So here I am 3 days in and loving Canada. The first afternoon I had a little wander around the immediate area around the hostel and discovered the CN Tower (didn't go up, still debating if its worth the money!) and the baseball stadium, and overly pricey food! However I did find an amazing Burrito place for a burrito meal for $10 incl tax which is great here!

Anyway after that I went back to the hostel and on Wednesday the Art Gallery of Ontario is free after 6pm and they were taking a group of us down. So off I went, the gallery was good, the Canadian section was great, but at about 7.30pm I hit a wall and need to go, I mean at this point my body clock thought it was like 00.30 and that is no time to be looking around a gallery!!!

So I went back the the hostel, made friends with a dutch guy, a polish guy and a dutch girl, and ended up chatting for even longer. That first night I struggled to sleep, think I am still not used to the hostelling ways yet!

Yesterday I got up and left the hostel late, around 11am (missing the free pankcakes- not delibertly!!) I decided t otry and do something productive and sort out my social insurance number (so I can get a job) i get to the city hall and it has a lovely square in front of it that I think is used for events, anyway in the square there was tasty thursdays. and along with loads of food stalls, there was free music. so i saw a band called Mookie and the loyalists- who were really good and did covers too. Now at this point I think it would have been sensible to put suncream on, however I totally forgot and am paying for it now!

That afternoon I hit Chinatown and walked along all of the stalls and shops, into the market area too and then back to Chinatown, had an amazing lunch of tea, soup and noodles for like $5 (but of course plus tax!) and there was enough so that I have the other half of my noodles in the fridge in the hostel to reheat for tea tomorrow! (if its still there!)

At about 4pm I arrive back at the hostel and I was red as a lobster on my left shoulder! as the night went on I got redder on the other shoulder and accross my chest- the chest the best of all with white stripes where my bag had been accross my body!

The hostel was doing a BBQ for $4 burger so me and my new friends Marjike and Peotijk (not sure how to spell his name- its Peter in Polish!) decided to take the cheap option and eat there, we got chatting to an american trainie teacher, an american teacher, and a scouse/mackem... very interesting combo! We decided that desert was in order and managed to find a crepe place- paid $10 for a crepe, so double for desert that I spent on dinner!!

So today was the day of the big event- NIAGARA FALLS!! I got up at the crack of backpackers dawn (8am) to get ready, have free pancakes (nothing to write home about- although I suppose thats what I'm doing!!) and be ready to rock and roll on the tour to the falls.

Bus arrives I intorduce myself to Rasheeda a lovely American girl in my room and we sit next to each other on the bus as its full and I didn't wanna be stuck next to another giant fighting for legroom!!

We get to Niagara and me and Polish Peter are meeting Maijke there so we do the walk along to road that is opposite both the sets of falls. I'm going to be controvertial here and say that I think I actually prefere the American falls over the Canadian/ Horseshoe Falls. we walk about and join our dutch lady to do the maid of the mist boat. it is a must do and you do get soaked. however as we were doing it is also started to rain, which was fine as we were getting soaked anyway and they give you ponchos- however not so cool when it brightened up so we threw away said lovely blue ponchos and then got drowned trying to run from the food place to the bus!! We did a couple more things, the one worth mentioning was of course relating to alcohol... we go a free winetasting- i ended up buying a bottle of the rose as it was a steal at $8- however that wasn't even one of the wines we tasted! I am saving it for tomorrow night. I have been pretty tame since I got here, not touched a drop of alcohol except for the mentioned freebies!! Tomorrow night is when the hostel does a pub crawl so I think that is when you will get your much awaited drunk photos Jillous!!

So that is as you say all folks!

Tomorrow is a next day, but not a new cirty- I still have 2 more full days left in this glorious place :D