Oh Canada

Canada Day Celebration

Following the scenic signs in Canada

We were Canada bound the evening we finished climbing mt. Katahdin in Maine. We had about 4 hours to drive to Moncton New Brunswick where we had a couch surfer we were staying with.  When we crossed the border they took our pepper spray. The border control said we "won't be needing this in Canada."  Thankfully all the people we stayed with were awesome.  The first time we needed gas the sign said 121.9  assuming that meant $1.21 a liter I still didn't know what to expect to pay. I wasn't even completely sure of the exchange rate let alone how many litres are in a gallon.  I filled up it was $70 on the screen and I went in to pay.  (small town didn't have pay at the pump)  the cashier charged $20  I told her that couldn't be right but she double checked and said that was it. We left with a full tank of gas. Unfortunately it was only a one time weird mistake on her part. A gallon of gas has 3.79 litres. We had to pay up to $4.75 a gallon at one time. 


Mark @ the old triangle

We didn't know anyone in Canada so we couch surfed the whole time.  Sleeping on couches, floors, foutons, and private rooms. We had a bunch of great hosts.  In Moncton we stayed with Charles, the French Canadian, and his mushing dog Rollo. We Hung out with some of his friends and he was a great tour guide and took us all around the bay of Fundy, which has the biggest tides in the world.  Then we got a real taste of the Maritimes hospitality with Thomas.  He made us some amazing lobster and clam chowder. Drank some Nova Scotia wine and stayed up talking all night.  We went on a hike then Im search of some caves but our directions just led us around in circles. Halifax we surfed at a house with some other German surfers. Annie and I did our own thing most of the time.  The reason we came to Halifax was because of Crosby. After the first 10 minutes walking around town we found the sports hall of fame mainly dedicated to the kid. They even have the famous dryer.  Then we met Mark and had plans of going out sailing. Unfortunately the weather was rotten and cold and we didn't get the boat out. We were able to catch the buccos on tv because they were playing the blue jays.  Mark also introduced us to putain.  Basically a delicious dish of fries and gravy.  We ended up staying a couple days longer than we originally thought.  We had to experience our first Canada day in Canada.  We went up to the northern part of Cape Breton to a small town on the lake Whycocomagh.  It was beautiful and we stayed with Joel, Julie and their family.  We went to a hostel for a bonfire that evening to celebrate.  Joel also showed us this sweet jumping hole in the woods where we jumped 20 some feet into the coolest water you can imagine.  After that we had to head south so we could get back into the states for the 4th of July.   We made it to St. John.  The couch surfing community is so cool.  Annie had talked to Laughlin about staying in St. John a few nights before, but we didn't think we were going to make it there.  Then at about 9:30 on a Saturday night we send him a text and he was like "of course".  He was house sitting at this beautiful place right along the water, and we stayed there for the night and went mountain biking the next day.  St. John was a cool town, it got a lot of smack talked on it for being dirty..... it was pretty foggy all along the water while we were there, but the park we mountain biked in was beautiful.   So all in all we loved Canada.  

 

Hike with Thomas in Nova Scotia

 


Charles spelunking with us in New Brunswick