Day 131 (September 10): Back to Podunk....

Sub 'four months' for 'a month'...

Day 130 (September 9): Saint-John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

How I spent my last day on the road:

1) Spent the morning and early afternoon on a van trip visiting a number of communities outside of St-John's (Harbour Grace, Cupids, Brigus, Conception Bay).

Brigus, NL

2) Had some beers with a friend at The Duke of Duckworth, a neat little pub off Duckworth Street.

3) Browsed through Fred's, a great CD store on Duckworth Street, that (as one would imagine) has a fairly broad selection of Newfoundland music.  Of note, I bought a couple of CDs by Amelia Curran, one of which was playing in the store whilst I was there. She sounds like another great Canadian folk singer.

4) Had dinner at Blue on Water, located on Water Street, a very nice, upper-scale restaurant, which had been recommended to me.  It did not disappoint.  I had cod tongues as an appetizer, because it appears to be a local favourite, being on the menu of just about every restaurant and well, cod tongues! They were served battered and deep-fried, so they tasted like something battered and deep-fried. My entrée was seared tuna, served with vegetables, which was excellent.  Between the Club and Blue on Water, I am coming away surprised and impressed at how well I ate in St-John's.

5) Had a few beers at the Yellowbelly, and closed the place at midnight.

6) Finished the final evening of my trip at O'Reilly's Pub on George Street, yes, you guessed it, drinking with bar staff (a [very] young barmaid from Yellowbelly)!

Days 124, 127-129 (September 3, 6-8): Saint-John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

Well, I've done it... Coast to coast, all 10 provinces, all provincial capitals, save one (Regina, which is not on the Via train line). And Saint-John's is a great place to conclude this little trip.  It is my first time visiting:  what an interesting city.  Along with Québec City, this is the most distinctive Canadian city, very much with its own look and feel and where the history of the city is palpable.  Some pictorial illustration:

The Saint-John's harbour entrance, as seen from my hotel room.

Victoria Street, from Queens Road, provides an example of the colourful architecture in downtown St-John's.

Taken from Signal Hill, this would give a great view of downtown St-John's, had the most amazing fog not rolled in.

I took a couple of van tours which took me to some coastal areas outside St-John's:

Flat Rock, NL.

Petit Harbour, NL

I also walked around the campus of Memorial University, and happened upon this:

A few additional comments:

- The tourism industry in St-John's is, well, let's say, 'quaint', as opposed to, say, unprofessional.  There are about a half-dozen tour companies operating out of St-John's advertising a fair number of full-day and half-day tours. Granted I was not visiting during peak season (and I appreciate that), but none of the tour companies I contacted were actually offering the full-day tours (or even some of the half-days) they were advertising whilst I was there. (I did work something out with one of the tour operators on one of the free days I had; while it was not the tour which I wanted, it was still a plus.)  Both tour operators I used operate solely on a cash (or cheque!) basis, which just sends tax evasion shivers up my back. In addition, there seems to be a habit of operators, shuttle bus companies and the like answering phone calls with a simple 'hullo', which just inspires so much confidence.  Add it all together, and it just seems, well, very 'quaint', which after four months of travelling, left much to be desired.  (As a basis for comparison, I did not encounter those elements in Saint-Pierre.)

- So, yeah, George Street.  It came exactly as described: bar after pub after club after bar.  Sitting in a pub until 2 AM listening to live music on a Tuesday night is definitely different (and appreciated); paying a cover charge pretty much everywhere in downtown St-John's on the week-end seems a bit much.  Hopefully, the bands see some of that cash.  As far as the entertainment, they were mostly cover acts, and mostly Celtic/folk, as you might imagine; there was a mix of talent, the best playing at the Shamrock (on Water Street) and O'Reilly's (on the afore-mentioned George Street).  Oh yeah, there is a strip joint on George Street in a 150+-year-old building that was, in the late 1800s/early 1900s, a Catholic school for girls, of course.

- A couple of other notable establishments, that I enjoyed:

1) The Club, a restaurant that opened last November on Duckworth Street.  The décor is brick and hardwood; the food is a mix of seafood (including a raw bar) and a higher-end take on comfort food. I had a baked potato soup with bacon and cheddar and 'Stewed Cod à la Spanish Bay', basically cod stew with chorizo, mussels and other goodies.  Both were really hearty and tasty.  They also serve products from both of the area's craft brewers.  Service was a bit slow, no doubt on account of a table of 20 that were seated a bit before me.  I was very pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere and the approach to and quality of the food.

