Thoughts on learning and on how life is

As our first anniversary in Newfoundland approaches, I find myself contemplating what I've learned during the year that has (almost) passed and how we are actually settling in here in Canada. This was especially the case today, as we had a rainy and dark evening for the first time in a while. It brought me right back to last November, when newly arrived from Denmark, I was put behind the wheel on the wet and dark streets of St. John's. Let's be clear here: St. John's is not a city made of blocks - it's a city made of uphills and downhills, streets that become other streets, and intersections, where six or seven different streets meet in the middle, causing a mix, where not even the locals seem to know how to drive. And that in bright daylight. 

Finding myself cruising home without a worry in my mind in the wet darkness of today, knowing exactly which lane to take, which lane not to take (RIGHT LANE MUST EXIT - those were my biggest nightmare last November), and where to avoid the biggest potholes and ruts, I realized that I've got to know this city pretty well in less than a year. 

A common sight on the streets of St. John's. Learning to avoid them is an essential survival skill for a newbie.

When we arrived here in November, the first stage of integration began. You get to know the basics first - which area to live in, where to find food (not to mention, which products are the ones you're supposed to buy when wanting to cook recipe XYZ from home), how to make phone calls, which radio station to listen to for good music, which bakery is the best one in town and the difficult ones: how to find a doctor and how to find a dentist.

Once these were done, the next part begins. How to find like-minded people? How to make friends? Where do the families go, as there's no one at the playground? What are the people really saying, when they say that it's "Sum nice weather today, b'y!"? You make your first acquintances, you find a daily routine, you create your everyday life around your family's needs, and every day, you get to know more and more about the people in the city, province and country you live in, and the lives they live. The learning curve is steep and difficult, as a lot of effort is needed to actually keep in all this new information your senses are collecting together, and to get to know new people, you will always need to give a part of yourself in the process too. How do I present myself, who am I (now that I'm not a busy consultant and I would also like to be something else than my daughter's mother), what are my interests and how to make myself seem interesting to other people, without trying too hard. 

We kept our eyes and ears open, my husband at work and I when I began volunteering after three months in the city. At the same time our little one started at her daycare and started learning English, making her the quickest one to fully integrate into our new lives. When we returned from a weekend trip to Toronto this August and landed back in St. John's, she exclaimed loud and clear in the plane: "I love my St. John's!!" It's clear who has made this place home.

Every week and month we've been busy exploring our surroundings. My husband's busy hiking the East Coast Trail during his free weekends and while I was not yet working, I would explore our surroundings during the weeks. We've had a few visitors, whom we've been able to show some places around the island and meanwhile also get to know others ourselves. However, my steepest learning curve into everything Newfoundland & Labrador and everything Canadian has been in the past two months. In the beginning of August I finally started working, something which has coincided with our trips to Toronto and to the Bonavista peninsula, which is a beautiful area about three hours away from St. John's.

At my work, I am soaked with information about Newfoundland and Labrador, its history, its people and its traditions. I learn about the difficulties of living in the small rural communities and outports, what happened to the province when cod was no longer king and the federal government's decision to restrict cod-fishing left 35,000 people (!!!) unemployed within the matter of days, how when that was done, oil and gas have become the province's "all eggs in one basket" curse and saviour and how, unfortunately, this is a province where statistics about health, weight issues, domestic violence and the like are at the bottom of the list compared to the rest of Canada. I have also learned about the warm hearts of the locals, about the hard work many here on the island have had to go through to survive and how that is often forgotten in the everyday lives of people, suddenly made rich with the arrival of oil, except in the music and traditions, which are now being collected and cherished with the Newfoundland and Labrador's heritage movement. 

An example of what an outport fishing settlement might have looked like in the 1800s. This one is the set where mini-series Random Passage, based on the book by Bernice Morgan was shot.

Trinity - an old merchant town made rich by its harbour and fishing. Now a popular tourist destination and place where Newfoundland heritage is preserved.

I've learned that people should definitely not be judged by their covers. Even though the person might be cursing and swearing of all their might, they might be the most intelligent and compassionate person you have ever met - it's just the way they learned to speak. I've also learned that as the resources here have been rare, people have began to compete for them and it seems difficult for them to cooperate to reach the same goals. 

