A few days have passed since I’ve left Canada, but I haven’t had the time to write my blog yet. Let’s see what I can still remember!
2019-03-01 Toronto
Eddy had to leave for work very early, so he was already gone for the day when I woke up. He had made me breakfast - scrambled eggs - and in true Nigerian fashion, it was super spicy. Really tasty, but a bit much for breakfast (especially if you’re as white as I am).
The weather was really nice, even if cold, and after getting some cash at an ATM and buying some food, I took the bus and subway to go to downtown Toronto.
The city is absolutely beautiful; there is an interesting contrast between extremely modern and much older buildings. The people in Toronto were all so exceptionally nice. A mentality that differs a lot from that in Munich; everyone is much more relaxed.
I spent the whole day in the city and was glad that I’d put on warm clothes, as the windchill made the -2°C feel like -15°C.
In the evening, Eddy and I had dinner together. He had made stew with chicken and shrimps, and a side of rice. This meal was also extremely spicy and he found it amusing that my eyes were watering and my nose was running. By just looking at him, you’d have never been able to tell that the food was even remotely spicy. It was really tasty, but I didn’t get a second serving, because I don’t think I would have been able to handle it!
After dinner, we talked for a while before going to bed.
2019-03-02 Toronto
The bright blue sky from the day before was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was gray outside and it even started to snow before I left the house. I didn’t really feel like going outside, but since I had only this day left in Toronto, I put on warm clothes and headed for the bus.
This time, I took another route to get downtown, because I wanted to check out where my bus to Niagara Falls would leave the next day. While I was at it, I picked up my bus ticket so that I wouldn’t have to worry about that the following day.
When I was done with all that, I went to the gay quarter “Church and Wellesley”. It was still snowing, but that didn’t stop me. In the late afternoon, the snow finally let up a bit, and when Eddy joined me, it had almost completely stopped snowing. We grabbed a bit to eat before making our way over to the CN Tower. When we got there, it was already dark which made the tower look even more impressive.
When we were at the CN Tower, Melissa - a host who couldn’t host me but still wanted to meet up. So, I went to Melissa’s place and Eddy headed back home. Melissa’s couchsurfing guests - Nefe and Izzy - were also there. Nefe and Izzy are both musicians and I’ve listened to Nefe’s music on Spotify before. It was a great experience to get to meet her personally. After some time she randomly started playing the piano and singing one of her new songs. What a wonderful experience! Nefe and Izzy went out to meet with friends, and Melissa and I talked for a few hours. Time really flew by and it was already past midnight when I got back to Eddy’s.
2019-03-03 Niagara Falls
On sunday morning I got up quite early. I packed up all of my things and got ready for the 24-hour journey that was ahead of me. Eddy and I had breakfast together before walking to the bus together, where our paths parted.
The ride on the Greyhound was really nice and in the early afternoon, I arrived in Niagara Falls.
With the 50 lbs of luggage on my back, I walked the 4 km to the waterfalls. When I was getting closer to the falls, a woman approached me to ask if it wasn’t very exhausting to walk around with all that luggage. I said that it wasn’t too bad and she laughed. She asked where I came from and immediately started speaking German with me. Turns out she’s German and has been living in North America for the past 30 years. We had a short but nice conversation (we switched back to English after a few sentences so her husband could understand what we were saying) and then I continued walking to the falls.
At first, I didn’t find the Niagara Falls not very impressive, but that was probably because you can see them from very far away and it makes them seem way smaller than they really are. When I got really close to them and later was even right at the edge of the Horseshoe Falls, I was really impressed though. Thanks to the bitter cold, the waterfalls were half frozen and looked really fascinating.
I spent a long time taking pictures and then walked upstream for a bit before heading back to Rainbow Bridge, where I crossed the US-Canadian border on foot.
The officer at the border was extremely rude, but I still got my visa until May 31st, so I’ll have more than enough time to explore the United States.
From Niagara Falls, NY I took an uber to get to Buffalo, where I strolled through the city for a bit, before spending the last few hours before my bus for NYC left at the bus station, because I was freezing by that point.
The bus ride was comfortable; I managed to sleep for a few hours and snooze for most of the rest of the time.
At 8 am I arrived in New York City, where I’m still at right now. More details on New York will follow in another blog.