Learn About Cape Breton's Rich Coal Mining History

Cape Breton has a long history of coal mining and that history is showcased at the Glace Bay Miner's Museum.  The unique thing about this museum, besides the interesting exhibits, is visitors can tour a real mine and see what it was like to work underground in those damp, harsh conditions. 

The Glace Bay Miner's Museum

The Men of Deeps is made up entirely of former coal miners.  This world-renowned choir occasionally performs at the museum and in other venues around the island. 

Routine is Good...Until it's Not

As I sat looking out the window this morning drinking coffee and listening to tropical rainforest sounds as heavy snow fell to the ground outside, I realized something; I haven't traveled outside of the country since I went to Scotland in September of 2016!

This realization might have been brought on by the fact that I am usually sitting on a beach somewhere tropical this time of year but, alas, I am buried in snow instead.  This may not sound like a big deal to you but for someone who is a self-proclaimed travel addict who typically travels to at least one international destination every year, it's a big deal.  And as a freelance travel writer, it's a dishonour to my work. After all, if I don't go anywhere, what stories do I have to tell?

This is why you haven't seen much posted on my blog lately.  It's not that I don't have time or am sick of posting.  I, quite simply, have no stories to tell. That's not to say I haven't been staying true to my writing; I just write what other people want me to write.  In other words, I've been busying myself with a lot of content writing for various sources to get ahead of some bills and take advantage of the free time I have at the moment.  It's too cold and wintery to be outside anyway so why not stay indoors and play catch up!

Travel hasn't been on my radar much in the past couple of years for a number of reasons.  As I'm sure many of you know all too well, there are two big things that get in the way of living the life you really want; work and funds.  Lack of funds is a huge one for me lately.  Prior to 2016, I lived with roommates and paid very little for rent.  When that situation changed, my living expenses almost tripled.  I'm also focusing on putting money down on some debt I'd like to get rid of.  It's all good though.  I'm keeping busy.  I've learned to enjoy summer staycations.  Writing projects occupy my time when the weather is bad and snowshoeing adventures occupy my time when the weather is more cooperative.

To be honest, my life has become a little too routine.  I admit, I think I'm getting a little comfortable with that reality!  This morning, when I started thinking about my past travels, I found myself looking back and feeling proud of what I accomplished. 

I was terrified the first time I took the leap and decided to do my first female solo trip.  Taking that leap opened up so many doors for me.  It enhanced my life in more ways than I could ever have imagined.  The places I've seen, the things I've learned, the skills I mastered, the people I met and the unknown roads I explored.  Just thinking about it makes me beam with happiness because I know one day soon, I will be back on the road....or in the sky which is usually the case with international travel. 

With that renewed sense of adventure and discovery will come more tales to share with the world.  After all, one of my reasons for writing about travel is to inspire others to do the same.  It is one of the most fulfilling things we can do.  To travel is to close the gap that exists when we have little knowledge of other cultures. To travel is to learn about the people we share this planet with.  To travel is to make the world seem smaller and bring us all closer together.  To travel is to experience things outside of our normal everyday lives and make memories we can carry with us for the rest of our lives. 

I Seriously Think Travel May have Ruined my Life

I Think Travel May have Ruined my Life....but in a Very Good Way.  Or in a very bad way depending on how you look at the way I live my life and travel in general.

I've been thinking about travel a lot lately.  Well, more than usual because I'm always thinking about travel.  Maybe I've been thinking about it more lately because it seems like it's been forever since I went anywhere outside of Canada.  Many years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would go somewhere outside of my home country at least once a year. This year, I broke that promise.  I opted for a staycation due to a number of factors, including financial limitations, work obligations and the simple fact that we had a phenomenal summer here in Atlantic Canada and I wanted to enjoy every second of it!. The furthest I went was Newfoundland for a week.  If you are not up on your Canadian geography, Newfoundland is only an hour-long flight or 6-hour ferry ride away and is right next to my home province of Nova Scotia.

But now, as I sit here on a cold winter night and come to the realization that the last time I left my comfort zone and explored a different part of the world was in September of 2016 when I went to Scotland.  That's a long time ago.  At least it is to someone who has a travel addiction and has not fed that addiction in over two years!

