So we arrived at the airport in Las Vegas and found out our flight was delayed over an hour which would mean we would miss our connection. This caused us both to panic me first, shortly followed by Helen when I pointed out our predicament. Our turn at the check in desk came and we were told that we would be flying with United, they had booked us on a direct flight with no baggage check in fee and arriving an hour earlier than the original flight. We were obviously completely appalled and given discount vouchers for our next flight and meal vouchers for the airport. The journey was reasonable with complimentary drinks and a movie.
We caught a shuttle bus from Dulles International to the hostel only to find that 2 minutes after we arrived, a photo of us was posted on twitter. Helen has already touched on the subject of the conversation with a probable murderer at the Petrol station so I won’t go into that.
The following morning we got the underground to Union Square and walked around all the major landmarks of Washington including the Jefferson, Lincoln and Vietnam Vets Memorials and the White House where Helen started singing ‘Oh say can you see, we’re in Washington DC’ to a load of tourists. Unfortunately the President wasn’t accepting visitors so discussion of nurses pay and the oil spill were off the agenda.
A few hours later we collected our bags and headed for the Greyhound terminal to go to Baltimore. We managed to get a private room but on arrival found that it was a double bed. Unable to switch rooms and Helen being concerned she might smother me in the night I volunteered to sleep on the floor, which was surprisingly comfortable with a few blankets. We spent 2 nights in Baltimore exploring both the Charles street area where we were based, and with the use of the free buses, Market Street and the inner harbour area. The weather was absolutely gorgeous without the humidity of neighbouring Washington.
The next morning we were on the move again back on the greyhound for a very complex transfer schedule to get to Niagara Falls. We were late for all 3 transfers but by some miracle managed to catch all the buses but to the detriment of our stomachs because by 8pm we had had nothing to eat all day and Helen was seeing the ground move. We got to Niagara at 9.40pm having managed to eat a disgusting microwaved spring roll burrito myself and a rather non-descript meat burger for Helen, further enforcing the point that greyhoung bus stations are not exactly conducive to a healthy balanced diet.
The next day started with a walk down to the falls. The weather was again beautifully sunny and we knew we were nearly there when we heard the roar of the water and felt the vapour in the air. We walked past the American falls on the opposite side and round to get a better view of the Canadian side. Deciding this was still not close enough we donned our very sexy blue hooded bin bags and took to the water on the ‘Maid of the mist’ into the falls. This was great but I didn’t see an awful lot after the first deluge of water across my glasses.
Back on dry land we continued walking and found ourselves at the gift shops and the top of the falls. I was mesmerised by the water torrents falling over the edge, which is receding up to 2 meters per year in places, and into the abyss below to get carried down to Lake Ontario. Nestled on the shores of Lake Ontario sat our next destination, Toronto and by 6pm we had dumped our bags at the hostel (university halls of residents) and we were walking back to Yonge Street and to the cinema.
