Halifax, Nova Scotia

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Halifax is the home of Canada’s best beer, Alexander Keith’s and also home of man’s largest explosion prior to the atomic bomb. This occurred when two boats collided, one of the boats had a full cargo of ammunition. We had originally planned on staying with a friend from Jasper but when she was no longer available we put out an emergency host request on couchsurfing hoping that someone was feeling charitable. Luckily for us Wayne took us in. Undoubtedly Wayne was one of our most memorable hosts, very unique (but in a good way), very frank and highly comicable! One evening we paid a visit to the Maritime Musuem of the Atlantic which housed an excellent collection of real sailing boats and a good Titanic exhibit. We followed that by a tour of the Alexander Kieth’s Brewery which was led by costumed periodical staff and came complete with tastings of various beers. We ended the night with a late night bite to eat before falling into bed surrounded by Wayne’s most “desireable to peruse” collection of his total 70 000 books. Most of the rooms in his house contained wall to wall book cases and he also had a storage shed with hundreds of boxes of books. Needless to say there was never a shortage of things to read! The following day Wayne took us out on a day of touring the beautiful region. The day started with a blast of the cannons at the citadel! Each day at noon a cannon is fired as a symbol of Halifax’s military history, it is very loud and to the unsuspecting tourists below is quiet a shock if the whole proceedings is not known of. After a short drive we found ourselves out at Peggy’s Cove with it’s beautifully sculpted rocks and little white lighthouse and quaint country surroundings. Also we visited the main local cemetary which is the final resting place of most of the victims of the Titanic. It was during this time that the rescue crew founded a cataloguing system to identify victims. The system is so accurate that it was again successfully utilised in the wake of 911. Unfortunately there are still a couple of graves with no names on the headstones, although with the advancement of technology there is still hope of being able to give the descendants of families closure. That evening we joined Wayne and the rest of the Csing group for a lively drink in town enjoying the live celtic/rock duo. Our time in Halifax ended up being chock full of activity over the couple of days we were there, however it was time to move onwards to Montcton, New Brunswick.

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