From Halifax to Toronto

Leaves turn to red, the nights are getting colder,
Seasons will change, the clock ticks on…
Leaves fill the trees as the days are getting warmer,
Days turn to years, the clock ticks on…

And though the clock ticks on to the future
It's in the past my heart will stay
In a land so far away from me
I'll return someday...

Blackmore's Night

So I spent my last three weeks in Canada with my two friends from Munich. It was a great time and we had a lot of fun together despite some difficulties (illness, power outage, disagreements). However, I have to admit that it wasn't always easy for me (and I suspect that it was sometimes the same for the other two), because I had been really completely alone with myself for the four months before (except for a few days) - and now I was suddenly with two people 24 hours a day who I really liked (and still like!), but it was just a change.

We met on September 3rd. in Halifax and first picked up our rental car together - a gray Dodge Caravan (so I finally drove in such a car; if I was already in North America, then it had to be ;-)). Since it was raining that day, we left Nova Scotia without having seen anything and drove to our first stop in New Brunswick: Economy. There we visited the Five Islands Provincial Park and stayed in a slightly creepy BnB - the decor was very old-fashioned, kitschy and almost baroque in its exuberance, but the landlord couple were very nice and the breakfast (pancakes with maple syrup and bacon) was the most delicious thing we got on this trip :-) The next day we hiked the Economy Trail that led to a gorgeous red beach where, since the tide was out, we could walk around and take far too many photos of the fascinating holed rock formations . Then we went to Prince Edward Island, where we spent two days and explored all the beaches in the national park, which surprised us with beautiful, huge dunes and red sand. After that, unfortunately, the first of us got sick (we all got sick one by one... ;-) and we felt the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. At the time we were driving from Moncton to Alma (on the Bay of Fundy) and it was storming and raining heavily. We fled to our motel early in the afternoon and wanted to have a comfortable rest day there with tea, games and heating, but we had hardly arrived when the electricity went out. Throughout the small town. So for dinner we had the yoghurt actually intended for breakfast and when dusk set in we escaped from the darkness and cold to bed after a cat wash. Most of our warm clothes got wet that day and only dried slowly over the next few days. The next morning we at least got hot tea and muffins for breakfast at a gas station and used the day to hike in Fundy National Park on the few walkable trails. There, too, we found many fallen trees and saw waterfalls in places where there usually aren't any.

Then it was on to St Martins where we happened to have timed it right so we could walk to the amazing sea caves at low tide. All we had to do was wade barefoot through two extremely cold, knee-high and slippery tidal creeks with sometimes strong currents, but we managed to do this without even getting our last dry clothes wet. In St. Andrews we made the last stop at the Bay of Fundy and took part in a 3-hour whale watching tour on a catamaran. In addition to some seals and many dolphins (which somehow nobody seemed to be interested in), we saw some minke whales, two fin whales, which we were able to observe for a long time, and even a sunfish, which you really only get extremely rarely in front of the lens!

After that, we soon left the province of New Brunswick and entered the province of Québec, where French is the main language spoken and all street signs and other signs are in French. But with English you get along quite well everywhere and the little bit of French that I had stuck with from school also helped. However, when you enter a restaurant, you should make it clear that you want an English menu, otherwise you will be served mercilessly in French...

In the Parc National du Bic on the Saint Lawrence River, we hiked the bay with the wonderful name Baie du Ha! Ha! along. And in the Parc National de la Mauricie we enjoyed the beginning of autumn, but unfortunately we didn't experience the real Indian summer as we imagined it, we were still a little too early with our vacation for that.

In addition to our many hikes, a few city visits were also announced. Québec enchanted us with its beautiful old buildings and small winding streets, which give it a certain European flair. We didn't like Montreal that much, because although there were also beautiful old buildings to be seen here, it seemed a bit cramped with the addition of skyscrapers. Ottawa, the capital of Canada, on the other hand, has a nicer, more balanced mix of old and new buildings in my opinion and seemed more spacious to me.

Ottawa is on the border of Québec and Ontario and there we entered the last province of our road trip, Ontario. We started in Algonquin Provincial Park, where we did some hiking and canoeing. Since none of us had ever been in a canoe before and took a three-person canoe (three single canoes would have been the better choice in that case...), the whole thing was a bit adventurous. It took us a while to get the canoe going in the right direction (more badly than right), but then we were able to explore a little bit more of the lake than we had thought after our initial and ongoing difficulties and were very proud of us at the end that we had managed not to capsize ;-)

After these last few days in nature, we went to Toronto, our very last stop on this trip. Toronto is really big and with all the surrounding cities, the populated area in the area is huge, which is especially noticeable when driving around there. Which honestly isn't a good idea unless you absolutely have to. The abundance of highways there is unbelievable, sometimes there are 16 lanes next to each other through all the incoming and outgoing highways. Even the navigation system loses track ;-) There is insane traffic at all times of the day and night and the fact that you can overtake on the right is also not helpful. In addition, there are a lot of extremely inconsiderate drivers on the road, which is why I was really happy every time I got through there accident-free... But I think Toronto itself is very nice. Although there are of course many skyscrapers and a lot of tourists around, it didn't seem so cramped to me, even compared to Vancouver. The Harbourfront right in the center and the islands area in front of it are really impressive and from the boat you have a beautiful view of the skyline. Of course we also went to Niagara Falls and I have to admit that they are really gigantic and impressive. You simply have to hide the streams of tourists or push your way through there very resolutely so that you can also find a good place to take photos. Right next to the falls is an entertainment district reminiscent of Las Vegas with its many hotels, casinos, other gambling and entertainment facilities and colorful neon signs.

On 22.9. My two girlfriends flew home from Toronto and a few days later I flew - not home, however, but to Iceland, where I had a 5-day stopover on my own before I had to return home and to reality completely. Of course, saying goodbye to Canada was difficult – I experienced so much more here than I expected and this vast, beautiful and incredibly diverse country stole my heart in more ways than one. But I know that I will come back at some point - after all, I haven't seen all of Canada by a long shot ;-)