by jonas moody Photos by Páll stefánsson
It’s not until ten seconds before touchdown that the landing strip becomes clear through the milky haze that has enveloped our descent into Halifax, Nova Scotia. But the North Atlantic’s brume has nothing to hide here; the hub for Canada’s Maritime Provinces has gone from schooner to scooter, using its nautical roots and vibrant history to build a harbor-side enclave for the young and young-at-heart.
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o on, you’re a growing boy!” Annie says, placing a bacon and egg sandwich in front of a middle-aged policeman regular. The officer, who has clearly enjoyed a few over-easies in his day, grins and accepts. After five years as a civil servant, Anne Joseph found a better way to serve her fellow Haligonians by opening her own café, Annie’s Place, in the living room of an old Victorian in the burgeoning Spring Garden district, amidst trendy shoe shops, a used instrument store, and design showrooms. The community appreciates her gesture, evidenced by the constant stream of locals, all greeted by name, popping in for coffee and cinnamon buns. Most dash out the door after a few kind words are exchanged, but the younger people seem to be in less of a hurry, taking the time to sit down and flip through Halifax’s weekly rag, The Coast. “Sometimes students won’t even order, just tell me they’re starving,” Annie says with a laugh, “so I feed them.” From all the travel literature on Halifax regaling its history as one of the North Atlantic’s most important seaports and military strongholds, I
Out of the Fog, Into the Mod
expect to find a necropolis of bygone maritime glory. But despite the wind, the rain, and the fog of my first days in town, what’s clear is that Halifax is very much alive, propelled by a dynamic city center, a rousing nightlife, and most of all a close-knit community of students and other townspeople who want their seaside city to grow as the vanguard for the singular self-reliance of Nova Scotians. Drop in at Annie’s on any given morning and you’ll find a circle of policemen, dock workers, retirees and students, tight as a knitting clutch, discussing local politics like whether Nova Scotia’s offshore hunting should be for oil or lobster, or rating the best place to pee in public (consensus: the end of Granville street behind the stone lions). When an older gent, Wellington-clad Larry, is asked how Halifax has changed, he smiles and says “although the traffic is worse, most other things have only gotten better.” Most locals would probably agree with him. Although the city is awash with history – from the tall ships in the harbor to the city hall clock frozen at 9:04:35, the moment of the 1917 Halifax explosion killing nearly 2,000 – old Biker on cell phone outside Halifax’s Historical Properties.
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facades have been rejuvenated by the youthful presence in the city. For example, The Khyber, a Gothic building dating back to 1888 that would give even Poe pause, has been recast as an artist-run complex for studio and exhibition spaces. Located on bustling Barrington Street, the staff encourages walk-ins, and likewise, the artists make an effort to mix with the community surrounding them. “I know it sounds hokey,” confesses one Khyber artist, “but when someone knows your name when you buy a cup of coffee, it’s the glue that 32
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holds this place together and keeps us from exploding into a nasty, giant, impersonal city.” Career Pirates & Men in Skirts On Sackville Landing, along the boardwalk, an 18th century lady buccaneer and a 19th century kilted highland soldier sit on a wooden crate eating döner kebabs and drinking Mountain Dew. Chris Reynolds, 21, with his bayonet and feather bonnet at his side, is a valiant environmental engineering student at Dalhousie University who
Above: Trampoliners enjoying the sun off Young Street. Opposite: Seagazing from the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove.
“We’re a self-reliant people. Always have been.”
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78th Highland Regiment in formation at the Halifax Citadel.
Drop in at Annie’s on any given morning and you’ll find a circle of policemen, dock workers, retirees, and students, tight as knitting clutch, discussing local politics. 34
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spends his summers stationed at the Citadel in the city center, protecting the city from any surprise attacks from the American colonies. Swashbuckling Moira Lafferty, 22, with tricorne and saber, is working towards a degree in metalsmithing at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and sails a tall ship along the Halifax harbor to loot and plunder the locals every day at two and four o’clock.
With five universities in the vicinity, the only invasion Halifax has not been able to withstand throughout its long history as a garrison town is that of the students who dominate the streets. And when summer rolls into the North Atlantic, Haligonian students are less likely to sling burgers for beer money, and more likely to enlist themselves in the brigade of young people who staff the “living history” at sites like the Halifax
Citadel, tall ship harbor cruises, the Alexander Keith’s Brewery Tour, and the numerous other themed tours given around the city. Students are the workhorses of the Halifax summer tourist trade, which brings in roughly 3.5 million people per year, and the yokes they bear are hot, cumbersome period costumes. But that’s not to say they don’t enjoy it. “It is just a summer job,” Reynolds says, “but it’s also important to atlantica
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Left: Peering up Duke Street for a view of the Citadel Clock Tower.