The visit to Toronto also taught me a lot about Canada vs. Canada. People of Newfoundland often consider themselves as someone from Newfoundland, before they mention they're Canadians. Flying to Toronto and visiting the city for a few days did feel like being in a totally different country, and until 1949 it was. While Toronto is a multicultural metropolis, spearheading Canada's (traditionally) immigrant-friendly image, showcased in academic literature on integration, Newfoundland is in comparison very white, very English/Irish and small.

One of the interesting and culturally rich neighbourhoods of Toronto

Toronto skyline

 

A friend of mine (shout-out to Ms. PF) asked me recently - how is life in St. John's? What are the people of Newfoundland like? How are we settling in? And I realized that I have concentrated a lot on how the place looks like, instead of what it's like. I think that's part of the different steps of integration. First you learn where to drive (what the place looks like) and then how to drive (what it's like). I have a feeling I'm now learning how to drive my Newfoundland life and I'm liking it.

The Royal St. John's Regatta

Yesterday was Regatta Day!

What is a Regatta? Why is it important? Other than as a day off for all of us in St. John's, of course!

The Royal St. John's Regatta is considered the oldest annual sporting event in North America and has been around since the beginning of the 19th century. It is a rowing competition that takes place just outside downtown St. John's at the Quidi Vidi Lake. Teams practice the whole summer (as soon as the ice has left the lake) and take place in time trials and the like to be admitted to the Regatta.

The day is interesting as it is designated to be a public holiday in the city of St. John's - but only weather allowing! If the weather is bad, the day off is off, and you have to go to work instead! Safe to say that there are probably a lot of people calling in sick on those days, especially since the night before is the last day of the George Street festival, which is known for its "wet" nights out in the pubs of George Street.

We're lucky to live downtown and within a walking distance from the lake, so we didn't have to struggle with finding parking or paying five dollars for a tennis club to keep our car safe during the day. Nowadays the rowing seems to be playing a smaller role than before on Regatta Day, as the lakeshore is packed to bursting point with small booths selling everything from famous Indian food to ruffle tickets (local NGOs main way of collecting money!) and, of course, bouncy castles.

To row or to bounce, that is the question!

When we arrived at the lake, the fog was still hanging on top of it, but the clouds did clear away and the sun came out with +25 degrees. This truly felt like a dream come true, as we have not exactly been given the best of summers here this year, to put it mildly. July was the coldest in 20 years and the local police have put out a request to find an arrest the missing summer, also charging local meteorologists for trafficking in Rain, Drizzle and Fog - also known as RDF.

I don't think that these officers of the RNC (Royal Newfoundland Constabulary) were there looking to arrest anyone for bringing out the sun, though. Seems like they were enjoying themselves just as much as any other Townie or Bayman (more on those below).

I'm beginning to get the hang of the Newfoundland dialect, at least every now and then. It's an interesting mixture of Canadian, Irish and British English and the most common way to recognize a Newfie (especially if they're not from St. John's, i.e. they are Baymen and not Townies) is when you hear someone speaking with an excessive use of third-person singular: "Cum on now, luv, we buys you dat shirt and then we goes home to cook supper!" 

Or - "Where's me car gone now? I thinks it was parked right here!"

"The food is sum good by", or in English: Boy is this food good!

And who won the Regatta? I wouldn't know, had I not read the newspaper this morning. MAX Arts Athletics Wellness took the men's title while the women's victory was claimed by Roebothan McKay Marshall!

One of the teams rowing on the Quidi Vidi Lake

Canada Day - the first day of summer

On 1 July the whole Canada gets off work and celebrates the Canada Day, the national day of Canada.

Even though Newfoundland only joined Canada in April 1949, Canada Day, which commemorates the joining of three British colonies into a single country called Canada in 1867. Based on the radio ads and what I saw around me, Canada Day seems to be referred to as the country's birthday (heard in a commercial: everyone's birthday is a big deal, but our country's birthday is the BIGGEST!).

Often, people have also referred to Canada Day as the first day of summer, and many have told us that "Come Canada Day, the weather will have turned and it's going to be warm".

I asked around what one should then do on Canada Day in St. John's. It seems that Canada Day is celebrated here with family, often with BBQ and there are fireworks in the evening. The opinions of the people I talked to differed on whether or not it's similar to 4th of July in the US - in general, it seems that Canadians consider Canada Day to be a bit more solemn - you celebrate, but you also think about the past and it's not all fun and carneval only.

