The trip from Halifax to St. John's was about 30 hours. It consisted of a bus from Halifax to North Sydney where I then caught the ferry to Port Aux Basques. The ferry ride was at night, but I did get to catch some scenery in the morning as I caught a beautiful sunrise. There were some girls at the bar that tried to talk to me... I said tried because I couldn't understand a word they said! I went back to my magazine and overheard them chatting to themselves that they should come sit with me only to hear the other one argue "what's the point? He can't understand us!". Once the ferry docked I hopped on the bus to enjoy/endure an 11 hour ride to St. John's. It was 9:15PM when I got into the city where I was greeted by Doug's (The Newf) buddy Kent Brown.
Kent is the host of the show George Street TV. He's a bit of a celebrity in Newfoundland and Doug said I would have a laugh (Newfie way of saying a good time) with him. We get to his pad near downtown where he informs me that the shower doesn't work, but I can take a bath if I want. After sitting in the same clothes for 30 hours I need to wash up. I don't take baths, but in order to masculinize the process I called it a "Man Bath". See, already sounds more manly.
After a good manly soak Kent comes back with his girlfriend Andrea. We chat for a bit, enjoy a couple Blue Star and some Jagerbombs and we head off to George Street. The first bar we hit is called the Dock. It's Thursday so there aren't too many people about. We enjoy a couple more drinks and head off to another bar called O'Reilly's. Here is where the madness begins. This is a type of bar where everyone comes. The crowd was eclectic full of young and old people and the band was singing old school traditional Newfoundland songs. The Jager keeps on flowing and soon enough a lady pulls me onto the dance floor. She's belting the words to the song like she's sang them a hundred times over. Mid song her friend grabs me and finishes the song with me. I thank them for the dance and get back to my shelter with Kent and Andrea.
Some more time passes and more drinks flow and then I am grabbed by one of Newfoundland's finest. I couldn't say no and we head out onto the dance floor. Thanks Kent for taking these fine incriminating photos. The whole time while we were dancing the lady keeps on telling me how beautiful I am! As if my ego wasn't already inflated enough... luckily the songs aren't too long and I finish my dance with her and Kent lets me recover with a few more Jagerbombs.
Feeling like I've gotten a good taste of the Newfie experience, we head on over to another bar. It's just Kent and I now since Andrea had to work the next day. We end up running into a bunch of Kent's friends and we hang out with them for a while. Kent's goal of my trip was to get as many pictures with beautiful Newfie girls so he introduces me to Denise and manages to snap a good picture. Kent is a bit of a camera nut and there didn't seem to be 5 minutes of time going by where Kent didn't ask for the camera to take a picture.
4AM comes around and I walk back to "my pad" while Kent goes to Andrea's place. I had a bit of trouble with the lock... well, a lot of trouble. I thought the door might need to be pulled a bit in order to let the deadbolt free so I pulled on the doorknob and eventually tore the whole thing off! Not knowing what to do, I ended up getting into Kent's truck and drove back to George Street! I started asking random people if they knew Kent's cell number because I needed to get a hold of him. The guys at the Ultramar were of no help. Eventually I gave up and drove back. I was thinking I was going to be sleeping on the street until I then realized that there was a back door! The keys worked and I was happily snoring away at about 4:30.
After a healthy sleep I get up call Kent to see what's up for today. He says we're going to meet Doug's buddy Roger over at the Ship pub. The pub is in the middle of downtown and the wall of the stage is covered with records with artist names (eg: Ron Sexsmith, The Novaks, Sarah Harmer). I was told that I had to try having fish and chips with dressing and gravy. I made the entire bar stop everything they were doing when I asked "So... what kind of fish is this?". Shortly I started hearing "Did you hear what he just asked?". Apparently fish means cod if you're in Newfoundland. Woops, my bad! During the meal I chatted with a dude who was a cousin of some other dude at the table. He plays in a band called the Phobics and was going to open for The Mountains & The Trees. I gave him my card to sign up his band to Radio 3. As I am writing this point I just noticed that the other band has just signed up at Radio 3!
Kent had a day of touristy stuff for me to do. First stop was Signal Hill which is where the first telegram was transmitted across the Atlantic ocean. The hill was completely surrounded by fog but that didn't stop Kent from trying to take all sorts of interesting pictures. We then left for Cape Spear which is the eastern most area of land in North America! There's a cool fortification there from back in World War II and Kent decided to start my GQ photo shoot. We brought along Kent's dog Connor for the ride and I think I took my best picture of the trip of him sitting at the front seat.
After a full day of driving around Kent tells me that we have a house party to attend to. I rest up a bit and have another "man bath" at the pad. The person hosting the party is Donny Goobie who is Kent's partner in crime on George St TV. I decided to switch from beer and Jagerbombs to vodka. Early in the night I met a cool dude named Peter who had some questions on online payment processing. I was happy to tell him about SSL certificates, merchant accounts, and payment gateways. I excused myself and headed to the washroom when I was directed to another room full of women. They started asking me a whole bunch of questions and eventually Mary Sexton gave a great story about the mating rituals of Narwhals. Everyone at the party was friendly and welcoming and had a genuine interest on why the heck I was there. Kent later informed me some girl dropped her gear and dove in the hot tub. I may have missed the event, but Kent always has the camera ready at all times. 4AM came around again and we shared a cab back to the pad.
Not feeling too hung over I decide to go for a walk downtown. I find Harbour Street and follow the tourist sign posts that have all sorts of interesting historic notes on the harbour and old photography. After killing about 90 minutes I get a message from Kent asking if I am ready for fish and chips. I probably should have used that time to rest some more because the hang over came back after the walk. We go to Keith's Diner in Gould which is on the way to the south shore which is out direction for the day. We go through a bunch of small fishing villages like Bay Bulls, Witless Bay, and Tors Cove. We head onto a small beach in Tors Cove and Kent says he should get a picture of me touching the Atlantic ocean. Like the idiot I am, I get near the water and pose for the photo. Seconds later a large wave comes in and the bottom of my pants are soaked. Enjoy my "tee-hee" moment photo before I decide to take if off my gallery. We finish up at Moo Moo's in town and go back to the pad to rest up a bit for the final night of my trip.
Kent's house has two fireplaces on the main floor and we light them up and start off the night chilling at his place. So far the group just consists of Roger, Kent, Andrea and myself. We have a few Jagerbombs while we listen to Radio 3 on my laptop. Since my only meals in St. John's consist of fish and chips I instigate a pizza order. Andrea phones a pizza place and they say that they are closing and can't fulfill our order. Kent being the celebrity he is calls them back and does a name drop (his own). The pizza place takes the order and gets a cab to deliver to us.
Midnight comes around and we head out to The Docks. I was trying to stay good since I had to be presentable at the airport at 5AM to catch my standby flight home. That lasted about 5 minutes when Kent ordered some more shots. I got to meet and dance with a few more ladies and Kent went camera crazy again. He took over 80 pictures and only the small handful you see on gallery are all you're going to get. We ended up at a pub downtown to grab a bite to eat. Kent and I invade the spaces of a couple young ladies. They were all laughs until I asked the girl about her Doctor Seuss haircut to which she responds "You're an idiot!". Kent was absolutely floored by that comment. I can't count how many times after that he would say "Scott! You're an idiot!". Thirty minutes later I'm at the airport with my boarding pass an on my way home.
The End