Chicago lies right next to a big lake and this lake is so very big it almost seems that it connects to the ocean. This morning I notices that it was possible to leave my hotel, walk to a park, and then go through a tunnel that takes me past the freeway, right to the beach. Lifeguards all over the place, but sadly there are no Pamela’s amongst them :-(

This morning I walked from the beach to the city center and got an extra fresh fruit-shake with an extra vitamin booster in it. Afterwards I did some shopping. I even saw a t-shirt that cost $120… Didn’t buy it.

Tomorrow I will also spend in Chicago, and then my journey continues.

This afternoon I arrived in Chicago, and compared to the horrible Detroit this is really a true paradise.

What’s also nice is the Apple store here where you can use the machines and browse the Internet for free. To bad I don’t know how to run MSN on a Mac.

I spend yesterday and this morning in Detroit… well, usually I tend to be a positive person and kind of focus on the good and not see the bad, but my experience in Detroit was incredible. There was no white. Everything that should have been white was gray of a brownish yellow. Detroit houses a very big factory of Ford… and that was made perfectly clear. My hotel was located in downtown Detroit, right next to a 7 lane road. The roads in Detroit were always very big, having multiple lanes, and where were few roads that had less then three lanes going in a single direction. In addition to the enormous amount of concrete and a huge amount of cars everywhere there was surprisingly little to do… a casino, a survival tour crossing the roads avoiding the potholes everywhere, and that’s it.

I also encountered quite a few burned down buildings and a few buildings that were demolished partly. Lets not forget I located another fall-out center, to safeguard the people against that nasty atomic radiation. In the middle of the city there were chimneys expulsing a greasy thick white smoke, just like the industrial areas near Rotterdam. The only difference being that in Detroit the chimney reached about 1 meter into the sky and you could literately hold your head in the fumes (which I did not test)

This morning I quickly left resulting in a very happy feeling.

I just escaped the hot burning sun and I’m now recuperating in a nice air-conditioned room. It is a really hot day. This morning I was lying in the part listening to some musical group and yesterday I hardly slept. so I kept falling asleep during the kung-fu hip-hop movie. Afterwards I entered the hot son and realized that I needed to find shelter fast.

I’m going to catch my breath a little now and tonight I plan to visit another part of Toronto. I heard here should be parties scattered across the city. I only wonder it I will be able to stay awake.

Tomorrow morning I will continue to my next destination… I’m not really sure what is the name of the city, because I did not bring my map, but I’ll try to return to America.

I just cannot believe my luck! Yesterday I went for a walk to explore Toronto. I wanted to view the lake from up close and near the lake there was a REALLY WICKED party going on. The seemed to be celebrating something that was there for 30 years. What exactly was the subject of the celebration remained unclear to me. First I attended a concert by the Belgian (!) group Buscemi, who gave a really good concert. If they every play in Holland I will go there for sure! Afterwards I visited Fertile Grounds with really nice drums, and afterwards until far into the next morning loud techno!

The result is that I’m staying here one more day, because today the party continues!

This afternoon that is a free movie theater with Hop-Fu, “A brilliant melding of kung-fu energy with two of the top hip hop DJ’s in the country” :-p, and afterwards techno again! Yeah!!!!!

I just visited the CN Tower. I belief it is one of the highest towers in Canada. The nice thing about this tower is not only that it offers a nice view over Toronto, but in addition a little part of the floor is made of glass.A lot of people stand on the glass looking down. Of course I stepped on the glass without thinking, and got quite a scare. It is a strange sensation and it feels a little like your flying.

Today I’m spending the day in Canada!!! The waterfalls were prettier on the Canadian side, so I’m going to have a look to verify if this is also the case for the rest of the country. Today I’ll be in Toronto.

Yesterday I saw everything there is to see in Niagara… the waterfalls from above, the waterfalls from a boat (getting soaking wet in the process), a vortex in the water near the falls, a very big tower to see the falls from even higher and some other sites the bus passed.

To my opinion the site was very impressive even though it was a bit smaller that I expected. Somehow the Americans have a knack of making/seeing things seem bigger than they really are.

Today I also did a small tour in a cave system behind the falls, but this was a bit of a disappointment. I also bought a number of souvenirs, and I learned that if you walk across the border, and want to walk back to America it will cost you 50 cents in small change. If you don’t have 50 cents in small change you cannot return to America… pretty annoying if this makes you ATM some money and buy a cheap product to get some spare change. After you pay the 50 cents you can just past through to America in a breeze. Strange because in Schiphol I was frisked 4 times, my bag searched twice, my hand luggage searched three times and I needed to take off my shoes. Clearly they trust Canadians much more.

I just arrived in Niagara… and I just booked a bus tour to visit the waterfalls. The tour will commence in two hours so I have some time to spend on the Internet. Afterwards I will be spending around three hours in bus and boat.
And again I’m without MSN… man! :-r

Weird things I have noticed until now…
· Beer bottles (Heineken) don’t have any indication about the percentage of alcohol the beverage contains.
· In addition the the obsession people have with ‘low fat’ food there is an even more popular obsession regarding ‘low carb’ foods. I hove no idea what this means but it looks like carbs are very much present in milk.
· If you are not driving on the freeway it is perfectly normal for the maximum speed limit to change every few hundred meters.
· In small town all the cables that are normally in the ground still hang in the air sopported by trees and wooden beams, just like in Spain.
· The roads here (including the roads for which you need to pay to get access) are quite often even worse that the roads in Belgium!!!
· It is possible to adopt a part of the highway… but I’m not sure why anyone would actually do that.· Here at Kinko’s it’s impossible to use MSN :-r