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So it's Craig back on the blog, and when I rock the blog i rock the blog right!
Ok, back to the subject in hand - Niagara Falls and Toronto. Oh yes, how many of the same vowel can the Canadians fit into a single name... Though before arriving at these places, we endured a rather interesting 20 hour bus ride consisting of 4 buses between Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and Niagara itself. Highlights included our bus making a detour so a lady on-board could be arrested after stealing a purse at the previous bus station, but not before she claimed to work for the CIA or had a mother in Homeland Security; being asked 'is this bus going to Hammond?' about 6 times by the same lady within 6 minutes (which incidentally was the place where the previous lady was arrested!); having sleeping strangers try to almost lie on me and fall asleep on the bus; and not actually getting a wink of sleep for the entire ride.
Nevertheless, we arrived in Niagara at about 8:30am, and made our way to the mighty falls soon after. It was a return trip for myself, yet i can say that the feeling of awe and sheer 'Wow-ness' was equally shared between the both of us. We experienced Niagara's Fury in an almost theme park ride next to the falls first, followed by a journey down the tunnels that led behind the falls and then consequently to the platform right next to the base of the falls. And as we stepped out onto the spray-soaked platform, with the thunder of the falls in our ears, all Quince could muster was "Wow! Dolomite Limestone!" Methinks someone was missing the point of being at Niagara here... Anyway, after taking in the surroundings, we then jumped aboard one of the famous Maid in the Mist boats and battled past the non-existent crowd to the prime bow position ready for the rain! And man, did the falls bring the rain! If not for our trusty Niagara poncho's we would have been soaked through we were that close to the falls. Simon Quincey 2009 called it 'Wet and awesome', the older San Francisco lady next to him described it as 'Incredible!' It is most certainly a sight to behold, an experience to take in, because words on a screen can't quite do it justice. However to finish the day, we saw the great Niagara rapids that were down river from the falls themselves - according to the tour guide fella, its Grade 6 waters! Anyone fancy jumping in a kayak down that? No? Well it's actually illegal anyway.
That evening we arrived aboard a train into Union Station, Toronto. Eventually we made it to our hostel, and finally got some sleep after being awake for the previous 39 hours. The following day entailed sleeping in, and then a trip to the CN Tower - the tallest building in the world. Great views of the adjacent Lake Ontario, downtown Toronto and the Toronto Bluejays baseball game underneath were duly captured on film, or more like memory stick i guess. In the evening we attended a fierce clash of this game called 'Soccer', where Toronto FC took on the New York Red Bulls. It was an entertaining game, though the standard could be summed up in the star player of Toronto FC: Danny Dichio - a man who once graced the fields of the Premiership, but then after receiving his P45 could not find a club in the top 50 teams in England who wanted his services. Our last day in Ontario's biggest city was spent attending a local Baptist church, and then the Science Museum - plenty of fun was had all round, despite not being able to see the entire museum.
Kingston and Gananoque then beckoned...
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