First Canadian Hangover - May 08
I am so not fully ready for Canadian Jeff amounts of drinking yet. Just as I am afraid to go for a run or do any real physical activity or exercise, I should have been just as fearful of full pints of beer and screech shots. I was feeling it, to say the least. For the most part of the day I did more searching for phones and cars, hung out with the girl that came to check out the bedroom that is for rent that happens to be the bedroom I’m sleeping in, and did a little grocery shopping for daily food stuff. The other portions of the day were spent feeling sorry for myself and wasting time on the internet. I should finished HP or something. I haven’t been feeling productive for a little while. Just look at the length of this day’s blog post. Pitiful.
SIM Cards and Eating Animals - May 09
Right, on this day I hung out more with the residents of the house, including the new roommate, Georgia, who is taking my bed and forcing me to the couch. Which is quite fine, because it is call couchsurfing.com not stayinthisnicetownhousethathasabedandfood.com.
I went and bought myself a burner phone to use while I keep trying to find a Nexus 5 I can buy from this town. I just want to stick with phones that Google releases quick updates for, is that so much to ask. As I was buying the phone, however, I realized that it might be fun to force myself to use it and see how I get by. I returned back and tried to activate the phone but it came with a prepaid SIM card, something I couldn’t use. That meant another trip to the mall. Georgia came along because she needed house things.
Georgia is cool and we had some fun shopping around. I finally got a working phone but quickly realized that I will never send a text message with the damn thing because a numberpad keyboard is something I haven’t had to deal with since 2007 and don’t plan on going back to. Phone calls only, it is. After a quick stop off for some dollar store candy we headed back to the house and, as a group, we left for Adelaide, a nice restaurant in town with Eoin, Michael, and Eoin’s friend Allie. The restaurant was cool but a bit pricey. I have to start enforcing my budget better or I’ll have no money to move back to Vancouver/Victoria. At the restaurant I tried aligator which is basically chicken, breaded oysters and regular oysters, all things I’ve never tried before. I could go without them if you ask me. They’re good and all but I’ll probably never order them on purpose again. At the restaurant we also met Jay and Fabian. Jay is a chef at The Reluctant Chef and promised that he would cook me a dish with seal, something that plays a fairly important role in the surrounding communities I’m told. Which sounds like an experience. I look forward to it.
After that we went home and went to bed. All of the people now living in the house either have jobs, school, or both so I think some early nights are ahead of me and that’s cool because I think I’m a bit sick from not getting enough sleep lately. Cool.
Cape Spear - May 10
Today I woke up a bit later than everyone else on purpose for recuperation purposes and chatted with Eoin and Georgia. After getting ready, everyone else left and I made myself a lunch and got my stuff to ride to Cape Spear. I rented an overpriced bike and headed out. Quick tip for anyone thinking about visiting Cape Spear when you’re in St. John’s: try and find a ride out there. The road is hilly and lame. If you’re not in good shape you may have some difficulty. It’s only 15km or so but it’s not that fun. I’m sure I would have had an easier time with it about five months ago but as for right now I struggled.
Cape Spear is a cool idea because it’s the most easterly point in North America. Basically that’s it. The lighthouse and stuff make you feel like you’re on the coast a lot, which you are, but I’d say it’s worth it just to be able to say you did it. Here’s a photo I took, after which I realized how inappropriate it is because I’m leaning on basically a headstone for several individuals that died there. Thinking ahead: not my strong suit.
Oh yeah, I shaved my head in Mexico, did I mention that before?
After an hour and some lunch I left back to town. The ride back took an extra fifteen minutes because of the still crazy wind. To reiterate, I probably wouldn’t do this ride again. Once I got back I sat down on the couch and vegged out for a few hours to regain my strength. I got some more groceries and made myself a meal and watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine until now. Now I’m still tired and ready for sleep so… yeah. Goodnight, I guess.
I Was Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - May 11
I did a whole lot of nothing waiting for my emergency Visa to show up. Luckily, the card showed up just after 11am which meant I could do anything with my day! That turned out to mean little to me and did nothing. I walked Georgia to her workplace downtown and walked around a bit, grabbed an iced cap and cinnamon roll from Tim Hortons because why not and headed back to the house. I spent the rest of the night, like most other days after I had seen the important things in St. John’s, reading and watching movies. I’m starting to feel quite lazy these days. I should probably just get back to travelling.