I may not have traveled much lately but I certainly go on a lot of adventures even if they are within two hours of my house.  I had an incredible summer and found lots of new places on Cape Breton Island and explored some unfamiliar territory.  But now that the beach days and long summer nights are long gone and winter has set in, I am thinking about all the places I have yet to see in this world.  And when I get thinking about travel and the traveling I'm not doing, my mind shifts to the travel I already did and how those adventures shaped my life.  It also makes me realize how I feel a little bit sorry for the people around me who have never traveled, have no desire to travel and will never experience the benefits of immersing oneself into a new land and a new culture.  They have no idea why I am so crazy about packing a suitcase, jumping on a long-haul flight and traipsing around a place far, far away where I know no one and have no real reason to be there.  When my brain goes into overload thinking about these things, I also get an urge to try and persuade as many people as possible to join me on an adventure so I can show them what they are missing.  I imagine myself doing this in much the same annoying way they try to persuade me to grow up, give up traveling, have a normal life and settle down. 

Over and over again, I see my friends and family making comments on social media about how some places are so dangerous to travel to and how the world is such a scary place and blah blah blah.  They berate me with stories of how women are raped and murdered when traveling alone and how terrorist attacks are becoming more frequent.  The more I roll my eyes, the more persistent they become in their quest to change me into a domestic homebody who has no desire to go anywhere except to the grocery store. 

I cant think of any negative effects travel has had on me except that I miss it like crazy when I'm not doing it.  Travel has had profound positive effects on every aspect of my life.  It has broadened my way of thinking, it has made me smarter and it has made me look at the world in a whole new way.  It frustrates me to no end how no one else sees this.  All anyone sees is me going on vacation, wasting time and procrastinating the "adulting" stage by "running away from real life".  If they only knew the positive effects travel has actually had on my adult life!  The thing is, the things I see as positive effects on my life, are actually seen as negative things by the modern society that subconsciously limits us to a robotic life that is set up before we even begin living it. If I can change just one person's mind and make them see that they don't need to be trapped in that cycle.  If I can encourage just one person to buy a plane ticket to a far away land and have them see what they are missing and how travel can positively change their life, I've done my job.  

My first real big trip as an adult was the one I took with my sister to Las Vegas.  No one batted an eye at the announcement of this trip.  I presume it was because I wasn't going alone and I was traveling to a country deemed safe in most people's eyes.  However, upon our return, I got some real funny looks and comments when I told people about how we rented a car and drove around in the desert for several days.  I realized then and there that any travels taken off the well-beaten path in unconventional manners would be frowned upon by pretty much everyone. I also soon realized that being a woman who travels alone raises a lot of eyebrows.

The fact that I am a woman who travels alone to far away places is not the only thing that gets a negative reaction from people.  I live what I consider to be a very unconventional lifestyle compared to the majority of people.  I do my own thing.  And I do it at my own pace. And a lot of the things I do revolve around planning my next big trip.  For some bizarre reason, many people have a problem with this! I don't know if they are jealous or mad because I'm not joining the herd and carrying my weight the way I am supposed to in their eyes or if they just like to try to control others.  Perhaps they are miserable in their own lives and want me to join them, but who am I to judge. I don't see anything wrong with living a minimalist lifestyle.  I don't see anything wrong with cutting certain unnecessary items out of my budget to save for a trip.  I don't see anything wrong with not having fancy ornaments and material objects around my apartment.  I don't see anything wrong with living in a small apartment!  I don't see anything wrong with turning down invites to dinners and expensive outings that I don't like participating in anyway and I don't see a problem with spending some of my hard-earned cash on something I enjoy doing. But time and time again, I am faced with insulting questions and attempts to change my life around to suit others rather than continuing on in a way that's suitable to me.

