Nova Scotia

It was going to be a 28-hour day, so we thought we would make the best of it. We watched The Hunger Games during the flight and played some cards.

When we arrived in Canada we were pretty nervous about passing customs. In Glasgow we were already interrogated at the check-in desk. They asked simple questions like ‘Where do you live?’ ‘Where will you go?’ ‘How long will you stay?’ and it was really nothing in comparison to what a Mexican lady, just in front of us, got to deal with. But she seemed pretty used to it and advised us to visit Mexico City while her visa was being checked.

It turned out to be quite alright though, the officer was very friendly and wrote ‘007’ on our declaration form, which meant we could enter the country without further questions.

At the airport we got a chicken burger and bought a bottle of water and started hitch hiking along the road. It turned out, the airport isn’t a good area to do so. We got a ride though, from a guy working for the airport, driving something like a golf car. But just to the ramp of the highway to get to Truro.

We stood there for about 2 hours without any luck. We were feeling a bit desperate and decided to walk our way back to Halifax airport and grab a bus ride. We were kind of disappointed and it was getting late already. In Truro there was no other bus going to Economy, the place where our host for the night lives. We walked to a mall where we bought a real expensive prepaid sim card. The salesman, Nick, told us Canada was one of the most expensive countries for mobile data packages. Anyway, since it was getting already late, we didn’t think we would get to Economy anymore, so we asked Nick for a cheap hotel or motel in the neighborhood. He gave us some directions and off we went.

On our way we passed another motel, where a cute little Labrador puppy was playing outside. This motel had no vacancies for the night, but called the other motel nearby if they had a room left. They luckily did. As we went outside a guy pulled over and asked if we were the Belgians who had just stopped at the Bell Alliance store. It seemed we had forgotten our UK sim card. We didn’t really mind, so we thanked the man and I asked him if he wasn’t driving to Economy by any chance. He asked us if we had accommodation there. We did, and Leonard was so kind to take us all the way.

Once we arrived in Economy, our host Larry made us some nice bbq chicken. We enjoyed it very much. Afterwards we went almost straight to bed because we were so tired.

The next day Larry took his almost 7-year-old, Jake, and us for a biking tour to the Kenomee Falls. It was absolutely boiling so we had to stop once in a while. When we came close, we hit the bikes in the bushes and walked to the river where we had a well-deserved refreshing swim on this beautiful hidden place.

When we biked back, we filled our hands with blueberries and ate them all in once. They tasted like the best thing you’d ever have on a hot day: a little sour and sweet at the same time. We also saw our first bear poop! And as it appeared, he had appreciated the blueberries as well.

On the way home, we drove by the Dutch cheese farm where Kevin (the brother of Larry’s wife) works and bought some cheese after having a taste.

At home, Larry prepared his nice chili while Jan played Minecraft with little Jake.

The next morning we wanted buy some food, so Jan and I biked 5 kilometers to the grocery store. We had to conquer a big hill to get there. So we had our workout for the day and after racing the hill down to Larry’s house we enjoyed an ice-cream and went to the Bay of Fundy for a little walk.

In the evening, Kevin brought a movie (the Wave) and we ate some of Jake’s popcorn in exchange for some crisps.

This was our last night with these incredible sweet people. The next morning, we went playing soccer with Kevin, who coaches some local kids. Jan helped him out.

And after a cool shower, we drove off to Moncton.

Kevin and Larry dropped us on a good hitchhiking spot and waved us farewell.