Tourist Time

This post picks up directly where the last left of. The morning of the 1st of October. Andrew, Lauren, Monique and I are queuing to get on buses to head off to Niagara after staying up all night watching the AFL grand final.

Sadly we were split up onto different buses, Andrew and I on our own and Lauren and Monique together. Now the bus would have been a great place to get a couple of hours rest and I believe my fellow sleepy friends did manage at least small naps. I on the other hand had been placed on what was obviously the not so sleepy bus. This meant that instead of pleasant dreams of various things I was subjected to the lovely (I'm being polite here as the people might read this, originally I was going to call it the dying cat bus :P ) singing of about 3 or 4 girls who seemed to be having a who can go higher and louder contest. Eventually, we arrived at the hotel in Niagara which was to be our home for the night. We were given our keys and went to drop our bags in the room.

Later we meet up with the rest of MAC as this was a MAC trip, in the lobby and walked together to the first view point of the falls. They were amazing. Here we did the shuffle, a popular dance move currently, for a segment in the lipdub that York is producing. After this everyone was allowed to do whatever they wanted until we had to be on the bus again at 7pm the next day. Me and my three fellow tourists decided to walk along the wall that surrounds the Canadian side of the falls so ass to get it from as many views as possible the further along you got the more amazing they became. There is many a picture on facebook for you to admire but here are one or two for now:

 This one is currently the back drop on my laptop.

After this, and this did take a while we headed back into Niagara town where there were various things we could amuse ourselves with. We had been give fun passes  as part of the MAC deal and we spent the next few hours or so doing things from this which included a Ferris wheel type thing with a great view of the falls, a couple of rides, a scary haunted house type thing and a wax museum which was just a little bit awful but this did just add to it in a way.

That night it had been arranged that those of us over 19 (the alcohol age in Ontario) would be able to get into a local club for just the small fee of $5. Thus, we got dressed up and started the party in the rooms. Not long before we were planning to head out Monique and I remembered that the falls get light up at night and thus took a trip back down to them to get some more pictures this time of the water gushing in various colours. Upon our return we headed to the club. A few hours or so we returned and took to rooms to sit and chat with other people on the trip. I made several new friends that night and had a great laugh with them all :D.  It did mean though that I didn't exactly get much sleep, a few hours, before I was up and ready for another day of being a tourist. Monique and I had heard of an Adventure Pass that got you into 4 major Niagara falls attractions for one fee which was better than paying for them all separately. We started our day with a voyage on the maid in the mist. A boat which takes you to the bottom of the falls. It was almost indescribable. Crazy and awesome and so beautiful and powerful. I can't remember what order we did the next two in but they were the Journey Behind the Falls where you can go and stand next to the falls and go in tunnels a little ways behind then and see the water gushing down. The second was Niagara's Fury, an educational, 4D (?) experience in which you learn all about the creation of the falls with a young beaver. It's a lot of fun as you stand on a platform with a screen all around you and they make it snow and rain and the earth move. Our final stop from the adventure pass was the white rapids walk. It is a walkway that follows along the rapids that run further down the river of the Niagara falls. It was a really pretty route and I got some pretty cool pictures which I am having fun editing and messing about with when I get the chance.

We still had a little time to kill after this so Monique and I headed to the arcade to use the free tokens we got with our fun passes. We used them to play ticket games. We our now both the proud owners of a juggling ball with the Canadian emblem (a maple leaf) on it, as well as a few other bits and bobs.  Sadly after this it was time to return to the hotel grab our bags and board the buses. Once again on the bus an exhausted Jo tried to sleep but not even a weekend in Niagara would wear my bus companions out and once again sleep alluded me. Finally we arrived back at Tatham hall about 9 and all collapsed in our beds, finally finished being tourists and ready for bed. 

An all nighter, and no it wasn't for studying!

On Friday the 30th of September it was the grand final of the AFL (Australian football league). Due to the fact that I have become friends with many an Aussie here in Canada I was dragged along to a sports bar in downtown Toronto to watch the game. Now normally this wouldn't be worth a blog by itself but as is evident from the title, the game was not being shown at a civil hour. Due to the time difference between Australia and Canada, a game that started at 2 in the afternoon in Australia didn't start till midnight here in Canada. Thus having  arrived at the bar at about 9pm, we needed good seats, the Aussies take their footy very seriously! We waited around for 3 hours for the game to start, killing the time with good conversations, arcade basketball games and of course a round or to of drinks. The game itself, considering I am not really a sports fan, was pretty interesting to watch. If I had to describe it I would say it is almost a cross between our football and rugby. We had a couple of major supporters of the teams actually in the final but mostly the Aussies picked a team which their own teams disliked the least and cheered  those on. I followed Monique's example, and supported Geelong in their fight against Collingwood. This turned out to be the right decision, not only because they won, but also because I later found out that when my grandparents and uncle lived in Australia they had supported the same team as Monique does now, the Hawks!

The game finished about 4 am and it took us until about half 5 to get back to residence at York having taken a while to exit the bar and get everyone into either a bus or taxi. At this point you are probably wondering why we didn't just collapse in our beds, yes not going have loads of sleep but we could avoid the dreaded all nighter. Well, that couldn't happen because at 9am we needed to be down in the lobby ready to get on buses to go to Niagara. Now you're thinking well you could still get about 3 hours sleep get up get ready and go. Well no you see none of us had packed and so sleepy and a few rounds later none of us were in a state to pack alone and not forget something. Thus Lauren, Monique and myself spent the next few hours helping each other to pack our stuff for Niagara and then we finally got ready and headed down stairs to grab coffee and join the cue for the buses. Creating an all nighter that shall not be forgotten any time soon.