Intro Picture

Intro Picture
Hi! My name is Anne. Welcome to my traveling blog! Read the latest stories below or check out the list of previous stories in the blog archive on the right!

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Niagara Falls and beyond

So after my previous post I spent a second night at the house of the generous family that took me in.
I was taken along on a trip to visit some wineries in the area, which was really nice.
Some pictures:




Afterwards I was even taken all the way to the Niagara Falls, which was really awesome!
I booked a hotel there, and spent about two nights there, walking around taking pictures and making video's.



The falls are an amazing sight. One of them is a huge wall of water barreling down onto the rocks below, better known as the American Falls.
The other part of the Niagara are the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, and it looks like it's name would suggest: it makes a large U-shape.
The mist that floats upward from the Horseshoe Falls almost feels like rain the closer you get, if the wind blows your way. When standing at the bottom of it during the 'Journey behind the falls'  tour or even ' worse' , ride the Maiden of the Mist down below, you get absolutely soaking wet.
They give you a rain poncho, but it doesn't do much, I can assure you! Thankfully my camera is waterproof in it's case, and the sun was out and shining so within no time I was dry again!
With the sun shining and the weather being as warm as it was, you'd almost go in a second time just to cool down!

Here's a video of me on the Maid of the Mist, touring the Falls!



On my second day (and last night) I spent the evening walking around through the busiest street in the centre of the city. It was filled with neon lights and tourist traps, including various wax museums of various theme's (from movie monsters to famous criminals, and even a metal museum!), and it was pretty interesting to look around.
But what I was really waiting on was for the sun to go down, and the Falls to be lighted up in the darkness, and after a while they were.
When I passed the last street and found myself back at the Great Gorge, the Falls were showing all kinds of colours, from pink to blue, to yellow and green.
One would think of it as a travesty if it wasn't completely unnoticeable by day, and you wouldnt be able to see the falls at night anyway, so the end result was very pleasing to the eye.

The falls by night

The city of Niagara Falls by night

After I spent my last night at the hotel in Niagara Falls I shouldered my pack again, and walked past the Falls one last time on my way to Fort Erie, which is where I am now.
I got a ride out of the park at Niagara from an older retired gentleman who spent his life working in construction. I got out at a place that I believe was called Chippawa, which turned out to be a pretty bad spod to get any more rides.
By looking around all I saw were a lot of elderly people, who are generally very unlikely to pick you up (and naturally so, I would say). So I spent an hour or two standing by the side of the road, contemplating if I should walk or not.
Thankfully someone came to my rescue, and I had fixed myself another ride! In the car were sitting two men which I guess were somewhere in their thirties, one of them working on a transport ship carrying goods across the Great Lakes, the other said he worked as a nanny and so I suppose would rather not really tell me what it was he did. I had a bit of trouble understanding him, but had a nice chat with the other fellow. They were simply touring around, killing the time by reading from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, and had nothing very special or important to do.
So they ended up taking me to a few stores to get me some fuel for my cooking kit, and I bought some beer as well. Afterwards they took me to Windmill Point Park right outside of Fort Erie, to spend the night.
This is where I ran into trouble.

I had gotten a new prepaid creditcard right before leaving for Canada, and while it had worked at the hotel in Niagara Falls where it had been swiped, it refused my PIN code here.
I had spent the most of my spare money I had on me on the beers and fuel I bought, and now found myself without money, or at least without access to my money, untill I had managed to phone the helpdesk, whom could give me a new PIN code on my online account, but who were closed for the weekend.
That day was friday, so I had two days to spend which I could not pay for yet. Thankfully the boss of the campsite was very understanding and accomodating, and he allowed me to pay afterward.
So today, after working as a volunteer on a fishing event on the campsite yesterday, I find myself in the Fort Erie library and have now finally fixed my creditcard. (funny note: I had to get up at 4 o' clock in the night in order to phone the company my creditcard belongs to, in order to deal with the difference in time!)
While I was bummed out at first to be 'stuck', I had a very nice few days there and have thoroughly enjoyed my time thanks to the awesome staff on site.




 Epic Meal Time! (not so much)

That's more like it!

But tomorrow it will be time to leave and continue my journey, which I have decided will take me along the Lake Erie shore, so I can set up camp at night and have a nice swim after a hot sweaty day.
Afterwards I am most likely to go up North along the Lake Huron coast, and I might try to do some island hopping across what I believe are called the Manitoulin Islands.
I don't know how long it will take me to get there, but I'll find out! :)

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