Fun Things to Do in Halifax, NS

On Day 3 of our journey, we arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia...









 


... where the harbor front was our first destination! 










 



Doormen in Scottish kilts reminded us that Nova Scotia means "New Scotland"!

We tried to do as much as possible in the time we were there. Terry had studied tripadvisor's 71 things to do in Halifax - planning to do as many as possible!







Two of my favorites were the (cheap) 10-minute bus-ferry ride from Halifax to Dartmouth and back.











For the price of one city bus ticket we were able to ride both ways within a certain time frame.









 

(I would have been happy to go back and forth without getting off until my ticket expired!)












Rush hour was over, so the boat-bus was almost empty.

Cup of coffee in hand,Terry enjoyed viewing the many ships we passed.














Another interesting experience was visiting the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 at the harbor front. Researchers there help find the landing records of immigrants to Canada and - for a fee - will photocopy them, together with information about the ships they arrived on.

I had both my parents' immigration records photocopied. My father arrived in Halifax in May 1929, at age 19, with a friend whose name I don't know.









Unlike the man in this statue of an immigrant, he didn't leave a wife and children behind, planning to send for them later, but within a few years he had saved up enough money to have his sister Elsie come to Canada. Eventually, after World War II, they were joined by their mother Helene Domke and two of her children from a second marriage, Walter Domke  (together with his wife and baby daughter, Maria) and Lydia Domke.

My mother's family arrived in December,1929 at Saint John, New Brunswick. She was 10 years old at the time.

Visiting the Pier 21 Museum and the port at Saint John, New Brunswick, were both moving experiences for me as I reflected on how happy yet bewildered my parents must have been on arriving in Canada. Happy to be safely on shore in a safe country, but bewildered because everyone around them spoke a language they didn't understand.

Next came the long train rides across Canada to Edmonton, where both my father and my mother's family had friends.

Immigration - like any major change - is a tumultuous, emotional experience, especially when everything is suddenly different - and you know there is no going back.