Boring Bus Travel....
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
4
50
Trip End
Nov 11, 2007
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada
Monday, July 30, 2007
So for once I do as I'm told and its wrong!! I get to Buffalo to get my onward ticket to Toronto (which is 3 1/2 hrs north) only to be told by the bus driver that there are 17 buses a day from Niagara to Toronto! so doing as I'm told is out of the window from now on and going with what I think is right like I normally do is back.
Anyway my bus from Buffalo to Toronto is delayed for an hour because even though we have a bus driver we have no bus because it hasn't arrived from NYC. When it finally did arrive the driver then had to check all the passengers on the bus for onward tickets and passports for the border before letting the other passengers on who had been waiting for ages. In the end it turned out that there were actually only 20 seats available so a word of warning to anyone using greyhound is that you have to get to the gate early - don't buy your ticket and assume that it means you have a guaranteed seat because it doesn't and you could end up waiting for ages for the next bus! Anyway I managed to get on the right bus and finally we left and got over the Canadian border again where this time, even though I now have clearance to enter the country until January 2008 they wanted to know my life story. Why do they ask what are you here for? what exactly do they think I'm doing. I just got off a Greyhound bus which says Toronto on the front in huge letters and they ask where I'm going! "do you have status in Canada" - well obviously not or I'd have the visa in my passport wouldn't I!! -of course you have to be polite because they do have the power to prevent you going into Canada but what a waste of time!
So eventually everyone clears customs and we arrive in Toronto 2 hrs later. I instantly didn't like Toronto - It was all high rise buildings and neon lights and I knew it wasn't going to be what I would like. The CNN Tower looks pretty impressive thought but I was watching the lifts run up and down the outside and that was actually making my stomach turn so there would have been no way that I could actually ride on one!! Anyone having made my rash decision not to stop over in this place I sorted out an onward bus to Ottawa which meant a 2hr wait in the bus station until midnight. I got chatting to a native American Indian guy called Michael who actually confirmed my thoughts about Toronto. He was waiting for the next bus out to Halifax which is where he lives. The east coast, Halifax, Nova Scotia etc looks great (he showed me pictures) and I may take it into consideration and head east before taking the long bus ride west but we'll see.
I also got chatting to a girl from a place called Peterborough who was on my bus to Ottawa - she said that Ottawa is nice but that Montreal is much nicer but that you really do need to speak French - well she's the second person to say that to me but I can speak enough to manage and besides which they do all speak english they just like to be difficult. I'd kinda all ready made my mind up that I was going to head straight through to Montreal anyway and that just confirmed my decision.
I also had one of those moments where in hindsight you wish that you'd listened to your body because I had the start of a headache before I put my bags on the bus but I thought it would go away. Two hours into the bus journey I had a full blown migraine, felt sick, couldn't lay down, couldn't sit up, couldn't get any tablets because they were in my bag under the bus! luckily the driver stopped and the place he stopped sold aspirin - I have never felt so ill in my life and the thing is everything gets blown out of proportion especially at night and when you're not feeling well and you're incredibly tired - I was thinkin about getting a flight home from Ottawa or staying in Ottawa overnight - I think just about everything went through my head including "why the hell am I doing this" but once the aspirin kicked in and I could close my eyes and sleep without feeling sick I woke up feeling much better and more rational than previously and determined to actually make it to Montreal which is another 2 1/2 hr bus journey from Ottawa........
