June 28, 2025 The Ocean- Halifax to Montreal

Last night was the first of six nights on the train. For some, sleeping on trains is not easy. The bed is narrow, and it was very firm on this train. The curtains didn’t block out a lot of light, and there was enough background light coming in that the ambient light in the room was enough for me to see. In this room, I’m perpendicular to the track, so being right next to side is a bit scary. The Ocean left Halifax at 11:30, and since my hotel was right by the train station, it made for an relaxing morning in Halifax. I woke up before 6 o’clock on Friday. I made the awful room coffee and spent the first part of the morning writing the blog about my day in Halifax, and then went to a small cafe for breakfast. This was a cafe that I had heard about from the guys I talked to at the bar in Dartmouth, and I was the only one there at 8am. That kind of surprised me. I expected to see a crowd, or at least an active. The guy running the cafe couldn’t have been nicer, and once again the standard egg, bacon, and toast breakfast was quite a bargain. This was $1 more, but came with sausage and 4 slices of toast, instead of just bacon and 2 slices of toast. For the record, i didn’t need the two extra slices of toast, nor the sausage. My next quest was the get some lens cleaner for my glasses. I left it at home, and I saw there was a optometry shop a few blocks from the cafe. I walked to optometry shop, and they gave me the lens cleaner and cloth to clean my glasses. That was nice, but even better is that I walked closer to the older part of town where the old churches are. Halifax is an old enough town that each group tried to top each other by building larger and more magnificient cathedrals. While larger have the same thing, they tend to be spread out, where they are right next to each other in Halifax. I’m a big fan of that old style architechture, so it was great to see each church. The government house was also close by, and ofcourse the govenor couldn’t be outshined by the church, so that was also a very spectacular building. I made my way back to the hotel by 9:30, packed back up for the train, and decided to head to the train station after I realized I was watching golf just to pass the time. I checked my bag, and then went to a small lounge for sleeper passengers in the Halifax train station. For a station that gets three trains a week, the Halifax train station is quite nice. Train stations tend to be built in the grand style that was popular, and the smaller cities still had their version of the grand lobby. That’s Halifax, which is sized perfectly for the one train that comes through, especially because that train gets a lot of people. Check-in and boarding started an hour before the train left, so I was able to get settled into my room before the train started moving. There are two styles of rooms on The Ocean. One is on the newer cars, which they call the Renansance train, and the other is HEB cars, which are the cars from the 1950’s. I made my way to the whole train, so I got to see them, but those are the cars that I’ll get on the Canadian.

The car that I was in was the newer one. It is called a sleeper plus, which is like a mini-room. It is similar in size the a roomette on Amtrak, but has a ensuite bathroom and shower. During the day there is a couch that only faces one way, and the room is just wide enough to spread my legs out and touch the other side. At night, the lower bunk fold down on to the couch, and then you can pull down the upper bunk from above. The biggest drawback is the couch doesn’t recline, and only faces one way. I’m going backward, which is never preferred. I definitely prefer the Amtrak roomette, even without ensuite bathroom. Actually, I prefer not to have the toilet so close to where I sleep. However, I liked being able to lock my door from the outside. The Ocean has more lounge space than Amtrak trains, with 2 lounges on either side of the diner car, and two empty cars that were built for the Chunnel and then sold to Via Rail. Those are wider and comfier seats than the sleepers, so I think some passengers preferred it to their sleeper. I can definitely see that if you’re not by yourself. Coach looked very nice, and not at all hectic. I still wouldn’t want to sleep in coach, but it is a lot nicer than an airplane.

The Ocean also had activities throughout the day, which spaced the day out pretty well. I went the first activity, which they told me about the train, and then it was soon time for lunch. After a fresh air stop in Moncton, it was the second activity, and then a few hours later there was wine tasting with two Nova Scotia’s wines. After another hour, it was time for dinner, and then my bed was set up. I showered, watched some videos, and tried to sleep. With each meal you get three choices, including one vegetarian. i had beef stir-fry and a baked cod with lobster sauce. Both were fine, but I’d prefer something more sandwich like for lunch. You get a starter and desert, plus free beverages. As a solo traveler, you will likely get seated with a stranger, which is not a bad thing. The interesting thing is that you often see the same passengers on Amtrak, so there is a sense of community that develops, while there are a lot more sleeper cabins on the Ocean. I ended up being sat with two diametrical opposites. At lunch, I was seated with an older woman from BC. She was pleasant, but not the most talkative person. I have no idea how old she was, but I would assume over 80. At dinner, it was an 18 year old on his way to move in with his dad after living with his mom in Nova Scotia. He was on the train because he is afraid of heights and didn’t want to take a plane. He was a very young adult on one of his first solo adult trips, and I immediately noticed simiar traits to what I see in my students. I talked to him about his future, which I hope was in a non-confortational way. Maybe I helped him find a path, or at least narrow it down, and maybe his parents will find tthat putting him on a train and dealing with strangers was good for him The terrain in that part of Canada was amazing. Now that I have data on my phone, I can tell when I get outside of the civilization when my phone doesn’t recieve a signal. Most of the way from Turro to Moncton was in an isolated forrest area that I didn’t recieve a signal. The was some farmland, but it felt like we were in wilderness with a mixture of bogs, creeks, and woods. After we left Moncton, it became more farmland, but still there a lot of rivers and lakes that you would see along the way