Toronto: At the top of the world

Audience from an other perspective

The view from the CN Tower down on the lights of Toronto

The city hall an architectural highlight

Younge Street

Royal Ontario Museum

Deep in Chinatown

In the finacial distrist lost between glass fasades

The skyline of Toronto from the Islands

A metroploe shining at night

Hey,

After i visited Niagara Falls I travelled to Toronto. Honestly I didn't expect much from the city. I was the opinion that's just an other city like Regina or Winnipeg. But after I left the bus depot to go to the hostel I was positiv surprised. The city is a real mix up of cultures and has an interesting and unique style.
The highlight of city is of course the visit of the huge world famous CN Tower. The second biggest building in the world. But if you stand at th bottom of the tower you don't realize how big it is. Just when you are far away you realize the size. You can see the tower from almost every spot in the city.
When you are in the elevator which goes up you feel like by a start of a rocket. The elevator goes up so fast and does't seem to stop anymore untill you arrive at the top. From the top you have a nice view over the lake Ontario. The lake is so big that it looks like the sea. You can see the Toronto Islands, all the suburbs, the skyscraper of the financial district and the clourful light of Young Street. You are so high over the ground that you can see the curve of the earth. If you are on the top you just stand on a thick glass plate. There is nothing else!!! So you can look vertical down. What you can see then is a baseball stadium and a lot more. A crazy feeling to be that high in a building.

At the next day I did my sightseeing programm. I went through the finacial district with all the skyscraper with the galss fasades and the business people on the streets. I went along Young Street which is the main street of Toronto. There are all the shops. I went to the parliament building and watched a politic discussion of the parliament of Ontario. I saw the city hall and the Royal Museum of Ontario which are both architectural highlights in Toronto. I visited Chinatown and went a long the intersting streets with all the cafes and restaurants.
Toronto is like little New York. You can see a lot of cultures mixed up. You have also districts like in New York which are called chinatown, little chinatown and little portugal. All these districts are very diferent from each other and representive their cultures. They have charm and are just lovely.
At the late afternoon I went by ferry to the Toronto Islands. These islands are the getaway of Toronto. On the Islands is a big fun park, a zoo, a park to relax and a nice sand beach to bath and enjoy the sun. On the beach I met some nice germans who i already known from the hostel. Together we relaxed and had alot of fun. At the evening I enjoyed the sunset and the view on the skyline of Toronto. The sunset was just amazing as the lights start to shine it was an inpressive panorama you could see!
In the evening I went with the german group to a pub where we celebrated a birthday of one of the girls. We had a lot of fun playing pool and drinking beer.

The time which I spent in toronto was short but it was just great. I like the city, the atmosphere and the people.

At the next day I left the city by bus going west.

Greetings from Toronto!

Karsten

Niagara Falls : Take your shower;)

On the journey behind the falls

On the top of the falls

The horseshoefall with on of the boats

On board of the Maid of the Mist boat

Just impressive!

Do it like Moses divide the big water: Yeah !!!:)))

hey,

with the bus I went back to lovely Canada in the night. As soon we crossed the border we arrived at 4.00 am in Niagara Falls which is situated directly at the border to the US. 4 o'clock that's time to sleep! So I went to the HI hostel there to check in. But there I made the experience that not every HI hostel has a front desk which is open 24 hours. I stand before a closed hostel. Great!!! I was lucky looking forward to sleep in a bed. But shitt happens. Fortunetly i have my tent and so I set it up in the backyard of the hostel where I had a good night in my sleeping bag :))).

At the next morning I get up late. I packed all my stuff together and then I went to the falls. The Falls are just huge. One fall is called American Fall ( on the american side) and an other one is called Horseshoefall (canadian side). Both are fantastic. The Niagara Falls are the falls with the most volume of water rushing down in the world. If you walk to the falls the rushing water is so loud that you hear the falls before you see them! When the water hits the ground a lot of fog is coming up. That feels like rain and is called Mist :).
Ofcause there are a lot of tourists too. The falls are Canadas most popular atraction. The main tourist atraction are the Maid of the Mist Boat Tours. You get a rain cape and then the boat takes you to the foot of the horseshoefall. It stops in the middle of the mist for about 3 minutes. You can't see anything. After that you are so wet like after a shower. And that is Niagara Falls a big shower :)
Then I did a journey behind the falls too. There you can go in a tunnel behind the falls and you see like a wall of water. The falls are just great! If you stand at the top, be at the botton or behind it's just impressive to make the the experience of the falls.

