PEI and Nova Scotia the east coast at last!!!!!!!!!

So my friend Chris is bouncing for joy because I reported to him that my favourite place in Canada was PEI (can you guess where he's from?). Newfoundland and PEI were both amazing places and I would go back in a heart beat to either. I am now home and just trying to finish up these last few posts while getting back into work and extracurriculars. I feel like my Journey really isn't complete without finishing these blog posts for my sake and for anyone who is actually interested in what happened next on my solo journey.

I continued my tradition of making great food, mostly cause I was on a budget but also because I just love cooking. It was fantastic to get to the East coast because I could finally have fresh Salmon again!! Atlantic Salmon was delicious and super satisfying, it was almost like coming home. PEI was easy to love since it was much like my Island back home. Big enough to have a diverse landscape but small enough that I could get around fairly easily. I explored most of the midsection of the island during my 5 day period there. If you ever get the chance to go to this beautiful place please stay longer than I did. If I hadn't already bought my ferry tickets to NFLD then I would have stayed much longer. Thankfully PEI and Nova Scotia were not nearly as bug infested as Ontario and the prairies were and I could survive without my trusty citronella candle.... it made it the long journey across the continent but that is where it met it's demise.

So I lucked out with my timing for PEI and I got to attend the Cavendish Beach Music festival. Every year they hold a country music festival in PEI where huge names like Kenny Chesney, Dixie Chicks, Dirks Bentley, and Emerson Drive come to play. I bought a one day pass and got to see the fantastic musicians flex their creative muscles for the audience. I haven't been to too many concerts but I was surprised to find that the headliners weren't very good. It's like they have lost their drive. They no long need to prove their worth so their performance is lacklustre. My favourite performers were the Abram Brothers from Ontario and Deric Ruttan. These two groups actually engaged the audience and entertained us with their talent and charisma rather than relying on their reputation. The whole reason I bought the tickets was to see the Dixie Chicks but they were only marginally better than Jason Blaine who was just boring and repiticious.  Here are photos for your viewing pleasure of the various artists that I got to see.....

The Abram Brothers

Emerson Drive

How intense is that security guard!?

Deric Ruttan

Emerson Drive

Deric Ruttan

So I loaded these photos right side up but my blogger program doesn't like me much.... :(

Jason Blaine

Jason Blaine

Deric Ruttan

Emerson Drive

The Dixie Chicks

So I continued using my awesome Tim's card my friends gave me. I am happy to say those cards were just wonderful to have. It is funny when you are travelling on a budget how much big companies can be helpful. There are cheap supplies, wifi, and so much more. I am very much a shop local girl and visiting the local places while travelling is a wonderful thing, but I was happy to get to a Walmart every so often to get some essentials and wifi access.


So when I was on PEI I when to beaches everyday. You would think that the water in the Atlantic Ocean would be cold however it wasn't as bad as here in B.C. I swam everyday I was there! I also found some of the plant life a little different too. Below is the biggest Dandelion I had ever seen (though I seriously doubt it was a Dandelion). What would you wish for if you had that size of a Dandelion?

After a fantastic day at the beach I made this phenomenal meal and ate it as the sun went down. I felt very at peace, more than I had in quite sometime. PEI has a lot to offer beyond beaches though. They have an intensely amazing historical artistic shows that occur in the town.

There are characters that you can talk to and learn from; there were dance shows that told the stories of all the different races that have come to call Canada home and they had reenactments of historical moments. I was blown away by what the town had to offer. In addition to all of that it was just the most picturesque place that had a very east coast feel to it.

Here are a few pictures of the dance show that was put on.


The Chinese.

Ukrainian ----->

Gypsies---->

<-----East Indian

Dutch--->

The Cast

I also got to go to Dalvay by the Sea. My friend that I wrote about before suggested I go there. Prince William and Princess Kate went there so obviously I had to go there. It was beautiful but not because they went there but because of history that seems to ooze from it's foundation. Walking in is almost like walking back in time and the area around it is as if it was transported from the Annie of Green Gables books.

There was just one thing missing from all of this gorgeous countryside and ocean paradise: the East Coast accent!! My friend who gave me all the inside tips had a pretty strong accent but low and behold I found only one person on the entire island that remotely sounded like him. Either he puts it on or there is a loss in our unique speech. I think even Americans would have been disappointed in the lack of aboats instead of abouts.

I could have walked for miles on these beaches but time was looming in fast and I had only one day left.

