Niagara Falls and one great hostel
Arrived here on monday from Toronto and luckily the HI hostel is right around the corner from the train station which is always a great bonus. Couldnt check in til 4pm so dumped my bags and went for a late breakfast at the diner next door. This part of town is away from the craziness of the tourist hype so a good old fashioned diner for the locals was a great place to see.
The weather is not so great however and its been raining on and off for a while and getting decidedly colder. Decided to go for a walk down to the Falls and its a nice 30 min stroll from the hostel along the river road. Checked out the Falls which are great but not really as great as what i had expected – i really should learn that major touristy sites usually arent. Walked around the town which is very quiet – gotta love coming this time of year when its quieter. Headed back to the hostel and checked in and hung around the hostel in the evening.
I ended up staying here three extra days – the staff here make it hard to leave – they just get me drunk and sign me in for more nights – but its totally cool as i love it here. Met up with some cool people and on tuesday Jane and I headed down to the main street for food, internet and general mooching around. Its so cold out at the moment that the heating of the hostel was calling us.
Jane and I headed out to the falls when it got dark so we could see all the winter lights and see the falls by night which was cool and they were all lit up by different colored strobes. Walked up Clifton Hill which is like a mini Vegas and went into Timmy H’s for hot chocolate and they make a good one. Timmy H for those not in the know is Tim Hortons a cafe which is legendary – there are usually several in any one place and Tim H himself is something of a god over here – I had to get the full story from a Canadian!!
On wednesday we decided that some of us wanted to head up to Niagara on the Lake and try to get to the wineries for some wine tasting – well when in Rome and all that jazz right!!! Met up with Angela and we caught the shuttle up there and Angela and I followed a walking tour which was cool. This little town is great and so worth seeing and in my opinion more interesting than the Falls. We found a store that had a sign advertising the fact that they now had Marks and Spencers xmas cakes and puddings for sale and sure enough they were selling all sorts of random products from M&S – wondering just how legal that is….
After traipsing around for almost two hours in the bitter cold we headed to the Angel Inn a traditional english pub for some warmth and food. They had the atmosphere down to a T and it was a cool little place.
Having eaten we walked to the Pellar estates winery where we were served with a complimentary sparkling wine and spoke to our ‘wineman’ who was from Switzerland aout tasting some wine. I decided to try the flight of white and tried their Sauv Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Gris which were all superb and it cost me $5. The Pinot was my favourite by far. Angela had decided to try the Chardonnays but they were a little strong and oaky for me. Then we got to try the infamous ice wines which they harvest here in late dec/jan in the early hours of the morning when temps have frozen the grapes. The result is a sweet dessert wine – now im normally not a sweet wine kinda girl but i was blown away with these three we got to try a riesling, the famous Vidal and a Cabernet Franc (a rose/red colour). The nice ‘wineman’ gave these to us for free which was awesome. I so have got to stop using that word!!
We got back to the hostel about 5 and found that i had been signed up for the pub crawl! Managed to get a quick nap and then off to a great little spot that is 5 mins from the hostel and no tourists yay!! It was an absolutely brilliant night and poor Jane managed to get a new title of ‘tequila girl’ I also remembered why I hate the stuff but at least got to make it up to Jack who was feeling disowned that i hadnt drank him for a while.
Thursday was kind of a blur and was a chill out day watching movies and vegging out. Decided to stay on an extra day and go to the pub crawl kareoke night on friday and convinced Jane to stay also.
If anyone reads this and you come to Niagara Falls – stay at the HI Niagara for sure – it is such a great place and i dont think i want to leave. And now its friday night and jack time. Man it was a great great night and i drank way too much. Introduced Bin to the joys of Jaeger and Jack – separately of course!
Finally staggered to bed at 5am knowing that i am supposed to be leaving this morning and also knowing that i was probably going to stay here longer. Mark and they rest of the staff know it and i guess thats what happened as i pulled myself out of bed this morning to change my train ticket and cancel hostel in Toronto.
Tags: Canada, Niagara Falls
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