And on into Canada

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So another few weeks have passed by and I am late on the updates again. I am currently in Montreal but I will leave that update until next time. So without any more delay, my adventuring continues



Niagara Falls

Niagara Fallswas so close to my hostel, less than 15 minute walk. I could see the huge cloud of mist that hangs over Horseshoe Falls from the hostel door. At the visitor center I found a map of the walking trails to the whirlpool and devils rapids as well as getting my first glimpse of the falls! On Thursday morning I decided to walk north away from the falls along the Niagara River to see the whirlpool, as I had been chatting to some people the evening before who told me it was amazing. I followed along the river for a while but rock slides had closed some sections so I then followed an old railway line and eventually ended up on top of the gorge with some beautiful views down below of the river, looking back behind me of the falls and after about 2 hours walking (with some stops for photos) I was at the whirlpool. From up high it didn’t seem to be so amazing, it looked like a lake but watching for a few minutes some speedboats tackle the rapids and enter the whirlpool basin I got to see the strong currents that must be in the water. I continued on walking enjoying the lovely wooded shade, and arrived at the Devils hole. Where I found the trail led to some 300 steps in an incredibly bad condition, but I saw a few families climb down so I figured it was safe enough. After climbing down the 300 rocky crumbling steps, I met a very friendly (some might say overly friendly) couple from Niagara, who kindly (?) decided to educate me on the history of the area, pointing out to me some clues left from about 1200 years ago when the falls were here. We examined some rocks which had become smooth from the water and looked at the walls of the gorge that the falls once crashed over. They told me storied of the “haunted” caves, and pointed one or two out to me, but from what I could see the caves were mostly used for underage drinking I reckon. I followed the trail past the devils rapids and on until I had to really start to climb over landslides of rocks and up mucky slopes, which beside the powerful rapids didn’t seem like a smart idea, so I quickly (but carefully) left the waterside trail and walked up the steps at the whirlpool rapids back to the forest walk.

The next day I went to the falls, I understand now why Eleanor Roosevelt said “Poor Niagara” when she was looking at Iguazu falls, Niagara Falls are tiny! Well tiny for waterfalls, it’s sad to think that they will be gone eventually, even with all the anti-erosion work they are doing. I walked around the main land of the Falls, then went on the Maid of the Mist, which was fun as I got to wear a blue plastic poncho and even though we didn’t get as close to the Falls as I wanted to, the mist from the Horseshoe Falls was incredible, it was so dense that the falls were invisible. It felt like what I imagine an angry cloud to feel like, with the roaring sound of the water and then whiteness blinding me of sight. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see any rainbows, but Saturday was to be a nicer day and at the hostel I was assured that there would be rainbows tomorrow, and anyway he reminded me it was Friday night, which meant FIREWORKS!!! A few of us with the hostel owner leading the way to what he called the very best spot for watching the fireworks, (Hint: it’s overlooking the old Aluminum Factory ruins) watched the firework display. It was both a lovely display and a nice place to watch the fireworks from.

Saturday morning I walked back to the falls and this time I got my rainbows!!! I then continued on over to Goat Island and Luna Island. I was able to get much closer to the falls from here. I was standing by the Horseshoe Falls when the wind changed and suddenly I was soaked, as the mist was blown over to the US side instead of the Canadian side where it had been. I then walked back long the river towards Bridal Vail Falls and the American Falls. I stood over Bridal Falls looking down upon the jagged rocks at the bottom and wondered why anyone would even think of going over the falls. I know people mostly tried to cross over the Horseshoe Falls where I don’t think there are jagged rocks waiting to kill (catch?) you but even so. However my next activity was the “Cave of the Winds” where I would get to stand and walk around at the bottom of the Bridal Vail Falls. Well it was amazing! I was glad I wore shorts and the plastic poncho (yellow this time!) and awesomely cool sandals that we could keep! (Lots of people wore them for the whole day, but as they were foamy and not that comfortable I recycled mine into the bins) The water was so cold and strong. Standing in the balcony next to the waterfall it was so loud, then I took a few more steps forward and felt a tiny fraction of the water coming over the rocks drenching me. This was my favourite thing, if people only had time money for one thing on the US side, I highly recommend the “Cave of the Winds” however one huge spoiler alert, there are no caves! NOPE none, it was too dangerous so they were closed and now it’s open air balconies but it’s still an awesomely fantastic activity to do.