There are three main things to do in St. John's for Canada Day: the 6am Sunrise Ceremony at the Signal Hill, the afternoon family fun and concerts by the Confederation Building and the fireworks at the Quidi Vidi lake in the evening. As 6am was too early for us, and the fireworks at 10pm too late, we opted for the party at the Confederation Building. There were cup cakes, bouncy castles, balloons and music - it was all very well organized and everyone could use the washrooms inside the Confederation Building. People were collecting trash the whole time and once the last band finished playing at 16.30, it took 10 minutes to get the place cleaned and wrapped up! We were amazed - we and a few friends were the last ones around in front of the band stand and by 17 there were no signs of the party of thousands anywhere to be seen. Very efficient!

The Maple Leaf-guy came to say hi to the kiddos

 We were very lucky to also experience the part of Canadians getting together with their family to BBQ, as our friends Mr. MD and Mrs. AD were so kind as to take us along to a family BBQ that evening. It was a very cosy evening in a house in downtown St. John's and we met people we otherwise would not have met on our own. Very nice!

Even the birds get to celebrate Canada Day

St. John's finest were also there, showing their fleet and offering some eye candy for all the mamas around

So then to discuss the elephant in the room: was it really the first day of summer? Well, it depends on your definition of summer. Over here summer comes and goes, is my observation, which means it's summer. One of the sure signs is the fog laying over the harbour of St. John's. If you're out of the fog, it can be very warm indeed! It's humid, and the sun is very warm and bright. To me it seems like there are pockets of warm air where the fig doesn't reach. 

The fog rolling in over the harbour of otherwise sunny St. John's

 I've learned not to trust the weather forecast too much, though.On a day when the weather forecast said 15 and cloudy, my felt temperature was 25 and sunny (even though it was 10 and cloudy in the morning). So you never know in this city! I've learned to bring a sweater everywhere and to come home in between and change from my sneakers into my sandals. My daughter always gets a change of clothes to the daycare or else I bring it when I pick her up. There are days when I send her over in pretty much snowsuit and pick her up in flipflops and t-shirt (that happened yesterday!).

Summer evenings in St. John's can be very pretty. The one below is from our neighbourhood of Georgestown on the evening of 1 July. Happy summer everyone!

Do Canadian babies have crooked backs and other issues I'm wondering about

Today, my dear readers (yes - I know it's called "followers" in the blog-world, but let's be honest here, it's basically my parents and a couple of other loyal friends reading this blog, and if I called you followers, my mom would think I've started a cult, so readers it is!),

So - today, my dear readers is a day of another list. I've noted down a few things that are puzzling me about life in Canada and Newfoundland, and I wanted to share them with you. Many of these issues I've already discussed with our Canadian friends, or heard being discussed, so I might have sneaked in some comments made by others into the text as well.

1. Do Canadian babies have crooked backs?

One of the things that has puzzled me the whole time since we moved here, is how babies are transported around the city. What I find very good, is that a lot of kids are simply transported on their parents' backs in different types of babycarriers until they are about 2 years old. This is understandable looking at the conditions of the sidewalks in the winter, where a stroller is a no-go 4-5 months of the year. 

However, what puzzles me the most, is that newborns and up to 1-year-olds are taken around in strollers, where the parents have simply attached their car seat. Here's a picture of what that would look like:

There is no bassinet in the stroller where the kid can lie down and sleep, but the babies are kept in the car-seat. I do know this construction from Finland, where you have to take your car everywhere and parents would use it to go to the supermarket. Here, however, it seems that this is the way children are taken for walks on a general basis, as I have not seen any other kind of strollers for smalle babies. In Denmark, a completely other extreme is in use, see an example here:

I used to call these Danish monstertrucks. It's like a bed on wheels. Difficult to put in your car, but if your baby is sleeping outside much of the day (like Danish babies do), you get why this cat-proof version is a good idea.

I'm wondering if the "studies" that are quoted to us parents in Europe, where they tell us not to let our kids sit in the car seat for longer than 45 minutes at the time, have not reached Canada? Or have they been proven wrong here and parents here are actually better educated than the European parents, who are hysterical about not letting their kid sit for too long in a sitter or car-seat out of a fear of giving their kids a bad back or, what's worse, lack of oxygen? Happy to hear your insights about this, as it's really something I'm wondering about.

2. Why doesn't everyone microwave their bacon?

I have learnt the most amazing thing from our friend JC - you can microwave your bacon! Not that I eat a lot of bacon, but whenever I'd like to, I don't, because of the discusting amount of fat that's left over on the frying pan. You can just place your slices of bacon on a piece of kitchen towel, cover it with another one and put it into the microwave for two minutes. Crispy bacon and all the fat is left in the kitchen towel! Genious!

