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Published: October 13th 2006
As I woke up, a lot of other people in the dorm were up as well, but they were looking very worse for wear. Did everyone else go out last night? Damnit, why didn’t they tell me where they were going? Sure I don’t have a problem drinking by myself in a pub but I have met Aussies in dribs and drabs all along this trip!
I went downstairs to have a light breakfast and saw a bus piling on passengers for a day trip to Niagara Falls. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do today yet. All I wanted was another day in Toronto and even another night. Tomorrow I would set course for San Francisco on my way back home, so I had to make sure that I would make it a good stay. The original plan for Dani and I was to visit Niagara Falls when we drove up here, but since we got lost and it was getting late, we had to skip it. I still wanted to skip the whole guided tour thing and see Niagara Falls at my own pace, but when I got down to the train station, the VIA
train had left for the day. My only option left was a guided tour. $154 CAN later and I had booked a seat on a minibus to leave at 2pm for a twilight tour of Niagara Falls!
To kill the time between now and 2pm, I walked the streets of Toronto, noting that the outside temperature was about 5 degrees centigrade. No sign of snow today but the cold air didn’t bother me one bit, especially with a hot chocolate from Tim Horton’s. On this trip so far I had experienced hot summer weather, Midwest rain, tropical humidity, the fall and now an early blizzard. Whatever the weather, I was more than happy to stroll around Toronto as the winds got a bit chillier and some dark clouds came in.
I spoke to Lesley on the phone for a short while. She lives in Guelph, which isn’t too far away, but I don’t think I had enough time to see her, now that I had decided to check out Niagara Falls. However she confirmed for me that she would be in Australia in two weeks, not sure if she was coming to Sydney but I told her that
The Jerk Spot
...some restaurant!it would be a double slap in the face for both of us if we didn’t get to meet! She is another of the Canadian Booty clan who I have been communicating with for years and years. So close, but yet so far…
At 2pm. the bus picked me up right outside the Royal York and we set a direct course for Niagara Falls. As we drove on past Mississauga down the QEW, the clouds turned into heavy driving rain. As if I didn’t know I would be getting wet when going to Niagara Falls!
The first stop of this $154CAN tour was the Maid of the Mist boat, which took us all the way up to the bottom of the falls. Today was probably the worst day to get on this boat as it was extremely windy and the rain was driven even harder into us. After getting out on the boat, the wind turned icy and I felt my fingers freeze up when trying to get photos. I have no idea how the seagulls managed to stay on course to wherever they were flying, but there was no food to be found here!
I’m sure
Hooters, Toronto
now, this was some restaurant!!! that this boat ride would be great to be on during the summer but it was very wild conditions to be out today! Only the hardy types were still on the upper deck while I retreated to the covered deck to shoot some video, still being battered by water! The boat floated closer to the falls and I could feel all the water being bashed off the rocks and we were soon in the mist, only to pull out and do a lap before coming back to shore.
Our next stop on the guided tour was visiting the once famous Whirlpool Rapids which are no longer whirlpools since hydro-electro schemes upstream have taken a lot of water and used them for electric purposes. Nowadays, the Whirlpool Rapids looks like and gives you the same irritated feeling after a mate leaves backwash after taking a sip out of your 2L bottle of coca cola.
The bus then moved back to the top of the Canadian falls. From here, we were able to witness the speed of the water before it came crashing down over the falls. I saw one big log sail past and over the falls, and wondered
La Tour CN
The clouds had followed me from Sarnia what it would be like to go over. A few people have survived this and soon I might join the casualty list if I lean too far over the concrete barriers.
I noticed that my jeans were absolutely soaked right up to my knees and I could feel the icy water in my shoes! The next stop for me was the Journey Behind the Falls, where tunnels have been dug in the rock that forms the falls and you’re able to go to an observation deck and be near where the water falls, or go right up close through a series of tunnels and be at the point the water hits the Niagara River. The water sounded like a constant thunder, and sheets of this watery thunder bucketed down over me on the outside observation deck as I tried to take a photo of myself. No one else dared come out so there was no way I could get someone else to take a photo for me!
I was late getting back to the tour bus and everyone had a go at me, but at least we would be on time to get to the Sheraton for dinnertime.
