Canada Trip Part 2: Atlantic Canada
Jun. 8th, 2004 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulroNova Scotia is a completely wonderful place. We spent two days wandering around Halifax before we picked up the car, and didn't manage to do half the things that there are to do. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is an overall good museum, the highlight being the actual deck chairs from the Titanic they have on display (the rescue operations were carried out from Halifax, and the bodies recovered have their own graveyard here).
Weirdly enough, the comic store near Dalhousie University had of Anthony Johnston's graphic novels. Unfortunately, out-of-town shopping centres have nearly killed off mainstream shopping in downtown Halifax, though there's one nearly-live shopping area near the university. Being a university town, Halifax is full of independent book shops, which is good.
Peggy's Cove ("The most photographed place in the Maritimes") is a little disappointing, but Lunenberg (a UNESCO world heritage site) isn't. It was in Lunenberg that we first noticed the extreme plethora of churches which seem to be a feature of Nova Scotia. They all look the same no matter what the denomination.
The Annapolis Valley is beautiful and the site of many important historic locations (including the first year-round settlement in North America and the place that changed hands between the English and French the most), and home of the university in the tiniest town imaginable (Acadia university in Wolfville). We didn't spend as much time on Cape Breton Island as I would have liked, merely taking a day to go round the Cabot Trail, including the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, which was very impressive indeed. I was nearly defeated by the bear-proof garbage cans.
Throughout the province, the people are incredibly friendly and the food is unbelievably good. Even in the sticks, their supermarket chain, Sobey's, has better selection than the Tesco I shop at weekly.
Prince Edward Island (PEI): was a disappointment. The first afternoon was great. The countryside is really cute, and Charlottetown has some good stuff: one of the best second-hand bookstores I've ever seen, some good new book shops, a great independent coffee house called Beanz, Cow's Ice Cream (best ice cream I've had in a long time along with silly t-shirts), an excellent hand made soap place (Moonsnail Soap Works, and they do mail order!), as well as lots of lovely old buildings.
Sadly, that's it. Outside Charlottetown, nothing was open, as nothing opens till mid-June. And the weather was bad. We tried driving around the island, but it all looks the same!
New Brunswick: Just say no. Although there's a lot of poverty in NS and PEI, you'd never know it to look at the place. NB, on the other hand, is the epitome of North American poverty - starting with the Obligatory Welfare Junk on the Lawn (with rusted out boats as well as cars) and including aggressive beggars nd homeless young people everywhere on the streets of Moncton (interestingly all English-speaking - Moncton has a large French population). I've since been assured that it's not just the bit of NB that we saw, it's the whole place.
In summary, spend as much time as possible in Nova Scotia, 1/2 a day in PEI and skip New Brunswick. We could have put an extra day into Cape Breton if we'd known the latter two. The only thing that stops most Canadians from moving to NS is the lack of jobs. There's limited employment in most of the province and absolutely none on Cape Breton, whose biggest export is its young people, which is sad as it's such a lovely place.
Weirdly enough, the comic store near Dalhousie University had of Anthony Johnston's graphic novels. Unfortunately, out-of-town shopping centres have nearly killed off mainstream shopping in downtown Halifax, though there's one nearly-live shopping area near the university. Being a university town, Halifax is full of independent book shops, which is good.
Peggy's Cove ("The most photographed place in the Maritimes") is a little disappointing, but Lunenberg (a UNESCO world heritage site) isn't. It was in Lunenberg that we first noticed the extreme plethora of churches which seem to be a feature of Nova Scotia. They all look the same no matter what the denomination.
The Annapolis Valley is beautiful and the site of many important historic locations (including the first year-round settlement in North America and the place that changed hands between the English and French the most), and home of the university in the tiniest town imaginable (Acadia university in Wolfville). We didn't spend as much time on Cape Breton Island as I would have liked, merely taking a day to go round the Cabot Trail, including the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, which was very impressive indeed. I was nearly defeated by the bear-proof garbage cans.
Throughout the province, the people are incredibly friendly and the food is unbelievably good. Even in the sticks, their supermarket chain, Sobey's, has better selection than the Tesco I shop at weekly.
Prince Edward Island (PEI): was a disappointment. The first afternoon was great. The countryside is really cute, and Charlottetown has some good stuff: one of the best second-hand bookstores I've ever seen, some good new book shops, a great independent coffee house called Beanz, Cow's Ice Cream (best ice cream I've had in a long time along with silly t-shirts), an excellent hand made soap place (Moonsnail Soap Works, and they do mail order!), as well as lots of lovely old buildings.
Sadly, that's it. Outside Charlottetown, nothing was open, as nothing opens till mid-June. And the weather was bad. We tried driving around the island, but it all looks the same!
New Brunswick: Just say no. Although there's a lot of poverty in NS and PEI, you'd never know it to look at the place. NB, on the other hand, is the epitome of North American poverty - starting with the Obligatory Welfare Junk on the Lawn (with rusted out boats as well as cars) and including aggressive beggars nd homeless young people everywhere on the streets of Moncton (interestingly all English-speaking - Moncton has a large French population). I've since been assured that it's not just the bit of NB that we saw, it's the whole place.
In summary, spend as much time as possible in Nova Scotia, 1/2 a day in PEI and skip New Brunswick. We could have put an extra day into Cape Breton if we'd known the latter two. The only thing that stops most Canadians from moving to NS is the lack of jobs. There's limited employment in most of the province and absolutely none on Cape Breton, whose biggest export is its young people, which is sad as it's such a lovely place.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 07:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 07:43 am (UTC)Which one? Did you buy it? I've read most of them and they're all very good so far.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 07:48 am (UTC)