Well, its been a good couple of days - so heres the latest update to whats occuring with the gypsy...
Friday and a travel day for me to make my way to Saint
John’s – The place where Marconi received the first ever wireless transatlantic
message and also the most easterly point in North America. If you hadn’t
realised how big Canada was by now, let me tell you. To get from where I am now
to Manchester, is 2,200 miles. To get back to Winnipeg it is 2,006 miles. But
Winnipeg is only HALFWAY across Canada. It’s a fucking big place.
It was a good day today. Firstly we had fun when the
Airporter shuttle bus broke down on the motorway going to the airport.
Something in the engine had shattered and punched a big hole in the radiator,
so we sat on the hard shoulder, with green liquid seeping onto the road, until
a nice man from a different shuttle company came by and stopped, dropping us at
the airport with a smile and a wave before heading off on his way. Then after
the flight, I walked the 8 kilometres to the hostel, as Saint John’s keeps
seems to keep most of the locals in jobs by running a scam on the taxis. There
are no buses to the airport and the taxis have a $17.50 levy on pickups from
the airport. So, a 10 minute taxi ride covering 5 miles costs about £20. Unless
you stick your middle digit up to the taxi and walk it like I did. Bollocks!!
Is it fucked??
Yep!!
Bugar...
Our friendly saviour!!
Iceberg...down below
and behind me.
The Hostel is great though. It’s a big old Victorian house
with a massive room and only 3 beds. I’m currently sharing with Nico – another Brit
and we have a great view out of our window over the harbour up to Signal Hill.
Once I saw the view I decided to take a walk up the Hill, overlooking the town
and saw some great views into the harbour and out to sea, where there are two
big icebergs floating just off shore. It was windy as hell up there though so I
came back down and went to a good local pub –The Duke - for fish and chips and
a couple of pints with my dinner, before coming back home for some well earned
rest. I like it here so far.
Jumping bergs
Saint Johns from Signal Hill
Halfway through my dinner
What is it with Coronation street round here?
Today was supposed to be a cloudy and rainy day, but the sun
shone and it was lovely – plus I also had a great time. After s spot of late
breakfast/early lunch, I went down to the harbour where I was booked onto a
tour – Iceberg Quest. This is a boat tour that goes out of the harbour after
telling you all the history of the city and heads for the nearest Iceberg.
Luckily, as I saw yesterday when I flew here, there are Icebergs just outside
the harbour. These have found their way here from west Greenland. We spent two
hours on the boat and I loved every minute. Getting close up to Icebergs was
brilliant. The two we saw were actually one big Iceberg a few weeks ago, but it
has split. The largest one is about 20metres high above the water, about 50
metres long and 60 metres wide. However, it has grounded on the bottom the
ocean, which is 300feet deep – about 100metres, so there’s a big lump of it we can’t
see! It was amazing to see rivers of melting snow running off the thing into
the sea and the eerie blue shape of the ice lurking under the water. We also
saw a ‘Growler’ – a large lump of ice that has fell off – about 20 metres long
and 5 metres wide that just bobbed in the sea and almost glowed blue. One of
the ship hands managed to catch a piece of floating 15,000 year old ice and we
all had a piece in a drink – I chose a nice Canadian Whiskey.
Even better was to come though as we then started to see
darker shadows in the sea and suddenly a burst of life as two minke whales
broke through the waves just ahead of the boat. We watched them a few minutes
before they disappeared never to be seen again. It was then time to head back
to harbour, but it was a fantastic afternoon out.
These cool postboxes are everywhere
Its big
Very big
The 'small' growler
Nice
more nice
Getting closer
15000 year old ice in a canadian whisley
its over there
The whales......
In the evening I went down town in search of some dinner. I
ended up having a great steak in a pub at the end of George Street – the street
where all the night life happens. It was great, eating at the bar and listening
to the live Celtic music. This place is like a mix between San Francisco and
Ireland. It has the streets and the hills of SF along with the ‘artistic’
atmosphere. But with the Celtic feel and the obvious Celtic blood line running
through the locals; it also feels a lot like Ireland. But surprisingly it has
the best bits of both and not the worst ones. It’s a really cool place and I
like it here the longer I stay.
Sunday was a quiet day. I went up to ‘The Rooms’. This is a
museum and art gallery that sits atop the hill at the back of town overlooking
the harbour and contains a lot of stuff about the history of Saint John’s and
Newfoundland as well as art by local artists. It was a good couple of hours but
not the most exciting day I have had out. The highlights were the stuffed Polar
bear, some really cool photos, an awesome biscuit storage and display cabinet, a
giant squid (more about that here - http://thescope.ca/nooks/the-giant-squid)
and the views over the town from the massive windows, which were worth the $7
entry fee on their own. I did enjoy my couple of hours there, but when I looked
out of the window it looked like rain and my laundry was hanging out on the line
so I went back to the hostel stopping for a quick look into the Basilica which
sits just across the road and has a great ceiling and stain glassed windows.
I managed to get back in time to save my laundry from
getting wet and I also took a few photos of the hostel. It’s a very unusual one
as it’s actually in a house separate from the office and reception. But it has
a great bathroom, kitchen and garden. I do ask myself some questions in weird
places too and today I found myself wondering why bidets are square, whilst
toilets are not and also why bidets do not have seats like toilets do!? Any
ideas?
The hostel bathroom...not too shabby
my room... just me and one other person at the moment
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