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I recently immigrated to Canada from the UK and I figured what better way to get to know my new home country than to travel across it. Well, I've made it to Niagara Falls. So, over the next month, I'm traveling 4 and a half thousand km from Halifax to Vancouver. And the reason I'm sticking to the mainland of Canada is I'm traveling on trains with via rail. Just look at this. In this second leg of the trip, I'm going to be hopping through the cities of Quebec and Ontario. This is very much the whistle stop part of the coast to coast trip. I'm only going to have one or two nights in each city, but I'll
still have enough time to explore around, see some of the sites, do some activities, try out some local food, get some drinks, and just get a sense of the vibe of the place. This place has been open since 1928. I get the hype. Check this out. Good morning, Americans. My journey began a few days ago when my wife Jamie and I flew into Halifax and we drove around some of the highlights of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. HERE WE GO. HEY. WE GOT FOUR LOBSTERS. SO, the Bay of Fundy is the biggest tidal change in the world. We're riding a tide that's coming in for the afternoon. And now Jamie's flown back to Winnipeg and I'm about to board the train in
Halifax to begin making my way across Canada. So this first train journey I'm going to do is going to take me 22 hours to get from Halifax to Quebec City. So, I'm in cart 37, which is all the way down the other end. And it's a very, very, very long train. It's exciting, though. I'm excited to get on board and get this journey started. Uh, 37. And this is me. To be able to have this whole room to myself is very, very nice for a 22-hour journey. Feeling very excited now. Let's get this started. All right, we're off. We're moving. Next up, Quebec City. So, this train line's called the Ocean, which runs from Halifax to Montreal. But I'll be getting off before the end of the line in Quebec City.
Summons the dining car. Well, I've just come back from lunch and that was absolutely delicious. I didn't know what to expect with the food on the train, you know. I think anytime you're dining on a train, you're kind of like, well, just you take what you're given, you know. But that was actually really, really tasty. Much better quarterly than I expected, which is fantastic. But now it's actually started raining outside. Um, which is kind of funny cuz we had like 4 days of pure sunshine whilst I travel around and then now the rain's here. So to be fair, if any day it's going to rain, I want it to be when I'm inside the train. So it's all
good. All good. I'm just going to settle in now. Have a good relaxing afternoon. Watch the wheel go by. So, staying in the Sleeper Plus class, I've got my own cabin, but I also have access to the lounge car, the dining car, as well as this regular carriage that I can just come and hang out in. And there are snacks and drinks you could order, but I decided to wait till 400 p.m. because they had a free wine tasting on. So, we got to try out a couple of different wines from the local region. What do you find? I think you hit it nail on the head there cuz I was going to say it's quite feels quite thick. Yeah. But not but like not in an overbearing way. It's like refreshing thick but refreshing which seems contradictory. So crisp and bright. It has
Yeah. So, the sun's gone down now and it was time for my dinner. And the meals are included in the ticket, but you have to book a specific time slot that you're going to eat at. Very, very impressed with the food so far. Had this barbecue chicken with a blueberry sauce on. It tasted fantastic. Didn't film that much because you're just sitting down with new people and having a nice conversation. I'm going to be getting my camera out and stuff. But yeah, I'm just going to settle in for the evening, chill out in my cabin, and then I'll convert this to a bed a bit later on. But yeah, it's been great.
All right, I've climbed into bed now. Hopefully, I'll sleep all right and uh be fresh for exploring Quebec City tomorrow morning when I arrive at the crack of dawn. So, see you on the other side. All right, good morning. slept pretty well last night. All things considered, it's not quite actually. Had a good rest. I think we're about 20 minutes from Quebec City. Well, St. Foy stop at Quebec City where I'm getting off and arrive over here. So, all right. Just got to get my bag and then get an Uber to the hotel. Of course, my bag's the last one off, but there you go. All right, let's get an Uber. So, this is where I'm staying tonight.
This is the Chatau Fontineac, which was built in 1893 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. They built it as a luxury hotel to encourage rail travel across Canada. And I figured since I'm traveling across Canada on rail, I've got to stay here, you know, just for thematic purposes for the video. That's all. I mean, it's a sacrifice of anything. But yeah, I got two nights in here. I can't check in yet, though, cuz I got here at 7:00 a.m. Uh, so I'm just going to go and have a little wander around the city, especially. It's a gorgeous day. Beautiful sunshine. Little chilly to start with, but I'm going to have a little wander around before all the crowds start showing up.
