FINALLY! SOME CULTURE!

So, Robin and I had a packed day/night.

Friday night - DIY pubcrawl
There are lots of pubcrawls in Halifax that you can go on, but most don't start until the season officially begins around June 1st, so Robin and I decided to make our own!

Those who like it, like it a lot!

What's up, Keith? We love you too.



Sláinte Mhath!

We started the night at one of the local breweries here in town, Alexander Keiths. They're famous for their IPA (which is pretty good for an IPA. I don't really like them, but this was tastey). I liked their stout and their white beer. I've been on a lot of brew tours, and this one was by far the best. Not too much learning. The tours are conducted by actors who are in character from like 1860 or so. It's funny and fascinating all at the same time. They don't break character either. If you have a modern question to ask you have to wait until the end. They sing period drinking songs and ballads and tell bawdy jokes during the sampling time (you only get two. sad day, i know) and they teach you to play pub games. They got their start selling beer to the local military naval base here in town back in the day. Soldiers and sailors got 1 gallon of beer a day. The local brew here at the time was so terrible and flat that they switched the ration to grog. Then Alexander Keith came along and made this great beer and sold that to them. So he had a built in market and made loads. If you want to look like a local, then order a Keiths.


Next stop on the DIY pub crawl, Economy Shoe Shop:
It's really more of a restaurant, but the food is fab and the beer flows freely. The waitstaff is also really nice and fun. The interior of the place is gorgeous. It looks like you're in a forest. It's seat yourself, so don't wait around trying to get your name on a list. Also, the washroom (not bathroom here) is super hard to find and not marked, so make sure you get someone to walk you there. The place is absolutely gigantic; there's room after room after nook after cranny. It's really easy to get lost, so bring a compass and a prayer. A little pricey, but definitely nice to bring someone if they come to visit. We actually spent a very, very long time here, so while we intended to hit up a lot of pubs, we actually didn't get to since we were here so long.

Kim, Me, Robin, and Ashley

Although we didn't go to the Old Triangle on our DIY pubcrawl, we did go there for dinner before High School Musical. I guess since we're talking about pubs, I'll talk about here. Halifax likes to boast that it has more bars per capita than any other city in Canada (some people will say North America). I'm not sure about that statistic, but there are definitely a lot of bars/pubs and nightclubs. I guess with a town of only 400,000 people, the amount of restaurant-bars they do have is pretty astounding. So anyways, Old Triangle... Great food (I had the Dublin Pastie and it was AWESOME, so try it). The service was pretty crappy, but that's ok. I guess it was a little busy. So if you need to be somewhere fast, don't go here. They do have these cool little rooms with one table (about a 4' by 4' room) that's pretty cozy. That's where Robin and I sat. So you can bring all your friends (or like 6 of them) and fill up a nook, or you can just have fun with another person. Overall, not a bad spot.

So we ended up the night at this place called the Wooden Monkey. It's mostly a restaurant, and I think it's kind of expensive. Everything there is organic and locally grown, which is cool. So for the nachos (which I hear are delicious) there's no guacomole, because avocados are not native to the area. My roommate was there with her friend Ashley, so we went there for a few hours and drank. I had the other local brew Propeller, but I didn't like it much. I had their Bitter and it was not that great. Oh well. So we sat there for awhile. We tried to explain about the dirty south and stuff. Ashley wants to throw a Dirty South party, and I said we definitely should. I wonder if that will happen.... We'll see...


So we spent so much time at those places that we really didn't go to any other places. I'm sure I'll go on more. I had pizza at this place on the way home called the Big Slice. It was decent, but kinda pricey ($4.95 for a slice!). So that's when Kim (the roommate) told us that there was a farmer's market that started at 7 AM the next morning. It was already 1AM. I told Robin that I'd set my alarm and then if we could roll out of bed to do it, then we should go since it's only on Saturday and she would be leaving on Sunday.

Saturday, really early AM - We made it!
One of the best farmer's markets I've ever been to.

We decided that we can sleep when we're dead, so we went! It's actually in the same place as the brewery with the stalls tucked all in and around and downstairs and stuff. There was EVERYTHING. Bread and vegetables and flowers and pastries and fish (yuck). I bought a really cute pink with polka dot handmade bag. This cute man was selling them for his wife who's been making and selling them for 10+ years. They also had lots of crafts and handmade jewelry and leather goods. There were honey and cheese sellers (that's for you, dad!). Teas and even beer! Although it was only 7 AM and waaaaaay too early for beer, especially given the volume we had drunk the night before. There were also crepe stalls and waffle stalls where you could get breakfast, which is what Robin and I did. You could also buy coffee (which smelled awesome), but we held off. Robin bought butter tarts. Gosh I miss those! I use to eat them all the time. Here are a few of the pictures:

One of the rooms. I'm standing at the top of the stairs leading into the brewery taking this picture

I call him "Man With Leeks"

Fiddleheads - they take the new fern before it has a chance to become a full grown Fiddlehead fern and pick them. It's cooked up like asparagus with garlic and butter. We never had these in Ontario. It's a local thing. I'm going to have to try it before I leave. They look good, don't they?