“I’m not a career pirate. Although I make all my own buckles.”
keep the heritage of Nova Scotia alive. So I feel like I’m making an honest contribution.” “It’s also fun at parties,” Lafferty adds. “Besides the fact that you always have a costume on hand, you can toss out facts like, ‘Did you know that Halifax is one of the largest natural harbors in the world, second only to Sydney?’” she says, making a grandiose gesture out over the water with her döner. “Or that four o’clock on the Halifax clock tower is written as IIII and not IV?” Reynolds chimes in. Whether these two are fun at parties remains a question, but their enthusiasm for Haligonian history is indubitable. In fact, these two represent the historical constituencies of the city: below Barrington Street down to the waterfront was sailor’s town, and above Barrington up to Citadel Hill was soldier’s town. While in the 19th century the two factions typically brawled whenever the line was crossed, they now enjoy fast-food lunch breaks on the waterfront and liberal arts education in harmony. Reynolds works as a member of the 78th Highland Regiment giving tours of the Halifax 36
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Citadel, built in 1856 as a defense against any potential overland attacks from the Americans. “The strategy behind the fort’s construction, the way it’s built not on top of the hill, but into the hill, is fascinating from an engineering perspective,” he explains. “All of us who work up on the hill have some interest in the history of the place. You have to have some kind of dedication, otherwise you’re just putting a kilt on every morning.” Meanwhile down at the harbor, Lafferty’s role as the dread pirate art student is far more theatrical. Replica tall ships like the Bluenose (pictured on Canadian dimes) and the Mar, and modern ships outfitted to resemble tall ships like the Silva, offer cruises around the harbor. As the majority of downtown is situated on the Halifax Peninsula, which juts out into the Halifax Harbour, a ship is actually a decent way to see the city. The crew of 20-something pirates brings its victims up close to some notable sites inaccessible by land, like McNabs Island, rife with the lighthouses and remains of colonial forts, or Georges Island, which boasts the world’s highest
ratio of snakes-to-land area – so not necessarily a desirable place to set foot. But from the deck of a timber tall ship, even Nova Scotia Power’s triple barber’s pole smokestacks across the harbor in Dartmouth take on a slightly more romantic air. “I don’t take it seriously, like some people do,” Lafferty explains. “I’m not a career pirate. Although I do make all my own buckles.” Thinking Globally, Imbibing Locally Up the hill from the waterfront, among colorful beds of fuchsias, dahlias, gladioli, alyssum and lobelia in the Victorian Public Gardens, about 100 student protestors preparing to march are lapping up gelato from the nearby Saege Bistro, alongside the police meant to control them. The gathering is organized as a peaceful rally on wheels, including bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, and the omnipresent Halifax electric scooters, to protest a number of issues, primarily (depending on whom you ask) hikes in electricity prices, a proposed cross-border economic zone dubbed “Atlantica”, as well as Canada’s involvement in the War on
Terror. Haligonian students are clearly as concerned with Halifax at present as they are with its past. One such concerned local, Hannah Lerner, a 21-year old urban planning student, perches atop her Schwinn in a homemade protest t-shirt reading “How many dead soldiers does it take to fill your tank?” Just behind her a police officer in riot gear snacks on an ice-cream sandwich. “Rioting would simply not happen in this community,” Lerner says resolutely. “We’re really not the fighting types any longer. But riding bikes through the streets just gives the message that people here don’t need this blood-oil to survive. We’re a self-reliant people here. Always have been.” The brazen sense of self-reliance that characterizes politics in Halifax is the same attitude that underpins chef Dennis Johnston’s approach to food when creating the menu for Fid, the restaurant he runs with partner and wife Monica Bauch. When asked for a recommendation he answers, “The razor clams are very fresh. I should know; I collected them this morning. Oh, and
the scallops; I get the fishermen to keep the roe attached especially for me.” The ethos at Fid is to rely solely on the ingredients that can be found fresh at the Halifax Farmers’ Market or from local boats. “Sometimes I feel like I have more contact with my people down at the docks than I do with my own wife.” Johnston claims the menu changes so frequently depending on what’s in season that he can tell when people came in by what they ordered. “The foodie movement in Halifax is centered around the farmers’ market. I can stand there in front of the farmers’ booths with a patron and discuss what we should cook that night. I’m so lucky to be able to have that level of interaction.” Founded in 1750, the Halifax Farmers’ Market is considered the oldest in North America, reflecting the changing harvests and catches in the outlying agricultural and fishing communities that constitute Nova Scotia’s rural areas. Open every Saturday from 7 am until the early afternoon, it offers up a wide variety of fresh produce, meats, seafood, and dairy products, and even woolen goods and flowers.
