Newfoundland: Where the water is ice cold but the people are warm

Cape Spear, Newfoundland

For 10 days we explored an amazing amount of Newfoundland, from St. John’s all the way up to L’Anse aux Meadows.  We went to the furthest East and North that it could offer. We could see Labrador. It was a beautiful, rugged province with more history than the West of Canada could hope to offer. The people were kind and, while sometimes hard to understand, were always wanting to help.

Instead of a long post, I give you lists outlining some of our trip to The Rock.

(Also: Photos below)

Five things I will never forget from Newfoundland:

1. Icebergs

2. The fjord of Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne Park

3. The tiny towns along every coast

4. Colourful row housing in St. John’s

5. Friendly Newfies

 

Five least memorable moments from the trip to Newfoundland:

1. Walking to the St. John’s airport

2. The steak and mushroom pie at Duke of Duckworth

3. Getting up to go to the Deer Lake airport at 4:30am (Midnight PT)

4. The water in the St. Anthony hotel

5. Starting to get seasick on the iceberg boat

 

Five things you must see in Newfoundland:

1. Icebergs

2. The UNESCO sites: Gros Morne Park and L’Anse aux Meadows

3. Tiny towns

4. St. John’s (with trips to Signal Hill and Cape Spear)

5. Wildlife (Moose, caribou, whales and one we never saw: Puffins)

 

Five things you must eat in Newfoundland:

1a. Icebergs (Seriously the water tasted amazing)

1. Cod tongues (We had them at The Daily Catch near L’Anse aux Meadows)

2. Scrunchions (Fried pieces of pork fat? Also at The Daily Catch)

3. Chowder (The best was at a grandparent-style restaurant in St. John’s)

4. Moose (we had sausages at a chip truck on the side of the road in Gros Morne)

5. Fish and Chips (we were tired of chips by day 10)

(Side note: Our best meal was probably at The Rooms in St. John’s.)

 

Five weird things they do in Newfoundland:

1. Personal gardens on the side of the road (this is because Newfoundland is a rock so there’s no soil in yards, but there is soil along highways)

2. Piles of wood and crab traps on the side of the road (crown land, go nuts!)

3. Have little bridges on the side of the road (they are for snowmobiles)

4. Serve fries with everything

5. Talk incomprehensibly.

 

Five things I won’t miss about Newfoundland:

1.  Fries (as mentioned above, they came with everything)

2. Wind

3. Foul-tasting tap water (boy are we spoiled in Vancouver)

4. Generic mass-produced beer

5. Our ridiculous rental cars (a Chrysler 200 and a Dodge mini-van/SUV)

 

Five things I already miss about Newfoundland:

1. How quiet it is

2. Being able to say hello to strangers and they don’t look at you like you’re crazy

3. Old buildings

4. Open countryside

5. Winners of “Tidy Towns”

 

Five things that surprised me about Newfoundland:

1. Just how beautiful it was

2. How even at the northern tip (where we can see Labrador), it’s still further south than Calgary.

3. Lack of moose

4. Shorts-weather and icebergs co-exist

5. People are large

 

Five tiny towns with great names in Newfoundland:

1. Dildo

2. South Dildo

3. Heart’s Content

4. Heart’s Desire

5. Heart’s Delight

 

Five questions that I still have following Newfoundland:

1. How would North America have been different had the Vikings stayed in L’Anse aux Meadows and wherever Vinland was?

2. Where are all the moose?

3. Why are all the little houses in tidy towns white?

4. How come we saw so few drinking establishments?

5. If people in Newfoundland drink so much beer, how come there is no decent beer there?

 

St. John’s, Cape Spear and Signal Hill:

Tiny towns from the Avalon Peninsula: