12 June 2006

O, Canada!









Well, I just got back from Canada. Here are some of the pictures.

Prince Edward Island was just BEAUTIFUL! It was calm and quiet and GREEN (oh, the green). All the island is covered in this thick perfectly green grass and red dirt. Not like ugly construction clay that we have here. It's a deep red. The pictures don't do it justice. Although, I do like the one with me starting down the path into the scary Haunted Wood behind Green Gables....oooh!

Here is a list of differences in Canada (or at least PEI) that I noticed during our short stay:

In Canada, they don't give you much ice in your drink, unless you ask for "extra ice" and even then, it's about half of what I'd normally get in a restaurant here.

In Canada, the movies are really expensive ($10, but Canadian, so about $9 American).

In Canada, there are coins for $1 and $2. I understand the $1 "loony" (as they call it), but why $2?

In Canada, the speed limit is posted in kilometers. My husband had some occasional problems with obeying said speed limits, but as we'd often go 10 miles without seeing another car, it wasn't that big of a deal, ehh?

In Canada (or perhaps just PEI) , almost every restaurant serves Pepsi. Blehh. But all the soft drinks came in glass bottles in the store.

In Canada, most of the sinks were stainless steel.

In Canada, "Smarties" (the candy) are chocolate (kind of like M & M's), and there are no M & M's to be found. Also, the Kit-Kat's are different. Don't ask me how. They're just different.

In Canada, on some of the local TV stations, people will just switch back and forth between English and French (and ALL the signs were in both English and French). Very fun.



And funny moment of the trip: Pulling into a gas station to fill up the rental car, I saw the sign that said $1.10, and I said, "DANG, gas is cheap here!" Then, after filling up the car and realizing it was $1.10/liter and not $1.10/gallon, I had to change my comment to, "DANG gas is expensive here."



Interesting things that happened/that I learned on my visit to PEI:
-My husband is able to fly a kite higher than anyone I've ever met before. He must have had that kite up almost 1,000 feet over the ocean.

-The Japanese LOVE Anne of Green Gables. Prince Edward Island is a bit of a pilgrimage to "Anne's home" for many Japanese people. Anne of Green Gables became required reading in their schools after WWII to improve Canadian/Japanese relations.

-That beautiful purple wildflower in the picture at the top is called lupin, and they grow everywhere.

-People on PEI used to use ground up lobster as fertilizer. Not anymore, but Bill and I still ate it every night we were there. Most restaurants have their own lobster traps and harvest their own blue mussels (80% of which worldwide come from little PEI--the mussels, not the lobster).

7 comments:

Superchikk said...

Ah, the land of Anne and Gilbert...tell me more!!!

Karen said...

It was just as L.M. Montgomery described it in the books! I can't think of any other place where you have grass that goes right up to the ocean. Even Bill fell in love with the Island.

Hillary said...

Hee hee, as a Candian (albeit from the other side of the country), I very much enjoyed reading your observations! Um, what are sinks made of where you are? Oh, and the "twonie." Yeah, I don't really know. We used to have $2 bills, but no longer. You have to admit, they ARE cool looking!

Did you buy any crazy Anne of Green Gables braids? When I was in PEI - at at Green Gables - there were Japanese girls wearing them everywehre - big red braids over their jet black hair. IT was pretty funny.

Oh, and your 'smarties?' We call them rockets. And there are TOO M&Ms in Canada! ;)

Glad you enjoyed your trip! ... eh? :D

Cool Girl Rocks! said...

I live in Prince Edward Island. Don't recall seeing you here! ha ha.

There ARE M and M's here. Lots of them. We just like Smarties better.

Its way better here in July and August when you can swim and go out on a fishing boat and fish mackeral.

Most restaurant's DO NOT have lobster traps of their own. That is totally illegal. They buy lobster from the fish plants.

Totally glad you liked it though.

Karen said...

Hillary, most of our sinks are made of porcelain. There are stainless steel sinks, but I'd never seen them in bathrooms. People just use them in the kitchen usually.

We used to have a $2 bill, also. That poor president that was on the $2 bill. That was probably his only claim to fame...see--I can't even remember who it was. And yes, the "twonie" was very cool looking. It was funny--I felt chintzy leaving just coins on the table for tips even though they were pretty good tips.

Didn't buy the Anne braids, but we saw them everywhere! There was actually one hanging on the wall outside our hotel room as decoration. It kind of creeped me out--like a scalped Anne.

I was also happy to see that you can get KinderEggs in Canada. :)

Karen said...

cool girl,
Thanks for "hosting" us! Both Bill and I just fell in love with your Province. We actually looked up real estate prices while we were there.

I think I got confused about the restaurants because each of them said on their menus that the lobster, mussels, etc. came straight from whatever bay we were eating on. The New London Seafood restaurant was my favorite! And Bill's favorite place on the island was New Glasgow.

So can people have their own personal lobster traps that they upkeep?

Shelli said...

Wow...what a cool trip. PEI would never have even dawned on me as a vacation spot...but, it totally looked relaxing and wonderful.

BUT...did you break a chalk board over bills head at one point?