Hola,

im trying to make more of a habit of making posts atleast on a semi regular basis. It allows me to collect my thoughts better than a whatever character count that twitter has.

I recently flew back from Newfoundland & Labrador! Not many people go there during winter for some reason. But it was quite fun. I was in Helsinki around this time last year and there is something refreshing about visiting places when there’s hardly any tourists around. Newfies are very friendly people and I loved the reactions I got when I told people I was there on vacation. My cab on my way to my Airbnb at 1am when I arrived was like “you feeling ok friend? You take a wrong flight? What are you doing here on vacation in February?” I think in total 18 people asked me what the hell I was doing there. I mean I won’t lie, it was freezing. One day in particular it was super windy, like I was about to get blown away windy and I’m a chunky guy.

I liked it anyways, there’s something humbling about people who live in extreme climates and able to make it work (out of necessity or choice). A lot of people shared their photos of a crazy snow storm they had two weeks ago and how they coped with it. Dogs walking on rooftops etc.

ive begun to enjoy traveling alone lately, it lets me clear my thoughts and keep myself open to learning about others. I think at times I get obsessed with my career and what I expect from it (and inevitably burn out but that’s a different news post) so it’s nice to show up to something totally unknown at an ungodly hour and kinda wing it. I recommend it. I used to worry about coming off creepy by asking questions and being inquisitive to strangers and people I met at bars in different countries but I’m always surprised how welcome interpersonal conversation is. Sure, not every encounter I make new best friends but it’s just rewarding to dish it and then fuck off and carry on.

Some fotos below, also I’ll probably make something soon. Ciao!

not many people know where St. John’s is, I didn’t either tbh but I fly over it every time I go to Europe so I see it on my map and I figured one day I’d go there and last week was that day. only thing that sucks was the flights fly in and out at very inconvenient times. I flew in at 1am and flew home at 4am. Not ideal. I think this is based on air traffic.

many unique things about St. John’s. For one it’s got its own time zone. +1:30 from eastern time. It’s also quite colorful. The downtown rowhomes are required by the city to have a different color scheme than its neighbors. In my conversation with locals there’s a book you can pick colors from. Kinda neat.

there’s this hill overlooking the city and out into the Atlantic. It’s a hike on foot but worth the view. Luckily both times I went up I got a ride back. People were very friendly overall.

clean crisp air up here

newfoundland is most famous for the Newfoundland dog and the black Labrador we all love. lots of statues of em.

one of the highlights of my trip was walking to a small fishing village nearby, they are apparently really popular during the summer, I think the bar was expanding mode when I was there and they are known because they are the only place in the world that brews their beer from water from icebergs. Kind of underwhelming taste and kind of low in alcohol for my taste but atleast that’s checked off my list. The brewers were really friendly and they are doing some cool stuff there with local product and vegetation and icebergs apparently. I can see this place blowing up soon with the craft brew scene not slowing down.

i was supposed to go ice fishing on Saturday but it had to be canceled because of the insane winds. Oh well, that’s one of the things you need to be flexible with when traveling during extreme seasons in places like this I guess. Maybe next time! I’ll probably be back out again in early April. Back to work!