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Four days in Toronto<br />
WRITTEN BY PATRICK BAINES<br />
put into words what greets you<br />
when you walk around the corner<br />
and see Niagara Falls for the first<br />
time. The roar is the first thing you<br />
notice as the water from the river<br />
smashes down the falls. You stand<br />
there completely transfixed on the<br />
sheer volume of water that comes<br />
spilling over the vertical drop. Back<br />
home in Wales I always enjoyed<br />
visiting Llanrhaeadr waterfall, after<br />
visiting Niagara I’m not sure I’ll be<br />
able to take the trickle of the Welsh<br />
‘waterfall’ seriously after seeing the<br />
legendary Niagara Falls!<br />
22<br />
Well what a weekend that was!<br />
Niagara Falls, Toronto Blue Jays<br />
v Houston Astros at the iconic<br />
Rogers Centre, hours of fun in<br />
downtown Toronto but best of all –<br />
the Toronto Wolfpack v <strong>All</strong> <strong>Golds</strong> at<br />
the Lamport stadium on Saturday<br />
afternoon.<br />
We departed Gatwick airport at<br />
midday on Thursday afternoon.<br />
The longest flight I’d been on<br />
before this was a three hour jaunt<br />
over to Malta so I was a little<br />
concerned as to how I’d find the<br />
long trek to Canada. I don’t enjoy<br />
sitting in the same place for too<br />
long so this eight hour journey was<br />
going to be a tough one. My main<br />
problem was my inability to fall<br />
asleep. No matter how hard I tried<br />
I couldn’t get off which meant the<br />
final couple of hours of our journey<br />
were’t too much fun. After what<br />
seemed like an eternity we were<br />
pulling up at Toronto airport. The <strong>All</strong><br />
<strong>Golds</strong> had arrived!<br />
After our eight hour flight we<br />
were collected by a bus at Toronto<br />
airport. A representative from<br />
the Wolfpack accompanied us<br />
on the 45 minute journey to our<br />
accommodation and handed us<br />
bottles of water and bananas for<br />
the journey. A small gesture but a<br />
very welcome one.<br />
We were based at the York<br />
University campus, 13 miles from<br />
the city centre. Our rooms were<br />
spacious and the beds comfortable.<br />
After a fantastic meal put on by<br />
the Wolfpack we headed for bed.<br />
Everyone would be rising early on<br />
Friday morning for our final training<br />
session before the big game.<br />
The 90 minute training session<br />
went well. We were all finished by<br />
midday and had the rest of the<br />
day to ourselves. Niagara Falls is<br />
just two hours from Toronto so we<br />
decided to rent a few vehicles and<br />
get on the road. My map reading<br />
skills aren’t the best and for some<br />
inexplicable reason I was handed<br />
the responsibility of sitting in the<br />
passenger seat and guiding our<br />
driver to the Falls. <strong>All</strong> was going<br />
well for about 30 seconds until I<br />
told him to turn off the motorway<br />
and drive in the wrong direction.<br />
After that initial mishap we made<br />
smooth progress and parked up<br />
right next to the Falls. It’s hard to<br />
On the way back we noticed that<br />
the Blue Jays – Toronto’s baseball<br />
team – were playing at the Rogers<br />
Centre. We queued for tickets and<br />
noticed that the home town team<br />
were already 9-0 down! With the<br />
game as good as over we were<br />
www.allgoldsrugby.com<br />
@<strong>All</strong><strong>Golds</strong> facebook.com/<strong>All</strong><strong>Golds</strong>Rugby
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