Cape Breton and the Fiddler

We woke up today slightly nervous about the rain. As we ate breakfast, our lovely host, Jane, boiled us some eggs for the road. She seemed to live quite the adventurous life. Her and her husband work on cruise ships, and are very well traveled. It seems like quite the ideal job.

We made way to Port Hawkesbury and hoped that we'd have a place to stay when we got there. Steve (our host in Charlottetown) has grandparents that live here and so he tried contacting them for us so that we could stay with them. Unfortunately, they weren't able to host us and so we scrambled for a place to stay.

Initially, it didn't seem like we'd have a place because all the motels and B&Bs were either way too expensive our had no vacancy. I called back a B&B that John had tried earlier, but this time asked instead if we could give them money to camp outside and use their shower. The lady told us to come by and that she'd try and make something work. She offered us a room across the street from the actual B&B that they usually don't rent out. The owners apparently don't think it's up to standard. We found it perfectly charming - it had a kitchen, a washroom, everything we needed. We gave her $20 under the table so that she could pay the cleaning lady to clean it without the owners ever knowing it was occupied. She was super nice and sympathetic.

It was supposed to rain and thunder shower all day today but we only encountered about forty five minutes of light rain. We lucked out again.

After a quick shower at the B&B (I was covered in dirt from John's tire which splashed me quite a bit) I made my way down to a fiddle performance by a guy called Ashley MacIsaac. Every Sunday night in Port Hawkesbury, they have a free concert by the water. This guy was absolutely masterful I'm his workings. His speed blew me away. I'm very glad to have caught it.

It really feels East Coasty here on Cape Breton Island. We're right by the ocean and there are lots of fishing boats and beautiful cliffs. I'm sad it's all almost over.

Nova Scotia and Where's Matti?

We are so close now. I'm back in less than a week, and we only have five more days left of cycling. This is nuts!

We started the day by cycling 60 km to the ferry port at Woods Island PEI. We rode the ferry for about an hour and a half to Pictou (pronounced pict-oh), Nova Scotia and from there cycled to a place called Trenton which is a small town that's home to Canada's first steel mill. ISN'T THAT FASCINATING?!?!!!!!111

The lady whom we're staying with tonight had a late night last night so because we got here rather late, went to bed soon after we arrived. She showed us to a cool little cabin in the woods with no electricity and... uh... what appears to be blood on sections of the wooden walls? Is it blood? It has to be blood. Oh, em, gee...

Before we got here we had dinner at a restaurant called the Dine and Dash which was incidentally the most tempted I've ever been to dine and dash at a restaurant. To dine and dash at the Dine and Dash seems like it would be a pretty sweet accomplishment. Unfortunately, the waitress was too nice to warrant that, and you know...the whole ethics thing. I am ethical at times. Shh!

It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow, but I'll bet it doesn't.

Where's Matti?!

Bitter Sweet Golfing

So I got up really early this morning to make my 11:10 am tee time at Crowbush Golf Course on the north eastern coast of PEI. It's apparently the best course to golf here in PEI and has hosted several golf championships. It's understandable - it is a really beautiful course, it's just darn expensive.

I had to cycle 40 km to get there which means I had to leave around 8:30 am so that there was some buffer time just in case winds were bad or the terrain was hilly. I was paired with these two outstanding players. One was an elderly gent who was a course member, and the other was his friend from the states. I think they resented the fact that I used a pull cart instead of a golf cart (which would have been an extra $40 on top of the $185 I spent on the green fee and club rentals). As a result, the round went rather slow. Towards the end  of the round, they had me hop on the back of the car while they pulled the pull cart along side. Weee!

The course itself is stunning - it's right on the water with amazing views of the sea. When I was done the day, Gavin (the elderly gent who was a member) tried to get them to refund some of my money. He's a well known and well liked member, and so I cautiously hoped that his authority would hold some sway. Sadly, they didn't give me any money back, but instead offered me a free Crowbush hat when Gavin told them that I'd cycled all the way from Vancouver just to play golf at Crowbush. I appreciated him stretching the truth, but alas I don't ever wear baseball caps. I may give it to my dad if he stops beating me someday. Unbelievable right? Even at 25, my dad still beats me. Dad, if you're reading, stop beating me and you get a cool baseball cap from Crowbush.

