One good vacation.

I treated myself to a 'little' holiday before I started working. I spent about 3,5 weeks on the east side of Canada to meet up with some old friends. The trip has been a big roller coaster filled with a lot of laughter, love, good memories, old friends and new friends. 

I'll try to cut this story in bite-size pieces, but you might want to sit down and get comfortable, because this has been quite the journey.

Ottawa

First I flew to Ottawa, my beloved city in Canada where I worked and lived in 2007. I met up with some old friends and colleagues to have nice dinners, saw some of the children for the first time (some toddlers and babies) and just hung out and relaxed. I biked around quite a bit too, which Ottawa is perfect for with all the nice bike path. And I visited the family with whom I lived in 2007 and I was able to see their new house out in the country:

From the the centre of Ottawa, to the country side.

Huge living room!

This all sounds boring to you, but it certainly was not for me. Imagine not seeing your friends for 2 years, and than sharing a drink on a patio and chatting like you last seen each other yesterday. Or having a beach day with one of your best friends and his whole family, and feeling like you have been part of the family for ages. Feels like home, I can tell you.

Alex and Dani, and Alex's sisters, mom and dad. 

Toronto

I had plenty of time before my next flight out of Ottawa, so next thing you know I accepted a ride share to Toronto to visit one of my good friend James who moved from Ottawa to Toronto to have dinner with him. All very spontaneous but it worked out very well. His girlfriend Carmen is Chinese from India, and that large group of people have their own special Chinese-Indian food which is called Hakka. Really good! 

During the day I got to spend lots of good time with some old couchsurfing friends, Marin, Makeda and Zenith, who were back in town. We had a fun Spa day at home and we went to Wonderland (=lots of Roller coasters=lots of fun!)!

Best roller coaster ever!

Just before we were about to get wet. Soaking wet. 

Home made facials!

Some of the neighboring kids
visited our spa too and got a manicure. ;) 

Ann Arbor

Well, and then I was already half way to the US border, so I also decided to get myself on a bus to Ann Arbor, US, too (about another 4 hour further from Toronto, next to Detroit) and visit my good buddy Johannes (aka Island) whom I hadn't seen for over 7 years! Nothing had changed. :)

Ann Arbor is a really quaint town, with lots of Students. It kind of reminded me of Delft a little, same laid-back atmosphere. The campus of the University of Michigan is quite impressive:

 

And as Johannes works at Ford, I was sent to the Henry Ford museum. It was really interesting! And this is coming from a person who doesn't really care too much for museums in general. Henry Ford liked to collect buildings of importance, or just houses that looked nice, for example these ones: 

Brothers Wright cycle shop,
with some models of airplanes inside, of course.

Thomas Edisons work place,
so many inventions had been worked at here!
(Thomas and Henry happened to be good friends)

In the indoor part there where several old cars, some newer, some old trains and machines. Also some designer furniture and a few historical important artifacts like the chair in which Lincoln was killed.

Some things I really liked:

Super-exploded view of the Ford T-model

Rosa Parks, first black woman
who refused to stand up for a white dude,
supposedly in this very bus.

Henry Ford actually played a role
in Ray and Charles Eames decision
to make standard production models of their chairs. 

John F. Kennedy's presidential car, in which he was shot.

I had to take the bus all the way back to Ottawa and had one more really nice evening with Alejandro and his wife, and Alex and Dani before I flew on to PEI.

Prince Edward Island (PEI)

Confederation Bridge to PEI,
longest bridge in the world over ice-covered water.

Yes, a little province of Canada on the East coast was my next destination. I'd never been to the east coast and a good friend of mine, Patrick, was able to show me around and we spent a good week exploring and having fun together in PEI and in Nova Scotia. And oh my, what a blast it has been. From dining at the Halifax waterfront, to seeing moose during a sunset hike, from a square dance party which was as much exhausting as it was invigorating, to chilling on a beach with a bonfire.

I don't even know where to start telling the story about this great week...

