蒼-iconoclast - KOTOKO
I have been stuck at home bored for long time, and there has been nothing happening at all around me... to end that, I planned to go on a vacation in the Christmas break to have something to be excited about. Originally I wanted to go from Toronto to Vancouver and stop in nearby cities to see them, but I finally gave up because I discovered the non-feasibility of the project + cost that could go too high as soon as I actually planned the trip.
The itinerary was changed later to simply walking around the airbnb apartment I would book in Niagara after dropping the luggage off there. I am not one of those people who are into fashion, so I never went to Niagara before, especially in winter. I think visiting the waterfall on a snowy day might be good, because most tourists would go there in summer after all.
On the surface, this blog was uploaded on the last day of 2021, however I just sorted out the photos on January 4th and started writing the content on January 9th. Because this all happened in 2021. The format of the blog is still like previously, some untrained written daily events.
Niagara
I arrived at the apartment at 10 pm that day. Before arriving, I ate in a hot pot restaurant (was very yum, given I did not dine out for a long time) and that caused pain in my stomach. Because I felt too tired, on the following day I woke up in the afternoon, and failed to hang out. I only bought some grocery.
It was the third day when I virtually went out. All was good except the strangeness of this year when it was already 10th-sh day into December but I did not see snow, or I only saw snow during the night and it melted on the next day that became sunny. However, the visiting should still happen though
The waterfall is on the top left of the image. I saw from the web that the parking nearby would be expensive, while Kingsbridge on the bottom right was cheaper if one wanted to walk a bit more, so I went there first.
I was surprised that this road was called Parkway and did not have sidewalks. The inside of the park looked like this:
Because it was winter, lots of places were closed. I could only use the lots outside the picnic area which was gated for the season. However, I could get in the inside place on foot. In the photo, one could see the Niagara River to the northeast, while the city of Niagara Falls, NY was on the other side of the water. This place should be the wider area within the river, and was probably not a nice location for sneaking over (do they need it?).
Unfortunately, it was too far to the falls from here, so I would rather get to the parking lots behind Niagara Parks Power Station.
The Falls
There were people pulling over to take photos. I was behind them to do the same.
Many trees had decorating lights. The river to the northeast was arbitrarily captured.
This should be a former power station generating power for Greater Toronto.
Captured to the back (south). There were still many lighted trees.
Arrived at the expensive parking lot mentioned above. The price was 30 dollars per day. From here I could see sparse tall buildings and those were all of them. The buildings were at high places which were inaccessible without taking the cable car.
The river fell off the cliff here and then formed the waterfall. Please see the picture below:
I could see the scenery above after walking a few steps. This was the only direct shot of Horseshoe Falls. It was getting dark when I got here (5pm) and I could see lights hitting the water.
The details of this image is terrible but still worth being placed here. I could see the lights used to color the falls and the only Ferris wheel in the city as a white loop on the left, the "Rainbow" Bridge in the middle that connected two cities of the same name in Canada and US, respectively, and the smaller American Falls on the right.
The sky was still a little bright now. Look at the light bolbs on the left.
Another shot for the great falls. The lighted area in the top right corner should be the tourist place for seeing the falls from underneath, which should be closed at the time.
I expected nobody to show up at this time in this season, but still I saw some tourists sparingly (the further up north along the trail, the less people).
The sky was completely dark... I took the photos using the nightscape mode of my phone. When I edited them, I felt that there were not any rooms for adjustments...
Normally one could take the zip car to reach the bottom of the cliff. The station was not open, of course.
The telescope was coin-operated... Surprise to me.
The Rainbow Bridge we talked about.
By going north, one could see the two falls at the same time.
I did not go further north from here. The geography around the waterfalls was stair-like, by which one could get to the so-called downtown if going up (north).
Another two shots about the lights:
This image was one of my favourites. When I showed it to people I was asked 'is this the aurora you talked about?' absolutely not. They were the articifial lights. The light bolb below was one of them that illuminated the falls:
The city
There was a cafe on the street. It had a rather exaggerated sign.
This place was colorful. The first thing that came to my mind was Vegas when I first got here from the bottom (though I had never been there) because of the yellowish lights, casinos, plus my not-so-far knowledge.
If you confront with me and say such combinations were also available in other places, you are right and I am wrong.
Here was a Pizza Pizza that matched the surroundings in styles.
This Ferris wheel was open during the winter, but I did not go there.
Behind the Ferris wheel was some props which I did not know whether children would like.
The observation tower. I did not know this thing existed before coming, therefore I did not have the chance to prepare for boarding. Let's see whether I could have a chance in the future to come for a visit, or live in a similar hotel.
This tower reminded me the CN Tower.
I do not have any aerial view, but this view should be OK though. This was taken on the platform outside the cable car station which I walked past. The sidewalk to the sourth was closed but this one was open. I did not take it. I went north instead to get back to where I came from.
To be honest, the lighting of the falls in this shot was wierd and looked like unpolished texture of a computer game.
There was a pedestrian street with really nobody now.
The green light at this moment looked awkward somehow. There were a few people in and out of this casino resort.
On the street one could see the roads I walked on in Section 'The Falls'. These trees were very nasty and blocked the view in this very precise manner.
From here I could see the waterfalls on the bottom and the US across.
It looked like this on the pedestrian bridge.