Travel :: Nova Scotia Part IV

Coming to shore! Nova Scotia

Ahh Nova Scotia. The last province on the list of ones to hit. I liken this province to British Columbia, as there are a lot of similarities. Although, the island of Cape Breton is a mini Ireland [I’m assuming, as I’ve never been there].

The perfect house… on the coast across from a field of cows.

 After coming across on the ferry, it shaved off quite a lot of driving time, so we were already a head of where we needed to be. We weren’t exactly sure where we were going to end up for the night, as we were rather winging it. We started in Pictou, NS [where the ferry lands] and we made it to Antigonish the first night. We drove for a good while, and arrived after dinner time. Antigonish was nice. A cute little university town  and the place we stayed was packed. Not much privacy with the vehicles so close beside each other! Lots of kids there too. But it was a place to stay, and we were only there one night. We made dinner of the last of the corn, and cooked up the rest of the pasta. Had leftovers, but that was alright. Packed up in the morning, and headed onwards to the Cape Breton Highlands!

Welcome to Port Hood, NS

What a cool looking house! And great colour!

The winding road of the Cabot Trail – Cape Breton, NS

Once we got to the entrance of the park, it’s an interesting thing. There are small towns within the park that aren’t actually a part of the park.. so you would pass signs saying “You are now leaving..” It was kind of gloomy and sometimes it rained, then it’d clear up. It wasn’t the best weather! But we made the best of it, and still took pictures of everything. We’d pop out of the car every now and then for a view of something amazing. Pictures really do no justice to the beauty of this place. But I tried. I just need a better camera *cough*


In the park of Cape Breton Highlands

At one stop, we saw some dolphins! They were pretty far away so the pictures that I took look like nothing. But we got to look through binoculars, and saw the dolphins and some seals. It was pretty amazing. Andrew and I just sat on a rock and watched them. It was really nice to do because being stuffed up in a car can make us get on each other’s nerves. We were getting a little snappish, and I was getting a little tired. The next stop that Andrew pulled over at we both caught a little nap, and then he went exploring because he couldn’t sleep. He ended up going swimming while I was passed out… that seemed to happen a lot on this trip.. Haha. Not a big deal because it’s not like I was going to go swimming anyways. Far too cold. But a lot of people were. We kept driving along then, and we were worrying about our timing, but we finished the park in one day, and made it to the small town off the highway of Whycocomagh. Another one that was packed full, and the mosquitoes were ridiculous there. We had to eat inside because they were just ruthless! I got like four while doing the dishes. In the morning, it was better and so we did the dishes from the night before, and then we saw this big white tomcat meandering by our trailer. Reminded me so much of Kumo, except soo much bigger. Made me miss my little kitty cat!

Climbing a ridiculous hill to get to the citadel

We drove straight into Halifax from Whycocomagh, and there isn’t much to take pictures of because there’s really only the highway way to get there (in a decent amount of time). Once arriving in Halifax we checked into the last campground we were staying in. It was a cute little one, but one of the more pricier ones, for being so close to the city. It really sucked that the weather was such crap though! Cool, and rainy. Not so much fun, but we meandered on the boardwalk, watched a couple of the buskerfest things happening, and then we begin walking the streets. Up the streets, I should say. Hilly!

I made it!

All the way up to the citadel. It was really interesting, and a little creepy. We arrived in the last 1/2 hour so we got in free. Sweet! The first thing we didn’t have to pay for. It was cool to see how much had been preserved. And how much it had been modernized [gift shop, coffee shop, etc]. But it was neat. It was cool to see how things were back in the day, protecting the navy port. And the fact that they still set the canon off at 12pm every day is pretty sick. They don’t shoot anything out of it, and it’s definitely less than what they used back in the day. Apparently they changed that when they broke all the windows of nearby businesses. Oops. We then headed to a bar because after all that hill climbing, I definitely needed a drink. It didn’t need to be alcoholic, but it ended up being that way. Mm amaretto sours! And they were excellently made. We ended up at a nice bar, drinking and eating nachoes. Nachoes were amazinnnng. So good. And their flourless brownie was amazing. Until one of the gentlemen at the bar’s food arrived. And it was all seafood. And I just got soooooo nauseous. I just kept smelling the lobster or whatever and I knew I couldn’t eat another bite or it would all come up. Blargh. So Andrew finished up the dessert, and then we headed out of there. It was good to walk around after all the food though. We headed back to the campsite, and went to bed, listening to the rain.

Peggy’s Cove, NS

In the morning, the weather was little better, at least it wasn’t raining though. We packed up, and drove to Andrew’s hotel to see if he could drop off the trailer [he could] since he would be back later that night and for the whole week. We then headed to Peggy’s Cove. I think it would have been really pretty if the weather wasn’t so foggy, but it had a real eerie quality to it with the fog. Made it really quiet. Once we got to Peggy’s Cove it was anything but quiet. There were quite a lot of people there, and we wandered around, took pictures by the lighthouse, ate freshly made cornish pasties, and salt water taffy. Delicious! We then headed onwards to find something for lunch, and then see the memorial site for the Swedish flight that crashed off the coast there. Took pictures, I was busy shoving my face full of food, and then we meandered on. We didn’t find a cute restaurant that we wanted to try so we headed back in to downtown Halifax for a delicious bite to eat. We got a recommendation to try a place out there, but they were closed on Sundays. We went across the plaza and ate at a delicious Japanese restaurant. We ate calamari and crab cakes, I had the halibut and he had a steak sandwich. It was so delicious! We ate out on the patio because it was warm, but not ridiculously sunny. But halfway through the meal, the sun decided to shine and it got so hot! We had to ask for the umbrella to be put up. At least the sun was shining on my last day in Halifax. We went back to the hotel, and I got ready to leave. I did manage to see the Spice Girls perform before we had to go to the airport.

I will say that Nova Scotia wasn’t that exciting. We didn’t do as many stops, and pretty much powered through most of it. The weather wasn’t the greatest, and it was pretty lackluster after my love of PEI. I did enjoy Halifax, and even though the weather wasn’t the greatest, the people and the feel of the place was really nice. I could see myself chilling in the downtown, even if it’s not as big as Toronto.