Canada

I could not comprehend how cold minus 40 was.

Now I can.

I also understand how important thick socks and beanies are.

Hands up those of you who have had ice-covered glasses and eyelashes.

Yes yes yes, I'm the worlds slackest blogger. I just HAD to write about my day on Sunday, though.

I'm sure you're all aware that I'm now living in Calgary with Travis, one of the boys that I met in Montreal. I'm working at a clothing store in Chinook Mall for the time being. I had Sunday off work, and it was one of the best days ever.

Slept in and didn't wake up to an alarm. I DID, however, wake up to a whole lot of snow falling from the sky. Three of us went out for brunch at a popular cafe in Hillshurst. There was a bit of a wait, so we stood outside in the snow drinking coffee for an hour. Had the best food ever - berry filled crepes with fresh fruit.
Travis and I went shopping downtown and got some great bargains. There was SO much snow that we couldn't even see the roads. The trees were covered. The cars were covered. It was all powdery and crunched under our feet when we walked.

We arrived home, and there was a note under our apartment door telling us to go to the drugstore over the road to collect some parcels. YAY! Christmas presents from home are now lying underneath our Christmas tree.

Travis and I then put on our pjs, wrapped ourselves up in blankets, and watched Pay it Forward on DVD while eating chocolate. The fairy lights were on, and we lit candles around the house.

It REALLY felt like Christmas.

Oh my goodness it’s been FOREVER since I’ve put anything on here – SORRY! I was making a habit of updating on transport, but we haven’t really been on any longhaul trips for a wee while so it’s been a bit neglected.

We have been having a blast. It’s going to be a bit of a task to write everything on here at once, so I think I’ll have to do it in a few updates. It’s hard to write this thing without making it sound boring and “we did this then we did that”, so hopefully my Thursday night brain will be awake enough to make it mildly entertaining.

After New York, Steph and I caught the infamous Greyhound Bus up to Niagara. We figured it was a good idea to catch an overnight bus, as we’d save on a nights accommodation, sleep the whole way, and get there feeling great. Naieve New Zealanders is all I can say. We were pretty squished. We had stops every hour or so at different stations. We were told we had to change buses, picked up all our baggage at about 2am, waited in the terminal, only to be told half an hour later that we were to get BACK on the bus we’d disembarked.

We arrived in Niagara at about 8am, and thinking we were smart to save money, we decided to walk to our hostel. Almost an hour later, carrying about 40kgs of luggage each, we made it. Would’ve been smarter to pay $4 each and catch a taxi rather than almost collapse after a night of no sleep and a huge unexpected hike! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

We stayed in Niagara for four nights, and during that time we:
- Walked to the Niagara Falls about eight times
- Went on the Maid of the Mist and the Journey Behind the Falls
- Caught a taxi to the little township of Niagara-on-the-Lake which was so cute – like it belonged in a movie. It was immaculate, with little wineries and bakeries and icecream parlours. Both Steph and I managed to “taste” enough samples to fill us up enough to skip dinner. Good way to save money!
- Travelled over class 5 rapids in a jet boat. (There are 6 classes of rapids, with class 1 being the most tame, to class 6 being the most violent. Yes, we are brave!).
- Almost bought an old van to drive around Canada in, however the insurance didn’t work out and we ran out of time, so we flagged that idea.

The hostel we stayed in was clean (which is more than I can say for some of them!) and we met some really interesting people. The owner was quite overbearing, but meant well.

The falls themselves were, I have to say, disappointing. I KNOW you don’t want to hear that because they’re one of the Must See things in the world, but I really thought that they would be more impressive. The whole town was very touristy and tacky with casinos and bright flashing lights and ferris wheels. The falls were lit up at night with colourful lights. It was all far too commercialised.

The Maid of the Mist was the best thing we did. They give you huge ponchos to wear, and you are taken on a boat really close to the falls. The noise that they made was quite impressive, and because Steph and I were right at the front of the boat (yay for our Beijing training!) we got soaked.

It was great to have had some “down” time – to do laundry and rest and go for walks and cook some decent meals, but four days really was too much.

