Canada! (Halifax, Nova Scotia, That Is!)

First impressions: PRETTY! And very dry. No one light a match! Tons of pine trees and fews houses. Dry or just awakening from winter?

The bus driver from the airport to the hotelwas driving fast fast fast, and the heat was like a billion degrees. I was at the back of the bus and felt like puking.

It's pretty, but so far though mostly cloudy and overcast. Massive sky, pine trees as faras the eye can see, and man, was I gonna puke if I didn't get out of the vehicle soonish.

And then it became official, the goddamn driver was insane, as he knocked out the bridge barrier as we were driving across the inlet and into Halifax.

There was a giant Navy hospital ship docked near downtown, and it wasn't until later that I found out that Halifax is where the Canadian Navy is primarily stationed. In fact, in the bar "Maxwell Plum," I read the local Navy paper with its rundown of all the ships that were destroyed during World War II.

Entering downtown Halifax, I was really ready to puke. And then I could see the Citadel, which is in the middle of Halifax. It must have been really impressive when there was really nothing around it. Now there's a lot of buildings. I'm gonna troop up there tomorrow. Why do I say "up there"? Because Halifax is on steep place. In fact, I stood in the middle of one of the upper streets, I could roll myself to the bottom, only stopping when I had hit the water.

I wouldn't recommend it, though.

I've had three beers and am a little tipsy. This is probably the last time I'll have internet access, as my credit card is near to maxed out on the hotel, and I realized that if I mobile-blogged or used my cell phone, I'd be calling Internationally, which is just too expensive. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

So far, I'm bored out of my mind, but it's great to be out of New York for a bit. Looking forward to seeing more Canadian sailors. The only ones I've seen so far have been from far away. Can't wait to see a few up close.

I love sailors.

When I left NY, there was a massive fire in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Some are speculating the possibility that it's arson. Who knows? It was just very convenient that the old factory that was supposed to go up for landmarking mysteriously caught fire just as plans for the new construction came out. Who knows? Maybe it was just lightning. Or not.

Here's a really bad photo of it from the air.