St John's & Torbay

We arrived on Monday to St John's NL - our first final destination. We arranged a stay with Mayo - a CouchSurfing host in town.  He was also currently hosting another fellow from England who was basically hitching across the upper northern hemisphere - Russia, China & Canada -- has been at it for 12 months!

Nicholas, who is a big soccer fan was delighted to hear that they already had plans to head out to a pub and watch the World Cup finals -- but neither of us were delighted that it was a 30min walk - considering our 55 mile ride into town. But it was nice to be out of the - at this point - dreaded bike shorts and walk around. 

It was a pub by the local university and turned out to be standing room only by the time we got there -- worked for us though.  Game was good in my book - all theatrics aside - and Nick seemed psyched just to be catching the final after missing some games leading up to it. 

Tuesday we explored the downtown a bit and took a walk up to Signal Hill - a historic lookout over the bay at St John's - the location of the final battle in the Seven Years War.

After grabbing a bite to eat at a pub downtown, we hopped on the bikes for a quick 8 miles uphill to Torbay to stay with our current hosts - Chris & Paul.

Today, Chris was kind enough to lend us her Yaris to drive around and see some coastal sights - one of which was Cape Spear - the most easterly point in North America.

Last night Paul (the other one) grilled up some steaks for us to dine on - so tonight was our turn. Oh shit. Neither of us can cook worth a squirt - this is the kind of pressure that puts me into panic mode. What could I possibly make that anyone would like? Tortillas with peanut butter and jam? No. Lasagna? No, don't know how.  Philly Cheese Steaks? No way I'm finding Steak-Ums up here! What to make???  [lightbulb]  Oh snap - I'll make my favorite Bucca di Beppo dish - Chicken Carbonara! I've made it before - just gotta find that website again.  Thanks Google!

Success!! The Carbonara was a hit - all that brain sweating for naught. Phew.

Tomorrow we head backwards - to Whitbourne where we met our German riding buddy -- and then Thursday south to Argentia where we will board the ferry back to Nova Scotia. It leaves at 5:00pm and arrives at 9:45am Friday!!! Ho jeez.