Newfoundland tips?

[Velvet]

Hey kids, I'm heading to the Rock for a few weeks. Any suggestions on things I should visit?

[can-o-phish]

Gros Morne National Park if you're in that area.

Any town wharf when the boats come in with their catch.

Signal Hill

The Auk Restaurant, though if you find this, you've crossed into another dimension.

Have a blast!

"Live To Ride, Ride To Live!"

[AD]

As I recall they are having a bad year for icebergs, but if there are any around, there are boats in St. John's (and probably other places too) that will take you out visit them. Just don't take the one named 'Titanic.'

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[PalacePrincess]

signal hill definitely!

also cape spear

auntie crae's, a little old fashioned food shop type place in downtown st. john's. they apparently have live music in half of the store sometimes, but i didn't see any of that (although i hear it is a nice touch). you must go and try one (or many!) of their homemade peanut butter & chocolate chip granola bars. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, i brought 12 of them back with me when i went, they were that good!

the sprout, it's the only vegetarian restaurant in st. john's and it is phenomenal! i am a meat eater myself, but let me tell you the food there is delish! and the girls who own it are very nice. i particularly recommend the pad thai.

i think they're starting a live music at lunchtime on fridays thing at the harbour downtown. if five for silver or the rosalines are playing you will be in for a treat.

babsy mudcock can probably help you best with this, if he sees your thread in time. i think he is either in the process of, or about to move back here from st. john's. he'll be here by next weekend i think!

*edit* oh, and don't be worried if on your first day of walking around you feel like your ankles and/or knees are going to snap off and kinda like you wanna collapse on the ground, after a few days the walking gets easier (pretty much the whole freakin' town is steep hills)

Edited August 2, 2005 by Guest

[Freeker]

The Auk Restaurant, though if you find this, you've crossed into another dimension.

Great obscure "Rare Birds" reference Can'O.

"I tahta boot raisin ducks"

Have a good trip Todd, I'll see you tonight.

[can-o-phish]

"Ten Foot Jesus In The Garden"! The book and movie are both hilarious and the soundtrack from Rare Birds is sweet.

"Who Dave, who's gonna know? Interbird?" - Alphonse Murphy

[TomFoolery]

Definitely get down into some of the little towns through the Gros Morne area - I recommend Trout River. Gorgeous town, good camp site, people are rockin. Sounds like just about anywhere in NFLD though...

Give'r

[Freeker]

Andy Jones was doing a one man show at my theatre last year, had lots of down time to chat about the movie, i made him do "the pressure" line over and over again.

[kaytebrACEletrock]

[color:red]

whatever you do....DO NOT eat raw onions in nfld.

also, if you ever need to laugh your ass-off read about The Fluvariam and then ACTUALLY GO THERE!!!

[Schwa.]

*edit* oh, and don't be worried if on your first day of walking around you feel like your ankles and/or knees are going to snap off and kinda like you wanna collapse on the ground, after a few days the walking gets easier (pretty much the whole freakin' town is steep hills)

Great for Biking! hehe

[Blurry]

Hey Velvet,

Great time of year to hit Nfld for a bike trip. We just moved back home....but I can leave you with these suggestions (if you're not gone already!?!?)

1st off - no matter where you go, it's going to be beautiful!! You can pretty much camp anywhere, along any beach you'd like. Oddly enough with all this beautiful coastline/scenery, the locals camp in gravel pits - doesn't look like much fun to me but!?!?!?!?

Gros Morne National Park

1) Western Brook Pond (do the boat tour around the fjords)

2) Gros Morne Moutain

3) There's another spot we camped that was only like a 5k hike-in that was STUNNING - don't have the info on me now but will look for the name for you

4) Never been but have heard AMAZING things about the Northern Peninsula (this is where the Vikings settled and I believe they have "time period" places around St Anthony's.

5) Twillingate area (see map)

6) Bonivista Peninsula (see map)

7) Torbay/Flat Rock (just north of St John's) - there's a great hike between the two that starts at the warf in Torbay (about 2.5 hours one way)

St John's

1) The Sprout Restaurant (as PP said, AMAZING food. Tell Marina or Julia hello - they are both great people)

2) Fluvarium

3) Geo-Centre (on the way up to Signal Hill)

4) signal Hill

5) Aug 5-7 is the Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival in Bannerman Park. If you have an accordian, they're trying to break the Guiness record for most accordian players playing at once (you don't need to know how to play either just as long as you can get your hands on one). There hoping to get 650 people or something like that up on stage to play for 5 minutes. If you're around and want to take part let me know and I can get you in touch with the organizers.

