Day 734: London to Detroit to Chicago

After 4 months of working at Bill Gosling we decided to leave and go do some exploring with the money we had earned. We presumed since Bill Gosling has a high turn over that us leaving wouldn’t be a big thing. We were touched how many individuals made an effort to say bye and pass on their email address to keep in touch.Wearing the call centre headsets for the last time!

It was strange leaving Emmalines house after staying there for a while but we were excited to get back on the road. Our last day in London consisted of boring jobs like printing visas and packing but we also had one cinema ticket to use.

On the 1st December we finished packing up our room at Emmalines place. After not being on the move for a while we had lost our touch in bag packing which resulted in cramming items into our bag with the zip nicely strained. It was ever so weird leaving Emmalines house and slightly depressing, good byes are never pleasant. Our last night with Emmaline, a fabulous host!

Emmaline very kindly gave us a lift in her car to the coach station. We then boarded the bus at 10.50am, luckily we were able to sit together. The coach journey was with greyhound, the seats cost approx $23 CAD each. The journey to Detroit was lovely what with it being a sunny day and pretty scenery. The only downside being the smell from the toilet. Nevertheless we crossed the border control without any issues and set off to stay in another air bnb house, our host named Joseph.

Once we were off the coach we searched for a public bus to try and get a fraction nearer to where we were staying. An hour later we managed to get on the bus (costing $1.50 USD each) juggling around our bags as to avoid them swinging into some poor local. Twenty minutes later we were off the bus and 2 miles away from the house. We were told by the US border control security the further from town you stay the tougher the area. With that information in mind we hot footed it to our accommodation.

On arrival at Joseph’s house we discovered nobody was in (perfect luck) so we waited on his door step expectantly. We were there for a good 10 minutes which resulted in us collecting his post for him. A few moments later a lady appeared next door who turned out to be Joseph’s wife. She let us in and gave us a tour of the house, also advising us not to go out after dark. Two girls were also staying in the house with us, the hosts comment understandably made the girls worry about the well being of their car! Our room was pleasant with plenty of room and a comfortable bed. Despite being out of the city the room was $40 USD for one night.

As we didn’t want to go out in the dark and walk aimlessly looking for a supermarket we ordered in. Despite the food being 2 hours late we were happily fed and watered for the night and certainly ready to go to sleep! Later in the evening we managed to meet Joseph himself. He was a nice man who enjoyed talking about his 5 children, his own travel experiences and his views on Donald Trump!

After sleeping soundly for a good 10 hours we woke up fresh and excited for another day ahead. Our next coach wasn’t until 2pm but Joseph had kindly told us we could check out whenever we wanted.

We planned to leave the room at 12pm. Having a lazy morning was all fun and games until John discovered the bus was at 12.15pm. We managed to do a 10 minute walk with one minute to spare with 10kg on our backs and a wheeled suitcase in our hands. Nevertheless we made it in time and managed to get a seat – costing $1.50 USD each.

A few random snaps of Detroit on route to the bus terminal

Our next trip, Detroit to Chicago was with Mega Bus – we preferred Mega bus as they leave on time and have reserved seating. We were seat 3 and 4, little did we know we had front seats – a prime view! The tickets cost about $11 USD including booking and reservation fee.

By 2pm we were on route to Chicago and nicely fed with a sandwich John managed to find for $16 USD total. Although the weather was chilly it was lovely and sunny – a good day to watch the scenery pass us. On the coach on the way to Chicago

By 4.30pm we stopped at a rest station to stretch our legs and use the toilets or ‘washrooms’ as they call it. John spotted a handbag for sale in the shop, which turned out to be a fashionable gun carrier! The label quoted “keep calm and carry weapons” – no thank you!

We arrived in Chicago around 7pm (we dropped a hour, now 5 behind the UK) the city was clean, plenty of people about (not gangsters) and the general feel of the place was great. Despite Chicago also being known for being a little on the rough side we wouldn’t of known whatsoever. We are staying a few blocks from the University so there are plenty of students walking around. Lovely views from the sun setting as we arrived in Chicago

We reached our accommodation, an apartment owned by a man called Juan. We already knew before we arrived that Juan wouldn’t be in the apartment when we got there but we knew where the key was etc prior to arrival. We were greeted by a loveable house cat who seemed to love fuss. The apartment was lovely and clean, our room a little small but we were only planning to sleep in there and be out for the day. A furry friend for the next 5 days

The following day we went exploring. We did a lot of walking but we managed to see a lot. We were very lucky with the weather too as it wasn’t too cold and the sun was shining all day – we even got too hot at one point! Chicago City Centre

By 1pm we managed to stop for some lunch at a convenience store where we got a packed lunch for $9 USD total. By 3.45pm we had walked 11km so we enjoyed a 20 minute flop on the sofa we found in a mall!

