Good morning folks! I am currently in Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton, NS. It is 8:45 here and we are soon to be heading into Gampo Abbey for a tour. It's been quite the adventure getting here.
After Montreal Amber and I headed to Old Montreal. We walked around for a brief period, but the main body of time was spent in the Notre Dame. This place was absolutely beautiful! For $5 we were able to get in and walk around for the entire day. We only stayed for a short while. We managed to walk around and look at everything, get a guided tour, and get a view of the chapel. I'll be posting a few pictures of the chapel. It was probably the most breathtaking chapel I have ever seen in my entire life. It looked as though it were showered in a brilliant gold light. Though it was carved mostly out of wood. Someone purposely set fire to this chapel awhile back, so there was a unique blend between modern and older themes.
From there we drove through to St.-Jean-Port-Jali. I was told of this place many times. At first, I figured I wouldn't have to remember it and could just find it on the map. When I did look at a map I noticed that there are a TON of places beginning with the name Saint...so I figured I was out of luck. It just so happens that the small city was on our route to Quebec City. The city is the city of infamous woodcarvers. We spent a night there along the port after walking through the museum.
The French-Canadian country is quite a rare treat. At many points along the road there are rock formations that remind me of the small, tall mountains in the seas of China...except these were still on the land. We stopped along the way to pick up a map and instead found a beautiful little apple tree. We are in Nova Scotia and still have not managed to gobble them all up.
This part of the trip has been mostly scenery and little stopping. We blasted through Quebec and New Brunswick. We found out later that New Brunswick is known as the pass through province. People always skip over New Brunswick in order to get to PEI and Nova Scotia. In our defense....it was raining a lot. ; )
NB wasn't one of the more beautiful scenic drives. But it did have a charm that lies elsewhere. All the small towns. These were much more homey feeling than any other provinces I have been in. The first night we stayed in a small town called Woodstock. Our intent was to pitch a tent up in the woods somewhere. I had the feeling that this was going to be a very restful night. It didn't happen quite like we planned...
We went on a quest to the Salvation Army to pick up another blanket or two. This led us on a quest to a Presbyterian church that ended up putting us up in a motel for the night. The preacher was an Asian man by the name of Justin. He didn't ask us much about who we were or what we were doing. He just knew we needed a place to stay and found us one.
Our next stop was the Village of Gagetown. Earlier in the day I had the random thought of stopping and picking up some local eggs from a farm. I wrote it off as a good idea, but more of a passing thought. After driving for a little while I decided to get off the highway and stop at a gas station to use the restroom. Right in front me, in plain view, was a flyer for a hostel/farm called the Lazy Farmer Hostel. This was perfect for me, since I also wanted to come across a hostel.
We walked down to the only pub in town and went on a hunt to find them. The funny thing is that I actually knew exactly who they were when I walked in. Just in case, I walked to the bartender and asked where I could find them. The pub had a Jeopardy game going on and we caught them at the very last round. We made arrangements and came to a decision, then talked for some time before going to bed. If you are in the area and need a place to stay I recommend checking them out. The next morning they took us down to the river for a nice swim and recommended a nice route for us to drive on to see the back-roads of the province. We stopped at a 100 year old well and gathered up some water on the way to New Glasglow.
A really good friend of Ambers is currently living in New Glasglow. So we had no trouble finding a place to stay. I would say this was pretty chill. It was good to rest up after driving for so many hours. We drank wine out on their patio, cooked gluten free spaghetti, and just hung out. I was introduced to something that the county is absolutely famous for. Pictou County Pizza! They use a different sauce for making pizzas that make them a hot commodity elsewhere. It is a mix between BBQ sauce and regular pizza sauce. Quite delicious if you ask me.
After we said our good-byes we headed onwards. For some reason the city of Antigonish was calling my name. So I stopped there and we intended to walk about the town. Instead, we met a nice man who was grieving over the loss of his best friend. He showed us the way to a beautiful scenic drive. So we took to the drive and ended up in a small lighthouse park that was dedicated by a small family (whom we met. The were spreading their sisters ashes on the land.) After picking up some food to make a delicious salad, we decided to set up a tent up there. The area was sparsely populated, so I didn't foresee any problems as we probably wouldn't encounter any park ranger. Instead, we found ourselves a lovely older couple to share the space with for the night. These two live in Quebec and own a Maple Farm. They were traveling around in a Westphalia Euro-van. As we were making breakfast they gave us a can of their very own maple syrup. I thought it was a wonderful gift. Next time I drive through Quebec I would like to visit them and their farm. We also met a awkwardly cute German family.
Cape Breton, it seems, is a very popular place to travel for tourists. It doesn't surprise me either. We have been taking the scenic coastal drives the whole way to Gampo Abbey and have been amazed by the beautiful simplicity of these small villages. I think we spent the night in Cheticamp. We managed to find a small little coffee/art shop that had some gluten-free cookies (Amber is gluten-free) and found out about two local musicians that play Cape Breton traditional folk-fiddle music. We couldn't pass this opportunity up. So last night we drank wine and watched live music.
This morning we awoke having to pee...so we broke camp quickly and headed into town. These towns all have a backdrop of lush green mountains. I basically want to live in Canada. I find the place to be, on the whole, way more beautiful than the states. In order to get to the Gampo Abbey we had to drive through the Highland National Park. Along the way we came across three Moose. One male, one female, and one young'un. All three were along the roadside and had very dark coats that were quite different from the ones I encountered in the Algonquin.
Our tour through Gampo is at 1:30 pm. So we have some time to kill. Right now we are sitting at a small café drinking coffee. Our host is a charming older lady that has a soft motherly tenderness to her as she takes care of the customers. Amber is reading one of the books I brought (The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation) while I am sitting here writing to you. We will probably head to the monastery early and hang out in the grounds surrounding the building.
Cheers!
Justin
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