USA-Mexico-Canada Tour - October 1st - 12th

October 1st, the ride to Halifax, NS took me all day. New Brunswick and Novia Scotia are so beautiful in the fall when the leaves turn red and yellow. I got to Halifax around 6:30pm. After I checked in at the hostel I went out for a run...it was quite chilly but I needed some excercise after all that time on the bus.

October 2nd, Halifax, NS is a cool little city, right on the water, some hills, old buildings and awesome nightlife...tons of bars and restaurants. The evening I went out with two other German guys that I met at the hostel, we went first to the Shoe Shop bar, then the Lower Deck where we met a couple of guys from the Canadian Army and they just returned from Afghanistan to Canada a few days before that. It was quite interesting to hear their stories...after that we went to another bar and then straight to bed around 3am...

October 3-4, my next stop was Quebec city. Probably one of the nicest towns in Nort America, nice old buildings, little castle, small tiny streets and lots of artists on the streets. The evening I tried to rest and had some drinks at the hostel bar with fellow travellers from Belgium, India, France and sure another German...

October 5th, another person, a girl from Belgium, and I rented a Tandem for the day. We hooked up over breakfast and decided to cycle to a waterfall about 12km outside of the city. It took some time to get used to a tandem bicycle but after a while we had a lot of fun cycling. The waterfall itself was quite amazing and there we also met a few other people from a hostel that I knew from last night at the hostel bar. So we decided to go for a small hike together. In the evening we met each other to check out the nightlife of Quebec.

October 6th, after a few hours I got to Ottawa, ON around 4pm, I checked out the city and found out pretty soon that there isn't much to do beside to look at all the government buildings...well I thought you might not want to see another old building on my blog so maybe that picture will inspire you a little bit more! - The world needs more CANADA- eh!

October 7th, well somehow these two girls from Switzerland followed me all the way from Quebec to Ottawa and then even to Toronto we were on the same bus. So we decided to check out Toronto together and then go for some Chinese food. I was suprsied how big Toronto is...but somehow it didn't really impress me...I guess I saw a lot more bigger cities in my last few weeks on the road. But still it was good to see the city at nighttime.

October 8th, my morning in Toronto I spent having breakfast with the two Swiss girls and later I met Mayuko who I met in Montreal a few days ago, she lives in Toronto and so she was a great tourguide for me. I had only a few hours before I took the bus to the Niagra Falls, ON. On the pictures you can see the Horsehoe Falls, which is the waterfall on the Canadian side.

October 9th, today I didn't have a lot of plans. I walked a little bit along the river and then went back to the hostel where I planed some more of my upcoming time on the road, then in the late afternoon I took the bus across the border to Buffalo, NY in the USA, then to Cleveland, OH and from there a bus to Chicago, IL.

October 10th, Chicago, IL - it took me all night to get there. Once I got there friend's of a friend of mine in Vancouver picked me up and took me to their place. There I refreshed myself and then went with their daughter to downtown, she showed me around and we also went up the Sears Tower...one of the hightes buildings in the world. Chicago felt like a small New York to me even though with a population of over 9 million people it's the third largest city in the USA.

October 11th, the Honduran couple I stayed with spoiled me with a lot of good food from their homecountry, Christina and Ramon are such amzing cooks! I also had the chance to hear some of their stories how they came to the United States and how difficult it was for them to get a citizenship. Beside eating a lot of good food I explored more of Chicago on my own. Around 8pm it was time for me to say good bye and go back to my life on the bus...

October 12th, after a night on the bus I still had a day on the bus ahead of me. While riding the bus I met a dance group from Sri Lanka, a few members of that group talked with me for a while, they were touring in the northern part of the USA and they perform at different cities. They told me that they won several awards and that they've been to Germany as well. One of them you can see in the picture above. Then after 23 hours on the bus I got to Winnipeg, MA. There I had the chance to stay at a house where some other German volunteers live. That same evening we did a little bike tour through the downtown area and some parks so I got a little bit an overview of the city.