On Friday (24th) we woke up lateish and had pancakes for breakfast before heading over to Canada. From Niagara Falls you literally just have to show your passport and cross the rather romantically named Rainbow Bridge to get there. Even if you're not interested in seeing Canada it's almost worth it for it for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - a large duty free shop selling cheap alcohol, cigarettes and perfume.

Plus the Falls actually face away from America, so you could argue that there is a better view from Canada. In addition (and this is either a plus or a minus depending on your tastes) it is a lot more geared towards tourists with tonnes of restaurants, amusement arcades, mini golf courses, haunted houses etc etc. We grabbed a hot dog and played a few games of pool in one of the arcades then just stood on the side of the road getting rained on by the spray coming off the Falls for a while.

In the evening we returned to see the water lit up at night by the coloured floodlights and to watch the fireworks (every fri and sun night from 10pm in the Summer). Went to bed very happy - how often are you going to see fireworks at Niagara Falls?! :-)

Yesterday we checked out of our hostel and went for an AMAZING fry up in a diner called 'The Why' on Main Street, Niagara Falls. The diner looks like it's been there for decades without having been redecorated once but the meals are $2-3 and very good. We're just peeved we discovered it on our last day.

Caught a couple of buses towards Buffalo Depew Amtrak station and killed some time window shopping in Galleria Mall just round the corner (nabbed a wheelchair from customer services to push our backpacks around in - lifesaver!) At some point I forgot that we were meant to be window shopping and started actually shopping...picked up some converse trainers and a couple of tops. Oops.

The funniest thing about Buffalo was how amazed everyone was when we opened our mouths; we got asked if we attended the Royal Wedding no less than four times and one rather excited woman even asked if she could take our picture as she'd never met anyone from London before...I kid you not. It was kind of sweet though.

Got to the station around 10pm and caught the 11.59pm train from Buffalo to Chicago. We were both apprehensive about getting an overnight train but it wasn't too bad at all. We both got a few hours sleep and woke up just in time to see the sun rise over a huge body of water, presumably one of the great lakes. Arrived in Chicago about ten minutes ago, just before midday.