200920040255 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canad

Well I'm back in Halifax after what now seems like a very long few days. I couldn't believe today was the last day of the tour, but at the same time there has been way too many getting up early days this week!

The third day of the tour we stayed on Cape Breton Island, went for a short hike and then out whale watching! I wasn't really sure I could afford it but we were going out in a Zodiac (inflatable motor boat) so I couldn't pass it up. In the end it was completely worth it, just the wild ride through the choppy water was enough! We got to see pods of pilot whales feeding on mackerel which was amazing. The best thing was was that they were at some points probably only two metres away from us. After taking multiple photos of us in the orange jumpsuits we went off to "Mike's Place" for lunch, where I had bizarre "clams" and got eaten by a million bugs. After that we went to Black Brook, a beautiful if slightly contrived rock and sand beach. We continued around the beautiful coastline to Baddeck, a pretty if small town where Alexander Graham Bell had a holiday home. After that was a few hours drive back to Pictou with a couple of essential coffee stops. I had a few issues trying to get hold of Devin and her friends, but ended up staying at Lisa and Sam's place which is conveniently right across the road from the hostel, and shares a property border with the tavern! We went out for dinner at the pub and then some pool at the tavern. I lost game seven to Ray by one ball and will have to make up for that some other time. With the confusion of having to wake up to be ready at the hostel by 7.15am, I left my bracelet at Lisa's, which goes along with the ring I lost at the beach swimming. If only they weren't from Ezan and Catrina, it wouldn't be so gutting. Hopefully someone will find my bracelet too and I'll get it back.

Day four we set sail early (8am ferry) for Prince Edward Island (PEI). The first stop was Charlottetown. The Japanese guy thought that JR said Chinatown because of his Acadian accent. It was very pretty and I bought some cows postcards which were cool. Meg made me go into the Anne of Green Gables store while she bought random touristy crap. The woman in the period dress gave me some fudge though which was nice. After leaving two of the girls in Charlottetown we went to Cavendish, which is like the Niagara Falls of PEI, not in its impressiveness, but in its high concentration of tack. Cavendish is where they have the Anne of Green Gables house and a bunch of related stuff (Post Office, fake Avonlea etc). The Japanese girls and Meg were very excited about it and they went into the property. I wasn't going to pay $4.50 to see stuff I had no idea about, so I hung out with JR. We went to a place which is actually called "Tourist Mart" and it was bursting its seams with pure tack. There were also theme parks, Ripley's believe it or not, fake castles etc. All a bit scary. We went for a bike tour after that, when I surprised myself by my ability to actually ride the damn thing. Can't really handle hills, but otherwise it's fine. I thought I'd have trouble since I haven't ridden a bike since I was a kid, but I guess the old saying is true! The scenery was great and we got to see some blue heron taking flight as we went along by the water with the dunes in the background. We left Kaori, one of the Japanese girls, in Cavendish, and it all ended in tears (she started first and then three other people followed suit) and a return trip when we realised she'd forgotten her jumper. We drove to the Confederation Bridge after that and drove over it to New Brunswick. The bridge is the longest in the world and is over 13km long. The weather was great and we stopped to take pictures on the New Brunswick side. Met some lovely native Canadians who for some reason wanted to have their picture taken with us. After the bridge we drove back to Halifax via a market stop which provided me with ice cream (Meg got hers all over the place). In Halifax that night we went out for a drink and some dinner once we'd gotten ourselves all sorted out.

I'm going to have to finish the last two days when I'm not exhausted but in short we covered Peggy's Cove, the Swiss Air flight 111 memorial, Mahones Bay, Lunenburg, canoeing in Kedgimkujik (sp? - check later!) National Park, Annapolis Royal, cooking for 10 people again, pumpkin carving, low tide at a wharf, Gaspereau Winery tour, Wolfville, the Lookout and skipping stones at the Bay of Fundy. I've just gotten home from being out at that horrible nightclub again and need to go to bed.

Big news though is that I am tagging along with one of the guys I met on tour (Ray from England) to NEWFOUNDLAND! I wanted to go but didn't feel comfortable with probably having to hitchhike, but this fits in perfectly, and I can decide where I want to go from St Johns. I leave tomorrow afternoon for North Sydney and then get a late ferry to Newfoundland. So excited! So you might not hear from me for a while but I'll be having a great time!