I was talking to a German guy that I met and told him that we’d been in Niagara for four days. He laughed, and said “one day is half day too many”. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Next stop – Goderich!

Steph and I met up at the train station this morning and are now on our huge journey bound for Beijing.

Trains are entertaining. We’re pretty impressed with the AMTRAK trains too. There is heaps of room, so we’re not all squished. The foot rests are really comfy, the seats recline so you can sleep… no complaints at all from that perspective. We do happen to be surrounded by oddbodz.

In front of us is the most retarded bunch of adults – I estimate they’re about 30 years old. They’re from Winnipeg and have been providing us with lots of entertainment.
• They keep trying to play Travel Games to pass the time. Their first Travel Game was to sing a song, but change the lyrics. For example: “Maaaary had a little lamb” became “I like to play with pots and pans”. Their second game was to try to talk to each other in different voices. Like, holding their noses. Third game was Paper, Scissors, Rock. So much fun!!!!!!!!! (note the sarcasm….)
• The man was sitting by the window, looked out, and said “CHOO CHOO!”
• The woman that’s with the bunch of retards looks JUST like Mel from Flight of the Conchords, however she’s not a fan of Bret and Jermaine, but a fan of Stephs. Creepy staring woman.

Next to us is an overweight Chinese woman who has eaten nothing for the whole train ride but boiled eggs. All of a sudden it starts to smell terrible, I look over, and there she is peeling another one.
Chinese woman decided she felt cold and needed a jumper. She asked the lady next to her if she could stand on her chair to reach the overhead locker. Up she goes. She had her hands rifling around in her bags, when BOOM! The seat broke. Yes, I laughed. And no, it wasn’t quietly.

To top things off, behind us is an ANGRY man.
Man: “Did you bring food? Snacks?”
Wife: “No I didn’t.”
Man: “SO YOU EXPECT ME TO STARVE? NOT HAVE ANY FOOD? F**K!”
He then went back to playing his very noisy shoot ‘em up game. It looks like he has enough internal food supply to last him for years, so I’m sure the 12 hour train journey wont kill him.

After our 12 hour train journey from Toronto to New York with a carriage full of monkeys, we have 15 hours to kill before our flight leaves. I’m thinking it’ll take us at least an hour to find our way to JFK and then we’ll take turns sleeping/watching the bags. Saves money on accommodation!

The first leg of our flight is 14 hours to Dubai. We then have 3 hours in Dubai before leaving on our 8 hour flight to Beijing. At least we’re with Emirates and will have a whole lot of movies to watch. Ben has checked online and apparently the flight isn’t full so we may even get more room than normal. Fingers crossed!

After being in New York and Montreal, Toronto was lame. Just another city. Not thriving with culture like Montreal, not bustling with people like New York. Just big tall buildings, a waterfront, a tower…

The hostel I stayed at was in an awesome location and can’t be faulted at all. I made a new friend – Jessica who was from Calgary – on the first day I was there. We had dinner up at the CN Towers revolving restaurant (the CN Tower is SO like the Sky Tower) which was nice. Did some exploring with Jess the next morning through the streets of Toronto.

That night we got another girl staying in our room – Andi who was from Adelaide. We went out to the Hard Rock Café for dinner and had to walk for ages in the pouring rain.

Jess left the following morning, and so Andi and I went and got haircuts (WELL overdue!) then wandered around the waterfront. We went to a Major League Baseball game at night time which was by FAR the highlight of my time in Toronto. It was great going with her as she used to play for South Australia so could explain the finer details to me. We paid $9 each and had awesome seats right behind the home plate.

The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Allstars.
There were 2 home runs (which apparently is unusual).
There was a proposal on the big screen.
Brian Littrell of ex-Backstreet Boys fame was the celebrity pitcher. Yummmmmm

The funniest part was watching grown men scramble for the ball when it got hit into the stands. At one point there were about 20 adults crawling around trying to find the ball. One guy picked it up, and his mate was SO annoyed. He stormed off, and when he returned, sat with his back to his friend.

Canada has been cool, but I have to say that Montreal was by FAR the better city.