Niagara Falls…
Okay so Niagara Falls. Well it all started nicely on the pretence that we were in for a 6h 30min coach ride from New York to Niagara Falls. From the moment that the China Town bus moved away on Saturday at 8 in the morning we were in for a shock. It started with our tour guide called Vicky. She was a nice enough person but I got the feeling that she didn’t really get the whole idea that people were prepared to sleep. You see, she goes on the mic and starts laying down the rules such as don’t be late and there is a toilet on the coach that isn’t going to be used because it’ll get smelly and so on but then she started giving us a tour guide of the journey straight from the off. This included the history of the Holland Tunnel, which is the tunnel that takes us from New York under the Hudson to New Jersey, to why New Jersey is called the Garden State. She did ask the question why are there no gardens that you can see in New Jersey and she got no answer so she asked us whether we were sleeping. I guess she got the point. After about 30mins she shut up but I wasn’t sleepy thanks to her chatter! Anyway, 6h 30min journey later we arrived in wait for it, Thousand Islands, which is a place in upstate New York where rich people own mansions on many different little islands there. I should have read the small print because I didn’t realise that we were going to this place and that it was another 4 hour journey to Niagara Falls. Thousand Islands is nice but we were there for less than an hour and it was a total waste of my time. We went on a boat for an hour, got a rather poor tour guide to tell us some tour guide stuff about the islands and then we got back onto the bus. Another 4 hours later we arrive in Niagara Falls or nearly!!!! Vicky informs us that in a tourist “hotspot” like Niagara Falls there are no places to eat so they take us to a Chinese Buffet in the middle of nowhere. China Town bus obviously gets some sort of backhander for this but I refused to go there so instead I went to Subway, which I had to cross a 4 lane road for, but it was well worth it!
So, eventually we jumped back on the bus and headed for the falls. When we arrived at the falls after setting off at 8 in the morning, we finally made it there at 10 at night. It was difficult to see anything but the falls were incredible. The sheer power was just incredible. One thing that surprised me though was how lacklustre the New York side of the river is compared to the Canada side. The Canada side was all lit up and had some nice looking buildings while the New York side was pretty dark. From there we checked into our hotel, which was a holiday inn and actually pretty nice. We sat in the bar, got ourselves a drink then walked over Rainbow Bridge into Canada to see the falls from the other side of the river. It definitely looked better frim the Canada side. We were told we had to be up at 8 the next morning so that we could catch an imax film on the falls. I decided to not do this and just went and stared at the awesomeness of the falls, which is quite simply beyond words.
Eventually we left Niagara but we weren’t going home just yet as we had to go to a place in the middle of nowhere called Corning where they make all sorts of shapes and things out of glass but on the way there we had two eventualities, the first of which was karoake, Oh dear forced fun is not what I like and it was not fun. Nobody really wanted to do it and all we wanted was for Vicky to sit down and shut up. After some lacklustre performances she did shut up. So now onto our meaninless 4 hour journey to Corning. When we arrived in Corning we first stopped off at another Chinese Buffet but Vicky informed us that this one was better because it also does sushi! Anyway, I gave this a wide berth for Wendy’s and had an awesome buger! Onto the glassworks, which again I didn’t want to do so me and my friends sat outside on the grass as it was a nice day. It took another hour before everybody emerged before we set off on our final 5 hour journey home. Yes, going to Corning had added on 2h 30min to our journey. The final leg was long and it certainly felt like the longest but when we got back it was something to not be happy about but we have just had an experience we can forever to talk about and my blog would look better for it.
Anyway, next up my mediocre cruise in the Bahamas!!!
