Out your hometown.

[Heston]

(salvador, brazil, not my hometown...)

It's a bit sunnier in your neck of the woods, but yes, that''s creepy.

[esmark]

This is my hometown....

[esmark]

and from the opposite angle... the arrow indicating where I live, some 10 min by car to "downtown".

[JennyB]

This is my hometown....

That looks pretty -- where is that?

[esmark]

This is my hometown....

That looks pretty -- where is that?

[Dr. Medulla]

This is my hometown....

That looks pretty -- where is that?

Ditto'd. Every photo I've ever seen of Norway's landscape looks breathtaking. Hopefully I'll get there someday.

[esmark]

This is my hometown....

That looks pretty -- where is that?

Ditto'd. Every photo I've ever seen of Norway's landscape looks breathtaking. Hopefully I'll get there someday.

It is pretty indeed, but the weather.... right now we're having a rainstorm (lasted for almost a week now). Last year it rained for 89 days( started in early august) continously... Springtime however, usually turns out great.

But if you want to take a trip here, you'd better satart saving up some money. everything is pretty expensive.

A pint - £6-9 (£3 at the market)
A dinner for two, at a regular diner/café - £40-60
A movie ticket - £8
A pack of sigs - £8
A cd - £17
But then again the average income is pretty nice...

[Dr. Medulla]

This is my hometown....

That looks pretty -- where is that?

Ditto'd. Every photo I've ever seen of Norway's landscape looks breathtaking. Hopefully I'll get there someday.

It is pretty indeed, but the weather.... right now we're having a rainstorm (lasted for almost a week now). Last year it rained for 89 days( started in early august) continously... Springtime however, usually turns out great.

But if you want to take a trip here, you'd better satart saving up some money. everything is pretty expensive.

A pint - £6-9 (£3 at the market)
A dinner for two, at a regular diner/café - £40-60
A movie ticket - £8
A pack of sigs - £8
A cd - £17
But then again the average income is pretty nice...

A historian friend of mine was in Belgium doing research and went to a bank to replenish her cash on hand. Directly in front of her in line was an out-and-out stereotypical ugly (North) American tourist—loud, fat, full of pronouncements of the locals. He was complaining to the teller about how everything was so expensive in Europe and that there's no way people would put up with that in the US, listing things and prices like you do above. He capped it off by saying to the teller—the Belgian teller, keep in mind—"And you can keep that Sweden if that's how much things cost." My friend and others in line were openly laughing by this point. Sigh. Just because the social and economic structures of a nation aren't conducive to maximizing tourists' budgets, it doesn't mean that the whole nation stink …

[arsebundren77]

This is where I was born:
[youtube][/youtube]

which used to be here, just behind the steeple furthest left:


but I grew up about five minutes from here:


The missing boards have been kicked out so kids can jump in the creek... properly pronounced crick by any good peninsulite.

[Dr. Medulla]

The missing boards have been kicked out so kids can jump in the creek... properly pronounced crick by any good peninsulite.

Right out of a storybook. I have a weirdly romantic notion about the Maritimes. Don't know why, but it's one of the few places in Canada I'd like to move to.

[arsebundren77]

Like the few of us left who have resisted the pull of the oil patch, I love the Maritimes. Which isn't to say that the thousands of Maritimers out west don't, because it's a hell of a lot harder -- bordering on damn near impossible -- to earn a comparable paycheck here. The low cost of living sort of makes up for it, but we have our fair share of problems: a lot of the stereotypes are true (like all stereotypes, they have a basis in reality). Like anything, though, it's what you make of it. The Kingston Peninsula (where that covered bridge is) has been home to two branches of my family tree since they took root a couple hundred years ago and, while I only live an hour away, it feels like a whole other world when I'm home on the weekend. I hope to move back some day. I even have land I inherited from my grandfather, but no money to do anything with it at the moment (thanks to student loans).

Saint John has its charms too, if you can get past the smell of oil refinery byproducts and pulp mill stench, but it's an industrial city and wouldn't exist without the pollution and grime. And neither would Stompin Tom Connors! Or, uh, Elsie Wayne.

[Dr. Medulla]

Like the few of us left who have resisted the pull of the oil patch, I love the Maritimes. Which isn't to say that the thousands of Maritimers out west don't, because it's a hell of a lot harder -- bordering on damn near impossible -- to earn a comparable paycheck here. The low cost of living sort of makes up for it, but we have our fair share of problems: a lot of the stereotypes are true (like all stereotypes, they have a basis in reality). Like anything, though, it's what you make of it. The Kingston Peninsula (where that covered bridge is) has been home to two branches of my family tree since they took root a couple hundred years ago and, while I only live an hour away, it feels like a whole other world when I'm home on the weekend. I hope to move back some day. I even have land I inherited from my grandfather, but no money to do anything with it at the moment (thanks to student loans).

Saint John has its charms too, if you can get past the smell of oil refinery byproducts and pulp mill stench, but it's an industrial city and wouldn't exist without the pollution and grime. And neither would Stompin Tom Connors! Or, uh, Elsie Wayne.

