Oh Canada!

In the course of 2015 spring, my dear Nerd (Arvind) was fortunate enough to make an appearance at a conference in Canada, which gave the traveler (me) an opportunity to explore another part of the sphere.

Packing bags, an invigorating atmosphere of the airports, hovering above the clouds, the conspicuous smell of every country; we love everything about traveling. This passion of ours for traveling took us to the little-hidden treasure in Canada, St John’s.
As the plane arrived right above St. John’s, we peeped through the window, only thinking to myself about the surprises the place was about to offer.
So, as we set our feet, in St. John’s; ah!!! What a sight, bright sunny day with beautiful blooming flowers.
Thereafter, we boarded a taxi to our hotel and to my surprise our cabbie was a lady in her mid-50s. After getting to talk with her about the city, we couldn’t wait to explore it ourselves.

Long before electricity and refrigeration became available, a root cellar was the only way to preserve vegetables, fish or meat.

St John’s is the capital of Newfoundland & Labrador and is situated in the eastern part of North America. It is not only famous for being the oldest city of the continent but also for many other fun things, listed below:

Newfoundland & Labrador have dog breeds named after them.
Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in the south of Newfoundland.
It is the foggiest place in the world.
The island has its own time zone, 30 minutes ahead of Atlantic Standard Time.
It is the Eastern most city of North America.
They are happiest people of Canada (according to our cabbie).

After having a sneak peek ourselves, coming across amiable people and clicking snaps at almost every corner of St.John’s, we came across a very bizarre tradition called
the “screech-in” ceremony! It is a custom for the tourists in St. John’s to perform the ceremony in order to gain the title of “The Honorary Newfoundlander”. The ceremony includes KISSING A DEAD FISH (cod) and saying an expression “Deed I is ol’ cock! And long may yer big jib draw!” (still not sure what that means), followed by a shot of screech (Rum).

Hence, after becoming an honorary Newfoundlander we continued exploring the city.

St. John’s is well stocked with many hued streets, houses, bars, cafes, and restaurants. In fact, there are more pubs per square foot in the George Street, St. John’s than any other place in Canada.

Sadly, we couldn’t try all the places but the ones we tried were fun, lively with rock music/country-side songs, people dancing on the sidewalk, sipping a beer at the odd time of the day!!

With the exception of scenic views and famous treks, St John’s is famous for icebergs and whales, which unfortunately we couldn’t witness.(That’s a good reason to go back.Isn’t it)

View of the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Spear (Eastern Most Point of North America).

The trip was for good 14 days, where most of our time was spent in St. John’s and later few days in Toronto and of course the famous NIAGARRAAA FALLS!!! I’m attaching a few pictures, just in case I missed something 😀