When I announce that I am going on a trip, I get two different responses: 1) "Wow that sounds fantastic, enjoy! OR 2) "You are going away again.  Where do you get the money to go on these trips?  Don't you think you should be thinking about settling down?"  The majority are in the second group, unfortunately.  First of all, due to work obligations, I only get the chance to go away on a big trip once a year.  That's not a lot.  Second of all, I tried settling down, it's not for me. Maybe I need to be paired with someone who likes to travel and live a non-materialistic lifestyle rather than spend their life keeping up with the Jones'. These people are hard to find.  I work, my chores get done, I'm responsible. I just don't get what the problem is!

The most insulting is the questions about money.  The people around me seem to have this misconception about me and money.  Either they think I am rich or I go into debt using credit cards to travel.  The reality is neither is true.  The same people who ask me how I can afford to travel are the same people who shop for new clothes every other week, smoke cigarettes, go out to expensive restaurants and clubs every weekend, gamble and buy expensive electronics and knick knacks that they don't need.  I shop for clothes once a year and more than half that shopping is done in thrift shops.  When someone invites me to go shopping, I try to think of ways to play dead or disappear as I would rather shoot myself in the left foot than spend a sunny summer day in a mall dipping into my travel fund to buy things I don't need.  Speaking of the travel fund...that's another sore spot with many people.  They are appalled that I even have this!  To them it's appalling that I would have a fund put aside for travel but none put aside for my future kids' education (meanwhile, I don't have kids and don't plan on having any) or for a down-payment on a house (what do I need a house for when I'm alone and move around so much!) I don't smoke or drink excessively and my outings on the weekend involve hiking or snowshoeing or going to the beach and I bring a picnic. I might eat at a restaurant once or twice a year.  My one trip that I take each year might cost 2000 dollars at most and that is on the higher end.  Now, If I sit down and add up all the expenses that many of the people who question me have (and yes, in my frustration and confusion, I have sat down and done the calculations), they spend THOUSANDS more on material things than I do on experiences. No material thing has done for me what my travel experiences have.  I wouldn't trade those memories and experiences for anything! And anyway, after seeing how happy many people in this world are with so little, I realized long ago that money and materials are not the key to a peaceful life.

I feel that I have everything I need and at times, I feel like I actually might have too much.  I am constantly downsizing to have more space and less things to drag around with me.  I live in a small apartment that is the perfect size for me and it's nice.  At least to me it's nice. To others?  Not so much.  I have furniture but it's older and mismatched.  I have a bed but it's well-worn and has claw marks from where my beloved kitty scratches in the middle of the night for me to pick him up and put him in the bed to cuddle with me.  I have dishes and appliances but they are not fancy, modern shiny things.  They work and do the job I need them to do and that's fine with me! I don't have lots of ornaments and pictures and pretty things scattered about because I am trying to keep my life simple and as less cluttered as possible.

My cherished possessions are my cat, my family photo albums and cherished items that belonged to my mother who has passed away.  My laptop is pretty important too as it helps me to indulge in the things i love - writing, blogging, photography and travel planning.  But when certain people come to my house, they loudly and rudely proclaim their distaste at my lifestyle. They say things like "how can you live in such a small space?" or "you know you can get matching sheets and affordable modern furniture at Wal Mart" or how about "you certainly haven't honed in on your womanly domestic instincts".  Now, I have to mention...MY APARTMENT IS CLEAN AND UNCLUTTERED WITH WOOD FLOORS AND A LOVELY KITCHEN AND COSY LIVING AREA!!  In other woods, it's far from a dump!  I have a busy, active life.  I work hard and play just as hard.  I have more important things to worry about than whether my sheets match or my towels don't have a few frays in them.  The people who make these comments to me, on the other hand, have next to no hobbies, spend all their free time cleaning and watching TV and gossiping about how they don't like the way other people live their lives. Not that that's a problem for me, everyone has their own idea of fun and are free to live their life how they want.  I wonder if it occurs to these people that I am hurting no one by living my life this way and I never make insulting comments to them about their lives.

