Another early rise to catch our train. We had a train to catch from Toronto to Niagara Falls, so we decided to tour around the Toronto city.
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| Sleep deprived and yet excited |
A few photos of the interior of their confusing train station.
And then we were smack bang in the middle of the city
Look at all the buildings and hotdog stands!
We had initially planned out to visit their most touristy locations of the city, but the map didn't seem to match anything they had on the actual location. We just ended up walking for about 4 - 5 hours aimlessly to see anything other than shops.
Some Chinese Yoga women and Hooters!
Another thing we noticed about Toronto is that there are no public water fountains. It didn't help that we had so many bags to carry around under the scorching heat. Which lead us on a search for a water fountain to fill up our bottles. But nothing. Don't Canadians like water?
At some point in the afternoon, everyone was herded around at the park next to the harbour, so we trailed them with hopes to find some drinking water. And this is what we saw.
I'm looking distraught and bothered with a fake smile. We had been dehydrated for about 6 hours at this point. I was ready to pass out and cuss at all kinds of gods. We noticed another herd of people heading in another direction. We trudged along. We saw a fair. NO WATER! Not even ridiculously expensive bottled tap water. My face turned from red to white.
Eventually after being pushed and shoved from long lines into cafes (I think this was their public holiday and not many shops were open) we found a little convenience shop miles away from where we were. We bought a 2L bottle and gulped it all down.
Then it was time to get on the train again for Niagara Falls Independence Day fireworks! Everywhere in Toronto was crowded and you have to get into absurdly long lines to do anything. Another long line to get on the train. Look how happy everyone seemed to be in that line!
Welcome to Niagara Falls, Ontario! (Oh, thank you)
The taxi driver we called for was super friendly. His name is Bill from Elite Taxi company. He gave us a quick, but thorough tour of the town before we arrived at our hotel.
We booked our room at Glengate Hotel through Orbitz. It was US$79 per night. It wasn't luxurious, but it had everything we needed, and it was pretty close to everything around there.
We quickly detached our bags from ourselves, had a shower, drank some water and headed out for the fireworks! Ooh so exciting!
Bill had told us that everything in this town was always open till 3 - 5 am in the morning. And he was absolutely right. I'm sure we arrived at about 7pm, and all the shops and restaurants appeared as if they were just opening. We headed over to the falls with our camera for some hardcore snapshot action!
This night was amazing. The vastness of these waterfalls blew my mind. I had never seen anything that big. The postcards you see of Niagara Falls don't do them any justice. The fireworks were being done by both sides of the border too, so it enhanced the night even more. They had blocked off half of the bridge for the fireworks (for safety) so the rest of the bridge was knitted with people. If you're worried about personal space, Niagara Falls isn't the place for you.
There was one Chinese lady who continued to push her way in through layers of crowds to get to the good spot of the bridge. She bruised Dan's arm with her hand bag I think. I wanted to push her off the bridge but she disappeared when the fireworks ended.
At 12am? It was our dinner time. We went into Romano's Macaroni Grill. I am not hyperlinking because the service at this place was GODAWFUL. They seated us near the back door, and set WAX PAPER on our table! The food was alright. Dan had Lobster Ravioli which was really good. My Chicken Parmigiana was below average.
The waiters milled about gossiping among themselves when they weren't dragging rubbish bags past us WHILE we were dining. Absolutely disgusting. I shall never return! They didn't greet us when we left. I snagged 2 handfuls of mint from their counter as a result.
After dinner, we walked over to their glowing Casino.
Next morning, we got up and decided to pig out at the AlMacs Breakfast Buffet! ($6.99 per person)
This was my third serving.
After ballooning ourselves with 3 servings of breakfast we went and bought a few gifts for the family, gout ourselves "Canada, eh?" T-shirts and walked back to the bridge to get soaked.
We got tickets for Maid of the Mist, and got into a line (which lasted about half hour).
We finally made it onboard, but on their signature blue poncho, and got our camera ready.
I don't think we wern't the only ones unaware of how misty it was going to be. We were drenched when it went near the falls. The ones who were at the front of the boat had to move back because of the breeze and water pouring into the boat.
Once the misty boat trip was over, we headed over to the main street to dry ourselves in the heat.
And the main street in Niagara Falls looks exactly like a theme park.
So, of course we went crazy with our camera.
After being hyper all morning and afternoon, we had a rest at the nearest park around and left the wild street to a more subtle and quiet pizza place "Coco's"
We ordered salads and an artichoke pizza to share.
And then it was time for us to retire to bed. In a few hours after that we had to wake up in the middle of the night to WALK over the border, get a cab to the airport where we take off for NEW YORK!
Good bye, Niagara Falls. We had some good times, you and I.
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