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Opposite Weather at the Opposite Side of the World
Entry 24 of 37 | show all | print this entry |
Firstly sorry for the incorrect placement of the map pin, I'm doing this update from the hotel room on the wireless keyboard and the TV so I don't have a mouse with which to select a different spot on the map. We really are in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the line to this map point goes over it.
Our last full day in London, the day after Dralion, we visited the famed British Museum. This place is a massive ornate building, similar to the Louvre in Paris, housing thousands of artifacts and displays relating to history around the world, from Ancient Greece to Ancient Egypt and Chinese Dynasties. Hardly any of the museum is actually dedictaed to British history itself. The entry was free, we stayed for several hours, particularly enjoying the Japanese samurai sword display and collections of Chinese art from many older dynasties. We avoided having lunch in the overpriced cafe, instead having it on the way to the bank of England.
We visited this symbol of western capitalism breifly, taking in the old architectural style of the area before walking down to the Museum of London.
I must admit that I found this museum, nestled next to the remain of the London Wall, to be far more interesting than the British Museum which we had visited only a few hours prior. It was a lot less static and traditional, with more displays and buttons to press rather than just sealed spaces containing old things. It was also relevant to the place it was in. The museum covered a large time span, from aboriginal remains found around the London area to Romans, the dark ages etc. up to the present day. Unfortunately the Dark Ages section was under refurbishment when we visited, but the rest was great, and it was also a free museum. It was exciting to learn about the establishment of railways and the tube in London and people's perceptions of the engineering feats and social status of railways.
To cap of an educational and different day for us in London we took the tube to The Strand. Here we were able to see Australia House, a grand old building housing the Australian Embasy and some tourism areas too. There was even an ad for WA in some of the windows. The only problem was the ornamentation at the top of the entry: there were statues of horses riding free and powerfully, I think Kangaroos on surfboards would have been way more appropriate.
Yesterday was a day Charles had been counting down to for a long time: our first air leg for more than a month! It's not that he wasn't having fun but he's just into his plans and air travel.
We left the hotel in plenty of time at 7:15am to board the tube for the trip out to Heathrow Airport. Upon arrival we took the travelators to our terminal and checked in for our 11:30am flight without any queueing.
The Air Canada fight to Halifax with a stop-over in St John's was only about half full an left a few minutes early.
When we were about due to begin our descent into St John's we were informed by the captain that the weather had deteriated to the point that it wasn't possible to land our 767-300 aircraft there, thus we changed course and continued directly to Halifax.
As we broke through the clouds we saw the martian landscape: snow in every valley, white dusting everywhere, frozen over lakes and rivers and bays out to the sea filled with ice too. We touched down on the snowy runway, noting the now lying arond on this clear and sunny day being about 30cm thick.
We queued for quite a while at customs before being told after a few questions and suspicious glances that we would have to go to immigration as well before being allowed to continue. The line for immigration was pretty long, especially considering that there were only 2 officers on duty to handle time consuming matters of citizenship and immigration. When we did get served we were asked relentless questions about the nature of our stay: "How long are you in Canda for? What is your source of money? Where are you staying"
... "Who do you know in Canada?"
"Nobody."
"You don't have any family, friends or relatives here?!?!"
"No."
"Why are you here?!?"
"For a holiday, to see something different, the other side of the world."
"But why are you here?!?"
It seemed like it was a little too hard for them to accept that 2 Australian "youths" would be travelling in Canada in winter. They were only mildly satisfied (enough to let us in at least) when they found out we were doing a round the world trip, but they had a few issues with that too, wanting details of where we're going, when, where we've been etc. It was all a bit creepy, but after 1.5 hours we were out and in the dry -17 degrees Celcius day waiting for the "Airbus" to depart for downtown.
When the air is this cold and dry, and the windchill is even colder, you feel a bit weird when you first step out, it's a real shock to the system!
The ride into town was really majestic, white everywhere, just covering eveything except the trees. The scenes from our bus windows were like te Hollywood Christmas movies: front gardens totally covered in snow, covered driveways and burried cars. The streets had all been plowed, leaving the mounds of snow on either side. Charles and I were in awe at our surroundings. The other side of the world from Australia is really an extreme difference.
Our hotel here was a steel. We are staying here for a third of the full normal price. It's really great, with all the extras and little things that make it classy. We each have double beds, the shower/bath is huge, and they fold the ends of the toilet paper to make it a triangle! This TV is cool too as we can select movies and TV shows on demand, there is a free news service, we can select the TV channel we want to watch from a menu. This on TV internet feature and wireless keyboard is extremely handy as well, even if it is a bit limited.
For dinner we took the pedway (covered walkways over or under the streets allowing pedestrians to hop from building to building to avoid the elements but still get around downtown. Our hotel is connected to it) to the shopping center foodcourt.
The Canadian dollar being similar the Aussie dollar also helps things, prices are the same if not cheaper here, though tax is rarely included in the price listings here.
This morning was the calm before the storm. As predicted last night on the news today has been the day of the 2005 blizzard. It's the biggest snowstorm they've had for several years, the bad news stations are already saying it's one that people will be telling their kids in the future. When it's all over by tomorrow morning somewhere between 40 and 70cm of snow should have fallen.
To get breakfast we walked down the street a few blocks this morning. Easier said than done. The snow blows into your eyes and the windchill whips exposed skin as the wind is channelled down the streets between the tall buildings. It was really fun. When we travelled out this afternoon for lunch and the maritime musuem (which surprisingly was closed ;-) ) the blizzard was worse, and we had to climb through the deep fresh snow as well. We had a ball. Hardly anyone is out of their houses, so we saw a deserted, white city, with the occasional snowplow.
We were going to go out to the cinema except they cancelled the bus services for today just before we were going to leave because of the deterioration of the weather.
We purchased 24 hours of internet use which has allowed us to keep up to date with the situation here and plan for when the weather gets better, it was quite good value for a mainly indoors only day. Even though we want to go out in the snow more cause it's fun, everything is closed.
Thanks,
Tom Pacy
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| 24. | Opposite Weather at the Opposite Side of the World - Halifax, Canada Jan 23, 2005 |
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