3. What do the people transport in their trucks?

Living in St. John's, you see lots of trucks on the streets. Well, we'd call them pick-ups, but here it's just "trucks" in general. All kinds of people have one, and I've heard some women discuss this as well, just saying "Oh, I'd love me a truck". "What would you do with it?" "Just have it to drive around! It's so cool!". Quite a contrast to the favourite car of all women in Denmark - the Volkswagen Up. So, I'm wondering: what is it that they are transporting in their trucks? To be fair, the trucks here are so big, that you have a back seat, where your kids can go and often the trucks even have four doors. I've seen ski-doos being transported on them (fair enough), I've seen dogs on the back (not cool!) and I've seen all kinds of construction equipment (again, fair enough). But the majority of the trucks have nothing at all at the back. Is it a status symbol? Again, happy to hear your thoughts.

4. Were all the Canadians born with a cup of Timmy's double-double in their hand?

I know it's a cliche, but Tim Hortons really is one of the most Canadian things, I've learnt. There is one in most corners of the city, and they always have a drive-in. Yes - drive-in coffee!!! Have you ever heard about that before? However, most people I talk to never confess going to Timmy's. The coffee there is simply unbearably bad, if you're used to anything like a barista-made coffee. But: on an average day on the street, every second person you meet is carrying their large Tim Horton's, and I've now learnt that the most beloved way to drink it is: double-double - two sugars, two creams (shout out to Ms SF for explaining this concept to me). 

I have scientific proof that this is correct. This spring, while cleaning my garden, I found (without exaggeration) 25 lids of Tim Hortons' cups in the bushes. 25! This is not, because people throw them in my yard, I have to say, but because it is VERY windy in St. John's and on a windy day, you can easily lose your cup of Timmy's to the power of the wind. But, each lid has a marking on the top showing what whas in the cup, and it was lots of double-doubles, I can tell you! There was also one with 4s 4c, which I'm afraid might mean four sugars and four creams. I wonder if the person is still alive...?

Anyhow, I've recently read in The Overcast that the reason why people go to Tim Horton's in St. John's is not their coffee, but the convenience, which makes it easy to drop by and get a cup on the way to work, as you're driving past it anyway. This means a) that people always drive to work (true), that b) people are too lazy to get out of their cars for getting their morning cup of coffee (true), but also that c) Tim Horton's has been very intelligent in the way they've placed their shops and obviously know how Canadians think about their coffee - it needs to be fast and easily accessible. It does not need to taste like good coffee, just give me my caffeine.

5. Finally: Why isn't Newfoundland more of a holiday destination

The best tourist season of the year is upon us and the first icebergs and whales have landed in the coasts of Newfoundland. There has even been a polar bear on Fogo Island!

This is a perfect place to experience natural wonders like nowhere else. Last week, I drove 10km from our house, hiked about 500m and saw this:

Isn't that just unbelievable? I know St. John's isn't the most easily accessible place on earth in terms of prices of tickets, but there are plenty of nature lovers in this world who've got the money to spend on flights to get here. I know the province is trying to reprofile itself as a holiday destination, but I think there is still a long way to go. How many of you have heard about the East Coast Trail so far? (if not counting from us!) Or that we get icebergs? And we have whales right off the coast? I know, not many of you had ever heard about this place before we moved here. I'm hoping we'll be able to spread the word, as seriously, this place is full of amazing nature to explore. We haven't even started yet, properly, so I'm very excited about the summer coming.

6. And a final remark: what's up with the beards, dudes?

In Denmark, many men have recently grown out their beards in an attempt to look more viking-like. It works very well and there's a limit to the beard - you cut it, when it gets too long. Here, though, I have a feeling that the concept "the longer, the better" is now in fashion. Yesterday I saw a chap jogging in the city with very normal jogging clothes on, but his beard was seriously 15 cm long. It was swaying in the wind while he was jogging. Is it a kind of a "return to the man from the logging community"-thing they've got going on? It's like a play-off beard, if the play-offs were VERY long. I need to follow up on this when the weather gets warmer and the NHL season is over. We're due to have 16 degrees tomorrow, so I'm sure there will be a bunch of bathing suits, shorts and t-shirts visible. Are the beards gone when it gets hot?

