Quite the delay. . .

Oooohhhhhkaaaayyyyy. . .

A litany of woes, excuses, and a dash of lazy thrown in for good measure equals a week since the last post, the last post which was supposed to be posted two weeks prior to when it did go up. But I won’t bore you with the details. I’ll just say that suddenly being unable to sleep more than three hours at a time really screws up your productivity. Also, weather system pressure changes really suck.

And now my first post about the wonderful Newfoundland trip!! And a few photos, for some eye candy.

The trip started out auspiciously enough – I was getting a ride to the airport at 5:15 on a Saturday morning, so I had spent the last few days organizing and packing everything I’d need. And even though I know I set my alarm to go off in plenty of time to shower and finish up with getting ready to go. . . I was woken by my ride sending me a text that he was on his way (and he lives about 5 minutes away.) Crap. But I’m so organized it only takes me 7 and a half minutes to get down and load my stuff into the car. Luckily I’d had a shower the afternoon before (after swimming). From there on in, not a hitch: flight was smooth (even a large number of children wasn’t an issue. I guess their parents intelligently knocked them out for the flight or something), and we landed in St. John’s on time. The next hitch appeared in the form of (drumroll please) the rental. There were going to be six of us staying in the cottage together, so we needed something that could hold not only us, but all our luggage. So the car came in at 300$ more than the original quote, and we were only getting 100 km a day. In Newfoundland. Which is 111,390 square kilometres. . . And it would be 20¢ for every additional kilometre (just so you know, we did fairly spectacularly exceed our kilometre limit. . . more on that at a later date). And the cottage we were staying at is about an hour and a half south of St. John’s. . . Just awesome.

But that’s just the first few hours of our trip. We then went grocery (and, more importantly, booze) shopping to get stuff for the week, and then started on our way to the cottage. Nothing earth shattering happened on the drive down, though we almost missed Renews (the village where we were supposed to be staying). Our fearless leader called our local contact (I don’t know if you know the stereotypical Newfoundland accent? Well, he had it, and we were all seriously hard-pressed to understand anything he actually said. . . You should have heard how he pronounce ‘foggy’. Which was probably only as hysterical as it was since it was me and five gay men staying at the cottage. . .), but we eventually found the cottage, and got in. 

It was tiny. In the diminutive sense – 6.5 foot ceilings. . . (maybe 7′, but it didn’t look it). Adequately sized kitchen (though lacking in counter space, but hey – it’s a fricking cottage), tiny dining room and tv/living room completes  the first floor. And there are three tiny bedrooms and a good-sized bathroom. I was going to share a room with one of the others – a bunk bed. But it was a kid’s bed. And the ceilings were lower upstairs. . . They ended up sleeping on the couch downstairs. . . For some reason. 

Also – there was a pretty impressive colony of pill bugs infesting the building. Local colour.

That pretty much sums up what I remember of the first day (we went for a little walk to the harbour, and had some dinner, and then discovered the incredible uncomfortableness of the beds. . .)

Now that I’ve gotten you excited, here are some photos!!

View near Renews

very picturesque 🙂

coastal village shot (from observation platform tourism thingy)

Our little saltbox has a pedigree?? oh, wait, 2007?

Buttercup!

red clover

Queen Anne’s Lace

view of the cottage (looks much bigger than it is. . .)

WTF???

Renews Harbour

miiiiiiiisssssssssssst!!

starfish (poor thing)

local church (RC)

St. Mary’s shrine (slightly creepy when come upon at night with the crosses all glowing. . .)

Now, don’t get me wrong, I did focus a little on the negative (see above. . .), but I don’t want you to get the wrong impression – I loved it there. I cannot wait to go back!! There were rough spots (and I am surprised we were able to spend a week together, all six of us, in that diminutive building and not axe murder each other), but there were also very special moments. And billions more photos yet to come. So, Dear Internet, fear not. I won’t be a misery monger about the whole trip. And I’ll try to stay light-hearted about the mishaps instead of whiny.

But, wildlife, hijinks, mishaps, and wonder galore are headed your way! And probably a whole post devoted to the flower porn from our visit to St. John’s botanical garden (in amazingly named Pippy Park!). So many pretty flowers, so little time (and too crappy a camera to really do them justice).

Been anywhere new lately, Dear Internet?

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By the way – why did it take me so long to start listening to Mumford and Sons?? Crazy me.