Canadian Days: How I Made It Out To Niagra Falls

On of the most beautiful things you can experience in Canada--and of existence for that matter--is Niagra Falls. It truly is a great work of nature.

After I decided to go back home I set aside some time to go out to the Falls. Up until then I hadn't done any sightseeing in Canada, largely because I wanted to find a job before I did any, and because I didn't put a priority on it. The first two times I went to Britain I went as a tourist and all I did was sightsee. Sightseeing can be informative and help you understand a culture better, but it's not the same thing as being immersed it. When your a tourist you see the place, but you have limited opportunities to interact with the culture, and I'd rather be immersed in it. That way you can meet people you wouldn't normally meet. I expected to go out to the Falls, see it, and then come back; and that would be the extent of my tourist activities in Canada. But it didn't happen like that.

On a Wednesday morning I groggily woke up, and thought about not going. I was sleepy and I wanted more rest, and I figured since Niagra Falls was a tourist activity it wasn't that important--my rest, however, was. Niagra Falls was just a waterfall, could it really be that exciting? Maybe the experience of the Falls would be like Stonehenge. Alot of tourists want to see Stonehenge when their in Britain, but all that experience amounts to is supposedly looking on in awe at a bunch of rocks in the middle of nowhere. But I decided go to the Falls anyway, despite my skepticism. I'd never been there, and I thought maybe my preconceptions were wrong.

I went with a group of people on the tour, mostly people from hostels in the area. Our itinerary included wine tasting at a winery, a visit to Fort George, a visit to a dam and then Niagra Falls. The winery we stopped at got the tour off to a good start. I have forgotten what the name of the winery was, but it did have a connection to Dan Akroyd, who starred in Ghostbusters (one of my favorite films). Although I rarely drink I took a sip of the wine and it was delicious. It was the best wine I had ever tasted, and I thought about buying a bottle, but the steep price (30 Canadian dollars) prevented me from doing so. So I bought a small bottle instead. Being at Fort George was an interesting experience because it was captured by the Americans in the War of 1812 and then recaptured by the British. As an American I had always rooted for the Americans in the war. But before we got there our tour guide told us he was glad the British took it back because he was Canadian. It doesn't surprise me that he had this attitude. When you travel abroad you encounter different attitudes than what your accustomed to. I always wondered what did the British think about the American Revolution, especially since they lost. But that is a subject I will have to investigate at another time. Then we stopped at an off-shoulder pass on the road which gave us a magnificent view of the river that runs behind Fort George. There was a sign there that said "Niagra Escarpment," one side was in English, the other French. Then it was off to see a dam, and on the other side of the dam was the United States. This was a weird experience. Here I was in a foreign country, and I could walk into the U. S. from where I was at. Far from being an uninteresting tourist experience my day had been interesting so far.

Then we got to Niagra Falls--what we had been waiting for all day--and it certainly wasn't like Stonehenge. It is hard describing what Niagra Falls is like because it is an experience that can not be described in words. Seeing it on television, pictures and reading about it can't do the power and magnificence of the place justice. The best description I can think of is it is what you would expect a giant waterfall to look like in heaven; and only God can make a better waterfall. Our tour guide told us he never got tired of going to Niagra Falls because he was always in awe of it, and I can see why. Going to Niagra Falls was the highlight of a good day, and it was a day that got better with each successive tourist attraction. All these places were unique, and had I not bothered to get out of bed I would have missed out on something. Sometimes tourist attractions can be disappointing, and attractions are often exploited as a way of making money, which can discourage people to go to them. But on this day the experience was worth it.