Niagara Falls

It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally managed to get my hands on the photos of when I went to visit Niagara Falls.

My camera decided not to work that day, but luckily enough a friend who I was with that day was kind enough to let me use his photos!

Our day comprised of a wine tasting session at one of Ontario’s vineyards (if you have a sweet tooth when it comes to wine, then I’d highly recommend ice-wine!) then we manged to see the world’s biggest natural whirlpool, a memorial to the battle of 1812, Niagara-on-the-lake (a lovely little village comprising of quite a few British shops! I got a pastie, a Caramac and Lucozade there… cracking lunch!) and finally was able to visit Niagara Falls itself and ride the famous ‘maid of the mist’ boat ride.

Here are some of the photos from my buddy’s camera:

Ontario Part 1: Toronto, The Falls and Poutine

Firstly, apologies for my lack of blogging since I have got to Canada, a combination of (a lot of) socializing, having no internet, and using the most temperamental camera ever has made it quite difficult for me to post anything!

However now I am at a more ‘settled’ phase (at least for the next couple of months) hopefully that will make things a lot easier! So… let’s start at the beginning…

– x –

The CN Tower

After about 8 hours in the air, I finally landed in Toronto, Canada. My first port of call was to make my way to the hostel where I’d be staying for the first couple of nights.

Although a great place to meet other like-minded traveling folk, as well as an awesome place for socializing (as it has it’s own bar) it wasn’t the greatest place to get a good nights sleep, which was what I was definitely in need of after my first ever case of jet lag! After the first couple of days exploring and getting our bearings around downtown Toronto (the location of the CN Tower, and the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Stadium) a group of us managed to get a place in one of the University of Toronto halls of residence, and with it a good nights sleep!

Blue Jays Stadium

The next couple of weeks were spent exploring the city that many of the group would call home for the next few months, as well as exploring the new pubs, and watching the world cup (which was surprisingly popular we found out).

Amongst all this I managed to be able to see Niagara Falls for the first time, as well as do a host of other things on the same day. Wine tasting, seeing the world’s biggest natural whirlpool, and visiting a village (with British shops!) called Niagara-on-the-lake were just a few of the things we experienced on that day.

<Pics coming soon for this day, my camera decided it didn’t want to work>

So other than the tax and drinking laws (which were a little confusing at first) it’s been an awesome experience so far, and I intend to keep that up whilst I’m out here. And even though it’s very difficult to get a proper cup of tea here (I’ve had 2 since arriving) the Canadians do have something that almost makes up for it: Poutine. It consists of chips, gravy and cheese (the ‘proper’ poutine uses cheese curds, but I prefer just cheese), and next time I go to the chippy in England… that’s the way I’m going! You know you’re going to have a good time in a country when that’s their national dish!

Poutine