51 St John's

Canada
Québec & New Brunswick
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland
Québec & Ontario
Manitoba to the Pacific

32 Off to Nova Scotia
33 Whales, Digby Neck
34 Yarmouth and beyond
35 Through to Lunenburg
36 Lunenburg
37 To Halifax
38 Halifax
39 Halifax and Bluenose II
40 Halifax
41 Halifax Citadel
42 Fixing Morty
43 Greenwich & Stanhope
44 Charlottetown
45 Canadian Confederation
46 Whisky and Ceilidh
47 On to Broad Cove
48 Glace Bay and Marconi
49 Arriving in Newfndlnd
50 To St John's
51 St John's
52 St John's
53 Avalon Peninsula
54 To Twillingate
55 Rain to Rocky Harbour
56 Gros Morne
57 Vikings up north
58 Wind and ferries
59 Labrador

Canada: Newfoundland & Labrador

Friday 23 September 2005

Nancy keeps a lookout

It is hard to believe that today marks the end of the fourth month away from home, a third of our trip in total. We were talking about something to do with our house last night and Stef said that he cannot even remember how we had our bits and pieces laid out. Hard to believe but true.

We spent the morning and early afternoon just catching up on ourselves. Even though we have a whole year off its almost as if we feel that a day not traveling or sight seeing is a wasted day but every now again I find I need to have a break and have a day off. I have yet to find a way to convince Stef of this though. He is fine when we are catching up with what we need to but when he realises that most of the day has gone he gets a bit twitchy.

Every campsite we have been to has its own quirks and peculiarities and this one is no different. Its grand sounding Information and Communication cabin is just a garden shed with a payphone and a few leaflets. I suppose it means that people can make phone calls in private and without getting wet. The main distinguishing feature though has always been the washrooms. This one looked as if the showers had not been used for a while. Not only were they dusty but there was quite a large colony of wood lice happily wandering around the shower stalls and up the curtains. The light fittings also contain a healthy number of dead wasps. I have got used to sharing my shower with mosquitoes, and even daddy long legs, but drew the line at woodlice and spent about 10 minutes washing it out before I could use it.

By the time we had done everything we wanted to it was mid afternoon before we headed into town. Our first quest was an internet connection. We have a long list of community public access site with their phone numbers but no addresses. The campsite were spectacularly uninformed about where they were so we headed for a coffee shop with wireless internet. Hava Java is one of two places in town with internet but you have to go there on a day when the owner is there. The staff have no idea how to get a stable connection and it was not long before we gave up trying. The other place in town charges a staggering $15 an hour and was only open for another half an hour so we gave up on that one.

Start of the long Trans-Canadian Highway

Walking through town we both had the feeling that St John's is not an affluent place. In other places we have seen one or two people sleeping rough but not many. Here there were no people begging but there were some very strange characters sitting on street corners entertaining themselves. They were usually accompanied by a brown paper bag, which means alcohol. They seemed quite happy in themselves but it was the first time in months, really since we have left home, that I have noticed people like this.

As we were near the stadium we tried to see if there were any return tickets for tonight's hockey match. Being the first of the season that was a non-starter. We were then left in limbo of what to do. It was too early to eat and neither of us knew what to do with ourselves. We had both expected to be online for a couple of hours. In the end we ambled back through town along Water Street and popped into the Celtic Hearth for a drink. This is a great little bar and we got pretty cosy in there. They have a separate restaurant area which had been booked for a private party. About sixty Americans have come to town for someone's wedding tomorrow and this was a pre-wedding get together. I am intrigued to know what wedding ritual was going to be performed with the canoe paddle some of the guests had brought with them.

Later we headed back out into town to find Ches's, a recommended eatery for fish and chips. It is not part of the George/Water/Duckworth Streets central nightlife hub but is set back from town and halfway up a hill. Having found it we should have checked ourselves before we went in. It was an OK fish and chip shop as fish and chip shops go but Lonely Planet's description of "... the fish is like biting into a steak but it melts in your mouth..." was a bit far fetched even for LP (unless you like your steak cooked until it is a bit dried out that is).

Thinking we were not yet ready to head for bed we wandered back along George Street for a last nightcap. I am sorry to say that as we walked past various different pubs and bars none of them appealed. Had we been in them all night as the music cranked up we would have stayed on but as it was, this pair of "mature thirty some-things" lived up to the expectations of the local guide books and beat a retreat back to their campsite and the warmth of their bed.

A fair proportion of Newfoundland's population were originally from Ireland and this is still really evident today. Most of the music we have head has definite Irish roots and its also present in the local accent. Our taxi driver back to the campsite tonight has never left Newfoundland but from his accent you could easily mistake him for a Dubliner.

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