After walking around for a little bit longer to see all the Christmas lights lit up in the dark we eventually headed home. As soon as we realised we had walked a total of 20km we understood why our feet were throbbing. We had a fantastic day and Chicago is definitely one of our favourite cities, plenty to do, see and explore.

The ”Bean’ sculpture, full name ‘Cloud Gate’ that was designed to look like liquid mercury! The City by night! & Johns furry friend enjoying a back rub

The following day we bought a one day travel card for unlimited use throughout the day. The card cost $10 USD each. First things first we headed for Chicago’s free zoo. We were a little sceptical to if the zoo was free or not but only one way to find out. We caught the train there and only had to walk for ten minutes or so before we arrived at the zoo.

The zoo was indeed free and also very impressive, they had tigers, snow leopards, monkeys, gorillas, camels, kangaroos and a variety of birds including penguins. Luckily the zoo was quiet as it was a Monday and the animals were all very active. Admittedly we did expect the zoo to be full of sheep and equally not so exciting animals but we were pleasantly surprised.

After a couple of hours at the zoo we then went to visit the theatre and the alley where the famous criminal John Dillinger was shot after being on the run from the police for years after seeing a theatre production.

We then took the train to see one of Chicago’s German markets. We walked around and took in the delicious smell of mulled wine whilst looking at the overpriced stalls and ice rink with Christmas carols playing in a the background. It certainly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Our next activity was a comedy show which we had bought tickets for on the previous day. We then went back to the apartment in the hope of having a shower and having a hot meal. When realising it was a 40 min bus journey to get to the show we swapped a shower for a change of clothes and a hot meal for a cereal bar.

We then ran to the bus stop to catch the bus by the skin of our teeth to discover our 24 hour travel pass had cut off after 8 hours meaning the bus ticket was yet another fare out of our pocket. We then ran to the train station to discover the pass was working so we’d lost money for no reason. Perfect.

Two trains later and we arrived at the comedy club. We were seated right at the front, practically on the stage! We treated ourselves to a drink each which came with a pricey bill as well as the tip (?!)

Unsure whether or not our humour varied massively to those in the USA but the show was not one bit funny. Whilst everyone was loudly laughing we were wondering if we’d missed a hidden punch line somewhere?! At one point one of the ‘comedians’ was stood right by John on stage so unfortunately the spot light was on him also. As John was also in the lime light he had to pretend to laugh so that we didn’t look confused/unamused Brits for the night!

Nevertheless it was nice to officially see a show in Chicago and it was good to see everyone in good spirits.

The stage! (And how close we were)The rather forced smiles we painted on our face for the night

The following day we needed to find somewhere to exchange money. Such a simple task you would expect to take 20 mins or so. However unlike in the UK, banks will not exchange money unless you have an account with them. We spent two hours looking for somewhere.

Eventually someone told us of a place called Travelex Currency Service. We discovered Travelex didn’t open till 3pm so we headed for a hot drink in a cafe as the winds were painfully cold on our faces and snow was starting to fall.

The currency rate was shocking at the exchange shop so we ended up withdrawing from an ATM. It was rather amusing as the banker thought we were millionaires when we told her we had bank accounts in England, Canada and Australia! The bank we withdrew from was called BMO Harris, the conversion rate was better than any other we had found.

Later on we braved the cold winds and did some final sight seeing around the town – we even bumped into a girl from London UK!

Ice rink in the town centre The crown fountain that shows a series of moving faces before spitting water out! Luckily the water feature had been turned off but we stayed at a distance just in case!The famous Chicago Art Institute A strange frame made of old tyres?We re visited the Bean to capture the city sky line in the reflectionTaking a picture of anything Christmassy – of course!More Christmas lights to pose with!Our final pictures of Chicago’s impressive city!

Overall we have had a fabulous time in Chicago, we wished we had a few more days there in fact. We have been waking 20km each day and have still not seen all the city! Would certainly recommend the visit and we would defiantly return given the chance. Next stop…Cincinnati!

Day 700: London to Toronto to Niagara Falls

We managed to find a job in London, Ontario pretty quick after arriving. We worked for Bill Gosling, an outsourcing company that provide emergency road side assistance to hundreds of insurance companies within the USA and parts of Canada.