For you at home a experiment:

Do you want to feel like me in one of the Maid of the Mist boats or do you just want to try how Niagara Falls feel like? If you take your next shower take it with cloths!!! Then you know how it is! :)))

greetings from the biggest shower of the world

Karsten

New York City: A crazy place

The view from the top of the rock on the city lights of New York

Stanely Park from the Rockefeller Centre

The famous Flat Iron

City life in front of the Empire State Building

At the Wall Street

The Satue of Liberty is still guarding the skyline of NY

The Brookly Bridge in front of the skyline of Lower Mahattan

Brooklyn Bridge

Chinatown

Big City life between the huge skyscrapers of Midtown

Sheep Meadow in Stanley Park

The Times Square

hey,

my next stop after Boston was NYC. After my two days in Boston I left the city and went forward to the mega metropole of the world. Already in Boston I saw signs heading to NY. But I just started to belive that I'm going to this place as I arrived in Manhattan.
Before the bus arrived there we crossed the Bronx. everything looked very familiar as we drove there trough the streets. Everywhere it looked like in a hollywood movie. A lot of black people dressed in the hip hop gangster style, old houses with the so typical fire exits, ...
Then we I arrived some minutes later in Mahattan. The traffic was terrible. We were always stocked between the traffic lights surrounded from hunderts of the typical yellow taxis. Slowly we moved drom one block to the next. After some more blocks we passed the Stanley Park. I never saw so many people in a park!!! We continued moving slowly through the gaps between the skyscraper of Midtown Mahattan.
As I arrived at the busdepot I tried to get to my hostel with the subway. The public transport system in New York is very old and not very tourist friendly. After some time I found finaly the hostel.
I checked in and went out in the evening to the Times Square. Times Square is one of these many crazy places in NY you have to see. If you stop on this place and watch long enough the many colourful TV screens you will feel like in a rush of drugs. There are so many people and so many more TV screens with advertising. It just unbelieveable.

At the next day I did a walk in the Stanely Park. Thats an other crazy place. The park is a big square where you can enjoy the nature in the middle of this huge city. At this day ther was a marathon, a joga group, pepole playing baseball or doing just a picnic in the park with their family. I went went between the skyscrapers of midtown and visited the famous Chrysler Building, the UN building, the Rockefeller Centre, the Public Libary,...
I took a subway to Chinatown. There you really don't feel like in New York. The districts there are a mirrows of the multicultural culture of world in one city. On the streets are markets where you can buy spices, vegetables,... There are 75 percent of the people chinese. I went to Little Italy where you can go eat pizza or Littel Portugal with an other own character.
I went also to Ground Zero. There you can see at the moment a big construction site and the first building of the new WTC. At evening I crossed the old historical Brooklyn Bridge. From the other side I enjoyed the fantastic sunset over skyline of lower Manhattan. The end of a beautyful day.

At the next day I decided to go to Liberty Island. With the ferry you can get to the Island where you can see the famous Statue of Liberty. Tou have also a great view on the skyline of Mahattan. It's just an amazing place to be. I also went to Ellis Island. That's the place where all the immigrants arrived in the 18th and 19th century to start a better life in the new world. On the Island I visited the Imigration Museum before I went back to Manhattan. I visited the famous Trinty Church and the
Wall Street in the finacial district the place where they deal with money of the world.
At I walked to ""The Top of The Rock" From the top of the Rockefeller Centre you have an amazing view on NYC. You see the Central Park, the Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, .... just everything you can see from the top of this huge building. The panorama is amazing.

At my last day I went to Rucker Park. That's a legendary basketball court situated i nthe Harlem where legends were born. Together with some bro's from the neighbourhood I played basketball before I catched the bus to Niaga Falls.

All together NY is a fantastic city which is just crazy. Everybody should visit this place at least once in his life because you will never find a similar place like that on the world. It's just unbelievable. Believe it!

Greetings from the Statue of Liberty

Karsten

Boston

The contrast between old and new

An old train staion in the finacial district

The historic district

Hey,

from Halifax I took the bus south to Boston. It was a one day bus ride just to cross the border to the USA. To cross the border was easy. The problem was just another time the bad bus conection system. As I arrived in the USA it was 18.00 o'clock the next conecting bus left at the 6.00 o'clock in the morning!!! Because i had to spent the night in the town I searched for a place to sleep. Finaly I set up my tent in the back of an old house where was nobody living anymore. I spent the night there and continued my bus ride at the next day.

I arrived in Boston at the same day. Boston is a big american city. The people are very different compared with Canada. They speak in another way and are just different in their mind. There is a finacial district which gives the city the typical north american skyline.
But Boston is not just that! You can discover a lot of history too. Of course that's the city of the Boston Tea Party or The Boston massacre. So you can find an interesting historical district with small streets and old houses built with bricks. There are green trees beside the streets, old church's, restarants,... The park of the city is beautiful too. All that makes the city unique and a nice stop for me to spent a day.

