Horseshoe Falls

The walk from the bus station took a bit less than an hour, and at first, I really wasn't that impressed. From afar obviously. But once I got closer, I understood why so many people come to see this unique waterfall.
The sheer volume of water that tumbles endlessly over the rocks is mind-blowing. Once you get up close and personal, you realize that. And the mist can really be quite annoying, it blocks the view quite a lot (oh poor darling, I know...) but with the wind it does have a funny effect, it basically just rains on you, even from 200m away sometimes, but very thin rain, that still gets you pretty wet though. It's too bad there are so many people visiting it, it's been made into a human attraction whereas it is of course natural. The town itself is awful, like a mini Vegas, ridiculously stupid!

For once,

the Americans don't get everything bigger and better, as in their waterfalls. These are the Bridal Veil Falls, and Rainbow Bridge (yes, really) connecting the two countries.

Gatineau

Formerly called Hull, I have no idea why, Gatineau sounds more Quebec-ish anyway...
The Ottawa River (Outaouais in french, so weird...) separates the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, well - Gatineau and Ottawa at this particular spot.

Canada's capital

Ottawa. I'm pretty sure most of you reading this know that...
The "stylish" Parliament Hill, owned by the Crown, the site chosen by her majesty Queen Victoria to be the capital of the Province of Canada. Picture perfect isn't it?

Chinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!!

Or not.

This is nonetheless a chinese garden in the Botanical Gardens of Montreal. The place is freakin' huge!

The view from the afternoon

Four nights in Montreal equaled a night in a hostel playing translator between a stuttering american and a pretty cool french maths teacher, a night with a couchsurfing guy called David watching an awesome Gaspesian band called Les Chics Clochards in a bar, a night at a sound engineer's place I'd only just met and a final one at Dave's again! Awesomeness.

After a long bike ride...

...a good game of football to keep us going! I'm staying with Cécile and her flat mates, they're all Quebecois and not always easy to understand! Great fun though, it's the authentic experience and I'm very grateful for it!

Québec CIty

The beautiful view from the fortifications in QC.

No, I didn't go back to Washington...

"Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes" is what William Prescott said to his soldiers at the battle between the British and the American Patriot Forces right at the start of the Revolutionary War. This is Bunker Hill Monument, commemorating the Battle of Bunker Hill, which is misnamed as it actually happened on Breed's Hill on June 17th, 1775.

Massachusetts State House

At the top of Beacon Hill in Boston. Yes that's 23k gold on that dome! Boston's a really nice city to walk around, lots of open spaces, parks and greenery, and history as well! T'was very enjoyable.

Hello Times Square

City Hall

A few buildings around City Hall in Philadelphia...

Liberty Bell

Philadelphia! The building on the left here houses the famous Liberty Bell, a symbol of independence during the American Revolutionary War.

Lincoln Memorial

It actually took about 30 minutes to walk from the Washington Monument to this wonder...Longer than it looks!

Washington Monument

Museums

Dédicasse TPE 2006 ©. (International Space Station)
I went to the National Air and Space Museum in DC.  It's quite interesting, but it's one of the most visited museums so there are families and kids everywhere, it's just really crowded. I got to do loads of other museums, the Gallery of Art was my favourite as well as the National History Museum.

Fort McHenry

This is Fort McHenry in Baltimore.  It's a neat star-shaped fort that was mainly used in the War of 1812 to defend the city from the British navy, and it's also where the national anthem of the USA was written!

Day trip to Washington DC

I'm now staying with my cousin Rosalie and her family just outside Baltimore. On my first day I went to Washington, walked around Capitol Hill and did a couple of museums, it kind of reminds me of Paris...

Colonial Williamsburg

I couchsurfed once more in Williamsburg with an awesome guy called Taylor.  He's a film major so we had loads to talk about and he's currently making a documentary on gene patenting, really interesting!
Colonial Williamsburg dates back to the 18th century and was Virginia's capital back in the day. Williamsburg is also home to the second oldest university in the country after Harvard, the College of William and Mary. This is the Governor's Palace, which went through restoration like most of the old buildings in the area.

Wrightsville Beach

I got to do a bit of night time photography which was fun, on the left is the house opposite where I was staying, they had huge flat screen TV's in every room, and even in every bathroom! Pretty crazy seeing as it's about 100m from the sea! May I ask, what is the point?!