Check out on the river down here. So, these little clouds just floating over it. Never seen anything like that. So cool. So this is the Governor's Prominard I'm walking along now. Let's have a little loop around. See what I see. It's actually nice being here this time of the morning cuz it's I can imagine it's getting very busy later in the day. But right now very peaceful. I still can't believe I'm staying in that. So along the way here, they got bits of information about the history of the river and the city and like St. Lawrence River here has just played such a vital role in Canada's history. Like the
indigenous people were using it for thousands of years for travel and trade, but then with the French colonization, this was their route in from the Atlantic Ocean. The first permanent European settlement in Canada was established right here in6008 by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain. He chose this strategic location because of how the river narrows, making it easy to control river traffic and defend against enemies. It was also an ideal hub for the fur trade with the indigenous peoples. I'm enjoying this though having a quiet early morning wander around. It's very peaceful. Incredible views of the city. By the mid-7th century, Quebec City became the political, religious, and economic center of what the French called New
France. The city was then conquered by the British in 1759. And just over 60 years later, they built this citadel to defend against potential attacks from the Americans. Just walking past the old citadel here. Uh you can go inside, but it doesn't open till 10:00. So, I'm just going to walk around it. Unlike other North American cities, Quebec City has maintained all of its defensive walls. And today, it's the only fortified city with intact walls north of Mexico. Great overview of the city here cuz you've got like, you know, the hotel and the old town, but behind it, you've got all the industry with not just cruise ships, but all the cargo ships coming in as well. So, I'm going to switch my mornings
around here actually. Um, tomorrow morning I was going to go to the Mod Morreny Falls, but I'm actually going to do it this morning because I can't check into the hotel yet and like old Quebec and stuff. I think it'll be more interesting and lively during the afternoon and evening. So, take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and go and see the falls this morning and then come back here in the afternoon, check in, and then explore a bit more of the old town. I bought myself a combo ticket for the shuttle and the entry to Montreny Falls, and it only took about 20 minutes to drive out there.
The falls stand at a height of 83 m or 270 ft, which is about 30 m taller than Niagara Falls. There's a few different things you can do here. There's a cable car, there's a zip line, and there's even a via Ferda. Now, I had my eye on the zipline, but because it's the start of October, it's only open on weekends, and I'm only here during the week, so can't get to do that. But I did have my eye on the cable car. But unfortunately, in order to do the cable car, there's a massive queue. And as much as I love cable cars, I hate queuing. So, not going to do that. So, I'm basically just going to do the trail up and around on top of it on the bridge there. Enjoy the views and take it all in.
All right, we're going to enter the splash zone here. I do see that web down there. Just a light spray. Anyway, time to climb up all these stairs. Made it up. Get a good view back to the city from here as well. This is such a great view. Kind of walk right above it like this. It's the end of the zip line right here. I think that would have been a good one. Thought I'd pop in a restaurant here just to get a quick drink and enjoy a view of the waterfalls. But cuz I'm getting a drink only me all the way back
in this lovely corner here. Got to see if I can just get the cable car down without queuing for ages. This is more like it. $14 to go down. Well, that ended up being a good little hack that there was still a big queue to go up, but just like this one over here. But no queue to go down. There's only a few of us in the cable car. So anyway, that was lovely. Going to head back to town now. All right. I said I was going to get poutine at some point this trip. And what better place to get it than in Quebec, which is the home of poutine. And uh I've come to a place called the Shikushek, which is just opposite the
chat fontac here. So, just before I go check in, I'm going to fill up on this. Now, I've gone with something a little more fancy than your regular poutine. Uh, this is lafet. Obviously, the usual gravy, cheese, curds, but we got smoked meat, chic sauce, pickled onions, and fresh herbs. Oh, that's really good. And local, too. Cheers. It was finally time for me to check in to the Chatau Frontinac, and they'd given me a set of room key cards earlier that just weren't activated yet. But now, the room's ready. They text me my room number and the keys were activated.
