Mia and I were picked up at 6:20 this morning for a van ride to St John’s. There is no public transport or Uber here. There is a van that starts in Bonavista and does pickup and drop off of people and packages along the way. We were the first passengers. But the van has had many stops along the way. It took almost 5 hours to get back into town.
Mia and I went for a hike up Signal hill. It’s a beautiful day. The views from Ladies lookout near the top are panoramic. We descended into town to stopped for beer and snacks at Mia’s favorite local brewery. Then we walked back to Moya’s house to wait for Marah, Mia’s older sister, to deliver Mia’s car from the yacht club so that Mia can take me to the airport in the morning.
We drank some Prosecco on the terrace before ordering a cab to go out. Parking downtown is very difficult and DWI laws are tough. We went to Paloma, a restaurant that is very popular with locals but not at all on the trip advisor site. As we entered the restaurant, Mia stopped to say hello to her cousin who works at the bar. One thing about Newfoundland folks is that they are very interconnected by family and friends. The whole island has a population of about 300,000 so it seems that family and connections are strong. Many of the people I met talked about roots and their towns and who lived where. Nothing like that exists in NY!
Dinner was mostly smallish servings of delicious vegetable creations. We had radishes with butter and vinaigrette radish greens. The smoked Castelveltrano olives were fantastic. Beets were served with yogurt, dill toasted rice and sliced almonds. Sautéed carrots had a variety of herbs on top. We ordered a half order of chicken for an entree. It was moist and delicious but we took most of it with us since we were quite full.
I finished squeezing as much as possible into the bag I would check. It will be a full day of flying back.
The Adventures of Anne 