Nova Scotia 2

I had advertised on the bulletin board for riders but got no queries. End of season, I supposed. And not many people wanted to go back to Quebec. P and J announced that they were leaving Halifax. After some quick thinking, I decided to check out too. There wasn't much to see in Halifax and what there was I reckoned I could do in a day.

I decided to change some US currency at a bank and immediately ran into a problem. They wouldn't take $100 bills because they were worried about forgeries. I tried a few banks without any luck. Bummer! I really hated Nova Scotia now. I wondered what to do. Well I had enough money to last for a couple of days but I would have to pay for petrol with a credit card. I could get a cash advance on plastic if necessary.  But the idea of the money sitting in my pocket useless was infuriating.

I decided to at least see the Grand Pre Historic Park. This is where the Arcadians built up an agricultural district on marshland using dykes and drainage before they were expelled by the British for not taking an oath of loyalty to the crown. They were just farmers who wanted no part of politics but as usual, little people get caught in between.

It was a dreary day. Wentworth hostel is not far from Halifax so I was in no hurry.  I took the coastal road to try to see the Bay of Fundy, which has one of the largest tidal variations in the world. The bay faces north south and the funnel amplifies the incoming tides. I saw some coastal marshland which smelt bad and showed signs of large tidal variations, but I guess I was there at the wrong time of day.

Driving in dreary weather was tiring. It was the sort of day when you think the world will end with a whimper instead of a bang. All around nothing is happening, and you don't really care even if anything did.

The hostel handbook said that there was a grocery store on the main road, or at least I infered that. There, I must have just passed it. I went on for another couple of km, just to see if I could spot the town but there wasn't one. Wentworth was simply this slightly denser group of houses. I got bread, milk, mashed potatoes and luncheon meat at the grocery store. The hostel was up on a little hill. There were several cars and some children playing. Pretty crowded for the end of season I thought. There were indications that the hostel was used as a ski lodge in winter, like the notice about boots. Eventually it turned out that the people were biologists, on a specimen collecting trip. They were from museums from all over. I was the only other hosteller. It was a boring night. I used up the last aerogram and curled up with a book.

Nova Scotia 1

It was not so far to Halifax. How to kill the time until 5 in the afternoon?  I decided on a slow drive along the south coast. There is this Marine Drive that goes south to the coast and then west to Halifax.

Unfortunately I didn't notice that there was a ferry along the way. This turned out to be a ferry pulled by a cable running from bank to bank. The fee was only a measly 50 cents, but they ran only every half hour.

I was near the head of the boat. It was a slow day. A hearse drove on. Interesting to be sharing a ferry with a loaded hearse. The crossing only took five minutes, but upon reaching the other shore, the hearse was in no hurry to drive off. Well, its other occupant was in no hurry I'm sure.

There is much beautiful coastal scenery here—coves, inlets and little nooks that you would expect from a highly indented coastline.

I stopped at a seafood restaurant for lunch. I missed having lobster in PEI because I didn't have anybody to go with. I felt like I deserved some seafood. This place got good marks in somebody's travel guide. I ordered a lobster chowder and finished up with pastry. Lunch was delicious.

Halifax was larger than I expected. Did you have visions of a smelly fishing town? Halifax was a modern city, complete with skyscrapers. The harbour reminded me of Hobart. I arrived around evening rush hour but fortunately didn't have to contend with too much traffic. The hostel seemed to be in a depressed area of town. Well the maritime provinces were economically depressed, but the cracks showed more in the city. Lots of unemployed hanging around the shelter. 

I had an hour to kill so I parked the car in the yard and walked downtown. I found a Radio Shack store and replaced the old batteries in the camera.  Since it was a warm day and I felt fatigued, I treated myself to a root beer at the A&W. They didn't seem to make those foot long hot dogs anymore. Pity. Every fast food chain seemed to have gone for burgers in some form, or chicken nuggets. When I checked in the house parent asked me if I came by car. She gave me a $2 rebate so that I could park at the covered garage downtown, 10 minutes walk away. I explored a little of downtown before walking back. The old town was interesting, but as luck would have it, I didn't have my camera with me. For tomorrow then. Trust Murphy to give me good scenery when I was not prepared.

P and J from PEI were at the hostel too. They were at Seal Island but didn't like the unheated facility and went to a motel. I didn't have much food except the haddock filet which by this time was smelly. I decided to drown the fish in chicken soup. There was a good collection of free food in the kitchen and I had bread and butter as well. I was very tempted, back there in town, to go for the $1.50 dinner advertised outside a pub.

I suggested going out for a beer. They were a little concerned about the safety of the area, but by American standards, the area was benign. I was tired and gave up the idea, so we three ended up playing ping-pong in the hostel. There was a laundry in the basement but lots of people were in line and everytime I came back to check, somebody had gone ahead of me. I got my stuff washed and dried by midnight. There was a shower in the basement too, so I used that to avoid making noise upstairs.