Carnival Cruise: "You're not from the cruise ship, are you?"

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We arrived at port in Halifax, Nova Scotia, early in the morning. Kristen and I were able to set out on foot as soon as the gang way was ready. The skies were blue and a soothing ocean breeze swept through the city. We docked beside Pier 21, formerly the main immigration hub of this area (a Canadian Ellis Island). We made our way up hilly streets, past an old burying ground and an impressive gothic church, and poked into shops and mingled with locals as we neared Citadel Hill.

As a side note, I loved hearing that distinct Canadian accent. It is often the subject of jokes in the States, as I believe most Americans tend to think of Canada as a natural extension of the United States, and their slight differences can come off as quirky and quaint to our sensibilities. Indeed, when I told Kristen of my excitement to once again leave U.S. borders, her response was, essentially, “But it’s only Canada.” Hardly exotic, sure, but as New Englanders it is easy to forget that, given our cold winters, there is a whole other country beyond Maine to explore. Regarding Canadian speech, I honestly never knew just how prevalent the accent was. In many respects it sounds like a Connecticut accent, though spoken a bit higher in tone, and the words tend to roll into one another more frequently. (New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were once considered part of New England). It is so close, in fact, that many shop owners seemed surprised to learn that we were not locals, and a few times we were met with confused looks and the question, “You’re not on the cruise ship, are you?” I don’t know if this was due to our similar accent, or maybe we somehow didn’t strike them as typical cruisers, but I certainly appreciated being so easily able to immerse myself in the local culture. Truly, it is not until Canadians say such things as hoos for house or oot for “out” that we are reminded that this is not New England. And yes, they do indeed say “eh,” frequently, after asking a question (the Connecticut equivalent being “huh?” or “right?”).

We reached the town’s summit, Citadel Hill, and entered the fortification, a National Historic Site of Canada. It is a stone fortress built to secure Imperial British interests in the North Atlantic, originally to counterbalance French occupations (and eventually to fend off a possible attack by the newly formed United States. This may sound preposterous to many modern Americans, but few know that there was indeed a failed invasion by American Revolutionary forces to capture Quebec, helmed in part by Benedict Arnold.) A fortification has stood on these grounds since Halifax’s founding in 1749, and the current fort, completed in 1856, is shaped in similarity to the Star of David. Inside the walls are kilted soldiers (Nova Scotia is Latin for New Scotland) marching and drilling, a military museum, and your typical souvenir shop items. We slowly explored the grounds, enjoying the weather, snapping pictures, and watched a changing of the guard ceremony before we left.

From the Citadel we walked down concrete steps, past the Town Clock, and onto Carmichael Street until we reached the Grand Parade. On one end of this city green, which was laid out in the mid-18th Century by surveyors, is the City Hall, a beautiful monumental-style sandstone structure with a clock tower, built in the late-19th Century. The clock’s time is fixed at four-minutes-past-nine to commemorate the deadly Halifax explosion of 1917 (a French cargo ship carrying ammunitions collided with another ship and exploded, killing thousands and destroying the northern end of the town. It was the largest man-made explosion before the detonation of the atomic bomb). On the other end of the Grand Parade is St. Paul’s Anglican Church, built in 1749. Most of the historic landmarks in Halifax, however, are of the Georgian period, built during the Napoleonic Wars.

Kristen and I then made our way through various streets until we eventually reached an area called Historic Places, which contains old buildings (and many new) retrofitted into a tourist shopping area. Souvenir heaven, if that’s your idea of the vacation divine. Aside from the art galleries, we did not linger long.

One pleasant aspect of Halifax is that it is a very dog-friendly city, similar in these respects to Paris. Everywhere we went owners were walking their dogs. We also ran across countless shops that catered to dogs and dog-lovers: dog health food shops, edgy counterculture dog shirts, etc. We confess to buying a Transformers shirt for our dog. Another very agreeable feature of both Halifax and Saint John is that, despite some drab and neglected areas, and the obvious presence of a large homeless population, as every city will have, the streets and sidewalks are relatively clean, and the people were friendly, helpful, and easy to make conversation (in fact, they often kept trying to talk when we wanted to walk away).

We continued down the boardwalk, along Halifax harbor, past the Maritime Museum (I’d have gone in, but Kristen was getting museum overload and I did not want to push my luck - besides, we got a pretty good maritime education in Saint John). Old sailing ships docked in the water as crews fixed the rigging. From this area is a nice view of beautifully green St. George’s Island, sitting in the bay, which has the remains of a fortification crowning its top and a lighthouse on its coast. This island at one time hosted a colony of forcibly exiled Acadians (French) in the 1700’s, many of whom eventually made their way to Louisiana to become known to us as Cajuns.

That night on the cruise ship we met with our southern dinner partners again and had another lively, pleasant conversation. The dinner staff entertained us with a dance routine, the one from the closing credits of the film, Slumdog Millionaire. We then saw the comedian Happy Cole perform an excellent G-rated act, and we looked forward to his R-rated one the following night.

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Photos

Gratuitous Touristy Photo
This is a guard at the Citadel. I didn't realize how massive he was until I stood next to him.

Training soldiers
At the Citadel