I want to dispel a few myths before we continue. Firstly, in a 'near death experience your life does not flash before your eyes, nor does everything go in slow-motion. Secondly, it's always a good idea to have insurance.
Well, I don't know if what I experienced was a quote 'near death experience'. Possibly more like a 'potentially dangerous situation'.
I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I got into a car accident. OK, that probably wasn't the best set up in history (probably the worst) I admit. But we managed to get to the point, didn't we?
We decided to hire a car in Anchorage and drive up to Fairbanks (about 350 miles/ 500 and something km away) because Anchorage was pretty boring. We also wanted to go up and see if we could see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) (more on that later) (parenthesis!) and hopefully some wildlife on the way (more on that later too). Anyways, we hit an icy patch on the road just outside Cantwell (just over halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks), did a 360 and hit a snow bank. Luckily there weren't any other cars around at the time but if we had spun out less than a minute later than we did, we probably would have hit a truck coming the opposite way. See what I mean about potentially dangerous!? This was what I was trying to get at from the start!
So anyways, the car was working fine still and thanks to a helpful Alaskan (I assume) couple we were able to secure what was left of the front bumper so that it didn't drag. We made it to Cantwell with me feeling a little happy, to be honest. I wasn't too worried about the cost. "Can't be more than $600, right?" I laugh at myself in retrospect. It actually ended up costing 10x that amount. USD. Apparently parts are hard to come across in Alaska and have to be shipped in which is such shit.
Long story short. I'm now officially broke. Good thing I'm going home really soon huh?
We made it to Cantwell hoping that there was a mechanic there but apparently the only one in the area was old and probably wouldn't be able to make it out to have a look at the car. In any case he would probably tell us to go to Fairbanks. The truck driver that was behind us was at the petrol station too and he said that if that snow bank were any lower we would have most likely flipped. POTENTIAL DANGER! Oh, neither of us are hurt by the way. Just my wallet.
The rest of this story isn't that interesting. We made it to Fairbanks without the use of a car, we spent the rest of our time there trying to sort out this car thing and then we flew to Anchorage and then on to Seattle.
Seeing as we're out of Alaska now, I feel safe to do a little summary thing of the entire trip. Overall it was pretty disappointing. I had so many expectations which weren't met. I guess that was the problem. No research + high expectations = disappointment. I didn't do any of the things that were on my list. I didn't see any wildlife besides two Bald Eagles and a squirelly thing (possibly a squirrel). I didn't go snowshoeing, or snowmobiling OR dog sledding. I didn't see the Norther Lights. Alaska IS a beautiful place though, one of the few places in North America that warrants a second visit. During Summer of course. That's pretty much all I have to say about it, to be honest.
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
A quick update/ probably won't have internet access for a while
Ok, so we made it to Anchorage. The flight was more like a bus ride than what you would usually expect. We made a few stops on the way where we let people off and other people got on. People going to Anchorage, like us (final destination?), had to just sit on the plane while we waited to take off. It was a little weird. Probably doesn't sound as weird as it actually was, based on this description though... It was weird ok?
Anchorage is well, a lot bigger than Juneau. With a population of around 277, 000 it has more than half of the entire population of the state of Alaska. Which, by the way is celebrating it's 50th year of statehood. Hooray.
Also, we've managed to hire a car which opens up a lot of options. So in the morning we're headed up to Fairbanks via Wasilla ("Hi Sarah Palin!") and Talkeetna. Once we reach Fairbanks, depending on the time, we'll head up to Chena Hot Springs where we may or may not be able to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis if you wanna get technical) (I always want to get technical) but lately it's been pretty quiet. They have like, this gauge where it guages the likelyhood of seeing the lights and right now, it's like, a 1 on a scale of 10 (10 being the highest/ greatest likelyhood of seeing it) so I'm not expecting much.
On the wildlife front, from what I can tell from talking to a few locals, there only seems to be Moose around this time of year but who knows? In any case, a Moose is still fine with me. Sometimes they just wander through town to go shopping for some supplies but as yet, I haven't seen any. It just seems like one of those stories where people say that these crazy things happen but they never do when you're around and then you end up questioning them and how crazy they are. Crazy.
Well, I guess that's it for now. Oh, also, our hostel doesn't have wireless so we've had to go to like, coffee shops and shit to use theirs. I dunno, I just assumed that every hostel has wifi. Apparently not. It's a bit annoying too cos the hostel is a good 6 or 7 blocks from the closest wifi place. I also feel kinda guilty for coming to these places and using their internet for ages. I mean, sure, we buy things and whatnot but I mean, it's like, "I'll trade you like, $3 for a coffee/ tea and use of your internet for 2 and a half hours. Deal? Deal."
