I know that a lot of people don’t travel because of the worries associated with it. Travel can be stressful and the media doesn’t help much by telling us about every travel disaster, terrorist event, or travel nightmare. The truth is that it doesn’t matter if you are heading to Pompano Beach, Houston, or Tahiti because the dangers are all about the same. Of course, if you are heading somewhere and really worried about it, you can always invest in some travel insurance.

Don't worry, Enjoy your Vacation!

Whether you are planning an extended stay or visiting tropical island beach hotels, the following tips will take some of the worry out of your vacations, cruises, or outdoor adventures.

International travel has always appealed to students because students are those most likely to enjoy obstacles and dangers. Being out of your familiar environment is something that can cause confusion and misunderstandings so the first tip for worry warts is about paperwork.

Worry Free Travel Tip #1 : Have your papers!

World travel can involve a lot of papers

I’m not talking about your New York Times here, I’m talking about documentation. I was once asked about my birth certificate when I was getting a car rental in London. So, this is about more than just your passport. Your passport is important too. Make sure it is still valid well before you leave. Make sure it still has blank pages which can be stamped. Ensure that you have the proper visas or can get the visa upon arrival. Here are the list of documents I recommend you travel with:

* Passport – walid with blank pages
* Country Visa
* Copy of Birth Certificate
* Student ID
* Driver’s License
* Credit Cards
* Copy #1 of all the above in your luggage
* Copy #2 of all the above hidden in a coat or pants pocket or inside a different bag
* 10 passport sized photos

Two copies? Yes. You don’t want to worry right? Having copies makes a huge difference if you lose something or if you run into problems. The photos will come in handy if you have to do anything relating to consulates or embassies. In regards to photocopies of your credit cards, I recommend you blank out some of the numbers on your copies and just remember which number is blanked out like ’23′.

Worry Free Travel Tip #2 : Money without Stress

Stop worrying about the money, Sonny!

If money makes you crazy with worry, here is what you can do. Change a little bit of money before you leave your home country for the local currency. You’ll get the worst rate at home most likely, so I wouldn’t change a huge amount. I would say about $200 or the equivalent is enough. This is just in case you can’t find an ATM when you get there. In addition, put $100 in USD, Euros, or Pounds in a couple different spots for emergencies, these are safe currencies that you can use just about anywhere in the world.

Don’t count on your ATM working or a currency exchange being open and available when you arrive. Sometimes they aren’t.This can be especially true when you fly into airports serviced by cheap flights. Now you don’t have to worry about it. Make sure you know your PIN numbers by heart. There’s little that’s worse than having your card shut down because you used the wrong pin. It’s a good idea to have someone who you trust have your pin #s and copies of your information too.

In terms of exchange, ATMs often offer the most competitive rates. My recommendation is to forget about traveler’s checks. You lose on both ends with them and often you can’t use them in restaurants, cheap hotels, or guest houses.

Worry Free Travel Tip #3 : Dealing with Taxi Drivers

Not all taxi drivers are crooks, but some are!

It’s true that in many cities, taxi drivers are just waiting to rip you off. This isn’t just true in third world countries but also in cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Orlando too.

Use the internet before you leave home to see how much a trip from the airport should cost. Often driver’s won’t use the meter for set trips and you need to know what the cost should be. Look out for ‘special discounts’ and make sure you have local currency because they usually won’t accept foreign cash, credit cards, or traveler’s checks and if they do, they usually will gouge you on the rate. If they offer to take you around on your first day for a small tour, take their card or number and feign interest since if they think you are going to be coming back, it is unlikely that they will try to gouge you. Know where you are going to stay or pretend you know, taking taxi recommendations for hotels is usually a way for them to make a few bucks at your expense.

Worry Free Travel Tip #4 : World Travel with Kids

Traveling with kids can be fun or stressful

If you are going to bring your children bring their birth certificates. If you are traveling in some Arab countries, single women traveling with children need written permission from the children’s father and there are other odd regulations that you should know about before embarking upon your journey. Airlines often have special promotions for kids that are worth finding out about.

Worry Free Travel Tip #5 : Lost Bags

It's a good idea to take a digital picture of the contents of your check in bags.

Most airlines will provide you with a small amount of money if they misplace your bags and most bags are found within 24 hours. Make sure that you have information about your rental cars, vacation packages, and hotel rooms with you and don’t trust that your checked bag will make it. It usually does, but why create an extra chance for yourself to worry?

For summer travel remember that you can’t carry big containers of sunscreen in your carry on. If you must bring it with you, buy a small bottle that conforms to airline regulations.

Worry Free Travel Tip #6 : Your Emergency Paper or Travel Book

In addtion to rental car, hotel, and flight information, your travel book can also give you something to do while you wait. Like sketching.

While it would be nice to be able to memorize all the essential information about your vacations, this usually isn’t very practical. This is especially true for extended travel.

Create a piece of paper or small notebook with information about your hotel rooms, rental car, airline confirmation numbers, and any addresses or phone numbers you may need such as those of local institutes you plan to visit.