2) The Yellowbelly Brewery and Public House. While I was a little disappointed at the wood-burning oven pizza I had (good, but bland), the Yellowbelly brews four flavours, a stout that tastes like Murphy's, a Pale Ale, which tastes a bit like a weakly-hopped IPA and is quite drinkable, and a Red Ale and a Wheat beer, which were both OK but unremarkable.

Jours 125 à 127 (du 4 au 6 septembre); Saint-Pierre (et Miquelon), France

Quand j’étais enfant, j’étudiais la carte du Canada affichée sur mon mur de chambre à coucher et je me demandais qu’est-ce que faisaient ces îles françaises sur la côte de la Terre-neuve que j’espérais un jour visiter.  C’est un rêve d’enfance qui se réalise lors de ces quelques jours…

Saint-Pierre est une commune de 6 000 habitants (sur l’Île de Saint-Pierre), tandis que Miquelon (sur l’Île de Miquelon) compte 600 âmes.  L’archipel est complété par Langlade, presqu’île rattachée à Miquelon par un étroit isthme sablonneux, qui compte des demeures saisonnières, essentiellement une terre d’escapade pour les Saint-Pierrois.  Et visiter l’archipel, c’est bel et bien visiter la France :

- l’accent est français-de-France, comme on dit.

- la devise est l’euro (même si le dollar canadien est accepté un peu partout).

- l’électricité est au 220 volts.  Sans adaptateur, je n’ai pu renflouer le berry ou l’ordinateur.  (J’ai visité un magasin général, qui vendait bien des adaptateurs de voyage, mais de 220 volts à 120 volts, pour les voyages à l’extérieur de Saint-Pierre…).

- la bouffe dans les restos est vraiment française.

- à Saint-Pierre, il y a autant de boulangeries que de bistros, boulangeries qui font des croissants qui fondent à la bouche.

Le jeudi 5, j’ai fait une visite de Langlade/Miquelon, offerte par Janot, (de ‘Chez Janot’).  Pour se rendre de Saint-Pierre à Langlade, on prend un zodiac, une expérience nouvelle pour moi de sauter les vagues dans un petit bateau, pas nécessairement au large, mais sans voir aucune côte (en partie à cause de la brume.  En passant, la brume a couvert l’archipel le 4 et le 5 jusqu’au soir; c’est supposément rare à ce temps-ci de l’année que d’être si embrumé.) Quelques photos :

La côte de Langlade.

L'Église de Miquelon, pour vous donner un example de la brume.  La photo est prise à une demie-intersection de l'église...

Plage, près de l'Anse du Gouvernement, sur Langlade. 

Cabestans, sur Langlade.

Le 6, journée ensoleillée à Saint-Pierre, qui m’a permis de prendre quelques photos qui donnent un aperçu de l'île :

Savoyard, ancien village pêcheur.

La côte, île de Saint-Pierre.

Ïle-aux-Pêcheurs, maintenant préservée comme site touristique.

Commentaire aléatoire :

- J’ai entendu chanter La Marseillaise!  Un groupe d’Acadiens visitaient Miquelon lorsque j’y étais pour rencontrer un groupe de Miquelonais, pour conjointement commémorer le Grand Déplacement.  À l’intérieur des cérémonies, les Miquelonais ont entonné leur hymne national.  J’ai dû résister à l’envie de scander fortement mes deux lignes préférées, ‘Allons enfants de la patrie…’ et ‘Aux armes, citoyens!’

Days 122-123 (September 1-2): Sydney, Nova Scotia

- What to do in Sydney, but go to the Tar Ponds... 'Open Hearth Park' opened this week-end, a large and multi-purpose green space over the Tar Ponds, one of the worst urban toxic waste sites in the country... The Park still needs a bit of work, but is quite expansive:

The part of the Park that is over what used to be the cooling pond, where waste water from the plant was processed.

Hopefully, nothing bubbles up to the surface...

- Why, pray tell, other than to see the Tar Ponds, was I in Sydney? It was an overnight stay in order to take the Monday 5 PM ferry from North Sydney to Argentia, Newfoundland, an overnight trip that would get me to NL around 10 the next morning, local time.

- There is a local beer!  Big Spruce Brewing operates out of Nyanza, near Baddeck, not far from Sydney. The pub where I had lunch (The Governor's) had two of their products on tap: an oatmeal stout and a 'Kitchen Party' Pale Ale.  They are both drinkable; of note, they are organic.

