Travelogue Begins - Day 1 & 2

It’s 6:04am. I don’t have a clue what the date or the day is. I’m sitting in our suite of Crown Plaza by the French windows that directly overlook the Niagara Falls. The view is spectacular – for want of a better word. If there is one word that describes the falls, it is ‘Mighty’. It is a sight so awe inspiring that you can do nothing but stare! It has finally sunk in. I am in Canada.

7 years its taken for me to get here. In 2002 when my sis got married and moved here, I decided the trip was too expensive to ask my parents to fund. In 2005, I started working and got married in 2006. To cut a long story short, here I am now, 4 days from their 7th anniversary come to see whether the 7 yr itch is myth or not!!

Let’s come back to where we started. Please gear up coz this is going to be one heck of a journey. We flew out of Delhi at midnight on 7th Aug on Air France towards Paris. Watched Ghosts of GirlFriends Past and ate a very non appetizing VEGETARIAN meal(!!) of a tomato sandwich and cole slaw. Apparently we were flying over some airspace where non-veg is not allowed to be serve, but I personally just think they were just out of non-veg!!! The 4 hours stopover at CDG airport in Paris flew by and we continued our journey on Air Canada, which served much tastier food!! At noon on 8th August, we finally landed in Toronto, Canada.

Not willing to waste even a single day, we rested for a bit and were off to take the city on. First stop, CN Towers. THE place to get a view of the city – 147 stories up. A section of the landing has glass floor where if you stand and look down, you can actually see the bottom of the tower – trust me, it’s a sight not for the faint hearted! The hotdogs here are miles different from the ones back home. For one, the sausage is the size of 5!! We also topped that with a crepe with nutella, strawberries and bananas! Heavenly. The night was completed by a trip to the Greek Fest in town (Pilaros, Danforth). If you haven’t already, try their Gyros. The ones on offer were these wraps of chicken/ beef in pita with Tzatziki (a dressing of sorts). They are just purely scrumptious.

The next morning, we started early and with a breakfast of waffles and strawberries, we drove off towards Niagara. R & D had bought the all-inclusive passes for us and the entire day was spent visiting everything on offer. First up was journey behind the falls. They have built tunnels behind the falls and you can watch tonnes and tonnes of water cascading down in front of you as you stand right behind the falls! The board walk along the class 6 rapids had us convinced that they weren’t kidding when they said that these can’t possibly be tamed by rafters. The butterfly conservatory followed where thousands of butterflies flew around inside a tropical jungle setting. But it was the grand finale which was the cherry on the icing on the cake. The Maid of the Mist is a boat that goes to the mouth of the HorseShoe Falls at Niagra. And it is not an experience anyone can forget soon. With eyes that could barely open due to the mist, we squinted and held our breaths as we watched the fury of nature unleashed. There aren’t any words how I can explain the feeling of standing on that boat, staring at the falls crashing down just metres from where we were.

Absolutely exhausted by the end of it, we ended the day with a lovely dinner and beer sitting on the patio with live musicians playing on the side.

Life couldn’t have been more perfect.