Entry 15 Thurs 12th May

I was up early and ready to see the falls. I used the hostels pancake grill type thing to make my breakfast. The hosts supplied the mix and you just pour it on the cooker and wait a minute and you're done. It's not the type of pancakes us Brits eat on Pancake Day etc. though; it's that thicker, dry bread type pancake. Oh well. A bit of unhealthy syrup made it better. Great breakfast. I'm yet to find a hostel that provides a decent healthy breakfast but oh well, eat like the locals I guess.

The hostel/home was really nice, all wooden with a big porch and those double front doors that you see in American programs.

I got out my local area map and set off for the falls. The walk to the falls was very nice. I crossed an overpass over a busy road which led to a quiet path at the riverside. I walked for around 10 minutes before I saw the first pockets of tourists. The area near to the falls was really pretty with lots of grassy areas filled with colourful flowers and bursting with various species of birds and both grey and red squirrels.

The path I walked down took me under a big observation tower and towards 'the thunder'. As I got closer the thunder got louder; my pace quickened and quickened until I arrived at the edge of the path and boom - the roaring bright white power of the American Falls were there, up close and personal. The sound was just awesome; a never ending roar of pure power.

It took me a few minutes to actually take my first photo. I just kind of stood there with my camera in my hands staring at the immensity of the falls. Here was another thing I'd seen so many times in movies and on TV over the years and it was now right in front of me, assaulting my vision and hearing. To just stand there immobile and watch the huge flow of never ending water pile over the side kamikaze style into the vast mist below was breath-taking.

Once I had slightly accustomed to the brilliant sight I started to snap a few photos. My eyes were really sensitive as I'd put my contact lenses in when I got up and although the weather was pretty overcast, the falls themselves are just an intense bright white and I was squinting for a good 20 minutes as the brightness tried to bombard, invade and overwhelm my shy retinas.

If you know a little about the Niagara Falls you will know that they comprise of two main waterfalls (actually three but the third is unimportant); so you have the American Falls and The Horseshoe Falls. Through my reading and research on the falls I continually read that the Horseshoe Falls were the big daddy and the better falls to see. So I imagined that I would feel a little impatient and rushed to go see the bigger falls when I arrived at the American; but I didn't. You get to be so close to the American Falls and because it's not that wide, but so voluminous, it captures you in its powerful grasp and you forget about the bigger falls which you can see in the distance.

I planned loosely in my head to see the American Falls, then go over the Rainbow Bridge to Canada and get up close to the Horseshoe Falls, then once I'd seen them both I would consider doing some of the activities on offer. I couldn't wait; the famous Maid of the Mist boat tour was right next to me. I went over to the observation tower, paid $13.50 for both the viewing tower and the boat tour. I took some more photos from the tower that extended further out over the river. The tower had a pretty good angle of both falls; being close to the American but also having a near full wide angle view of the Horseshoe Falls. The only problem is that the Horseshoe Falls are so massive and so powerful that they are mostly hidden by their own towering cloud of mist that rises much higher than the falls themselves.

After a few quick photos I excitedly rushed to the elevator to descend down to the Maid of the Mist. There wasn't any queuing for any of this which was great and I later learned that I was actually very lucky as I saw a queue of about 30 people at the entrance to the ticket box. I went down the elevator with a few other people and on the way to the boat we were given our blue waterproof anorak. I joined the queue of people that were already near the dock and only had a 5 minute wait or so for the boat to return from its previous journey.

On to the Maid of the Mist. Everyone piled up on to the top deck and it was already seeming full as I approached; I noticed that the bottom deck was empty and therefore some great spots right at the front of the boat so I headed there for a prime viewing spot. I don't know why everyone crammed up on top because the only difference is that you would just get 100 times more wet, the views would be the same. There was a loud speaker telling us little bits of information throughout the journey, which soon got drowned out by the thunder of the falls. Drowned being an intended and relevant pun.

We passed the American Falls first at a comfortable speed, not too fast so we had plenty of time to take photos and appreciate the scene. I could move around comfortably from the front to the side as there were only around 10 people on the bottom deck. The American Falls are kind of straight and flat and the Horseshoe Falls obviously curve around as the name would suggest, but it is more than twice the width of the American Falls, so it didn't take too long to pass by the first. I got sprayed a little from the first falls but nothing too bad. Not even one percentile of what was about to happen anyway.

We only had a few minutes of travel time to reach the colossal Horseshoe Falls; which was spent taking continuous photos, getting ever closer. We started getting sprayed with water as soon as we entered the semicircle and… well it just got crazy. Cameras had to be hidden away; hoods had to be put up and held on to so they didn't blow back off. It felt like we were riding through the middle of a storm on the high seas. The wind was so strong it literally threw us around; one middle-aged woman had to grab my arm so she didn't end up flying across the deck. We were endlessly battered in the body & face by water and wind, it was near impossible to see anything. This part of the ride wasn't for taking photographs; it was to experience the power of the falls first hand. No photos could describe how awesome it was to go through, it really was one of the best things I've ever done. To be in the middle of what felt like a tornado, hearing and feeling the pure power and energy of the Niagara Falls was more than I ever expected; it assaulted everyone's senses and left us shell-shocked.

After the boat had turned and left the storm it felt quiet, even though the falls were still right behind us, it was quiet compared to what we just went through. Amongst the forged silence there were gasps of shock and amazement from the people on-board; I think like me, they didn't expect it to be so violently awesome.

