Advertisement
Published: October 18th 2008
On the night bus from Montreal to Toronto I was too alert to sleep. I drowned out the rattling emergency exit window with the mix-CD Mick had given me as a present before I left home. He's included the Stones, Zeppelin, Dave Brubeck and a few other jazz-funk tunes, so it felt a little like an imaginary road movie, passing late-night remote gas stations and diners with neon signs to a soundtrack of electric guitars, hammond organ and horns that sounded like they came from a 70's cop-show.
Newfoundland & St. John's
Toronto was warm, almost T-shirt weather after than the 5 days I'd spent in St. John's with Christa's parents, Marie & Paul. Newfoundland was coastal, so colder because of the damp, though that snow hadn't stuck, it was just a flurry. I've wanted to come and see this place ever since I read E. Annie Proulx's novel The Shipping News; it had that 'edge of the world' romance about it and I imagined beautiful women with long hair streaming in the wind, standing on a clifftop, looking out to sea. In reality there were a lot of Irish people, and pubs. We know what that means.
Night Bus to Toronto
(after "Twentysix Gasoline Stations" by Ed Ruscha).Marie & Paul introduced me to their friends, took me sightseeing, fed and watered me and were just great company. Christa had insisted I get in touch with them, saying: "My Mom will put you up!", passed them my email address and the next thing, I'm in a conversation about the degree to which I was house-trained. I said I could wash up and cook; Marie asked if I could sew; and since we didn't know what each other looked like, I was greeted by this sign on arrival.
I learned that you pronounce
Newfoundland like
Understand; I was introduced to their friends with "he's from away!"; and I better get into the habit of saying "True!" in an argument as well, since I am an honorary Newfoundlander now, having been screeched-in at Christian's on George Street. You have to kiss a cod, down a shot of Screech Rum and this guy in a Sou'wester hat speaking Irish un-intelligably fast, taps you on each shoulder with an oar and then you're family. It was the start of a long night that also involved curry and live rock in Sundance nightclub.
Newfoundland is like part of Ireland was sawn
Can You Sew?
Marie & Paul, my hosts for the week in St. John's, Newfoundland. off, towed across the Atlantic and moored next to Canada. English until 1907, then self-governing until 1949 when it became Canadian territory. Tune the radio in and you'll find Irish folk music and accordions on almost every station. I caught up with Andrea who used to work in Aberdeen but went back home 18 months ago with her Scottish boyfriend, Kevin - it was Andrea organised my screeching in. Petty Harbor, Cape Spear, Quidi Vidi and Signal Hill (where Marconi received the first long-distance radio transmission in 1901) are all picture-postcard beautiful, and I can recommend traditional Newfie breakfast of toutons (fried dough with molasses) and Fish & Brewis (rock-hard bread, soaked overnight & cooked with salt fish). Somebody should offer that down at the beach in Aberdeen, there's enough gulls and overcast they'd be crying with homesickness: (I can see the window of the Inversnecky now:
20%!D(MISSING)iscount for Newfies if you Burst into Tears!).
Christa and I hatched a plan before I left as well: Ray was an old work colleague of hers and the story I'm told involves his family, an RV with a broken seal on the onboard toilet, and a bump in the road
St. John's Wooden Houses
St. John's was destroyed by fire twice in the 1800's; wooden houses like these in bright colours all across town, though the streets are wider now, to act as a fire-break. leading to his workmates handing him air-fresheners for days afterwards. So several weeks later here I am in the reception of his office, asking for speak to a guy I've never met, who doesn't know I'm coming, explaining that
no, I don't have an appointment and wondering how he's going to take it. He was a great sport though, and to his workmate who took the photo: "This is gonna be on the Internet" - happy to oblige, Ray.
Toronto, Niagara and electoral fatigue
In Toronto I went up the CN tower - been wanting to ever since I saw it as a kid on Blue Peter. Walking around town, the hip place to live appears to be the Distillery Historic District. I like it when they re-use old industrial buildings but keep the equipment and so you have art galleries with air receivers and wash-backs behind them. I took a day-trip to see Niagara falls as well, but had been warned it was a cheesy tourist trap and a good example of how not to do it.
After Toronto, I caught the 09:00am train VIA1 "The Canadian" bound for Winnipeg arriving 15:45
the next day, which gave
Meeting Andrea for lunch
Yellowbellies restaurant & bar, St. John's. me plenty of time to look out of the window and think. It doesn't go particularly fast and I reckon you might be able to drive the route in around the same time; but the economy class seat and the restaurant car was equivalent to any business-class in the UK and better still: they have those little bubbles on top of the cars for an all-round view. In the evening they handed out blankets, pillows and those little eye-masks that always make me think of Top Cat. We passed through hour after hour of lakes, beautiful Autumn foliage and places with names like "Sioux Lookout".
I read the newspaper cover to cover, I had more than enough time. They've just had a general election here: the Conservative party won, though without a majority, taking 38%!o(MISSING)f the vote (they were kicked completely out of Newfoundland). The Conservatives correspond roughly to our own party of the same name, whilst the Liberals approximate to our own Labour party - who crashed to defeat with 26%! (MISSING)Interesting to note the electoral system has glitches similar to ours: "
When the Green party has 6.8%!o(MISSING)f the votes without a seat, but the Bloc Mission Accomplished
This is Ray, who wasn't expecting a visitor, especially one bearing an air-freshener. (Quebecois) has 10%!a(MISSING)nd 50 seats, there is something fundamentally wrong..." went one letter in the Globe & Mail. Lowest voter turnout on record at just 59%!,(MISSING) but maybe thats because it was their 3rd election in 6 years, or it could be that I overhead one guy at the next table saying something like only in Canada could they be more interested in their neighbour's upcoming election than their own.
I've been keeping a Porsche-count by the way. I'm not sure quite what I intend to achieve by it... maybe I'm curious about whether I'm going to see as many of them as I could in any given lunch-hour up Union Street - and please don't be offended anyone who already has one, I know a couple of you that do. Make of the results what you like. Scores so far:
Montreal: 6 in 3 days.
St. John's: 1/5 days.
Toronto: 8 (mostly convertibles!)/3 days.
And if anyone can top
Imaginary Road Movie for a title, do let me know.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.301s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 15; qc: 56; dbt: 0.2366s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Si
non-member comment
imaginary road movie
Good title. Sums it up. I found a few 'random movie title generators' and came up with a few alternative titles. "Standing in front of Cutsman" was a suitably indie-title for a road movie. Makes the audience think "...now who or what is Cutsman? Is it someone the character has to meet? Or is Cutsman the guy and the world is standing in front of him as he travels through it?" Better than Annoying iceberg, my third attempt at a title generator. to Cutsman's everywhere, safe travelling.....