Travel, 50+, Canada

"Oh, Canada! Canada is great. Where did you go? Toronto?" "No." "Vancouver?" "No." "Uh, Montreal?" "No." "Uhhhhhhhh, the capital?" "No." "Anyway, Canada is great!" (moving on to quickly switch the topic) A-and this is pretty much most of the conversations between myself and the people who hear that I've been to Canada. Ice Hockey folks may offer a couple more cities. Some people will add a repetitive "eh" and "a-boot", if they fancy themselves funny. While Canada is, clearly, very successful in branding the country, they have dropped the ball when it comes to branding their cities.

Out of all the famous Canadian cities and towns, I first landed at St. John's, Newfoundland. It seemed to be a place popular among whales and watchers of the whales. Yet, somehow, I managed to be the only one who got out of the airport here. Even the locals were a tad shocked. Even the Irish family they celebrated in the airplane (for successfully moving to Canada, there was a big celebration with the airplane staff as MC) just shook their head and moved on to wherever their next flight was leaving.

I don't know. Maybe it's the accent. You might argue that "Canadians don't have an accent, they sound just like Americans", which many have done. They haven't been to Newfoundland, the Scotland of Canada (unlike the "New Scotland", which is more like US-England of Canada). Maybe it's the attitude. Newfoundland is the snarky post-Soviet East Europe of Canada. Maybe it's the things to do being limited. I rambled around, looking for whatever people do out here. Besides nature and the colorful wooden buildings, it was a bit of a mystery what's the thing for the locals here, so I went down to the tourist info with an inquiry.

First of all, they were shocked to see someone there. The info was a big empty space with two workers looking like I caught them with their pants down, which, to be fair, might as well have been the case. I never peeked under the desks. They stared at me, I stared at them... and greeted with a toothy "Hello." to which they replied with looks being exchanged between themselves. Soon after the greeting rituals, we were brainstorming, trying to figure out what to do in and around town. Faces red, dripping with sweat over the effort, the info folks came up with "You could go and see the icebergs. There's no one here, but it's the iceberg season, so maybe you can book a cruise, but there's no one else here, so it might be expensive..."

But there's no one here... which in a way was nice. I could go around and see the nature, the wooden buildings and whatever was free of charge to see and not a single person would bother me. There were not even that many locals on the move, while they were definitely on the move. Every time I heard anyone speak, they were discussing leaving the area. Work, money, things seemed to be hard.

I opted to move a few coins in the hunt for the legendary Canadian 50 cent coin. I went from place to place and I guess I'm not a good hunter. No luck. Even at the restaurant, I specifically requested for "two coins of fifty cents" back. This threw the server into a dumbstruck confusion. There is a ... 50 cent coin? She went on to have a lengthy debate with a colleague and in the end, she brought me back $2.50. I was not supposed to get above $2 back.

One could say she deserved the lack of tip. Not only because of the failed calculations, but because of the weird behavior. This server brought me the food and just, as I later found out, lurked behind my back. I was writing things down on my little travel booklet for a while. Then, the second I grabbed the food, she jumped out and loudly demanded "Well!? Is it good!?" At this point, I had not tasted a crumb and nearly slapped the gourmet up my nostril over the start. What's with the weirdness and desperation? And it was not only this place.

Atlantic Canada was clearly down. I had people in the post office beg coworkers to allow them to sell a couple of stamps to "meet a quota or get fired". In public. And this is not now, this is years ago. I almost fear what has happened to people here since I left. They've probably been exchanged with Indians and a Tim Horton's per square meter (if the rumors are true). We come back to Canada and their PR. Both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were beautiful. Both Halifax and St. John's were good bases for exploring their respective islands. These places could be packed full of tourists. Yet there was nearly nobody there to explore it all. Which, on the other hand, was highly convenient for me. It was all of the Atlantic Canada, just for me.

The Judgment:
Canada was fine. Even with the weird Atlantic undercurrents of the affordability and employment panic, Canada delivered sights and an overall polite experience. It came with a cost. Canada is painfully expensive. Not too far from Icelandic, Norwegian or Swiss prices. maybe even above in some cases. And tipping... I hate tipping as a habit. If it were up to me, this slavery remainder would be outlawed as "a cultural habit" or something that's forced upon people (oh, sorry, it's in the machine and we "cannot" change it). In my world, the only acceptable tipping is when the customer does it out of their own volition to reward a genuinely good service. And where customer decides the percentage. I always thought it's the US slave owner types pushing this, but the Canadians take it as a competition for sure. Despite this one financial nag, I can recommend Canada for whoever can afford it. At least the areas I visited were safe and a decent choice for people of all ages. Nature lovers and city haters shake hands in victory over there. Solo travelers and introverts will enjoy this area for sure. Except for those group cruises for whale or iceberg watching.

Would I go again? Yes. If I can afford it.