Radishes. Don't they look delish? I don't even like radishes, and I think I would eat these.

I think I'm going to come here and get my bread for sandwiches from this lady

On our way back we stopped at the Second Cup coffee shop to have a nonfat no whip white mocha and chai latte. We were chatting and minding our own business when all of a sudden there was a huge ***CRASH***!! The barista had closed the door to a refrigerator case and the front came crashing out. It went EVERYWHERE. It's a good thing it was tempered glass since Robin and I were literally sitting right in front of the case. That could have been dangerous (and painful).

Saturday Mid Day - Polly and Peggy's Cove with Ryan

Ugh. So the reason why we weren't sure about that farmer's market deal was because we had scheduled a hiking tour for that morning/afternoon. Keep in mind that Robin and I have had very little sleep and we're still oozing Keith's. However, even though we were a little hungover, it was still a great hike. We went to Polly and Peggy's Cove.

Anyways, Robin has already been on 2 other tours with Ryan, our guide. They're practically best friends. He is the Steve Irwin of Nova Scotia, except not so dead. He does have a cute accent though. Ladies, he is really nice, really knowledgeable, really cute, and really engaged to some gorgeous girl. One of my roommates knows him and says that his fiancee is "smokin' hot." Anyways, Robin has had a great time with him over the past few days, and I totally recommend him. This is his website. He is actually very, very cheap compared to the other tours around here. He started this business a few years ago, and I think he's really going to do well. You usually get lunch when you're with him, and he even stopped at a coffee shop called Bike and Beans (it's a coffee shop and bike shop) for us. Great hot chocolate. If you ever come to Nova Scotia, look him up, because he's wonderful. He's just so excited about everything. On the way there, he saw an osprey (I swear he can see EVERYTHING -- he can tell that a bird 30 feet in the air has a fish in its mouth) hanging out on a telephone pole. I didn't even catch it. But he turned around and pulled over so that we could try and get a picture. Unfortunately, it flew away, but we followed it for a little bit and saw it dive into the river to get a fish. Ospreys can see fish in the water from a mile up. I can't even see the board from the third row. Tell Ryan that I sent you, and he'll treat you like family. He's a sucker for a yard sale, so make sure you keep him away from them.

So first we went to Polly's Cove, which is a lesser known haunt. It's beautiful. There are all these gigantic boulders everwhere called erratic boulders that were left here after the glaciers came through. The whole thing is pretty sparse (Robin called it a tundra even though there's no snow). But there is some plant life. All the trees are really small because there's only a few inches of soil. We came pretty early in the year, so there wasn't too much vegetation and flowers, but it was still gorgeous. If you look down there are lots of crab legs and bodies. Birds will pick up crabs and take them up about 40 feet and then drop them on the rocks below to open them, and then eat up all the insides. Make sure you don't get a crab to the noggin! There was noone around but us, so that was really nice. It was just so peaceful and calm. Doesn't it look like a place you want to be?

This is Polly's Cove

This is called Rose something or other. I have no idea. I just thought it was a cool picture. It has huge beautiful yellow flowers in the summer.

Erratic Boulders. Don't believe Ryan when he tells you they're made of styrofoam like in Disney. They're not. Apparently some tourists believe him and kick them and get stubbed toes and such nonsense. As much as you think that that was me, it was not. I assure you.

Up the river

I swear things are not as overcast as it looks. While there was cloud cover, it was actually really bright. The autocorrect on my camera was just going nuts. This was the view from the top of Polly's Cove to Peggy's Cove.

Peggy's Cove is really famous and has a lighthouse on the end of it. There was a shipwreck (well actually there were a lot of ship wrecks, but this is an important one) where everyone but this one girl died. She had hit her head and didn't remember anything, but the town took her in and named her Peggy. The town was eventually renamed after her. They say she still haunts the rocks by the lighthouse. By the way, the rocks are slippery and the water is cold. Don't be stupid and try to climb down there for a great photo op. Some guy did that and fell (and didn't go in the water), and looked ridiculous. Don't be him.

The place is this cute little fishing town. At one time they made all their money from fishing and lobstering or whatever you call it. Now they make a lot of their money from tourism. There's a restaurant/gift shop called the Sou'western (pronounced "sow-wester) named after the southwestern winds that pummel this little province. Those yellow Gordon's fisherman hats are named Sou'westers. Anyways. The houses are just scattered on the rocks and really brightly painted. The whole town is so cute. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


Ryan took us to this great place outside of Peggy's Cove for lunch. He wanted to make sure that we ate where there was noone else around. He brought a blanket and we ate out on the rocks. This was our view:

Saturday PM - Dinner Theatre

After that exhausting day, we took a nap and went to Grafton Street Dinner Theatre. This show was about a cruise ship that got overrun by pirates set to 80s music. I'm not kidding. It was my dream. It was a little pricey (About $45), but not too bad, and the food was pretty decent (maybe a little underseasoned). There were TONS of choices though, so that was good. I would definitely recommend going. It was funny and entertaining.

So that was our day! Exhausting, wasn't it? We slept well, but not for very long. Wait until I get time to tell you about Robin's last day :(