once so different, but in some ways not different at all. 

Plus the hair is amazing. 

Enjoy classy fur coats. 
Experience the thrill and excitement of dancing. 
Oh boy!

A thrilling look into Osborne Village living 

"Wicked!"

Home Sweet Home

(Winnipeg problems) 

West Broadway is my stomping ground, I live in an apartment in Granite Gates that has thin walls and noisy neighbours. 

West Broadway is a mashup between Wolsely and Osborne Village. Sometimes there are hooligans, drunken 2 a.m. fights in the street, and fire trucks.

But it has Wolsely’s beautiful old buildings, banging radiators, and hippy outlets. 

(Lights in trees on Broadway)

The best thing to do if you’re looking for fun in West Broadway is to check out Sherbrook Street.

Stella’s Café (116 Sherbrook St.) is kind of corporate for a small Winnipeg restaurant, based on what I’ve heard from friends that have worked there —but damn their baking is good. I’d skip the restaurant (it’s decent, but nothing special), and head next door to the bakery for some bread. They have the regulars, like rye and sourdough, but they also have walnut blue cheese bread, challah, focaccia, and baguettes.

The Salvation Army Thrift Store (97 Sherbrook St.) You know what to expect, it’s a thrift shop. Hit or miss, it’s fun to look at all the cheap junk.

Cousins Deli (55 Sherbrook St.)  Beer, soup, plants, brownies, cucumber water, and board games. I love Cousins. I think it’s the coziest bar I’ve ever been in.

The Melting Pot (218 Sherbrook St.) has strange hours, and most times I've tried to go there its been closed, but when it's open they serve fondue. Fancy fancy fondue.

Charisma of India (83 Sherbrook St.) I go to this place all the time for inexpensive all-you-can-eat Indian food. (If you're a vegetarian, they have a reduced price.) They also have chickpea pie for takeaway, which the owner gave me once to take home and try, and now I'm addicted.  

Bike cemetery