At the risk of jinxing it all, it appears the rough seas and Dramamine-popping might be behind us. The swells seemed rather pedestrian to look at, but this is the smallest ship I've vacationed on so apparently size does matter. Things were so sway-y, I actually popped a Dramamine while on land in Halifax. It seemed the wharf just wouldn't stop bobbing. For the curious, Dramamine in Canada is sold as “Travel Tabs/Comprimés de Voyage.” And we weren't the first Americans in port today to ask for it at the local pharmacy. I am now fully stocked for my next boat trip.
Today was spent in Sydney. The Canadian one. Which is probably about as far away from the larger, more notable Australian one as you can get. It seems the two towns have little in common, aside from a British influence. However, this being Nova Scotia, the C(or K)eltic flavor dominates the Canadian Sydney. It really is too bad I don't like tartan since I could have packed my suitcase with all variety of blue and green plaid pot holders, aprons, hats, scarves, and tea cozies. Instead, I have a cool glass necklace from a local artist and a tippy floaty pen commemorating Alexander Graham Bell's hydrofoil.
Yes, that Alex Bell was quite the inventor. It was just the telephone that brought him fame and an audience with presidents and Helen Keller. It seems he loved Cape Breton Island (on which Sydney is the largest town), so Alex and his wife built a mansion on a lake and he frolicked about town with his many inventions. The family eventually donated a bunch of personal artifacts which are now housed in a museum in a nearby village named Baddeck. It was a terribly interesting way to spend an afternoon.
Rob and I are coming to the conclusion that we quite like this end of the world. The people are friendly, the scenery is soothing, the pace is breathable. Prior to our excursion to the Bell Museum, we poked around downtown Sydney. We were quickly chatted up by a local historian bent on saving an old stone church outside of town. He gave us a newspaper article and an email address and implored us to email him photos of the beloved church as taken by a tourist on a cruise ship in hopes of drumming up local support. I'll weed through my 26 church photos when we get home.
After hunting down free Wi-fi (dedicated blog to come), we found some fabulous pizza to go at the edge of town. As we waited for our slices to cook, I peered into the kitchen to see a little old gray haired lady stirring pots of tomato sauce on a stove. The pizza tasted every bit of homemade that that image promised. We enjoyed our lunch on some sidewalk benches and had several locals thank us for bringing the sun with us. They obviously didn't know our travel history.
After lunch and our acquisition of the terribly inexpensive Comprimés de Voyage, we walked through a crafts fair targeting cruisers. We had a great time chatting with a couple of local glass artists about their techniques and the challenges of trying to turn a hobby into a mortgage-paying venture. If we'd had some with us, I'm certain we could have bartered wine for glass art.
Even though the intent of our day was the scenic drive to Baddeck, both Rob and I agreed at dinner that our favorite part of the day was just wandering around the unforced quaintness of Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Photo count: 164. Dramamine count: 5
2 comments:
May we see a pic of the cool glass necklace, please? Glad things are sunny and fun!
I'll post a pic of the necklace when we get home; I'll do an album on Facebook. :-) Oh, and the cruise line is Holland America.
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