I did attempt a little bit of a comedy video for those who share my inner-circle of comedy taste - from the movie Bruce Almighty when Jim Carrey is on the Maid of the Mist and he freaks out for one reason or another. Okay so first of all, anything like that is hard when trying to record it yourself, and second of all… it wasn't really doable for most of the journey as I really would have looked insane shouting the stuff he does, so I tried it when we were in the midst of the Horseshoe Falls and well, my camera got soaked and you couldn't even hear me, I properly shouted ''Eroooadddding'' like in the movie, but upon the playback all you could hear was the deafening roar of the falls. Oh well. Niagara Falls 1, T zero, but that's nothing to be ashamed about.

After the awesomely awesome Maid of the Mist I set off for 'Rainbow Bridge'. This is the bridge that crosses over from the US into Canada for the apparently better views of the falls. There are some good photo opportunities on the bridge as you can comfortably fit both falls in one frame. I arrived at the Canada border patrol place and was asked a few of the usual security questions and was given a stamp to enter Canada for up to 6 months; sweet, I only wanted an afternoon.

The things that I'd read were true, the views are much better over on the Canadian side; you have a front on view of the American Falls (although being on the American side you can get right up to the side of it and appreciate the power of it which is maybe better if I had to pick just one here) and you can get right next to the Horseshoe Falls and see the water fall over the edge. The views of the bigger falls are definitely better on the Canadian side.

So I described how the American side of the falls has lots of grassy areas with flowers and wildlife, what of the Canadian side? Terrible, tacky, & commercial. There's basically a Blackpool Pleasure Beach just stuck on to the side of the falls area. I walked through it briefly just to see what it was like. I left the area again as soon as I could; it was filled with kids running from a big wheel ride to a haunted house to a fast food place. Not for me thanks.

Directly on the 'fall front' right up near the Horseshoe Falls are a bunch of hotels which I imagine have some pretty awesome views of the falls, but it again kind of ruins the natural beauty of the falls themselves. It's weird because if you had to guess which side would be embarrassingly commercial I bet most would guess the USA side - but not so. Not so bro.

I didn't stop over in Canada as long as I thought I would and I set off back to the bridge after a bite to eat. Upon entering the border station I saw that the USA had seen a little money making opportunity and taken advantage; to get back to America you have to pay a toll of 50 cent to go through a turnstile. Cheeky I thought, but being a slight annoyance wasn't my main issue, as I'd learn - I had no money. I only brought out a few dollars with me and I'd just spent that on damn fatty calories. I had my credit card with me but I really didn't want to have to get cash out on a credit card just for 50 cent. I looked in my pockets and I had change that added up to around 25 cent. Okay, stage one would be to try to get my change swapped for a quarter coin (you had to use two quarters and nothing else). I didn't know what was going to happen after I had one quarter, beg? But just one stage at a time I thought, we'll get to that when I get my first quarter. I saw a currency conversion stall across the road and went in. The Canadian lady in there was amazing; I explained that I just needed to swap for one quarter as I couldn't get back to America, and she just gave me the full 50 cent that I needed and told me to keep my own change as well. Legend. Thank Canadaaa!

I returned to the hostel and relaxed for a few hours. As this was my one full day here I was going to head back to the falls again later to see them at night. I got speaking to a guy and a girl at the hostel (I never quite figured out if they were a couple or not but they were on holiday together). The guy looked Asian and the girl looked Indian, but they were both French, living in different parts of France. We arranged to go to the falls at night together which was good as we all agreed we didn't fancy walking around the area at night time alone or just as a two.

The falls looked amazing at night; powerful coloured lights are shone from the Canadian side on to the falls. There were red, blue, white, and yellow lights shone on all different parts of the falls. The Canadian skyline looked great too. I took the opportunity to practise with my DSLR camera and took it off the faithful auto mode and set a longer shutter speed; I got some of my favourite photos up to that point on this night. The long shutter speed makes the water seem smooth which shows the movement and flow of the falls, along with the bright lights illuminating them, I was pretty happy with the photos.

It was really dark now and we started to head back for the hostel. I've just got one more little interesting thing that happened to tell before I close this out. On our journey back we were heading towards a couple walking towards us and as we passed the guy said hello, which is fairly normal among Americans so I said a hello back to which he stopped and said "Oh wow you said hello back, that means you mustn't be from around here.'' The three of us turned and said no and told them where we were from etc. The guy told us that they were from another place in the states and that their car had broken down and they needed help, "Oh here we go'' I thought. He told us how he had just asked someone for help and he was told "No we don't help ******s.'' (Yeah they were black)… to which I was astonished, and confused as the entire area was predominantly black. He asked for us for help in the form of money to which I said none of us had any and then he pretty sharply went from a nice guy to turning around and walking off with his partner. The two French people I was with didn't really hear or follow most of the conversation but after thinking about it I'm pretty sure it was a slightly advanced version of just simply asking for spare change; by saying that someone had just been racist to them it could make me/us feel apologetic and feel a need to help them out. Maybe. I'm probably over thinking it but either way I had no money even if I wanted to help. If I had helped out every person who'd asked me for money since arriving in the USA I'd have no money left already.

I spent a part of the evening trying to find some way to travel to my next destination the following day and once I booked it I got an early night as I had a lengthy bus journey the next day which would go up, across and down through Canada back to the US to Detroit. DETROIT WHAT.