the magic of regina

everyone laughs at us when we warmly recommend Regina, SK as a worthy place to visit, best part of our bus trip etc. so let's reason a bit:
- best part of the trip, aka "not on the bus": fair enough. we needed a break after almost 48 hours on the greyhound, and i can believe that wherever we'd stopped would have felt good.
- but also, regina was our true honeymoon. thinking in retrospect, vancouver is a place where i used to live, where i have friends, and places i wanted to show b., so even if this trip was a new leaf because we were together etc, it meant different things for each of us. regina was completely uncharted territory for both.
- and, not the least, it was just the beginning. we had the whole promise of the "actual" trip ahead, so we weren't invested in making this day memorable, just in taking a break. and it really worked for the best.

at 10 a.m., in front of our b&b - fresh and showered (though my ankles were swollen from bus ride) and ready to go out and explore. was not sure about the weather, so i layered all i could.

retracing steps a bit...this was on broad street, on the way from bus station to the b&b. advantages to regina not being a big city: things are close together. the greyhound station was 15 minutes walk away from the place we found to stay at, and the walk was along the main street. also passing by: the casino (!), a tim hortons', a bunch of thai places, a few tall buildings. "our" house was just one block behind broad street, and that was enough to make it a charming, quiet retreat.

our room. it was a family b&b, owned by chinese people. this might have been one of their kids' room, before they moved out.

bathroom door downstairs

free breakfast of muffins, waffles, croissants, fruit and coffee.

lovely bench at the door, and our shoes in the box

and we're out! on our way to wascana park, this giant picturesque frog

still sleepy, even after coffee.

this photo functions as proof that we were in regina: local parliament building in the background.
so, what we did on our free day: we walked along the water, trying to follow it into a ramification  of parks, and then further into neighbourhoods. we had a "picnic" on the grass (ok, it was thai food to go)and i got barefoot on the grass, and we laughed at geese.

who knew that goslings are actually green? at least the small ones.

look at the random artsiness of these...colums

the bison, an emblem of the prairies

and a graphic explanation for the name of the city. (did you know, though, that regina used to be called wascana, which means "buffalo bones" in cree?

probably the last remains of blooms this spring

walking to the other side of wascana lake, mostly because we saw some people canoeing and we thought there might be a dock with rentals or smth around there

which there was, but not very clear how renting was working (a kids' summer camp thing? some exclusive boating club?)

taking note of the prevalent architectural styles. ("this is like something out of movies" - "what movies have you been watching?")

very ukrainian name and design; this, on the other hand, looks like a villa in a resort

let it be known that downtown regina is not devoid of grittiness

this statue seemed very appropriate, because geese were literally all over town

dollarama necessities: neck pillow for the bus and ice tea; and unexpected finds - a ron hubbard book in the paperback section

inside cornwall centre, regina's downtown mall. i actually went into some stores while b. was trying his pillow in an armchair. i want to say it was more window-shopping than i actually got to do in vancouver

more bison

this is a central area that looks pretty and quiet, bordering the park (victoria park?)

and yes, everybody is all about canada's 150s anniversary

picture in the downtown park, close to dusk, where my terrible sunburn is quite visible. i always welcome the first sunburn of a year, which inevitably happens because i've been surprised by sunny weather. in the longer run, a good surprise however you take it.