I call this my travel book and it is essential that it fits in your pocket. It’s also a good idea to have emergency phone numbers, consulate information, and maybe even your passwords or pin numbers inside. The way to do this is to write something that contains your passwords, looks natural, and doesn’t scream out password. Don’t write: “UBC Pin = 6767″ or “Citibank Password = HungryMonkey 101″ instead write something like

“6767 South Vegas Street, New York, NY” or “Places to eat in Florida – The Hungry Monkey on Route 101″, you’ll know what the pin or password is but it’s very unlikely any thieves would be able to figure it out.

It’s important to include the contact information for your banks and credit cards and the number to call if they get lost or stolen. Keep this piece of paper or travel book on you at all times.

Now, stop worrying and start enjoying your travels.

Maybe you want to travel the world burning things?

Of course, maybe freelancing isn’t for you. I still think you should take the time to read my latest e-book All there Is To It, Is To Do It – Finding Your Passion Income
, but if you want to start looking for a way to travel and work for the man, there are options available for you. And many of them involve working for a man (or woman) that might just be very cool and good to you.

With so many people out of work, looking for work, or between jobs there are plenty of folks right now that have the greatest opportunity they will ever have to really live their lives and do something.

Maybe now is the right time to spend a few months or even years living and working overseas. In fact, living and working in another country is the best way to really learn about different cultures. You end up working with and living among people instead of just seeing them from a tour bus.

The beauty of Travel is Visible Everywhere

It’s not easy to find work overseas, but you can do it and now might be the best time you will ever have to see what it’s really like to live in a foreign culture. World travel is calling…will you answer the phone?

Do you have any idea how many people half a billion are? That’s 500 million and that is the number of Chinese who are studying English right now. Most of them don’t have native speaking teachers but they want them. The same goes for Indonesia, Spain, Morocco, Germany, and just about every other non-English speaking country in the world.

What do you need? Usually you need at least a bachelors degree. For many companies that is enough and they will pay for your housing, visa, and even your flight to and from their countries. To get an idea of the jobs available have a look at ESLcafe.com. I’ve been doing this in Morocco for nearly a year and you can do it too. In fact, I just might do it again somewhere else in the near future. Teaching is a total joy.

Those wanting to find service jobs can. If you want to go about things the legal way with a work permit and visa you should look into companies such as BUNAC (British Universities North America Club) and CIEE (just google them) which will assist for you for around $300 to work in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Canada or Ireland. You can work in restaurants, pick fruit, or do just about anything your heart desires.

Of course if you want to do it the good old fashioned way, just get a one way ticket and take a kick ass resume with you. It’s not hard to find employers that will hire you illegally. Of course you probably can’t expect a great salary this way either.

You can travel to places like this and get paid for it.

So, if you want a job or you want to leave your country, don’t wait. Start looking now.

If you missed the story of how I met my wife, let me remind you. I was couchsurfing at her family’s house in Morocco. Couchsurfing likes to remind people that it’s not a dating site, but in fact, it is a place where I’ve met many of my closest friends and the woman I married.

This was the first day I couchsurfed with the family that I would eventually marry into. Wow.

World Travel on Almost Nothing Tip #4:
Make strangers into friends.

One of the things that I love about Couchsurfing.com is that it relies on opening your heart and mind to the hospitality of strangers. Contrary to popular belief, most people on the planet are good and want to help you in this life. If you doubt that, look inside yourself and I’m sure you will see it is true.

Rafael and I became brother fools after he offered me his couch in Belgium.

I’ve made friends just about everywhere I’ve been and in the process I’ve managed to avoid paying for hotels, meals, and sometimes even transportation. I’m not saying you should be mercenary about seeking out and using people, I’m saying that when you open your arms to the world, you often get a hug in return.

Kelli hosted me on two seperate occaisions in Quebec. I can't wait to return the favor.

Time is not money though this Paris sculpture certainly is both.

One thing that screws everyone up, including me, is being in too much of a hurry. We all think time is money but in fact, it’s the opposite, money is time usually but time is time and you have a set amount of it to do with what you please. You can trade it for money, give it away for free, or waste it being a pissed off grumpy asshole but you can’t actually buy time, you can only sell it.

So the lesson from that leads to my third tip for traveling the world for almost nothing.

World Travel for Almost Nothing Tip #3:

Chill out man. Just take it easy. The slower you move the less money it takes. Think about it, if you want to get a ticket to wherever you want to go today and then come back in three days, you have to pay a premium. However, if you slow it down and make it for a departure in a month and staying indefinitely…it’s cheaper. Now how about if you walk there….take a year to get there.

Sometimes when you slow down enough people will even show you what they have in their basements...

As a guy who has walked around the perimeter of Oahu, Hawaii and who hitched across Canada with $4, I can tell you that being in a hurry means you have to pay. If you are willing to take your time, you won’t. I’m currently on a slow motion trip around the world. It’s happening, but not in 80 days.

I was hoping this hot air baloon would give me a ride across Canada's plains, but no luck that time.

In # 1 of this series, I presented the questions.
# 2 profiled Kay and Todd from Japan and the USA
# 3 profiles Vibek and Spencer from Norway and Gibralter
#4 profiles Lobot and Mrs. Lobot from the USA and France
#5 profiles Anna and Dr. Trouble from Poland and Japan
#6 profiles Denise and her guy from Malta and Hungary
#7 Profiles Joe and his wife from Canada and Turkey

1) Your names

Joe and Joe’s Wife

2) Your blog

http://tuckjoetuck.blogspot.com/

3) Your nationality

CANADIAN

4) Spouses nationality

TURKISH and CANADIAN

5) Where do you live now? Do you live with your spouse?

