In the Market Building are a couple who have a stall where
they sell photographs she takes of the area. They kind of stand out for me as
they were from Milton Keynes and her photographic career started with a second
hand camera, a good one, bought at the second hand market stall there. Halifax
has cruise liners call there and they docked at Pier 21/22 right next to the
Farmers Market building which also contains an Immigration Museum. Walking
along the shorefront towards the cruise ships there were unusual numbers of
almost aimlessly wandering people, clearly from the ships, but almost sprinting
through them in immaculate running gear were joggers released from those same
ships. I had not seen any joggers in the days prior to the arrival of the
cruise ships but now, like detainees on day release, they swept out and away
from the ships. But that pier has history as the first arrival point for so
many immigrants escaping Europe from the early 1800’s. So its hardly surprising
that there is an immigration Museum there that tries to tell the complex of
stories that have similar themes but are very individual and often dramatic. It
was of course where many of the Titanic survivors as well as victims landed and
in the outskirts of Halifax is a large cemetery with a small stark section with
the grave markers of those victims that were recovered after the sinking. Many
of the markers have no names, some have too many names with in one case the
parents and all their children recorded on one stone marker.
In the Immigration Museum I was intercepted by one of the
guides who asked me if I would like to take an immigrant test. I agreed and was
offered the long or short test, apparently the long one is the test any
immigrant to Canada has to take these days. I knew that being nearly 75, with
no past of present blood connection to anyone in Canada I would stand no chance
of being allowed to settle there, but what the heck, I would go for the full on
examination as it would be interesting to see what the test involved and how
well I could do. I seemed like around 8 pages of multiple choice questions. It
started off easy with me either knowing or very sure of which of the multiple
choice answers was right. But then the questions got more difficult before
becoming that special category of “I have no idea.” Out the corner of my eye I
could see my examiner ticking and more increasingly crossing my answers. Such
things as when did Canada gain its independence, what was the name of the act
that achieved this, who was the first prime minister, and in the midst of that
one I was sure I would know, “what is Canada’s official national sport.” That
of course is Lacrosse and not ice hockey or, as it is known over there, hockey.
Sir John A. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister and his image is on a C$10
bill.
One of the things I was told about the weather in Nova
Scotia is that it is predictably unpredictable, and so it proved. I was also
told that you can get all four seasons in one day on occasion. On my second
full day there it was again a clear blue sky but with a high strong wind and it
was freezing cold hence, when getting up to and looking around the old
fortifications called The Citadel I got sunburn whilst trying to shelter from
the wind and keep warm, not a set of weather challenges I am used to. Then,
another couple of days and driving rain nearly all day. In a way I am glad the
place demonstrated to me how fickle its weather is, yet another way of feeling
you are getting to know the place. So although Halifax is not a big city,
although it has substantial suburbs, it had plenty to offer me. I was very
lucky to be there over their heritage weekend and so was able to get into
places not normally accessible to anyone let alone tourists. I was on the
eastern edge of a vast country which only began to function as one country with
the coming of the railways because of the vast distances involved. With my time
in Halifax running out it was time to board a train, The Ocean, to Montreal
that takes 24 hours, travels 1346km, and crosses me into another time zone. In
a way, although on the train you are isolated from the realities of the country
you are going through, I was left with a sense of wonder at the vastness of it
all. This despite the fact that for long stretches you can see no further than
the extremely dense trees crowding up so close to the tracks. The trees on the
south side of the track, because they are so tightly packed, grow very tall and
spindly to get to the light but, with the space created by the train route the
birch amongst them droop like water starved flowers. Most of the time you can’t
see over the trees and so you feel as though you are travelling down a deep
groove in a sea of trees. The land is also very flat offering few chances for
the tree canopy to drop enough for you to see over it, even from the roof top
observation car.
One really quirky aspect of that train was that the sleeping
cars were, I am reliably told, not built for the Canadian Railways but the UK
rail system. I remember hearing that in the planning for the use of the Channel
Tunnel there was to be services through the tunnel from France that would run
right through to the north of England and Scotland. The sleeping cars I used in
Canada were built for the UK and those services running up to the north and,
when the planning for those services were abandoned the carriages were sold to
Canadian railways, and now I was using them. I was fortunate enough to get a
cabin with its own mini bathroom. Anyone who has used a smallish motor home
will know all about small showrooms and the shower room was just like that in
terms of size and everything getting wet when you shower. That said there is
two important differences. The first is that, unlike the motorhome showers, the
shower head in my shower room had to be hand held as it was not designed to be
clipped into any part of the walls or ceiling, the other aspect is that, unless
you are very lucky in your timing, you find yourself showering on the move
which means with holding the shower head and trying to stop yourself bouncing
off the walls, you realise more arms and hands would be really useful. I know
many would not welcome that challenge but I look on it as an enjoyable
challenge and feel in am developing new skills, or at least proving to myself I
can do it.
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