Canada

We're short on time again, and in a very sweaty, but very friendly internet cafe above a Burger King in the middle of Toronto. Crazily, we're not too far from being up-to-date! We spent 3 days in Niagara falls after New York, then a further 3 days in Toronto, soaking up the culture (and the beer!). We'll give you a brief insight into what we've been doing in this laid-back and highly interesting country.

New York is a big place. The city is, of course, one of the largest in the US, but New York State is also rather big. Not that we knew this when we got on the train. I'd seen a map or two of the area and guessed it couldn't take that long to travel across to Niagara... three or four hours maybe... so when the conductor informed us we'd be pulling into our destination some 10 hours later, we were shocked to say the least! However, we had our Ipods, and we had Kiefer Sutherland in 24 to keep us occupied, so we were okay.

(Kate takes over typing duties here....apologies for the spellings - it's the dodgy keyboard, I swear!)

It didn't really help matters that we hadn't thought to check where the Canadian border actually was before we got there so when the train pulled in to a desolate building site with the sun going down we were slightly panicked! Thankfully, there was a handily placed cabbie touting for business - ordinarily we would be annoyed at such shameless self-promotion but this time we thanked other people's gods and got in!

A quick $13.10 cab ride and we were at the Whirlpool Bridge, which connects America and Canada. The first Canadians we saw were the two drunken guys staggering ahead of us, singing anti-American songs (from what we could gather they may or may not have been thrown out of an American bar and were returning home)! They thought we were also American so we came in for a small amount of light-hearted abuse before they let us leave! The border guard seemed unphased by our drunken friends telling him we were smuggling drugs and he let us pass without a smile or any words of welcome!

Ok, on to Niagara: yet again I have wasted time rambling (me?! write too much...) I'll let Andrew do the talking for a while...

So, after managing not to get strip searched by the Canadian authorities, we crossed the border and went in search of our hotel. Again, our preparation was suprisingly lax, having only the address in hand and the vague idea that Kate thought it was two roads back from the front or something...maybe.. This added to our lack of desire to ask for help from the locals ensured a fun hike around the town at nightfall. Finally, after twenty or so minutes of walking with our increasingly heavy rucksacks, we caved and asked for help at the Hilton, which we thought had to be close to our Days Inn. As it turns out, there are 6 Days Inn in Niagara and none of them were near the Hilton. They were, however, near the bridge we crossed some thirty minutes previously... how we laughed... then promptly stopped laughing as our straps dug into our shoulders further and made us want to cry. Anyway, after about another thirty minutes of treking around the town, we made it through the haze of neon that makes up most of Niagara, and were greeted by a very friendly receptionist at our hotel. Despite it being nearly 10pm, she was genial and very helpful. We were doubly relieved when we entered our room to find it immaculate and very spacious. For less than 35 quid a night, it far exceeded our expectations!

So as not to bore, and so we still save something for our memoirs, I'll hand back over to Kate who will summerise what we did!

As you'd expect, and we ourselves expected, we did the Maid of the Mist and got very, very, very wet! It was fun and we kept the ponchos for Disneyland!! Then we headed underground and did the Journey Behind the Falls which basically involved standing in a cold cave looking out into some rushing water! Cool but no great photo opportunities!

Apart from those gems, we also did the neon bits! The Skylon Tower which over looks the falls was very pretty at night...we went to a 4D film with Leslie Nielsen in (Canada's best export!) and we had to do the casino since we got the bug in Atlantic City! All of which was exciting and enjoyable!

Thanks to the helpful Robert on the front desk, we booked a Greyhound to take us to Toronto after three days and we were loath to leave the happy little ball of tackiness that is Niagara - especially in a coach but it was cheaper than the train!

In Toronto we didn't really know what to do...we had 3 days to fill and only the CN tower in mind but we've done quite a lot! We went to the harbour and saw out onto Lake Ontario which was gorgeous! Went to the Steam Whistle brewery for free beer samples! We went round little harbour-front art galleries and went up the CN tower which was scary

Today we went to the Distillery District which is a whole yuppy area salvaged from old buildings ad filled with expensive shops and hundreds of little art studios (most of which were filled with stuff that my sister could do better but was priced in the tens of thousands of dollars!) It was briliant and made us want a yuppie flat to fill with yuppie things! There was also another brewery with more free samples so now we like Mill Street beer too!! (It's becoming a habit) But this beer is only avaiable in Toronto so we'll have to have it imported when we get back!!

Then we went on to the Royal Ontario Art Gallery, which was nothing special! And finally on to an English pub lunch!! Yummy!

And that is Toronto in a nutshell!!

We have to get going soon...the cafe is getting sweatier by the second and I am dying for a glass of water! Plus Family Guy series 4 is on the telly at 9pm and we want to get back for it!!!

Whole day of travelling tomorrow and then we get to Chicago the next day so hopefully we'll update again soon...the next stop after that is almost 3 weeks in Florida!! YAY

Hope you're all jealous & you're having fun where ever you are!

K & A