Halifax

The last day in Québec turned out to be, by far, the best in terms of the weather. The humidity had miraculously disappeared, temporarily removing the thick layer of haze from the city's skyline. You could particularly notice this by the beautiful yellow sunset, as opposed to the hazy reddish-orange sunsets that had been the order of the past week. Alas, check-out time was 11 in the morning, which meant that I had to babysit my backpack (I didn't feel it was worth it to pay for a locker), so all I could think to do (apart from eating) between then and the time I was to walk to the train station was to go and find an English copy of the latest Harry Potter and read through as much of it as I could. I'm actually quite impressed at how much I managed to get through in the one day. I must have read at least half of it. The train delay later in the day also helped.

Québec overview

Days spent: 7
Humidity: Extreme
Awkward language moments: At least 10
Theme song/s: Regina Spektor - Summer in the City

I took some photos on that last day in Québec, but I'll wait to post them up until I get some from Halifax.

Somehow I was expecting this

I gave the Canadian rail system too much credit after my incident-free trip from Toronto to Québec just over a week ago. The train that was to take me to Halifax turned up about 3 and a half hours late. After waiting that long, it was about 2 in the morning when we got on the train, and all I could think about was sleep. I didn't end up getting a whole lot. I only managed about 3 or 4 hours. I spent the rest of the trip reading a book, listening to music, and writing.

The hostel in Halifax in which I was planning to stay was very close to the train station, so it didn't take me long to walk there. Unfortunately, since I was expecting the train to be delayed, I didn't book ahead, and when I got there, it turned out that they were booked out. So, I took a taxi to a small guest house across town, which was charging fairly cheap prices for a private room.

The next day, I headed back to the hostel, and met a few fellow travelers with whom I hung out with for most of the day. We went to the library, the park, and played pool at a pool hall at the end of the night (which involved drinking and kebabs). When we were at the library, we saw Ricki Lake (as in, the talk show host) doing some filming outside for a made-for-TV movie. Go Ricki.

Harry Potter

Well, it only took me about 4 sittings to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Despite not having bought the book, I really couldn't help myself. I needed to know how it ended. I don't usually read that quickly, so it goes without saying that it was quite a page-turner. A great end to a series that I, admittedly, had ignored until recently. I think the only other time I read a book so quickly was when I read the second half of Speaker for the Dead in an afternoon. The book brought closure, but also gave me that annoying feeling of "gah, now what am I going to do?"