NewfoundLAND

July 10, 2015 – Day 24

We are back on the island and have been corrected many times on the pronunciation of NewfoundLAND….it rhymes with STAND—not LUND--just can’t get it right. 

We woke up to a beautiful clear morning which made for a nice drive to our next destination.  But, by the time we got here, the clouds had rolled in, and the weather turned COLD!   Even the locals are complaining.  This is supposed to be summer, and it’s 7 degrees right now (that’s 44 degrees in our language) Brrrr!  We are bundled up in sweaters and coats, but the locals have sleeveless shirts and flip flops on—no wonder they’re complaining.

Newfoundlanders are very welcoming and take care of each other.  We saw piles and piles of wood by the roadside, and apparently whoever needs it, is welcome to it.  There are also multiple community gardens along the roadside, up for grabs by whoever needs it. Much different than we’d see in the states.

 

To give you an idea on where we are:  Put your right hand in a fist and then raise your index finger.  That’s the shape of Newfoundland!  We are at the tip of the index finger, on the northern peninsula, in the town of St. Anthony.  There is only one road that goes north, and there is a lot of vacant land along the road in between small fishing towns huddled around the coves.

We saw a moose today crossing the road!  Of course I couldn’t get the camera poised well enough to snap a photo, but we did see the big creature they’ve been warning us about!

We went to a “Viking Feast” tonight--an evening of fun and food, in a sod-covered restaurant.  It was a great interactive production where we had to pound the table for food, and there were no forks, only knives and spoons to eat with.  They got Jim and the Whale up on the stage, and it was full of laughs.  Jim is short and the Whale is really tall, and at the end, someone from the audience yelled, “I guess that’s the long and short of it”!

The appetizers were cod tongues and caplin.  I tried the cod tongues…not bad, but probably wouldn’t order them on my own.  The buffet included moose stew and salmon, and the dessert was a special partridge berry  and cakeberry dessert.  They brought me a special one with a birthday candle, and I got a hug from our Viking slave server, Gudmund—how nice!

And, by the way, happy birthday on Saturday to my twin, who sent me a note yesterday that she couldn’t wait and opened her birthday present from me early…(she must be getting old).  I felt compelled to do the same, and open the gift she sent with me.  I was glad I did, because I was able to take the special glass that she gave me to the Viking feast—it is a clear glass that lights up when you pour liquid in it…very cool and made for a lot of fun.  Also by the way, we both gave each other socks…we are still thinking alike after all these years.  it is probably only the second time in all those years we’ve been in a different time zone on our birthday.

And finally--Congrats to a friend back in the states who placed 6th in the Senior Olympics in the high jump competition…he’s been training hard for the past few years, and obviously the effort paid off!