9th – 12th October: Saint John

Being on the road again felt awkward at the beginning but for my first stop at the Newman House in Saint John everything was organized: the taxi was ordered (and cancelled again after Saskia and Claude insisted on bringing me to the ferry), the hostel was booked and I even arranged that Sharon, the hostel owner, picked me up at the ferry.

But still it was a very windy and frosty reception I got in Saint John – but only weatherwise. Sharon put me in a private room and I even had a big comfy double bed and a whole room all to myself. NICE!

Sharon dropped me off downtown for my first look around. At least it was sunny but with a strong, cold wind the temperatures felt close to freezing. So, I did the bigger part of my walk around town indoors: checked out the big swimming pool (you can watch the swimmers from the indoor alley) the Old City Market, Barbour’s General Store which is a small museum now, and of course the famous Imperial Theatre.

The girls at the museum told me that there are daily tours to see the interior of the Imperial Theatre but on this day was a show, so no guided tours. However, the description of the show (video-dance-show, multi-media, new, something completely different) sounded very interesting and they had special tickets for 15 Dollars, so I bought a ticket.

Well, when I came back in the evening, the interior of the theatre was really, really nice and old but the show was….well, let’s say, interesting (at least at first). It was kind of an homage to Norman McLaren who seemed to have been quite a movie hot shot back in the 1940ies. A ballet dancer did some crazy stuff on stage and they showed parts of Mr. McLarens movies (which I didn’t like so much), probably very exciting for some cultural interested people. After an hour or so, I found it very hard to keep my eyes open (it was warm, dark and comfy in that chair) and I was really happy that the show was over after 1:30 hours.

I’m apologizing to Mr.McLaren and the whole project team but their show just didn’t quite get me. They still got standing ovations from some other people, so maybe my not-understanding is not such a big deal.

Walk to the Reversing Rapids

On the next day, Sunday, I didn’t feel quite myself after walking half a day in the cold weather, so I did a nice walk to the reversing rapids. Unfortunately, it was still windy and when I wanted to take some pictures of the astonishing natural spectacle, my ears hurt so much that I decided spontaneously for a visit at the Lancester Mall. It was around 10:30 AM and all the shops were still closed, so I caught up with the news all around the world on a television within the mall for the next hour or so, then I bought a hat and a pair of gloves and was ready to go 🙂

So, I took some pictures of the Reversing Falls and went home again.

Rockwood park and Cherry Brook zoo

On the next day, I felt much better and Sharon lent me her bike for a trip to Rockwood Park. The sun was shining and it was so nice to just cycle along. After a while I ended up at the Cherry Brook zoo and went to visit the tigers and the other (extinct) animals.

Thanksgiving Dinner

When I was back at the hostel, I was really tired – and just in time for my very first Thanksgiving Dinner. Sharon invited us guests to eat with her and her familiy and so another girl and I had very nice mashed potatoes, different meat (but no turkey) and vegetables. And for desert – the most important part of every meal – there was apple pie and pumpkin pie. I never thought I would like something made of pumpkin but this was….heavenly :-)…mjammmm……
And was a nice farewell since on the next day I was already off to Fredericton.