May 26: Early to Airport

My flight to Calgary left at 6:15am, but trains from Union Station to Toronto Airport weren’t running between 1:00am and 4:00am. (There may well have been buses running at that time, but I wasn’t going to start searching for them at this stage.) So I spent my last evening of May 25 at Wilson Hall washing and drying clothes, packing and generally getting ready. Just after 11:00pm, I handed back my key fob to reception and went out to the streetcar stop with my backpack and case.

The trip to the station was a bit complicated by half the journey using replacement buses, but I managed to get to the station just after 12:00.

The train to Pearson Airport (Toronto International) has a separate departure point from the general trains, though I can still use the Presto card for it.
The train took about 30 minutes to get to Terminal 1. I then had to go up one floor to catch a mini-train that took me to Terminal 3, Domestic.

I got my checked luggage ticket printed out on the self-serve machines, but the conveyor belts that take checked luggage weren’t running at that time, so I caught up with the blog in the meantime. After a couple of hours, the machines turned on, so I put my case onto one and watched it be automatically carried away.

Found my boarding gate next. Many of the cafés were still setting up, and I was beginning to get drowsy. After a while, I bought a little to eat, then WestJet 627 was called.

Not Available

I spent half of the flight to Calgary in fitful sleep. After I became more wakeful than sleepy, I looked out the window at the flat country below, dull greens and browns with faint lines traced in. I’d originally planned to travel through central parts likes Edmonton, Winnipeg, etc, but couldn’t fit this into my schedule and budget.

We descended into Calgary on a cloudy day. I went down to Baggage Claim and waited with the other passengers. And waited… and waited… and waited. After 20 minutes and no sign of my case, I checked with the Baggage desk. The receptionist confirmed my case hadn’t arrived in Calgary and registered a “delayed” item claim.

Feeling rather shocked, I pondered on what to do next. I wasn’t due to check into my stay until 3:30pm, so I decided to take a bus into Calgary central. After waiting at the stop for several minutes, the bus arrived and I headed into downtown.

I took care of some smaller problems. First, I topped up my Chatr phone account at a local outlet, Next I bought some spare socks, underpants and toiletries, in case my case was gone for a while.

I had a look around the city centre for a while, then had a coffee.

I tried to think what to do next. I could check my delayed baggage claim in a website, but it wasn’t listed as found yet. I had a big excursion booked for tomorrow and wasn’t sure the clothes I was wearing would be up to this. (Thankfully, I’d kept my sunscreen in my backpack.) After finishing the coffee, I still had a few hours before my stay and felt determined to see what I’d come to see in Calgary and have some good time regardless, damn it!

Music History

I first headed east to a place called Hunt House, but the road there was blocked by roadworks, so I decided to leave it for another day.

Nearby was another interesting feature.

Had another at a café to clear my head and use their toilet.

Fortunately, the next item on my list was just across the car park: The National Music Centre at Studio Bell, a museum dedicated to music in general and Canadian music in particular.

First up are interactive music exhibits.

Upstairs, displays about Canadian producers and artists.

There are displays of instruments and how they’re used.

Histories of musicians, past and present.

And whole rooms dedicated to Oscar Peterson…

… Sum41…

… and Nelly Furtado.

Another Suburban Stay

I headed back into the central city.

Found the bus that would take me closest to my stay and got off at the nearest stop. (Apple Maps has been a godsend this trip.) Halfway there, good news: the missing luggage site said my case had been found and was on its way to Calgary.

My stay was at The Calgary Hub hostel style Home, another “self-service” hostel set up in someone’s house.

Bob, the owner, welcomed me and showed me to my dorm (in the basement, confirming the basement windows I kept seeing). I was sharing the place with about four other travellers, mainly from France and Germany.

I tried to relax as the hours ticked by. Around 5:00pm, I got a call from WestJet—and then the call cut out after a few seconds. I tried calling back but each call kept failing. One of the other hostel guests let me use his phone and I got through, to WestJet’s main office. I asked them to keep my case at the airport instead of delivering it: I would come and get it.

Retrieval

The airport bus ran only a few blocks from the hostel, so I set off. The bus stops in that area weren’t for the airport bus, but I took on of the others that came along, which took me further north until it reached a depot where the airport bus did stop. After it came up, I took it to the airport and located the WestJets desk. There waiting for me was my missing case.

The WestJet agent reckoned that my case might’ve been taken off while baggage teams were trying to balance the load in the aircraft, and not put back in again. Regardless, I carted it off onto a returning bus. Stopped off part of the way back to get some food from Safeway (yes, they still have Safeway here), then bussing and trundling back to the hostel.