Friday 27 July 2012

Day 10 - fun and frivolity in Halifax

July 23

Day 3 in Halifax.  Today is the last day of the festival.  It would conclude with a parade of all the tall ships leaving the harbour.  This was something not to be missed, least of which the magnificent photos sure to be had.

Like the other mornings, I found myself in the hostel kitchen area.  Steve was leaving for the Cabot Trail.  I would be leaving for it myself, but not until the next day.  I hoped I would run into him again, as we were becoming pretty good friends.

I was getting myself sorted for the start of my day when I met a new hostel friend, Ashley.  She is from the grand city of Winnipeg, a city by the way, that I really like (so why do people dump on that city anyway?)

We got talking about our visit to the Maritimes.  Ashley mentioned she had visited Newfoundland, which I wanted to visit, but was unsure that I would.

There are two ways to Newfoundland - by air or by ferry. The ferry option offers two routes - one 14 hour ferry to St. John's, at a whopping $200 each way for a motorcycle and its rider!  Outrageous!
The other route is much cheaper, $94 each way, except you do not land in St. John's, but Port-Aux-Basque.  From there it is a 12 hour drive to St. John's, the provincial capital.

Not knowing much about Newfoundland, (I do little planning on my trips folks) I had kept my options open.

However after speaking with Ashley, the possibility of a Newfoundland trip took on alot of potential. She told me that the two national parks - Gross Morne and Lance Aux Meadows - weren't that far from Port-Aux-Basque.  Now I'm sure I would have arrived at this fact eventually, but like I said, when I travel alone I do things by the hip, so this fact was still undiscovered to me.

Ashley asked me what I was up to.  When I told her I was going to see the parade, she asked  if she could tag along.  "sure!" I said.  Then her friend Camilla from Australia asked if she could join.  Well, what do you think our answer was?

The three of us made our way to the waterfront.  A few ships could be spotted in the harbour.  The rest were probably around the bend somewhere.  All of the ships would do a loop of the harbour before heading out to sea.

We all stopped and took photographs.  Also on our agenda were beaver tails and Cow's ice-cream!
Then the Picton Castle appeared.  She was going at a terrific clip, and her appearance caught us off guard.  I excused myself from the ladies, and decided to try and chase it down for some shots.

It took a few minutes of sprinting, but I caught up to her in my photo lense!  After taking a few shots, I stopped and decided to just watch her for a few moments.  She was majestic as before.  And this time I felt something else.  In her sails I saw more than just her cloth. I saw adventure, history, even nostalgia.  In her hull and mast I saw adventure.  And in her wake I saw opportunity.  At that moment I promised myself I would sail the seas one day, and it would be on a tall ship.

Now it was time to rejoin my entourage.

I found the ladies at the Beaver Tail, getting, well, Beaver Tails.

A Beaver Tail is like a mini donut in consistency, however it is much bigger and also flat and thin.  The flavour, on the other hand, is out of this world fantastic! 

Camilia let me sample her cheescake flavour, Ashley her chocolate banana.  The line up, however, was very long, so I decided I would get one of my own later.  But now time was not to be wasted - we were off to Cow's for ice-cream.

Apparently some association voted Cow's the best ice-cream in the world.  Her lineups are often long, so there must have been some truth to it.

When we arrived, the line was actually fairly short.  As we stood in line I read a sign of interesting facts about the ice-cream.  The one that stood out for me was the line "lusciously high in buttermilk fat."  Oooh, that sounded awesome!

There were so many flavours to choose from, so I would have a hard time making a decision.  Or maybe I wouldn't.  I decided to go for a triple scoop - one scoop of Moo Madness, one of Mooberry (which had PEI strawberries, raspberries and blueberries), and one of (I forget the third, it had burnt sugar and caramel in it though!).  Piled on top  of a waffle cone, my taste buds were sure to be in for a treat.

Holy lick was it deliscious!  And runny too, as the heat of the day caused it to drip on my clothes. I didn't mind though, and neither did my company.

Afterward, we went to a restaurant on the harbour and each orderd a Blue Schooner.  It was Blue Caracoa with coconut and other fruity flavours.  It went down smoooooth!

After finishing our drinks we were off to Alexander Keith's brewery for a tour!

The tour was fantastic! You are treated at every stage to a talk by an actor dressed in the  clothes of the 1800's era.  They each spoke to the history of Mr. Keith and how his fine beer came to be in Canada.

The tour involved drinking as well!  Each person was treated to two Keith flavours of their choice.  You didn't have much time to drink them though - less than 15 minutes.

I downed mine, and half of Ashley's second drink.  Like Mr. Keith, I am Scottish, and as such, don't like to let things go to waste.  Especially a glass of his fine brew!

At this point I felt a little sloshed.  The tour was now done.  It was time for the three of us to move on to our next activity, making a lobster dinner!

We walked down to Superstore and each picked up a fresh lobster.  Off to the hostel we went to cook our meals!

But before going we stopped at the liquor store and each picked up a bottle of wine.  I could feel my liver starting to cringe.  I was already half cut and there was more to come!

Well our meal turned out well.  This was my first ever taste of lobster - and it was very tasty!

As we sat on the beautiful patio at the hostel digesting our wonderful meal, we met some new friends.  McKenzie, from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, and two German lads.  We all got talking, and invited them to join us for our pub crawl.  By the way at this point, there were three empty wine bottles, drank by three already drunk revellers!

So it was off to the Old Triangle pub.  There we ordered a keg of Keith's.  Ah Alexander!

Then it was off to bar #2.

Sometime later we were off to bar #3.  Except at this point I was not feeling well at all.  At some point I asked that we stop.  I sat down on the sidewalk, unable to continue for fear of getting sick.
After a minute I felt better, except now I was on water only.

This bar was very lively.  There was a band, a solo act, a fellow named Mike who performed cover tunes.  His playlist included U2, so naturally I was happy.

I felt good enough to dance, so I did.  I danced with Camilla, Ashley, McKenzie, other ladies in the bar, hell anyone who would dance with me.  Every one of us was having the time of our life.

Eventually the hour of 4am came, and the bar was closing.  I think we had kept drinking wel l past last call.....

After alot of stumbling, we arrived at the hostel.  It was 5am and time for bed.  And I was supposed to check out by 11 and leave for the Cabot Trail tomorrow(err, well, today).  I wondered if I would stay another day in Halifax instead.....

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