visited Halifax in Canada

We spent our final day in Quebec visiting markets selling delicious produce and sampling as much as we could, then marvelling at two cruise liners the 'Deutchland' and the 'Rotterdam' both of which stood proud as two men were tasked with painting them.  By late afternoon, we were exhausted and returned to the hostel for our evening meal and to retrieve our backpacks for the next journey at again just after midnight, to Halifax.

Halifax
It was a long trek on the Greyhound from Quebec to Halifax - for the first leg of the journey to Riviere de Loup we slept as much as possible as there were very few people riding with us.  On the second leg of the journey the bus was crowded and so our only saving grace was the view from the window and the display of Autumn colours.  By the time we arrived into Halifax the weather had closed in, the grey skies of the Atlantic coast welcoming us.  We walked the short distance to our hostel and said our goodnights as we retreated to our same sex bunk areas, where my husband had to cope with the stench from the guy on the top bunk, and I had to try for sleep inbetween the fog horn snores of the girl in the next bunk.

Early morning we met each other back in the kitchen, and outside we were greeted with glorious weather both sunny and warm.  We spent a fun day visiting the sights of Halifax - there were boats everywhere, historic buildings, markets, small boutiques and such friendly people.

We caught a ferry across to Dartmouth and a number 60 bus to Fisherman's Cove.  We'd asked the bus driver to nod to us when we had arrived, which he did then as we left the bus he said to us 'good luck' - we were a little perturbed as to why we would need luck and when at first we couldn't

see anything except a road and deserted land I was disappointed.  I'd seen a picture of Fisherman's Cove and I'd been so looking forward to visiting it.  But as we turned the corner, there infront of us lay the most beautiful fishing village.  We followed a pathway through the waterways, and weren't in the slightest bit put out when an old Gentleman overtook us twice as he did his morning exercise.

We wandered through the fishing village, visiting a few gift shops and then stopped in a sheltered spot to bask in the sunshine and eat some fruit.  This was the first time on our trip that I'd actually properly relaxed, and that moment and that feeling of contentedness will forever stay with me.

On route back to the bus, we saw fishermen lounging around next to a river full of mussels.  What a beautiful existence.  The moment broken only for a second by a car driving down the wrong side of the road narrowly missing the oncoming cars and our bus by driving onto the pavement, seemingly with not a care in the world!

Back on the bus for our return to the ferry, we sat amongst all sorts of characters with interesting names such as Gandolph.  When the young lad got on the bus wearing a woolen hat and a baseball cap cocked to one side, my husband and I had to exchange smiles.

The ferry took us back to Halifax, where we visited the Citadel 5 minutes before closing...we had just enough time to run around the British fort, take photographs and admire the views before leaving and starting the long walk to Pleasure Point Park on the edge of Halifax, passing through salubrious neighbourhoods where we argued about which house we would like to live in.

Finally when the feet had almost given up, we stopped at a supermarket to buy food and then headed back to cook and to read, and for my husband to be talked to by a young besotted lady who seemed to have the inability to come up for air!  Not that I minded really - it was interesting learning all about her travels.  Later when we had returned to England, my husband told me about the mice he saw in the lounge area of this hostel - as all of us fellow travellers either read, chatted or watched television, the mice scurried around enjoying the crumbs on the floor.  I'd not noticed, and my husband thought it best not to tell me at that time - probably wise, but at least I was on the top bunk!!

The next morning, we had planned to take in a few final sights before heading to the bus, but this was cut short by torrents of rain and us having to dart between shelters.  So seeing as much as we could, we picked up our backpacks and headed for the Greyhound terminal.  It was now just after lunch, and with rain soaked clothes we travelled the 19 hours or so back through Quebec to Montreal.

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Arriving into Montreal we checked our next bus time to Ottawa, and then leaving our backpacks in lockers we set out to explore the city.  It was early morning and every block seemed to be adorned with homeless people and graffiti - we gave up our trek and opted to return to the terminal.  Whilst the centre of Montreal may well be worth a visit, we had not seen anything to convince us to stay and we praised the lovely gentlemen and Australian guy who we had met in Quebec and whom had told us it was probably not worth spending 3 days visiting this city, hence our change of plan to take in Halifax.  By 9am we were on our connecting trip to Ottawa and by 11am we had arrived at the Capital.