Update: We're Home!, Hang on final blogs to come!

Hello from England!

We just wanted to let you know that we have arrived safe and sound back home! We can't quite believe that the past 6 months happened and just to let you know that there will be a short delay (maybe a week or so), until the first weeks New York blog is posted (we did a lot in New York!). This is due to the ridiculous amount of souvenirs we have to sort out, and catching up with our family and friends etc. But trust us we will try and get the final four blog posts up as soon as possible (New York Weeks 1 and 2, Washington D.C and Arriving Home) and we hope you enjoy them :)

But for now, we have to struggle with jet lag on the horizon (I'm currently wide awake at 1.10am so think it's here!). We will get the blog posts done as fast as possible. :D

Rach xx

35. Niagara Falls, America/Canada

Hello! Welcome to the next blog post of our adventures. Our next stop is Niagara Falls and it was absolutely beautiful. Read on for all the details!! Enjoy :)

Day One

Now was time for one of the most amazing sights there is, in terms of natural waterfalls...Niagara Falls. But first we had to get there, we had been on the bus for about an hour since leaving Michigan and hit Detroit. We had an hour wait inside the terminal at 2am but thankfully it went pretty fast. We were wondering how this journey would be as the greyhound schedule said that we would be travelling through to Toronto, Canada and then back into the USA to finally arrive at Buffalo which is the nearest major city from Niagara. It turned out to be a horrendous journey full of delays, international crossing and a certain greyhound driver who should not be in the customer service industry!

As soon as we left Detroit, it was maybe 10 minutes and we were at the United States-Canada international crossing. It was 2.30am when we arrived, and it was 3 hours of queues, questions and bag searches (cute sniffer dogs though :) ) so we only got back on the road at 5.30am...what a terrible night. I completely agree with proper and thorough checks at crossings into different countries however when you are in a line of ignorant, rude and impatient people you can't help but hate the whole experience.

Once we got going, we saw our first and last Canadian sunrise on this trip and finally arrived at Toronto. It looked a lovely place and hopefully in the future we can explore it further. Of course with the transfer and our huge bags, we didn't really have the option of adventuring.

Our drop off was mean't to be Buffalo, however finding out you actually passed Niagara Falls and drove 30 minutes further, we enquired about changing our ticket. They do 3 buses a day from Toronto to Niagara Falls and thankfully we were just in time for a bus about to head out! By this point we'd gotten used to the idea of being unable to sit next to each other and based on last nights journey all we wanted to do was sleep to be honest. However it was pretty exciting to be in Canada and on our way to Niagara :) 

The only problem with this new bus we were getting, it'd mean rather than going back to USA again, we would have to get off the bus Canada side and walk over the bridge to the American side and go through customs and further still get to the hostel we were staying at. But we were taking it one step at a time and trying not to think of that painful journey that was about to come (our bags had gotten pretty laden with souvenirs!).

We were dropped off at Niagara Falls, Canada not too long after and waited for a bus. There was a visitor centre and so I wandered in to enquire about the bus service, where to catch it and how much it'd be. I remembered that, of course, they have American dollars and Canadian dollars and obviously the bus only took Canadian. So I took 10 dollars and exchanged it for the correct currency! I saw this sign on a vending machine which really made me get the impression, 'They are sick of people giving US cash!'.

After I'd gotten the $7 needed for the bus we took a look at the notes, they really have pretty money. I don't know whether money can be called pretty, but compared to some currency these are really smart and clean!

We were soon on the WeGo bus on our way to the border. Inside the visitor centre I'd picked up some leaflets and one of which was a free Hersheys sample which was conveniently positioned opposite the USA entrance. We had become abit sick of sitting on a bus, but it was nice to be on a different bus and not so squashed in or next to some smelly man!

And then we saw it...the amazing sight that is Niagara Falls. I honestly can't describe how beautiful the Falls are, they are stunning! We jumped off the bus and just stared for a few minutes at the wonder in front of us. We were really here!! We had our bags and were struggling so we wanted to get to the hostel asap so we set off towards Hersheys, then the bridge and eventually to our accommodation. 

We saw this tree with numbers on, not sure the message or the representation of it but we found two number 30's and so we each stuck our own on a leaf on Canadian soil!

After, what felt like an hours walk, a lovely man giving us a go on his phone to check google maps, the traffic lights being ultra ULTRA slow, and with the sun beaming down we made it to the hostel. We have honestly never been SO happy to arrive somewhere. We were estatic to arrive and get the bags off us, my neck and back were really feeling it. 

However, we know one thing already......

