28 newfoundland

Friday 14 November 2014

The next island - Newfoundland!
Here I have not one, but two cards - one of them was sent by Hippy, who lives on this canadian island, and the other one arrived in an envelope from St Pierre et Miquelon. Those islands are close neighbours, and Amelie was so kind to share cards from both of them! Thank you both so much, this kind of northern islands are my favourite, so I was really happy to receive such wonderful cards from you :)

The photo from the first postcard is titled "The way it was", and was taken in 1979. As you can see fishing has always been important on this island, and what is especially interesting - it is also reflected by the islands old names in Scottish Gaelic - Eilean a' Trosg (Island of the Cod) and the Irish Gaelic - Talamh an Éisc (Land of the Fish). The French name of the island is Terre Neuve, the English name Newfoundland was first found mentioned in a letter from 1502, although the island was also named "Vinland" by Leif Eriksson, a Viking who got there from Iceland in the 11th century.

There is so much more to say about this island, it's difficult to summarize it in a few sentences, but I warmly recommend at least browsing through some beautiful photos from Newfoundland, they really made me wish I was there right now!

And have a look on the map, it's amazing to see how tiny St Pierre is compared to Newfoundland!