All right, we can finally check into my room. So, let's see what's in store. Well, this is supposed to be my room and there's someone in here. The key worked. So, I got a text from front desk saying this is my room. I've gone in. [snorts] Someone in there. Brilliant. Yeah. 9101. Key worked and everything. Oh well. Let's go back down and see what happens. That's a first actually out of all my travels. be sort of given a room key and it's the correct key, but it's obviously the wrong blood that's obviously the wrong
room cuz there's someone in there. Good job. They weren't. So, I went down to reception. They gave me keys to a new room, which was a little bit of a downgrade, and I went up to try again. Let's see who's in here. Yeah. So, not as big as the other room or as high up, but it. I've been here since 7:00 a.m. Make it work. It's weird. I should be walking to this room going like, "Oh my god, this is phenomenal." But because of that, I'm just a bit like It's like, "Oh, here's what you should have had, but we messed up. So, now you got this." So, anyway, first world problems. It's all good. Yeah, the room is actually lovely. It had just been a long day.
Since I was staying at a fancy hotel, I figured I'd go for a fancy meal at one of their restaurants, Eastola Sam. Basically have a romantic meal for one. Oh, I missed. I ordered lobster crab aranchchini as an appetizer. And then for my main, I went for the flank steak with added lobster. That's fantastic as well. Looks like more of the right thing. Oh, that's good. Good morning from Quebec City. It's another beautiful day here. Um going to be starting off today with actually getting a tour around the hotel. So you can actually book tours of the
hotel, like an hourong tour taking you all around, which for any other hotel might not seem that interesting, like if it's just some best western, it's like, "Oh, look, here's the ice machine." But here, there's so much history involved with the chat front. So the hotel is built on top of where the original forts were in Quebec. So there was a French fort and then when the British took over, they put their fort on top of that. I got to have a look at all the magnificent rooms like the ballroom which is huge and all these different chandeliers you know it's the royalty that stayed here famous actors whole place just beautiful and u but the highlight was we're in one of the rooms he was like oh this is the room that
Churchill and some of the other allied leaders planned a Dday it's like what this is where they planned out Dday during World War II the Quebec conferences were here which is where Churchill Roosevelt and the Canadian prime minister at the Leon McKenzie King. See, I'm learning. They had meetings with the military leaders to plan an allied strategy. Once I'd finished the tour of the hotel, I head out onto St. Lawrence River with a free tour that the hotel offers, which I was very keen to do given the river's vital role in Canada's history. And then in the afternoon, I finally went to explore the old town.
All right, so let's go for a little wander around Old Quebec, which is basically the whole area around the hotel. Maybe get some food, get a drink, possibly waste some money on some souvenirs, you know. We'll just see what happens. So, one of the most obvious observations about around here is it looks like Europe. But in fact, it looks so much like Europe, it often doubles as Europe in many films. So, if you seen the film Catch Me If You Can, this church right here is where Tom Hanks captures him right near the end of the film. And the church was built in 1688, and it's one of the oldest still standing stone churches in all of North America. So this outline marks where Champlain's
original hole was. So basically that means the first permanent European settlement in Canada started right here. As the evening drew in, I decided to go for a drink in one of the old pubs. And then a couple walked in who had the same camera as me. So I started chatting them. And it turns out they were fellow YouTubers as well. Jason and Alisa here. Hey. They have a channel. EECC travels, which I hadn't seen because it's all about cruise ships and I haven't been on cruise ships, but we've had the loveliest. This isn't some cheesy collab, you know, when some YouTubers kind of fake it. We were just in the pub having a drink and now we've been here.
This one drinks turned to like four. Uh, we're having the best time just hanging out. So, great to meet you guys. This is the best. This guy has uh has been wonderful and we've enjoyed his company tremendously. makes great content. I understand why you guys watch them. There you go. We've actually watched one video of this. That's so funny that whenever we sit here, I'm like, I think I know you.
I haven't checked out the channel yet. I'm still in the pub, but I will do. So, yeah. He's a bit drunk. Don't worry. I'm a bit drunk. I'm more drunk than he is. That's cuz you've only got a bit of British blood on yourself. Cheers. We've enjoyed this. It's been a really fun evening. Cheers. Boom. It was time to move on to my next destination. And I'm getting the train first thing in the morning to spend the day in Montreal.
What a beautiful looking train station. Beautiful on the outside with the renovations. So today I'm riding in business class journey. Tomorrow I'm doing economy. So I'm just kind of mixing up between different ones. But yeah, it's nice to have a bit more space, bit more room for the journey today. Like 2 and 1/2 hours. So should be pretty smooth. One of the perks of traveling business class is there was a full meal included and the food again was absolutely topnotch.
