Newfoundland

 

Hooray! We made it to Newfoundland.  Hurricane Larry hit St. John’s during the night, causing power outages and damaged trees.  When we got up in Halifax, the sun was shining but it was pretty windy.  We were supposed to depart at 10:15 but it was almost 11:00 before we took off.  The flight was surprisingly smooth 😮‍💨, with only about two minutes of turbulence as we descended into St. John’s.  We had to show our NL registration papers before leaving the airport.  Our bus was waiting for us, along with Lisa, our local guide.  We started our city tour right from the airport.  We stopped at a grocery store to grab something to eat as we rode along, as well as an emergency stop at the liquor store! 😂

It was sunny and quite warm, just windy!  We drove through the brightly coloured row house streets and past some impressive churches. There were lots of tree branches still laying around from the storm. We drove up to Signal Hill for an amazing view over St. John’s and out over the ocean.  We could see Cape Spear, the easternmost point of Canada but we couldn’t drive out there due to downed trees from the storm.  While up there we saw a school bus camper with Saskatchewan plates.  I went and chatted with the owners.  They were a young couple that had been teaching in Creighton. They sold their home, bought this bus, and are travelling for a year with their 5 year old daughter! Living the dream!

After the tour we went to the hotel and checked in.  We had an hour to get changed and sorted before getting on the bus at 5:00.  We caught a ride down to George Street, lined with pubs and restaurants.  I had arranged for our whole group to get “screeched in”!  We went to Christians Pub and really enjoyed the screech in ceremony.  “Lukie”, the bar tender, put on a hilarious performance!  He asked each of us our names and then he repeated them all back! Unbelievable!! (About 25 people).  We each had to eat a little piece of “gourmet” bologna, drink a shot of screech (rum) and kiss a frozen cod.  Luckily, due to Covid, the fish wore a mask and we put a napkin over our lips!!  That ceremony deemed us all “honorary Newfoundlanders.

After that we split up into small groups to go out for dinner.  Eight of us went to Shamrock City, an Irish pub that had live entertainment.  We had a great meal and enjoyed the entertainment!  We only had to walk a kilometre back to the hotel.