However, there are plans to relocate the market to the massive waterfront development at the Halifax Seaport, which already houses the Pier 21 Immigration Museum, considered one of the seven wonders of Canada as the point of entry for 1.5 million immigrants between 1928 and 1971. In the new premises the market will be open every day to provide the growing city with goods from local farmers, fishermen and craftsmen. Although you won’t find Haligonians indulging at 7 am at the farmer’s market, the cream of Halifax’s regional crop is its craft brews. The mélange of students, a preference for local goods, and the historical predilection for the brown bottle (in 1850, with over 5,000 sailors and soldiers, there were over 200 known taverns), creates an atmosphere where microbreweries and brewpubs thrive. Whether pub-hopping or getting “stoop-ed” [pronounced “stupid”], as the locals call drinking at home on the stoop, Nova Scotians like their suds, and will gladly crack open their wallets so that visitors might taste Haligonian nectar. “These days I think we have more pride in our atlantica
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THE ROAR OF THE BORE Take all the exhilaration of whitewater rafting, replace the paddles with an outboard motor, ditch the helmets, and what’s left is Nova Scotia’s original thrill sport: tidal bore rafting. Because the conditions for tidal bores are so particular, the only place in the world where you can tap into this rush is the Shubenacadie River, about an hour’s drive north of Halifax. Tidal bore rafting comprises two activities, both associated with the natural phenomenon known as the “tidal bore”, in which the incoming tide from the Bay of Fundy, where the tidal rapids have been measured up to 56 feet (17 meters), is funneled into the Shubencadie River. The tidal force continues at the same speed, forming a tidal wave that grows in height as it passes down the narrowing banks of the river. The first activity is riding this veritable wall of water downriver as it engulfs everything in its path. It takes just under four hours for the tide to come in, so this experience alone is impressive, watching sandbars deluged in mere minutes and the water level surging up the banks.
Once the bore has come in, rapids reaching up to 10 feet (3.5 meters) in height form as the outflow of the river’s natural current battles against the inflow of the tidal waters and the flow of the river changes directions. In these conditions paddles would be useless, so the guide uses an outboard motor to push the rafts through the giant rapids. At this point there is only one skill to making it through the ride: hold on tight. There’s no need for helmets since there are no rocks creating the rapids, only competing currents, so if someone falls off the raft (which happens quite often), the only hazard is getting your man overboard back up on the boat, while not falling in yourself. In the end, the guide encourages everyone to jump in anyway. The season runs from May to September, and seats fill up fast as thrill-seekers come from far and wide to “get bored”. The best advice is to keep your mouth shut lest you get a mouthful of Shubenacadie’s finest down your gullet, which makes the bumpy ride a lot more unpleasant. tidalborerating.com
WHEN IN HALIFAX, DO AS THE HALIGONIANS beers than in our ships,” confesses one pub-hopper at the Split Crow, a hangout for students at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (and conveniently located only steps from the stone lions at the end of Granville). One of the local favorites is Propeller Brewing Company’s growler, a 64 oz. (1.9 liter) jug that can be reused at the brewery to fetch Propeller’s India Pale Ale or Extra Special Bitter, both of which won the gold medals in their respective categories at the 2006 World Beer Championships held in Chicago. But beware of the I.P.A., at 6.5 percent alcohol it will knock you on your keister faster than you can say “two-row Saskatchewan malted barley.” But not to worry: there is sure to be a Haligonian nearby to pick you back up and buy you another round. a Icelandair flies three times weekly from Keflavík International Airport to Halifax.
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for breakfast and locals: Annie’s Place Café, 1513 Birmingham St. Rentals that go vroom: Scooter Commuter, 1139 Bedford Highway. notjustscooters.com to see old nova scotia, Wellington-clad Larry recommends the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove and Old Town Lunenburg (Nova Scotia’s only UNESCO World Heritage site). for military history buffs: The Halifax Citadel, on Citadel Hill in the middle of downtown Halifax. Gelato by the Public Gardens, anyone? Saege Bistro, 5883 Spring Garden Road. saege.ca for the pirate in us all: Mar II Tall Ship Pirate Cruises, tickets available at Murphy’s on the Water, 1751 Lower Water Street. murphysonthewater.com Where did Great Uncle Giuseppe come from? Pier 21 Immigration Museum and Genealogy Center, 1055 Marginal Road, Halifax Seaport. pier21.ca
a bed downtown that won’t break the bank: The Garden Inn, 1263 South Park Street. gardeninn.ns.ca for a taste of Halifax: Fid, 1569 Dresden Row, fidcuisine.ca or The Halifax Farmer’s Market, 1496 Lower Water Street. halifaxfarmersmarket.com. for the pub hopper: Split Crow, 1855 Granville Street. splitcrow.com for the stoop-drinker: Grab a growler and fill ‘er up at the Propeller Brewing Company, 2015 Gottingen Street. drinkpropeller.ca for all else, take a free copy of The Coast’s “Best of Halifax” booklet, which tallies up what locals think of Halifax and puts it all at your fingertips in categories like “Best Public Washroom” or “Best Place to Drink Alone”. thecoast.ca