Dublin arrival

It's Tuesday noon and the first few days have been fun and exhausting. The red eye flights give you little time for sleep and move you through time zones so upon lose the entire night. St Johns was nice to explore although the snow banks shocked me. I had a fantastic fish n chips at the Duke on Ducksworth. It was loaded with dressing n gravy.  Prior I stopped at the Quids Vida brewery and enjoyed all the beers I sampled, even the pilsner. George Street was very quiet especially for a Saturday but such is life , it can be hit n miss.

Sunday I checked out of the hostel and did something totally unlike me. I chatted with a local on Tinder and quickly  met up with her for the intent of going for a drive. After a coffee we took off and explored east newfoundland and some of its bays. Mental note, next visit must go to bell island and visit the mines! It sounds very cool. She was very nice n friendly and invited me for supper what she called a cold plate.

Then it was time for my flight, another late night leaving at 11 and arriving at 8 but only 4 hours in the air. Needless to say I was dead tired. Oh I bought a pair of Bose QC20 noise cancelling headphones and they worked amazingly.  I heard the odd voice but the noise of the airplane did not exist! But no it didn't give me an 8 hour sleep.

On landing in Dublin I left my luggage at the hostel and started walking around downtown the highlight was the Guinness Storehouse which was followed by a very much needed late afternoon nap. The evening was finished off in a nearby pub eating Beef n Guinness Stew, listening to music while chatting with people whilst I tasted a variety of beers n a cider.   Oh I met a lady from Seattle who might meet up with tomorrow.  She has a variety 9f business meetings so ya never know.

Planning trip to Ireland

Usually when you are planning a trip the biggest headache is booking accommodation because everyone else is going to your oasis at the same time as you.  This trip has had a couple different twists. First I have booked a car for 3 weeks for the total cost of $36, yes $36. I don't believe it and neither can anyone else. We shall see if it's a rainbow or reality next week when I pick up the car.

The second and by far biggest twist is that after planning this trip since last August my daughter who had planned on going with me has changed her mind. Not once but twice in the last 6 weeks before departing she has said no. The last time was a week before the flight. It took a lot of effort but WestJet did allow me to change the name on the ticket.  The unfortunate part was that I  learned of it Friday morning 16 hours before the flight. Not realistic at that point to find anyone able and then coordinate a major 3 week trip at that point.

It's now 0820 and I am sitting alone in the Toronto airport waiting for my 2nd leg of the journey today to St.John's Newfoundland.

May the adventure continue!

Nova Scotia part 2 - Cape Breton

I spent the night in Antigonish at a campground which was nice as there a lit of kids playing. You could see that the teens congregate together as well and they just stood around for the most part, but at least they socialized.

It has been interesting that I haven't seen any other cyclists in NS. They must be cutting NS short or something.

I peddled about 120 km to the town of St. Peters that had live music. And there was a provincial campground almost in town. The campground was on the edge of the ocean and had a lighthouse there. The next day about 20 min away was a surfing competition and they had a warm up party at the campground with a few very talented fellows playing acousticly. Since there was no lights on the road to town I decided to forgo the in town music and hang out there at the gathering which was about 3 campsites down from where my tent was.

The next day I was up bright n early and on.my way to Sydney. I was not making great time with an average spead of about 13 kmh it seemed. It took about 7 hours to travel 85 km. I did stop in a little town of big pond to visit Rita McNeils Tea Room where I had a large bowl of chowder. I do not recommend biking on a full stomach of chowder, your body gets confused and tries to process food while trying to power your legs.

So I get to Sydney and find out that the ferry doesn't depart till Monday at 5 pm and it was Saturday. Sigh.

So I killed time visiting various places and biking around oh and working on my French. Sun night I get a call that the ferry was delayed it wasn't departing till 3am Tuesday morning which meant it would not arrive in NL till Tuesday evening which would be hard on my schedule.

I did catch part of a chef after party. I guess there was a large food competition in Cape Breton and they were meeting for drinks at the pub next to the hotel I was staying at.

So the day of the ferry arrived which was mostly a.sit n wait n kil time day. I went over to north Sydney about 5 pm and waited some more. The ferry finally started boarding and I was on.about 4am. Where I promptly found a couch to curl up on.

I learnt the next day that that ferry was the only one for that week as it was going to go help out the other ferry run as one of the ferries was down. It made amazing time at it had a tail wind and was running full out. We arrived about 4pm which made it an 11 hour run, not the 12-14 we were told.

The ferry had a full dining room and an excellent buffet at an ok price considering we were a captive audience.

I cheated and got a ride to st. Johns with a couple from Ontario. They were really nice and pet me pitch a tent on their campsite.

The next day they decided to stay there and we did the O'Brien's whale n puffin excursion. Alas we didn't see any whales but we did see a lot of puffins which are quite interesting and awkward looking birds. After which we went to cape spear.

I did not realize how much of an impact or involvement that  the area around st. Johns had with WW1/2. They had battlements around the harbour and it was an active port for the escorts that protected the convoys of ships that where crossing the Atlantic.

There is so much to explore I hope I have enough time to see it all.

So far I have been "screeched in" so I am now an honourary newfie, I have discovered that they play fantastic music EVERY NIGHT. I have visited "the Rooms" which is their museum and seen a few of their crazy streets. I also took pictures of the harbour.



