Day 28: Charlottetown

I woke up and it was pouring rain and freezing. Around 6 am Nathan came out to my tent and asked if I was awake (I was), and invited me to come inside to warm up. The rain that I had luckily missed out on yesterday was not passing over today. It was forecast to rain all day and stay below 10 degrees. Nathan was going to be driving into Charlottetown with his truck to do some work on his boat, and offered to give me a ride in. I figured that today would be a good day to check out the art gallery in Charlottetown and do other indoor activities, rather then get drenched out on my bike. I had also wanted to get my derailleurs adjusted on my bike and a couple other things looked at, so Nathan took me and my bike to a bike shop in Charlottetown before dropping me off at my Airbnb (which my hosts let me come early to!). 

Once I was settled in, I headed downtown to the coffee shop that’s famous amongst the locals—The Receiver, before going to the Confederation Centre. Since the Charlottetown Conference led to confederation, there are a lot of things named after confederation in PEI. The license plates even say “The Birthplace of Confederation.” The Confederation Centre is an arts centre which hosts a theatre, art gallery, library, and other exhibition spaces. They had a Kent Monkman exhibit on at the art gallery, as well as an exhibit on PEI’s representation (or lack thereof) on maps throughout history, which was cool.

After spending a few hours there, I stopped at the library for a bit before heading back to the Airbnb. Nathan had invited me to come on his sailboat for one of the club’s weekly race nights, so I got ready for that, but then he told me it got cancelled because of gusting winds. That was disappointing, as I was really looking forward to going out on the boat, but considering how miserable it was outside, I figured I may not have had that much fun anyways if we’d gone out in the rain. 

My Airbnb hosts had told me that the local brewery around the corner from them was great, so I figured I’d head over there for dinner. I got drenched, through my raincoat, in the 4 blocks it took me to walk there. And then once I arrived, I saw that it was closed for a private function. Sarah, my PEI friend, had recommended a pub in Charlottetown for a great curry, but it was a 20 minute walk away, which didn’t seem that appealing in the rain. This is when I discovered that Uber doesn’t exist in PEI, and the bus system leaves something to be desired. There weren’t really any options that much closer, so I headed to Churchill Arms to try Sarah’s fav curry place. 

So far, every recommendation I’ve followed for PEI has been great, and Churchill Arms was no exception. My server was so friendly and was asking me where I was from and about my bike trip. She was so impressed when she heard that I had biked here from Toronto, that she gave me my meal on the house! So that was a really nice surprise, and made the walk in the rain home not seem so bad. 

I really like Charlottetown, despite only discovering it in the rain. I figure I’ll stick around here tomorrow to see more of it in better weather, before heading off to explore the rest of the island.