We live together in Istanbul, Turkey.

6) Amount of time married

8 months

7) How did you meet?

We were introduced to each other at a comedy show in Toronto

8) What was the biggest impediment to getting married?

I can’t really think of one.

9) Where did you get married?

Kingston, Canada

10) What was your marriage ceremony like?

Best day of my life.

11) How is the relationship with your in-laws?

It’s great. They are extremely caring and supportive.

12) What about your spouses with your family?

They love her.

13) What was your biggest cultural misunderstanding?

Sometimes I mistake her passion for anger.

14) Can you tell a funny story about a cultural mishap?

We attended at a relatives funeral and the ritual of her cultures faith is different than mine. I messed up a couple of the movements. I think it lightened the mood.

15) Have you traveled with your spouse?

Yes, we have travelled the world together for one straight year (May 2008-May 2010) and we are always planning and executing future getaways.

16) If so, has it been challenging? Why?

Absolutely, being on the road with the same person for 365 days is challenging. Me: “So what are you doing today, honey?”… Wife: “Same as you”. I think we were up to the challenge though. There is a saying… “Company is like fish. They both start to smell after 3 days”.

17) If not, why not?

N/A

18) Do you have children? If so, what is that like, internationally
speaking.

Not yet.

19) If you don’t have children, why not? Do you plan to?

Yes, we plan to have kids.

20) What is the best and the worst thing about international marriage?

The best thing… for me it is as if my life became twice as abundant and even more full. The worst… not having the language mastered makes it difficult to communicate 100% with her friends and family who do not speak English.

This second trip to Quebec City confirms that it is my favorite city in Anglo-North America. There’s just something very great about this place. Maybe it’s the old world architecture combined with North American space, maybe it’s the location on the St. Lawrence River, or maybe it’s that this is a French City and as a result it has a certain je ne sais qua that really appeals to me.

I wrote a rather rambling email recently that sort of sums up my thoughts on this francophile tendency that I seem to have developed.

…Back in Quebec City. Looking forward to getting back to Morocco…I’m sick of traveling, think really I am quite cut out for staying in one place and gardening, just have never been able to stand people having seen more than me of the world…still have a few places I would like to go sometime in the future…
India, Turkey, Vietnam, Japan, Nepal, Brazil, Cambodia….

but mostly am tired of seeing the same old people snapping pictures wherever I go. Quebec City is better than most places though…it’s French and there is a sort of smug condescension that suits me.

The level of disrespect to boomers who are used to being kowtowed to is utterly enjoyable and goes over most of their heads.Not to mention, I notice that Quebecois say Oui much more in their conversations than other north americanos say yes, perhaps these are a positive thinking people who don’t really seem to want to go anywhere else or be anything else but what they are.

The coffee is good, the food is good, jazz flows without apparent self regard and even the weeded out old drunks have a style about them that speaks volumes about their dignity. I believe there has only been one homicide here in the past 5 or 6 years and violent crime is close to nil in general.

Great thrift store, plenty of walking, big beautiful library, and people continue to talk in French to me even when my french is bad, then when I don’t ask them to speak English, they smile and compliment my french…they then speak in English in a friendly way and I continue in my poor French when possible.

Yeah, I like this place. Probably part of the reason I like Morocco too, because of the French influence. I’ve never found the French to be assholes at all, instead, I tend to understand and commiserate with them for the rest of the world being so tasteless and gauche. You gotta love a people that riot in indignation, kill their leaders, and then do it again when the next batch of leaders proves just as useless.

…

And so it is. Here in Quebec, I haven’t done a lot. My first day I arrived quite early on the train and wandered around the streets until my host Kelie was awake. She is a very sweet girl who I stayed with last time I was here. Her apartment is in the lower town and sits right near a couple of weeded out old bars and has a great view of the big church nearby.

I’m not a souvenir kind of guy usually, but sometimes I find something on the ground that I will pick up and keep. In this case it was a Saint medalion for the first Canadian Born Saint. St. Marguerite D’Youville was a widow who founded an order of nuns called the Grey Nuns, they dedicated their lives to charity and to helping the poor, so in a sense she is the patron saint of the needy and the charitable. A nice charm to add to my traveling bag.

Foundress of the Gray Nuns, or Sisters of Charity, born at Varennes, near Montreal, 15 October, 1701, of Christophe-D. de L. and Renee de Varennes, the sister of Laverendrye, discoverer of the Rocky Mountains; d. 23 December, 1771. After studying two years with the Ursulines at Quebec, she shared, at the age of twelve, in the housework of her widowed mother. She married (1722) M. d’Youville, who treated her with indifference, and eight years later left her a widow with three children and a heavy debt. She was forced to carry on a small trade in order to meet her obligations. The only two of her sons who reached manhood became priests. Out of her own poverty, she helped the needy.

