Burin, Newfoundland (AKA Most Goated Town Ever)

Hello world, this is Talia, back behind the keyboard of saildogbark.com for the first time in FIVE years. This also marks the first time ever that I haven’t written one of these posts as part of a homeschool writing assignment. I’m actually writing it out of my own volition this time! Sikeeeeeeee you thought. I’m writing it because mom said if I wrote this then she would do the lunch dishes. Yippeee! Anyway I am delighted to tell you about our remarkable experiences in the small town of Burin, Newfoundland (pronounced like Bjorn, they like to get rid of syllables in their words here). We were debating between going to Burin and this other random place but settled on Burin because the guidebook said that the residents liked to occasionally dress up in period era costumes and I argued that it would be an enriching cultural experience. We unfortunately did not get to see any cool costumed but we did get the most fantastic cultural experience we could have ever asked for.

As soon as we poked our nose into the harbor at Burin, a big white fishing boat roared to life and moved to a different slip so that we could have their spot without us even asking. We tied up and went ashore to meet Reg, the Harbourmaster, and Marguerite, the Harbour Authority Office Manager. Both kindred spirits with so much pride for their beautiful town and so much generosity. Marguerite drove us to the trailhead of Cook’s Lookout, giving us a tour of all the schools and convenience stores in Burin along the way. Cook’s Lookout was a short meandering hike with a weathered wooden boardwalk and lots of signs along the way that added lots of character. There was a weather predicting stone, two of the cleanest outhouses ever, a little free library, a wall of walking sticks to borrow, and a wall with carving tools provided to sign your name or hometown. We decided to bushwhack off the side of the cliff at the top of the lookout instead of going back the long way and it was an epic journey.

When we reached the bottom, we ran into Reg. Juliette asked him about the town crest symbols because we thought it looked like two crossed toilet plungers. He wasn’t sure what they were so he called up Leo, the Town Manager (like the mayor except he does more work for less recognition). He told us that they were two crossed Burins, which is French for carving tools. Then he invited us to come on down to the town hall to receive some free Burin town hats. Reg drove us over in the Burin Volunteer Fire Department van (which he is the chief of) and we met Leo. He generously gave us a boatload of Burin swag, as detailed in the list at the end of this post.

After we explored the council chambers and read the town mission (to provide affordable, quality programs and services to residents, and to be accountable to taxpayers as a means to providing sustainable local government services that are within our means), we got a ride in their big old GMC firetruck to the ice cream store! Reg did a lot of honking and turned on the sirens a couple of times just to spook people. He is quite the funny guy.

Then, Reg let us borrow his car to go out to dinner at this very strange but awesome hotspot of Burin culture called Smugglers Cove, a western/pirate/motorcycle/harry potter? themed frontier town with a BBQ restaurant and lots of axe throwing. It was awesome. After dinner we came back to the boat and chatted with the locals as they did their fishing. They told us many stories and gave us a goodie bag of Newfoundland-themed objects. Here is the final list of everything that was given to us. We are so appreciative and in awe of the generosity this town showed us and we hope we can come back someday!

List of things given to us by the people of Burin, NL:

• One live mackerel 
• 5 ball caps with the town crest
• 5 toques with the town crest
• 5 stocking caps that say “family of the Burin Volunteer Fire Department”
• One free ride to the ice cream shop in the Burin fire truck
• 12 Newfoundland themed lapel pins
• One jar of homemade pickles
• A “Pudding Bag” with traditional Newfoundland recipes
• One bag of peppermints
• Two Burin town crest flags
• Two Newfoundland flags
• One car ride to a hiking trailhead 
• One car to borrow to drive to dinner