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Can You Hear the Bell?
Entry 25 of 37 | show all | print this entry |
The blizzard is over and we are both in one piece, here to bring you yet another update.
Yesterday morning in Halifax the blizzard warning was still in place. Winds were gusting up to 100km/h, creating large flurries of snow and white out conditions.
Everything was closed. Although it was a monday all schools, universities etc. were closed for the day, as were government and regional offices and services like libraries. Malls were also closed until the afternoon, when they re-assesed the situation, most of them openning late. The busses were also out of action in the morning, returning to service around 2pm.
These conditions meant that all tourist attractions were also closed, and usually burried, because of the snow and winds, and our transportation was also taken away. We listened to the radio to keep up to date with the situation, allowing us to discover that the busses were running again in the afternoon.
When we ventured out to breakfast and lunch we tried to climb up to the citadel on the top of the hill. We were fooled by the sunny conditions - it looked a lovely day, except that the wind was fast, blowing the snow into our faces and the wind chill was around -25 degrees so it whipped our faces and froze us very quickly.
When we got to the Citadel the whole area was burried, the stairs and walkways were inaccessible and the snow was blowing very quickly over the open area, making it unsafe and impractible to get up there.
When the busses did start running again we grasped the oppourtunity, catching two busses in total from the hotel out to the suburbs, where the cinema multiplex was. As predicted this facility was open in this weather. The 18th screen at the multiplex was an IMAX screen, showing Polar Express: The IMAX 3D Experience. I had been waiting to have an oppourtunity to see this film in full colour 3D in IMAX, as it is larger, louder, clearer and just generally better than seeing it at a normal 35mm cinema, and it was only $11! This was a wonderful experience, with a HUGE, LOUD (with real sound recordings from a real loco) and ominous 3D US steam locomotive coming to a halt in my lap, with the snow flakes falling around us. The good music and all encompassing experience only achieved made this a must-see that only made Halifax a cooler experience for us. Even sceptic Charles who did not want to see the movie at all came out admitting that he enjoyed it thoroughly, it was a great experience.
We had dinner in the surrounding area before waiting out in the cold, on the road (the footpath and bus stop were under about 4 feet of snow) for 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. Thankfully the wind had died down so we stayed relatively warm with no wind chill.
At the change point between busses Charles could not restrain himself. There was a Wal-Mart store at the bus change point. As Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the world, the pull for Charles was too much. We missed the first connecting bus and went to walk through the everything store. It was huge, it even had its own McDonalds. It did seem to do it for Charles though, so at least it made him happy. The next connecting bus came in 15 minutes so we were soon back at the hotel and asleep ready for an early morning today.
After waking at 5am we were down at reception and into a cab at 5:30am. Unfortunately there the cheaper airport bus does not run this early so we had to catch a cab. The trip to the airport was nice, similar to when we arrived in terms of lots of snow piled up, though they needed the snow plow a lot.
Our plane was quite late arriving from St Johns so we ended up leaving about 35mins late after snowballing factors delayed us further.
The flight was fine and we arrived into Montreal not too late.
Here we caught the bus into our hotel in downtown. The trip gave us a slightly negative image of the city as it was on a clogged and big freeway system, with lots of chunky bridges and other freeways around, it was not too pretty. Downtown itself is good, though pretty snowy with not too many pedestrian crossings on the roads.
We caught the Metro out to the Olympic Park from the 1970s as our first activity. In accordance with our luck this holiday, we arrived, walked in the freezing cold till our ears were about to fall off only to find that the funicular and observation deck on the stadium (the only tourist attraction here as there are no guided tours in winter) was closed for annual maintenace!
A trip on the Metro again, across town to the Isle St Helene, just south of downtown, also prooved fruitless. The winter festival there was dead and the biosphere was closed as it is Monday! La Ronde, the famous Six Flags theme park with the tallest wooden roller coaster in the world is also closed in winter. Adding to the gloom is the state of the metro. It was built in the 1970s for the olympics and has not been touched since. It looks tired, dirty, old and outdated. This needs some investment now!, it breaks my heart at the moment.
We travelled back into downtown and explored the underground city. This is a series of malls and office blocks linked underground by tunnels under the streets.
This has led us to here, a net cafe in the underground city only about 30m from the hotel.
Thanks,
Tom Pacy
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