Mother d’Youville conceived an ardent devotion to the Eternal Father, which was to be the keynote of her life. Providence destined her to rescue from debt and ruin the hospital, founded (1694) by M. Charon, ad hitherto managed by a brotherhood bearing his name. This undertaking which was to be the cradle and groundwork of a new religious institute, the Grey Nuns, or Sisters of Charity, was destined to flourish under the wise and zealous direction of Mother d’Youville. When, in 1747, the General Hospital was entrusted to her, she had already, with a few companions living under a provisional rule, begun practicing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. She opened the hospital to disabled soldiers, the aged of either sex, the insane, the incurable, foundlings, and orphans. When, to save the General Hospital of Quebec, the intendant Bigot, with Bishop Pontbriand’s assent, decided to transfer to the former institution the property of the Montreal Hospital, Mother d’Youville submitted. The intervention of the Sulpician superior, Cousturier, maintained her rights. In 1755, Mgr. Pontbriand confirmed the rule of the institute drawn up by Father Normant. Mother d’Youville assumed the entire debt, 49,000 livres, and to meet the expense of restoring, rebuilding, and harbouring numerous inmates, increased by the admission of epileptics, lepers, and contagious patients excluded from the Hôtel-Dieu, she made clothing for the king’s stores and for the traders of the upper country, which constituted her chiefrevenue. During the Seven Years War so many English soldiers were treated at the hospital, that one of its wards was called “la salle des Anglais”. Mother d’Youville ransomed from the Indians, at a great price, an English prisoner destined to torture, and saved from their fury several fugitives, one of whom, through gratitude, later prevented the bombardment of the fortress-like hospital. Owing to the exorbitant cost of necessaries of life, due to unscrupulous corruption, the hospital was heavily indebted at the time of the conquest. A credit of 100,000 livres, due by the French Government, was redeemed with interest only under Louis XVIII, and the sum applied to the work begun by the foundress. Despite her poverty, Mother d’Youville undertook to rescue all foundlings thrown upon her charity. When, in 1766, the General Hospital was destroyed by fire, fully resigned to her loss, she knelt with her sisters and recited the “Te Deum”. Her institute has spread throughout Canada and even to some of the neighbouring states. The Decree introducing the cause of her beatification, and entitling her to be called Venerable, was signed on 28 April, 1890.

Most of my day was spent in the beautiful Musee de Civilzation. A natural place for an anthropologist to end up I think. They had several interesting exhibits, one on Egyptology, another on the long lasting effects in North America of the 7 years war which it turns out led to the French Expulsion from Nova Scotia, the war of Independence in the states, and most likely to the horrid treatment of indigenous peoples in Canada by the English after the much more enlightened treatment of the indigenous by the French. Full citizenship to genocide including the use of disease ridden blankets by the English. My favorite was a look at creatures from outer space in fact and fiction.

At Kelie’s I caught up on email and online work and then we were joined by a Spanish couch surfer, Adria. Nice guy who has been hiking in the Canadian Rockies for the past couple of months.

We made a simple dinner and then in the morning we all went our seperate ways. I chose to get a haircut, do my laundry, and visit the Musee du Chocolat. A nice stop, small 25-cent machines offered handfulls of a variety of world chocolates and a small window looked in on the chocolate being made.

Later I wandered through the upper city and visited the Maple Syrup shop where I tried the delicious maple ice cream and candies. I was unable to find the Musee du Fur, which is a shop that makes fur coats and hats from start to finish…I did however find this fur shop.

In the evening we made a very nice dinner back at Kelie’s. I made couscous and vegetables, Kelie made an apple crumble, and Adria made bread with cheese and tomato, plus hummus and breadsticks. We drank a sweet wine I’d brought from Nova Scotia called Jost, which complimented the savory vegtables quite nicely.

After dinner we went to a wonderful little pub in the upper city where the Quebec couch surfing community meets every Monday. The pub is the project of Bernard who has been running it for 38 years. The walls are adorned with pictures of Nostradamus and inside the pub there are tons of games. When I asked Bernard about this he said that he believes that when people play games together, they become friends and his goal with his place is to build community. Lots of friends were made as we played the craziest scrabble game ever in French, English, and Spanish plus more than a few words that I’m sure were invented in the confusion.

Then we played pool and the crazy Quebecoise girls started a massage line which amused the locals to no end. It amused me as well.

Bernard remained stoic through it all. I asked him what the craziest thing he has seen in his time there and he told me that there has been too much to recount. He has kept track of the number of people who come through and it is around 4.4 million!I really loved this guy. He started out with an ice cream truck and now, four decades later he has watched the world come through his doors without leaving beautiful Quebec. He wore a hockey jersey that said “Mecca” on it, I don’t know if that is a team or not, but I liked it.

This morning we trekeed over to our new friends from the pub and had delicious crepes. Then I did more walking and observing. I find that my mode of travel is different than most, the way I judge cities different from most. For me, it’s not about discos or tourist attractions, instead it is about walking, watching, listening and feeling a place. And there is just something about this place that feels good to a traveler like me.

Really, this bronze breast has the perfect nipple…unbelievable. I love the bronze titties…

Halifax is a good city. Not the best city I’ve ever spent time in, but definitely not a bad place.

