Nova Scotia Bound
After an enormous breakfast (a vast improvement on a Lean Cuisine meal) courtesy of our Ukrainian B&B hosts it was time to pack up the car and take time to explore the Saint John’s River before we embarked on the second part of our journey to Halifax Nova Scotia.
The view of the river was so beautiful it was almost painful to look at it, the contrast of the dazzling white of the frozen water and the vivid azure blue of an utterly cloudless sky brought tears to our eyes with its brilliance. The -6-degree temperatures crystalised everything around us giving all it touched an ethereal sparkle as though it were dusted lightly with glitter. We filled our lungs with fresh, crisp, air and then proceeded to cough like we had a sixty a day smoking habit, jeepers it was so cold even breathing hurt!
We took this amazing start to our day as a positive sign that would herald a change in our fortune, the crisp chilly day made the world around us feel fresh and new and we were turning over to a fresh new page of our story.
Our journey to Halifax felt like it was over in a heartbeat compared to the hours of driving we had experienced the previous day, intriguingly we not only saw a difference crossing the border into Nova Scotia, but we felt it too. The sky had transformed from glaring blue to a dreary gun metal grey and the temperature increased from -6-degrees to 5-degrees which was incredible. It was early afternoon by the time we arrived at the ‘Chateau Bedford Transit Van’, and once again we were back in the city but not just any city, we were in Nova Scotia’s capital.
Once we had checked in at reception, we dumped our bags in our room and then headed straight back out again, we had important things to do! First on our list of priorities was getting pet supplies for our fur babies who would be flying in the following morning and second was finding something to eat that did not require microwaving.
We were so excited at the prospect of being reunited with our pets again that we probably went a tad overboard in the pet store, we left with arms laden with dog and cat kibble, treats, cat nip toys, fluffy mice, balls, squeaky toys, blankets, a dog rain jacket, a dog winter jacket, a dog lead, harness and finally a dog bed which was just as expensive as a human bed and big enough to fit Martin, myself and the dog in. Our pets had been through such a traumatic time and deserved the best, they were worth every dollar.
Be the person your pets think you are.
Halifax is located on the East Coast of Canada and is the major economic centre in Atlantic Canada and the Maritime provinces, nestled in a large natural harbour which is one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural harbours in the world it had a vastly different feel to it compared to Ottawa.
Downtown Halifax had the energy and pace of the city with shops and eateries interspersed among commercial businesses and yet you could easily walk down a street near the harbour and find yourself walking back through time just like we did when we took a stroll down Lower Water Street and found ourselves at Alexander Keith’s Brewery.
The irony of a Brewery being the first place to stumble upon as we explored the city was not lost on us and far be it for us to ignore a clear sign offered up by the universe to celebrate not only making it to Nova Scotia but the settlement of our house in NZ.
Alexander Keith’s is one of the oldest working breweries in North America and has been brewing pale ale since 1820. Dedicated to crafting small batch brews and after two hundred years practice, they are good at it too, so it was no surprise that we managed to while away the rest of our day both here and at the Black Sheep pub and eatery next door!
Beer is made from hops. Hops are plants. Beer = Salad
It was also a wonderful opportunity to discuss our plans for the following day which was to be a busy one. We needed to check out of the hotel and be at the cargo warehouse at Halifax Airport to meet with Marilyn the owner of the Kitty Care Inn who would be taking our cats with her to the cattery. Once we had collected the pets Lola would travel with us and we would follow Marilyn to the cattery to get the cats settled in before we headed off with Lola to our next Air BnB the Lilly Pad in Annapolis Royal which was a two-hour drive from Halifax.
Fully satiated and a wee bit exhausted if we are being honest, we finally headed back to the Chateau. After all the stress with the buyer over the house settlement the previous night we were in desperate need of a sound night’s sleep, our room was clean and spacious with large comfortable beds that were beckoning to us as we got into the elevator to our room.
Any illusion we had of a restful night’s sleep was immediately shattered as we stepped out of the elevator into the hallway leading to our room and promptly discovered that thirty 11-year-olds who were in Halifax for an ice hockey tournament were now occupying our floor, supervised by a handful of adults, and I say ‘supervised’ in the loosest sense of the term.
We lay there until midnight trying our best to ignore the constant thunder of bare feet running down the hallway and the frequent knocking on the door of our room followed by bellowing laughter as the kids ran away before we could get to the door.
We spent some time trying to think of ingenious ways to get our own back on the kids without getting arrested like stealing tacks from reception and sprinkling them on the floor outside our room or setting off the fire alarm once they were finally asleep but in the end we just cast our minds back to what we were like at that age, I knew for a fact I had got up too much worse at that age I was not going to be the one to begrudge them a little fun.
Welcome each day with the joy and wonder of a child.
Peace eventually returned to our floor and thoughts of tomorrows adventure filled our heads as we gave in to our fatigue and succumbed to much needed slumber.