Return to Halifax

After about two weeks in St. John's Neil, Rebecca, and I returned to Halifax today. Our early morning flight meant that we had to wake up at about 4:00 AM, which meant that none of us had much time for sleep.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, though I arrived in different car than Neil and Rebecca. Through a strange piece of luck (for me) I somehow managed to end up at the beginning of a new check in line and consequently had my bags processed quite quickly. Neil and Rebecca, who weren't quite as lucky in the line department, were also ready to move on to the next stage of the process.

The security line was a little longer than the check in line, though even this line wasn't too long. What was most impressive about the security process was how quickly I moved through the metal detectors and x-rays, there was basically no lost time (though I was asked if I had liquids or gels about 2 more times than made sense).

Not to longer after we made it through security we all decided to make food and/or beverage purchases at the cafeteria. Amazingly, the amount of time we spent standing in line to place our order was probably more time than the combined amount of time that I had to spend in the other two lines.

When Neil was eventually able to place his order, which included a toasted bagel, he was told that they didn't have any bagels. This was a little surprising as bagels were visible in the display case. A moment later the employee indicated that they were just 'joking,' and that they did actually have bagels.

The plane ride itself was rather uneventful. Unfortunately, I think that the 20 ounces of coffee and can of energy drink that I consumed before the flight largely prevented me from sleeping on the flight even though I had had only about 1.5 hours of sleep the night before.

Shortly after deplaning and picking up our luggage we made our way out to grab a cab. We made our way to the only remaining cab, whose driver eventually determined that he wouldn't be able to fit all six of our suitcases in his cab and thus was unable to take us. He indicated that he would request that a van be sent for us. After going into the airport to make the call, he told us that a van had been requested but that it would likely take "a while."

After waiting for a few minutes Neil came to the realization that part of the problem was likely that most of the cab drivers (particularly the drivers of vans) had likely worked until the middle of the night on New Year's night. This likely explained why there were so few cabs at the airport and why a van would take "a while."

While waiting for the van we discussed various options other than a cab to make it back to Halifax. Unfortunately none of them seemed particularly tempting or particularly expeditious.

Just as Neil and I were in the midst of such a round of discussions the cab driver came over to talk to us and suggested that we might consider renting a car. He even offered to call an acquaintance at one of the few open rental companies to try to grease the wheels for us.

So within in a few minutes of the cab driver's suggestion we were on our way back to Halifax in a rental car, which turned out to be less than the cab ride would have been. Even once we take gas into account I think that this will be the cheaper than a cab ride (with tip) would have been.

Once back in Halifax with a ride (and unlimited kilometers) we decided to do a little cruising. We eventually settled on having breakfast in Clayton Park and then doing a quick drive-by on the Bayers Lake shopping district. Not surprisingly, most of the stores and businesses were not open today, which was a little disappointing as this is likely the last time we will have car access for the next few months.

By about noon we had finally made it back to the apartment and had time to unpack most of our belongings (some of which were previously owned, others of which we acquired while in St. John's). All three of us then decided to go for afternoon naps, which I think were necessary as none of had even close to 4 hours of sleep.

Though we don't have too many specific plans for our first night back in town, we are thinking that we might head out to catch a movie at Bayers Lake (which would be quite an inconvenience without a car). As of tomorrow we will have to try to get back on something of a regular schedule, which should be assisted by a few commitments that we each have in the coming days.