Now. That being said, I did find Halifax to be an interesting place filled with great little pubs, scenic views, and tons of nice people. The truth is, I found Halifax to be quite similar to Portland, Oregon. It has the same sort of funky bar vibe, the same sort of college atmosphere, and really about the same climate, plants, and people.

As I’ve said previously, my arrival in Halifax was great because I caught a ride from my new friend Justin, the door man at the pub next to the Hosteling International Hostel on Barrington Street. After eating Chili and hanging out for a while at Justin’s (chili courtesy of his landlord and his Philipina wife), I checked into the hostel. I had high hopes for this place, but to be fair, I have pretty high hostelling standards after traveling in Asia, Europe, and Hawaii. Fact of the matter is that I managed the coolest hostel in Hawaii (The Polynesian Hostel Beach Club) for long enough to know what it takes to make a hostel great.

There are a couple of things 1) The price for a dorm bed should be $25 or less 2) No matter how simple, there needs to be free coffee in the morning and a continental breakfast, even if it is just toast and jam 3) There need to be excursions and events that are reasonably priced and led by dynamic personable people 4) and it has to be in a funky location with a cool vibe that encourages people to hang out 5) Beds and bathrooms need to be clean 6) There needs to be lockers available for each guest in the dorm rooms 7) A completely extrovert staff

This hostel could be great. It’s a funky building in a great location. It is clean. It is comfortable. It has tours and excursions. And the guy who was at the desk when I checked in, Jimmy, was extroverted, nonthreatening and friendly.

On the downside. Base price for a bed in a six bed dorm was $31. There were 3 lockers in the dorm, all of them taken when I arrived. I opted to go on the pub crawl and it was led by an introverted 20 year old German guy who didn’t seem capable of having a conversation who simply walked from pub to pub without enthusiasm. The pub crawl was lightly attended. Myself, the guide, a czech man who left after 10 minutes and 2 very drunk German guests. The guide, in a moment of actually communicating, said to me “I hate these two guys”. That seemed to be all he was willing to converse. He didn’t know the city, didn’t know the history of the pubs, and had nothing to say despite my attempts at opening him up. Now I can usually converse with anyone, no matter how depressed or introverted, but not this guy.

I left the pub crawl when the Germans began approaching every woman they saw and saying “Ve are Germans”. At one point, one of them had a pink balloon tied to his lapel that a woman celebrating her birthday had given him in an attempt to make him leave her alone. He hadn’t understood when she said “Fuck off.” Pretty blunt for a Canadian.

So I went back and went to sleep. Jimmy was working hard to woo a girl in the office so I left him alone and went to Bearly’s the pub next door where there was a karaoke night in full swing. I have to admit, I’ve been to karaoke in a lot of places and Canadians are by far the best singers I’ve heard. One guy did a magnificent Diana Ross and another unlikely looking fat fellow did ACDC better than ACDC. I feel like I’ve already written about this though.

In the morning. No free coffee, no breakfast. No friendly people. Just some very unhappy looking guest/cleaners and a sour looking rocker type at the desk.

Halifax is where the maiden voyage of Titanic really ended, with the most lasting legacy from the sinking located here.

The world was stunned in 1912 by the loss of the liner Titanic on her maiden voyage. Halifax, Nova Scotia, located on the eastern coast of Canada, has one of the most moving and intimate connections with the Titanic disaster, playing a key role during the tragedy’s aftermath and becoming the final resting place of many of her unclaimed victims.

Three Halifax ships were involved in the grim task of recovering victims – many of whom were laid to rest in three of our city’s cemeteries. Rows of black granite headstones, each inscribed with the same date, April 15, 1912, are a stark reminder of the disaster.

I checked out and wandered Halifax in the rain. I found a funky little coffee shop called “Steve-o-renos” and grabbed a thick cup of mud. I sat and chatted with a guest I recognized from the hostel and she recommended a few walks to me.

So then I meandered my way up Garden Spring Street, around the hilltop Citadel, and into the beautiful Halifax Public Gardens. I love public gardens. While this wasn’t a rose garden, still it reminded me of Portland, Oregon’s public rose garden.

At 5 pm I met my couchsurfing host Anna at the Split Crow, which is touted as being the oldest pub in Halifax. In fact though, the Split Crow was the first pub in Halifax, only it was a different place in a different location. This one was started in 1979 with the historic name and very old feel. I’ve been in some old pubs and so either way, it was a pub.

Anna was a great host. The first evening I stayed, she was sick as a dog though and made repeated trips to the bathroom to throw up and complained of a terrible headache. I’m not used to having this effect on people, but she insisted it wasn’t me. I took a walk to the grocery store and bought some vittles and then returned to her place making veal, vegetables, and pasta with sourdough toast smothered in black pepper crusted goat cheese. It was magnificent, unfortunately, due to her stomach, Anna wasn’t able to enjoy it. I made a plate for her and put it in some tupperware so she could enjoy it later if she chose.

The next day was rainy and despite the rain I took a very long walk through parts of Halifax that most visitors probably don’t see.

An odd name, don’t you think?

I ate lunch in the St. Mary’s University dining hall for a very affordable $3.25, walked through the North End, along the inlet, and then back into the Waterfront District stopping to visit the Alexander Keith’s Brewery and bypassing 1000 or so shops set up for visiting baby boomer tourists with cute maritime names and overpriced garbagy products.

