Halifax

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Well. Here we are in Halifax, and our first full day here was just the most beautiful, perfect sunny day, cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon, with a gentle breeze off the ocean.

The hostel is located just a couple of blocks from the train station, which we discovered AFTER taking a cab from the station. The cab driver was most cordial and understanding about having such a short fare, however, and this is the sort of treatment we have been getting everywhere since we arrived here.

Our room in the hostel is on the third floor of this old building, 39 steps up from the ground floor, which in turn is probably 6-8 steps up from the sidewalk. Our quadruceps are definitely going to benefit from this climbing, laden with heavy suitcases! We have this room for four nights, then we switch to a dorm for one night, then we get a different room for the last two nights we are here.

This area of town is full of restaurants just steps from the front door of our hostel. Last night, being quite tired, we went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant about two doors down. We ordered pad thai and a chicken curry – both delicious! – and managed to eat about half of them. The second half we enjoyed for tonight's supper.

After dinner last night, Roberta walked over to the 24 hour Superstore and bought a few staples so we can make breakfast and dinner here in the hostel. There is a nice big dining room, fairly good sized kitchen, TV room (which we have not used at all), and another lounge as well as a patio with picnic tables. The people staying here at the moment come from a wide range of places and range in age from twenty-somethings to people who at least LOOK even older than we are. An Aussie couple has been traveling with us now for awhile. We met them in the hostel in Montreal; they were on the same train as we were to Halifax; and now they are staying here, too. But tomorrow they fly to St. John's!

This morning we were on our way to the Gray Coach kiosk to buy tickets to the double-decker on-off bus tour of the city when friend Brian Penney called us. So we swiftly changed our plans to spend some of the day with him and 100-year-old Mutti. Brian picked us up in his new BMW and took us to the new apartment he's purchased overlooking the Halifax harbour. In fact, they are in the middle of moving right now. They were just waiting for the Red Cross to come and move Mutti's bed, and then they will actually switch abodes – probably tomorrow. We took Brian out to lunch at a really funky hair styling salon/restaurant/art gallery called Fred's, where the walls are covered with charming grafitti and plants grow out of the walls. The food was sensational: gluten free fried chicken, herbed carrot and tomato soup, proscutto-harvarti-portobello on a croissant.

After lunch Brian took us back to the old apartment, where we had a lovely visit with Mutti, who remains one of the most inspiring people I've ever met. Having lost both her grown daughters to terrible wasting illnesses, Mutti remains ever positive, living in the moment, utterly sharp, inciteful, joyous, and grateful. It's a lesson for me in how to live.

Haifax is a charming city and we are eager to discover more of it tomorrow. There is so much history here! But also a lot happening on the arts scene. Comedy is everywhere. We are steps away from Yuk Yuks here, and the streets are full of signs of comedy shows. We learned that 22 Minutes is taping here to live audiences this week, but unfortunately we are too late to get tickets. I wish we'd thought of this when planning this trip so we could have booked tickets – it would have been such fun to see that show being taped.

Still, there is much to see and do here. It's supposed to turn rainy tomorrow, so we're planning some indoor activities, incuding the Maritime Museum. And who knows what we'll discover on the bus tour?

Incidentally, for anyone curious about the train from Montreal to Halifax, the beds aren't quite as comfortable as they were from Edmonton to Toronto! We both had trouble sleeping the night before last and hence arrived here quite tired yesterday. But the bed in the hostel is quite comforable. As you can see from the photo, we could actually sleep three in our room – there is a bunk over the double bed!

My iPhone has been acting up. Since leaving Montreal I haven't had any network services, though the phone, camera, and text messaging are working fine. I called the company and they want me to take out the sim card but I'm nervous about doing this, so will try to take it in and have that done by a Virgin employee tomorrow – they are about a 15-minute walk from here. I really need to get it fixed as I do (unfortunately) have some work to do on this trip!

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Comments

[Govert]

chicken
I hope you paid good attention how they did the gluten free fried chicken! Hope it will be on the menu when we visit in Victoria! Have fun! Govert