Anchorage is well, a lot bigger than Juneau. With a population of around 277, 000 it has more than half of the entire population of the state of Alaska. Which, by the way is celebrating it's 50th year of statehood. Hooray.
Also, we've managed to hire a car which opens up a lot of options. So in the morning we're headed up to Fairbanks via Wasilla ("Hi Sarah Palin!") and Talkeetna. Once we reach Fairbanks, depending on the time, we'll head up to Chena Hot Springs where we may or may not be able to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis if you wanna get technical) (I always want to get technical) but lately it's been pretty quiet. They have like, this gauge where it guages the likelyhood of seeing the lights and right now, it's like, a 1 on a scale of 10 (10 being the highest/ greatest likelyhood of seeing it) so I'm not expecting much.
On the wildlife front, from what I can tell from talking to a few locals, there only seems to be Moose around this time of year but who knows? In any case, a Moose is still fine with me. Sometimes they just wander through town to go shopping for some supplies but as yet, I haven't seen any. It just seems like one of those stories where people say that these crazy things happen but they never do when you're around and then you end up questioning them and how crazy they are. Crazy.
Well, I guess that's it for now. Oh, also, our hostel doesn't have wireless so we've had to go to like, coffee shops and shit to use theirs. I dunno, I just assumed that every hostel has wifi. Apparently not. It's a bit annoying too cos the hostel is a good 6 or 7 blocks from the closest wifi place. I also feel kinda guilty for coming to these places and using their internet for ages. I mean, sure, we buy things and whatnot but I mean, it's like, "I'll trade you like, $3 for a coffee/ tea and use of your internet for 2 and a half hours. Deal? Deal."
Friday, February 6, 2009
Juneau-a-go-go
Alright, lets begin with the most important/ interesting thing that's happened here in Juneau. No, as far as I know, there's been no more news on the apparent volcanic activity in the Juneau area. This is much more important. I became an overnight celebrity in the town of Juneau, population approx 30, 000. I made it into the frickin newspaper.
Photo: Juggling can be a winter sport, too
Juneau Empire
Simon Wong, left, shows off his snow juggling skills to his sister, Lian, on Wednesday near Marine Park. They are visiting from Auckland, New Zealand.
Not much else to say about that, really. A slow news day I guess. (Also, in the photo it looks like I've just got one snowball but really, the rest are just out of shot! I swear! Ha.) I'm pretty happy nonetheless. I have my souvenir from Juneau, cos god knows everything here is so frickin expensive! I mean, seriously, $75 for a PRINT of a painting? I'm sorry, that's just ridiculous. If it was the original, signed and dated, then maybe you could get away with it, but dude, $75? Also, the native artifacts are pretty expensive too. Which, I guess makes sense but $200 for a small carving is pretty ridiculous too, dude. I thought New York was expensive, but man, Alaska can get pretty dang pricey too.
The hostel. It's ok, but the other night a group of like, 20 kids and a few adults have been here for a few days now. But luckily for us, we're getting kicked out of the hostel tomorrow (they have this policy where you can only stay for 5 days every 3 months which kinda makes no sense, but ok). It also gets pretty annoying that we have to be out between 9 and 5 every day. Especially on a day like today when it's snowing like crazy outside... I guess it's a good and bad thing though. It means we get a lot of things done but if we have no plans like today, the time seems to go pretty slow. I mean, Juneau (and from what I can tell, everywhere else on this godforsaken continent) have closed down for the winter which is kind of annoying. Yet for some reason I'm surprised by it every time.
Note to self: Summer. Summer is when things are alive.
The weather hasn't been all bad though. Yesterday was pretty nice. We headed out to Mendenhall Glacier which was pretty extraordinary. I mean, you'd think that any self-respecting kiwi would have seen one before - Franz Josef and Fox etc. But no, not me. I'll get onto that though. I promise. Not much to say about that really. It was blue. It was pretty. It was cold. Well, not really that cold, not really that pretty, not really that blue. We did a hike where the snow sometimes got up to our knees. It was kinda intense. Especially when I almost fell into a hole. Woah.
Oh, also, I almost forgot. I totally saw another Bald Eagle swoop down and grab some kind of meat...thing from the side of a dumpster. Kinda gross, yet majestic. And of course I was too slow to take a photo so I have no physical proof of it but you gotta believe me. You just gotta!