Days 119-122 (August 29-September 1): Halifax, Nova Scotia

I did not spend all that much time in Halifax itself, as a friend drove me out to the countryside over two days to give me a tour of Lunenberg, Peggy's Cove, Grand Pré (maudits anglais) and those areas.

The Halifax Urban Folk Festival was on over the week-end. I am not entirely sure what 'urban folk' is and whether Halifax is an 'urban folk' hotbed, but in any event, there were a few headlining acts (Tom Wilson, Alejandro Escovedo, Robyn Hitchcock) and gigs at about a half-dozen bars. I originally headed to the Seahorse Tavern for a triple bill; I lasted all of two songs by The Almighty Rhombus, most probably the worst live band I have had the misfortune of seeing. The band is composed of six twenty-something lads. Beyond the formulaic rock pablum they were playing, beyond the abject lack of interplay or connection between the members, beyond the band not being ‘tight’ as an outfit, they clearly were not taking their gig (and the paying audience) seriously. The keyboard player kept giggling throughout; it was hard to tell whether this was a joke to him or he was high as a kite. The lead singer seemed quite proud to announce that they were on a nine gig tour and that they had played in Sackville the night before. Well, guess what, you lazy, heartless, little shit, your musical career peaked with Sackville. (On top of this abomination of an act, the house draft at the Seahorse, brewed for them by Propeller Breweries, the ugly stepsister of Halifax craft breweries, is undrinkably bad.)

All was not lost though, as Tom Wilson in his Lee Harvey Osmond persona (i.e., playing solo and acoustic), was appearing at the Rockbottom Brew Pub.  He played a solid hour-long (professional!) set, interspersed with a quite funny ongoing story about his doctor prescribing him this new drug called marijuana.  As for the Rockbottom, located on Spring Garden Road and not affiliated with the American chain, it brews roughly a half-dozen different beers; I had, of course, their IPA, which was good enough that I regret not having the time to check out their other brews.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to see Robyn Hitchcock.

Random observations:

- Garrison Breweries, located near the Farmers’ Market (and Pier 21, for that matter) is one of my favourite Canadian craft brewers.  They consistently brew good, original beers.  It really is too bad we cannot get more of their products in Ontario.

- The Heart & Thistle is a self-proclaimed gastropub in the Historic Properties, which offers some self-brewed beers. In particular, they offer an India Red Ale (an I.R.A.) called the Kneecapper. You know, just in case you thought 'Irish Car Bomb' was too mellow a name for a drink...

- An indication of how long I have been travelling: I visited Woodrow at his Bedford home, roughly a month after visiting him at what at the time was his home in Manitoba.

- Another indication: the train ride in from Moncton was my 20th train trip during this trek.

- Comped drink count: n+4.  The barmaid at the Heart & Thistle comped me a pint of the stout they were going to start serving the next day.

Day 118 (August 28): Moncton, NB

Another travel interlude (that is a lovely way to say 'pit stop', innit?) in Moncton, as I arrived on the Maritime Bus from Charlottetown and will leave for Halifax on Via Rail on the next day.

I managed to miss the tidal bore. (For the uninitiated, the tidal bore is a 4-inch or so high wave that flows up the Petitcodiac River, which courses through Moncton, when the tide comes in on the Bay of Fundy. You now know as much about this as I do.) I was out walking by the River in late afternoon, around the time the bore was predicted to hit town and either the prediction was off or the wave failed to catch my attention (maybe it was a smaller bore this time?). In any event, while I did notice some sort of a current flowing, I missed the bore.

I once again spent the evening at the Pump House where I did this time have their signature blueberry beer. Despite the berries they add to the beer, the taste of blueberry is fairly subtle. I can now say that I have tried it.


Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Days 115-117 (August 25-27): Charlottetown, PEI

Charlottetown is very quaint. It is actually much quainter than I expected: coming in. I thought its population was a robust 80,000 or so; it turns out it is only 38,000, which explains (at least to me) why it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be.  The Island itself only has 140,000 inhabitants.  (This is a province?  Really?  Oi.)  How small is Charlottetown?  I randomly ran into the one person I know in town and it only took a day and a half. Now, mind you, this was the one thing I had set out to accomplish and I did not have to resort to stalking, so this was, on the whole, probably good.

The tourism infrastructure is clearly not set up to deal with the likes of me (solo traveller who, gasp, does not drive). There seems to be one company that provides mini-bus trips from Charlottetown to the countryside. Their half-day trip was sold out (all 24 spaces) for the day at which I was looking. (The key elements of the trip [Anne of Green Gables farmhouse and a preserve factory] were not exactly in my wheelhouse, but it was in the countryside.) There was a culinary walking tour which looked interesting, but it was not running on that same day because it was 'cruise day' and the people running it were too busy.