Alright, let's start at the beginning. But be aware, this next part might be confusing, blurry, hilarious, exciting and probably making this post an even longer read. I won't be offended if you skip a bit of the reading part and just look at the pictures we took (but I do recommend reading it!). :)

First, a few days in PEI. A typical day in PEI means relaxing on the couch or the beach, playing a round of golf and eating seafood, preferably lobster. So, that's what I did my first day!

Chillin' at the beach

Playing Golf
(I won! Due to a lucky birdie... he he) 

Eating lobster. The best part was trying
 to get the meat out of the claws and legs.

Anne of Green Gables is a novel
that brings a lot of tourists to PEI.
(I couldn't really care for it,
I rather thought the hats made us look like Obelix...)

Then, we went on a trip around Nova Scotia, hitch hiking everywhere! Yes, of course I could have paid for a rental, but this was just so much more fun and cheaper. Leaving the laptops behind, not using the smartphone too much and relying on the good will of some strangers. That's life! You have to connect with people, that's the best part.We hitch hiked all the way from PEI (near the confederation bridge) to Halifax, then to Cape Breton and around the beautiful Cabot trail and back to PEI. In six days we traveled about 1300 km.

Would you not pick us up!?

We met the most amazing people along the way and shared so many laughs with them.

You can't really visit Nova Scotia and not go to Halifax. So we went to Halifax for a short stroll along the harbor, and had a nice dinner on the waterfront.

Halifax town clock

Nova Scotia = New Schotland.
But you already new that, right!?

We had many rides of which we don't even remember the faces of, let alone the names of the persons. But one of the first hilarious rides was from Darrel, a retired dairy farmer who picked us up in Truro and who was actually on his way to Cape Breton. Perfect for us! He also needed to do some groceries, which we hadn't even thought about at that moment but seemed a good idea for us too. Additionally, he also stopped at the visitor center for us so we could pick up some maps of Cape Breton.

Then Darrel told us we should join a square dance party on Monday evening in his town, Brookvillage, but as we planned to be back in PEI on Monday we said we'd probably not make it.

Then later, an average-aged guy picks us up in a rather nice car, with A/C which was much appreciated! Turns out, the guy is an on-duty, plain-clothed drugs-police officer in an unmarked car. He promised he wouldn't search us. ;)

He drove us all the way to Ingonish where we were hoping to get to that night but didn't really think we would make it that evening..! He said it was technically still his area and he had some time to kill anyway, but it was 1 hour out of his way, one way. Awesome! He showed us the super expensive golf course, where the Keltic lodge is, where the trail starts of a nice hike and dropped us right at the campground!

Next morning, we hiked in the hot weather and treated ourselves with a good lunch in the air conditioned Keltic Lodge before we put our thumbs up again.

Beautiful views from the hike on the peninsula. 

Oooh, and sooo many raspberries!

See the little ski-area on the left hill?
Unfortunately out of business, too few people.

Linda Lou saved us from the hot weather and picked us up next. She said: "Well, I'm not going far, just to the beach." We looked at each other, and as it was so hot outside, we agreed easily to take her up on the offer to join her on the beach. 

Our next goal was to get to the other side of Cape Breton, but it was already a bit late in the afternoon and still hot. But, some local kids whom I had trouble understanding due to their strong accents, a local woman who drove us way further then she had to go herself and a nice German/Quebecois guy, Dieter, helped us to get to the other side!

West coast of Cape Breton

Dieter was actually on his way to the Skyline trail, further then we hoped to get to that night. As the Skyline trail during sunset is supposed to be very nice, we decided to go do the trail as well and hoped for the best on getting a ride to the next campground after the hike. (Mind you, there were a few people doing the hike with a guide from Parks Canada and we had already spoken with them, so chances were big they would take us down the 10km.)

The hike was super nice! Beautiful views on the water and the coastal line and a nice sunset. "Watch out for the Moose", the guide had said, and excited to maybe see one, we started walking. We ended up seeing two! I was also spooked by a snake that slivered away inches of my foot, but that didn't ruin the fact that we were thrilled to see TWO MOOSE!

