Year around the world

East Coast - 1

USA | Monday, 4 March 2013 | Views [251]

Sarah and I have been busy travellers since last post. In the last 5 days we have been to Vancouver, Toronto and are now spending the night in Syracuse NY.

We travelled to Vancouver by bus from Whistler which ended us up at The Central Bus Depot. From there we had a 2km walk which we later found out to be the dodgiest suburb in all of Canada. The west end of Hastings st, wow! The local condemned corner shop had bars over the barred windows. We safely made it through the gauntlet of drug dealers and hoards of weirdos licking their lips at us with our big travel bags. We spent that night at Saint Clair's hostel which had a nice Cunard/White Star shipping theme consistently throughout the place. Vancouver is a lovely city but I would image that it cure Australia's drought with a day of its rain and would be levelled if the Canucks lost a home Stanley cup again. (Search both Stanley cup riots on wiki, they are "passionate" about their hockey.) We had some friends take us out for a lovely dinner all the prestige of the city was restored. Waterfront buildings, a top notch park and aquarium were highlights.

Toronto was great and is much like Melbourne except the public transport is cheap and works like a dream. There are a few layers of Asian and Greek communities that give it a good multicultural vibe. The local Scottish restaurant did a brie and streak meal and a creme brûlée to die for. We were able to stay at a friend of Sarah's place which was near the city and local knowledge went a long way. We went to our first Marlies hockey game, which is great value and entertainment at $23 ($150-$300 for a NHL game). Almost forgot, $1 punnets of blue berries. Enough said!

After singing "Started from the bottom" by Drake, we headed down to the almost a wonder of the world, Niagara Falls. The town was like Vegas as you drive in and has a wax museum for every 4 buildings but the falls steal the show. I'll let the photos do the talking.

We are spending the night in Syracuse tonight after a hearty dinner of ribs, salad and corn bread at the dinosaur BBQ restaurant. It lived up to the 5mins of talking up that I got from a random back in Melbourne. Upon our arrival we were lost as we had no map or cellular reception. While we were looking for Thompson rd, we again ended up in another rough neighbourhood with the cashier not of much directional help and had some pretty offensive tatts. After about half an hour of hunting around, we got some Maccas wifi that got us there. Looking forward to Boston tomorrow, with some local tips it should be great.

The most industrial place ever