Toronto, sna & a big muckle water fall.

Arrived in Blizzard conditions again. I like snow. Four inches on the runway. No tractor required this time to get to terminal. Airport coach downtown, dropped off nae far from the Hostel.
Canadiana, Backpackers Inn. Great place, I recommend it. On arrival was instantly made to feel welcome, no blanking from fellow hostellers like in Boston. I checked into my room, *43, the Celine Dion room, pure class, I had hoped for the adjacent Brian Adams room but I was confident that Queen Celine shall keep me snug and embrace me in her bosom. 1st Roommate, Fergal from Wexford, Ireland, nice fella.

Hostel was buzzing with a really good atmosphere, folk from all over; Canadians, American, Dutch, Danish, French, Mexicans, Spanish, Oz, Kiwis, Chileans, Scots, English, Irish, Guatemala. Excellent mixture.
So after a couple of days looking round the city and making new friends I decided to catch the Greyhound to Blue mountain ski resort. Early start and on the bus by 7:00. Arrived at Blue mountain Inn by 10:00, on the slopes by half past. Great days skiing with perfect conditions, tried snowboarding in the late afternoon early evening where they floodlit the pistes in the dark. Boarding was amazing fun, was on my arse for a good two hours then started getting the hang of it. Brilliant fun, thought it would be a nightmare being a novice again but to be honest it was excellent, got a real kick out of seeing a relative improvement as the evening passed.
As part of the Hotel package I got, ski pass, ski / board hire, room, dinner and breakfast, rather good I thought. After a full mixed grill from the set menu I shared a couple of Guiness and watched Elvis sing the night away. Aparently he was one of the best impersonators in N.America. Not convinced. I had some tips on my boarding from these two boarder bums, so funny, every 2nd word was awesome, narly or radical. Of course I had to try the lingo. Ken this, that it totally narly min like.
Snowed all through the night and the news had said there was crazy storms all over N.America, saw hail stones the size of golf balls, nuts. Morning however, blue skies fresh powder, Awesome dudddde! Where’s my board! After a wonderful day at it got the bus back which was so crammed a few of us gents had to stand all the way back, which was annoying as the old arse and legs were hurting pretty bad. Agh well can’t complain really.
Saturday morning early start again and hit Niagra around 9:30. Joe Joe tours, very nice lady but damn could she talk. Horsing down the motorway in a A-Team van with Born, Christina & Tracy, Joe Joe nattering at the speed of light. Very interesting really, all about the Niagra history and Geography, did you know that the 5 great lakes in N.America contain 25% of the earths fresh water supply. That’s a whole lotta water Joe Joe. The conditions at the falls were perfect, crystal clear skies but affa chilly. The whole river was completely frozen over, icebergs up to 3 metres high next to base. Water was frozen on the steep walls like stalactites in parts, thundering noise of the water crashing down on the riverbed creating a mass of vapour at the base. You could feel the freezing mist hitting your face even from the elevated position.
We took a birds eye view from a miniature cn tower. Amazing. The falls have retreated 7miles in 35,000 years. It is believed that the falls retreated at a rate of 3ft a year but now this has slowed down to 3cm due to hitting harder rock and less water going over. USA & Canada both have an agreement where equal amounts of water is diverted before the falls to generate hydro power. 4 of the great lakes are split 50 50 with US & Canada where one is owned by US solely, Lake Michigan. I won a bet later that night with Candian Ben, he had to walk through the snow barefoot for a while. Moral of the story, know your borders.
Went out clubbing for the last night after playing numerous international drinking games. Disco Inferno where all danced as though know one was looking, unfortunately they were, we ended up creating a circle around us where onlookers watched horrified at our international school of bad dance moves, oh yes, Scottish Jen (Fae the Kingdom of Fife) and I even introduced Disco Gay Gordon’s.
Last day Sunday taking it easy and getting stuff booked up for Chicago. Coffee and Pancake breakfast, plus one can of irn bru. We found a wee shop the previous day which sold cans of the stuff, there was much rejoicing. “Aw man it tastes llike bubble gum”, no it doesn’t you silly, silly person. Last night was a grand curry meal with my new found friends, really good and really cheap, about the same price as home, but in dollars, great stuff. Back later to the hostel where I ended staying up really late with a Saudi Arabian, Spaniard and Guatemalan, solved the world’s problems of course, which was nice.
Early enough rise and said my cheerio’s, there were hugs, there were laughs, there were tears. Mad snow falling again, seems the case whenever I fly now. Arrived at the airport with plenty of time to kill,,,, or so I thought. When checking in you have to give your address you shall be staying at, ye know cause that is going to prevent any national catastrophic acts of terrorism. Anyhoo, numbnuts here forgot to write down the Hostel address, if I hadn’t panicked I could have just said the Hilton or something, anyway I didn’t. So had to go and faff about getting a phone card and trying to call US to get address of place, turned out ok but just a bit of running around from terminals to terminals. Will not be ill prepared again.
No problemo through immigration, only thing was the officer couldn’t believe I quit my job, rented house and travelled off to see the world. Complete alien concept to him. “You quit yer jab!” “Yes officer I quit my job” “You quit yer jab!” “Yes officer do you never fancy doing the same.” Oh know, that was bold, eek here it comes. Phew, he had a sense of humour and laughed saying he really couldn’t imagine doing it. Finger printed, photographed, slap on the arse. “Welcome to the US of A, enjoy your stay, and have a nice day.”