The people around me often criticize me for being frugal and saving money for travel. I don't have a whole lot of money as it is, so I like to save a little so I can do some of the things I enjoy.  Travel happens to be one of the things I enjoy.  Why would I go shopping, eat at a restaurant, go to a movie, go out drinking or go to a casino when I don't particularly enjoy doing those things. I do them from time to time in order to spend some time with friends (even though they rarely bend and do things I enjoy...I can just imagine the reaction I would get if I suggested to have a picnic in the park rather than go to a restaurant!) and show that I am willing to be flexible.  They laugh at me when I make my own coffee at home or take my own lunch to work rather than eating out.  They roll their eyes at me when I refuse to join them at the mall for the latest sale that "can't be missed" or when I use coupons when buying groceries.  They question my sanity when I say I don't subscribe to cable, satellite, Netflix or any other television service.  They call me a cheapskate, hippie and weirdo.  They think I'm downright nuts when I work every hour of overtime that is offered to me so I can bank a little more money for my next adventure. But I can see the jealousy written all over their faces when I tell them I just booked a sunny beach vacation in the dead cold of a Maritime winter.  All those extra savings allow me to travel this vast, beautiful world of ours that I just can't get enough of. 

Travel runs my life in many ways.  Every time I do go shopping for anything, I make sure to shop where I can get points towards travel with my credit card or Airmiles. At times, I eat less, drive less and work more...all for the sake of travel.

When trying to place an event in my life on a timeline, I often use a trip I took as the reference point.  That's how important travel is to me.  The trips I've taken have all had major impacts on my life and have become important milestones in my timeline.  When I'm not traveling, I'm thinking about travel, writing about travel, trying to come up with ways to travel and trying to convince others to travel more.

If you have never taken a trip outside your home country, I strongly urge you to do so ASAP.  I can't express enough how important it is for us to indulge in new cultures, have a change of scenery once and a while and see new places.  Getting out of the safe zone and venturing out into the big, bad world makes it seem a lot less big and bad.  But don't blame me if you get hooked.  It happens to most travelers who just can't get enough of the beauty of this planet and its people.

The travel bug has certainly messed with my head but in so many good ways!  It has turned my life upside down, changed my perspective, changed my view of the world and everything around me and has made me a better person in more ways than I can count.  I don't see any international trips in my immediate future except in my dreams where I will dream about the next time I roll out my trusted old suitcase and board a plane to yet another far away land. 

Why I love to Travel – The Vague and not so Vague Reasons

One of my resolutions for the near future is to travel more. I have always wanted to travel and have done my fair share of traveling but I would like to see so many more places. That is my vague reason for wanting to travel more. The reasons behind my desire to see more of the world are much deeper than just wanting to see new places.

I always knew I was different from everyone else. Even as a child while the other children were indoors watching cartoons or playing with toys, I was always outdoors exploring new nooks and crannies around the neighborhood and trying new things. Many of the other kids thought I was weird and eccentric for not being “normal” like the rest of them but I simply did not get any enjoyment out of sitting in front of the television or playing with dolls. I preferred scaling the cliffs near the beach in search of a new viewpoint from which to see the neighborhood and surrounding area, digging for dinosaur bones at the gravel pits behind the ball field, seeking new trees to climb or getting lost on the old wood trails in the forest behind my house. Sometimes the other kids joined me, other times, I wandered off on my own in search of new adventures. I learned from an early age that if I was going to do the things I enjoyed and not live my life according to what everyone else was doing, I would need to learn to do those things on my own. Some people might call me a bit of a loner; I prefer the term independent.