I cycled back to Charlottetown and met John and Steve at a restaurant downtown. I ordered a beer while they had dinner. We each ordered PEI oysters which had surprisingly little taste. They just look so freaking unappetizing. Seriously, who in their right mind thought, hmm, yes... this looks absolutely edible and delicious. Let's slurp it down our throats... ? I'll never have an oyster ever again simply because they look atrocious. It's kind of like Celine Dion - I simply can't stand her because of the way she looks when she sings. She's a great singer, sure, but her singing face is just awful.

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In other news: John updated the blog! I'm excited to read his post.

(diclosure: my father only beats me at golf)

Better late than never!

    Yep, that's right I am finally doing a blog post! Today myself and Matti split up and explored Charlottetown in our own ways. He got up early and went to play golf and the rest of his day is a mystery to me, so I guess you have to read his blog post to find out what he did. 
     I began my day by visiting st.Dunstan's Basilica. It is arguably the most beautiful church in Charlottetown, and the most famous. After st.Dunstan's Basilica I walked around Charlottetown and explored the many cool little shops they have. If you have not been to Charlottetown you would not know how nuts they are about Anne of Green Gables, she is everywhere. They have an Anne of Green Gables store , as well as an Anne of Green Gables chocolate shop and I visited both. At one of the shops I visited I bought lobster flavoured potato chips, but when we ate them they didn't really have any kind of a lobstery taste to them but they were alright.
       Charlottetown is apparently considered the birthplace of confederation( At least they consider it the birthplace) so I decided to go to Founder's hall to get a history lesson on events that lead up to it and what happened after confederation, it was rather informative and probably far more interesting than a round of golf.
       The next " touristy" thing I did, was go on a boat tour of the island. It was great and really showcased the beauty of Charlottetown and P.E.I. I really love all the red. The dirt and the sand is red in P.E.I and is one of the reasons why P.E.I is so great.

       There were a bunch of random facts I learnt today that blew my mind. P.E.I up until about 5 years did not have any cans, they would only have bottles for all their drinks, so P.E.I had drinks that were not normally bottled, in bottles. P.E.I had to make a special request to exporters of those drinks. Raspberry cordial is a famous soda in P.E.I and I learnt that it was mentioned in the Anne of Green Gables book but didn't actually exist when the book was written, it was made by someone after they read the book. There are a lot of Japanese tourists here and the reason why there are so many looking for Anne of Green Gables as if the book was non fictional  is because in Japan they use the book to help students in school learn English. P.E.I is nicknamed Spud island for obvious reasons. Alright , maybe those random facts weren't mind blasting but they were cool...... Well I thought they were cool.  If you disagree go read Matti's blog, he writes far lamer stuff than I do.

      Charlottetown has been arguably my favourite city so far, if not, it is definitely top 5. Stay tuned I will make one more final Blog post before I return home!!!!!

Cows Creamery Tour

We took a tour of Cows Creamery today in PEI which according to Reader's Digest has Canada's best ice cream (they weren't shy about emphasizing this point). They have locations all over the country including Niagra on the Lake, Banff, and Halifax, but are based here in PEI. The tour itself was mediocre because they weren't actually making ice cream at the time. They showed us factory videos instead. Each moovie was full of really awful puns. I'm not milking this, they were udderly terrible. That being said, the ice cream truly is remarkably rich and delicious.

John and I then split up and explored Charlottetown individually. I met a couple cyclists who were also doing the cross Canada thing. They told me that they started May 17th - a whole month before us! They've been taking their time and really exploring each place they go. It makes me wish we had more time and money to spare so that we could do the same. When I cycle the United Kingdom next summer, I'll be sure to take my sweet time.

