Island life

Water Street, Charlottetown




Happy staff. My co-volunteers Mel, Ali, Rachel, and JeongKyu. At Merali Fest we said farewell to Mel, Rachel, and Ali: 70s rock music, Anne-of-Green-Gables costumes, pool billiard, and vegan nachos with cake in our hot party garage.




Orwell Corner

A ceilidh is a mixture of Irish/Scottish music and dance performances. Sometimes it's called a kitchen party. Parts are organized, others improvised. The audience participates.
Together with Monique, a music teacher from Calgary, I went to join a ceilidh in the heritage village of Orwell Corner. We had a great mixture of vocal harmonies, fiddles, accordeons, step dance, stories, jokes, rhymes, riddles, square dance. Not to forget about ice-cream and lemonade.






Jessica is a Canadian vagabond. She came around with her mandoline, looking for a place to crash. One lazy afternoon, her delightful bluegrass tunes filled our back yard.





road trip...


...with Jana, a local couchsurfer, and Brock, her friend from Australia...


along the northern shore of Prince Edward Island,


...beautiful beaches, aaaaand


...Confederation Bridge





Victoria-by-the-Sea



Safe!

Right after my arrival on Prince Edward Island, an older gentleman explained to me, he'd never live anywhere else than here. "The Island is the safest place in Canada", he said, not even considering any other nation on this planet.

I think he's right. After three police encounters within one month, I'm almost scared by the safety of this place. - Noooo! Maria did not get any more criminal than she's always been. The first time, I was on a dirt road in a friend's car. Very suspicious. The second friendly cop, I met for not wearing a shirt at the beach. Illegal in what I learned was a public park. The third time we were sitting on a friend's roof top, watching shooting stars. Those two young police men were concerned about our bones and, thus, needed our personal data. Obvious, no?

Apparently, safety is a major concern. Not only on Prince Edward Island. But is it worth all this? How about freedom? risk? adventure? life?



Scary Bill

The local newspaper The Guardian is going crazy about hurricane Bill that's gonna hit the Island on Sunday. On Thursday, Bill's eye was more than 800 km south of Bermuda. Before the storm reaches Atlantic Canada, the cold ocean will have weakened it a lot. I don't think we get any more than winds and a lot of rain in Charlottetown.
However, in case my flight on Monday gets cancelled, I'll let you know!





Johnny and Marie-Pierre brought me to Basin Head for bridge jumping. FUN!


Once up there, we had a peek at East Point.


an Islander on edge



Arts

Movie nights in Lindsey's back yard have been awesome: a bed sheet down the balcony, a projector connected to her notebook, some popcorn, some beer, and many cosy blankets on the gras. One time we crafted paper-maché lanterns before the show. Another time we cooked yummy Mexican food which I can't recall the name of now.
Great stuff! Watching some special (local) films and meeting all these artsy people of Charlottetown.