My Spirit City and its Tourist Attractions

Usually, when I find myself in different cities or countries, I take hundreds of pictures and look at all the architecture and try to find out all of its history. However, on my Newfoundland Bound adventure, I found myself in Saint John’s with all of my curiosity intact and a little more. I felt at home and connected with the little town just off the sea.

Saint John’s is located at one of the furthest points east of Canada, and just after a 26 minute drive you will find yourself at Cape Spear -the most eastern point in all of Canada. Although the town is quite small compared to the bustling town of Montreal, the locals were very friendly and chatty, the colourful houses are charming and the cool ocean breeze made everything pleasant.

There are many things to do in Saint John’s as well. You can check out Signal Hill -which is a historical landmark because the first Marconi wireless telegraph received the first transatlantic message, ever. If you think about it, it’s pretty insane. Now -113 years later, we’re sending and receiving millions of wireless messages over the Internet EVERYDAY!
You can also check out the Johnson Geo Centre, which is a pretty amazing place as the museum is all underground -yes, it’s all underground and i’m not joking. Another place to visit is The Rooms on Bonaventure, which contains historical records as well as the history of Newfoundland. The Newman Win Vaults are also a must see!

However, and this is especially for the Republic of Doyle fans out there, you must definitely check out ALL the film locations. Such as on Signal Hill you can snap a shot of the Saint John’s aerial view that is shown at the beginning of each episode. The RNC headquarters is actually Bishop Feilds Elementary school on Bond St. BOND ST. That’s as cool as it gets people…Then, you should also check out Quidi Vidi -or “kidi vidi,” as the locals call it.

As you’re walking around town, you will meet plenty of strangers who are quite chatty and might be well versed in the historical facts of the city. For example, Cochrane St. Cochrane was a governor whom everyone disliked. So when he was recalled back to England, everyone started to throw anything they could get their hands on at him and his daughter, whom nobody liked either. This all took place on a street -now called Cochrane. With almost everything on that street named Cochrane.

 

Anyways, I’ve gone on too long and have given too much away. So I’ll end it here so that you -the reader, can experience Saint John’s for themselves.

Saint John’s, wrapped in a silky layer of fog, and dotted with colourful houses -you are my spirit city. One day I will come back and spend the rest of my days by the sea…

Atlantic Porthole

My day started off pretty early. I woke up at 3 AM as the ferry crossing from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia had been rescheduled from 12 PM to 6 AM as to avoid Hurricane Arthur. The sea voyage, which lasted 6 hours, was somewhat rocky but quite ideal and rather grey. Four hours into my trip, the first ray of sun light of the day finally managed to find it’s way through the clouds and onto the ocean’s surface.

While I was sitting at my little porthole, minding my own business and taking pictures of absolutely everything, I suddenly had a thought. The Atlantic ocean is vast, and covers up 20% of the Earth’s surface. Underneath this ship, hundreds of kilometers down, there are schools of fish, pods of whales and many other species of animals. There could even possibly be a giant squid roaming the sea below my feet. And the only thing that separates me from them are the few inches of reinforced metal of the ship’s hull.

The ocean is not my home, but the home of all of those species, and I, at that moment was simply a guest in a 106 million km house. A house which humans have only been able to discover a certain percentage of it and it’s occupants.

And that thought, which in reality only took 10 seconds to form, blew my mind. The fact that this vast ocean can not be called mine, and that in the picture you see here, there are hundreds and maybe thousands of species of animals that I can not see but are still there. And that some of the species have yet to be discovered.