Going Down To Provincetown
It seems everyone in Cape Cod (well in our house anyway) is talking about “P-Town”, also known as Provincetown for the non-educated non-locals. Of course, to us (3 days in) it’s P-Town already. Today’s weather report left its options open, informing us there was a fifty-fifty chance of rain and a fifty-fifty chance of sunshine! Don’t you love it? Do these people get paid? We listened to their advice and packed our bag with swimming gear as well as jumpers and raincoats!
The public transport system in Cape Cod leaves a lot to be desired. There are only 2 buses running from Hyannis to P-Town each day – at 8:30am and 12:30pm and we read the timetable at 8:45am, dashing our chances on the first bus! The bus back was at 3ish and with an hour and a half trip on the bus, that didn’t give us much time to explore. We looked into hiring a car for the day and the cost of the car was pretty comparable to the return trip on the bus. With the car we’d also have the flexibility to check out other parts of the island so it sounded like a good plan.
Our walk to the airport was a bit longer than we’d anticipated and Hyannis isn’t big on footpaths! For a so-called laid-back island, there seems to be an awful lot of road rage here too, with almost as much honking as New York City! Thankfully we didn’t get run over and made it to the car hire place with all our limbs. We tried Thrifty, Avis, Budget and, it seemed, every other car hire place on the planet, but all of them were sold out! Hertz came to our rescue and we had a choice of only 2 cars – a very cute, Mr Beanesque blue Fiat or a small Chevrolet. Of course we both wanted to hire the Mr Bean car but realised that realistically, we weren’t going to be able to fit our luggage in it. We looked for a Chevy of some sort and let ourselves in. We were admiring the sun roof, the leather seats and the state-of-the-art stereo. I was zooming up and down with the electric seat adjuster, getting myself in perfect position and adjusting the mirrors to just the right spot. We put the key in the ignition but the silly thing wouldn’t start. We tried wiggling the steering wheel and pulling the key in and out but nothing happened. Just as we were about to walk back into the Hertz headquarters and vent our frustration, Sam said “hey mum, maybe it’s that little Chevy over there?”. We both laid eyes on a tiny little hatchback and heaved a sigh. “Oh yeah, maybe?” Getting into this little sweaty car that had a bit of a stale smoke smell about it, not the crisp new car leather of the other one, was a bit of a downer! No sun roof, no electric seat adjuster and no electric mirrors but hey, the ignition turned over first go and for that we were grateful!
I had resigned myself to the fact that after Colorado my driving days in the USA were over. To be honest, I was quite happy about that. Now I had to psych myself again for this topsy turvy world of wrong sides and backwards roundabouts. Sam and I do both agree that the placement of signs along American roads is very ambiguous. Stop signs are on a diagonal so you’re never quite sure who needs to stop. There are unexplained flashing lights of various colours that people largely seem to ignore and WRONG WAY signs that seem to be on your side of the road but in actual fact refer to the lane next to you. Even traffic lights don’t line up exactly with your lane and are often on a diagonal. The roundabouts instil sheer terror, with no lane markings inside (up to 4 lanes!) and people darting on and off without warning. Pick a lane, any lane. They aren’t even round most of the time (should be called random-shape-abouts). Scary stuff!
The drive down to P-Town was about an hour of mostly freeway driving (phew) and we arrived in no time, parked the car and wandered downtown to discover a town very different to the rest of what we’d seen on Cape Cod. P-Town defies the uniformity of the rest of the area and breaks the grey house mould, with houses and shops painted bright purples, greens and yellows. There’s a long jetty jutting out into the picturesque harbour, lined with flags of different nations. (Our flag didn’t get a guernsey but we won’t hold it against them). There are art and craft shacks along the wharf, selling local P-Town treasures and rustic souvenirs. There was a guy sitting and carving whales from wood and another painting portraits by the sea. It had a great atmosphere! We were stamped with whales (it was whale week) and surprised by all the colour and activity abounding here.
There also seemed to be a strong Portuguese influence in Provincetown which was really noticeable as we walked around. In the mid-19th century, P-Town had developed as the prime maritime, fishing, and commercial centre of Cape Cod, being right at the tip of the peninsular. Portuguese sailors who had joined American ships in the islands moved here to continue working on whaling and fishing boats. The Portuguese then became an integral part of the community, bringing their families and traditions to this little part of Cape Cod, where there is still a strong Portuguese community. In fact, I had a mean Portuguese chicken “sandwich” (burger) for lunch and can attest to the fact that traditional Portuguese fare is alive and well. Sam had a footlong chilli dog so we were assured they still have their American roots too.
Another claim to fame that P-Town has, is that it’s where the Mayflower first dropped its anchor and the Pilgrims came ashore way back in 1620! This is where they signed the famous “Mayflower Compact” (which we’d never heard of but I’m sure every little American learns about in history!) They’ve built a very impressive tower as a monument to the Pilgrims and we were able to climb it and have a spectacular view of Provincetown, Cape Cod and beyond. From the top of this granite tower, we could even see Boston off on the horizon! The climb down was much more fun than the climb up and we spent a bit of time in the whaling museum (had a whale of a time) swotting up on all our Pilgrim history.
If you had one word to describe P-Town, it would probably be colourful! It’s main street is awash with colourful shops and colourful characters and with its apparent reputation as being somewhat of a gay Mecca, rainbow flags fly from almost every building. Along those lines, we saw some interesting fashions in the shops. Sadly I couldn’t talk Sam into the glittery, rainbow, tight swimming trunks. They looked like the Rainbow Fish had died and been skinned for their creation! There were LOTS of same-sex couples holding hands and walking dogs. We even saw a dog on a skateboard and a “Merman” hooning around the street in his (her?) motorised wheelchair! Quite an eye opener for we sheltered folk of the Insular Peninsula!
We attempted to drive to a lighthouse just out of Provincetown but the GPS failed to tell us it was down a long track, buried right amongst the sand dunes and inaccessible unless of course we drove a bulldozer (or maybe a 4WD but the sand was pretty deep!)
After the hustle and bustle of Provincetown we wound our energy levels back a little and took a leisurely drive to the pretty little town of Chatham, on the “elbow” of Cape Cod. Driving through the green Beech Forest – the overhanging branches forming an archway of dappled light – we saw a cute sign that said “Turtles Crossing”! We had our eyes peeled but unfortunately we didn’t see one.
Continuing our lighthouse crawl, (they are just too cool to miss) we headed for the Twin Lights on Chatham Beach just as the sun was setting. Designed by Thomas Jefferson back in 1808, there were originally 2 lights but one was moved later on. It was beautiful to see the sunset at a lighthouse for the second night in a row!
We returned to our (kind of cute but run down) little chiropractor’s quarters to find that the chiropractor himself was out of town again. He’s a bit of an elusive character that Bill! Apparently he’s in New York for a few days and we won’t see him again. Our roommate, Tony, has been given the role of checking people in and out (reluctantly it seems) and he wasn’t a happy chappy when we came home. His daughter was coming for dinner so that ought to cheer him up. Sam was directing me back into the driveway and told me to make sure I tried to hit the cat on my way in. He’s normally an animal lover but Gloria, the incredibly annoying, loud-meowing cat has been our nemesis here in Hyannis, waking us up at all hours with her incessant demands. We won’t miss her!
We had a fantastic night out tonight at an Italian restaurant with a Spanish theme and some live country music. It turned out to be a good (if not conventional) mix and we had great food and lots of laughs
