New York

I arrived in New York in the morning, tired and in need of a shower, only to find that my hostel was probably the only hostel in the whole world that won’t let you in until check in time. Not even just to wait in the lounge or to leave your bags, so I had about an hours wait outside sitting on a bench in the middle of a road with my big backpack. When I was let in I found that the letting people in situation wasn’t the only thing that made the hostel different. It was quite old and run down and was more like a shared house than a hostel. This was partly due to the feel of the place and the unhostel like owner and partly due to there being nothing outside to show that it was a hostel and the door being permanently locked – a bit of a problem when I first tried to get in! After at first thinking how pleased I was not to be staying more than one night I began to actually quite like the place. There was a nice atmosphere and the other people staying there were really friendly. Being in a slightly dodgy part of New York it was not only about half the price of all the other hostels but also one of the only ones that wasn’t fully booked (my two reasons for going there), in fact it was quite empty. This meant that when I checked out I didn’t have to check out by a certain time but could leave all my stuff in my room until it was convenient with me rather than promptly at 9 or 10 or something.
After finally checking in and being able to have a shower and some lunch I set off on the underground in to town. I visited Times Square where I was told that a carnival was going on in Brooklyn so I headed off there. I’m not too sure what the carnival was about. All I could gather was it was something to do with East Side and West side which I didn’t fully understand. There was a big parade, all sorts of floats and people dressed up in colourful costumes and lots of dancing. I was one of the only white people there but no one seemed to mind me being there and everyone was very nice to me.
The next day I did lots more exploring on foot. I saw the Empire State Building, the oldest church in New York (purely by accident), and had fun shopping! I took a boat trip around the harbour and up to the Statue of Liberty, then went for a walk through Central Park meeting the ‘geese patrol’ sorting angry geese out on the way. That evening I packed up my things for the last time and set off to the airport to get my final flight home.

Toronto, Algonquin Park and Niagara Falls

I made a friend at the Mardi Grass in Australia who lives in Toronto so a couple of days after arriving, four of us set off for Algonquin Park. We left at 4.30 in the morning with first one, and later two canoes strapped to the top of our car. It was on this journey that I had my first Tim Hortons – a Canadian fast food place (of which there are many) which does the nicest bagels, doughnuts and muffins. When we arrived in Algonquin we left the car and made our way to where we were to camp. We canoed across rivers and lakes then carried the canoes across the land in between – very hard work! When you’re under a canoe no air gets to you but the mosquitoes do and it’s quite a challenge balancing the canoe on your shoulders and avoiding smashing either the back or the front of it on the ground or tripping up on rocks or tree roots. We camped right next to a lake in the middle of the forest. At night time the water was so still that the moon and stars reflected in it as if it were the sky. In the day time we saw beavers swimming by and every time we ate, a chipmunk or two would come right up to us looking for food. We stayed here for four days and went on day trips to a beautiful gorge and waterfalls.
Back in Toronto I stayed with Enoch my Mardi Grass friend in a near by town called Waterloo and from here we took a day trip down to Niagara Falls. These I found to be a bit disappointing. As they are, they almost look man made. The city of Niagara Falls has been built practically on top of the falls themselves and it’s not the most attractive city to say the least. There were so many tourists all lining the fence around the edge of the falls and although we only added to them, it would have been much better if everyone else had decided not to visit that day. It wasn’t all bad though, as we walked towards the falls there was a rainbow going down into them which looked really pretty and had they been on their own in the middle of nowhere they would have been amazing so you just had to use your imagination a bit. We went down into the caves behind the falls which was quite cool. The noise of the falls as we walked through the tunnels was so loud and we were able to come out right next to the falling water. Luckily on our way in we had been given some beautiful yellow ponchos to keep us dry (I’ve kept mine for future use) so we didn’t get too wet. In the evening when it got dark the falls were lit up in frequently changing colours – not very natural but interesting all the same!
Whilst in Toronto I was quite excited to see many black squirrels running everywhere from the parks and trees to the roads and lamp posts. I was also very pleased to see some raccoons munching on rubbish in someone’s garden. Then getting ever closer to my flight home I got an over night bus, well, three buses down to New York.

