My Halifax

How lucky I am, that after all of my travels and all of my wandering, the city I call home is still one of my favourites in the world.

Halifax is a coastal city, a city of grand, shady trees, a city of music and indie art, of eclectic food and full of people overflowing with Maritime charm.

In Halifax I have found a small table one foot from the ocean and spent hours drinking beer and eating fish and chips in the sun.

In Halifax I have let myself get blissfully lost wandering through the maze that is the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market, sniffing at fresh cut blooms, sampling exotic foods and local favourites, stopping to enjoy a string quartet or a bluegrass band or a guy with a guitar and a sweet, resounding voice.

In Halifax I have sat for hours enjoying the quiet tranquility of the Public Gardens.

In Halifax, I can spend days browsing second-hand book stores, I can choose to study at half a dozen different universities. I can go for a run on the waterfront or along the coast in spectacular Point Pleasant Park. I can play Frisbee on the Commons. I can afford to live downtown, in a beautiful apartment building or a quaint old heritage house. I can buy exotic food from around the world at Pete’s Frootique. Hit the Multicultural Festival, Word on the Street, the Atlantic Film Festival, the Halifax Jazz Festival, the alFresco filmFesto and cool concerts on the Hill, take a Halifax Ghost walk, tour the tall ships. I can hop in a car and be home in three hours.

In Halifax, we are treated to a seemingly unlimited amount of fresh seafood. McDonald’s has a McLobster sandwich in the summer. I swear to God this is true. I don’t think locals actually eat it, but still. It exists.

If I’m not in the mood for seafood I can get a coffee and bagel at good ol’ Tim Horton’s for $2.

In Halifax, everyone drinks Keiths, the pale ale first brewed by one Alexander Keiths, elected mayor of this crazy city for three terms.

In Halifax, it’s rare to walk down the street and not bump into people you know. And I’m not sure it is possible to spend an entire day in this city without having at least one friendly conversation with a complete stranger. People say thank you to the driver when they get off the bus. Even when they use the back door.

In Halifax, I would look out of place if I used plastic grocery bags. Everyone I know and most people I see own environment-friendly ones. Some grocery stores have actually banned plastic bags.

In Halifax, there are garbage bins on the streetcorners and in fast food restaurants, but they are joined by bins for recyclables and organic waste – and people actually use them.

In Halifax, I don’t need to own a car. I can easily walk everywhere I need to go. And my walk will likely be a lovely one.
The Public Gardens

I can't get enough of Cheelin's Chinese food.

Sweet, sweet crepes. Or savoury, if you prefer.
A few more of my favourite places around town. Spring Garden Road.
Schooners on the waterfront.
The Black Market.
Just a few of the many patios on Argyle.

My favourite used book store (The Trident).

In winter the gardens go to sleep, but on a beautiful spring day they are thronging with happy Halagonians of every age, colour and walk of life. It is beautiful to behold.

There are clusters of prom-goers - girls in their sorbet coloured dresses, boys with carefully cultivated goatees and requisite shades, looking uber cool in their svelte black tuxes.

The benches are filled with people thankful for the beautiful weather after a long, true winter.

I love our seasons. If I hadn’t had to bundle up my flesh and brave those cold, snowy months, would I feel as content right now, sitting on a bench next to countless others on benches, the late afternoon sun slanting in low from my left, warming my skin and tinting it bronze, a soft, sweet breeze fluttering my hair across my face?

This, in the centre of My Halifax.