Seen One Irish Pub, Seen Them All

What St. John,s lacks in Starbuck locations, it more than makes up with Irish Pubs. Our first night, saw us eat traditional Irish pub grub in one place and drink traditional Irish beer and listen to traditional Irish music in another. I had the cod fish and chips while Nonie had the traditional O'Quesedia. I drank a couple of Guinesses and Nonie had a glass of O'Merlot. Feeling very Irish by the time we got home. They have a saying in St. John's' "Throw the Blarney Stone and you can hit an Irish pub."

Our home was a lovely 120 year old bed and breakfast. It had received a beautiful renovation and while retaining all the old features (flooring, molding,sconces,trim) had modern plumbing and wireless Internet. Our place backed on to another B&B that was home to Prince Charles and Camilla when he visited Canada last year. Our Russian hosts treated us with the standard Russian stoicism and customer service that we had grown used to in our travels last year. Not a smile to be had.

St. John's has been around since the 17th Century. It's convenient location off the Grand Banks made it a cod fishing mecca for Europeans. Most of the homes are made of wood. A fire in 1897 virtually destroyed the entire city with only rock walls left standing. From our experience, St. John's can sometimes be a cold and dreary place so the citizens have painted their homes in bright colours to offset the greyness of the weather. It has been cold and windy since we arrived. A little less wind and some sun would be nice.

As St. Johns is the closest city in North America to Europe, Marconi came here in 1917 and accomplished the first trans-Atlantic communication. Flying a kite for an antenna from the highest point of land in the city he successfully heard a Morse Code signal from Great Britain. The hill has been a landmark in St. John's since the City was first inhabited. We spent a day climbing up to and back down into to St. Johns.

Moving on to Nova Scotia next. Hopefully the weather improves.