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I came back from Canada more than a week ago. Since then, I have been very, very busy with the company over here in Portugal. One should think that during the holiday season business would go down a little bit, but this is not the case. And obviously, you will not hear me complain about that aspect of my life.

Thinking back of my Canadian trip, I must say that the business part of it went very well. I succeeded in doing the things I wanted to do. And as I always do, I took some time for “pleasure” as well. Toronto remains a beautiful city, despite the strike of the city workers that caused all the garbage remaining in the streets. The Niagara Falls were still amazing, as they always have been. And during the last couple of days, I went up north, to stay in the middle of Ontario’s beautiful nature. Despite the many mosquito bites that I still carry as a souvenir, it was a wonderful experience. There are countless beautiful lakes, amazing woods and wonderful national parks in that area.

Thinking back of those last three days, I got this crazy idea… I am thinking of renting a cottage in the neighbourhood of one of those lakes, which must also be close to one or the other airfield. Because I would love to restart my flying lessons. I flew small planes, until I moved to Portugal in 2003. Since then, I haven’t done that anymore. And I must admit, it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done in my life. And as flying lessons in Canada are a lot less expensive than in Europe, I might as well take them over there. It is a crazy idea, and I will not do this during this year anymore, but maybe some time in the late spring or early summer of next year. I’ll keep you posted on that.

But one thing is certain: Canada, you will see me back. And probably sooner than you can imagine right now!

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One of the “musts” while in the Toronto area is a visit to the world famous Niagara Falls. It is only a one and a half hour drive from the city center of Toronto to the Falls, and I can tell you, it is worth the trip. Today was the third time in my life I saw them, and I was still as impressed as the very first time 21 years ago. Back in 1678, a French Father Louis Hennepin was looking for a route to the Mississippi River. Along the way, he became the first European to see what is one of the greatest natural wonders in the world. Niagara Falls was first settled by the Seneca Indians hundreds of years before the Frenchman would arrive.

The Falls were formed over 13 thousand years ago when glaciers retreated from this part of Ontario. In their lifetime, the Falls have retreated over 11 kilometers, and one day in the very far off future, this site will be little more than a river’s rapids. Niagara carries over 20% of the world’s fresh water, flowing from four of the Great Lakes. Travelling over 65 kilometers an hour, the water’s speed and huge volume (dropping 154 million liters of water every single minute on their journey downstream to Lake Ontario!) has immense erosive power. The brink of the Falls moved up to three meters every year until twentieth century engineering intervened to slow the rate down to only thirty centimeters every ten years.

If you are looking to get very, very wet, but you want to come up close and personal with the Falls, there are two ways to do so. You can either jump on a little boat called “Maid of the Mist”, or you can go on the “Journey Behind The Falls”. Over 12 million tourists visit the Falls each and every year, and I was told this afternoon that more film is sold at Niagara Falls than anywhere else in the world.

The Falls consist of two main drops, the American Falls entirely on the U.S. side of the border and the more spectacular Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. In 1901, 63-year old school teacher Anna Taylor became the first person to go over the falls in a barrel and survive. Not all who have tried this curious feat over the years have been so lucky and obviously, today this stunt is illegal. However, today 49 years ago, the only person who went unintentionally over the Falls and survived was young Roger Woodward. After a boating accident on July 9th of 1960, this seven-year-old boy was swept over the Falls wearing only a life jacket and a swimming suit. The crew of the Maid of the Mist II rescued Roger pulling him unharmed from the churning water. Roger’s seventeen-year-old sister was pulled from the river above the Falls by two onlookers, and the driver of their boat, Jim Honeycut, lost his life in this tragic event.

Somehow, during the settlement and development of Niagara Falls, it became known as the “honeymoon capital of the world” and to this day, tens of thousands of newlyweds still flock to the Falls to celebrate their nuptials.

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This is the third time in my life that I am in the Toronto area. I came here for the first time in the summer of 1986, I was here in January of last year, and I am here now. This beautiful “Great Lake City” is Canada’s largest city and multi-cultural melting pot that stands proudly on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It has changed dramatically since I was here for the first time 21 years ago. It seems like Toronto has been re-inventing and re-designing itself in order to keep pace with the times. It is a financial, industrial, commercial, technological and entertainment point for Canada. Toronto is a modern city, that still has landmarks from a rich past and strives to preserve that history while advancing into the future. Tens of thousands of people live in the downtown core and along the waterfront. Throughout the world, Toronto has a reputation as a clean, friendly and very safe cosmopolitan city.

This afternoon, I went out on a boat trip to the islands at the other side of the harbour. I especially wanted to take some pictures of the beautiful Toronto skyline. Just scroll down, and you will see a couple of these pictures below here.

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Since yesterday, I am in Canada. I arrived some time during the afternoon, and for once, the sun was shining over here. Last time I was in this magnificent country, it was FFC, which stands in my “Gino’s language” for “Fucking Freezing Cold”. I guess being here in the month of January had got a lot to do with it.

I crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the very first time back in July of 1988. Yesterday, it was my 21st Atlantic crossing. 21 years ago, I travelled all over the place, from New York to Florida, to Texas, Nevada, California, Utah, Louisiana, Michigan, and from Detroit I drove a car all the way to Montreal, in order to fly back to Brussels. Although I had been doing business for six years or so (and I already knew my way around), I had learned a lot of things about the “American way of living” during that very first trip. I discovered a lot of “24/7 restaurants” over here (which means that these restaurants are open 24 hours each and every day). I discovered the drive-through restaurants and coffee shops. I learned how to drive with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour, and I learned a lot more things.

But above all, I discovered the use of telephone. Although during that time, back in 1988, I had already a car phone which was a thing with a weight of more than 2 1/2 kilograms. It was fixed in the boot of my car, and cost me a fortune to use. Being in America for the first time back in 1988, I discovered that almost everything was done over the telephone, from booking hotels, rental cars, Las Vegas shows, making reservations in restaurants, to getting all kinds of information… one just picked up the phone and made the call. At that time, my English was good enough to understand everything.

That has changed over the past 21 years. Before leaving Portugal, I had made a reservation in one of the many hotels in the neighbourhood of Toronto International Airport. As a matter of fact, I did that online, in the Lisbon airport while I was waiting for my flight to Munich which connected me to my Toronto flight. This morning, I tried to make another reservation for another hotel in the Toronto area. So I picked up the telephone and called a couple of hotels. I guess my English has become very, very poor, as I couldn’t understand anybody who was working in these hotels. Now, don’t get me wrong, I always stay in Holiday Inns, so these are not poor quality hotels. Apparently, the staff of most of the Toronto hotels has become immigrants who speak very heavily accented English. Fortunately, over the past 21 years, mankind invented the internet, so I went online in my room (free Wifi!), and booked another hotel online.

Robin Williams calls it a linguistic adventure to go out drinking with a Scotsman, because you just can’t fucking understand them. He’s right, I went out drinking with a lot of Scotsmen when I was doing business in the United Kingdom a couple of years ago, and I couldn’t fucking understand them either.

But trying to book a hotel in the Toronto area by phone is yet another linguistic adventure. I just experienced this earlier today.

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