Wine, Sugar and Some Sad Goodbyes

Hi everyone – I hope you are all well in your respective corners of the world! I am safely back from Niagara Falls and only a week away from leaving Toronto for good – how time flies!

Friday night was a frenzy of packing at the hostel as I had to move rooms, back in to the wonderful world of dorms for my last few nights here. I know I confidently boasted last week that everything was fitting back in my suitcase but I need to be honest and admit that there are a couple of rather large plastic bags full of stuff currently without a home, and I sent an 8kg parcel back to NZ last week too! Tomorrow I think I had better give it another try!

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and headed down to the train station to go to Niagara to spend a fantastic weekend with Meggin, Amanda, and Amanda’s sister Lindsay and their parents, Doug and Maria. You couldn’t wish for a nicer bunch to spend a weekend with! I had a flash train with loads of leg room and reclining seats and as this is the same route I go on when I go to New York I am crossing my fingers for a repeat performance next Tuesday. Thirteen hours will go much faster if that is the case!!!

Anyway, two hours after jumping on the train I got to Niagara Falls and met up with Meggin, Amanda and Lindsay. We headed straight for Niagara on the Lake for some shopping - Niagara on the Lake is a beautiful little town full of gorgeous homes, quaint old fashioned shops (including an apothecary!!) and even a horse and buggy trotting up and down the street. I picked up a couple of little presents for some upcoming birthdays and then we headed off for some lunch at the beautiful Pillar and Post Hotel.

After a very tasty lunch and our first wine for the day we headed off to meet our wine tour. We had four stops on the tour, starting with the bigger set up at Jackson Triggs and moving right through the spectrum, finishing at a little family owned vineyard called Caroline’s Cellars (where someone who may or may not be called Caroline, who may or may not have a birthday shortly, may or may not have had a birthday gift purchased in her name!). Here we all are at our first stop (me, Amanda, Lindsay and Meggin):

We had three or four tastings at each stop, including lots of chardonnay and a few icewines and other dessert wines, Niagara region’s specialty. We picked up a few tasty morsels and headed back to Amanda’s parents place in Fort Erie (home to many bingo halls and strip clubs!) to continue tasting and tuck in to the fantastic lasagne that Amanda’s mum had made for us. We had lots of fun playing poker and something called family feud (it turns out I am very good at adding up numbers in my head after a few wines!) and I finally poured myself in to bed for a great sleep about midnight.

On Sunday, Doug and I solved the problems of the world over some coffee and after everyone else got up and had their caffeine fix we headed off to Niagara Falls. It is really hard to describe how amazing the falls are, but I feel very lucky to have been able to visit them again, especially in winter when they are surrounded by ice and snow… sadly the lack of sunshine in my Canada photos struck again but I think you still get a bit of a sense of how awesome they are!


Meggin, Amanda and I headed out of Niagara after that, and towards St Catharines for a Sugar Bush Adventure! We got to watch them make maple syrup, wandered through a discovery walk to see how this process has evolved over time (check out the bucket selection for example!), taste-tested some maple syrup taffy and finally after all that exertion tucked in to a great meal of maple flavoured goodness – pancakes, French toast, maple baked beans etc etc… I even picked up some maple syrup fudge for luck!

Anyway, after all that tripping around and eating of sugar and drinking wine it was time to farewell my wonderful friends and head back to Toronto. It was very hard to say goodbye to these guys and I even had a little tear in my eye on the train ride home. I am pretty sure these two might make it over to NZ so I will look forward to showing them around my place as well as they have shown me around theirs!

Sunday night consisted of a farewell dinner with Pat and settling in to my new room with my nocturnal room-mates! This morning was more farewells and tears as Patrick and Martin head over to Prince Edward Island for the rest of their stint in Canada. I feel very sad with all this farewelling in one hit, but am trying very hard to focus on how great meeting all these people has made my time here, rather than how difficult it is to say goodbye! I guess this is one of the (few) downsides of travelling.

Anyway – I hope you are all well and I will be in touch with tales of Quebec City soon! Four sleeps to go!
C