Perfect. Wow. All right, made it to Montreal. Let's go find my hotel, which should be just in front of the train station. It is. So, all right, so this is my room in the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. Uh, it's another railway hotel. It's built by the Canadian National Railway in the ' 50s. Let's have a look at the view. Oh, wow. That is cool. It's right above the train station. And when they built it, the engineers used some special technology to sort of stop the train tracks kind of rumbling the hotel. But it's quite a famous hotel
because this is where in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono did their bed in for peace. They stayed in one of the suites in his hotel and stayed in the bed. There's an anti-war protest and it's where they recorded Give Peace a Chance in this hotel. So, that's pretty cool. I'm not going to be staying in bed. I'm going to go explore Montreal. Originally a fur trading settlement and later a colonial center, Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. Over time, it strategic location on the St. Lawrence River made it a major hub for trade, manufacturing, and transportation.
Today, Montreal has one of Canada's largest metropolitan economies, and its cultural life is famous around the world, hosting major festivals and featuring one of North America's most diverse international food scenes. It's nearly 1:00 now, so I've basically got like half a day to explore Montreal. It's hot out today. It's like 25° and it's the start of October. Not complaining. Heading into the old town now. And you can immediately see a change in the architecture from all the sort of big shiny glass skyscrapers to all the old stone buildings.
Okay, so I'm just outside the NRAAM Basilica of Montreal. So very famous church here in Montreal. So I'm going to see if I can have a look inside. NRAAM Basilica is Montreal's most iconic landmark, famous for its stunning Gothic Revival architecture. Opened in 1829, it houses a 7,000pipe organ and has hosted major events, including the funeral of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the wedding of Selene Dion. That was the most impressive church I've ever been inside, I think. And that's the thing, it's a church, not a cathedral. If it was a cathedral, it'll be like, well, it's got some competition, but as for a church, it's just
phenomenal. I guess that's semantics, but yeah, just the architecture was fantastic. The stained glass windows, just all like the carvings and that spiral staircase going up just beautiful. 16 bucks to go in. Didn't spend too long in there, but definitely worth it. I've come down to the old fort and uh first of all, more amazing fall colors are following me all around Canada, which is sweet. But yeah, loads of stuff going on here. They got a whole like fairground over there. Just a beautiful autumn day in the mid20s. I didn't bring any shorts with me, so I'm wearing jeans and I'm just roasting.
I should note that it's a Saturday afternoon that I'm here, which is maybe one of the reasons why it's so busy. could easily hang around here for ages. But my plan is going to head, it's about 35minut walk to Schwartz's Deli, get a classic smoked meat sandwich, and then I'm going to head up to Mount Royal for an amazing view of the city. So, I'm working my way up St. Lauren Boulevard to get to the deli. [snorts] Definitely feels like more of the local hangout area of town. Like old town was touristy and busy. This seems where especially I reckon late in the evening this area would be pretty pumped. Lots of cool street art. Like
there's a street art tour going on there. Oh, good. Everyone's had the same idea as me. Oh, well, see how long this lasts. This place has been open since 1928. So, it's like a bit of a landmark here in Montreal. Hence why it's so popular. So, just for reference, I got in a queue at 3:30. It's now 3:38. I'm inside for the inside queue. So, it's not too bad. This is the takeout. Yeah, that's like a dining in area. This is a takeout. You just order it and take out. All right, that took 20 minutes from joining the queue to get him a sandwich. So, it's not too bad at all.
All right, let's give it a try. That is some juicy meat. There's not much to the sandwich. Just the meat. Maybe a little mustard in there, but I get the hype. That was great. That was delicious, though. Like, I was feeling very hungry, so I nearly got fries, but I'm so glad I didn't cuz I am full now. It's doesn't look like much, but it fills me right up. Anyway, now I'm going to head up Mount Royale, which is directly up there. Very wholesome scene of people just chilling in the park on a lovely Saturday.
It's nice to be in the shade for a bit as well. It's a hot day. Well, I can get my step count in literally. Well, that was a workout. Well, that was a hell of a hike up, but just incredible view over Montreal. Glad I saved this to last really. Such an incredible view of the city. It's very busy up here, but it's a gorgeous Saturday evening, so everyone's got the same idea. Anyway, I need to find some water and then possibly a beer. I was feeling pretty tired that evening, so I decided just to go for a quiet drink in the gold lounge of my hotel.
