Travelogue Canada 3: Niagara Falls

NIAGARA FALLS

28 – 29 October 2009

So you’d think I have nothing to say seeing as I spent the whole day in transit, right? wrong!

These amazing things happened before we left Churchill at 09h15:

  • (no surprises) I woke up before the alarm (set for 07h00) at 06h15. was showered, dressed, packed and ready ridiculously early.
  • Ate almost my body weight in bacon with breakfast. Sacrificed the French toast to make space seeing as Doug had gone out of his way to get 20 lbs (whatever that is in real weight) for this morning as he’d noticed liked it so much (oh yes, and I complained repeatedly because there was none yesterday). Have also taken to drowning breakfast in syrup (like in the proportions I have gravy with a roast dinner!), which is a habit I might have to try and leave in Canada.
  • We got a photo of Doug next to one of the (many) yellow school busses so you can see what a Small Town Super Hero looks like
  • We intended to get more sunrise photos (sunrise is at a very civilised 08h20 or so), but it was too misty 🙁
  • I took a trot to the Eskimo museum (which we still muse over why it’s not called the Inuit Museum – see previous travelogue) to purchase a mini polar bear plush. Made sense seeing as I have so many that I actually have one from the home of the PB. Of course, keeping to convention of naming them after where I get them, have named him Churchill.

Nothing remarkable about Churchill Airport.

Great snack box on the plane though. Croissant with hickory type ham with lettuce (which is rare for these parts – considering the weather, it’s considered an exotic and goes for in the region of $9.50 a head!!). There was a marble Cheddar cheese stick in the box which I broke up and stuck on the croissant. GENIUS! There was also a bag of small orange deathsticks (baby carrots, which I refuse to eat since the attempted murder incident of circa 1981 where I almost choked to death on one. Granted, I used to swallow them whole because my Gran insisted I eat them and I couldn’t bear the taste. But still).

Calm Air (the airline that did our Winnipeg – Churchill return flights) managed to break my suitcase. The zip that works the expander section, so went to report that. Expected resistance seeing as the damage isn’t critical to the function of the suitcase, but they called the area supervisor who said that I can get it fixed at home and send her the bill and she’ll reimburse. Very civilised. So i complimented her on their sandwiches and said I’ll be in touch! :o)

Winnipeg airport turned out to offer me the most amazing experience – HARVEY’S!! the best burger I think I’ve ever had! The bacon cheddar 3 ringer burger (the 3 rings are battered deep fried onion rings). Awesome burger, similar to Velskoen style patty with lettuce, onion, tomato, ketchup, mayo and mustard. 6 stars!!

Uneventful flight (buy-your-own catering. Bummer)

And then was back in Toronto. Managed to find the hostel no probs (back in room #32, the ‘Wayne Gretsky’). Worked the public transport like an old pro :o)

It would be off to Niagara then next day, and then to London and Wales!!

THURSDAY

Niagara was cool. I had arranged a ticket for an organised coach tour, so there was not much to do except show up and get on the bus. Which I did.

I was pleasantly surprised at how pretty the town of Niagara is. The bus stopped so we could have a wander up and down the streets, get snacks, have a bio break and take some snaps. It was quite lonely doing it on my own; I am not a very good solo traveller.

The Niagara Falls experience was less of a tour and more of an ‘self-guide with a raincoat’ vibe. You can approach the viewing decks within your own limits, on the understanding that the closer you get, the better the view, but the more you are going to be ‘one with the water’.

Glad I did it, seeing as it’s a big ‘natural wonder’ deal ‘n all. Lots of falling water but not enamoured by the drenching of close-up shots… especially seeing as it was a foggy day so there was limited WOW photo potential.

Did manage to achieve one of my personal Canadian Bucket List goals by finally finding an actualfactual Wendy’s!! had the Baconator. 3 words: in. cred. ible. sort of like a double McD’s 1/4 pounder, with double cheese and a packet of bacon. No regrets, was TOTALLY worth the wait. (And took pics, so don’t rely on imagination because it’ll so understate!)

Got to the airport well in time.

Got stuck next to a seat-leech on the plane, which made for a world of pain. She not only took over the armrest (we were ‘sposed to be sharing) but also had impossibly accurate elbows, that have seek-and-destroy function for my (poor unsuspecting) ribs. Ended up leaning almost entirely in the aisle, meaning that every moving body in the aisle bumped my foot/knee/elbow/head as they passed and I dozed in 5-7.5 min spells over the (already challenging) 3.5 hours set aside for sleepy time.

Not even the chicken breast with creamy sweet mustard sauce and frilly noodles could lift spirits. Although the fact that my neighbour is a vegetarian and had forgotten to order special meal so was reduced to a dinner of bread rolls alone did marginally *evil laugh*

Nevermind, just needed to get some shut eye and I’d be waking up in London… on my way to Wales!