Oops. The duck tour/harbor hopper smashed into this little car.

I opted to not take the $20 Brewery tour, having seen plenty of breweries in the past.

Instead I popped into bookstores, and searched without success for second hand shops. I’m sure the second hand shops exist, but I didn’t find them.

Anna on our trip back from Value village. We met up with her friend who had just shoplifted about $100 and spent about $80 in the same place.

Later in the day I went back to Anna’s and then we braved the rain to take the ferry over to what she calls “the dark side’ of Halifax. Our purpose was to visit Value Village where she bought a big collection of tins and jars and I bought a much needed second pair of pants. At this point, it’s fair to point out that my main purchases aside from food and getting from point to point are usually clothes that I need. I left Morocco with four shirts, two pairs of pants, five pairs of underwear, a fleece, and a jacket and my shoes. I return with two pairs of pants (one of them newly acquired a value village), shoes (acquired at the DI in Ogden for $5 when my others wore out), 4 shirts (from the DI and the Senior thrift store in Big Bear), a jacket from a garage sale in Maine (it’s L.L. Bean and it was $3), three pairs of socks bought in Big Bear at Kmart and one pair I brought with me, and a couple of beenies from various thrift stores. I’ve worn out most of the clothes I brought with me and replaced them with second hand clothes along the way…I think this is the way to go rather than traveling heavy.


Anna had made French Toast for lunch and for dinner we had excellent bean burritos. Her mystery illness was totally gone. Probably food poisoning from school she thinks. The weather started to clear up on the ferry ride back to Halifax.

Next morning I woke up, said my goodbyes to Anna, and paid a visit to the Halifax farmers market in the brewery with high hopes but found it to be about the same prices in the store, not too terribly unique, and far too crowded for my tastes. Yes, I admit it, I’ve become a curmudgeonly traveler. I bought a sushi roll and two veggie samosas for the train trip I was about to take and then went to the store where I bought some Halifax apples cheaper than I could have in the farmers market.

Note the very strange happy woman under the free bibles sign

The train trip cost $130 Canadian and was beautiful since the leaves are all turning brilliant shades of red and gold. I tried to take pictures but since the train was in motion, you can see they mostly were only blurred images of color.

At this point, I have to hand it to Amtrak. Via Rail Canada is not as comfortable as Amtrak in the U.S. West. The lack of a sightseeing car, the large hump between seats which makes stretching out on them nearly impossible, and the lack of hand rails to stabilize as one walks through the cars was missed by me.

On the train, I met no one of any interest. A few old women from Moncton were very chatty in French and we talked a bit but overall, it was a chance for me to read Tim Ferris’ excellent book “The Four Hour Workweek.”

I slept poorly and arrived in Quebec City at 6 am the next day. Even though the rain followed me, I can still say, I love this city.

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself..I’ll write about Halifax and the train and more, but first, I must share something wonderful, just in case you have never heard of it.

Poutine. I just had my first at Chez Aston, a fast food Poutine joint. Here is what wikipedia has to say about it:

Poutine (Quebec French pronunciation Pronunciation-of-Poutine.ogg ?puts?n (help·info)) is a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients.

Poutine is a diner staple which originated in Quebec and can now be found across Canada. It is sold by fast food chains (such as New York Fries, Harvey’s, Ed’s Subs), in small “greasy spoon” type diners (commonly known as “cantines” or “casse-croûtes” in Quebec) and pubs, as well as by roadside chip wagons. International chains like McDonald’s, A&W, KFC and Burger King also sell mass-produced poutine. Popular Quebec restaurants that serve poutine include Chez Ashton (Quebec City), La Banquise (Montreal), Louis (Sherbrooke), Lafleur Restaurants, Franx Supreme , La Belle Province, Le Petit Québec and Dic Ann’s Hamburgers. Along with fries and pizza, poutine is a very common dish sold and eaten in high school cafeterias in various parts of Canada.

I had the poutine mini avec sauces picante and I must say that while it looks like a horrible tasting mess…actually, it is …delicious.

The dish originated in rural Quebec, Canada, in the late 1950s. Several Québécois communities claim to be the birthplace of poutine, including Drummondville (by Jean-Paul Roy in 1964), Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Victoriaville.[citation needed] One often-cited tale is that of Fernand Lachance, from Warwick, Quebec, which claims that poutine was invented in 1957, when a customer ordered fries while waiting for his cheese curds from the Kingsey cheese factory in Kingsey Falls (now in Warwick and owned by Saputo Incorporated). Lachance is said to have exclaimed ça va faire une maudite poutine (“it will make a damn mess”), hence the name. The sauce was allegedly added later, to keep the fries warm longer.

And finally…you just gotta love Quebcois.

In a Talking to Americans segment on the television series This Hour Has 22 Minutes during the 2000 American election, Rick Mercer convinced then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush that Canada’s Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, was named Jean Poutine and that he was supporting Bush’s candidacy. A few years later when Bush made his first official visit to Canada, he said during a speech, “There’s a prominent citizen who endorsed me in the 2000 election, and I wanted a chance to finally thank him for that endorsement. I was hoping to meet Jean Poutine.” The remark was met with laughter and applause.

