Quite possibly the best city ever for this. See past the precarious teeterers - on every block, head down, trying to fight the slumber - try and see past the addicts and the homeless and there's a genuinely interesting contingent of people. Not that they aren't - only - well, that's another post.
The addicts, they all remind me of that short - "The Burden of Other People's Thoughts" - a little masterpiece. And you can see how he came about his inspiration.
But the rest of them - 70 year old man, small, grey hair, adorned with bright gold chains and a huge gold skull pendant. WTF.
A woman stops to say she knows me -
"You were in my AA Meetings".
Not yet, not yet
"Well, then, we must have been drinking buddies..."
And proceeds upon her way.
And others - up early, someone out for a walk in full BDSM regalia, top to toe, including the BDSM mask. On his way home from a sex party? Escaped from a dungeon? The fashionably beautiful - that would fit in anywhere, including Calgary. The visibly trans and misgendered, the odd couples in every combination of age & youth, beauty and decrepitude, that you can imagine. The appalling facial tattoos. And I could go on.
Suffice it to say I'm enjoying the city very much.
And when I'm not watching the people there's always the bookstores - and antique shops - and period architecture - and museums.
All of which other big cities have - Toronto springs to mind - but - unlike Toronto - the range of personalities, fashion, and the out-and-out in your face addiction that plagues the city, makes it all a very interesting place to be. I shouldn't half mind to live here for a year or two.