Edmonton - City Sights & NHL Hockey

I arrived in Edmonton late on Wednesday and made my way to the hostel located in Old Strathcona (it used to be a separate city but with the urban sprawl it's more like a suburb of Edmonton now). Old Scona was quite cool - lots of character with funky shops & eateries and a student vibe as it's very close to the University of Alberta.

On Thursday I went into downtown Edmonton and walked around a bit checking out the sights. It was nice enough, but there was nothing especially memorable about the city. Nonetheless I wandered around but I was basically killing time before my first ever NHL ice hockey game! I wanted to go to a Canucks game while I was in Vancouver but they were all sold out so I bought a ticket for a game in Edmonton while I was still in Vancouver and just hoped that it would be interesting game. Turns out I picked a brilliant game to go to! The Edmonton Oilers had to win their last 2 games to make it into the Stanley Cup playoffs and the game that I had a ticket for was that second to last game. Hockey fever was everywhere, check out this photo I snapped when I was in town...

The game was good too, altho there wasn't much biffo which I thought was part and parcel of ice hockey. Edmonton scored about a minute into the game but Anaheim equalised in the first period but then Edmonton scored again to win the match 33.3s from full time! The crowd went wild! It was an awesome game and I'm so glad that I got a chance to experience what all the hype is about!

I told you I got good seats! I think these would have been in the >$100 section!

The Oilers celebrating their victory...

whilst Anaheim beat a hasty retreat.