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Photography Index>Nova Scotia, Canada
Scenery: Towns, vistas, etc. Nova Scotia is quite picturesque, even more so than I expected. Its buildings are brightly painted, its churches plentiful and well maintained, its night sky littered with stars. It struck me as a cartoon version of New England sans rusting cars in backyards. From what I saw, I surmised that Nova Scotians truly take pride in their surroundings. Their homes--mostly small cottages--and churches all have beautiful gardens and fresh paint. I instantly fell in love with my first stop, Peggy's Cove, then later checked out real estate prices. Quite affordable but I imagine the taxes are high. Because I didn't venture into the provincial capital city, Halifax, what I saw was quite rural. Travel conveniences like petrol stations are far and few between. One also has to plan a little carefully for meals because many villages/towns don't have any restaurants or grocery stores and, those that do close as early as 8pm. Typical business hours seemed to run 10am to 6pm. It was an early to bed and late to rise culture. This surprised me since the key industries are tourism, fishing, forestry, and coal mining. Aside from tourism, those other industries say "early rise" to me. Nova Scotia also boasts several historic sites that date back to the mid-1600s to 1700s: forts, fur trading posts, shipyards, Mi'kmaq meeting sites, and places of Acadian heritage interest. The first Europeans to settle in Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland) were French (they called it Nouvelle-Écosse). For reasons no one I asked could explain, the French called their western end 1604 settlement "Acadia" so they were henceforth known as "Acadians." I read that their isolation led to development of a unique culture of which their descendents are proud ("crazy Acadians" refers to what is described as fierce tempers). Anyway, in 1620 England's King James I declared all Atlantic shoreline from Virginia to Nova Scotia "New England" even though his closest colony was down in Virginia, Jamestown. (In my mind that's akin to me declaring all apartments in my building Leslieland--rather bold.) This opened the door for the Scots. They tried to settle on the eastern end without much luck. Most of them died. For decades following, Nova Scotia was in a French-English tug-of-war with the English eventually taking over in 1713. Though German Lutherans had begun to settle the south shore, the large, organized French Catholic colony of Acadia threatened the Brits. So, the first order of business under British rule was to expel the French-speaking Acadians (1755). Then they opened the doors to anyone in the American Colonies who were loyal to the British Crown (United Empire Loyalists). One interesting note is that of the 16,000 loyalists who came to Nova Scotia, 3,000 were of African descent. Apparently the Crown promised freedom in Nova Scotia. As nice as the offer was, 1,000 of the 3,000 Africans soon relocated (1792) to Sierra Leone where they established the first self-governed African British colony. The people I met were (mostly) bi-lingual, polite, but not very friendly. Again, they seemed like a caricature of rural New Englanders with whom I am more familiar. Finally, Nova Scotia was trés cher. Service and sales taxes are very high. And frankly, the accommodations (lodging and meals) leave a lot to be desired, especially given their cost. In summary, after four days of touring around mainland Nova Scotia in beautiful weather, I felt I had seen enough: whales, history, lobster fishing, pretty villages, and even a famous 1967 UFO landing site (supposedly the only government documented UFO sighting in North America). My travels are marked by green line below.
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