Canadian Observations

These are the things about Canada that we found silly/funny/interesting during our trip out East:

— Every province has their own moose and deer crossing signs. It was interesting to see the difference between the signs as we went from one province to another. No moose crossing signs in PEI, though.

— I thought I was only imagining it when I first read it on a road sign, but apparently there really is a place called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Quebec (see the photographic evidence).

— There are more French-speaking regions in Eastern Canada than you think. Some of them are pretty hardcore in their frenchness (is that a word?).

— Troy almost brought me across the border to Maine by accident. Luckily, I noticed a sign facing US-side which said “Custom”. That was when we realised it was a border crossing point.

— Camping on top of the Appalachian mountain range inside a non-waterproofed tent isn’t really all that fun and exciting.

— Canadian bugs are FIERCE!

— Nova Scotians pronounce the word interesting ‘inteRESting’. It’s kind of interesting.

— I didn’t get stared at until we got to Quebec City (our last stop before we went home). Every time I entered a room, all eyes would be on me. I almost thought I was a celebrity!

— Storekeepers in PEI, or at least in Charlottetown, don’t seem to be too crazy about tourists.

— Americans are all over the Eastern Canada.

— Apparently, if you put an American flag in front of your business, you’re guaranteed to get a lot of American customers.

— The people of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia really need to get creative and start selling t-shirts that say “I Was Shagged by Aliens in Shag Harbour” (read this page for context). All we could find there was a public toilet, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

— Speaking of public toilets, Atlantic Superstore is your friend. When other businesses failed to provide us with a public toilet, Atlantic Superstore never did.

— Troy visited so many public toilets during our trip that I had to suggest that he wrote a book called The Washrooms of Canadian Maritime. It would be kind of like The Bridges of Madison County, only less cheesy and with more toilets. And printed in Comic Sans.

— Irving owns Eastern Canada, but mostly Saint John, New Brunswick where they own everything from gas stations to bakeries.

— Souvenirs from Eastern Canada cost an arm and a leg.

— Vietnamese cuisine is unknown in Eastern Canada. We coudn’t find any Vietnamese restaurant until we got to Montreal, Quebec on our way back. And we didn’t even stop there. I felt so deprived.

— People in Quebec like to put big things on top of their barns. Those things range from a life-size cow statue to a tractor.

— If you go East, you won’t see too many police officers after Quebec (if any). No mounties, either.

— In New Brunswick, we passed the hometown of a Canadian Idol competitor, Casey LeBlanc, who apparently got eliminated last week. We wouldn’t have known about that fact hadn’t they put up posters showing support all over the place.

— You won’t find too many gas stations or places to eat in PEI outside the major tourist areas.

— If I had to describe PEI in two words, those words would be “new potatoes”. New potatoes everywhere!

— We saw dolphins, seals, and deer in their natural habitats, but sadly no whales or moose.

— We drove over 5,000 kilometers during our two weeks of honeymoon. Had we driven the distance in Europe, we would’ve travelled through a bunch of countries! Maybe next time. 🙂