Newfoundland
Well.. I have to say, I found my second home. Being that I am very proud to say I was born and raised in the great beach community of Pensacola, FL, and minus the hurricanes and poor economy that has everyone in the dumps- my city normally has some of the nicest people you will find. More characteristically, there is a laid back personality, that you find. I have to say, of all the places I have traveled around the world, I have never been able to duplicate that 'small town feeling' quite like my P'cola home- until I landed in St. Johns Newfoundland! The people are decendents of Irish and Scottish settlers, which leads to a mixed and BEAUTIFUL accent which is a hybrid of the two. The second you hear a Newfoundlander speak (which by the way, they pronounce it Newfunlan) it is a distinct accent that is both appealing to hear, and memorable. The people are half of what makes this place so great. They are genuinely NICE people! The drive down the streets and the horn in the car is used to honk at someone you know, not in the manner that we traditionally use it. Oh, and EVERYBODY knows EVERBODY in this city. If Cheers is the bar where everybody knows your name, then St. John's is the city where everybody knows your name. There is a famous band (known across Canada, and now making it in the US) called Great Big Sea, and they are AMAZING! Their music gets you up and dancing, and the crowds at their concerts are lulled into a happy go lucky attitude that can be found all over the island. Newfoundlanders spread happy, period.
So the other 50% of Newfoundland's charm, is the scenic landscape. Absolutely beautiful! It is the farthest eastern point of North America, so a short 360+ miles off the coast is where Titantic went down. (Marked by a sign on top of Signal hill). The landscape is rolling, with several climate changes as your drive along the coast. This small fishing community has exploded over the years, many people coming from all over, and choosing not to leave. They are visited by whales every summer (approx mid of July to Aug 1st) for mating season, before the pods of humpbacks go south to the Dominican Republic (Far yes, I thought so too) for the winter. These whales were AMAZING to see up close! There were several large males, but one particularly MASSIVE one... absolutely stunning to see! He was larger, much much larger than our 35+ft boat.. and I only saw HALF of him. We also saw 1 Sperm whale (think Pinoccio whale). What amazes me about these creatures, is they actually put on a show for us. They know when the boats come out into the harbor, and they come alive showing their tales, and swimming around excitedly. As the boat went back in... the whales essentially disappeared.
I was also impressed to hear about a holiday in the end of July called Regatta day. Essentially, Regatta day does not fall on a specific day per say, but a week. The have it typically on a Wednesday... unless the weather is bad, then they roll it to Thursday, and so on and so forth (week day only) until they get a gorgeous day where everyone goes outside to the lake for regatta races! The holiday is marked by a large horn that sounds across St. Johns, notifying everyone that they are not to go to work today, that today is Regatta Day!! How cool is that? You get a 'go outside and socialize in the sun day' and best of all, its a surprise! The whole city shuts down and enjoys the day!!
Finally, my highlight of the trip was being 'screeched in' which is a ritual in Newfoundland. It is a 'right of passage' to becoming an official Newfoundlander, by saying the creed, kissing a cod, and taking a shot of screech rum. Definitely a sweet way to be inducted into a community! I love Newfoundland!
New Brunswick
To be honest, after Newfoundland, I didnt give New Brunswick the chance to be cool. I wasnt that impressed with the southern half of the Province, save for the Bay of Fundy- which is a natural wonder in itself, as the water goes in and out of the Bay of Fundy and can drop more than 25ft when the tide goes out! Very cool to see, but that about sums up my 'favorites' of NB. I did however, miss getting to go up to the NE corner of New Brunswick, where the Acadien population lives.. the Acadiens were the group of people who were exiled from Canada, and who later migrated to New Orleans. This is why the Creole language has influences from French. The Acadian language is a cross between English & French called Chiac, and Creole is a further breakdown from that! Missed this part of the Province, and truth be told- this is where I wanted to go, but business kept me down south. The Acadians are a very proud group of people, with a unique language and accent I wanted to hear myself!
Nova Scotia
Need to go back! I didnt get to review Halifax to the extent that I wanted to... stay tuned for a good report in 2011. I have been told since I loved St. John's so much, I will love Halifax!
Prince Edward Island
The land of potatoes!! No really, most of Canada's potatoes come from PEI! This place was great! And the potatoes were amazing. I definitely believe that native food tastes best where it comes from, and PEI potatoes are no exception. The island is also know for its seafood, in particular lobster, but I cannot eat lobster, so you'll have to try that one out for yourself. The island is pancake flat, but like all of Canada, gets snow in the winter. Fishing and potatoes are what PEI is known for, and we went on a fishing trip the last day in PEI.. which was the shortest fishing trip on earth (approx 45 minutes) as the swells were so bad over half our group got sea sick- myself included! I did catch 3 fish in 15 minutes though, so it wasn't a complete wash! Our group also learned how to chuck oysters, but since I am allergic, I was the judge of the best chucked oyster, since I cannot touch!
So in a nutshell, if you are planning a trip out to the Atlantics (Maritimes, as it is called in NB) I fully endorse NFLD, as it was the most amazing place I have been to! (outside of Quebec of course!) Time it so you can hopefully see the whales, or go in the winter when the whale watching boat tours convert to iceberg exploration tours (already looking forward to this!) as St. John's is notorious for getting large icebergs floating over from Greenland. (And it all makes you wonder if only Titanic had been sailing the part between Greenland & NFLD during the day...) the seafood is incomparable, and the people make the trip even more amazing.
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