Toronto revisited and Niagara Falls conquered

My first and last stop in North America was Toronto , a city which I love but this doesn't seem to be universal amongst the locals or travelers alike . Though the locals only real complaint is the public transport system the people I had met passing through where mainly coming from out west after a season on the drink and the snow and it was all a bit boring to them . They may have a point , Beer in Ontario is not cheap thanks to the government run liquor stores or easy to obtain at times because they like to close at 9 in the evenings and its not particularly cheap in most of the bars either. The entertainment district downtown was a bit of a disapointment for me as well , but we can talk about that later .

The first few days I spent back in Toronto were with a friend I had made when I was passing through Arizona . We got on like a house on fire and she said I could stay with her if I came back up .She stays with her mum and brother in a town called pickering which is 30 minutes out of Union Station on the GO train . I really wanted to see Niagara falls as I missed them on my first visit to Toronto because of a rather nasty hangover.... . Anyhow we walked to the enterprise car hire just down the road from her work on Wednesday afternoon so that we could drive down the following day only to discover that all of their stock was in use manly to the G8 & G20 summits that were taking place in Toronto !!! . Luckily while we were there a gentleman returned a huge SUV which we took .

So the next day we drove down to the falls in our monster SUV decked out with leather interior ,7 different mood lighting options and chrome as far as the eye could see . Canadians don't seem to really care about speed limits especially not on the 401 highway so we shot down to the falls at a decent 20 to 30 KHP over the limit while going with the flow . We got down to the falls about 2 in the afternoon and parked up 5 minutes away from the falls themself . The American and Canadian falls were both epic but the Canadian was by far the better postcard shot . One thing that really struck me about the township of Niagara was how tacky it was , overflowing with Casinos , wax museums , 3D Imax joints and I was kind of over it after a couple of hours of chilling on the grass and longboarding with my friend . For food and more adventure we decided to go to Niagara on the lake which is a beautiful part of Ontario with old Victoria houses , a nice waterfront with parks and it overlooks Fort George as well as Toronto on the otherside of Lake Ontario . We mucked around in the shops down the main drag and made our way to the bakery then onto the parks and waterfront , it was a great end to the day and fellas its a very nice spot to take a girl whom you might be trying to impress ! .

Anyhow here are some snaps of our times in Niagara , hope you enjoy

The days after the Falls were weird and wonder full , first we gatecrashed the poshest wedding I have ever seen , then I had to say goodbye to my friend as she had to go down to Kentucky for business so I hung out with her Mum for the day and we had fun walking the dogs,having a chat and doing laundry . The following day I went to hang out with another friend that I had met in Montreal , she lives in a neighborhood squashed in between little Italy and Korea town . We had fun hanging out and went to the Islands for a picnic followed by a Ethiopian restaurant (Nazareth on bloor will not be beat for value or size !!) and a punk rock show the next day . After all that it was time to hop on the plane back to the UK but thats a story for another time....

I will post up details of the adventure that was getting from Chicago to Toronto and Chicago itself

Until next time....