A new Journey Begins
03/05/08
Unfortunately to start my exciting new adventure I had to end my last one and leave the wonderful city of Ottawa that has been my home since September. Stripping my room of all my photos and posters to leave just a bare empty shell and hugging goodbye to all new friends I had made unsure of when I would see them again was hard. So it was with mixed emotions that I got onto a plane and we left Ottawa, flying east to the start point of our epic journey that will take a month to complete. I am (hopefully) going to complete coast to coast crossing of Canada on the Pan Canadian Railway with my equally crazy flatmate, Julia. This journey will take us from the city of Halifax in Nova Scotia over 3000 miles west to the city of Vancouver on the pacific coastline.
So we flew form Ottawa to this historic starting point, Halifax. The city of Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and the province of new Scotland really lives up to its name. It feels Scottish not in the medieval castles and kings way but in a far more rough and modern way. The streets are often narrow and winding climbing over hills and crisscrossing in every direction in a way unexpected of North America. The buildings have a grimy industrial early 1990s architecture that reminded me so much of many of the streets in my own home town of Glasgow. This along with the grey overcast skies and the constant threat of rain Halifax felt almost like going home. Now don’t get me wrong Halifax is a great city with some beautiful and interesting sights. The harbour has a twisting boardwalk crammed with hundreds ranging from modern motor boats to grand old sail boats and of course the famous Theodore. Theodore is the tug boat- the actual working and frequently used tug boat- that just so happens to have a giant smiling face painted on it and stars in its own kinds TV show! Halifax also boasts something else that few other Canadian cities can, a (relatively) long and definitely interesting history it has a hilltop fort buried into the side of mound that the town has grown around. This fort of course built to protect the city from the threat of first French and then later American armies. Now of course the fort is best at offering spectacular panoramic views of the city all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean. It has a haunted church where the shadow of an ill fated monk can be seen praying at the window and however many times they replace the glass or clean the window the figure can still be seen.
As I write this I only now feel like the journey is truly beginning. I am sitting on our first train as we zip across three provinces on our way to Quebec City. It feels exciting to be starting this epic and historic journey however for the moment there is nothing to do but wave goodbye to Halifax and watch eighteen hours of Canadian countryside fly by my window.