Montreal from my time here today seems like a really cool city with a lot of variety to it. And I feel like you could have a really fun night here as well, but uh in the space of a month trip, sometimes you got to have a quiet one. So that's what I'm doing tonight. In the morning, I got some breakfast in the gold lounge and then it was time to move on to my next destination. All right, let's head back down to the station and get myself onto Ottawa. Lovely hotel this. Very, very nice. See if I can remember the way. Traveling in an economy today. Economy plus. But yeah, one thing to note with the trains is like the Canadian you've got to book months in advance because there's only like two trains per week,
but even the intercity ones, they have a few running per day, but you still kind of want to book them in advance. On behalf of Deal Canada and the entire crew, welcome aboard train number 633 on route to Ottawa. It was a 2-hour train to Ottawa, so I just used that time to back up my footage and watched the multicolored views go by. Thank you. All right. Ottawa. The train station is just a 10-minute drive from downtown, so I quickly jumped in a taxi to take me to my hotel.
All right, so I just dropped my bags at the hotel. They said the room will be ready in half an hour, which is actually pretty sweet cuz it's only 11:30, but I got a brewery tour booked in now. So, I'm going to try and squeeze in a little bit of sightseeing before I start there. So, I'm just going to head to Parliament. Now, I'm in the capital of Canada. Got to go see Parliament. Otawa began in 1826 as Btown, a canal building settlement that grew around the construction of the Redu Canal and the booming lumber trade. In 1857, Queen Victoria chose it as Canada's capital, setting the stage for its transformation
into a national political and cultural center. All right, so I've made it to the Parliament of Canada. I came here back in 1995 when I was 11 years old and we saw the changing of the guard and things like that. But I just remember thinking like, am I just transported back to Britain? Cuz that's exactly what it looked like. Yeah, bit of construction going on now. So, not the most idealic views of it, but hey, just gets me back here, though. And it's going to be nice sort of exploring Ottawa properly later on and actually getting to know this town a little bit in the short space of time that I've got. Anyway, I'm going to have a proper look around this evening, but right now going to get to my brewery tour.
Otawa is a hub for craft beers and so this afternoon I'm traveling around with Brew Donkey Tours to sample three different breweries. This is Sher. Shout out Sher. SHERRY'S GOING TO stay sober all day. We're heading to three breweries on the opposite side of the river in Gatanel, which is a city in Quebec that together with Ottawa forms a national capital region. Starting with an October Fest lag at 3.8% and on a hot day like this where it's like 29° out, I could smash quite a few of these very easily.
This next one's a pale ale. Bit of a weird aftertaste. This one's just going to lingers. Not my favorite. This is a double IPA, which is 8.2%. Apparently, it's nicer than 11. After we'd sampled those three beers, it was back onto our school bus and onto the next brewery. All right, number two, Chelsea and Co. Micro Brewery. It's a really lovely place. Really good setup. I went for the Mexican laga nacho love.
It's good. Whilst we enjoyed our beer, our guy Jamie gave us a tour around the brewery to explain how the beers are made. The best part about canning day for people that work at the brewery is that the machines will often do accidents. Yeah. They'll do like overfills or underfills. And so because it has to be a precise measurement that goes into each can, if it's underfilled or overfilled, it gets given to the staff for free. So working in a brewery is a big benefit. Well, I've resisted sitting in the cable car cuz I think that's for kids. But I am on a chair lift. Just enjoying my beer outside.
