Niagara Falls

On the Thursday I caught the Train from Chicago to Niagara Falls at 9:30PM.  The train got to Buffulo, where I had to wait for 4-5 hours till the connecting train that was going to Niagara Falls came.  When it got into Niagara Falls it started to snow and I realized my plan of walking to the hostel I was staying at was a bit ill conceived.  So I ended up getting the station attendant to call a taxi for me.  It was the first time I had used a taxi in my life.  The place I stayed at was called Wonderfalls Hostel.  It was basically a converted 3 story house.  I was paying to stay in a dorm room, but it ended up I was the only one in there for my stay.

The next day I was told that I should go over to the Canadian side of the falls because they look better from there.  I was wondering whether there would be any problems, but it was quite easy - all I had to do was walk across a bridge to the other side, where a Canadian officer asked me a few questions, stamped my passport and then let me on through.  On the bridge they have a plate that shows where the actual US and Canadian border is.  Walking across would actually be faster than taking a car across - at least at this time of the year.

Compared to the United States side of Niagara Falls, the Canadian side is much more alive.  It has all the usual touristy things as well as theme park sorts of attractions - a little tacky.   I started walking along the path along the side of the falls - along with hundreds of other people. 

While I was walking along a met a couple, and we continued to talk as we went along the side of the river.  After we had finished exploring the falls, we went and had lunch at a place that was done up like a rainforest - it had animatronic animals all around that moved occasionally and there was even "lightning" and "thunder".  Once we finished lunch we went for a short drive to see what else we could find in Canada.

Near the water falls there is a mist that causes the snow on the trees to turn into ice.  These then gradually melt in the sun and fall off.  One piece falling off high up can cause a chain reaction and make multiple bits of ice lower down fall.

The next day I got a ride to the train station and got on another Amtrak train to New York.