D'you have a flag?
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2007
1
10
Trip End
Sep 11, 2008
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Over another leisurely breakfast sitting in the sundappled kitchen with Libby the spatula wielding Australian, Alexis - a photographer from the prairies and Tyrone, a surf dude type - I reflected again. Here I was - eating croissants with three people I barely knew (what I've written above is ALL I knew about them) and having the time of my life. I could do what I wanted (as long as they accepted Visa) and could, actually - if I felt like it - with 10 minutes notice to pack my bag - go and be a fisherman in the Yukon, a polar bear tour guide in Churchill, or a bus driver in Winnipeg. It's quite a liberating feeling. I recommend it.
Instead of all that, Alexis and I decided to visit Sandland - a hugely appealing idea on the waterfront - a summer long exhibition of sand sculpture. Which is obviously pretty cool frankly. Tyrone tried to convince us that there's no way that sand castles could last for an entire summer without something being added to the sand but a thorough perusal of the leaflet proved him wrong - a thin coat of varnish is added over the finished sculpture that protects it from the wind but that's it.
I wanted to have a look in Confederation Hall too - a museum dedicated to the founding fathers - the first meeting of representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and PEI in 1864, where they discussed a union of the British Colonies of North America.
As we wandered round the museum, Alexis and I bonded over a discussion comparing the British and Canadian education system. This conversation tends to be one I have fairly often here - perhaps it's the standard Canadian pub conversation, as opposed to the standard British pub conversation of adverts and children's tv programmes of the 80s. Alexis is from Saskatchewan (which I can now say AND spell. Check me out), a flat and agricultural landscape so completely alien to me. I can't really get my head round being that far from anywhere - let alone that far from the sea. How do you go on childhood holidays to the seaside?
Speaking of buckets and spades, we were missing the LIVE demonstration of scand sculpture so we ran through the rest of the museum - pausing to take a picture of a flag waving beaver sitting atop a cake (?) and dashed next door to the exhibition. The large (ish - out of season remember?) crowd revealed an art student type playing with sand and a craft knife. I wasn't that impressed at the beginning but as a lighthouse, complete with steps cut into the 'rock' began to take shape I changed my mind. Imagine if your job was making sandcastles? How cool would that be?!
Sandland was great - loads of huge models carved out of the sand of typically Canadian scenes. Although some of them could quite easily have passed as Somerset scenes. The tractor in particular. Cracking Sleeping Beauty type castle too - the type you have in your head as you play on the beach but can't quite bring to life. Unfortunately the impressiveness of the sturdiness wore off slightly as we overheard one of the artists telling someone they mix clay with the sand to make carving it easier. Gah. Tyrone didn't need to be told though we thought quietly....
After a marvellous lunch at some coffee shop called Tim Hortons (funny name - can't imagine I'll see many more of them this year), I jumped on the obligatory Routemaster bus tour. Yes yes - we all own one of these in England, much like we all live in castles and have lunch with the Queen every Sunday. I knew I was going to like the tour as the guide pointed out the new multi storey car-park within 500 yards of starting out. Not much in Charlottetown obviously... On the way round we saw the Governor of PEI's house - looked like the house on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Fair play to her... We also saw one of the four buses on Prince Edward Island. No really. There's four. They look like trams too which makes for an interesting commute I reckon.
After the tour I went and had a rece at the shops but got distracted on the way to the mall by an Abercrombie & Fitch type place called Roots which was playing Take That. (?) Didn't even know they were famous in Canada so I wandered in and found my new favourite shop. Lots of comfy jumpers with beavers on - haha stereotyping much? Obviously had to buy a t-shirt - looks like Lacoste from afar until you realise the crocodile is actually a beaver. Brilliant...
Back at the hostel I found the gang poring over maps and deciding to go to Newfoundland the next day, and wished I hadn't been so hasty in booking the shuttle to Halifax. Hmm - never mind - I'll get there eventually. Apparently they have icebergs floating in the harbour there in winter. How cool is that?
Following a recommendation from the owners of the hostel, a multicultural dinner ensued - enchiladas in a Mexican restaurant, with Jorga from Germany, Alexis the afore mentioned Canadian and Junko from Japan, where deep and meaningful discussions about the boyband Blue, Johnny Depp, David Hasselhoff and Adam Levine took place amongst much hilarity. Jorga was particulary impressed on hearing about the Hoff calendar...
The foreign theme continued with a French film before bed - 12 of us sat around making up our own script as it went along. Ahh - jolly times abound in Charlottetown. The hostel was amazing, the Island was beautiful and I met some great people. A shame to leave but Halifax beckoned the next day.
Comments
Hello from snowy England!!
Yeay for blog! ;o)
Sandland sounds fab. You'll be glad to know that your Hoff calender is safe in case you wanted any of the pics framing!!
Best get back to my castle, Liz is coming round soon!
Miss you
S x