Day 7 - UNB Saint John, Moncton

Hello friends, today we went further into New Brunswick and discovered the true definition of East Coast Hospitality. Other than visiting the universities today, we also got to explore a lot of cool places in New Brunswick that I had never heard about, but we'll get to that.

This morning when we woke up, Mitch had made breakfast for Anthony and I, which was wonderful of him to do. We chatted with him for a bit, and then were on our way to Saint John, NB (not to be confused with St John's, NL), where we went to see UNB Saint John Campus. Funny enough, this was the campus that was the easiest to park at because they had designated free visitor parking with a 2 hour limit (as opposed to the multiple sketchy ways that I've had to park over the past week). This university has a 2 year Engineering program that, once completed, allows you to transfer to the UNB Fredericton Campus to finish up the remainder of your Engineering degree. Because today was Sunday (which I had forgotten because all I am going by are dates and not which day of the week it is), everything was closed and the campus was empty, but we found some pretty cool things to see on their campus, and the view was quite a sight to see. It was a much smaller campus than that of the Fredericton one, but was very cozy and had a nice community feeling to it. 

After we left the UNB campus, we decided that, since we're in Saint John, might as well go see something cool. We went to visit the Reversing Falls, which is a large body of water of which the flow can reverse in direction dependent on the tides. It happens because of the collision between the Saint John River and the Bay of Fundy, and whether it is high or low tide determines which way the water is flowing. It was a fascinating sight to see that pictures cannot do justice to. We then met up with Colin Brown, who showed us around a bit and led us to some quality ice cream.

We then drove down to Université de Moncton, and the campus was HUGE. I hadn't heard of it before planning my trip, and was astonished by how big it was. Unfortunately again because it was Sunday, most things were closed, but it was still nice to walk around and see it the campus. The random pieces of art of this campus were animal themed it seemed, as I managed to take a picture with both a concrete horse and concrete whales. One amazing thing that I had heard of in Moncton was a place called "Magnetic Hill", where you drive down to the bottom of the hill, put your car in neutral, and your car would be pulled back up the hill, basically defying gravity. I know that it was all an optical illusion, but it was so exciting to experience it nonetheless.

My friend Céline O'Neil's grandparents live in Moncton and offered us a place to stay, which was very kind of them. When we got to the house, they greeted us with open arms, and made us feel very at home. Céline's grandpa took us in his car to show us around the Atlantic coast, and took us to Shediac to show us his boat the family cottage that they visit every year. When we got back, Céline's grandma had made us a fantastic meal, the best salmon I had ever had (I guess it's true that the East coast has the best seafood, and this is coming from someone who doesn't like seafood). We then sat down with Céline's aunt and chatted for hours on end, and it was very wonderful of them to bring us into their home and treat us like family. 

Tomorrow we venture into more uncharted territory as we make our way to Prince Edward Island for the first time. I'm really looking forward to it.

UNB Saint John: www.instagram.com/p/BidYW5AlilU
Moncton: www.instagram.com/p/BidY5D6lzqX