We made our way to the third and final brewery called 5D Baron. And we got to have a couple of samples in the brewery itself before we had some time to just hang out with a beer in the bar. Another lovely place, but they have Mario Kart. You can play much beer. Grown men looking very happy. Feel like I'm at university. That's all we did was just drink beer and play Mario Kart. Yeah, the Brew Donkey Tour was really good fun. It was a really great day and it was a great way to sort of experience something different within the city rather than just popping around seeing the main sites. And it was great
just hanging out with a group of people for the afternoon rather than just pottering around by myself all day. Thank you very much. You've been a fantastic group today. I really enjoyed the differences in deep personalities. So I'm back in town now. Just come to Major Hills Park to get a beautiful sunset view of the city. Well, I was going to come here for a quiet sunset beer, but they've got a October Fest thing going on with like shitty music on, which is not the vibe I want right now. I love Oktoberfest, but enough for sunset. Anyway, it's beautiful evening, so I'm going to spend the evening exploring the town. So, this is the byway market, which I think would have been a bit more
lively during a day. And there's lots of international cuisine here, but I've been instructed by Jamie to get a classic Canadian snack. So, this is a beaver tail. I got a the classic, which is just cinnamon and sugar on a pastry. Actually, just the kind of sugar here I need right now. So, it's great. It's a nice vibrant area of town, though. Jamie actually went to university in Ottawa, so she's recommended the pub for me to check out, which is this little one over here. Doesn't look that busy, but I'm going to give it a try anyway. It's called the Snug Pub. It's a nice pub. This Irish pub. It looks like an Irish pub. It's not like a shitty imitation. It looks legit. So, yeah. Cheers, J. Good recommendation.
All right, I'm going to pop back to the hotel to actually check in because I haven't done that yet. Then I'm going to try and find somewhere get a quick bite to eat that's not just a beaver tail. I'm staying at Ljmaine Hotel which is just a few minutes walk from all the major sites downtown. And the room I had was one of the best ones I've stayed in yet. Oh, this is big. That's so cool. Holy I have a bathtub. Better I'll have a bath tonight after I've been a go out, get a drink, get some food, and then just relax in there. There's an area of town, well, a street. Elgen Street. But yeah, I've had quite a few people recommend that area for me.
It's like different restaurants, lots of pubs, things like that. So, going to head back out for a little bit and then come back here and I might just have a bath cuz if you got a bathtub, you got to use it. Check that out. All right, this area looks pretty cool. Plenty to eat and drink. Almost feels like a UK high street this just with, you know, Canadian shops. So, I've come to Sir John A P, which has 55 different beers on tap. Had this recommended to me by a guy called Michael. So, cheers Mike. And so, I'm right now going on the uh Mill Street Organic Lagger and I've got some Philly beef poutine. this whole area.
You can see why it was recommended for a night out cuz there's tons of bars, great atmosphere, lots of food options. So, cheers. After this, I went back to my hotel to enjoy my bath. To help you relax during your stay in Ottawa bath bomb. Then, after a very relaxing finish to my day, I woke up in the morning to a beautiful sunrise. It's a beautiful morning here in Ottawa, but right now I've got to head to the station to get my train to Toronto. So, I've got two nights in Toronto. So, I'll have this afternoon there to explore around and catch up with some friends. Then the next day, I'm doing a day trip to Niagara Falls, which will be a lovely end to this leg of the trip.
It was a longer journey today as it was going to take 4 hours to travel from Otawa to Toronto, but the food and business class was once again topnotch and there was lovely views out of the window along the way. All right, made it to Toronto. It's a cool station. Well, I'll be back here twice more for the train to Niagara and then a train to Winnipeg. Actually staying in an Airbnb for Toronto, so I'm mixing it up a little bit. So, I think I'm staying up there. So, this is the apartment I got.
Bed there. Nice little living room and kitchen. But check out the view. Come on. Oh, getting that vertigo tingly feeling in my legs looking over there. I'm about to go up there to get a slightly higher view than here. Cool. All right, let's get our stuff sorted and go and explore. Toronto had been a meeting place for indigenous peoples for thousands of years before the British established a strategic colonial outpost here in 1793 that they originally called the town of York. It was renamed Toronto in 1834 and the city expanded
through waves of immigration and industrialization to become Canada's largest and most diverse metropolis. So yeah, I'm staying in that one there. That's where I'm staying. And the CN Tower is just here. It's not hard to miss. Now, I have been up the CN Tower a couple of times before, but I figure since I'm traveling across Canada, I've got to go up one of the most iconic locations right there. The CN Tower was built by the Canadian National Railway and completed in 1976 with a height of 553 m or 1,815 ft. It was the world's tallest freestanding structure until 2007. $53 with tax.