Before I left though I knew I had to go to the most Canadian place ever!!!! Green Gables!! Though this isn't the one in the movie or anything it's the one that inspired L.M.M. to write her novels. It was a pretty peaceful place and most of the acreage was made into a golf course to at least preserve the land as green space. The Lovers Lane and Haunted Hollow were still there though along with the path to her old school house. Across the road from Green Gables lies the foundation of L.M.M.'s childhood home. From here she wrote her famous Green Gables novels along with a few others.

The fields where the family would have farmed

Anne's room

The foundation of Lucy's home.

After a Lovely time in PEI it was time to motor father East (and frankly South too) to Nova Scotia!

After such a wonderful time in PEI I really had to get moving. I ended up doing the bottom half of Nova Scotia before I left for Newfoundland. I did a loop of the bottom half of Nova Scotia cutting up though Kejimkujik National Park. On my way though I stopped in Halifax where one of the grave sites for victims of the Titanic. It was more than eerie and sad. Halifax itself was very nice. I was there on a Sunday so many things were closed but there were many little shops along the water that were open, it was a very nice city with lots to offer historically and culturally! 

MOST IMPORTANTLY was that I met Theodore the Tugboat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

In all honesty this blog is very out of order but it is all there. I tried to cover as much of the lower part of Nova Scotia as I could in one week and in true Jess form I tried to focus on staying in Parks. One of the parks that I went to was Blomidon Provincial Park, it was on the Northern part of the South island, only forty five minutes off the 101. It was nice, the campsites were private and the people unbelievably friendly. Surrounding the park is this gorgeous bright orange oceanside. The tide rushes in at an unbelievable speed that can catch a person by surprise and sometimes it doesn't work out for them.     

I was on the beach for maybe thirty minutes in which the tide came in almost ten feet! It seemed like the earth was being painted.

The other park I went to was Kejimkujik National park and National Historic Site. It was an amazing place full of beautiful rivers, hikes, forests and lakes.

The lakes and rivers are a reddy brown colour because of the tannins that are in the bogs around the area. Though it seems strangely dirty to jump into the lake that is such a dark colour but it was amazingly warm and a great summer swim! I unfortunately didn't camp here but I should have. If you go to Nova Scotia then I highly recommend it. You could spend days here exploring this park.

After a lovely day at Kejimkujik Park I made camp at Thomas H. Raddall Provincial park. This was a beautiful spot because of the beach. It reminded me of home. Though it was not nearly as awe inspiring it made me feel at home. The bugs were particularly bad there and the campsites weren't very private so I wouldn't recommend it as strongly as the other. I didn't go all the way down to the south end of the island. I headed back at this point headed for the north side.

Heading on the coast I headed for the town that is home to the boat that made it on our dime! In Lunenburg a fast schooner called the Blue Nose became very famous across Canada for being unbeatable. When I went there the famous replica of the famous ship was in dry dock. 

The town itself was the stereotyped classic east coast look. The colours were amazing, and it was oozing character. Victoria would only hope to have that much charisma.

 TADA!!!!!

A BOAT!

So many of you know but not all: I grew up on a boat. So I was pretty jazzed to come to the coast and see all these amazing vessels.

The bell from the original ship that sunk

 

So on my way to Newfoundland I picked up a friend from the west coast who is now living in New Brunswick. You may remember from the New Brunswick blog!!

She and I stayed at a little campground just outside of Peggy's Harbour. It wasn't fancy, it didn't have good bathroom facilities, no privacy, and more than it's share of bugs. All of that said it was on the water by an old lighthouse and the host were super sweet.

<----- Here's my friend Patricia :)

The very famous lighthouse

The famous Jess' friend Patricia

The very famous Jess 

Artsy Photo!!!!

The photo of this quaint little town got me so excited about heading to Newfoundland!

We did a photo shoot at the light house. It was amazing, I was a genius photographer, but I decided not to torture you with them all....... You're welcome.

After our epic photo shoot we race (and I do mean raced!) to the ferry (you are supposed to arrive two hours in advance. We made it to the terminal but.... they lost us!!!! They had no idea which lane they put us in and we almost missed the boat. They called us on the megaphone and then came searching for us. Now let me be clear the terminal is about less than half the size of Swartz Bay terminal. It was strange but thankfully didn't end badly.

P.S. I skipped the Cabot trail until after my trip to Newfoundland so that'll be told in the next blog.

After quite the drama at the ferry terminal we finally we boarded the ferry to Newfoundland, but that is another story for another blog.