:)

After a little lay down, and a little unpacking of the necessities we headed out to see the sights and what Niagara Falls had to offer. We knew the Falls were lit up with lights on nighttimes so one of the plans was to see that and also to visit Seneca Niagara Casino. I'd found it online on 'Things to do...in Niagara Falls' and was just fascinated by the lights at the front of it. It was so colourful and with our love of casinos, after visiting Vegas recently, we fancied seeing if it was any good. At certain casinos, when you sign up for a 'Players Card', you get whats called,'Freeplay'. Sometimes its $5, sometimes $10 and also sometimes $0!!! We were very pleased and extremely surprised that at our time of signing up, we were given $20 of freeplay. This meant you had twenty dollars, of uncashable credit to try and win the most you can. Of course, where they win is when people start getting addicted and start putting their own cash in. We have self control haha and so didn't put $1 in all night. It was a great night as I won $35 and Nat won $10, having put nothing at all in the machine :)

This was my favourite machine, Road Trip. Due to us having our own roadtrip I fancied a go on this. I was very lucky and ended up winning the $35 on this machine solely. 

Nat had won $100 on a Sex and the City machine but after seeing they were occupied, she headed for her second choice, The Hangover. She, at one point had $40 credit after winning the Doug's $22 bonus but the machine grabbed abit of it back with her coming away with $10. But still fantastic as she didn't put one dollar in the whole time!

We then left and took some pictures of the casino entrance, as it'd gotten darker and the lights were brighter and much funkier!

And then we were up for a huge surprise, a firework show. We were walking down towards the Falls when suddenly fireworks started going off. We found out later that night, that it was for the 100th Anniversary of World War I and so if we'd have known we of course wouldn't have been so hyper about it all!

It really was beautiful and such a lovely tribute to the men and women who fought in the First World War of which started 100 years ago in 1914. By the time we arrived at the Falls, it'd all ended but we of course still wanted to head over the bridge to see it all lit up. Half way across the bridge, there are two flags on either side of the lamppost (not really sure who owns the lamppost if you're wondering) but on the floor there is a line. A line that depicts where the border precisely is. So we were being all funny and crossing one side to the other and back a couple of times. We never grow up, but don't tell me you wouldn't do the same!!

We then took in the fantastic view of the Falls in their full glory. Just wow!! It was nice to see them properly as with our huge bags on our backs we were thinking about the pain and not so much how beautiful the sight was.

After this we headed slowly back to the hostel and settled down for the night. It was weird to think we had gone into Canada early this morning, out to USA and then back in to Canada and finally back to stay at the hostel. That is what travellers do haha!

Day Two

As we were leaving for New York tonight we only had to stay in the hostel a night. This hopefully will be enough time even though we already appreciate the beauty of the Falls after spending such a short period of time here already! But back to what I was saying! When we checked in, we went to our room and was very confused. It was one room but had like 2 rooms (without doors) next to each other. This picture explains it better than I can but technically we had our own room! It was weird but to be honest all we cared about was having a comfy bed, which it was, and somewhere to just relax and nap after arriving yesterday.

So after checking out, we put our bags into storage to be collected shortly before the reception closed at 7pm. We were catching the bus later but at least they'd be stored for most of the day. This helped us out alot! 

So then it was our chance to fully adventure around the area and nip into Canada for a few hours. On our way to the crossing we saw this helicopter. Of course it headed straight into the direction of the 'small unpopular attraction....' and we were saying to each other how often that thing goes back and forth every day. We were happy to see it from the ground but I would expect the view to be pretty spectacular!

This made us laugh abit, this was on the American side approaching the crossing into Canada. It basically means that you are Canadian so you pay more than us Americans.

As we wondered towards Canada we saw a sweet sign and a cute squirrel!!

On a bus, the process of entering Canada is such a dragged out process however going over as a pedestrian, it is easy as pie!! Of course, we had valid passports and all the correct visas etc. we had no trouble due to this. 

The first thing you saw was the mist rising up into the sky, gigantic but so majestic and beautiful. Then it was the Falls, their millions and millions of litres that fly over the edge every minute. And then you see the masses of boats full of waterproof jackets coloured the appropriate colour. American blue, Canadian red. I mean we really fancied doing Maid of the Mist but looking at the hundreds (literally) of people crammed onto each and every boat and all the pushing around (for the photogenic spot) that would occur we much rather preferred seeing it from a distance. I say distance but it is so unbelievably close we felt our enthusiasm towards doing it change.