Ha, Stompin' Tom and Tommy Hunter were not uncommon in my home in the 70s. The industrial yecch certainly doesn't fit my idealized image of the Maritimes. Definitely the small town, rural archetype is what I have in mind. (Which is weird because I despise small town Saskatchewan and feel mildly agoraphobic when I visit friends or family who live in small towns or farms here.) I think I'm also attracted to the Maritimes because it's an older part of the country (in terms of Euro settlement, that is), with architectural roots that go beyond the early 20th century. It's idle musing, tho. There's a halfway decent chance that the wife will eventually end up at Carleton or the Univ of Ottawa in the next decade, but that's probably as far east as we end up.

[Alyssa]

Like the few of us left who have resisted the pull of the oil patch, I love the Maritimes. Which isn't to say that the thousands of Maritimers out west don't, because it's a hell of a lot harder -- bordering on damn near impossible -- to earn a comparable paycheck here. The low cost of living sort of makes up for it, but we have our fair share of problems: a lot of the stereotypes are true (like all stereotypes, they have a basis in reality). Like anything, though, it's what you make of it. The Kingston Peninsula (where that covered bridge is) has been home to two branches of my family tree since they took root a couple hundred years ago and, while I only live an hour away, it feels like a whole other world when I'm home on the weekend. I hope to move back some day. I even have land I inherited from my grandfather, but no money to do anything with it at the moment (thanks to student loans).

Saint John has its charms too, if you can get past the smell of oil refinery byproducts and pulp mill stench, but it's an industrial city and wouldn't exist without the pollution and grime. And neither would Stompin Tom Connors! Or, uh, Elsie Wayne.

Ha, Stompin' Tom and Tommy Hunter were not uncommon in my home in the 70s. The industrial yecch certainly doesn't fit my idealized image of the Maritimes. Definitely the small town, rural archetype is what I have in mind. (Which is weird because I despise small town Saskatchewan and feel mildly agoraphobic when I visit friends or family who live in small towns or farms here.) I think I'm also attracted to the Maritimes because it's an older part of the country (in terms of Euro settlement, that is), with architectural roots that go beyond the early 20th century. It's idle musing, tho. There's a halfway decent chance that the wife will eventually end up at Carleton or the Univ of Ottawa in the next decade, but that's probably as far east as we end up.

Stompin' Tom wrote a song about my hometown, Tillsonburg.

[modskin]

My hometown. Pensacola, FL.



My current location.. New York, NY.

[arsebundren77]

Like the few of us left who have resisted the pull of the oil patch, I love the Maritimes. Which isn't to say that the thousands of Maritimers out west don't, because it's a hell of a lot harder -- bordering on damn near impossible -- to earn a comparable paycheck here. The low cost of living sort of makes up for it, but we have our fair share of problems: a lot of the stereotypes are true (like all stereotypes, they have a basis in reality). Like anything, though, it's what you make of it. The Kingston Peninsula (where that covered bridge is) has been home to two branches of my family tree since they took root a couple hundred years ago and, while I only live an hour away, it feels like a whole other world when I'm home on the weekend. I hope to move back some day. I even have land I inherited from my grandfather, but no money to do anything with it at the moment (thanks to student loans).

Saint John has its charms too, if you can get past the smell of oil refinery byproducts and pulp mill stench, but it's an industrial city and wouldn't exist without the pollution and grime. And neither would Stompin Tom Connors! Or, uh, Elsie Wayne.

Ha, Stompin' Tom and Tommy Hunter were not uncommon in my home in the 70s. The industrial yecch certainly doesn't fit my idealized image of the Maritimes. Definitely the small town, rural archetype is what I have in mind. (Which is weird because I despise small town Saskatchewan and feel mildly agoraphobic when I visit friends or family who live in small towns or farms here.) I think I'm also attracted to the Maritimes because it's an older part of the country (in terms of Euro settlement, that is), with architectural roots that go beyond the early 20th century. It's idle musing, tho. There's a halfway decent chance that the wife will eventually end up at Carleton or the Univ of Ottawa in the next decade, but that's probably as far east as we end up.

Heh, Tommy Hunter. Forgot about that guy. It's funny you mention the historical side of things because I was just talking about this with my aunt last weekend. She had friends visiting from Calgary, one of whom is a history buff, and while he loved walking around Saint John seeing the sights, he could not find one book on the topic. As it turns out, there aren't any books currently in print covering the history of the oldest incorporated city in the country. This is pretty much emblematic of Saint John. And then there's Partridge Island, the Ellis Island of Canada (along with Halifax, I suppose), one of the most important historical sites in the country. Too bad it's illegal to actually step foot on it. Squandered opportunity, thy name is Saint John.

But the architecture is nice. I had to laugh, though, when I made it to the end of that youtube video above to see the former mayor talking about all the possibilities for development on the site of the former hospital and how important it was to have something "nice" put it in it's place. Do you know what they built? A prefab, corrugated steel call-centre with all the charm of a warehouse.