Scotian Rant: 5 Best Things...

Browsing through the twitter #hashtags on my hootsuite of #Halifax for the past couple weeks, {Hootsuite is my new love!}, I came across a couple of feeds that were lablled “Five Best whatevs in Halifax”. It shows up as a series of consecutive tweet of the the best locations, restaurants, etc.... So curiosity got the best of me. I love list so I just had to click to see if they lived up to my extremely low expectations.

Sigh...all I could do is face palm. It is painfully obvious that the writers of these... umm...things have never set foot inside the city and rely too much on Internet search engines to gather their information. Now, the tweets just continue to show up on my #halifax feed every day, three times a day and I just cannot take it anymore!! What gets to me is that some people might actually be looking at this information and making choices based on some of their, their ummm... how do I say this nicely... ill-informed information.

First up, they list East Side Mario’s in Bayers Lake as the best restaurant to eat. I hope this one was gaged on reviews of customer service because I mean...EAST SIDE MARIO’S!!?? (hey ba da boom ba da bing)….I like East Side Mario’s but come on, it’s like generic food. You can order the same thing in Halifax as you can in Toronto. I see that I am also not the only one who seemed taken aback because our friends Bonesheads Smokehouse commented about it on their twitter too. Halifax is full of local restaurants that offer excellent food paired with great customer service. When I think of casual dinning I’m thinking The Hart & Thistle, The Fireside, The Shoe Shop and hey, let’s not forget Boneheads on the corner of Barrington and Inglis. (They have the most amazing cornbread and pulled pork).. Oh, let's not forget our Pubs like The Lower Deck, Henry House, Dirrty Nelly’s, Foggy Goggle, The Old Triangle, Maxwell’s and The Ale House whom all have awesome Pub fare. Since Halifax has the most bar and pubs per capita than anywhere in North American! And Those are just off the top of my head.

Their “best of Accommodations” doesn’t really get much better. While the business hotels listed pass my standards, the Haliax Spa and Retreat’s only selection is Atlantica Oak Island ...um, which technically ...errr...isn’t even in HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality). Not to take anything away from Oak Island because I love the place and I would like to point out they don’t even use it’s proper name in the listing. I love their sister hotel, Halifax Atlantica which actually is in Halifax. They kindly let us use one of their photos in our oval post. They are also accommodating all the media who are here for the 2011 Canada Games and housing the big media war room as well. That it in it's self should speak to their caliber of customer service. But there are several hotels that offer spa service here in HRM as well, such as The Westin Nova Scotia, Marriott Courtyard and Marriott Harbourfront. As for the motels.... well I’m not even going to go there with this one.

I saved the best for last. “Best Five Locations”. You’re thinking The Citadel, The newly designated Canadian Museum of Immigration of Pier 21 or maybe even a Brewery Tour at one of our fine breweries. Nah, numero uno is “Explore Halifax” Whhhhhhhhhaaaatttt?? That’s not a location! It’s like saying the best part of Nova Scotia is Nova Scotia. But don’t worry, they narrow it down on number three where they tell you to explore the downtown. Unfortunately it gets worse, number four and five is explore the South Shore and the Eastern Shore consecutively. I’d like to take this time to point out that here in Nova Scotia we don’t call those places Halifax, we call that........ other regions of the province. Very much places worth seeing but they have towns and villages with their own names, thanks.

If you really want to know some of the best places to stay, things to do, and places to see then you might want to check out what the locals think. it’s best to check out The Coast’s Best of Halifax List. They poll readers each year for the best of the city. Click here for the link. Let us know what your opinions on the list in our comment section.

Now I got that off my chest. Deep Breath.... okay now I feel better.
Does this not irritate anyone else?

Pier 21 No Longer A National Historic Site

Ya, you read that right.

Pier 21 is no longer a National Historic Site. It now has officially received the designation as one of the 5 National Museums of Canada (with a 6th in the works). Defence Minister and Central Nova’s MLA Peter MacKay made it official last Monday. It’s shiny new title is The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Meh..... it’s kinda awkward and doesn’t exactly roll of your tongue ….. but hey, it’s an official government title what do you expect? Most people are still going to call it as Pier 21 anyways.

With the new title, Pier 21 will also receive about $25 million in funding over the next 5 years for upgrades and exhibit development. Now they says that 1 in 5 Canadians can trace their heritage back to Pier 21 which is kinda amazing since it was only open from 1928 to 1971. That’s a lot of traffic coming through. However, it makes me wonder how many of those immigrants actually stayed in Nova Scotia since I’d says that for the most of us, our ancestors have been here since at least the late 1700s. I wonder where I could find such a statistic... someone must have it.

None the less, if you’re even just a tiny bit interested in history it’s a really unique museum to visit. There is lots of interactive displays and exhibits. It’s not your typical “here’s stuff that people use to use long before there was electricity” with a cue card next to it indicating what it is exactly that you’re looking at and how it was used. It’s really presented in a modern and engaging way. It’s been a few years since I last went but the three screen 3D documentary movie of the story of Pier 21 was my favorite part.

 I’d like to get back and check their new memorial to the boat full of Jewish immigrants that they turned away on the eve of WWII called the Wheel of Conscience. I see from the museums website that it is in Toronto for some fine tuning and will not be back ‘til March which is a shame since it will miss the Canada Games.......