The work was in the form of a call centre, we spent eight hours a day with a head set on with angry Americans shouting in our ears. Some of the days were dull and long and other days were speedy, however the money made was going towards our next trip which made it all worth while.

Our English accent seems to amaze some and confuse others. Both of us have had Americans asking if we speak English or can they be transferred through to someone who does speaks English. Re-assuring them that we do in fact speak English as our mother tongue is usually met with disdain followed by a handful of abusive words and ending with them calling us liars. We do get the occasional nice client, who is very understanding and helpful but these seem to be few and far between. In typical human fashion everyone believes

they are the most important and should be serviced instantly and priorities to the top of the list. So when informed that they may have to wait an hour for service, the verbal abuse starts up once again.

The job was located in the city centre, in London’s main shopping mall. The term, shopping mall should be used loosely. It housed two discount stores going by the names Bulkbarrel and Dollarama, a spattering of clothing stores along with a college and the call centre.

We stayed with a friendly lady, Emmaline for a short while before having to move to another ladies house, Janice. Although Janice’s has two loveable cats we preferred Emmalines location due to the walk to work being shorter and the area being more friendly.

The two cats at Janice’s house were named LuLu and Laila, which we nicknamed fat kitty and little kitty. We will let you decide if you can work out which one was which. Little kitty was four years old and loved to play not to mention mischievous. Fat kitty was a little bit more relaxed and enjoyed to pass the days by lounging on our bed, spread out to take up maximum space.

Both of the cats seemed to enjoy waking us up in the morning in their own unique way. Fat kitty would insist on jumping onto the bed and would cause quite a fright making us jump out of our skin. She would then hurriedly curl herself up in the warm spot where we had just jumped from. Little kitty would much prefer to paw through our belonging until she found something of interest, whether that be John’s trouser toggles or a set of batteries which she managed to open and chase around the bedroom. If you’re wondering how loud a set of batteries on a wooden floor is, we assure you it is loud!

Despite both cats being little devils we certainly missed them as we made the three mile walk to settle for the last time at Emmelines. Finally having a place where we would be stationary for a good couple of months we could now focusing on arranging other things. In particular, a halloween night out, a trip to Niagara falls and our American road trip.

Being one of Johns favourite holidays we made an effort to get our Halloween outfits together for a weekend in Toronto. We were excited to check out the nightlife and to see Canada’s version of Halloween in comparison to Australia the previous year. Previous years have seen us go as The Joker and Harley Quinn in England, The Mad hatter and Alice in wonderland while in Australia and Captain hook and Tinkerbell for this year in Canada. Always preferring to put costumes together ourselves another visit to charity shop was in order.

Judging from promotions alone, halloween is a much bigger holiday in North America than Europe or Australasia. Only a handful of clubs were available for a night out in Australia while every club in Toronto seems to be selling tickets for some sort of spooky event, there are even two cruises heading out to sea for party goers, aptly named ghost ships.

On the 27th October we headed for Toronto, where we stayed with a lady called Cheryl. We took the Greyhound coach to get to Toronto. We couldn’t sit by each other as the unsociable group on our bus all wished to sit by themselves taking up two seats each so all families and couples were split up for journey. As expected the group was already a little rowdy and getting impatient as the coach was running late. We couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for the driver as it wasn’t his fault that there had been accident on the highway.

We arrived in Toronto, got off the coach then took a 45 minute walk to arrive at a shop. Little had we known we were going to be living above a shop for the next few days. Cheryl turned out to be a lot older than expected, perhaps in her 70s. We got the impression that Cheryl prided herself as having a hippy lifestyle, as she took us on a tour of her small apartment. She seemed a nice lady and seemed willing to chat to us and give us tips about the neighbourhood.

After a good nights sleep we decided to head out despite the rain. We ended up buying a day pass and getting the train around the city to explore. We also visited Mckenzie house where we saw how the old newspapers used to be printed.

Later on in the day we headed out for our Halloween celebrations as Captain Hook and Tinkerbell. Unfortunately after all the planning and outfit preparation we ended up in a extreme gay bar unknowingly which wasn’t really the vibe we were after. After blowing our budget on entrance to the club and one drink each we were sober and fed up which resulted in a early night – nevertheless it had been fun to dress up.

The following day we decided to go for a walk in a national park. The autumn trees were beautiful and it was really lovely to stretch the legs, get fresh air and make the most of having nothing to do. At 2pm we stopped for a picnic lunch then by 3.15pm we headed back into the city. We spent the remainder of the afternoon/evening exploring. We managed to see the harbour, the Flat Iron building, the Distillery District and pretty much everything in between as we did the majority by foot.

