Tuesday, September 03, 2019

East Coast: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (Day 6)

Continued from Day 5 ...


Confederation. 

The word seems a tad overused when you are in PEI.

The Confederation Bridge. The Confederation Centre of the Arts. Confederation Bakery.

And then ... on the sign of Charlottetown, the capital of PEI - birthplace of the Confederation.

There is no doubt that PEI plays up its role in the founding of the modern nation of Canada.


Another good thing of PEI being a small province is that road trips does not take long. We were in Cavendish, and we were going to Charlottetown today. The trip took 30 minutes. And that was because the highway speed limit was 80 km/hr.

Charlottetown is the biggest city in PEI. You know it's big when you see a Walmart and other big box stores. It also has a historic downtown section with lots and lots of old buildings. Government House is one of them. It is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor. It is open to the public for free guided tours during the summer.


If you think the design reminds you a bit of the White House in USA, you are not alone. Looks like this design was pretty popular during that time period.

As I said, Charlottetown really plays up its role in the Confederation, and you see statues of the "founding fathers" in many places. This one is of John A. MacDonald (the first Prime Minister of Canada) .


Now I only 2 of the above three, and I can tell 
you they were very, very good!

An open air street play being performed in front
of the Confederation Centre of the Arts


The Canada flower

One of the coolest things to see near Province House (which is sadly under renovations at the moment) is the exhibition recreating the table at which the founding fathers of Canada sat, discussed and eventually agreed to form the country we know today as Canada.




You will not see Ontario or Quebec there. You will see Canada West and Canada East. Canada West, previously known as Upper Canada, formed one-half of the British colony of the Province of Canada. After Confederation it changed its name to Ontario. And Canada East? Lo! That became Quebec.


And of course someone made the Province House using Lego as well!


Now I normally would not think of highlighting an Indian restaurant on a trip to Prince Edward Island, but we suddenly spotted this place while looking for a place to eat. On inquiring, we were told that the lamb is halal (probably because it was from New Zealand). So we decided to eat here.


Lamb biryani, lamb karahi and lamb korma. Oh my God it was so delicious! Hot and spicy without being overwhelming and so full of flavour! If you are in Charlottetown you must check out this place, and do ask about halal as it may have changed in the meantime since this blog post.

After lunch and some rest, it was time to take a quick tour of a couple of beaches.

The singing sand beach - where the sands 
make a squealing sound if you rub against it

The iconic red sands of PEI

Overall, our time in PEI was one we would look back on fondly. It was a small province, but very beautiful, with great food, atmosphere, beaches and lots of things to do outdoors. My only regret is that we only allocated two days for this province. 

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