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

Yes, I have arrived in Syracuse. A little town that I passed heading for Niagara/Toronto. This morning I left Boston, the lobster city and this afternoon I finally discovered how the north/east/south/west principles work. :-p

This afternoon I also discovered that my car actually come equipped with cruise control. I was playing around with all the little buttons and handles on the steering wheel when suddenly the gas pedal disappeared. Driving the car is now simplified to steering and pressing the brake every now and then. The rest all goes automatically. I was already a lazy person, but this will now for sure get even worse.

A also got some gas this afternoon, because my car needed more energy to run the air-conditioning, the CD player and the cruise control. After getting the gas it became clear why the United States don’t mind to enforce their power in small oil rich countries… a full tank of gas cost me 20 dollars and for sure the tank I’ve got here holds much more fuel then the little Nissan I have at home.

Tomorrow I continue towards Niagara Falls and afterwards I’ll probably head over to Toronto.

I plan to stay in Boston for today and see what is going on and what are the things to do around here, although I’m not expecting a lot of action. Tomorrow I leave in direction of Canada to the the waterfalls. I think I’ll go the the Canadian side, because my Lonely Planet guide tells me this is the best place to be.

At first I wanted to pass by Washington and Philadelphia but I think I will scrap that idea. According to the news all the historical sites in Washington can only be viewed from a great distance because they are afraid of bombs. Even more, I’m not really looking forward to drive all the way back just to see these cities.

Yesterday morning I left New York. I found the correct highway without problem, but spend my first half hour driving in the wrong direction. After I turned around I spend 2.5 hours in a big traffic jam. All the traffic was being rerouted through some small town because of an accident.

Halfway round I stopped at a shopping mall to get some food and to have a look online, but internet access was not possible.

Afterwards I continued my drive towards Boston, where I arrived around 6 o clock. Strangely when I arrived almost everything was already closed. I got a cheap hotel with a nice view, an old factory building that now features a lot of girls working out. :-p The difference between Boston and New York could not be bigger. I have the feeling that I moved from heaven to some small little town.

Regarding the 4th of July… at night there were fireworks… and the entire city of New York went to the edge of a river to see the fireworks display, and it was grand. As a Dutch I cannot help myself and point out that they really shot a small fortune in the sky. Fireworks in the form of a smiley, or hearts, huge blasts covering the horizon, and 20 minutes of all out fireworks. In comparison the fireworks displays in Scheveningen is just amateurism and the fireworks after the carnival in Noordwijkerhout is just nothing.

One more thing about my car. Yesterday I drove I nice long distance, I think around 300 miles, and I discovered the kick-down! Combining the kick-down with some nice beats of stampa music makes driving an automatic car like a breeze.

Drugs are a lot less legal in America, compared to Holland, but even so, yesterday I was collecting some pictures and I was offered some hash brownies. Just now I was in the shop, buying a muffin and a cherry coke, and I saw a package of ephedra in a nice colorful box, right there where normally you expect impulse products like candy to be. Of course I bought them right away because how can you resist four pills for only $1.59.

It is strange that products that are even in our tolerant Holland on the list of illegal products can just be bought over the counter here in America. Even in a normal supermarket which is something you would not expect.

Yeah!!! Today is the day, the 4th of July. All Americans are celebrating today (and tomorrow) that Will Smith saved them from the evil aliens! It is still to early to notice anything of the street, but still… I am curious.

This morning I visited the Empire State Building. I arrived there pretty early, around nine thirty because again I woke up around four in the morning.

It was easy to find because you can see it in the sky from a few blocks away. Once you get in the line stars. After the first line you switch to the second line, and then you get the opportunity to buy a ticket. With my ticket I could go up to the second floor and stand again in another line. This line is for the check of your bags and to pass through the metal detectors. Finally you get to wait in the last line. You then enter in the lift, and that lift shoots you up to the 80th floor. On the 80th floor you get out and need to get in another lift that brings you all the way up.

Once on the top floor I have to admit it was worth the hassle. The view across New York is beautiful.