2023, Travel, Uncategorized

Preconceptions About Place

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My wife and I love Canada. We’ve visited our neighbor to the north some ten times, traveling through the lower tier provinces from Vancouver Island in British Columbia all the way across to Quebec City in Quebec. Last month, we finally achieved our goal of visiting one of the maritime provinces. Our choice—as you may recall—was Nova Scotia.

When I plan a trip to a new location, I develop preconceptions about the place. Will it be flat, hilly, green, not so green, grassland, have lots of lakes and rivers, a damp climate, an arid climate? Some of those preconceptions you can resolve by looking at maps and reading about the climate and landscape. But there are also preconceptions about the people. Will they “be like us?” What will the demographics be? What’s the personality of the place? (Think tough, urban New Yawkahs vs. small town super-howdy friendlies.)

My preconception of Nova Scotia was one of a terrain similar to the last place on the Atlantic we visited—Acadia National Park in Maine. Rocky coastline, sparse population, flat terrain inland, and a predominantly white Anglo population. I also imagined the northern half—Cape Breton Island—to resemble Cape Cod: flat, sandy, full of dunes, no farmland to speak of, and lots of fishing villages and quaint little towns. I was half right on that, and half right on the whole of Nova Scotia.

We were surprised to find some amazing resemblances to Minnesota. Some areas in the southern part of the province are full-on farmland, like southern MN. The end of one drive from the Bay of Fundy on the north coast to Lunenburg on the south coast reminded me of descending the Gunflint Trail into Grand Marais. We saw many more lakes than I expected. Not as dense as lakes in the Brainerd area, but enough to notice.

 Cape Breton Island was far hillier than I expected. Many roads had grades from 5% to 10%. If you’ve ever driven in the Rockies, you know a five percent grade is common, 7% to 8% less so, and 10% rare. Cape Breton Island pretty much matched that ratio. We actually drove on one 10% grade for a short distance and traversed many 5% to 8% grades.

The Bay of Fundy is awe-inspiring. Low tide must be seen to be believed. Nova Scotia is home to SIX UNESCO World Heritage sites plus two other UNESCO supported sites. There are many wineries in the province. Halifax, the capital city, is as urban and sophisticated as any city in the US. It’s also hilly, with old narrow streets not conducive to car traffic, and has one of the most impressive harbors I’ve ever seen. The boardwalk near downtown is a must-visit. The historical significance of the city since colonial days is well-remembered and preserved. One thing that didn’t surprise me was the quality of the seafood. It was every bit as outstanding as you’d expect from a maritime location that has hundreds of miles of coastline.

Finally, everyone we met who lived and worked in Nova Scotia was as friendly as could be (other than a few stuffy hotel staffers). Even in Halifax, a big city where it’s easy to encounter people who are aloof, mistrustful, and too much in a hurry to chat or help.

I’ve attached a few pictures of our trip. If you want to see more, simply sign up for my website newsletter and you’ll get access to many more. Since I just published my latest missive, I’ll even share the password with you now: ChrisN2021. But don’t tell anyone! 😊

Sunset at Inverness, NS

Halifax boardwalk

Lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove

Chris and his caddie

What are some of your preconceptions of a place that got blown out of the water after you visited there? What places exceeded your expectations in the same way Nova Scotia exceeded mine?

27 thoughts on “Preconceptions About Place”

  2. Rome exceeded my expectations. The Sistine Chapel is breath-taking. However, the tile floors aren’t nearly as shiny as depicted in Sword-and-Sandal movies.

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    1. I enjoyed Rome, too. I must say, though, I used more hand sanitizer there than anywhere else on earth, including NYC. Everything just was grimy. I still have the hand sanitizer bottle which I refill, because it is such a novelty to have a bottle like that in Italian. I used it with glee all through COVID.

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  3. I remember my first trip to the Rocky Mountains – I really hadn’t seen many photos of mountains at 8 years old, and was expecting them to be more like cones placed on the flat earth, rather than the gradually increased hilliness. First trip was through the Big Thompson Canyon, very dramatic where the river had carved out this steep-sided gorge. I couldn’t have imagined that.

    I’ve talked about how moving back to Winona exceeded expectations in how the town had grown in terms of activity – all these festivals had grown up while we were away (30 years) – Shakespeare, Beethoven, Frozen River Film Fest, Midwest Music Fest…

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  4. RIse and Shine, Baboons,

    I moved to Northern Minnesota (Grand Rapids) in 1977. I cannot say that I had pre-conceptions, but I never expected the level of wilderness or the wildlife there. It was really wonderful, especially as the Bald Eagles started to rebuild their population. We watched them fish out of the lake. All birds were nearly wiped out by DDT and 2-4-D in my childhood, so seeing eagles was an entirely new experience.

    The same is true of living in the Twin Cities metro area. For me it was a great fit of employment opportunities, cultural activities (including TLGMS), political community and housing. Where I grew up the line was always that cities were bad, bad, bad. While I do not enjoy congested traffic, I can work around that to enjoy all the rest that fits well. And now the wildlife has moved here, too, including bears and Bald Eagles.

