Falling Waters of Niagra

I would like to preface this post with ... sorry its taken me so long, but I'm sure you'll get over it. I'm going to go a little differently on this one. And rather than tell you what I saw first, I'm going to say what I thought I was going to see.

I thought I would be seeing huge waterfalls nessled in amongst trees, with a few hotels around to keep the tourists happy. I thought it would be all about the beauty and power of nature. All at once awe inspiring and beautiful. I thought I would be able to go on a boat right up next to the falls, get myself, and my camera soaking wet, before cursing and cussing a broken camera. But all this was not to be. Don't get me wrong the falls are still amazing, breath taking, and awe inspiring all at the same time. But I can't help but feel tourism has in no small way dimished the overall appeal of the place. I hadn't slept much the night before my train ride, or much on the train, and given is was pouring with rain, and freezing cold I decided to forgo my morning trip to the falls, and instead relax in the hostel reading a book. Got a bit of sleep too. When I woke up it was still overcast but at least the rain was gone. Putting on as many layers as I could without turning myself into the Michelin man, I took a step out the hostel, and given I couldn't see the falls, I had no idea where to go. Against the very nature of everything it means to be male, I decided to ask for directions. Now before I hear those cries of male anguish, I would just like to say that if I hadn't, I would have been walking for some 5 hours before I found anything. Moving right along. Even heading in the right direction it was still close to a 45min walk to the first part of the falls, the American Falls. Even at this time of year, (winter) with a large amount of ice on the river... there was still a steady flow going over the American falls. When I say steady I mean some ridiculous amount in the order of hundreds of thousands of gallons. I took the obligatory hundred or so photos, as my fingers started to turn numb, and my toes began to drop off. Then I headed up Clifton the street, which appeared to be the main entertainment/food area. I couldn't help but feel like I was in an amusment park. Ripleys had a huge pressence in the area. Not content with just a museum, they had to have a 4D ride, and something else which I can't remember. What more could I do, I bought a ticket, and started my Ripleys Believe it or Not Adventure. First off was the 4D ride. You wouldn't want to get motion sickness for this one. The chairs you sit in move an incredible 8 ways...can you believe it... 8 ways, not just up and down...or left and right, but combinations of those... And the 3D animation on the screen, superb, and those sexy 3D glasses they make you wear. I was in heaven...no really I was... did that sound sarcastic enough? If not you'll have to pretend. And the museum is exactly the same no matter which part of the world you are in. But after this I headed to an icecream shop, and got some huge chocolate thing. By this time it was getting late, so I headed home, thankyou Ipod for providing music for the journey. Headed down to the common room when I got back to the hostel, met a couple of kiwi's who it turns out had made the acquaintence of Bruce from Winnipeg. Small world. Also had a chat with a British couple who had been working in whistler over the winter. They had some interesting stories about the land lord, and the pay scale. The average pay at Whistler is $8/hr. Not really the place to make a fortune...but I don't think thats why people go there.

The next day was much better weather, sunny, still a little cold, but alot better for fall viewing. I headed to the falls in the morning to have a look around...mostly at the canadian end, which I didn't go to the day before. The canadian end is the horseshoe falls, the really big ones you see in all the photos. Now the lots of gallons of water going over the other part of the falls is considerably less than the amount going over the horseshoe falls. There have been numerous attempts by stupid people to go over the falls in barrels, and other contraptions. Some successfully, others not so. Only one person has involuntarily gone over and lived to tell the tale. This person was a yound lad, who went over in only his boardies and a couple of little floaties. Somehow he survived. After a walk through the tourist shops right near the falls, I headed into the falls themselves...or at least a couple of tunnels underneath, that gave you a few square feet of falling water. The walls have a usual panels telling you all this useful info about the falls. Seems in summer the water going over the falls doubles in amount. After this little foray I headed back for some lunch, then Keiko messaged me to say she had got the job, and we decided to go out for dinner to celebrate. But first given she hadn't actually seen the falls, we wandered back down there for a quick look see. After getting a tad wet from the spray we headed for a walk up Clifton street to find a place to have some dinner. Didn't find anywhere or a while, which was good because I'd forgotten I had no money. After a while we ended up finding an ATM that did take an Australian card, turns out it was in the casino. Anyway this left us quite a walk from Clifton street, so we wandered in that general direction for a while, end eventually found a pub/eatery, which had a nice assortment, so we ordered a couple of beers, and some food, I had a Fajita Stack, came out on this multi layered serving contraption, tasted alright... After dinner we walked a bit more along clifton, then decide to go home. We didn't know exactly how to get back to her place, but found it eventually, after trying several houses in the street she found the right one, and we parted ways. I walked home through the not so savory area, or at least it felt that way.

My final day in Niagra, I had a couple of things on my list, one was to head to the butterfly place... eh its was free, and I didn't feel like seeing the falls again. The other was the whirlpool, which is a section of the river down further from the falls. The story goes that you can be sucked under and pinned to the bottom of the whirlpool for days, I decided I wouldn't try it today, but maybe another time. But the walk to the butterfly place took me an hour and a half, and the return a little less. Nice walk though...all in all I covered 15-20kms so was quite happy with that. One of the girls at the butterful place...she must have been 10 if that... was absolutely terrified of them... Why would you take you child there when you know that bugs, and butterflies are such a terrifying thing for her.

Anywho I made it back to the hostel, and then to the trainstation on time... then headed to T. again. More on that later.

Narco out