In October, we took a trip to Halifax and around Cape Breton. The trip was specifically for the fall colours, and the trees did not disappoint. The colours were pretty similar to what we see in Vancouver right now, but there was something like a digital detox in seeing a sea of multicoloured trees stretching into the distance. Coincidentally, the Celtic Colours festival was taking place, and we were lucky enough to catch a couple of shows in Chéticamp, an area where Acadian French is commonly spoken.
The shows were all pretty packed, and about 50% of the performances were in French. I didn’t really understand what was being said, but they did provide some translations before the songs. In these rural towns, where a grocery store might close at 5 p.m., it was shocking to see completely sold-out shows at some of the venues. I kind of wondered, where did all these people come from?
At the Chéticamp Visitor Centre, we picked up a craft trail map that showed us the locations of craft shops along the drive. On our drive from Chéticamp to Ingonish and back to Halifax, we broke up the journey by stopping at many of these shops. In the summer, Cape Breton gets very busy and, from talking to the locals, can be kind of a zoo. It was nice travelling in the shoulder season, as we got to chat with many of the shop owners since we were often the only visitors there.
One of our stops was Wild Fire Pottery.
A jarring thing was how incredibly friendly and warm people in the Cape Breton area were. When we arrived, the owner welcomed us, asked how we were doing, inquired about our holiday, and then asked where we were from.
In contrast, I wouldn’t say Vancouver is the warmest of cities. Everybody is polite, but it still has a big-city or medium-city vibe, where people pretty much keep to themselves and mind their own business, for better or worse.
Sarah, the owner, told us that she was originally from BC and had hitchhiked her way across the country, using a combination of trains and other modes of transportation. She had also brought her fiddle along and eventually settled in Cape Breton. She was married, then divorced, and her ex-husband still lived nearby, but they remained on good terms.
The front of the shop was super cool, with glazed tiles featuring ears, puffins, and foxes, representing much of the wildlife seen in the area. In the back was a pretty random assortment of books, almost like a mini bookstore.
The next day, we visited the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Since I recently became a Canadian citizen (separate post on that later), I was able to use the Canoo app to get in for free.
The tour began with an elderly lady who seemed rather frail and was wearing a mask, perhaps because she had a cold or something. She talked about the history of Pier 21 and how 870,000 immigrants passed through between 1928 and 1971. This was one of the key ports of entry for people crossing the ocean from Europe, many of whom were fleeing war, famine, and persecution.
She talked about the importance of the building and pointed out where immigrants had entered, slept, and been processed.
There was a sadness in her voice as she retold the stories and trials of immigrants who had come through those doors. She also shared stories of immigrants who had returned to visit Pier 21, almost as a pilgrimage and a reminder of where they came from.
One woman told a story about how she and her mother had passed through Pier 21 when she was a young child. As she talked to the guides, she realized that she was actually in one of the huge photographs hanging on the wall!
The tour was particularly poignant because our guide didn’t simply explain what had happened; she was a keeper and teller of stories. There was a powerful presence in the way she spoke, and how she allowed silences to fill the room after dropping an emotional heartbeat for us to dwell on.
When my parents came to the USA as refugees after the Vietnam War, they passed through Camp Pendleton in San Diego. I wondered, if there were a museum there, would my parents want to revisit that part of their history?
The week before, while in Halifax, we visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The museum covered sailing, steamships, ocean liners, shipwrecks, naval history, and the era of steam. It was interesting to see a whole museum dedicated to maritime history, including an era that has largely disappeared. At the time, steam power really transformed the world by allowing ships to cross oceans faster than before, but it also displaced industries and livelihoods.