Advertisement
Published: April 3rd 2009
After spending a bit of time in Quebec City we jumped on the VIA Rail destined for Moncton. You just have to love the special discount section of the VIA Rail website because we managed to snag another deal and get a sleeper cabin for the same price as the budget seats. We jumped off the train in Moncton, New Brunswick, a few hours later than scheduled and hopped straight onto the bus destined for Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI). A couple hours later and we were crossing the Northumberland Strait on the seriously long Confederation Bridge that links Prince Edward Island to the Canadian mainland. The bridge is 12.9km long and has a fascinating history (Lok even read a book about it while we were there), but we won’t bore you with all of the details here other than to say that it is the longest bridge in the world crossing ice-covered water.
We stayed at the Spillet House with Mike acting as our host, local advisor and conversant. The breakfasts were huge and the coffee endless, so we took our sweet time getting going in the morning. This was quite a good thing because Charlottetown is an extremely
sleepy town in winter at best, but add a dusting of snow and the whole place comes to a grinding halt.
We arrived in Charlottetown on a Saturday evening, so our first day to go out exploring was Sunday. Nothing except coffee shops and a couple of food places open on a Sunday in winter. On Sunday night a small storm came through and left 15cm of snow (barely enough to rate a mention in Winnipeg or Quebec City), but in Charlottetown that means everything stops. All of the schools were closed for the day and all of the stores, businesses and the government offices in town decided to open at midday rather than the usual 9am.
We went to have a look at Province House (the birthplace of Canadian Confederation and the home of PEI’s provincial legislature since 1847) at around 11:30am and walked into the building to see the lone security guard. We told him we wanted to have a look around and he said that if we came back at 12, a tour guide would be there to run a tour. That sounded pretty good, so we went away and came back at 12. The
tour guide hadn’t shown up (due to the snow), so the security guard left his post and proceeded to give us the tour of the building. Once he’d shown us around, he left us to explore the building and just asked that we didn’t cross the velvet ropes. We can’t imagine being left to wander around any other active parliament building in the country with nothing more than a velvet rope and the honour system stopping you from sitting in the Premier’s chair on the floor of Parliament. We thanked the guard on the way out and he told us that the guide hadn’t arrived yet and probably wouldn’t be seen that day because of the snow - 15cm in a Canadian winter!!
Other than that, we pretty much wandered around and ate. About the only thing PEI grows are potatoes and they come with pretty much every meal. How would you like your potatoes - fried, mashed or baked?
From Charlottetown, we took a bus to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Halifax was memorable for a couple of things the number of pubs which per capita is second only to St John’s and as the place where, for a
St John's
Multicoloured houses of the city.couple of days the mercury went above zero. Halifax is an old North American port city founded in 1749, although you wouldn’t really appreciate that fact from looking around. Older buildings are punctuated by the brown brick architecture of the 1960’s and 1970’s. We stayed at the HI Halifax which seemed as if it was on a mission to crush our souls with walls papered in signs telling us what we couldn’t do. No drinking, no food or drinks in the rooms, no laundry from 9-5. No No No. The kitchen showed the ineffectiveness of the sign theory. While there would’ve been at least six signs requesting people to wash and dry their dishes, the sink was always full of dirty dishes. This was despite the fact that there were only around a dozen people staying there. Group psychologists take note.
We had a look at the Citadel, an old fort on the top of a hill in Central Halifax and one of Canada’s most visited historic sites. While it was open and we could walk around the site a little bit, we realized that this was really a summer attraction. Sharing the site with construction workers was a
Cape Spear
Most easterly point in North America. fair indication.
On a visit to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, a surprisingly interesting museum, we learnt about one of the most dramatic events in Halifax’s history, the Halifax explosion of 1917. In the middle of World War I, the SS Mont Blanc, a French cargo ship full of TNT and a range of other explosives collided accidently with another ship in Halifax Harbour. The resulting damage and number of deaths was just horrific. It was the world’s biggest man-made explosion before the Atom bomb was dropped in Japan in 1945.
After enjoying the pubs of Halifax, it was time to move on to our final destination St John’s, Newfoundland. St John’s isn’t the easiest place to get to. On the easterly point of Newfoundland, its relative isolation was one of the things that attracted us to the place. To try and be authentic travelers and keep our carbon footprint down, we decided that flying there was a cop out and we would do it by land and sea. This consisted of a 5 hour bus ride, a wait of a few hours in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, a 7 hour ferry crossing and a further 13
Lok and the Captain
Lok hanging with the Captain in Dildo. hour bus ride to St John’s.
We jumped on a shuttle bus from Halifax and on the way we picked up two Newfoundlanders who were returning from working on the oil pipelines in British Columbia. This was our first experience of the Newfoundland accent, and we had to spend the first hour deciphering what it all meant. Think of a flat, lyrical deep Irish accent and you kind of get it. With a ferry running so late it was actually 7 hours early, and a broken down bus that saw everyone jump in cabs for part of the bus trip, it was surprising that we were only a couple of hours late for our arrival into St John’s.
After a shower and a big sleep at the Narrows B&B, we were ready for some exploring. St John’s is the oldest city in North America. With a hilly landscape leading into the small harbour and multi-coloured homes lining the streets, it is quite picturesque, even in March. We took in the great views from Signal Hill and saw the famous St John’s fog roll in. The city is also famous for George Street, a street that is full of
pubs, in fact we struggled to see any other type of business on the strip. For a city of around 100,000 people St John’s certainly punches above its weight in the drinking stakes. Apparently, in summer it is quite common to see icebergs floating past and the local micro-brewery Quidi Vidi, makes a beer from the iceberg water. Although our B&B host Ann was quite nonplussed about them all, as she sees them every year. It was one of those things we thought would’ve been amazing to see in the summer.
Newfoundland has a history seeped in fishing and we decided to try out some traditional cuisine from Velma’s restaurant. Catherine ,with no care for hardened arteries and high cholesterol, had fried Cod with scruncheons. Scruncheons are fried salted pork fat and taste delicious in all the wrong ways. Lok went the healthier option sans scruncheons.
Hiring a car for the day allowed us to check out the surrounding region. From Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America to the small fishing village of Petty Harbour, we then ventured to the old fishing villages of Conception and Trinity Bays. Someone should be rewarded for naming these small villages, Cupids, Brigus, Heart’s Content, Heart’s Desire, Heart’s Delight and our personal favourite, Dildo. Even though it was pouring down at the time, we had to get out and take the obligatory photos of the post-office, tourist signs and Captain Dildo. Travelling across the landscape gave us an appreciation of the total ruggedness of the place with trees growing sideways and a lot of rocks. It’s not surprising that fish was the mainstay for the economy and diet for so long. It probably still is judging by the prices in the supermarket.
Departing St John’s we took the easy way out, a three and a half hour flight to Toronto. It was a great deal easier, quicker and cheaper. A couple of days in Toronto and we were on our way back to Australia. That brings a close to our Canadian adventure.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.168s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0941s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lloyd
non-member comment
great Descriptions of your Canadian Adventure
Great Blog guys, I am a Canadian who has been fortunate to travel across this big country and see most of the places you visited, and from the Cold in Winterpeg (As we call affectionately call Winnipeg) to the great hospitality in Quebec City your writing caught the feel of each place. Come back anytime....well maybe choose Summertime when its +39 C on the prairie.