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      1. I was glad to have chipped in to the group’s body of work after a long respite. Strange that I feel as if I have little of interest to justify being the “featured poster”, yet I manage to blather about something in the comments most days. 🙂

        Chris

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  5. I went to San Antonio for a conference once. I’m not sure what I was expecting, exactly, but I always thought of Texas as dry and dusty with ranches and tumbleweeds. San Antonio has the riverwalk right outside the hotel where the conference was held. It was lovely. In the downtown area, things are pretty green, though if you follow the riverwalk far enough you get to tumbleweed country. It was also surprising that the Alamo was right downtown, with a Walgreens across the street.

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    2. I was similarly impressed with San Antonio, Linda. Loved that Riverwalk. Listened to a fantastic sort-of-dixieland jazz combo of locals that was so good I bought one of their CDs. The trombonist was Maynard Ferguson-like in his range and chops.

      Chris

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  6. I think I had preconceptions about Phoenix, AZ. People seem to flock there in the winter, trying to escape the snow and cold. Some seem to spend the winter sitting in a street in front of a park model, drinking. I visited a friend there once and I was grateful to go back home. I’m not interested in going back to Phoenix. I might try somewhere else in Arizona or New Mexico, but not Phoenix.

    I thought it would be a desert oasis with ample hiking opportunities right outside our door. My friends were near the east end of the Phoenix area. The highway to Superstition Mountain was nearby. I heard gunfire at night and my friends mentioned their fear of break-ins. I was advised against driving my rental car alone. It was very commercialized and the traffic was manic. To say I didn’t enjoy it is an understatement.

    There are plenty of places I haven’t seen down there and I would like to travel in that area, but not Phoenix. One good thing was seeing the desert in bloom. I understand that doesn’t happen every year and I was lucky to see it. The desert areas to the north and east of Phoenix were lovely. We also explored some archeological sites and saw Theodore Roosevelt dam. It wasn’t a total waste of time but I’m still not a fan of Phoenix, AZ.

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  7. OK, I just wrote a post and WP spit it out into cyberspace. I’m having trouble trying to log in and I can’t “like” anything. I don’t know if this will post.

    I had preconceptions about Phoenix, AZ. I thought it would be a desert oasis, due to the numbers of snowbirds who flock there to escape the Minnesota winters. Maybe it was where we stayed or who I was with, but it wasn’t my idea of fun. The desert was in bloom and I understand I was really lucky to see it. I enjoyed that and seeing some archaeological sites. I think I would have liked more hiking. In general I found Phoenix to be commercialized, congested, dirty, noisy and unpleasant.

    Nova Scotia sounds amazing! Thanks for the interesting post, Chris!

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  9. Well, of course THAT worked. I’m out of time to re-write my post again. My preconceptions were about Phoenix, AZ being an oasis in the desert. Maybe it is to some. It was unpleasant, noisy, dirty, hot and commercial to me.

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  12. Thanks, Chris, for this post. Glad you enjoyed your trip to Nova Scotia. Sounds like you had a great time.

    I have a friend who grew up in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, so I’ve seen lots of photos from the Maritimes. Here’s an old Newfy joke for ya: “I’d be okay with Quebec leaving Canada. It’ll take 7 hours off the drive to Toronto.”

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  13. When Robin and I first met, I was working at Art Materials in Dinkytown and she was buying a pencil or something. It wasn’t the first time she had been in the store and when she had been there previously I had made a point of getting her name off her check.

    This was November 19, 1969. I asked her if she wanted to get coffee and she agreed. We went across the street to Bridgeman’s and talked. During our conversation, I asked her if she wanted to go to Quebec. Now, that’s not something I ever suggested before and it’s not as if I knew much about Quebec. I don’t know where that came from.

    40+ years later we went to Quebec. We flew into Burlington, Vermont, rented a car, and drove up into Canada after spending a day at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne Vermont.

    We spent a couple of days in Montreal and then drove on to Quebec. We had a reservation at an Air B&B in the old city. We had expected a lot of history and a French vibe. What we found was mostly a carnival-like setting, with caricature artists and open air crooners singing at open air restaurants. We spent about a day taking in what the old city had to offer and then ventured out of the walls of the old city into the “real” city, which we found more engaging.

    I wouldn’t go back to Quebec, at least not to the old city, but I’d happily go back to Montreal.

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  14. We had several grad school friends from the Maritimes who had continuous dry lips because of the lack of humidity in Winnipeg compared to NS and Newfoundland.

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  16. Great post Chris!!

    I’m not sure what about my personality fuels this, but every place I go surpasses my expectations. In fact, throughout my travel career, my favorite location was always the one I just visited. Places that blew my mind? Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa), St. Petersburg, New Zealand, St. John USVI, Paris. Ok, better stop or I’ll be listing every place I’ve been!

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