Plus, it takes about a 20 minutes statue walk to the escalator. Oh, come here. Take your photo. Come look at this. Like, I just want to go up. The elevators travel at a speed of 22 km an hour or 15 mph and reach the main lookout level in 58 seconds. It is an incredible view to be fair. Like it is a magnificent view of all the city around and the islands here in Lake Ontario. Can get food and snacks up here. There are higher levels you can pay to go up as well. Uh, they even have one of those like harness things where you can go outside and lean out, but I've done that before at other towers, so I wasn't
wasn't fussed about spending my money on it. But it is still such an incredible view. So, you can actually see the train tracks down here. So, in 2 days time, we're going to be getting the train from here all the way that way to Winnipeg. It's 36-hour train to get home. Oh, it's a hollow floor which is way quieter. They got the glass floor thing here. Next up, I headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame dedicated to the history of Canada's national winter sport. [snorts] So, I'm very new to hockey. Like, I went to my first game uh like 3 years ago and I enjoy the sport. I enjoy watching it, but I'm not so into it like I'm following every game or really know any of the players names or anything like
that. And when the Jets got to the playoffs last summer, it was just like so many games. Like I quickly went from very excited to like hockey fatigue just over a few games. But yes, just from watching the playoffs, I have a new found appreciation for just how hard the Stanley Cup is to win. So it was very cool to see it up close just then. Oh, there's way more to this place. Oh, cool. So I just tried shooting my hockey puck for the very first time. kind of sucks. Maybe I've missed it, but the only thing I've seen in here to do with the Winnipeg Jets is our mascot. Good old Mickey Moose. So, I'm in the back corner of the Hall of Fame and tucked away is our Winnipeg Jets. Notable Stanley
Cup victories, none. Going to be going to a Jets game this weekend anyway, so I'll get to see some hockey in action in the coming days. I'm now heading over to Kensington Market, and there are street cars you can take around town, but to save time, I just hopped in an Uber. So, I'm here in Kensington Market, which is like the sort of hipster area of town. lots of like international cuisine, little stores selling vintage clothes and other things and a few bars. But last time I was here was on a Saturday and it was busy and pumping. Right now it's 5:00 on a Monday night, so it's a little well not I wouldn't say dead, but it's pretty
quiet. But uh have a little wander around anyway. Look at some of the stores, maybe get a drink before I go meet my friends Mike and Christy. All right. So, I was going to stop for a drink here, but it's a bit not really feeling it right now. It's a little bit quiet. But, uh, I did manage to get a Christmas present for Milda, my sister-in-law, which is this. Since we just completed the West Highland Way together, I think she'd appreciate that. If you don't know Milda, you might think that's a weird present to get her, but if you do, you know it's the perfect present. So, there you go, Milder. Next up, I headed
to Queen Street to meet up with my good friends Mike and Christy, whom I last saw a few months ago in the Bahamas where they had some news for us. You're you're okay to have this when you're pregnant, right? Yeah. Okay. I'm just not pregnant. I guess I can't. Are you pregnant? I knew it wasn't going to take long, but hey. Hey, wait. Since you're holding And now it's come to fruition. My junior. And before you ask, yes, I did ask if it was okay to film baby Mike.
He's having a beer at the bar. Yeah, he's on three already. He's upset because he hasn't met any hard chicks yet. I had a great evening catching up with them. And then the next morning, I was up bright and early for the final day of this leg of the trip. So today, I'm doing a day trip to Niagara Falls, and I'll be getting the train there and back. But kind of looks like my luck's finally run out with the weather cuz it's raining here. But across the lake where I'm going, it's looking pretty kind of stormy. But I was going to be getting wet today anyway. So going on the boat and going behind the falls. So it should still be okay. I'll see what we can do and stuff. But anyway, I've got to head to the train station [snorts]
now. So let's go. Okay. So, it's an Amtrak train, but it's operated by Via Rail to the Canadian border. And then other side of the border, it's operated by Amtrak. So, that's how it worked. It was just a 2-hour train journey around Lake Ontario to reach Niagara Falls. Oh, yeah. It's raining. All right. So, I've just bought a bus pass for the day. Cost like $11. Hop on, hop off around. So, it's like a 10-minute drive to the falls from here, I think. Just hopefully not get too wet today. Apart from the bit where I'm supposed to get wet on the boat.
All right, I've made it to the center. It's absolutely pissing down. First thing I need to do is buy a poncho. Then, I'm going to go have a look at the falls. Then, I'm going to try and do this journey behind the falls thing. and figure out the boat. And then if the zip line's running in the rain, I'm still going to do it, but I doubt it will be. There we go. Cost five bucks. All right, I am looking the part now.
