Is Christmas day, but I didn't feel christmassy at all. I think Orchard Road was more christmassy than where I was. No snow.. no lights.. boo. Again, we woke up super early so that we wouldn't get into trouble for parking. It sounds kinda sad doesn't it. We were supposed to go ice skating today but judging from the state of the rink we decided against it. Today will be eat dimsum and leisurely walk around day. Especially cos it was Christmas, none of tourist attractions were open. So we left our room in Ramada Inn..
We reached my favourite Dundas St but the restaurant wasn't open yet, neither were the parking meters. So it was time to go explore the city in the day..
Looking at the state of the CN Tower today we realised how lucky we were to encounter clear skies the previous day.
Left: Door in the middle of no where
Right: I thought this was a easy cheap way of making Christmassy deco.. just spray some twigs silver! idea ah..
Left: this was the place we were looking for thru the GPS the first day but it's perpetually closed! Right: Beautiful Graffiti with the Toronto skyline.. This is why people don't get into trouble for graffiti here, cos they are so damn talented.
The orange bits actually look 3D to me.
We popped over to the Old City Hall again to see it in the daylight.
This reminds me of the scooby doo movie where all their souls are captured and swimming around in this pot of goo.. haha!
Lots of homeless smack in the middle of the city. This guy not bad he even has a bicycle. The previous night, we saw a guy sitting in a banking lobby with ATM machines.. so scary.. I wonder who will dare to go withdraw $$. And this other guy asked us for 'change', saying he was robbed and he didn't wanna be out in the cold that night and needed a hotel room.. my.. we told him we didn't have Canadian haha which was the truth!
And of course, we reached our Dimsum punctually at 8.30am. The douhua was swiftly scooped out of a barrel, with a flat rectangular piece of metal. cy's face explains how good the food was. After a not so leisurely dimsum [we ate too fast lah! hungry] we still had some parking time so we walked around Chinatown.. This fruit stall sells so many tropical fruits.. I super gian the mangosteens.. but too difficult to eat in the middle of no where. After wasting some time, we popped into a bakery to buy some bread [haven't seen such chinese pastries for a long time.. =( i miss breadtalk and all!] I only had $5 cad on me so we could only buy 3 pieces of bread. heh.
And it was then time to leave Toronto.. Nothing to do anyway! Erwin drove the 1h drive down to Niagara Falls.. while cy and me totally conked out.. Leaving him to fend for himself hehe.
We reached Niagara!! My favourite starbucks drink is caramel macchiato, and guess what, they have MAPLE macchiato here! crazy canadians and their maple syrup.. it tasted quite special I guess. It sure perked me up!
At the falls again.. But my first time on the Canadian side, where you can see it in its full glory.
those white specks are seagulls!
At this point we had walked beyond the Horseshoe Falls, and chanced upon a map. It's very similar to the one below, except we were behind the horse shoe shaped falls, where the green P is. Seeing the 'Whirlpool Attraction' to the right of us [circled red] we decided that it shouldn't be that far to walk towards it. Well we had lots of time to spare anyway and we were waiting for the dark, when the lights would be switched on. So, garang us started our walk.
We walked for a very long time before reaching the first bridge, Rainbow Bridge. From the map it looks like we are more than halfway there right? Not bad! So we walked and walked and walked more.
The American falls from under the Rainbow bridge.
Why is my hat so stupid looking?
We ended up walking for almost 2 hours. It was FREAKING FAR!! CY realised that.. the map was OUT OF SCALE!! I'm not quite sure if it was out of scale but it was a really long walk. It didn't help that it wasn't a straight road and winded here and there. We should have realised something was wrong when there wasn't anyone else on the roads walking as well. There were just cars which zoomed by.. Heh. A quick check with Google maps tells me it was 5.5km. Bleah!!
And the best part was.. here's the lovely whirlpool:
And the best part was.. here's the lovely whirlpool:
Nothing to see at all!!! GRR!! Even the toilets were locked up the cruel Whirlpool staff. ARGHHH!!
