Newfoundland Adventures part 2: St. John's

Newfoundland, like Uluru, Australia, is one of those rare half-hour off time zones. Landing at 5:30 pm meant it was still 3 pm back home. A quick google search shows Nepal and parts of New Zealand also have 45-minute time zones. A new goal.

St. John's Airport (YYT) is a scant 15 minutes away from the city. The car rental was steps from the exit. We are so used to Newark Airport with its three large terminals and endless fields of parking lots that the size was a bit jarring. As were the laid back attitudes. At the end of the trip when we returned the car before our 7:30 am flight, we found a box to drop the key into. It didn't seem very secure. Later that day I received an email thanking me for renting with them, so I guess all was fine.

We drove to the VRBO to get settled. After two 2-hour flights I was ready to stretch my legs so we walked 20-minutes to downtown St. John's.

Depending on your source, St. John's is the oldest settlement in North America. It started as a fishing village on June 24, 1497, then on August 5, 1583 Queen Elizabeth I decreed it a town. St. Augustine, Florida was founded in 1565. Some say St. John's is the oldest English-founded city in North America. I often laugh at the different ways to declare something the first.

I was disappointed I did not do a little more research first when making our plans. We missed their pride parade by mere hours. 

Water Street, Canada's oldest street, turns into a pedestrian street during summer days. Thankfully Google Maps is aware of this and never once suggested a route that would have involved plowing down pedestrians.

The town was a bit quiet. We found an Irish/Newfoundland restaurant. Don had a moose burger. Rather than saying "it tasted like chicken," I'll go with "it tasted like tough beef." I ate a lot of cod on the trip. Mostly fried, as is the local custom.

There is not much to say about the downtown area. We did see some brightly colored houses, locally called Jellybean Row. I went into it thinking they meant a specific few homes, but left realizing the term reflects the style and brightly colored homes throughout downtown.

We settled into our home for the next two days to rest up. I planned a busy day of sightseeing.