Day 13 - Exploring St. John's

Hello friends, today was one of those days where we did so much in such a condensed period of time that we all needed a nap by the end of it. It was a great day though, with many highlight to talk about. We started our day by going to Signal Hill, which oversaw the entirety of St. John's and was a stunning sight to behold. On top of Signal Hill was the Cabot Tower, which was the site the received the first ever transatlantic message back in 1901. It was a great building to see and go into, but we unfortunately couldn't go to the top of it because it was still closed. I did however go into the gift shop and bought myself a Sou'wester, a traditional yellow rain hat worn by fishermen, so I got to keep a small piece of Newfoundland with me as a souvenir. We then proceeded to take a whole bunch of pictures while we were up there, but the wind was so strong and so cold that we couldn't really feel our hands by the end of it. It was worth it though. While driving down the hill, we stopped by the Johnson Geo Centre to check it out, and they had some pretty cool rocks in there.

We then got to go to the eastern-most part of the North America, Cape Spear, which is home to the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland. While we were there, we saw a lot of old military bunkers and weaponry, as well as some of the most breathtaking sights you'll ever see. We went around most of the hiking trailing around Cape Spear, and spent over an hour there taking pictures and basking in its amazing scenery. Our next stop was one that I felt really inclined to go to, and that was the Terry Fox Memorial down by the harbour front. Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope in St. John's, dipping his leg into the Atlantic before starting his run, and was commemorated for his show of strength and endurance, so it felt great to go to his Memorial and reflect on all of that. We then walked towards the War Memorial and got to pay our respects to those who gave their lives for our country, which was pretty cool.

We made took a bit of a break from exploring to go grab lunch at a place called "The Duke of Duckworth", which was a nice little pub that was suggested to us because of their Fish and Chips. I'm not a seafood person at all, but I thought that since I came all the way to Newfoundland, I might as well try their fish. The taste of it was quite good, it was way too greasy so it didn't sit too well with me, but I'm glad I tried it. Our last tourist-y stop for the day was when we went to a place called "The Rooms", which is a history museum/art gallery. In there, we got to learn so much about how Newfoundland was impacted by World War I, and heard some truly heart wrenching stories from the war, so it really helped put things in perspective for me. It was all a lot to take in if I'm being honest, but a moment of levity was when we got to a part of the exhibit where you could dress up and take some pictures, so I obviously dressed up in an old nurses outfit while Anthony dressed up as a soldier. At the end of the exhibit about WWI, there was a wall where people could write a message to the troops that served in the war, and so I contributed to it as well. Other parts of the building had exhibits about animals, history of Newfoundland, and a very interesting art gallery. I had such a great time at The Rooms, more than I had anticipated, but in the end we were all exhausted and so we all went home and passed out for a couple of hours. Anthony and I then woke up, got some food, and watched a movie.

This trip has overall been a fantastic history lesson for me, and has made me so much prouder to be a Canadian, so I am very thankful for that. Tomorrow we get to go do the thing I originally came here to do, and we'll be visiting the Memorial University of Newfoundland, so I'm pretty excited!

 Exploring St. John's: www.instagram.com/p/Bis80QSFqoi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 43 - Getting Home (Part 3/3)

Hello friends! After  19537 km, 43 days, 10 provinces, 47 schools, 40 cities, 29 houses, and a lifetime of memories,  my road trip is now officially over as we made it back to Southern Ontario! It was such an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am grateful for all of it. Today Vanessa and I had the longest continuous drive of my trip when we drove from Thunder Bay to Hamilton in ~16.5 hours. At this point in the trip, I had gotten so used to driving long distances, so the time just flew by. On our drive, we stopped in Wawa to visit Canada's largest goose, which was quite triggering but pretty cool to see. I also learned that aside from Mississauga in the GTA, there is Mississauga First Nation, which is located between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury along the Trans Canada Highway. After the long drive, we finally made it to Hamilton and met up with some friends at a pub called "The Snooty Fax" for dinner. It's been such a wild trip, with so many amazing...
Read more

Day 41 - Getting Home (Part 1/3)

Hello friends, today was the first day of the trip back home, which Vanessa and I are doing over the span of 3 days (which is ridiculous). Today we drove from Revelstoke BC to Regina SK in ~12 hours, and only made 2 stops on the way (but Vanessa and I had some great life chats along the way). After finally leaving the mountains and hitting the prairies (which made the drive a lot easier, but significantly less scenic), we  stopped in Calgary to grab some food from Tim's, and then Vanessa took the wheel. As I was taking a nap, Vanessa tells me that the fuel light is on and that we were really low on gas, and the next gas station was half an hour away. After the most stressful drive of Vanessa's life and the lowest my fuel gauge has ever been, we made it to the gas station just in time before my car shut off. On our way out of the gas station, we drove by the World's Largest Teepee, which was pretty cool. As we entered Saskatchewan and got close to Regina, I got caught by a ...
Read more

Day 37 - UBC

Hello friends, today I visited my favourite campus so far, and I got to give my car a break by deciding to bus everywhere. Vanessa and I decided to go on separate adventures for most of the day, so I had a lot to learn about getting around Vancouver in a very short period of time. I got up this morning and took the bus to UBC, and it very much lived up to everything people have said about it and more. It was a massive campus (probably the biggest one I’ve seen so far), and it was the most beautiful university campus I have ever seen. At first I was lost when trying to find my way around, but I figured it out relatively quickly. The very first thing I wanted to visit was the giant Engineering Cairn that lies in the middle of the one of the major walking paths on campus. I can immediately tell how big the Engineering community is at UBC just by walking around, and the Cairn was very symbolic of that. They even have a street on their campus called "Engineering Road". As I ...
Read more