The 3 who act adventurous.. taken by a nice couple who like the others, drove up to this point.
Tired and hungry.. Luckily I had the great foresight to bring along the bread I bought. That's delicious tuna pastry. They wanted to walk and eat but I was like lets sit down!! It was a good decision [for me at least] cos sitting down and eating helped me recharge a bit.. and also brightened up my spirits a little. I was so tired I was seriously considering hitchhiking back already!! But I don't dare lah..
On the way back, we seriously needed to pee but the stupid toilets were locked so our main priority was to find a bathroom! The first motel we reached claimed they had no public toilets.. the evil Indians. The next place we found was a restaurant.. We loserishly stepped in and asked for washrooms.. hehe.. The man was really nice and directed us to the bathroom.
After the relief, we picked up our pace and trotted back.. The walk back didn't seem as long, maybe cos we were psychologically prepared.. Although it started to drizzle. By the time we reached the falls, it was dark!
On the way back, we seriously needed to pee but the stupid toilets were locked so our main priority was to find a bathroom! The first motel we reached claimed they had no public toilets.. the evil Indians. The next place we found was a restaurant.. We loserishly stepped in and asked for washrooms.. hehe.. The man was really nice and directed us to the bathroom.
After the relief, we picked up our pace and trotted back.. The walk back didn't seem as long, maybe cos we were psychologically prepared.. Although it started to drizzle. By the time we reached the falls, it was dark!
Yesh.. the rainbow coloured falls are my favourite. These can only be seen from the Canadian side, and the lights shine from the Canadian side.. The lousy American side never bothered to shine lights onto the side of the horseshoe falls facing them, thus only a small part of the horseshoe falls is illuminated.
After taking enough photos in the rain, we decided it was time to leave Canada. I had been slacking all these while, and I wanted to test how long I could drive for, so I volunteered to drive back. We were stuck in the customs for a much shorter time this time, and there was Deal or No Deal on tv there so it wasn't a very painful wait. My jacket was really smelly though, don't know why it gets so smelly when wet. Ew. But when it dried up it didn't smell anymore so I haven't washed it yet hahaha.
On US ground, we decided to look for some food.. but because it was Christmas day, Denny's was closed... so were the rest.. we couldn't find BK.. and any food at all in fact. It was so sad! And it was dark and wet everywhere. So we just decided to head home.. the 2 guys had a good time snoozing so I suppose food was secondary. Luckily I wasn't hungry. In order to keep awake, I tried dancing to the music, shifting back and forth.. singing along to the songs.. haha. Ohh there were Christmas songs on the radio so it was kinda fun. I think dancing is the most helpful. Anyway everyone was asleep so no one could see me do stupid things like that. I kept counting down the 4 hours.. and we finally reached home safely.
After taking enough photos in the rain, we decided it was time to leave Canada. I had been slacking all these while, and I wanted to test how long I could drive for, so I volunteered to drive back. We were stuck in the customs for a much shorter time this time, and there was Deal or No Deal on tv there so it wasn't a very painful wait. My jacket was really smelly though, don't know why it gets so smelly when wet. Ew. But when it dried up it didn't smell anymore so I haven't washed it yet hahaha.
On US ground, we decided to look for some food.. but because it was Christmas day, Denny's was closed... so were the rest.. we couldn't find BK.. and any food at all in fact. It was so sad! And it was dark and wet everywhere. So we just decided to head home.. the 2 guys had a good time snoozing so I suppose food was secondary. Luckily I wasn't hungry. In order to keep awake, I tried dancing to the music, shifting back and forth.. singing along to the songs.. haha. Ohh there were Christmas songs on the radio so it was kinda fun. I think dancing is the most helpful. Anyway everyone was asleep so no one could see me do stupid things like that. I kept counting down the 4 hours.. and we finally reached home safely.
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