Tonight we're staying with a gent named Steve. We really didn't think we'd have a place to stay tonight until late in the morning when Steve responded affirmatively. There were many Couch Surfing hosts in PEI but I guess they were all booked up because nobody responded to our plea. PEI is absolutely full of tourists this time of year, so they were probably all hosting surfers already. We're so lucky that Steve responded - he actually had plans to go to Halifax this weekend but they fell through. Unlucky Steve; lucky us. 

Tomorrow I'm golfing at this place called Crowbush which is one of the top courses in Canada. I'm extremely excited, but also sad that I have to cycle 40 km just to get there. Since I'm a single, I'll probably be paired with a group of really good players who planned their entire vacation around this golfing destination. My suckiness will probably ruin their vacation, but I really can't care - look at the beauty:

I wanted to go kayaking today but nobody in Charlottetown rents kayaks. Weird. Maybe tomorrow I'll find a place near the golf course where I can splurge even more money to go kayaking before I cycle back to Charlottetown. 

Prince Edward Island

Yay! We're finally out of that cursed province!

We cycled about 95 km from Moncton to the Confederation Bridge, and because bicycles are banned from the bridge, we had to shuttle over on a bus. We then made our way to Summerside, a town that comes highly recommended to us.

We immediately felt a different vibe in PEI. It just seems like a very independent, easy going place. I like it here.

We went to a nice restaurant for dinner that sat right by the ocean in Summerside. I had a local beer called Island Red Ale but it was only good, not great. It almost tasted too watery or something.

We had local PEI mussles as our appetizer. While they look absolutely disgusting, they're actually pretty freaking good when dipped in butter. It was a first for me and I was pleasantly surprised.

We are now at another bed and breakfast that was pretty hard to find. Google maps really screwed up this time. The owners were skeptical when we told them we were cycling across the country.

Tomorrow I hope to kayak, and the next day I really hope to be able to play a round of golf. We'll see...

Monkeys in Moncton and a Crash and Dehydration and...

Actually no, sorry. No monkeys in Moncton. I just used that headline to grab your attention and it worked. I rock!

Today we cycled around 175 kilometers from Fredericton to Moncton, New Bruinswick. Despite the incessant hills, we cycled pretty fast. At one point, I crashed and landed on my elbow and knee. We were just starting back up from a quick pee break, and I was looking down to check if my zippers were done up properly, and John (who was just in front) hit his breaks. I crashed into the back of his bike and fell pretty hard. My bike made some sad bike sounds for a little while after that, but they eventually went away. Hopefully it doesn`t implode on me in the next coming days. That would be... quantum-physicsy...? I dunno.

On we cycled from there. About 100 km in to the day, we finished off our water. There was nowhere to stop to refill. Just our luck - the one day we really need water there`s nothing. There were no streams, no lakes, no gas stations. We didn`t find water until we were about 25 km from Moncton in a place called Salisbury. When we finally downed some water it was like drinking liquid gold, except not as scaldingly hot and heavy. I had the biggest, most delicious slushy of my life. I then stumbled over to the Subway where I tried a lobster sub. It was yummy. They`re made from 100% real lobster meat (they`d better be, the darn things are expensive!).

Finally we made to Moncton and had some dinner. At a nearby pub I tried my first beer from New Bruinswick which was both extremely bitter (it was an Indian Pale Ale [IPA]) called Picaroons Yippy IPA. GET IT!? I actually love the name. I learned that IPAs are really bitter because when the British were first importing them from India, they hopped it quite strongly. The added hops acted as a preservative so that they could still have good drinkin` back home. Kinda cool. Good beer. Number 5 or so on my list of best Canadian Beers. I bought a six pack for our hosts tonight that was also from a local microbrewery. It is called Pump House Special Old Bitter and is also up there. Mircrobreweries always produce excellent beer.

Tomorrow we`re in freaking PEI. Oh god am I hyped! Golf? Yes please. Better book tomorrow morning!

Kiss me Tamara, I miss you.