A nice shot of Portland at night.
I took the ferry from Portland, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. I was sad to leave Portland, but happy to be heading to Canada. I woke up early, said goodbye to Kate and Allison (my hosts in Portland) and then caught the ferry.
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 Arabic 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.
(Originally published 23 SEP 2009)
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About Vago Damitio
Vago Damitio (@vagodamitio) is the Editor-in-Chief for Vagobond. He jumped ship from a sinking dotcom in 2000 and decided to reclaim his most valuable commodity, time. He bought a VW bus for $100, moved into it and set out on a journey to show the world that it was possible to live life on your own terms. That journey took him from waking up under icy blankets in the Pacific Northwest to waking up under palm tress in Southeast Asia. Three years later, his first book, Rough Living: Tips and Tales of a Vagabond was published. After diving into the Anthropology of Tourism and Electronic Anthropology at the University of Hawaii (with undeclared minors in film and surf) he hit the road again in 2008. Since that time,he's lived primarily in Morocco and Turkey, married a Moroccan girl he couchsurfed with, and become a proud father. He's been to more than 40 countries, founded a successful online travel magazine (this one!), and still doesn't have a boss. Life is good. You can also find him on Google+ and at Facebook
Muito interessante… Parabens pelo site. =]