Rogers Centre, Toronto
they play Baseball in this large stadium that is known as "The Armadillo" because of its retracting roof This must have been the bulk of the $154CAN that I paid for. The Sheraton at Niagara Falls has views overlooking the falls and my word it was worth every cent. I had come to the realisation that this was the first time on this trip that I had splurged on anything and Readers, it seems that my last full day in Canada will be forever remembered for the food extravaganza that was The Sheraton overlooking Niagara Falls. The chicken came straight of the bone and was so juicy as ever, I feel ashamed to say that my mother’s own fantastic home cooking is not up to par with this. Succulent beef with juices flowing just like the Niagara Falls below with Spaghetti Bolognaise with the right amount of pasta sauce and very tasty mozzarella cheese all washed down with a Labatt’s. I made sure there was enough room for a slice of chocolate mud cake that was so rich in chocolate, that I would have been stopped at the International Border Crossing for attempting to smuggle in such rich contraband.
After dinner, we all waddled back on the bus and I caught a few ZZZs before waking up
in time to walk Toronto’s windy streets at night, back to the hostel and a nice hot shower before going out for more beers and maybe a bit of dancing.
When I got back into my dorm, everyone in there was all chatting…
“Thank God she got kicked out, she has no respect,” said one of the Aussie girls.
“Yeah…and to bring some random in, he could have nicked our stuff!” exclaimed the Welsh girl who was under my bunk.
“Whoa guys”, I interrupted, “seems like we got a Town Hall meeting going on here”
“Well after last night, you would be pretty pissed off at getting no sleep”, replied one of the Aussie girls
“I went out last night, came home and slept fine. Was it my snoring that kept you up? Shit, I didn’t realise-“
“You mean you didn’t hear what was going on last night?” the Welsh girl asked.
“No! I slept ok, why what the hell happened?”
“OHHHHHH!!!!” moaned everyone in a jealous rage, as if to say that I had something to do with whatever crime was committed last night or the early hours of this morning. That crime was the girl who got
kicked out of the dorm (and probably the hostel) bringing back some random guy she met at the pub and having sex in the dorm, with her screaming at the top of her lungs and making animal noises while they were doing it. To top it off, they even kept on talking dirty right after they finished their business! And EVERYONE (except for me) didn’t sleep after that. Then it seemed that everyone’s day had been ruined due to lack of sleep or remembering the dirty 3am conversation that the lovebirds had.
Wow, I was very shocked. I can’t believe that I slept through something like that. However I thought it was totally uncalled for and I am somewhat thankful that I didn’t have to wake up during that.
After a hot shower, followed by packing my bags and deciding what I wanted to do for the night, I rang home and finally spoke to my mum! I last spoke to her when I first rang home to tell everyone (except for my parents, of course!) that I lost my credit card and my bankcards didn’t work. We spoke for about half an hour and I told her
that I was coming home soon…even though I didn’t want to, I would be home soon. There was one more city to visit before the long flight home.
I shouldn’t really think about San Francisco yet because this is my last night in Toronto and I want to make it a great night. I tried getting into a few clubs but they didn’t like my hoodie and jeans with sneakers. In the end I made it to some basement bar/club, which had Labatt on tap but once again, it was dead flat just like every other mainstream Northern American beer on tap. The club played a lot of alternative rock and I chatted to a few locals before heading over to Privilege.
Earlier I had walked past here and there were huge lines snaking around the block as per some of the other popular nightclubs around here such as Republik, which is around the corner from the hostel. After being slugged $15 at the door, followed by restricted entry to Level 2 (most of the party action looked like it was happening on the lower level), I sat down in the club and relaxed on their huge comfy
couches, while other people danced on them all around me. I was ordering Bacardi and Lemonades but I just wanted to sit back and relax while the DJ was bringing
Sexyback and a lot of late teens were dancing around like lunatics on the couches. In the end I gave up trying to sit on these things when I got prodded in the chest to move along by some young wannabe thug wearing a big jacket and chains. I left the club before they kicked everyone out at 3am and made my way a block up back to the hostel. At least no one was having wild animal sex when I got back tonight, and off I went to a boozy dreamland.
Summary
Toronto - Niagara Falls - Toronto Round Trip: 260 km
Total Canadian Kilometres: 3160 kilometres
Total North American Kilometres: 18516 kilometres
Total: 30457 kilometres
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