On our last day off we went to visit Niagara Falls. With a early start of 8am we walked with our belongings to the coach station once again. After a fast paced 5km walk with heavy bags on our shoulders we were sat on the coach, we even managed to sit by each other this time!

When we arrived in Niagara the weather was pretty miserable. With a 3km walk we arrived at the Falls. Time seemed to go extremely quickly as we walked up and down to view both the USA and Canadian side of the Falls. We then decided as we would only get the chance once that we would take a ride on the ‘Maid of the Mist’.

The Maid of the Mist was a 20 minute boat ride in which you get extremely close to the Falls. We had a really fantastic time and got absolutely drenched in the process. For once in our travelling lives we were more than happy to be carrying round the majority of our belongings as it meant we could change out of our soaking clothes – if not we would be in our wet clothes for 5 + hours.

To round up the day we headed for a local coffee shop to warm up and to get some refreshments before the descent back to London.

We had a really fantastic time in Toronto despite the not so great weather and looked forward to our next adventure. Another bonus was that we only had to go back to work for two days before we could have another two off!

Day 606: Iceland to Canada

On the 19th July we left Iceland and headed for Toronto, Canada. The Iceland airport had poor organisation but we eventually took off for our 6 hour journey.

With on board entertainment and regular free drinks the flight seemed to go quite fast. We arrived at 5.30pm UK time, 12.30pm Canada time. On the plane from Iceland to Toronto, Canada.

Due to having a working holiday visa we had to join a line before we could collect our bags. An hour and a half later we could collect our bags which had been dumped on the floor since they were the last bags of the flight.

We then discovered we needed change for the bus. Having not eaten for 12 hours (and that was a apple and a slice of bread) we decided to break into a note and share a sandwich.

We eventually got on the public bus on the way to our air bnb accommodation. The temperature was 27 degrees so we felt pretty warm dressed in thermals and coats!

We were staying in someone's converted basement which had a full kitchen, dining room, bathroom and bedroom. First we went to the supermarket which was a refreshing change to be able to afford food again!

After a great nights sleep from a combination of it being dark (after 24 hours of light in Iceland) and jet lag we decided to spend the next day exploring. We instantly looked like tourists from the amazement of seeing a skunk and a black squirrel in the park!

Unlike the day we arrived, the day that was dedicated to sight seeing was pouring down with rain which was unfortunate. We still enjoyed walking around the city and getting a feel for the area and people. Toronto in the rain!Standing undercover waiting for the rain to calm down!

The few Canadians that we have spoken to have highly recommended a coffee shop called Tim holtons. As we were far from the apartment and in the rain we decided to get lunch and a hot drink – for a fair price we were impressed! Our first Canadian Coffee!

Eventually the rain stopped so we continued exploring. We went to st Lawrence's market which is a 'must see' followed by a walk to Ontario lake where we could see the city sky line and tallest tower in the world, CN. St Lawrence MarketPlenty of tourists at St Lawrence's marketToronto CityLooking at Toronto City by Lake Ontario The tallest tower in the world, called CN

By early evening the sun had come out! So we spent a few more hours looking around. After walking 13 miles we decided to go back to the apartment and rest – we had a fabulous day!

On the 22nd July we headed for London. However our train wasn't until 5.30pm and we had to check out of our air bnb at 11am. We ended up taking our bags with us to a coffee shop and sipping a coffee slowly!

By 3pm we were at the train station with our tickets to hand. The train station was a lot busier than expected! We boarded the train at 5.15PM, the seats had enough leg room for us both to lie down! We were going to be nice and comfortable for the 3 hours. On the train ready to departWe were impressed with our leg room!

We arrived at our next air bnb place at 9pm with a very friendly retired lady called Emmaline. She even gave us some spaghetti since we hadn't eaten.

After a good nights sleep we went exploring through London city. It was a warm sunny day too which was a bonus.

We spent a few days finding our feet, opening a bank account, getting a social insurance number and looking for work.

We managed to both get a job in a call centre where we answer the phone to Americans who have broken down in their cars and need picking up. We continued to look for work in the hope something better would come up.

On the 30th July we went to watch the Pride festival in the street, it was a lovely day and many of the locals had appeared to sit on the grass and watch.

As expected there was a selection of people there including drag queens, gay choirs and much more! Somehow we obtained loads of free gifts including flags, beach balls, beads, sweets and fly swatters.

The following day we had our first day at Bill Gosling Call centre. Let the work begin!