After we got a fair few pictures, as you can see hehe, I spotted something familiar. You know the United Kingdom Eurovision Entry of 1978, 'Save Your Kisses For Me' with the very colourful outfits...well here they are reunited at Niagara Falls. 

We then spotted some maple leaves so thought we pose for Canada. 

As we were getting pictures we spotted this amazingly coloured squirrel. We have never seen one this colour before, a black squirrel with a red tail. Quite new to us and never seen anything like it before!

We heard some singing as we were wandering about and it turned out to be the King of Pop, Elvis of course!! It was a World Champion Tribute Artist and he was actually brilliant! He was a great singer and explained all what was available in the local area in terms of the gift shops, cafe's and options there was of viewing the Niagara Falls.

As we were over in Canada, after walking up the path opposite to the Falls, we stumbled onto another casino. This time, after signing up, making friends with the security men and getting some fancy bracelets and tags on our bags we discovered they had no freeplay available at the moment. This mean't walking around for a few minutes and then slyly heading out again after knowing we didn't want to gamble any more money away. We did notice a little restaurant there and decided to turn around, go back in AGAIN and sit down for some proper food other than the cereal bars which have recently become our meals, one day we had cereal bars for breakfast, lunch AND dinner. That was a new low for us ha!!

We were so excited and when this pizza (to share) arrived we were even more excited!!

We decided to get a meal and some pizza to share, turns out the portions were crazy big so we struggled to finish it. 

Nat was thrilled to find that there was HP Sauce on the table, as a lover of it she grabbed it! This is me trying to pry her away from it! She absolutely loves the stuff haha!

Upon entry we got these stamps on our hands which were quite funky. I felt like I was on a night out again, its been a long time!!

After paying we headed back outside! Not before they tried to keep us in there though! Good try, good try!!

We headed back towards Elvis and had a look in a few of the shops in the plaza areas. We found some good stuff, including a bear claw!!! Michigan private joke! haha. It makes the perfect back scratcher I tell you!

Then I bought MAPLE SYRUP, yes MAPLE SYRUP from CANADA. I'm such a tourist!!

Around America you see alot, ALOT of filming. Cameras, lights, actors/actresses getting ready to shoot. We came across a production area and they were shooting a scene near some placed flower stands. Not sure what the film was but they did the scene over and over again. Must go through dejavu alot!!

We then took some more time taking in the lovely view!

There was a little park area close to the bridge which had some lovely lillypads in the ponds and a lovely bridge which made out to be some lovely pictures and a perfect place to just sit and relax.

Just before we went back to America, to collect another stamp in our passport, we nipped into Starbucks of course and grabbed a frappicino. Nat has strawberries and cream and me double chocolate chip :) YUM! I obviously got a little thirsty and started mine before the picture was taken. Nat was too slow against my thirst!!

Then it was time to leave the country!

Don't know who this photobomber is...honestly people are so rude! 

I FOUND NEMO!!!!

We then went back to the hostel, Gorge View (a lovely hostel actually) for the final time to grab our bags and head to the bus stop. We had to get to Buffalo to catch the Greyhound therefore we had an hour bus journey ahead of us and to be honest we were cutting it fine!

After getting sorted, getting our food bag ready (full of cereal bars, fudge (thank Mackinaw Island!), and Nat's Yankee/travelling hat of course!) we were ready to head off. Prior to this time, we had worked out where the bus stop was for the bus we needed, so we knew we only had a short 2 block walk until we were there.

After asking somebody and finding out the bus cost we needed some change and thank you lovely guy in the local shop for giving me change. Appreciate it very much!! All we had to do now was jump on a bus towards Buffalo.

It arrived after maybe 15 minutes of waiting and took about an hour to get to Buffalo! On the way, seeing the sunset on such a lovely place! We really do recommend it as one of the 'must-do' things in America.

We were in Buffalo!! Nat took a picture of this sign....she likes doing that! But very useful!

In the bus station, there was a piano, which I didn't see myself but Nat did on her walkabout. It was unfortunate that it was past 7pm, the latest you can play it, but we were too busy eating cereal bars to feel any dissapointment!

It was then the bus time!!! We were going to ... NEW YORK CITY!!!!! And more importantly, Nat (her long-term boyfriend) was flying in to meet up with us which would be lovely! Not good, as this signals the final chapter of our 6 month dream-come-true adventure, but so great as Nat has said how much she is missing him and so I can't wait to see her face glow when she spots him at the arrivals hall in JFK!!

We had our cereal bars, our seats thankfully next to each other (always a bonus even though she is abit smelly :P) and we were ready for the big apple!!!!

Next....New York City....we can't wait!!


Rach xxxx