In Quebec, the fact that Russian politician Vladimir Putin’s surname transliterated into French is “Poutine”, has predictably been exploited by various comedians. Another running gag, during the US presidential election, based on the fact that McCain is a brand of fries, was that it would make a “McCain poutine” if he was elected and they met..

it’s quite the Quebec thing. A bit like Loco Moco in Hawaii…but different…same heart attack though.

After Carla dropped me off with my sign and my lunch, I waited for 15 cars and then a very nice lady picked me up. A mother of 3 boys who just got her landscaping license. She drove me to Clare and told me all about Frappe Pie and dropped me off at the place to get it. Frappe pie is made with potatoes, they grind them up, then run them through the washing machine spin cycle to get all the water out of them, after this they cook chicken, quahog, or beef with broth and then make a pie. Lynn, the lady who drove me there, told me it looks like snot but tastes delicious.

Inside, they were out of small pies but the owner gave me a free sample of a chicken one…Lynn hadn’t lied, it looked like snot and it was delicious.

My next ride was a guy who only drove me 2 km but smoked two cigarettes in that distance. He told me about how much he loves the strip bars in Montreal and how he thinks most Quebecois are ignorant.

Then I had to walk for 5k or so. My next ride came out of his house and picked me up at the end of his driveway. He was a wheeler dealer Acadian who mows grass, buys houses, and makes all kinds of deals. He bought a house for $4000 yesterday! Paul drove me almost to the Long Island Ferry intermittently speaking the Acadian language with his lawyer on the phone. Acadian is like French with a Scottish brogue. Interesting language and hard to understand.

It was getting cold and foggy by this point and there was almost no traffic…I thought I had made a mistake and maybe should turn back to Digby but I kept going figuring I would regret not knowing if I would have a great time more than having a bad time…c’est moi.

Next a 74 year old retired fish cutter drove me to the ferry, he slit fish for 46 years! Now he splits wood to keep busy. He said he wouldn’t live in Yarmouth or any town if someone paid him, he hates towns. He pointed out his house and there was a veritable mountain of wood in front of it all apparently split by the axe that leaned against his house.

At the ferry I walked on and rode off with a science teacher who recently retired and now is the eminent environmentalist of Long Island, he told me about geography, flora, fauna, history, and the effects of climate change. He has spearheaded a project called the anti-idle campaign to discourage folks from leaving their cars running.

He dropped me off at the Brier Island ferry where I walked on and met a couple from Ontario, David and Mary, who came here to bird watch, they told me about lots of birds and also that there were no restaurants open on Brier Island. They were right, every restaurant has closed for the season. I was thankful for the lunch Carla had packed for me.

I got to the hostel afraid it would be closed but they gave me a bed, and I had it all to myself. It’s the first time I’ve ever stayed in a hostel where there was no one else. No workers, no attendant, no nothing. Just me. It was like having a great big vacation rental with a big living room, scenic views from the window, and a big private veranda. I checked in at the store and they just let me in and then they left. Not bad for $18. Only down side is no wifi, but what the heck, who needs it! It was nice to have the chance to just sort of sit.

Of course part of the joy of traveling is making friends and so I decided that rather than taking a whale watch cruise by myself and spending $50, then spending another $18 to stay another night, I would head on the next morning. I went, I saw, I slept, and I left.

Beautiful little island. Lots of nature. Not terribly different from the San Juan Islands or the Queen Charlottes on the West Coast though and to be honest, I don’t really have the money to be taking whale cruises. Keep in mind that I’ve seen whales in Hawaii, Washington, and Alaska from yachts, fishing boats, the shore and once even snorkeling…so I skipped it and set out this morning.

I met David and Mary on the way to the ferry and the agreed to take me up to Digby where I could catch the 101 freeway to Halifax or points along the way. They were looking for a little place to buy for a summer house and so I got to spend the morning house hunting with them on Brier and Long Islands. It was fun. I saw parts of the islands I would have otherwise missed…

For instance…I’ve always heard of the Bay of Fundy, but I never knew I would visit it. Now I have. Ah, yes, the Bay of Fundy!

In Digby I checked my email and then caught a ride to the highway from a nice woman named Carolyn. Since no potential hosts had replied to my CS queries along the way, I opted to try to make it to Halifax…I admit it, the countryside was beautiful, but I was bored. I wanted to hang out with people and dig into Nova Scotia’s biggest city.

My train doesn’t leave until Saturday but I’ve found a host starting Thursday. I figured I would find a hostel if I made it to Halifax.

Well it turns out I made it. My first ride was a very cool cat named Justin, a Halifax surfer from Newfoundland and Yarmouth both. On the road we became fast friends and I found out that he is the doorman at a place called Bearly’s which is right next to the international hostel in downtown Halifax.

Justin took me to his place, fed me some chili, and then dropped me at the hostel. Yet another example of how hitching, couch surfing, or hosteling can open the door to friends you wouldn’t otherwise meet…

and at this point, I should make a small note…sometimes in hitching, I don’t want to tell everyone everything about me. I tell a shorthand story of my life that leaves out some of the more interesting facts, like the fact that I am on my way back to Morocco, that I’ve left Hawaii and the United States, and like I’m not sure if I will be going back at all. My shorthand story is that I am a tour guide from Hawaii, it’s the low season, and from Quebec I will be going back to Honolulu to go back to work. I do this because telling more usually raises questions that I am still trying to answer myself or that I don’t know the answer to …

So, along the way, if friendship forms, I usually fess up that there is more to the story, or I share this blog address with my new friends…so, David, Mary, Justin…if you care to dig a little deeper into this blog…you’ll find…the rest of the story!