OTH

For the One Tree Hill fans out there! Wilmington, NC. This is where it all takes place. I actually toured the Screen Gem Studios where they have the filming sound stages, but no photos allowed in there. This is downtown, and there are loads more recognizable places from the show!

Battleship North Carolina

My next stop was Wrightsville Beach, where I stayed with my cousin's husband's parents, yeah!
I pretty much relaxed on the beach a lot of the time, which was great, but I did get to tour this awesome battleship on the Cape Fear river that goes through Wilmington.  It was unbelievable, the main battery (9 canons!) could fire 16 inch 1200 kg loads every 30 seconds to an accurate distance of 20 miles, each needing 250 kg of powder to be propulsed. The whole ship had a crew of around 2300 men, and fought in the Pacific Ocean around 1940.

More beach!

Magnificient Folly Beach a few miles south of Charleston, thanks Erica for taking us there!

Night out in Charleston

 I met two English guys (Rob and Jan) at the hostel and we walked around town and then went to a few bars where we met a local girl called Erica in the bar she works at, and had a great time with her and her mates. She then took us to the beach the next day and showed us a few cool places around town!
PS : not my photo!

Antebellum architecture

Here's an example of the architecture on the South-East coast, it dates back to the antebellum period (a few decades before the Civil War).

Savannah

Ok so it's been a while...
I spent two nights in a cool town with some students of the local university, the Savannah College of Art and Design, that I got in contact with thanks to couchsurfing.org ! So it was my first couchsurfing experience and really great. They showed me around town as well as the audiovisual section of their campus, and even took me to the beach! Thanks guys for an awesome time!

And surf!

Yeah! I went to St Augustine Beach with an Austrian couple for the day, we rented a surfboard and had a great time, the waves were quite big, but the current especially was unbelievable, after 20 minutes of surfing we'd be much further down the beach... I'm also very sunburned, it ain't no Parisian sun over here in Florida!

St Augustine

Sun, sea, peace and quiet, and history! I'm in the oldest city in the USA, Saint Augustine!

Wildlife?

Lake Cecile

Sunset off Lake Cecile, 100m from the hostel.

Downtown Disney

So here I am in a motel/hostel in a place called Kissimmee south of Orlando! Weird name huh? Not much to visit in Orlando except the 70$ minimum parks unfortunately.  I walked around Downtown Disney for a couple of hours which was quite nice, it has shops and restaurants, and a lot of tourists of course! I then took the free water taxi to get back to the bus, pretty nice views...

Beach Bum!

There's Andy and Vik on the left and right, and a beach bum who we talked to for a bit, pretty cool guy, he made crickets and roses out of palm tree leaves that last forever, and made us taste some fresh coconut jelly! A lot of people in Key West are really laid back and easy to talk to, even though they're probably quite stoned most of the time!

Key West

Here's one of the nicest beaches of Key West, the most southernmost town in the whole of continental USA! It was so hot and humid, more than in Miami, and the hostel was pretty bad too, it's not very easy going to sleep in 30C... Nevertheless it was great, I met two German guys on the Greyhound bus and we spent the day on the beach and walking around town. The next day we went snorkeling, the Florida Keys are one of the largest reefs in the world and are probably going to suffer because of the recent oil spill in the Gulf, they seemed to already have been largely affected by Man's idiocy, a lot of it was dead and there weren't that many fish around either.

South Beach

I had a great time today with Antony and Patrick, two frenchies, we first went to the Wolfsonian Museum on Washington Avenue, a really cool modern art and design museum! Then we headed to the beach for a couple of hours before it started raining!

The Tides

 Thought this hotel looked wicked at night, seems like it came right out of a movie doesn't it?

Hola! Check out Ocean Drive at night!

I'm leaving Miami tomorrow morning, my next destination is Key West! I hope the weather gets better, it seems to rain from 5pm onwards for a couple of hours, big tropical thunderstorms! The streets are pretty much flooded, it's insane!

Ocean Drive

I just had a pretty restless night in a very noisy hostel! But still, not too tired! I walked around most of Miami Beach, and was surprised there weren't more people around, quite a lot of cars but nearly no locals or visitors walking around...
This is the famous Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, about 200m from the beach!

One Week Left

Welcome to the new blog I'm starting for my trip to the USA and Canada!
I leave Paris next Tuesday, flying in to Charlotte and connecting to Miami, it'll be my first time in the US, preparations are nearly done and I can't wait to be there!

Enjoy my photo updates which will hopefully be quite often!

Doug.