Halifax
Ok, so it’s been a while, but I never get a streak going on this thing that lasts more then two weeks anyway, so you really shouldn’t be surprised.
Things are good here in the O-dot. I went to Halifax for the long weekend and had a really good time hanging out with my buddy. It’s weird that I was so worried before about how her moving so far away would affect our friendship. With anyone else I would probably be at the point where "once-a-week" letters turned into "once-every-six-months" letters, phones calls were dwindling away to just about nothing, and any chance contact online or elsewhere would have a slightly discomforting edge to it. But this is Lauren. And with Lauren, we can be apart for an hour or a year and things just don’t change. When I spotted her in the hotel lobby the fact that I hadn’t seen her in a month was hardly even as issue. It took her a minute to register me, but that was more due of the fact that I’d lobbed all my hair off then any lapse of memory on her part!!
We had an awesome time over the whole weekend. It was like we were in Europe-mode again: power-tourists during the day, partying at night! I was fortunate enough to meet a bunch of Lauren’s co-park dwellers, who from now-on shall be known as the "Keji-Crew," and save for one or two bad apples (in particular one jerky Frenchmen who shall remain nameless) she’s got a great network of people working with her. I was sad not to be a part of it, but also really glad that despite the bad company in the field, she had met some really good friends she could spend her free time with.
Disclaimer: the rest of this post is really more for my own memory purposes then anything else. If you’re actually interested in the events of the trip, please feel free to read on. However if you quite frankly don’t give two shit (and really...why would you?) I won’t be crushed if you skip it...Moving on...
Here’s a breakdown of the trip:
Thursday:I woke up soooo early and caught my flight from Ottawa to Halifax at 7:00 a.m.. After landing I navigated my way fairly easily through Halifax airport (my strategy was basically "follow that guy, he looks like he knows where he’s going..." Not always the best, but it worked this time!) and caught the shuttle to the hotel. Unfortunately the Holiday Inn Select was the last stop on the way into the city, and the first stop on the way out, so I got to take the whole hour-long milk-run though all of Halifax’s hot (and not so hot) spots. Needless to say I read my book...a lot.
Lauren, Lucie and Antoine (aka the French Connection...two exchange students she’s working with) were waiting at the hotel when I arrived. We decided to check into our room and drop our stuff before heading out to enjoy the city. It was about lunch time by the time we were ready to go, and since I hadn’t eaten anything since my 6:30 a.m. Tim Horton’s airport bagel, and for Lucie and Antoine lunch is the big meal of the day, we went in search of food. Mother Tucker’s wound up being our choice. The food was...ok, but I had beer so I couldn’t complain much.
We were due back at the hotel later that afternoon so that Lucie and Antoine could meet up with Jen and Christina. They would be couch-surfing between their places for the weekend, and wanted to go get settled. Lauren and I took the opportunity to head up to the room to relax and catch up...and drink rum and coke. I won’t disclose too many of the details of your conversation, but lets just say the theme was as follows:
"I hate Antoine I hate Antoine I hate Antoine...repeat."
I felt shitty that she was so miserable, but I was there now, and it was time to have some fun!
We met Jen, Christina, Antoine and Lucie back down in the lobby for dinner. Thursday is cheap wings night in Halifax (as it is pretty much anywhere else too), and Jen and Christina, who had brought along some more friends, (so bad with names. It was Jen’s boyfriend and a buddy/former roommate of his) said they knew where to find the best. It wound up being a fairly inexpensive meal of ten of the biggest chicken wings I’ve ever seen in my whole life! That and a pint for $8 including taxes and tip was not too shabby at all.
After dinner we hit one of Halifax’s best bars: The Lower Deck. I’d been told by more then one person that a visit there was more the a necessity, so I was really excited at the prospect of going. It was packed when we got there. Everyone was getting an early start on the Canada Day celebrations, and with an awesomely good east-coast band playing but a few feet from our table, it was hard not to join in on the fun! We had such a good time, and even got our picture taken for their website!
Friday:Canada Day!
Lauren and I had vowed to get up early and go for a run to start off the celebrations with a bang, but our late night at the bar--coupled with the fact that we just didn’t want to–quickly disposed of that idea. We did manage to get up at a reasonable hour though, and soon enough we were out the door in search of breakfast.