6) George Street - a street FULL of bars. There was the George Street festival starting just as we left, might still be going on ?!?! They close off the street and everyone just walks around from bar to bar with their drinks.

7) bands - check out The Discounts if they're playing. It's full of amazing local musicians including Duane & Curtis Andrews. About as close to "jam" as you'll get. Great folk too!! Otherwise, our friends play some great bluegrass - 5 for Silver's a great Bluegrass band with a GREAT playlist which includes FOTD, Mama Tried & Shady Grove amongst others. The Rosalines are a newly formed (4 months) girl band with some of the BEST harmonizing I've ever heard (plus I named their band for them) For good Blues check out Dennis Parker and/or John Clarke. Blair Harvey's another good name to check out. Ron Hynes is an international name as well if you get a chance.

Okay I gotta go but will add more later

[Im going home Donny]

Don't die.

[Im going home Donny]

*edit* oh, and don't be worried if on your first day of walking around you feel like your ankles and/or knees are going to snap off and kinda like you wanna collapse on the ground, after a few days the walking gets easier (pretty much the whole freakin' town is steep hills)

Great for Biking! hehe

oh mabey bring some glucoseum(sp?). Thats what I give Wilson for his hips...seems to work like gold.

Oh it is human stuff btw.

[Velvet]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm either leaving in an hour or I'm out tomorrow morning, so keep the tips coming.

A thumbnail sketch of my trip is:

-Begin at Port aux Basque

-bike the TCH until I break off towards Gros Morne

-take the 80min ferry to Labrador for the Bakeapple festival

-goto the Viking settlement and then to St. Anthony

-bus back to TCH

-carry on towards St. John's

Babsy, I'm very interested in the free beach camping thing. Is it legal? Where else can I camp free, anywhere? How worried should I be about bears?

[Im going home Donny]

Todd mabey you should call the forest service folks or someone like that out there. About Bears and fire kinda stuff?

Bake apple fest sounds yummy.

Edited August 3, 2005 by Guest

[Blurry]

Hey Todd,

As far as I could tell, if you find a nice piece of grass or beach than it's game for camping. We camped over 20 times just where we felt like it without anyone saying anything about where we set up. One time we set up camp in Twillingate at a spot where, unbenounced to us, the local youths were planning to have a beach party - just meant a bigger party than we'd planned

Have a great trip Velvet....if you have a chance you should PM Dancing Bear and let him know you're coming - unfortunately, we just starting hanging out the last couple of months we were there, but he's one of the most solid individuals I've ever met

*Edit to add*

Oh ya, the bears. On the Avalon Peninsula (St John's etc.) they are almost non-existant, so you need not worry about them there. Outside the Avalon Peninsula, they are more common but couldn't tell you more with any certainty.

Oh ya, if you want to get "Screeched In" go to Christian's on George Street. You can also get "Screeched In" at Trapper John's on George Street but it's not nearly as an amusing a production.

Edited August 4, 2005 by Guest

[Velvet]

Awesome.

I'm off, see y'all in three weeks.

[can-o-phish]

Watch out for the buoys boy!

[DevO]

Bon Voyage! My girlfriend and I hitchhiked across NFLD about a year ago from right now.. We ferried in to North Sydney and spent a bit over a week in St. John's at a friend's place. Then we hitched across, managing to catch the tail end of Hurricane Ivan in the process.

As Babsy mentioned, see if you can check out Duane Andrews. (www.duaneandrews.ca) He's Django style guitarist and a great performer. I also caught a set by a newfie reggae band called Skank, which was a good time.

1) The Sprout Restaurant (as PP said, AMAZING food. Tell Marina or Julia hello - they are both great people)

Tell Marina that I say hello too! She's an ex-Peterborough-ite. She'd been talking about opening a veggie restaurant in St. John's for a looong time. I'm glad to see it finally happened! (Marina's husband, Paul, was the guitarist from The So So's if you ever saw them.)

[Im going home Donny]

Velvet you liking my trip-gift yet? haha when you do you'll be singing Julia is a goddess songs I guarrantee it!

Hope everythings going well dude....how are the LJs treatin ya?hahahas...blow and hookers night at yer place comin up sooon.

[dancingbear]

hey there velvet...

the rock rocks.

pm me and i'll send you my number so you can give me a shout in st. john's.

have a great ride.

it's all beautiful, so just surrender to the flow, or in your case bike like crazy against the wind!

p.s. thanks babsymudock :blush: ; (i was at camp and got your message late, missed ya the thursday before....hope your travels went well)