I'll be going on that later. Ah, it's still amazing to see. It's going to be a very, very wet day. Look at me, though. Welcome again. I went back inside the center to do the journey behind the falls, which is something I haven't done on my previous visits here. So, right now, we're inside the water. small room down there. So, going to head down. Okay, this is cool. I've never done that before and that was really, really cool. Just getting that close to it and experiencing the power of it was awesome.
All right, I'm getting drenched. They're going to move towards the end when you get right behind it. you know, the bit where you actually go behind it was wasn't as impressive cuz it's just like this wide sheet of water and it like but the bit just right by the side of it that was really cool. But yeah, I'm going to have some food, dry off for a bit, and then um work my way down and try and get on the uh the cruise, the boat cruise, and go right up next to it and get drenched some more. And um if the zip line's open, I'll do it, but I doubt it will be. That was really good fun. It's all a bit chaotic and crazy with the weather, but it just adds to the fun.
Anyway, let's try out this massive burger. Didn't really get breakfast this morning, so some healthy food here. Oh that is good. I did not expect the uh cafeteria food in Naga Falls to be any good, but that's a really good burger. I started walking my way down to where the cruise boats go from and I noticed that the zipline was not only open, but there was no queue as well. And so I got myself straight on it. You excited for the ride? Yeah, man. Good. Somebody
Sweet. All right, that was really good fun. Actually, I didn't realize they were going to film it from all these different angles. Like right at the end, I was kind of bracing for the brake cuz sometimes at the end of zip line, you hit the brake, it's like, but actually it was pretty soft and pretty gentle. But turns out they've got a slow-mo video of me going bracing like and then it's like, oh, that was really cool. Free ride up. Sweet. behind you. Once I got back up to the top, I walked straight over to get a boat ticket to go on the cruise. The nice thing, but it's been a bad weather day during the middle of the week, end of shoulder season, is this cues haven't been that bad at all for
anything or non-existence. Like I just strolled up, got a ticket to the boat straight away there. Oh, got to stop for your obligatory green screen photo. get wet. Definitely going to get that. Going to head to the front of the boat cuz that's where you get the most wet. Best views. It's already a healthy spray and now we're near the pools yet. It's the American Falls right here. Amazing. See the color of all the rocks. Very different to the horseshoe. Struggling to keep my eyes open, especially with my contact.
Like, I thought the boat tour would be nice, you know, get up close, get a bit of spray, see it from a different angle, but that was phenomenal. That was like one of the highlights of the trip so far. I didn't realize just how close we would get. We were like right in amongst it. When you look at from above, it looks like you're quite far from the sort of, you know, here's the boat, here's the horseshoe, and you're quite far away. But it felt like we were right in there. And the waterfall was all around and you just got so wet just soaking. I had the poncho all over me and I was standing at the front of the boat. So, I thought the barrier would stop any water getting on the bottom of the legs that
wasn't covered. But the poncho got so wet that the water just ran down it and now my jeans have just completely soaked through. I might just buy some uh trousers from one of the gift shops here or something if they don't dry out soon. That was incredible. That was actually brilliant. This has turned into a really fun day. I want to show you the other side to Niagara Falls cuz if you're staying in town at one of the hotels or a hostel, there's a chance you'll have to walk down this street right here. Nature's done its best and then mankind's built this tacky little place full of like wax museums and crazy stuff.
Anyway, going to find somewhere to get a beer and try off. So, I've come into Niagara Brewing Company uh for a drink. It's good luck at that. Um they got the AC on in here, so I don't know how much I'm going to dry off. Um the uh waiter kind of said, "Do you want some towel to wipe yourself down?" But I was kind of like, can I just build a fire and sit next to that? Is that all right? After attempting to dry off, I made my way back to Toronto and spent the evening catching up with my buddy Jason as we watched the Blue Jays working their way towards the World Series. And then in the morning, it was time to board Via Rail's Canadian line, which goes all the way from Toronto to Vancouver.
So, in this next leg of the trip, I'm going to be spending some time in Canada's most underrated region, the prairies, spending a few days in both Winnipeg and Saskatoon. So, I've now officially made it to the center of Canada. This site has been used as a gathering place for the different First Nations for over 6,000 years. To come here for the day and just sort of switch off is just perfect. I want to see teeth on the ice.