Thanks for the rides, the company, and the friendship!

It’s morning now and as I look outside at the rain and cold I am glad I listened to my inner voice as it told me to come to Halifax sooner rather than later. First of all, I gained a new friend out of the hitch here and secondly, I hate hitching in foul weather.

As to Halifax, it seems pretty good. Last night I stayed in the Hostelling International Hostel on Barrington Street and I’ve got to say it’s a fairly lame place. The guy at the desk when I checked in, Jimmy, is a pretty nice guy, but the hostel itself is $31 (CAD), more than the hostels in Hawaii and I was surprised this morning to wake and find no free breakfast as most hostels offer, even though this is the most expensive one I’ve stayed in, more than New York, more than Hawaii, more than the places I stayed in in Europe. They even charge .50 for coffee in the morning…

So that’s my gripe about it. Other than that, it’s fine really, clean, centrally located, free wi-fi, and a cool old building. Last night I joined a ‘pub-crawl’ but left it before too long. The other crawlers were two very drunk German fellas and a nice guy from Czech Republic who left early as well. The crawl was led by a shy 20 year old German with premature balding and a very bad haircut. So I ended up coming back to the bar next to the hostel ‘Bearly’s’ where my new friend Justin was the doorman. Pretty funny because it was karaoke night and there were a majority of very talented singers. One big sort of doofy looking guy got up and did ACDC and completely blew it out of the water…he sounded better than ACDC! Then there was the hipster who sang Diana Ross ina style all his own and made it work.

It was an early night for me though and I slept okay in the dorms except for the idiot who set his cell phone alarm and then kept hitting snooze…I felt like punching him, but I didn’t.

As for breakfast, one nice thing about hostels are the kitchens and how guests will leave their extra food behind for others so I was able to cobble together a mushroom, broccoli, and potato scramble that hit the spot. By the way, I didn’t pay for my coffee!

As I wrote previously, in Portland I couchsurfed with my new friends Allison and Kate.

A nice shot of Portland at night.

I met up with her and her boyfriend at her work and then we met her roommate, Kate and we all went out. The next day while they all worked, I walked and took pictures, went to a small free museum, and booked my ferry ticket to Canada. The next morning I woke up early and caught the ferry.

Here is a picture of Kate and Allie!

The ferry was brilliant.

On board there were places to watch movies and big windows to watch the sea. I had hoped to see whales but not this time. I was very happy to be back in Canada until I got to customs. As I wrote previously, the woman there was horrible. She searched all my clothes, searched my computer, read my email, read my journal, and asked me every question in the world six times. They treated me like I was a criminal or a drug dealer and of course I am not, so they found nothing. They didn’t even apologize. It was like being raped I think. Finally they let me go and I met up with my couch surfing host in Yarmouth, Carla. Carla pulled up just as I walked out of the awful building.

Carla (read her blog at http://lifewithyourgogirl.blogspot.com/ )was more than nice and fed me delicious food, took me on bike rides, and since she is a reporter, she took me with her all over Nova Scotia the next day while she took pictures and did interviews.

Yarmouth’s beautiful grey lady has been waiting for me for 150 years.

Yarmouth is an old fashioned kind of place.

Hanging out with Carla was a lot of fun. We had a fire on the night I arrived and ate delicious food she made on it. One of her tenants is a very nice Muslim man from Guinea and so I was able to speak with him in a little Derrija and lots of French and that made me feel closer to home and Hanane in Morocco. I almost felt like I was back in the Souidi house as he and I spoke of how hard Ramadan is when you are the only person observing it. He is the only black person I have seen since coming to Nova Scotia and he told me that he is the only Muslim within about 200 km. It’s a shame that he and I weren’t around each other during the fast, it would have been much better.


In the morning, Carla took me for another bike ride through beautiful Yarmouth and then I went with her on her rounds (she’s a reporter) and got to see schoolkids who made a giant peace sign out of pinwheels (Whirled Peace) in honor of World Peace Day.

Then we toured all over Cape Sable Island and I saw people mowing their lawns

People gathering Irish Moss

Churches being bulldozed

Plenty of lobster boats

And the site of the 1967 Alien Incident


Not to mention the alien.

Carla had to cover a council meeting and so I walked around through Barrington as the sun went down. I like this shot of the bridge there.

After that I watched a movie on my laptop in her car. I was pleasantly surprised when the Warden (like the Mayor I think) had made a delicious blueberry crumble cake and Carla brought me out a piece of it.

The next morning, Carla took me for coffee and a delicious muffin at the Old World Bakery and then I set out on my way with a very cool sign and a lunch she had made me. The sign said Brier Island on one side and “Nice Guy” with a happy face on the other.

It worked wonders…as I will write about in the next post…

This is the lighthouse at the southernmost point in Maritime Canada.

Thanks for everything Carla.