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Published: September 28th 2006
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We had arrived in Toronto at nearly midnight. We couldn’t find where our transfer bus to the hotel was and no one was answering the phone at the hotel. When we did find the bus stop we were told the bus would be at least an hour so we had to wait. We were really happy to get to the hotel when we did finally arrive.
So we are now refreshed from our travels and heading for the city itself. We had caught the free hotel transfer bus back to the airport and were going in from there. What a nightmare. The bus was simple enough though the driver only appeared to give me one ticket for the two of us. At the subway station there were no employees to tell you where to go, no advice on the walls, nothing that would hint to how we got a ticket or whether we even needed one. There was just a red machine at the top of the stairs with a button. I pressed it and it spat out a ticket stating it was valid at this station. Confused we just got on the train and decided to plead ignorance which
after all was justified.
Once we had dropped our bags at the hotel - we were too early to check in - we went straight to the most obvious sight in the city - the CN tower. I arrived just as I remembered I didn’t have my camera with me so we had to scrap that idea and have a look around the town. We went down to the waterfront which was pleasant, though no seaplanes coming in and out like in Vancouver.
We returned the next day (after spending much of the day looking for jobs on the internet - reality is starting to come close) to the tower to see the view from “the worlds tallest free standing structure” and according to the blurb the world’s tallest building. This was a bit of a surprise as we had seen the world’s tallest building in Kuala Lumpur and that didn’t even turn out to be the tallest. It’s clear that there are some disagreements over definitions here and whether you include the antennae or not so we decided to leave it. Lets just say it is very tall. The view though is only partial as some of
the observation deck is taken up by a restaurant so you can’t go there if you are not eating. There is a great glass floor though that lets you stand and look down between your feet which is pretty cool. On balance though we decided the Sydney tower was better.
That evening we took the opportunity to visit the Art Gallery of Ontario as it was my favourite price - free. This was a bit of a disappoint though as most of the galleries are closed for refurbishment. There were a few nice pieces though but at risk of being called a philistine you can keep all the Henry Moore sculpture (Philistine - Lins).
The next day it was time for the main event - the Niagara Falls tour. We booked on a bus using a flyer we picked up at a hostel. We were told to met the bus in the centre of town and to look out for an old school bus. Sure enough right on queue and graphitised school bus like you see on the movies turned up. The driver looked just like Otto from the Simpsons. “Hey guy’s hop on.” Disappointingly he sounded Canadian
but he did act just like Otto. He didn’t seem to notice. The bus drove around town picking up people from various youth hostels before turning out of town.
Our fist stop was a winery. I had no idea Canada produced wine but the star of their show was ice wine. This is a really sweet wine that is produced by leaving the grapes on the vine until the temperature hits about -15 C and then sending some poor sap out to harvest them at 3am. I am really not a big fan of sweet wine but a little sip of this was quite nice. Next we reached the falls themselves and Otto parked the bus illegally so we could get a good picture from above. The volume of water going over the falls was amazing just raw power. Next was our boat trip on the world famous Maid of the Mist. We dressed up in the blue rain macs and got ready for the one tourist attraction it is guaranteed to rain on. The falls are the biggest by volume of water going over it in the world and it is estimated that 20% of the worlds fresh
Vinyard
Grapes for ice wine water goes over them. The falls used to move by nearly 10 feet a year - eroding back along the gorge but due to hydro-electric schemes and other engineering works it now only moves a couple of inches. The trip was brief but well worth it. As we came off the boat we bumped into our old flat mates from Sydney, Marc and Tania! It wasn’t quite as amazing as it sounds as we did know they were in the area but it was nice to see them, but they were on a different tour and had to get on so we arranged to catch up in Toronto the next day.
The development around Niagara has built up to offer the tourist all sorts of ways to spend their money and I have to sat the main strip is very reminiscent of Blackpool. We decided to go and see one of the attractions though which is the journey behind the falls. They have actually tunnelled behind the falls just so you stand even closer to the water. In fact when the tunnels were built they went beyond where the falls were and as the falls eroded back they were
exposed. Very forward thinking! The power of the water really does thunder past you as you stand watching it fall. It is quite awe inspiring.
Back on the bus we continued our tour up to the Niagara whirlpool. What can I say the water was definitely going around in a circle but it is no movie set whirlpool as you imagine it. It just kinda glides around and is an anticlimax after the falls themselves. Onwards we stopped in Niagara-by-the-Lake which was a quaint little town that was clearly kept pretty for the tourists. There wasn’t much to see there and our fellow tourees obviously got bored because they had been to the off licence and bought some drinks for the trip home. Lots of them! They sang, they shouted, they danced, they gave three cheers to the happy newly weds. It was quite a long trip back!
As the last person bar us got off the bus the driver asked us about our plans for the evening. We had planned to go back to the hotel and microwave some food. “You don’t want to do that. I know this great place in Chinatown - really cheap. I
Niagra 1
That's a lot of water love it but I can’t go back, since the last time we went my friends and I kinda left without paying.” He dropped us in Chinatown and we gave it a shot, though we paid.
The next day we met Marc and Tania at their hostel and cruised around town. We went for some beers, we walked, had some more beers, and ended up in a great Vietnamese place and had the cheapest meal ever. It was great!
It was all too soon our last day in Toronto and we had to catch the bus to Montreal. Greyhound had assured us they had an overnight service though they were pretty vacant so we checked out the times at the bus station. It turns out that the midnight service and the one before that wasn’t running, so we had to get the 6:30pm service arriving in Montreal at 5am. It was a little earlier than we anticipated but it would do. To fill in the time until departure we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. Again this museum was undergoing a lot of refurbishment and lots of the galleries were closed. I also suspect we are suffering museum overload
so I’m sure it is great museum - it just felt a bit samey. Lindsay was kept entertained by the furnishings and ceramics displays. But it did it’s job and soon it was time to be catching that night bus to our last stop in Canada - Montreal.
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