Location : 27-61 Bannerman St, St John's, NL A1C 1S2,

Leaving Halifax

Leaving Halifax was pretty easy, I hopped a ferry to Dartmouth and then followed the highway. The new stretch was pretty flat and had decent shoulders for NS. But the old highway was hilly which would have been okay but it was very hot n humid even for NS they tell me.

I spent the night in this quaint little town called Sheet Harbour. It's a gem of a small town and the people are extremely nice n fantastic.

I went out for a drink at the only restaurant open n met a couple of guys there. In fact the only other customers. They had been their since 11 am and had been drinking. They both grew up there and had moved to Vancouver and sine they were both back in town so were catching up. The one fellow was Jody and the other Hillary and both were extremely gay.

The following day I peddled to Sherbrooke it's also a small town. On the way there a couple at a corner store told me of the living museum. I had planned on biking another 20 km past Sherbrooke but thought it might be nice to check out the museum. What is cool about the museum is they literally cut the town in half and then made half the museum. What is also interesting is that it's a producing museum which means that the people that spend their day reliving the olden days also create products for the museum,, the gift store, town and on request. The build boats, furniture from would the blacksmith still builds hinges, hooks etc as needed. And the best part to me is the photography place that captures your photo on glass. So cool. It's the only place in Canada that does it. I think possible in North America. I was there too late to get a photo that day so I waited till the next day and got a coil photo taken. I alas had to bike in the heat of the day but I trekked on to Antigonish.

Location : 12-14 Bannerman Rd, St John's, NL A1C,

Halifax n the Citadel.

My full day in Halifax started with a walk to the right of the hostel, just because. Where I found a great little bakery / diner and a bike shop. I had 3 places I wanted to explore, the citadel, the marine museum and Peggy's cove. I doubted I'd get to Peggy's cove but the other 2 should be doable.

Well the citadel is amazing architectural accomplishment. It is so well fortified that no one ever attack it. If you were to attack you would need to climb this steep hill where they would should grenade like canon balls at you. If you made it to the rope there was a drop of 20 feet into the ditch. Where you would have more canons and archers tacking you on from all sides. Then you'd have to scale another 20 ft wall to enter the compound.  What I forgot to mention is that the hill is riddled with little tunnels designed to plant explosives in the hill and blow up the enemy as well.

Oh and the canons on the hill can take out ships in the harbour. In fact the entire harbour is protected by a network of batteries, martelos and block houses.

What intrigued me is that there are tunnels that ran from the citadel through downtown Halifax and to the warf. There is an island that has a military fort on it and the entire island is riddled with tunnels. There are stories that a tunnel runs from the island to the citadel under the ocean. It's possible as many of the tunnels in the island are below sea level.

Well I never got to the marine museum as I spent the entire afternoon wandering the citadel.

So minor change of plans I went back to the Keith's brewery and RFID the tour. Wow is what I have to say, it was an experience. It was the best beer tour I have ever been on and it surpasses any wine tour ad well as an experience. They have a old tavern that would be fantastic as a place for a wedding or other events.

I finished the night off by visiting the warf where I listened to some street performers then stopped in at the lower deck for a quieter evening of music.

Location : 20 MacMaster Rd, Port Hawkesbury, NS B9A 2A9,

Halifax

I was soooo stressed by biking here. The highway has a little stop of a shoulder and there are 4 lanes of traffic just whizzing by. I had to give up biking and walk my bike on the gravel shoulder. At 6am the highway was quiet but not at noon not so quiet.

At the airport I biked off the highway and discovered a bus goes downtown AND takes bikes. Score.

I am not sure if it.was a Sunday or what but Halifax didn't wow me as a place yet. I did meet a lot of friendly people which was awesome.  And perhaps that is what I will take away from Halifax.

I did go to a pub last night that had an an amazing cover band. They played more folly rock music and some maritime music that the droids could easily sing along to. Image a very humid city, in a pub with no a/c. Now fill the pub till your shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. It was a very hot place.I was surprised that they had that big of an event for a Sunday. I guess they normally hold it outside but it decided to rain.

Today I am exhausted and tired. I could sleep away the day but there are things to see n do. Weird that yesterday I was ok all day and it caught up to me today.



Location : 2188 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS B3K,

Road kill

I have to say that I never seen this many dead porcupines before. I think I have seen 50 today at least

, which makes me wonder how many live ones there must be in NS.

So going back a couple days, I did spend a day in Charlottetown where I walked around, saw a parade, ate a yummy breakfast, caught a little of the blues n jazz festival and went on a ghastly tour of downtown. It was quite entertaining. The guide was dressed in period costume and knew his history really well.

Yesterday I woke up early and peddled 62 km to the ferry where I just made it in time. Another minute and the ferry would have left without me. Once I got to NS the sun came out and it really got hot in a hurry. 20 km down the road I hid out at a restaurant/information centre. It was another 65 km to Truro with nothing really in between except what they called a mountain. Dreading leaving I decided to do it and left at 4 pm. I actually did really good time and arrived in Truro at 7:15 where I promptly found a pub n some grub and a beer. I also met a really nice fellow named Ashley and his fiancee also named Ashley.

At 2 ish I found a park and had a sleep till 5 ish. Where I got up and started the last stretch to Halifax of 100km.

Oh I saw a really cool highway it was red. I have never seen red pavement before.  I also saw 3 black hens wandering around Bible Hill first time for that too. Another first was in Cornwall PEI where I saw a tractor in a drive-thru.

Location : Veteran's Memorial Hwy, Hardwood Lands, NS B0N 1Y0,