Greetings from the States

Karsten

Coast to Coast

Freedom at the at finish line!

Finished! Peggy's Cove at the Atlantic Coast

Lobster cages in Peggy's Cove

Wooh the Transcanada Trip is done. After 9.5 months I arrived in Peggy's Cove. There is a famous lighthouse which was ever my finishline on my trip. I never thought that I make to this point! At the beginning i thought i'm stucked in BC. Now I traveled more than 6000 km to this point. From Victoria in BC to Hallifax in Nova Scotia. From West to East. A lot of unpredictable things happened in this time. It was always exiting to don't know whats coming next. I saw more from Canada like the most canadians :). Here in Halifax Europe is closer than Vancouver!
I reached everything I wanted to do. But the trip is fortunetly not over now. I have still 2.5 exiting months before I come back at home. But whats now comming up is just plus which I could never imagine myself! Now there will come Highlights like New York, Niagara Falls, Toronto and finally the Rocky Mountains. So be exited to see what is still coming. The journey is not over now. Keep reading!

Thanks to everybody who helped me like hitchiking, gave me a place to stay, gave me a meal, gave me new hope in difficult situations, ...

Thank you to everybody I met on this long journey!

Greetings from Halifax Nova Scotia

Karsten

Le parc du nationale Hautes Georges et le fjord du sagunay

The view on the St. Lorence and the village Tadoussac

The Fjord du Sagunay from the ferry

On the road along the St. Lorence

The boat I did the cruise with in the Hautes Georges NP

The view from the top down at the river

The Mountains of Laurantide

On the way up!

Hey ya!

From Quebec I took the bus north. I travelled on the west side of the St. Lorence. The bus stopped an other time in the middle of no where. I got off and hitchhiked successfull and easy going to the Parc du national Hautes Georges.
That's an other great national park in the Mountains of Laurantide. The park is crossed by a river. I took the park shuttle to the start of a trail. The day was sunny and so i used the chance to make test. I hiked the 10 km with my heavy backpack. The trail was fantastic but it was not easy to go! I went up 800 m horizontal in just 5 km. So the trail looked like stairs going up in the blue sky! On the way there was still snow in just 1000m altitude. It was hard but I made it safe! On the way everybody asked me if I want to camp on the top or how heavy it is! Other one made coments like with this Backpack to go up is the dead! But actually I reached the top safe and successfull. From the top you got an amazing view on the river in the valley and the surrounding mountains. Far away you could see the St. Lorance. The view was so beautyful! Not to far away I could even spot some Caribou.
After the way down I spent the night on a campground.
At the next day I did a boat cruise on the river. A very interesting cruise with a park ranger who gave me a lot of information.
I hitchiked back to the highway. There I just waited 5 minutes after an other one stopped to pick me up. It's was like waiting for a taxi :) Together we drove to Tadoussac. We crossed the fjord du Sagunay with a ferry. The weather was great and view of the ferry on the fjord also. As I arrived in Tadoussac my digital camera was brocken! One year Canada was just to much for it! :(((
I camped on the campground of the hostel. Tadoussac is a nice and smove village. It's very quite but so beautyfull. Here you have everything you need and the people are nice too. It's also one of the best destinations to do wahle watching. I walked around the village and some kilometers of the trail du fjord du Sagunay. There I got an other breath taking view on the village of Tadoussac and the St. Lorence. At the next day the weather was bad! Too bad to do a wahle watching trip which I planed to do. I decided to go back to Quebec by bus instead. The wahle watching I will do later.

Enjoy the pics

Karsten

Quebec un peu europa in north america!

Rue du petit Champlain

It looks like 300 years ago!

The waterfall Montmorency

The terasse Duferin and the Chateu du Frontanac

The parliament building

Quebec was once a bastion of high strategy importance

It's Europe? It's paris? No it's quebec in America!

One the thousands restaurants

Hey,

sorry it's already again a long time ago since my last posting. But at this time it was not easy to get internet access in the USA.

After the canoe trip I continued travelling alone :( With the bus I went to Quebec City where I spent 2 days.
Quebec is an 400 year old city and it's the only one in north america surrounded with a wall. It has a historric city centre with a lot of sights to see. There is an old military cathedral, the parliament building of the province of Quebec, the historic centre of the city, the Rue du petit Champlain,... But the main attraction is the Chateau du Frontanac. It's a big luxury hotel.

The culture is so different. Everybody speaks french here! For me it was very interesting to see something else instead of skysrcaper and fast food culture. It was a great experience to see the european style back. Sometimes you forget that you are in america and not in France! It really looks like Paris!!! Restaurants and history everwhere that was that wath I missed the last months ago.

Vivre Quebec!

Karsten