Nova Scotia for beginners

Finally it came, our first trip off The Rock, and my first flight since November! We had decided to visit Nova Scotia, one of the four Atlantic provinces (with Newfoundland & Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island - also known as P.E.I - remember L.M.Montgomery?).

It's an hour and a half flight from St.John's, pretty much like CPH-BXL, one of my previous frequent routes, and you can choose between Air Canada (think: SAS) or WestJet (think: Norwegian). And just like back home, the bigger name doesn't always equal better service or reasonable quality-price ratio - we were amazed to find out that luggage for free is a thing of the past also with Air Canada. Note to self: buy more carry-on size luggage and spare the $25.

Newfoundland from above

We flew to and stayed in Halifax, which is the biggest city in Nova Scotia and although not a huge city, very much more so than our small and cosy St.John's. A shopping street with more than 5 stores? Check. A cinema in the city? Check. A beautiful library? Check!! The Halifax Central Library was a very interesting piece of design right at the heart of the city. Opened in December 2014, it looked like a piece of another world, but it fit very well on its space. Interesting that, unlike in Copenhagen, the library was not placed at the waterfront, but on the main street of the city.

A daylight look of the new Central Library on Spring Garden Road

I liked the way the sunset reflected from the windows - a bit like with the Black Diamond in Copenhagen

We had received an excellent 'best of'-list from the lovely HR & JC, former long-term dwellers of Halifax, and we set about following the list and liking most of what we saw!

Colourful houses and doors in downtown Halifax

This wonderful café came with the recommendation: "trust me, don't try to eat their chocolate croissant alone!"

The above was also true for their cookies, none of which were finished that day - or the next! The fireplace was a welcome source of warmth on a chilly day.

Another recommendation (but from a different source) had been Cow's ice cream, which is supposed to be the best in the world according to a vote by travellers all across the globe. Unfortunately for us, there was more ice outside than inside the shop, so we will have to leave the tasting to another time in the future.

Just by chance, we saw a poster for a world-class sports event taking place in Halifax just during our visit: the World Men's Curling Cup 2015! We checked out the programme and realized to our amazement that Finland was playing Italy that same night. What else was there to be done but buy tickets and go support our blue-white guys towards victory against Italy? (and for those interested: Sweden won the cup against Norway, Canada was third and Finland - at that time world nr. 14 became sensationally fourth!)

Finland's skip Aku Kauste securing victory over Italy

Lucky for me, I had already had the chance to watch one or two games of curling in Newfoundland and understood some of the basic rules, but I'm still to learn more of the vocabulary before I can call myself fluent in the language of curling. As a sidenote I can tell you that the first ever olympic medal to Newfoundland is from curling, where Canada beat Finland in the 2006 final of the winter olympics. So curling is big here!

Apart from sports, we spent a lot of time just walking around the city, as most shops were closed due to Easter. Halifax has got its fair share of snow this year (much more than St. John's!) and it was easy to see that the winter had not been friendly towards the locals.

How to find a water pump in the snow?

The Carrot Community Grocer in Halifax

On our last day, we rented a car and drove out of the city heading southwards to the South Shore, which is the beautiful coastline showing pictoresque Nova Scotian fishing villages, lighthouses, ships and coastlines. We were not in luck, as it was pouring down with rain much us the day - hence very few pictures. Some of the sights included the tiny fishing village of Peggy's Cove, with a well-known scenery of rocks and a beautiful lighthouse - packed with tourists in the summer but with us and two other people this time of the year. This is what it looks like when it's pretty!

We drove through Mahone Bay and ended up in Lunenburg, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and would you believe it, also all of these things: National Historic District, Communities in Bloom's Most Beautiful Small Town and winner of Prettiest Painted Places in Canada, Port City of the Year and Society of American Travel Writers' Award recipient. But when it's foggy and grey, much of these awards are irrelevant and what you want is a good coffee and a nice piece of cake. We did find that! What caught my eye more than anything in Lunenburg, were the wonderful decorations in the electricity poles!

The three churches of Mahone Bay in the fog - one Anglican, one Lutheran and one United.

This was just a very quick taste of Nova Scotia for us and I have a feeling there's much more to it in the summer. I had hoped for a bit more spring in the air for early April, but I have now learned my lession and will do like the locals do next year: head for the Caribbean when April hits and the snowbanks are still towering high.

Most photos are my own, but there are also a few here that I nicked off my dad, Mr S! Thank you!

