four years later...

ok, maybe not quite four years, but i definitely have some things to catch up on.

i stopped writing in halifax...

after chilling out with our wonderful host in halifax (including a very rainy and very canadian canoe ride on his lake) we ran off with his car and explored cape breton. we drove all day along a beautiful coastline, ate dinner on a cliff overlooking the sunset on the atlantic, slept on a parking lot (and were too scared even to go out to pee), gawked at two "schools"? of whales, drove more and arrived back tired but ready to party in halifax. there we headed to a couchsurfing party and danced into my birthday. the next day, after a loooooong sleep, james took us watertubing with his jetski - sooo much fun!

after halifax we headed to charlottetown on prince edward island (our motto was "a new province every day"). we stayed with another very gracious surfer and went to a concert where she was guitarring and singing. we hitchhiked out to the red cliffs (past anne's gables) to admire the view and meandered around town (pretty, touristy and cutesy, with not enough grocery stores but helpful bus drivers). i was still feeling the aftereffects of the must and dust in halifax, and my nose was stuffy and my eyes burny for a couple more days.

next province: new brunswick. we arrived in saint john where our hosts picked us up from the bus station and were confused that people even want to come there. saint john is quite industrial, with a huge paper mill and many other big things all owned by irving (the name is EVERYWHERE... all gas stations are owned by them, they basically control the city through the employment they offer and even a small national park that we visited was named after them). we had a good time, tho, exploring the windy city and trying to figure out ways of only walking downhill.

next province: quebec. although in quebec we made an exception and visited both quebec city and montreal (ahh, twice the same province!). french, clearly. and cute. and pretty. and europeanish (as european as canada can get, i guess). we arrived in quebec at the same time as celine dion, although unlike her we didnt have millions of fans waiting for us (and clogging up busses!). arrived in montreal we could finally relax - i had seen it before and vor lena it was just a little appetizer of what was to come. so we slept a lot in m-france's beautiful apartment, ate sushi, wandered, drank wine, and slept more.

last stop: toronto. my friends are such amazing people and i miss them so horribly. we had a big goodbyenadja/welcomebacknicole - party, where i got to see almost everyone a final time. we then headed to anf's house to "sleep", which never happened, and we ended up watching videos from cuba all night instead. the escort to the airport the next day was also very touching and heart-wrenching.

so canada is over, for now. toronto is a wonderful city with amazing people that made my year a fantastic experience, and i'm missing them all... :)

and this is the trip, in summary:

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