So I basically ambled around. And did laundry.

And I ate fairly well:

- I went to Tower Street Fish 'n Chips twice (haddock, then cod). It was possibly the second best fish 'n chips I have had: fresh, not overly battered or greasy and still flakey. Heck, the chips were darn good. (Leo Burdock's in Dublin, seeing as you are asking...)

- The Pilot House brews their own beer and offers an upper scale menu, mostly centred around seafood and PEI products. I opened with oysters, which seems like the thing to do in PEI, and had the PEI pork and scallops as an entrée. I am not entirely sure why pulled pork and scallops should be served together, but both were cooked perfectly and quite good. The restaurant itself is quite nice, almost with a traditional steak house feel to the decor (lots of wood), albeit with too much Montréal Canadiens memorabilia behind the bar.

- There is a brew pub, Gahan House. Their beers are drinkable.

Finally, I listened to a duo (fiddle and guitar) play some nice traditional Celtic Folk at the Aulde Triangle. Of note, they sell glasses at the bar. No, not that kind of glasses, this kind of glasses:

Random observations:

- The duelling Anne of Green Gables musicals across the street from another... Well, that just says it all, doesn't it?

- On the same day I ran into my friend, I also ran into three former colleagues on Queen Street (Charlottetown's main drag).  To top it off, after having dinner in a Georgetown restaurant by the water (with said friend), I ran into my MP. (The Liberal caucus was having a retreat in PEI.). A very random day.

Days 113-114 (August 23-24): Fredericton, NB

Fredericton reminded me of Saskatoon; both cities seem to be roughly the same size, are home to a large university and are traversed by a river. Yup, that is the extent of my insight after 113 days on the road. So, on to where and what I drank and ate (because that is basically what these posts are about, aren't they?  Man, I'm in a blogging rut...)

- Picaroon's is a darn good craft brewer operating out of Fredericton. They do not have a brew pub but do have a store on Queen Street. Their products are also on tap in local bars and restaurants; however, their bottled beer tastes much better than their draft. In particular, the 'Dark and Stormy Night', a dark wheat beer (which I think I saw at the LCBO at some point) and the 'Yippee' IPA are superior beers, both subtle and eminently drinkable. 

- The Lunar Rogue pub has 400+ whiskies (mostly single malt scotches).  Strangely, I did not notice anybody drinking any. Wait staff also ignored me for well over an hour after one of them handed me their whisky list (a fairly thick and nicely detailed binder). My guess?  Some owner is really proud of himself for owning a bar that has amassed such a collection; he wants to make sure none of his bottles ever get emptied so he can keep adding to the tally.  Either that or the staff (except for the funny, exuberant, experienced waitress who served me until her shift ended at 8) are all incompetent idiots. What a lunar farce.

- The Blue Door (Regent Street) was one of the restaurants featured in MacLean's laughable 'Top 50' issue last year; I figured I had to check them out.  The menu offers a mix of seafood and, well, land food (why is that not a real expression?), many prepared with a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Indian influence.  Other than incorporating spices and dishes from these cuisines, there is no real overarching theme to the menu.  For example, I had lamb kibbeh as an entrée and tamarind chili Arctic char as an entrée.  I was intrigued by that entrée; I am a big fan of char, and had never seen it served ‘spiced up’ before, given that it is a rich, fatty fish with a strong enough taste on its own.  Well, the Blue Door, in over-preparing it, succeeded in making char boring; this could have been simply been salmon all decked out in tamarind and chili, and then oven baked (I am guessing).  The natural taste of the char was completely sublimated.

On the bright side, there was a pretty decent selection of rock music playing, from Gloria by Patti Smith, to Young Americans by Bowie, with some Clash and White Stripes thrown in.  I am not sure if this was emanating from the kitchen, just meant to be played in the small bar area or was supposed to be piped into the overall restaurant, but, hey, I enjoyed it.

- The Beaverbrook Gallery (OK, neither drinkable nor edible; I figured I would throw you off a bit) had an interesting temporary exhibition by photographer John Ward entitled 'Meditation/Transition'. It mostly focussed on Ward's pictures of leaves: close-ups with various bright colour treatments, some enlarged to wall-size. The over-all effect hints at different realities hidden in a re-interpretation of the complexity of a familiar object.

