Scotland, Lobster and the Titanic!

Halifax - right on the east coast. A beautiful town seeped in history and a touch of glam; oh and a very Scottish influence! Bagpipes everywhere, even men in skirts, sorry kilts!

My trip to Halifax didn't start of too successful. After a 22 hour journey on the bus, my back was clicked into one position and I looked like I had just stepped out of bed on a very bad morning. I walk into the station ask how to get to my hostel and just get a stern response, a response stating: "Don't go there." There was no, 'maybe you shouldn't, I wouldn't', it was straight forward don't. Apparently the hostel I had booked is in a really rough area and you never walk around alone at night. After some deliberating I decided to got to the cleaner, better located HI down the road from the station, deciding that to be safe was better then loosing a little cash and I went with my gut instint, which is usually the correct one.

Well I'm glad I stayed there because straight away I met Anna from Germany and we arranged to go for a drink and a bit to eat and we met Sonja and Anna in our room, arranging to met with them later. After a couple of cocktails and fish and chips, (nothing like the ones from a good old English chippy though), we went to a pub with a band playing, a band that reminded me of a wedding band which obviously means great cheesy tunes to dance to and we twisted the night away. Unfortunately they were all leaving on a tour the next day so I set out to check out the town.

The harbor is beautiful with a tourism vibe, much like Victoria, but this place has lots of seafood. The words 'Lobster Roll' jumped out at me from a board and my instant thought was yum. Now I would like to know where the hell the lobster was in my lobster roll! They should have really called it lettuce roll with a smidgen of lobster meet you can barley taste tucked in the top!

Making breakfast one morning I turn around to see a girl staring back at me. At first I thought, 'oh great random weirdo, just smile', then it clicked that it was Anya who I'd met in Regina. I'm so glad I changed hostels, does make you wonder about the 'what's meant to be theory' hey? If I had gone to the other place I would never have seen these people.

So we decided to be tourists for the day and had the funniest time on the bus that turns into a boat and the guide that should have either been a model or a stand up comedian! Good looking and funny, so we giggled like little girls at all his jokes.

I never knew that the Titanic sunk so close to Halifax, in fact Halifax was the first to get boats out to retrieve the bodies. There's obviously a museum dedicated to this and after the amusement of looking at each other in 3D glasses we were taken round a trip of the wreck. Reading the facts though, things like the myth of women and children being saved first shocked me - still more men from first class were saved then women and children in the second and third classes.

One thing I must mention about Halifax at this time of year is Shakespeare by the Sea. At first I was a bit weary about a bunch of Canadian actors doing Shakespeare, but this was amazing. A small setting right in the middle of a huge park; you couldn't have asked for a better place for 'A Midsummer's Night Dream'. The woods were prefect for the fairyland story and provided the likes of Puck with the ideal place to jump around in. Mixing a little contemporary, they really brought the play to life in a great funny way - the way it is meant to be. Although I did get picked on as being the Essex girl in the pre-performance warm up! Typical.

That's the short story of Halifax. An amazing town with great things to do, history in every corner and a bit of bonny Scotland to make you feel at home, just without the snow.

Next Quebec for a little touch of French. Bonjour!