The next part of the adventure involved flights halfway across Canada on Westjet, a Canadian budget carrier, who were most efficient and all connections worked. Because of the distance I was travelling, it took most of the day, but I caught up on my reading and it’s always interesting to observe fellow travellers! However, my powers of observation must have deserted me briefly, when I only realised halfway into my first flight sector, that the passenger in the seat beside me was travelling with her cat! The animal was in a sort of cage under the seat in front, but as I am NOT a cat lover, I was somewhat taken aback when the passenger announced she had to bring ‘ kitty for a pee pee’! The animal was quiet and unobtrusive for the flight , but it was a first for me and I did wonder what would happen if I was allergic to cats, as some people are!
Next morning I woke to a beautiful view of the Harbour in St. John’s from my room in the Sheraton. Newfoundland is ten times the size of Ireland, but has only slightly more than half a million inhabitants, half of whom live in St. John’s. I walked through the town later that day, quaint would be one way of describing, but the people were so friendly! I found a fur store, with magnificent but expensive merchandise and heard from one of the ladies working there, about her daughter, who had qualified as a vet in UCD earlier in the Summer. I then visited a wonderful tea shop called Rockets, was met by the owner at the door, who gave me a tour of all the food, freshly cooked and gave me her recommendations! As I waited for my food, I meet a girl from Cork who was in St Johns for a Music Festival, commemorating an Irish fiddler Seamus Creagh, who had lived in Newfoundland!
The town itself is compact, easy to get around and full of interesting historical monuments and buildings. It has an fascinating history, all of which is superbly documented and shown in a wonderful new museum, The Rooms, well worth a visit. A two hour hop on hop off bus is a quick and handy way of getting a feel for this lovely place. There are a lot of houses painted in different colours, locally known as the Jelly Bean houses! Different explanations are proferred as to why this has evolved. One us that the fishermen had paint over from painting their boats and used the excess to paint the houses, another yarn was the fishermen needed their homes to be different in colour, so they would recognise them more easily when they had an excess of alcohol! The sun was shining and the temperature was in the early twenties but in the winter, the place is very different with heavy snow drifts and severe artic type weather.
The following days leading up to the wedding in Friday was full of fun with friends, enjoying the tremendous hospitality of the Brides family who made us all feel so welcome in their homes. A short detour one evening back to the hotel brought us to the latest retail offering, a cannabis to go shop! Apparently it’s use for medicinal and recreational use was legalised here in October of last year and there are now 25 outlets in the State! A bit different form of retail therapy!
Friday the day of the wedding was sunny and bright. The wedding took place in St John’s Basilica, a magnificent cathedral built in the old Gothic style with beautiful stained glass windows. Then it was off by bus to the Wilds, a golf and country club an hour and half journey from St Johns. The area we drove through was so picturesque, with lakes of varying sizes, all of which freeze in the winter, large pine forests and the Atlantic Ocean could be seen in the distance. This is an area that many residents of St, John weekend in, in their log cabins while they trek, fish and shoot. A lovely relaxing lifestyle.
As with all weddings there was lots of fun and dancing til we dropped in the wee small hours! By now, weather warnings of Hurricane Dorian were filtering through much to the chagrin of many of the guests, but more of that anon.
Answering the call to the Artic 