Another three day train journey

Sadly I didn’t have enough time before my plane ticket expired to stop off and see anything of the middle of Canada so instead I decided to get the train across the country so I could at least see something of it even if it was just through a train window. Despite there not being any showers on the train – apparently due to not having enough water (I don’t believe a word, if they can do it in Australia, the land of drought, then they certainly should be able to manage in Canada) – and it being another three day journey it was amazing. The Rocky Mountains are truly beautiful and from the train you see them from an angle you can’t see them from any other way. To begin with dark green fir trees cover the Mountains, then as you start to come out the other side of them the trees disappear leaving just rocks and snow. Milky blue rivers cut across the valleys in between big beautiful still lakes which reflect the mountains perfectly. We stopped off for half an hour in a little town called Jasper which apparently is the most visited place in Canada, even beating Niagara Falls! It’s definitely somewhere I’d like to go back to. The scenery in the middle of Canada isn’t so amazing - quite flat and full of not very much - but the time passed quickly and we soon were travelling through the state of Ontario where there was lake after lake. We were informed that a sixth of Ontario is actually fresh water. Although the seats were quite comfy and I had two to myself, when we finally arrived in Toronto I was very pleased to sleep in a bed again!

Vancouver and the Island

We flew into Vancouver airport at 11pm thinking that if we’d been let into America without any problems then Canada should be fine too. But oh no, we got the immigration lady who was in a bad mood and after collecting our bags we were then sent to speak to more immigration people for them to decide whether we could enter their country or not. In not a particularly friendly manner we were asked question after question about why we were going there, where we had come from, how we had managed to afford our trip etc. We noticed that we were the only people who didn’t look Mexican who had been sent in for this interrogation. Anyway we must have passed their test and were eventually let in to Canada and wearily found somewhere to stay.
Vancouver is a really beautiful city. It reminded me of New Zealand with the mountains reaching down to the see. We stayed right next to the beach with lovely views of the mountains across the water. We spent a couple of days exploring the city and were shown around some of the different sorts of pubs / bars Vancouver city has to offer. There are bars which aren’t at all keen on people getting drunk so if you want more than two drinks you have to order food as well. There are the student / backpacker bars where drinking as much as you can is fully encouraged. There are the bars for the strange people which are mostly empty apart from a few very strange people. We played a game of pool in the one we visited where an added challenge was to avoid the bucket on the floor and the water dripping down into it from the roof right next to the table. There is even a cannabis café there in a part of the city called Vamsterdam!
Next we got the ferry across to Vancouver Island. I was under the impression that Vancouver Island was quite small but it’s actually around the same size as England. My Grannie and Grandpa’s friends Mary and Derek live there so we stayed with them in a little town called Comox which is about half way up the island. They showed us around a bit of that part of the island and we saw one of the huge cruise ships coming back down from Alaska. They then drove us back down south to Victoria (which I was surprised to find out is the capital of British Columbia,) in their absolutely massive motor home. No exaggeration, it was like a house in itself! The drivers seat was an arm chair, there were two other arm chairs and a sofa. Two fold out beds, a double room, a bathroom and a kitchen section. Both of the sides moved outwards at the touch of a button and there was a big TV right at the front. Presumably for when the driver gets board. We stayed in this luxury for a couple of nights then Mary and Derek went home and Conny and I moved back into hostels.
Whilst in Victoria we went on a whale watching trip. We were so lucky to see three Orca whales and one Humpback. None of them were doing their jumping thing that day but I was very pleased to see some of Willies friends and the Humpback whale came up really close to our boat. It came above the surface of the water directly in front of us, heading straight towards us. When you see them from the side or from a distance you really can’t fully comprehend their size. They are huge! Probably bigger than the boat we were in so it’s good it decided to continue onwards without having an even closer look at us. As we headed back we went past a group of big, stinking sea lions and then our boat driver decided to race back throwing the boat and all of us from side to side which was quite fun although a little scary as it felt like if you didn’t hold on you could easily fly out at any time.
There are quite a few Totem poles all over British Columbia and we saw a few of these both in Vancouver and on the island. I think a lot of them are really rather attractive, something that it might be nice to have a few of in your garden. We also went on a guided tour of the government buildings and to my amusement found what I interpreted to be signed nose picking zones (I’m sure you’ll think the same if you have a look at the photo on my bebo site) although our guide failed to mention these as we passed.