My Great East Coast Adventure
My childhood friend, Lori, and I decided to spend the vacation after exams away from home. We thought it might be nice to start our travelling adventures before university was over. It didn't take long to decide on a trip to the East Coast of our country (Canada), and we found ourselves spending months carefully planning out the trip right down to the day we left. This page should give you a good idea of what we did on our trip, and perhaps some appreciation for what this country has to offer.
First Stop: The Nations Capital
On the morning of August 20th, the adventure began. Lori and I took a train to Toronto, where we switched to an Ottawa bound train. Six hours later, we were there in the Nation's Capital. The afternoon was beautiful! After we checked into the Ottawa International Youth Hostel, we decided to take a walk around the city. Lori and I passed by the Parliament Buildings, Chateau Laurier, the Rideau Canal, and most important, the Rideau Centre, where later in our stay, we'd spend a lot of money!
The next day we started out at Laurier House, the home of two of Canada's prime ministers, Sir Wildfrid Laurier and William Lyon MacKenzie King. When we were finished our tour, we walked outside to discover it had started to rain. Luckily, we were on our way to Hull, Quebec to the National Museum of Civilization, so were able to stay somewhat dry. At the end of Thursday, we spent more money at the Rideau Centre.
On our last day, we walked to the Parliament Buildings to discover that the changing of the guard was cancelled. Oh well. We decided to take a bus tour of the city. Rideau Hall was great because we got to see a changing of the guard there! The bus took us all over, and finished with a boat tour along the Rideau Canal. After that, it was off to the train station to our next stop.
Next Stop: Montreal, Quebec
We arrived fairly late in Montreal. We went right to the Hostel for a nice shower. It wasn't the greatest place, and we didn't appreciate the flute "song" at 2:00 a.m., but we were touring the City of Montreal the next day, before we knew it.
We took the Metro to a little cafe near rue Crescent. It was great. There was a statue across the street from the Cafe and there were pigeons all over it. Some people were even feeding them. Afterward, we walked up rue Sherbrooke and looked at all the expensive hotels and the fancy shops. They were all so beautiful! Shortly thereafter, we headed to rue Crescent for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.
After the Hard Rock, we stopped in at Eaton's for their one day sale. There were these great big revolving doors for entering. Lori and I pushed really hard on the door and discovered it would take both of us to open it. but what was that screaching noise? Turns out, we entered by turning the door the wrong way! Ah, stupid Ontarians!
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping at the 4 story mall on rue St. Catherines. We didn't buy much for ourselves, but rather for other people. We took a Metro ride, checked out the campus at McGill University, and then ate dinner at the Train Station. Strangely enough, Lori met a friend of hers from Wilfrid Laurier University at the train station, so we ate together. Then we were off on the wild adventure on the Ocean; the overnight train to Moncton.
Quick Stop: Moncton, New Brunswick
The overnight ride was quite interesting. It took a long time to fall asleep, but we were so excited since we'd just seen the Appalacian mountains! Finally we fell asleep, but we would wake up from time to time to see the lights going by through the windows. Lori and I woke up close to seven the next morning and watched as we passed by bodies of water and other things like trees and cows, until we reached our stop over in Moncton. We bought bus tickets to Charlottetown, and were on our way once again!
Laundry Stop: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
We were only supposed to stay in PEI for one day, but since I fell madly in love with the Island in the first half-hour we were there. We decided to stay two days and head to Cavendish to visit the Anne of Green Gables home. The first night we were there, we did our laundry and checked out the beautiful wharf down near the water. We discovered Cows, the little store full of ice cream and, well, cows! There are postcards with cows on them, t-shirts, nightshirts, boxers, anything you could imagine! We spent a lot of time here, eating ice cream and looking at the clothes to buy. (We each eventually did buy a sweater.)
We left for Cavendish super early in the morning. We saw the Anne of Green Gables house first, which was lovely, then we walked to the beach. Ah! What a beautiful sight. Red soil, white beach sand, rocks, the works. I never wanted to leave. We took a lot of video tape when we were cooling our feet in the water!
That afternoon, we spent a great deal of money in the mall in Charlottetown. Then we were even more silly and spent more money at the wharf again! That night we went to bed early so we could catch the 7:45 bus to get to Moncton and then off to Halifax!
Final Stops: Hubbards and Halifax, Nova Scotia
Finally, we reached our fabulous destination! It was so beautiful there, we couldn't believe it! Hubbards is hidden from Halifax by the trees and it is hidden from the fast-paced days. It reminded me of Northern Ontario. Sometimes it was really hard to believe my family was so far away.
Hubbards is known for being the set of CBC's Black Harbour. We happened to stay at the Wyndecrest Bed and Breakfast, the house where the outside shots of the show are taped. Some of the inside pieces of the house are used in the show as well. It was absolutely a blast!
The beach was a hot spot for me. I spent two days there, the first one gave me a sunburn, but it was worth it! Lori and I befriended Terry Harnish, the owner of the Wyndecrest, and she took us on various adventures everyday. Could we be so lucky? Our trip took us to places like Peggy's Cove, Chester, and also the the Set of Black Harbour. We met Rebecca Jenkins, the show's star! As the end of our stay in Hubbards came to an end, Lori and I could be found scouting out the new "Restaurant Set" across the cove. We were within 20 feet of Geraint Wyn Davies, another star, and director of some of the new seasons' episodes! Lori was just amazed! And then we were off to our final spot, Halifax.
Our few days in Halifax did us a lot of good. We went sailing, and of course, spent an equal amount of the daylight hours at the Nova Scotia Cows. On our last day, we spent some time wasting $10 at the Casino. That was great. Lori was lucky enough, she only lost 25 cents. The Citidel was an experience. We went there twice to check it out. It has a great view of the entire city and surrounding area (including Dartmouth). So we left on Labour Day, and flew back home. I had to work the next day, so I rested, but now that we have the pictures back we can relive every moment whenever we want!