It being Canada Day, bacon and eggs was the only suitable option. We wound up at a Greek restaurant that did $4 breakfasts, which was definitely a bargain considering the amount of food we got.
After breakfast we blitzed the city in hyper-tourist mode. Because of the holiday museums and historic sites weren’t charging admission, so our first stop was the Halifax Citadel, probably the most recognizable landmark in the city. It was raining out so fully exploring the outside grounds became tiresome fairly quickly. We browsed around a bit inside before deciding that it would probably be better to come back the next day for the full tour (they weren’t offering them that day because of all the ceremonial stuff going on).
Next was the Natural History Museum’s "Butterfly Social." The butterflies themselves weren’t too impressive (I’ve seen better in the greenhouses at Carleton), but the museum was fun, and definitely a nice break from the rain!
After the museum we headed back to the city-centre and walked around through the streets and along the pier. Was had an hour or so to kill before meeting Antoine, Lucie and Christina and the Alexander Keith’s Brewery, so we hit Timmy’s for a brief fuel-up and then just walked around, chatting and taking in the scenery between fits of rain. I bought Lauren a pillow with an embroidered fly on it at this little furniture store beside the brewery. She’ll be getting an apartment in Fredericton come September, and is going for an "entomology-chic" look for the place. We both agreed it would fit in quite nicely:
The tour of the brewery was really cool (as far as touristy things are concerned, it was definitely a highlight). Some of the guides were a little hard to understand (especially for poor Lucie who’s just learning English!), but all in all I was very impressed. We even got free samples! Lauren and I tried Keith’s Honey Brown, a flavour not yet available outside the Maritimes. The best part? We got to go back for SECONDS! :D. The only problem was they were really busy because of the Can-Day crowds, so we had to pretty much chug the second pint to be out in time for the next group to come through! Lets just say the two of us were walking a little off-centre on the way out. Very nice ;).
Last, but surely not least, was Pier 21. After the brewery tour Lauren and I headed out on our own again. The famous pier has a special significance for my family, as my nana came through there upon her arrival to Canada from Britain following the Second World War. She and two of my aunts sailed aboard the Letitia II (it wasn’t the Queen Mary buddy...my bad), and briefly stayed in Halifax before heading west to start their life in the Ottawa Valley. Hers and my aunts’ names are featured among many on a wall of plaques lining the entrance, so after taking a brisk tour of the museum (we arrived a mere half-hour before closing!), we went on a hunt for her plaque. Well, Lauren and I apparently are as blind as bats, and after two unsuccessful sweeps of the walls we finally spotted a computer where you could search by last name. Thanks to modern technology we found her row and there she was! It was a pretty cool thing see, no doubt.
Dinner was at a fancy seafood restaurant along the harbour-front called the Waterfront Warehouse. A rather drab name considering the amazing looking interior, but the quality of the food made up for any other shortcomings the place may have had, and I was thoroughly impressed.
That night was party night!! Being from the capital, Lauren and I know how to celebrate Canada Day, and after a couple hotel-room pre-drinks to get me and my crabby self in the mood (thanks for making me go buddy!), we were happy to find the rest of the Keji Crew were in the mood to party too! We started off at Jen’s place where I met and got to know all the new faces. I hit it off with one girl by the name of Vicki (who looks much more like an Erin in my opinion, but I’ve been told multiple times that I look like a Heather, and it pisses me off, so there’s the last mention of that!). She just had the most awesome personality, and a great sense of humour which is always a big plus in my books. I was disappointed to find that I had lost her email address somewhere along the course of the evening (Lauren if you have it, can you send it over??). I had hoped we would keep in touch.
After hitting a couple places throughout the evening, ending at a REALLY cool dance club at about 2:30 a.m., Lauren and I grabbed a cab back to the hotel and talked in bed until our eyelids could open no more. All in all it was a superbly awesome Canada Day...definitely one for the books.
Saturday:Needless to say, we didn’t see much of Saturday morning. Surfacing around 10:30-11 a.m. (not including, two phone calls asking if we wanted to go to the market...which we didn’t), we took our time getting dressed, and forwent breakfast in the place of foot-long Subway subs before heading back to the Citadel for our tour. It was raining...AGAIN...but not nearly as bad, so I still really enjoyed myself (especially in the company of a very hot tour guide in full dress–including kilt–and real-life mutton-chops!).