Random observation:

- I went to the Saturday morning Farmers' Market because, well, Fredericton. I was more than pleasantly surprised at some of the products from the area. I tasted some extremely good goat's cheese and some farm-produced pâtés, headcheese and boudin that I wish I could have bought.

Day 112 (August 22): Moncton, NB

This was just a pit stop in Moncton, a pause between the 12-hour train ride from Québec City (Charny, on the Rive Sud to be precise) and a bus ride to Fredericton (spoilers!), the first of several on Maritime Bus Lines. 

Of course, I spent the evening at the Pump House, a brew pub in downtown Moncton. The Pump House serves above average pub fare, as well as pizzas cooked in their wood-fired oven. Their beer is a mix of pedestrian brews that seem to want to emulate large commercial brewers (their 'Cadian') and some more interesting brews. Their Special Old Bitter (the 'SOB'; hee hee!) and Pail Ale (a 'West Coast' IPA, which only had a hint of spruce) are decent and very drinkable. I still have not tried their signature brew, a blueberry flavoured beer (available in Ontario).

It may sound like I am damning the Pump House with faint praise, but I do really like the joint.

Jours 109 à 111 (du 19 au 21 août): Québec, Québec

Trois jours à Québec, surtout passés à déambuler les rues et ruelles à la recherche de souvenirs de l’été 1987, mais surtout par espoir de croiser le moi-même de cette époque, pour le prévenir de ce qui l’attend et peut-être même pour capturer un peu de sa jeunesse et de son espoir…

Trois jours qui ont peut-être fourni le point de mire de ce périple. J’ai passé une fin d’après-midi à siroter une ou deux bières chez Babylone sur la rue Saint-Vallier Est, un café comme tant d’autres, sauf pour la possibilité qu’il se trouve dans l’édifice qui appartenait à mon arrière-grand-père à la fin des années 1800 et au début des années 1900.  Si ce n’était pas cet édifice, c’était celui qui se trouvait au prochain coin de rue, démoli et présentement en train d’être remplacé par des condominiums.  (Ah, cette belle modernité…)  En suivant les instructions de ma grande-tante, qui avait alors 98 ans, j’avais retrouvé l’édifice en 1987; cette fois-ci, j’ai retrouvé tant bien que mal approximativement où il se trouvait, vu que mon point de repère, le terminus Voyageur, a été démoli depuis… Léger mystère que je vais tenter de résoudre à mon retour….

Commentaires aléatoires :

- Je suis resté dans l’hôtel Tryp, sur la rue de la Couronne, dans le Quartier Saint-Roch, pas loin de la gare du Château. C’est un quartier intéressant, qui semble garder un côté dynamique et travailleur, face à l’incursion de franchises Starbuck’s et Mountain Equipment Coop, première vague habituelle d’une transformation bourgeoise.

- Suite à une recommandation d’un ami, j’ai soupé chez Toast! dans le Vieux Québec, restaurant avec menu plutôt traditionnel français.  Ce n’est pas à tous les soirs que je vais commander du foie gras et du ris de veau, mais le repas était excellent.

Jours 106 à 108 (du 16 au 18 août): Montréal, Québec

J’ai passé une fin de semaine relativement tranquille à Montréal, en partie vu un certain degré de familiarité avec la ville et en grande partie vu des visites d’amis qui ont profité de ma proximité pour me rencontrer pour quelques heures.  Quelques vignettes :

- Au cours des dernières années, Schwartz's est vraiment devenu un arrêt touristique. Même à 14 heures quand je m'y suis pointé, heure où l'achalandage aurait dû être moindre, il y avait une file d'attente d'une bonne cinquantaine de personnes. J'ai dû attendre un gros cinq minutes avant de contourner la file vu qu'il y avait un siège seul disponible au comptoir.  Encore une opération 'vautour' qui succède!

- En compagnie de deux bons amis, j'ai soupé chez Toqué, le restaurant de haute gastronomie du chef Normand Laprise, qui depuis près de 20 ans est considéré comme l’un des meilleurs, sinon le meilleur à Montréal.  Une très belle soirée, un service impeccable, un menu dégustation (avec vins) imaginatif et très intéressant…  Cependant, rien qui ne m’a complètement épaté…

Le menu de dégustation chez Toqué! le 17 août.

- Toqué n’était pas le premier choix.  J’ai tenté d’obtenir une réservation chez Au Pied de Cochon; cependant, aucune coopération du restaurant à me trouver un temps libre au courant de la fin de semaine…