Seal - May 12
I spent another morning hanging out with Georgia and we discussed a variety of topics, each more ridiculous than the next I assure you. I can’t quite remember what I spent my day doing at this point but I can say that not a lot of it mattered because the real important/cool part is when Eoin got back and we went out. Eoin first took me to his old high school where his two sisters were part of a multicultural event. There was international food, a jazz band, dancers, and a presentation on the Syrian refugee crisis. It was pretty cool, then we went to The Reluctant Chef where Jay is the head chef and promised me some seal.
Soon after arriving we were given our dish. It was a seal mole with some red onion, corn, cilantro, I think mayo of some sort, served with four tortilla chips. Seal is an interesting thing. It was slightly fishy but so much that it was overpowering and also, also most a little bit like a pulled pork texture. Keep in mind that I do not know what I’m talking about. There was some Driftwood IPA at the bar so I, of course, had to get some. I think I may have lost the taste for good beer over the course of the last little while. It’ll come back though, I’m sure. After the kitchen closed down, Jay came out and we all hung out for a while until closing. It was a decent evening for sure.
Wake Me Up Before You Leave - May 13
I didn’t realize the hour of the night at the time but I was woken up by someone who I assumed was Georgia wanting to say goodbye because I had planned on leaving today. However, the person that sat next to my head on the couch turned out to be Eoin’s drunk cousin Declan. No big deal, but I couldn’t help but wonder why my reaction to seeing a new face in the house in the middle of the night wasn’t “Holy shit a burglar/murderer” but instead I uttered “Whatsup?” Weird how you begin to trust a city I guess…
After trying to find a place to rent a car, drive to Gros Morne, hike for a bit and return the car in Deer Lake I realized that the cost would be too great to justify. People charge a lot of money for leaving a car in Deer Lake. Like around $600. Ridiculous. So, since I missed my bus for that left earlier in the morning, the roommates were stuck with me for anoter night.
I spent the day the same way I have been for the last few days, sitting, watching videos, researching stuff, reading, eating a lot, and chatting with the roommates that passed by every so often.
Leaving on an Over-priced Bus, I Don’t Know When I’ll Be Back Again - May 14
I woke up at 6am to prepare for the bus that I had to catch from MUN that goes to Channel-Port aux Basques. Georgia was nice enough to wake up early and see me off, aww. I caught a taxi to MUN and grabbed the bus with no issue. The buses in Canada are maybe a tiny bit comfortable than in Mexico, though that could just be because the roads are maintained a bit better. Who knows. I got off in Deer Lake, my leaving point for Gros Morne but quickly found out that there were no companies that had available cars to drive myself up to the park. Taxi prices would be even worse than renting a van. Crap.
Serves me right though. While I was on the bus, right after I finished reading HP in Spanish I thought a lot about skipping Gros Morne as no one had suggested it to me and I only wanted to go because I wanted a hike and some nice views. Like there aren’t any others in Canada that I’ll be able to see. By the time I found out I wasn’t going to Gros Morne the bus had already left so I was stuck in Deer Lake, paying a ridiculously high price for a two double-bed room for the night. Smooth Jeff, smooth.
You Thought BC Ferries Were Expensive - May 15
The night before I spent all my time binging a show created by Aziz Ansari called Master of None. I liked it. It was funny for the first few episodes but then got into some real life stuff near the end. Things that made me think about my life. I’m not sure if it helped, hindered, or amused but that’s how I spent the evening either way. I ate as much food as possible from the included breakfast at the motel and took as much food and a tea back to my room for my later lunch. I’ve gotta do more of this if I want to make up the money I wasted on the room for the night.
I checked out of my room around 3pm and killed time until the same DRL bus showed up to go to the ferry. On the bus I started reading a book called The 4-hour Chef by Timoth Ferris. I’m enjoying it so far. I’ll comment on this book as I go, for those interested but so far the book is going through the best ways to learn or acquire any given skill. This applies to several different skills he has acquired throughout the years including, but not limited to language learning (Yay!), swimming, weight lifting, and cooking, the main “theme” of the book. I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy this one a lot because one thing I’ve been thinking about lately is my diet and my cooking habits, things I plan on messing around with when I get back home and living.
I arrived at the ferry terminal and forked over about $45 for the ticket. Damn. I suppose it’s an eight or nine hour ferry but crap that sucked. Good thing I didn’t have a vehicle or it would have been around $150. Good news though, there were tons of comfy looking, sleep-able seats in the lounge. Bad news, sleeping was prohibited. I slept on the floor, it wasn’t nice.