Cow (= a female Moose)

Search the moose....  :-D
Bull (= a male Moose)

After a night of thunderstorms on the campground, which, yes, we did get a ride to after the sunset hike, we hiked a small trail along a creek to a waterfall. 

trying to make the other one look like a fool...

Then, our final destination before returning home: Inverness. A friend of Patrick, Todd, lives there and we were able to stay with him and his mom. Actually, we stayed in the Dome in the yard, not in the house. The Dome has become my favourite place to sleep; it not only looks awesome, but you wake up with some squirrels hanging out around the bed!

The Dome

The Domes' interior

Hummingbirds!

Todd took us to the beach a few times. I guess that's just what you do in this town, not much more to do. Although we saw some kids driving up and down the (only) street for hours...? 

The beaches are very nice in Inverness, we had a great time playing some volleyball, making a fire while watching the sunset, diving into the water during sunset and playing in the waves. 

Todd and his mom also took us to Magic cove, a little hidden rock beach where some locals go. We took a blow-up kayak, a Frisbee and some snorkels. It was fun! A nearby waterfall made sure we were clean too :-D. 

Magic Cove

Playing some Frisbee

Me in the Kayak!

Then, and now pay attention, Todd told us we should stay until monday night, because there would be a great party. A square dance party. Not far from Inverness, in Brookvillage. 

Ring any bells? Same party Darrel told us about! So, we decided PEI could wait one more day and stay for the party. 

What happens a lot here, as we are in new-schotland, are little get togethers in a community center, church, bar or a pub where people start playing irish folk music, like a fiddling jamssesion. Just before the party we went to the Red Shoe pub, where a warm-up session for the party was just going on. As I play some violin myself and love this kind of music I was mesmerized by the group of people that was just fiddling and fiddling and stomping and just making a lot of music. 

Up we went to the community center and found a mass of people there! It seemed like the whole town AND the surrounding towns were there square dancing! We go in, watch all of them dance and there he is, smiling and dancing towards us, and just before he turns and follows his partner in the right direction, he shouts: "How you doing!?" There was Darrel again.

Darrel, Sweating, laughing and full of joy. 

Darrel showed me how to square dance, and afterwards we made sure some girls took the guys for a spin and show them how it is done. After that we were able to kind of join in ourselves. My oh my... what big fun that was!! I even got a compliment on my stepdance... not that I'm actually able to, I guess the old guy was just trying to hit on me :-p

Here is a little video! Battery died at some point, but you can see a little at least.

We would spent the night at a friends place nearby. He happened to have a fiddle. Inspired by the experience of the night, I tried to fiddle a little when we got home around 3 am. I don't suppose it was any good, but none of the guys seemed to care at that time of the hour and I loved it. 

Next day it was time to go home to PEI and for me to catch my flight home. A few more remarkable things that happened to us while hitch hiking home:

While we were on the road with our thumbs up again, a girl from the house nearby came outside and approached us. She had two cold juice boxes for us. She was about to leave and was sorry that her car was full and couldn't take us, but the least she thought she should do was giving us a cold drink!

A little further on the road we were dropped off in front of what was apparently a house full of coast guards. They thought Venny (Patrick's mascotte) was hilarious and wanted to take a picture. They also offered us to fill our bottles with cold water inside the house. I followed one of them inside and while I was filling up the bottles he offered me some crab meat. I had only ever tried the fake surimi sticks before, and Crab meat is reaaaaaally good! He gave me some for the road too. 

Later, we got picked up by a girl. Nothing special at first sight, but then Patrick and her figured they had already met once before! Just the year before the girl had picked up Patrick while he was hitch hiking in the same area. What are the odds!!

And not to forget Archie. Archie picked us up and while we were talking I thought I recognized him. It turned out he had been to the square dance the night before as well, and he knows Darrel very well too. How small the world can be.