Hi. We spent last week having a little vacation on Canada’s east coast, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where we celebrated our 20th anniversary! (Follow up: Part 2 and Part 3)
I’d never been there and Nick had only ever quickly passed through, so it was high on our list of places to visit. It ended up being a great place to go. A couple of aspects which really stand out, were the friendly people and the excellent food. It was a lot of fun.
We flew Porter Air from Toronto’s Island Airport on Sunday afternoon and stayed five nights, returning on Friday afternoon.
We stayed at The Cambridge Suites Hotel, in a “Junior Suite” on the top floor, which had a little kitchen, a lounging area and a separate bedroom. A buffet breakfast in their dining room on the main floor was included. It was very comfortable and really quite perfect for our needs. (I’ll include photos taken around the room and hotel in another post.)
Here is the story and photos of our first day there …
Monday was Remembrance Day, and unlike in Ontario, this was a public holiday in Nova Scotia. We hadn’t expected that and it meant that the shops were all closed and the streets were very quiet, but the weather was beautiful and it was a great day to take a long walk and look around.
So, after watching the Remembrance Day service which took place right across from our hotel, we headed downhill, toward the waterfront.
↑ We vote that Toronto get some hammocks exactly like these on our waterfront! We hung out here for a spell. ↑
↑ A little teaser for something coming up in a future post! ↑
↑ We came back to “Sea Smoke” for dinner on our last night in the city (A description of that coming up in another post.) ↑
From here, we left the waterfront and went deeper into the city …
↑ Alexander Keith’s Brewery on Lower Water Street, was established in 1820. (See an image of a cool old postcard of this building here.) ↑
↑ We passed this historic building and noticed the restaurant on the main floor offered Donairs — Read about “Halifax’s official snack” in this Food Network article. We knew we had to have one while in the city, so we kept Mezza in mind. ↑
↑ These buildings on Barrington Street are from the 1880s ↑
↑ Halifax City Hall was also built in the 1880s ↑
↑ This shot was taken from the square in front of the City Hall, but I used the telephoto setting, so the “Halifax Town Clock” is quite a way from where we were. It began keeping time in 1803. ↑
↑ Without realizing we’d found what is known as Halifax’s most haunted building, we entered into Little Fish Oyster Bar for lunch. ↑
The building dates back to 1817, having first served as a school house, and later as a funeral parlour. We were told that many unfortunate victims of the Titanic ended up there. There are even stories on their website about ghostly sightings going on to this day.
While we didn’t have any ghoulish run-ins ourselves, we certainly did encounter a delicious meal. As mentioned above, the food in Halifax was really good, in general, and we didn’t have a single disappointing dish there, but I think the “Pan Seared Haddock with spiced cashew crust, topped with melon salsa, served with basmati rice and local summer vegetables” we had at Little Fish was my favourite.
The friendly server told us that Halifax’s oldest building, St. Paul’s Church, built in 1750, was located just across from the restaurant and down the street a bit. So, after lunch, we went to have a look.
↑ Halifax’s oldest building still standing and the oldest surviving Protestant church in Canada. ↑
↑ Just one more sneak peek at a place we went back to on another evening, “The Wooden Monkey”. ↑
After what turned out to be a five hour walk, minus the time we spent having lunch, we headed back up the hill to our hotel, where we promptly fell asleep.
We woke up at around 8:30pm, got dressed and went out again, hoping to find some hot sake and sushi. We were in luck when we came upon Arisu Table BBQ and Sushi Bar.
And now I know that sushi made with freshly caught salmon from the adjacent ocean is the very best. No doubt, I love sushi in Toronto, but wow, the same dish in Halifax is special.
That concludes the description of the first day of our trip to Halifax. Thank you for taking a look! xo loulou
