Well as I mentioned before we went to Canada last weekend. We had eight of us packed into a soccer mum styled van and finding that beast saved us getting two cars. Sadly it meant that we only had one driver as the secondary driver had to be over 25. This left the duty up to Ged. Armed with me and the GPS to navigate we headed up to Buffalo, stopped for Buffalo wings, had a mishap of a lapse of concentration by driving in the left hand lane on a two way street (hilarity ensured) then drove to the border.
While nothing eventful at the border happened, it was probably not the brightest thing I've done when I waved my hands and said "these babies are registered" when she was asking about any weapons. Still no harm no foul, I was much more behaved on the US border entry.
We drove the short distance to Niagara and spent the night there. In the morning it was breakfast provided by the hostel and then the short walk to the falls. I have to say if you are at the falls, shell out the $15 for the boat ride. You may think, it's a pretty good view up top and yes you are right, but to actually be right in amongst it with some friends and a boat load of Japanese tourists all wearing the same blue poncho is rather special.
After that I grabbed my first candy apple, if I wasn't writing about it here I'd say it's nothing to write home about. We then made our way to Toronto. I lost navigation duties due to the Buffalo incident. Well that and I wanted time with people in the back. It turns out I'm not to bad a navigator as I stay awake. But Niagara to Toronto is fairly straight forward.
We get to Toronto and sure enough you can see the big ass tower. We make our way to the hostel which Renan tells me has a kiwi at the desk. The next day I find out she is from Te Puke. Small world. We decide to take advantage of the rest of the day by going to the C.N Tower and going up that. After long lines of waiting we get into the elevator, which lets you see the city as you go up and it is truly amazing to suddenly see over these giant sky scrapers and see over the city. It really is a can't miss stop in Toronto, because well what we did afterwards was just regular city stuff. We stopped at a Japanese restaurant and had all sorts of delicious food, I even ate the whole meal with chop sticks, painfully slow, but the French girl across from me was also useless, keeping in mind I only got the fundamentals down on my birthday.
We went back and caught a nap and intended to go to some sort of super club that holds 4000 people, has seven rooms and had a party hosted by mega whore Paris Hilton, but then we found another mega club literally across the street from the hostel, which led to a debate about which one we go to. It was a 50/50 split, both had the outrageous $20 entry fee, but one meant no cab ride and you could go home easily. Seeing as I hate clubbing, I opted for the across the street one as I am indifferent to it. We then decided to split up, I then asked Ged if he wanted to go to a pub instead, which then left the across the road club ballot switching to a pub, leaving four to club and four to pub. I was happier.
The next day was just cruise the city, we lost to people and had no working cellphones, we did have walkie talkies but they only picked up static, so we walked around, visited a huge mall and then pretty much walked back to the hostel, taking in the sights of Toronto. Not the worst way to see a city. After that we regrouped, fueled up (one refill for the whole trip) and made our way back to State College. I regained my navigation role due to my ability to not fall asleep. Everyone seemed lively on the way back making it feel like a shorter trip. We got back to the car rental place just as the guy was leaving so that made it easier and I nearly left my passport in the car. That's pretty much the whole trip for you. Good times.
While nothing eventful at the border happened, it was probably not the brightest thing I've done when I waved my hands and said "these babies are registered" when she was asking about any weapons. Still no harm no foul, I was much more behaved on the US border entry.
We drove the short distance to Niagara and spent the night there. In the morning it was breakfast provided by the hostel and then the short walk to the falls. I have to say if you are at the falls, shell out the $15 for the boat ride. You may think, it's a pretty good view up top and yes you are right, but to actually be right in amongst it with some friends and a boat load of Japanese tourists all wearing the same blue poncho is rather special.
After that I grabbed my first candy apple, if I wasn't writing about it here I'd say it's nothing to write home about. We then made our way to Toronto. I lost navigation duties due to the Buffalo incident. Well that and I wanted time with people in the back. It turns out I'm not to bad a navigator as I stay awake. But Niagara to Toronto is fairly straight forward.
We get to Toronto and sure enough you can see the big ass tower. We make our way to the hostel which Renan tells me has a kiwi at the desk. The next day I find out she is from Te Puke. Small world. We decide to take advantage of the rest of the day by going to the C.N Tower and going up that. After long lines of waiting we get into the elevator, which lets you see the city as you go up and it is truly amazing to suddenly see over these giant sky scrapers and see over the city. It really is a can't miss stop in Toronto, because well what we did afterwards was just regular city stuff. We stopped at a Japanese restaurant and had all sorts of delicious food, I even ate the whole meal with chop sticks, painfully slow, but the French girl across from me was also useless, keeping in mind I only got the fundamentals down on my birthday.
We went back and caught a nap and intended to go to some sort of super club that holds 4000 people, has seven rooms and had a party hosted by mega whore Paris Hilton, but then we found another mega club literally across the street from the hostel, which led to a debate about which one we go to. It was a 50/50 split, both had the outrageous $20 entry fee, but one meant no cab ride and you could go home easily. Seeing as I hate clubbing, I opted for the across the street one as I am indifferent to it. We then decided to split up, I then asked Ged if he wanted to go to a pub instead, which then left the across the road club ballot switching to a pub, leaving four to club and four to pub. I was happier.
The next day was just cruise the city, we lost to people and had no working cellphones, we did have walkie talkies but they only picked up static, so we walked around, visited a huge mall and then pretty much walked back to the hostel, taking in the sights of Toronto. Not the worst way to see a city. After that we regrouped, fueled up (one refill for the whole trip) and made our way back to State College. I regained my navigation role due to my ability to not fall asleep. Everyone seemed lively on the way back making it feel like a shorter trip. We got back to the car rental place just as the guy was leaving so that made it easier and I nearly left my passport in the car. That's pretty much the whole trip for you. Good times.
