Hello, I’m not dead (yet). I just came back from a two-day, one-night trip to Niagara Falls. Seven of us left Toronto early last Friday morning and arrived in the Falls area at around 11 am. We had 3 hours to do whatever we wanted before we had to check-in at our hostel, so we each bought an Adventure Pass for admission to several of Niagara’s attractions. We started off at the Journey Behind the Falls, which basically involved walking around the tunnels behind the Horseshoe Falls (note: Niagara Falls is actually made up of 3 different waterfalls – the Bridal Veil Falls, the American Cataract, and the Horseshoe Falls. The first 2 belong to the U.S., while the largest and most famous one belongs to Canada.) and then onto an observation platform very near the actual waterfall. It was a very hot day, so getting sprayed by cool, clean water at the observation platform was a very welcome experience. Afterwards, we went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which brought us very close to the American Cataract and the Horseshoe Falls. We got even wetter on the boat then we did in the tunnels (but both had raincoats provided), which was very fun. Because of our relatively slow pace (mostly due to the Singaporeans’ incessant picture-taking), we didn’t have time to do anything else in those 3 hours, so we went to check-in first before deciding to head back to the Falls and finish the rest of the attractions. Our next stop was the Whirlpool Aero Car ride, which was essentially an oversized open-air cable car that carries people from one end of Niagara Gorge to another and provides a bird’s-eye view of the supposedly famous (even though I’ve never heard of it before) Niagara Whirlpool. I couldn’t really tell where the whirlpool was, mostly because I was expecting something like the whirlpool in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, but I’m just glad my acrophobia decided to leave me alone for a short while. The last place we visited was the Butterfly Conservatory, which is pretty self-explanatory; it was a greenhouse with a rainforest-like setting and loads of butterflies. I find it kinda sad that 4 of the Singaporeans (all girls) were actually afraid of butterflies, so much so that 2 of them decided to wait outside because they kept shrieking every time a butterfly even just twitched in their general direction. Oh well, their loss. We were supposed to go to the factory outlet mall after that, but we didn’t have enough time because the bus we had tickets for ended at 6 pm. We just decided to have dinner and check out Souvenir City, which was a large (but very overpriced) store that sells Canadian souvenirs. After that, we went with the rest of the people staying in our hostel to watch the fireworks over the Falls. It was nothing compared to fireworks in the Philippines during New Year, but I suppose that’s an unfair comparison since this wasn’t a large-scale event or anything. The people from our hostel invited us to go drinking after the fireworks, but we declined because some of us wanted to wake up early to watch the sunrise (obviously, I wasn’t one of them). We decided to wander around the tourist town near the Falls before heading back to the hostel. The real name of the town is Clifton Hill, but the tour guide who brought us to Niagara called it “Tacky Town” and said we had to see it to believe it. I personally believe “tacky” is an understatement. If you’ve ever been to Las Vegas, Universal Studios, Disneyland or even Enchanted Kingdom, imagine a town that looks exactly like an oversized theme park. That’s Tacky Town: flashing lights, glaring neon signs, and huge statues of various movie or cartoon characters. The place had wax museums (note: more than one), haunted houses, gaming arcades, bars, cheap motels, etc. etc. etc. And not to mention the huge casino that was in a building similar to CN Tower (the tallest building in North America). Examples of the places in Tacky Town include: Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, Guinness Book of World Records Museum, Dracula’s Haunted House, Frankenstein’s Haunted House, World Wrestling Entertainment Retail Store (complete with a sudden-drop thrill ride), and Marvel Superheroes Gaming Arcade. It was an incredible contrast to the peaceful, unsullied natural wonder that is Niagara Falls. I suppose, like everything else, tourism has its pros and cons.
We had a relatively less exciting but still enjoyable day today. We went shopping at the factory outlet mall after breakfast, but I didn’t buy much because I kept thinking that all those things would be much cheaper in the Philippines. I only bought a duffel bag because I need more room in my luggage for souvenirs, but my new bag is so sosyal (Samsonite pa talaga) because there weren’t any other brands. Everyone else bought clothes, which I wanted to do too; I found a pair of Capri pants that I liked but decided not to buy because I’m stingy. After shopping, our tour guide picked us up at the hostel and brought us to Niagara By The Lake, a small town at the end of the Niagara River. It was a quaint little town, with most of its buildings in 19th Century style, and was very pretty overall; our tour guide told us that everyone in the town (whether home-owners, businesses, or government officials) really make an effort to have beautiful gardens, so there were well-kept lawns and trees and flowers everywhere. We bought some more souvenirs there, and then went on to visit a winery. The place allows people to taste certain kinds of red and white wine for free, so we were understandably excited about it. The one wine that wasn’t free, however, was the ice wine. Canada is apparently famous for ice wine, which is made by harvesting grapes in the middle of winter; the grapes are pressed immediately, which results in wines with high sugar content (since most of the water in the grapes is frozen). Even though we had to pay to taste it, we couldn’t resist trying the ice wine, and it really is very sweet. I liked it, though, and I usually don’t like wine. I ended up buying a large bottle for my dad (and for me, of course) and a small bottle for my brother. And that concluded our Niagara adventure.
boyfriend showed you a good time.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callista