Marble Magic

Last weekend we got our first chance to really get to see more of Newfoundland and to exit the Avalon peninsula for the first time: we were able to trick a group of our Newfie friends to take us along on their traditional skiing trip to The mountain in Newfoundland: Marble.

Just a word of warning before you scroll any further: this post is very picture heavy as it's the first travel diary-entry in this blog.

The conditions for a skiing holiday could not have been better - Deer Lake, which is close to the skiing hill, has got 560cm of snow this year - so far. Here in St. John's, we've also got our share, and this was just last week:

Our door and deck following the latest snow storm

Canada-style, it wasn't just a two-hour drive to the nearest skiing hill, but a respectable 650km trip to the other coast of the island. Drive or fly? That was our question! We ended up with a compromise - some of us took the plane to spare the little Miss E from sitting in the car for hours, and others (aka me, myself and I) took the car. Timewise, I wasn't the one who won the bet...

Thanks to my brother-in-law FK for sending me this picture!

...but after I saw the plane that had transported my husband and daughter across the island in the wind speeds typical for this part of the world, I was happier to have been on the four wheels!

18 seats and no door between the cabin and the flight deck. No cabin personnel. Puuuh.

Marble Mountain is not the only attraction on the West Coast of Newfoundland, which is also home to the UNESCO World Heritage site Gros Morne National Park. We have plans to make a longer trip there in the summer, so we wanted to get a taste of the park before making any further plans. Gros Morne is a candy store for anyone interested in geology and it has a lot of very interesting hikes and day-trip opportunities the rest of us too. It did not seem too accessible in the winter conditions, though, so we ended up taking a short walk on show-shoes to the Lobster Cove Head lighthouse, which overlooks Rocky Harbour. 

Lobster Cove Head lighthouse in Gros Morne national park

Rocky Harbour with the Tablelands - half frozen, half open in mid-March

View of the Tablelands through a very dirty car window

After Gros Morne, it was time for the really fun part of the weekend - finding our enormous cabin in Humber Valley and putting on the ski boots for the first time in a long time! Marble Mountain is not an enormous skiing centre, but reminded me of the hills I know from back in Finland. It was wonderful!

Well, they say 30 slopes, but not quite sure if that's right...

We were unbelievably lucky with the weather and had to keep on taking off layer after layer as the day went on, but luckily the snow stayed in good condition and it was pure joy to ski. Our crew of 7 adults were all on the slopes much of the day while the kiddos were taking lessons or doing crafts at the childminding centre at the bottom of the hill.

No queues in sight even though it was Saturday and the weather was perfect!

Views from the Marble Mountain

More views off the mountain towards Humber river

The lovely ladies JS, HR and HK enjoying the ride up the hill

 

The "cabin" where we stayed was luxury, Canadian style (well, I'm not sure if the Canadians considered luxury, rather than standard, but nevertheless). With five en-suite bedrooms, two sitting rooms, a large kitchen and a deck the size of our own house, it was really the biggest house I have ever been to. And there was a hot tub on the deck. You know those advertisement about skiing holidays in Canada where you see people sitting and relaxing in hot tubs after a long day on the slopes? This was it. Starry sky during the night? Check. View over the river and to the mountains? Check. Nice company, good wine and beer? Check. Although I didn't take a picture of the hot tub without people in it, I do have a picture of the tubs in one of the bathrooms, just to give you an idea.

A place to relax

 And here is a view from the deck towards Humber river:

 

Driving in Newfoundland can be very dangerous due to the moose - it is said that, as with pigs in Denmark and sheep in New Zealand, there are more moose than people on the island of Newfoundland. While I did find out that this was not technically true, there are a lot of them (120,000) and they do venture out on the highways. I saw signs for moose accidents last year (12) and this year (1 so far), but luckily the only moose I saw during my 1300km of driving on the Trans-Canada Highway, also known as T.C.H. was this one at the Marble Lodge.

The drive home was beautiful, sunny and straight, and I look forward to making the trip again next year. I hope we manage to trick our Newfie friends into taking us along again another time - you never know, as we did beat them in the unbelievably funny game of Cards Against Humanity. That just goes to show what nice people the locals are - it's impossible to make them seem like the Horrible People you have to be to win this game :-). We love it here!

Sunrise over the Trans-Canada Highway at about 570km mark.

 Once more, the picture credits should be placed where they belong: with JK.