Now that I am older, I still love to embark on the odd adventure except now my adventures go way beyond my backyard and the gravel pits down the street. My love of travel started at a young age after my parents took my sisters and I on a month-long trip along the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida. Since I have been out on my own, I try to make the best use of my talents as an escape artist and go on at least one big trip to another country every year. It started with road trips within Canada and the United States and graduated to all-inclusive Caribbean vacations. I love road trips but the all-inclusive experience (with the non-stop boozing and spending an entire week within the confines of a fancy resort) was lost on me so now, this spring, I am celebrating my love of independent travel with a solo backpacking trip in Central America. I won a trip to spend a week at a yoga/adventure retreat in Montezuma, Costa Rica and instead of just hopping on a plane and heading home when the week ends, I am setting out on the backpacker trail into Panama and other surrounding countries. Am I scared? A bit. I’m not really sure what to expect or which way to go or where I will end up but I am up for the challenge. Am I excited? You bet I am! This upcoming adventure has had me thinking about why I would prefer to travel this way. It also has me thinking about all the great things I learned about my past travels and all the things I can learn in my future travels. Travel has lots of benefits and I have witnessed those benefits first-hand in the past and I know what the benefits of this upcoming trip and any other future trips I take will be. Travelers who spend a week on an all-inclusive resort every year and never venture beyond the metal gates of their home-away-from-home to meet the locals and see how they live will probably not know what I am talking about. The benefits they gain from their trips are obvious; a week on the beach, a non-stop party, relaxation, prepared meals, safety in a foreign country that could otherwise be dangerous and a suntan. The benefits of real, off-the-beaten track travel are obvious to travelers like me who crave adventure, culture, new learning opportunities and the unknown beyond that metal gate.

As someone who often wonders what it would be like to just sell everything and set out with my backpack and explore the world indefinitely (and yes, it has crossed my mind many times), it is only natural that I spend a significant amount of my free time dreaming about, researching about, writing about and planning my next trip. Because I have a full-time job and other obligations to fulfill here at home, I have not been able to just toss that all away to travel the world but I make a point to take a couple of trips somewhere knew every year and even that gets people talking. I hear it all and most of it is negative. People ask me questions such as “where do you get the money to do all this traveling”, “aren’t you afraid you will be kidnapped or murdered traveling alone to these far flung places”, “shouldn’t you be thinking about settling down with a family and a house by now instead of wandering about”, “don’t you have a job and goals for the future” and so on and so on. Are these people jealous? Perhaps. Are they judgmental of my choices? Possibly. Are they misunderstanding the whole point of my choices and why travel is so important to me? Most likely. Many people in this “developed” society believe that they are free to make their own choices and live their life the way they want but most of them graduate school, go to college or get a job immediately after, get married, buy a house, have kids and live life every day as a sleep, eat, work, plant their butts in front of the TV for a few hours and repeat hamster wheel until they die. That doesn’t sound very free to me but it is their choice and I do not question their choices, so why all the negative reactions to mine? I feel free when I travel. I learn about the world around me when I travel. I learn about different cultures. I learn about how different people in other places are from me but also how similar they are. So with all the positive things that come from seeing and experiencing the world around me, why are so many people against me doing it?

I believe my current views of humanity stem from a number of things including the fact that I have traveled to other countries and witnessed how other cultures go on with their day-to-day lives. Here in the developed world, everything is done for us. Life is structured. We go to school, we graduate, we go to college, we get a job, we make money, we start a family, we retire. When we need something, we go to the supermarket and pick it up with the money we earn from working. If we find ourselves unemployed, we get unemployment insurance. If we don’t feel like working, there is social assistance there to fall back on if that is your sort of thing. People in lesser-developed countries do not have a lot of these options and many of them are so poor they make do with what little they can carry on their backs. And you want to know what is so ironic about that? Some of the poorest people I have met are also the happiest.

I’ve seen people begging in the streets. I’ve had people try to sell the clothing off their backs for extra money to buy food. I met people who had to hitchhike or walk many miles to jobs that barely put food on the table. I’ve come across entire villages whose inhabitants relied solely on the land to provide the necessities of everyday life. I witnessed men building highways by hand in sweltering heat for 16 hours a day. I’ve met people with extraordinary talents in the arts selling their work for mere pennies on the street. I have seen people having to go through things that would probably make most of us here in the developed world give up entirely…but yet they still smile, they still laugh and they maintain a level of friendliness, honesty, care and love toward their fellow man that I rarely witness here at home. The lack of selfishness is astounding and it is not uncommon to see someone with almost nothing share the last bit of something he has with another and expect nothing in return. Many of the people I’ve met in these supposed “lesser developed” countries are stronger, both mentally and physically, than anyone I know here at home. They also work harder for less and hardly ever complain.

