Ferry to New Foundland

Arrived in South Sydney, Nova Scotia, at 9:20 tonight. Met Paul, a 30 year old Newfie chef on the bus, and learned that the 7 hour crossing by ferry for New Foundland departed at Midnight. Newfies are great to spend time with. Excellent story tellers and very experienced im many practical ways. I got off the bus to see if I could get a ticket on the ferry and before finding out, instinctively went back to the bus that was almost leaving with my bags still aboard. The driver said "Let's go Mister!". My original plan was to stay in South Sydney for the night and then explore Cape Bretton in the day. I have been told that the drive around Cape Bretton is spectacular. Arriving in South Sydney, I became convinced that this was NOT a very desirable place to spend the night. There are many fireworks to be seen in Sydney to celebrate Halloween, and it is true that Nova Scotian's in general to really get into dressing up for this particular day, moreso than I have witnessed, even in San Francisco (which is saying alot) but hanging out in Sydney on Halloween night seemed very depressing to me. Catching a cab back to the ferry terminal was no problem, but it did set me back $24 Canadian dollars. The taxi driver said the their dollar was now worth $1.05 against the US dollar. He told me how the steel mills all closed down in 2000 and that he had put 30 years in. He said that he had a good pension of about 60% of the $45,000 a year he used to earn working at the mill. A fixer upper house around here costs $35-40K, but the onwer of a coffee shop in Truro told me she had just bought a nice house up in Sydney for $8,000. He told me that this was probaly down a spell from the city where all the coke plants use to be and is somewhat of a toxic zone, but that people still live there. Anyways, I am on the ferry now and it will dpart at midnight and arrive at 7am. I will catch up with some of my previous adventures and post some new pictures when I get a chance.