The Niagara Falls

When in Ontario, there is that international phenomenon that everyone has to visit… the famous Niagara Falls.

I spent last weekend visiting some of my university friends in Toronto, and as it was my beautiful friend Lois’ 21^st birthday we decided to embark on an adventure to celebrate. Where better to go than to this world renowned geographical site?

Eva, Lois and I caught the Greyhound coach from Toronto Bay St to Niagara Falls at 11am on Lois’ birthday. The journey took a couple of hours, which didn’t faze us at all – we had 3 months of catching up to do. There was a rather comical moment when the Greyhound arrived at Niagara Falls, and everyone on board suitably disembarked, and then stood around staring at their phones in confusion trying to locate where we actually were. The Bus Station is not located directly next to the waterfalls – something that is comically obvious in hindsight – and so us, and everyone else faced some initial confusion. With the help of good old reliable CityMapper though, we were back on track and walked to the falls.

The Niagara Falls really are astounding. When you are walking towards the falls, you hear them before anything else – hundreds of tonnes of water crashing down. We also saw the mist rising high in the sky – and then we saw the actual waterfalls. Our initial reaction, or at least my initial reaction, was that the waterfalls from this distance actually looked relatively unimpressive. I suppose I had fallen victim to the corruption that arises from the internet, in which you see HD and highly edited photos of world phenomenons all the time. This means that sometimes, when you actually see the phenomenon yourself in person, you can be left a little disappointed. From this distance at least, the Niagara Falls appeared less impressive in person than they had on the computer screen. 

However, when we got up close, it was a whole different story. The falls truly are very impressive. The closer we walked, the more amazed I was, until we were stood right at the very top of the falls. From this vantage point you can see the water right before it crashes down, which is a very surreal feeling. The water is running at 30 mph, and while you are stood at the top you feel so incredibly close to it– there is no hugely protective barrier to stop you falling in, only a stone wall. It is one of those terrifying and exhilarating feelings of thinking, “I could actually jump into that”. Of course, I never would – but it is that possibility of knowing you can, and that you have the capability, that is simultaneously exciting and scary.

It was a pretty grey day, and the skies were even coughing up hail stones, but there were still large numbers of people that had braved the weather to come and see the falls. I can imagine that on a day of blue skies they really are very impressive. You can also buy a ticket to go out on a boat and get right up close to the falling water, and this does look like a fantastic experience – one that was slightly out of our price range this time. We were perfectly content with gazing at the water from the path, however, both safe and dry!

We grabbed a coffee and treated Lois to some birthday Timbits. We didn’t explore too much of Niagara itself. The town seems rather unusual. It is one of those places that seems to exist purely for tourism – for those coming to see the falls, or those that need somewhere to stay before/after crossing the border. Featuring 3 Tim Horton’s in the space of about 500 metres, a Hard Rock Café and a Ferris Wheel which wasn’t even located close to the Falls, it is pretty clearly a tourist town. On Eva’s advice that there wasn’t much to see, we headed back to the Greyhound a couple of hours later. I’d like to say this was a leisurely stroll, but of course, it wasn’t, and we had misjudged our timings and had to run back to the bus in the hail. No adventure is complete without a little stress and running! My good old Ellessee trainers consequently died on me as a result of this journey. (This is another problem with the year abroad…. you have to pack your whole life into one suitcase, so when you arrive you actually have very few possessions and clothes. As a result, you literally wear everything to death. An unavoidable truth! Luckily Canada is an excellent country for thrift shops – where would I be without Value Village).

It was dark when we arrived back in Toronto, and we spontaneously went for Sushi to celebrate Lois’ birthday. Going to the see the Niagara Falls, followed by a very affordable and delicious Bento Box in the centre of Toronto with my two best friends puts this day pretty high on my list of top days in Canada. I wish I could go on adventures and travel all the time, but alas, there is that thing called uni… Either way, I had a great time in Ontario, and I am looking forward to more adventures with my university friends in the future. Happy 21^st birthday Lois!