I recall an event that occurred while I was walking on a beach along the Riviera Maya in Mexico. It was a beautiful beach but once I noticed that it was blocked off with a fence to keep the locals out, I no longer felt like I should be there. After all, the local people had more right to be on that beach than I did. None of the other tourists seemed to care and seemed happy to keep the local people on the other side of the fence. I approached that fence and watched as barefoot children fished with crude fishing poles and adults tended to a fire nearby. They laughed, they hugged, the carried on…they looked happy despite being obviously very poor. I turned around and looked at the tourist side of the beach to see weathered-looking faces dressed in expensive clothing, walking in the surf but not enjoying it like you would think they should. That is when it hit me; the “poor” locals on the other side of the fence, the ones laughing and carrying on while preparing to eat their dinner on that lovely evening were having a grandeur time than the tourists who probably go back to their hotel rooms and work from their laptops all evening while not even speaking to their travel mates before spending a few hours dressing in their evening best to go and sit in a stuffy restaurant and eat expensive food. Hmmmm….which would I prefer? Dinner on the beach consisting of freshly caught fish or an expensive, stuffy restaurant? The choice would be easy for me.

I admit, I like technology…some of it. I have a smart phone, a laptop and an Ipod. My smart phone is used for texting, taking pictures when I forget my camera and updating my tweets and Facebook statuses. I do not have internet capabilities on it or none of those other needless bells and whistles. My laptop is for research, checking email and writing. I can’t live without music so that is where my Ipod comes in. And I don’t own a television. That’s right. No TV…period. I have not owned one in years and I don’t miss it one bit. People laugh and poke fun at me when I tell them I do not have all this technology and they laugh even harder when they discover that I don’t watch TV. When I try to explain to them why I choose this lifestyle, it goes way beyond their comprehension and way over their heads. I have way too much to do and I am way too busy enjoying my life to sit in front of a box or spend my time playing games or tinkering around with useless gadgets that do nothing to enhance my life. I’m not sure where my distaste for too much technology comes from but I imagine it partially has to do with my travels to places where most of the technologies we have here are virtually non-existent. Take Cuba for example. During my week-long stay in Cuba, it was hard and expensive to make a local call to a nearby resort where my sister was staying let alone send an email. A call on a land-line phone cost me almost fifteen dollars and the service was sketchy at best and an email I sent to my sister in Calgary took more than a half hour to send because the internet was slower than dial-up. I didn’t see any of the locals with cell phones, children were not sitting in front of televisions and texting one another from across the room, no one carried laptops around and Ipods were something most of them had never heard of. When I go about my daily grind here in Canada, all I see are people typing away on laptops and texting one another. In Cuba, people talked to one another face-to-face, they interacted, they spent time with family and it would be considered highly rude to take out a laptop or cell phone at the dinner table or speak with the boss during what should be a day off to spend time with the family. I admired this way of life. It was simple and it was so satisfying to know that there were still people left in the world who put family and the simple pleasures of living at the forefront.

When I travel, I see things the way they are meant to be. I don’t believe we are meant to live the way we do in this developed world. In the lesser developed regions of the world I have traveled, everyone works for the overall growth of the entire community rather than just for themselves. Some of these hard-working people have been through some very hard times and still, they never give up. Even the most hardened individuals I have met still remain true to themselves and the people around them. They still smile through it all and they never hesitate to help someone else through similar hardships. I witnessed this myself when countless people I had never met (many of whom had no possessions) dropped whatever it was they were doing to help me in any way they could. Whether it be to offer me a place to stay for the night, a meal or directions to the next town, they were willing to help me, a stranger, in any way they could.

So, in the end, why do I travel? I travel because I like to escape from the rat race and to know how it feels to be truly free and a part of the bigger picture that is the world. I travel to learn about cultures that are different from my own. I travel to see how other people live and go about their daily lives. I travel to see the spectacular wonders of the world. I travel because of the unforgettable feeling I get when I step off a plane into a new world of possibilities I can explore. I travel to put things into perspective because traveling has made me realize that there is so much more to this life than just accumulating material items and living each day the same as the last. And most importantly, I travel because I want to and because I feel it is my duty as a citizen of this world to see as much of it as possible and to meet as many of its inhabitants as possible. I travel because I can and I will continue to do so!