On a wet misty Sunday I left the US for the second time on this adventure, and crossed over Rainbow bridge into Canada (the easiest border crossing yet) stopping in the middle of the bridge to take a misty photo or two before walking (and walking and walking) and as it turns out distances and time are shorter both on a map and when you don’t have a heavy backpack on your back!, to my next hostel. That evening I watched the fireworks from the riverside (near the whirlpool basin) which was not as good as spot to see them from. Monday I went exploring the Canadian side of the falls, the view is better as most of the Falls are on the US side it does make viewing them harder, so it was great to be able to see the whole effect. I decided to skip the boat tour as I had done the maid of the mist and just went to do the “Behind the Falls” which is also amazing, although in a different way. The bad side first, they had allocated me a time slot of 3pm. I was in the vicinity by 2pm (shockingly I was early!!!) and wandered around until half past, where I saw a huge crowd standing that the entrance to the behind the falls activity, so I asked the lady who was checking tickets was it time to que up yet and was told, that this was the que for the 1.45pm tickets!!!!!!! So I stepped back and didn’t panic (although I did think it was kind of ridiculous to sell timed tickets to activities that run this far behind schedule!) about the fact the activity was going to close at 5pm. More and more people seem to be inquiring about this too so eventually we were all told just to join the Que. So we queued outside the activity, and then inside, then down some stairs, and then in a room where we got yellow ponchos (different kind of yellow than the ones for Cave of the Winds) and then, well there was some more queuing until I got onto the lift that went down into the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls. So at this point I am really hoping that its worth all the queuing (it’s now 4.07pm) and it was! It’s cool getting to see the water rushing down and feel the spray and hear the noise. I still think the Cave of the Winds is more exciting but this was cool too. Especially outside on the bottom platform, looking up at just how huge the drop of the falls is. I then waited around until the falls were illuminated which was a lovely way to end my time in Niagara, because tomorrow I was off to Toronto!



Toronto



Leaving the hostel with 2 other girls we headed to the bus station around the corner, it was a short trip (only 3 hours) and it was going to be nice to be able to have people to chat to. Once on the bus the driver started going over the safety rules which was fine, then he added his own rules, one smelly food (a liked this rule) and no noise (hmmm, a bus full of people at 11am ok) he had finished his speech about 5 minutes then pulled the bus over, and shouted that he could hear the noise coming from someone’s headphones behind him and he wasn’t going to drive on again until it stopped. That this was our first and only warning and if he heard any more noise he was going to leave us at the side of the road. Slightly scared of the driver, we all turned off everything electronic and sat silently looking out the windows, for the rest of the trip. We stopped to let people off in a small request only stop and the driver made sure we understood that if we hadn’t told him back in Niagara we were not going to be getting off here! The driver got off to unload the authorised bags ONLY!, and everyone on the bus took a deep breath and we all looked at each other, the girls and myself cracked up laughing, then the driver was back and the bus became silent once more. (Even the overnight buses were not this quite!) I was so happy to arrive in Toronto!

I was staying the Kensington/Chinatown area of Toronto, the street is full of street art, murals and shops selling hemp clothes and vegan food. Everyone seems very friendly and the coffee and blueberry muffins in the café nearby are amazing, I don’t know what is in them as they are dairy free gluten free and vegan but they are amazingly tasty. I had some very mixed weather in Toronto, some days were so wet it was miserable walking around so I found a very interesting Shoe museum where the history of the world was displayed through the changing shoes, from plant based fibrous sandals to the shoes we have today, and there was even an exhibit dedicated to the changing of men’s fashion, where high heels were once common and then not common and now regarded as a fetish. It was interesting and a nice way to spend a rainy morning, it had dried up by 3pm luckily and I was able to go on a walking tour of the downtown buildings, some of which are lovely. An old church with an organ that has over 8000 pipes, the old town hall where the architect who had taken far longer than expected and cost the city to much money building the town hall was refused his name on the building, got the stonemasons to put his name into the building, along the top of the building the following sentence is visible, "EJ LENNOX ARCHITECT AD 1898". Also Massey Hall, a music venue that was built originally so people could listen to choral music, the man who had financed the building (Massey) didn’t allow alcohol on the premises for 100 years, so the bar was only open in 1994. Even if the guide was only making up stories or passing on legends it was an enjoyable tour.

The jazz festival was still on when I was in Toronto and spent some time wandering about listening to the music. One sunny day I took the ferry boat to Toronto Island, I got a lovely view of the Toronto skyline and then got to see the beautiful island, have a lovely picnic lunch on the beach, (I avoided the nudist beach!) and walk around the islands, before getting the ferry back that evening. Another dry day I walked along the water front, finding the city beach and then I followed some signs to an old fort, which was interesting. In the visitor centre they had a display of WW1 memorabilia, telling a brief history of the regular people in the war. I then got to explore some of the building in the old fort, and watched a musket firing demonstration. I saw the CN tower, but I didn’t go inside it because most days it was wet and the viewing balcony was covered in mist so I figured it a waste of money going up there if I could see anything. I also saw the Casa Loma (Spanish for Hill House), a huge castle house high on a hill, it looked like a house from a Disney movie. Parts of this estate have been used in films, such in the X-Men movies it is the mutant school. Regretfully the day I wanted to go there, it was closed for a wedding so I didn’t get to see it up close. I also got to see the Pride parade and some of the open air concerts. Due to the rain some of the parades were either cancelled or shortened but everyone still seemed to have great fun.

I visited St Lawrence market place and the distillery, which were both cool funky areas. St Lawrence market is full of vegetables and fish and in the other building I found antiques. The distillery area had lots of restaurants and cafés, where as I sipped my iced coffee I enjoyed some live jazz music. A lot of movies set in the US are filmed in Toronto as it is cheaper, on a tour we did see a movie crew but couldn’t figure out what they were doing. Other than sitting on a grassy area drinking coffee and smoking surrounded by their camera equipment. If you see a film set in the US with tram lines either the overhead electric power lines or the tracks, that are not part of the film chances are it was filmed in Toronto and someone forgot to remove these in the editing room. I enjoyed Toronto but soon it was time to move to Montreal.

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