Mar sin leibh - Scottish gaelic for Good-bye.

Heading out of Nova Scotia tomorrow -- very rainy and gray today. Puttered around getting things organized to send off via post (too much fabric and yarn I'm afraid!). Then walked to downtown Dartmouth. This place is so different from downtown Halifax. I walked by what appeared to be a soup kitchen...a line of people waiting outside with bags and personal items. One guy was swearing at someone down the road telling them to "Go back to the States if you can't give me even a loonie!" (note: a loonie is a dollar coin here, a toonie is a two dollar coin). He brushed by me without really noticing me. I'm wearing typical Penny attire (orange tie-dye shirt and jeans that have gotten too big) so I must not look like a tourista so he didn't ask me for money.

A block further down I saw some older men sitting on a stone wall smoking a cigarette between them. Tobacco is very expensive here (Over $11!) so I guess they are sharing the expense. They were sitting outside a Tim Horton's (chain eatery with homemade pastries and deli sandwiches) watching the people going in and coming out with bags of food and hot cups of tea. As I walked by one of the guys looked up and smiled at me. It changed his whole face from one of no hope to one of its not so bad, at least its not raining and I'm sharing a cig with some friends. I called out good day, how are you? (from a safe distance, really) and he answered, fine, a good day for tea and told me I should have a nice walk.

I didn't know if I should offer money as it might be rude. They didn't have a pot out or anything (I saw some in Halifax yesterday where people sat and played for music or told tales and they had money pots in front of them). He didn't ask either. I had a couple of toonies in my pocket for my own lunch but kept walking. When I got to the ferry, I turned back and looked. He was still watching me so I headed back up the street and silently held out 2 of the toonies and he took them with a nod of thanks. Then I headed back down the street and found myself here at the libary to think it all through.

I have spent 2 weeks in a foreign country that didn't seem so foreign to me. The english dialect was a bit different from mine sometimes (and you know how I oddly start picking up accents and dialects? Was confusing even me when I spoke!). The food was similar except I had seafood almost every day and tried things like Rappie (meat pie), oatcakes, King Cole Tea, Flaky, Seaman's Pie, Pinteune and Rabble. The music was familiar because of my Dad's love for the Cajun music and mine for bluegrass/folk. But there weren't huge pockets of wealthy people or even upper middle class. Sure, one place we stayed the people seemed very upper middle class in their tastes and manners, but for the most part we have interacted with common folk like us. People trying to make a living and finding good in life.

Parts of Cape Breton were very much tourist spots but here and there were small towns with stores that we stopped in to buy biscuits or tea or coffee and chat with the locals. Baddeck was truly a tourist spot when I was there so I enjoyed hanging out at the Gaelic college instead talking to the pipers and workers there and learning about the history of St. Ann's, Tartans, Clans. Or sitting on the porch, crocheting a scarf and watching the Cape Breton lands. Or searching out some local music.

Newfoundland seemed the most simple to me. A few small villages strung together to make a living at fishing. Some of their people have jobs outside of Nfld and travel home every once in a while. A hard place to live yet it seemed it was more full of life.

So coming to Halifax/Dartmouth was a bit hard for me. I spent the day immersed in tourist stuff and although I found refuge in a few places (the park for lunch and the museum checking out the explosion of 1917 while the rest of the tourists oohed and ahhed over the Titanic stuff), I still felt I was in a tourist place. Not a real city or real people.

So the walk about this morning around Dartmouth was good for me. Showed me the side most tourists don't see or want to see. That no matter where we travel in the world, there are still forgotten people. People who are lost in some way whether they no longer have a safe place to stay, food to eat or a job to get them those things. People who may have chosen to forgo medications because it bothers them, makes them feel weird and they feel 'normal' without it. Perhaps some of the people I saw today just don't have the advocate to speak for them whether its for better meds, a home, a job or some food.

So, that is enough somber stuff on a gray and rainy day in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Tomorrow I go home and see my family, friends and my very missed cat, Sassy. I will have shipped the few souvenirs I bought for them and the tartan and yarns I bought for my winter projects so my suitcase will just be filled with the usual dirty laundry, stray flyers and unused swimming gear (way too chilly). Oh! And the much used and loved walking stick!

Pictures will be posted on this blog later and I'll finish out my personal travel journal with last minute memories of places visited and recipes swapped. And although I have been to the 'rock' (nickname for Newfoundland), seen a tidal bore, visited a ton of museums, got my fix of the Halifax Explosion of 1917 and learned about Celidihs and Newfies and a smattering of Gaelic, I think it most fitting that one of my last encounters on this trip was with a group of older gentleman sitting on a curb sharing a cigarette and wishing for a spot of tea.

Some of these posts have been long winded, I know, but I hope you have enjoyed them at times. Thinking I might go to the Peace Pavillion as my last tourista spot. Some youth set it up a few years back -- asked countries to send rocks for their collection as a sign that we are all from the same rock (earth I suppose). Or I might go have some tea and an oatcake for lunch with my leftover toonie and finish the last of the postcards.

See ya'll soon. Tha mi gad iondrainn! (Miss you!)
Penny