Day 11 : Niagara falls

Hey hey everybody!

Wow, so we're in Niagara Falls and I have to say...wow! It is just so beautiful and bloody wet!! First a quick recap of our journey. Our last day in Boston we spent on the wierd Duck Tour which is a bus that can go over water too, I think we have them in London, but fun nether the less. After getting our results we also went over to visit Harvard and MIT which was kinda fitting for the occasion. We also had pushed the boat out and went out for a really niced ,eal and Skip Jacks in town and had ourselves a celebration meal and drink:D Absolutely devlicious fishermans platter, especially the clam chowder and scallops!!! Man, I have been thinking about it every bloody day since...yummy!

Anyways, after the super long 8 hour drive to Niagara Falls I was totally shattered. Luckily we had actually made a reservatino at a hostel beforehand and drove right up to it and parked up. Man, things are just getting cheaper and cheaper as we go along! Food wise New York is quite expensive like $10 a head; Boston is more reasonable probably at $8; and well Niagara we ate at Pizza Hut for 3 people $23! Drink wise New York is like $6 + tip; Boston is $4; and Niagara is only $3 :D Hostels are getting cheaper too cos New york started at $35 and now at Niagara it;s only $20 a night! But the killer is parking cos in New York it was $35 a day; Boston was $16; and here it is FREE!!! Now thats what i like to hear.

Anways, we arrived here 2 ngihts ago and yesterday we did the whole touristy thing and visited the falls themselves and got totally drenched!! They have 2 attractions called the "Maid of the Mist" where you stick on a poncho (you need it!) and mount an old boat that goes right up close to the Horseshow falls and believe me you can;t bloody see a thing cos water just sprays in your face constantly; the seconds one is called "the hurricane deck" which again you need to put on a poncho and bascailyl walk up some wodden scaffolding towards the base of the American falls to get totally soaked. haha, it was way fun!!! IN the evening we drove up to the northern most point of niagara and watched the sunset and then drove back down to the American falls to see the glorious American Falls lit up in the dark. Literally they have spotlights on the falls from the canadian side over the the falls. We then went for a drink and a game of pool with the locals. Hmm, no fouls in American rules?? I think we were conned, hehe never mind it was fun.

The funny thing about the town of Niagara is that it is quiet. Not like Boston quiet though, cos in Boston there are loads of people walking around but they choose to be quiet. No Niagara is like those wierd shanty towns you see in the movie with yee old wood houses. The locals are friendly thugh, and we are staying in a really nice hostel with the classicaly super friendly, loud, and laughing chinese hostess you;d expect to find in some american sitcom. It's highly recommended and called the Hostell Interntational niagara falls hostel with a hostess (she is actually looking over my shoulder now with a shotgun). She's really nice though:) BUt yeah, then when you walk a few blocks down the road you are at Niagara falls state park! So strange. But I think we figured why it is so quiet in the town. yeah, there is a massive casino right near the falls. Haha, and we are talking mahoosive and brand spanking new. It just looks totoaly out of place and from space! When we went in there were literlly thousands of locals being brainwashed and fritxing their money away. The america dream i guess.

Talking of brainwashing, after the NBC tour in NYC, i can;t stop watching NBC!!! I swear in the promotinoal videos during the tour they put some strange subliminal messages in it or something! But either way there is something fishy about the american dream. IN some ways it is turning into a communist dictatorship. Like censoring non patriotic films like "United 93" the film about 9-11 attacks. Though I guess it makes sense not to show it on flights into USA cos that'd be freaky, but not showing the public within the states is wrong i feel. Okay, fine I just want to watch it and am ranting on. In other ways giant monopolising companies are going to end up ruling the world!! Like microsoft, what happens once they gain control of all market share of software? They will control tje world, mwahaha! yeah, word domination has been on my mind lately.

Anyways, apart from all that we are having fun. today we set off towards chicago. It; is a good 12 hour drive so will probably stop off at Cleveland first. The american woman that whipped our asses with her no-foul rule pool told us that. She says it is a really nice city. Well I guess this is the only way to know if she wasn't conning us with her pool rules.

Wish you were here!
John.