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travel / travel magazine / sep09
Notebook
City bound
MY WIFE USED TO TRAVEL to a different
Canadian city for a conference every year,
and I always tagged along. Aside from
carrying her luggage, I got to explore and
enjoy Edmonton, Winnipeg, Charlottetown,
St. John’s and other burgs while she
endured interminable meetings. It was
great fun for me, though, to be out there
with an entire city to discover.
At the risk of playing favourites, I have
to say that I had the best time in St. John’s.
I walked everywhere, everyone I met was
friendlier than any visitor should expect,
and the place oozed with historical, nautical,
musical and culinary culture.
My highlight was stepping into the legendary
O’Brien’s Music Store on Water
Street. Established in 1939, O’Brien’s is
packed wall-to-wall with traditional recordings,
instruments and sheet music, and is
the place to find obscure Irish, Celtic and
Newfoundland folk music. As I chatted
with Gord O’Brien, and was guided by his
learned recommendations, I filled my arms
with music by The Masterless Men, The
Irish Descendants, Shanneyganock and
other local musical institutions.
I first heard of O’Brien’s in 1999, when
we assigned writer and photographer
Wanita Bates to shoot a pictorial about
Water Street for Canadian Geographic.
Bates herself is an institution in St. John’s,
a transplanted mainlander, yes, but one
who has absorbed and savoured the city’s
flavours for 12 years. For this reason,
we asked her to eschew the come-fromaway’s
customary George Street pub crawl
for a take-out fish-and-chips scoff. Ches’s,
on Freshwater Road, was her first stop.
Wisely, she headed to the perfect lookout
spot to eat her steaming fi and chi:
Signal Hill. Soaring cholesterol
aside, is there any better way to partake of
a city’s offerings?
That’s the question we hope this issue
will help you answer. Many of us head to or
through a city when travelling, so we’re
offering here a modest sampling of the
myriad attractions and activities that abound
in Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montréal,
Halifax and, of course, St. John’s. There’s
something for everyone in each. Even for a
luggage-schlepping, tag-along husband.
Eric Harris
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