It's a dirty free for all

Tuesday, July 26, 2011
NEW YORK TRIP PART 2

Day 3 (19 June): Train to Niagara Falls, Canada! Fireworks and light displays!

So we once again started out the day very early! I think the train was departing at 9am or some other super early timing! The train journey is quite long, roughly 9 hours plus because it is not a straight non-stop ride. There were actually quite a lot of stops along the way with little towns and some super ulu in the middle of nowhere places. We planned our trip so that we would reach in the evening with time to spare to go catch the fireworks that were scheduled that night!

The view from the train window.

My tea and chicken salad sandwich! =D

I know it is blur but it looks cool okay! =D

My mummy!

Other trains at one of the stops.

A stop along the way!

This is actually the last carriage of the AMTRAK train! It is the food service carriage! The food variety is really hmmm, not great but no complaints since there's hot beverages and some sandwiches, etc.

One of my favourite snacks from when I was a kid! RITZ CHEESE SPREAD CRACKERS. I can totally eat many boxes of this in one go! They used to be sold at supermarkets in boxes of 8! Haven't seen them around for a long time.

Me happily (albeit looking slightly sleepy) eating my teriyaki rice bowl! The brown cardboard thing that I am holding is a super cute and useful invention! It is supposed to be a tray to put the food and stuff that you buy from the food carriage and if you get drinks, the sides can actually fold out into drink holders so you don't spill your drink! I think it is totally not obvious from the picture but just imagine luh!

Jonjon looking extremely happy like he always is =D

Train crossing!

Finally! The bridge between Niagara New York and Niagara Canada!

Me happily going to our hotel room!

This is the view from our room's window!

American Falls from our window.

Bridge between US and Canada!

Rainbow above the Horse-shoe falls as seen from our room window! Okay, I think I should do some explaining about the different falls first. At Niagara, there are 2 waterfalls, the Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls. The Horseshoe Falls are on the Canada side while the American Falls, as the name suggests, is on the US side. The Horseshoe Falls are in the shape of a horse shoe (imagine U-shaped) and the American Falls are like normal waterfalls. See pictures below okay! So you can go either side of the border and there are lots of hotels and attractions on both sides. But you can only see the nice U-shape of the Horseshoe Falls and the front view of the American Falls from the Canadian side.

Picture of our room from the toilet! Jacuzzi!

Jonjon posing beside the window =D

Funny purple dandelion-like flowers!

Seagulls EVERYWHERE!

This is the American Falls! That's the US side. Now get what I mean about "front-view" from the Canadian side? The little one at the right-most portion of the picture is called the Bridal-veil Falls! Super nice name.

This is the Canadian Horseshoe Falls! The middle can't be seen because there is so much mist and everything from the high impact of the water falling down the falls! There will be a rainbow in the middle! =D

People on the Maid of the Mist boat ride!

We bought the Niagara Adventure Pass which includes 4 attractions (Niagara's Fury, Maid of the Mist, Whitewater Boardwalk, Journey Through the Falls) and some discounts for others! We went to Niagara's Fury on the first day since we had time to spare before 10pm which was the stipulated time for the fireworks to start! The attraction was simply put, a 4D show about how the Niagara Falls was formed!

Will elaborate on this attraction in the Day 4 part!

This was our adventure pass! We're supposed to hang it round our necks!

After Niagara's Fury, we went to have dinner at this pretty little terrace cafe overlooking both falls! The food was totally not good at all considering that it was very expensive. I know the photo looks very bright (summer) but this was already at 8pm!

Love horse carriages!

My mum's steak.

My cheese burger.

This is at 9 plus pm when the waterfalls get lighted up with different coloured lights (this happens every night). Still waiting for the fireworks.

FIREWORKS!

Me lying in the jacuzzi. HAHA. Took a super long hot jacuzzi soak after that!

Day 4 (20 June): Journey through the Falls, Whitewater Boardwalk, Whirlpool Aero Car, Maid of the Mist

This was the day that we went to the rest of the attractions! We only had this full day to explore because our train back to New York City was leaving at 1030am the next day! Our hotel package didn't include breakfast, so we went hunting for some food for breakfast! Our hotel concierge recommended Tim Hortons which was just right behind our hotel! It is something like a Macdonald's but their main food is either bagels, donuts, muffins or sandwiches! There were soo many different types of donuts to choose from!! LOVE DONUTS. It was so nice that we went back the next morning before we left for our train station!

The 2 brown donuts on the left are cinnamon sugar donuts! While the furthest away is a normal glazed one, and the last one I can't remember right now cause my mum ate that!

Then it was off to the many attractions! This is the slope from our hotel to the waterfalls!

First stop: Journey Through the Falls! It is essentially just going through tunnels behind the Horseshoe Falls to come out onto a platform right beside the falls!

Me! I think I look like a yellow duck luh.

After Journey Through the Falls! When we got back up to normal ground level!

If you buy the Niagara Adventure Pass, you get 2 days worth of free rides on the People Mover Buses! It's just a hop-on-hop-off shuttle bus that brings people from one attraction spot to another attraction spot.

Second Stop: (See the sign!) It is an own-time-own-target trail along the Class 6 Rapids (fastest and most dangerous class of rapids in the world) that are up-river from the falls. Apparently no one is allowed to go rafting on the rapids and few people have ever survived them.

The whole trail probably takes about 30 minutes max to slowly walk there and back! I think this is at the end of the trail where there is a spot for people to take photos/admire the scenery.

This is a wall at the end of the trail! It is full of multi-coloured chewing gum or bubble gum. I think that it is quite gross. Haha.

Taking the People Mover Bus further up the river!

Third Stop: Whirlpool Aero Car! This is even further upstream from the rapids where the river is kind of L-shaped and so there is a whirlpool! We took this cable car thing to go across and back!

Yup, this is the Aero Car. Looks quite scary.

Then we walked back to the Italian place at the 1st floor of our hotel! THIS IS SERIOUSLY THE BEST PASTA THAT I HAVE EVER TASTED IN MY WHOLE LIFE. The price was reasonable (20+CAD) considering that it is after all the restaurant in Hilton and the portions were huge and THE TASTE IS SUPER. Yes the pasta is better than any that I ate in Italy, and I ate lots of pasta while in Italy okay! Anyway, we got a seat beside the window and the view was so pretty =D

My ribbon pasta! SUPER SUPER SUPER X MILL YUMMY.

Fourth Stop: Maid of the Mist Boat Ride! We couldn't take any pictures while on the boat because there was soo much spray from the waterfalls!

This is the multi-coloured waterfalls at night! I was feeling a little sick from all the cold splashing of water so I stayed in the hotel room to sleep while my mum went to take a last look at the night view of the falls! Almost forgot, we went to the outlet mall in Niagara and if I'm not wrong, the stuff in US is still cheaper because the tax is higher in Canada!

The lights illuminating the waterfalls at night!

Our hotel =)

Day 5 (21 June): Train back to New York City

The super small train station at Niagara, Canada!

Waiting for our train to arrive!

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