Later that afternoon we met up with Jen and the French Connection and did some shopping at the main mall just outside the city. I wound up with nothing more then a coffee by the end of it, but Lauren got herself a sun-hat for the beach. Our weekend-long search for a bikini store so she could replace her neon pink and orange suit with something slightly more...subdued...again turned up nothing.
That night we had dinner at this really neat restaurant oddly called "The Economy Shoe Shop." The inside was unbelievable, with a life-size papier-maché tree–branches strung with twinkle-lights–commanding attention in the centre of the room. We got a nice big table for the six of us (Jen’s boyfriend joined us as well) and chow-ed down on some fresh seafood.
After dinner Lauren and I decided to give our legs (and our livers) a rest from bars and clubs, and went back to spend the remaining hours of the evening in the hotel room. The big Live 8 concert was still playing in Barrie, Ont. (among other, much more glamourous places), but we skipped out on watching it. A half-empty bottle of wine, not to mention the last third of Lauren’s Captain Morgan, desperately needed our attention (so much for giving our livers a rest). Once sufficiently giggly we chatted some more about life, loves and story ideas. Despite the mega Can-Day celebrations, I think this was my favourite night of the trip. Just me and my buddy, doing the same thing we’ve been doing since we were ten years old. It was great!
Sunday:Sunday was the first day of warmth and sunshine since my arrival. It was an absolutely beautiful day, which a pity considering its contents turned out to be a fairly crappy. While we were packing up to check out of the hotel, Lauren noticed her digital camera was missing. This didn’t only suck from a financial standpoint, but all of her pictures from the weekend were on there, as well as the fact that she often used the camera for field work. We had taken pictures at the restaurant, so we worked our way back from there (though not before a thorough search of the room turned up nothing). We checked the restaurant, the car park, and asked the hotel staff to keep an eye out incase it turned up somewhere in the room. Lauren and I were both pretty defeated by morning’s end, which was only compounded by the fact that I was leaving and most likely wouldn’t see her for another month...
At noon we met up with Antoine and Lucie, ate a somber lunch and spent the remaining hours walking the pier. The sun was bright and hot and the buskers were out in full-force, so it was an entertaining way to spend my last few hours in the city. In a last-ditch effort to find Lauren’s camera we went back to the hotel early, got our bags and promptly destroyed our neat packing jobs, hoping it had slipped into a forgotten corner. No such luck.
The airport shuttle got to the hotel around 4 p.m.. Lauren and I said our goodbyes (I fought every urge to kick Antoine in the nuts, grab Lauren and take off to the airport, leaving Lucie and the shuttle driver to wonder what the hell had happened...) and I got my book back out in preparation for the long ride home. And I mean loooooooong ride home.
The average flight from Ottawa to Halifax takes about an hour and a half (less on a clear day, which it was). Take into account getting to the airport an hour before flight-time and you’ve got yourself a two and a half hour ride...three tops.
I got home at 11 p.m.. It took 7 hours.
Why? Well, not only was the weather rainy on Friday, but it was foggy. REALLY foggy. So foggy in fact that they closed down Halifax airport...FOR TWO DAYS. Flights were going out on Sunday, but the back-log was enormous which, of course, meant delays.
Lets just say I read 200 pages of my book that afternoon. I was lucky it was a good one (Angels and Demons - Dan Brown, for anyone who’s interested). By some miracle I made my connecting flight in Montreal (they held the plane for me and a few other passengers who were all in the same situation). But I was sooo tired when I got home. It was the kind of tired that comes from sitting, waiting and stressing over what should be but isn’t happening. Throw in the fact that I had work the next day and you’ve got a recipe for bed. Bed bed bed.
Ok so, that was long.
Please know that I’m not a loser who spends hours at a time in front of her computer writing 5-page long posts...this has actually been going on for about a week and a half now, writing snippets over lunch hours and when the boss is away at a meeting. But I’m done now, so wipe your eyes, go get something to eat and start praying that I don’t get carpal-tunnel before I turn thirty...
And that, folks, is all.
