Day 6 - June 21th

By Danny Haak

After a long night of drinks in the local campusbar at the University of Waterloo, teaching the Canadians some Dutch dances and learning from differences between our cultures, it was – again – a very early wake up call, but with some nice perspectives: we were going to visit Paramount Canada’s Wonderland, a park full of thrill rides and spectacular events.

After breakfast in the dormitory, we refueled our cars (with cheap fuel; but the 100 litre fuel tank capacity of them did neglect that a bit) and we went on the highway to Toronto again. On the highway some nice extraordinary combinations of vehicles did show up: a car pulling a caravan pulling another caravan; and a camper pulling a jeep. After a drive of about an hour and a half we did arrive!

Because of the night before, we had quite a difficult start at the first rollercoaster, but after some, we felt better and better! There were about fourteen rollercoasters in Canada’s Wonderland; most of them larger and faster than we know in the Netherlands. As well; we have had rides in positions we wouldn’t know before that they were possible: standing, lying, and hanging in a rollercoaster!

During lunch we tried to order some food (hamburgers with fries, fries or fries) with a medium coke, with medium defined as 0.7 litre. The prices for drinks started at CA$ 3.59 for a small (0.4 liter) to CA$ 3.99 for a large one (1 litre). So the waitress couldn’t believe her eyes that we wouldn’t upgrade our medium coke to a large one, just for 20 cents! It was only 20 cents. They seem to forget sometimes here that it’s not all about money; in the Wonderland were a lot of – subtle said – fat people.

Quite amazing is still the tend to protect people from themselves: this whole country is covered in warnings and recommendations. Consequently the speakers in the coasters tell people not to sit on the handrail, much more to keep all things inside the vehicle, take all glasses away, secure loose articles, three-double check everything, etcetera. They explicitly do not trust on the common sense of people; in fear of sueing. A bit strange for a Dutchmen.

After some more rides in the Italian Job, the Top Gun, the Vortex, some more rides and some last rides it was time to go home, or the hotel at least. In the hotel our new supervisors Johan and Arjan were waiting for us; they arrived this day to accompany us for the coming week. A small beer formed the end of again an exhausting day