Maia Fuhrman - What I love about this summer in Calgary

While we're in the same place for the next few months we've invited guests to contribute to There & Here by telling us what they love about their favourite place in the world. Our guest this week is Maia from Calgary, Canada.

Required cliché shot of the tracks disappearing into nothing…70s film reel style.


What I love about this summer in Calgary is exploring Inglewood.

If you’re a native Calgarian, you know that our city is most famous for its raucous, mid-July western extravaganza: the notorious Calgary Stampede. However, if you venture just past the grounds (up the hill and over the bridge), you’ll find reprieve from the raucous crowds amongst the historic buildings of up-and-coming Inglewood.

This neighborhood lies just East of the downtown core, and just under the city’s radar – not quite yet a regular destination for most Calgarians, but long-practiced at serving and connecting its residents. Studded with heritage buildings, converted lofts, art galleries, dive-bars, boutique cafes, and curio shops, 9th Avenue SE presents endless fascination for (this) Calgarian, who thought they’d seen everything.

Eat: Without Papers Pizza, Eat Eat, Fine Diner.
Drink: Hose & Hound Pub, Swans Public House, The Ironwood Bar & Grill.
Listen: The Blues Can, The Area, The New Black.
Shop: Pretty Little Things, Mid-Century Dweller, Etsy.
Curiosity: Silk Road Spice Merchants, Knifewear, DaDe Art Gallery.

River-side bike path curves around the Deane House patio.

Built by the Hudson’s Bay Company, this little structure has survived since 1847.

Original Calgary Zoo sign.

Streetscape of 9th Ave SE & Ironwood sign.

Basement showroom of Mid-Century Dweller.

Nerding out and planning fun with the Sled Island schedule.

The Area functions as a music venue, community garden and youth center.

Prairie sky dwarfs the abandoned shacks that line the railroad.

Just a man and his bicycle, looking epic.

Maia Fuhrman is a Communications student currently working for Critical Mass, and excitedly anticipating her final semester on exchange to Oxford, UK this September. She doesn’t have a website, but you can find her on Twitter @maialoren, and (if you really want to) on Facebook. You know the drill. ‘Nuff said.