Right, I think that's it yous fulla's. Oh, besides the fact that I'm going HOME in 11 DAYS. That is frickin, ridiculously nuts.
Photo: Juggling can be a winter sport, too
Juneau Empire
Simon Wong, left, shows off his snow juggling skills to his sister, Lian, on Wednesday near Marine Park. They are visiting from Auckland, New Zealand.
Not much else to say about that, really. A slow news day I guess. (Also, in the photo it looks like I've just got one snowball but really, the rest are just out of shot! I swear! Ha.) I'm pretty happy nonetheless. I have my souvenir from Juneau, cos god knows everything here is so frickin expensive! I mean, seriously, $75 for a PRINT of a painting? I'm sorry, that's just ridiculous. If it was the original, signed and dated, then maybe you could get away with it, but dude, $75? Also, the native artifacts are pretty expensive too. Which, I guess makes sense but $200 for a small carving is pretty ridiculous too, dude. I thought New York was expensive, but man, Alaska can get pretty dang pricey too.
The hostel. It's ok, but the other night a group of like, 20 kids and a few adults have been here for a few days now. But luckily for us, we're getting kicked out of the hostel tomorrow (they have this policy where you can only stay for 5 days every 3 months which kinda makes no sense, but ok). It also gets pretty annoying that we have to be out between 9 and 5 every day. Especially on a day like today when it's snowing like crazy outside... I guess it's a good and bad thing though. It means we get a lot of things done but if we have no plans like today, the time seems to go pretty slow. I mean, Juneau (and from what I can tell, everywhere else on this godforsaken continent) have closed down for the winter which is kind of annoying. Yet for some reason I'm surprised by it every time.
Note to self: Summer. Summer is when things are alive.
The weather hasn't been all bad though. Yesterday was pretty nice. We headed out to Mendenhall Glacier which was pretty extraordinary. I mean, you'd think that any self-respecting kiwi would have seen one before - Franz Josef and Fox etc. But no, not me. I'll get onto that though. I promise. Not much to say about that really. It was blue. It was pretty. It was cold. Well, not really that cold, not really that pretty, not really that blue. We did a hike where the snow sometimes got up to our knees. It was kinda intense. Especially when I almost fell into a hole. Woah.
Oh, also, I almost forgot. I totally saw another Bald Eagle swoop down and grab some kind of meat...thing from the side of a dumpster. Kinda gross, yet majestic. And of course I was too slow to take a photo so I have no physical proof of it but you gotta believe me. You just gotta!
Right, I think that's it yous fulla's. Oh, besides the fact that I'm going HOME in 11 DAYS. That is frickin, ridiculously nuts.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Bloggin on a ferry
So, I’m on a ferry to Juneau right now. Just chillin. And adding to the ‘places I’ve blogged’ list. Plane, train, bus, airport and now ferry. Wicked. Also, I’ve been saying ‘wicked’ a lot in the last few days. I have no idea why...
We almost didn’t make it here to be honest. Well, when I say ‘we’ I mean my sister. I made it to the ferry terminal with plenty of time to spare, not to mention a few extra friends. My sister on the other hand, arrived at the terminal with 5 minutes or so to spare before the ferry was meant to set sail. It’s a long story and one that I’d rather not get into but it involves aeroplanes, passports, hitchhiking and a lot of luck. I wasn’t really nervous though, mostly because technology kept me up to date with what was going on. Thank you technology. Once again you save the day. Also, thank you Sheri. You’re my hero.
Not much to report from the ferry thus far. We boarded at 6pm when it was already dark. The lights are pretty though. I'm pretty sure we’ve passed Vancouver already which is awesome. There’s also this outside covered bit on the top of the boat where we’re planning to sleep for the rest of this trip. It’s an amazing little place – and before you ask, no, it doesn’t get that cold up there. The shelter – sort of like a half dome- is facing the stern of the boat (aka back of the boat) (sorry, I thought I’d throw some nautical terms in here. It seems appropriate) so all the wind coming from the bow (aka front of the boat) is going over the shelter if you get what I mean. Also, you’re pretty much sleeping under the stars (which you can see amazingly well). There are also heat lamps.
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow though. Hopefully we get to see some whales or some shit like that. Apparently it’s not uncommon to see such animals including sea lions, whales, otters and birds. Rumour has it though that we’re gonna be running into a storm tomorrow which to be honest, is pretty shit. Also, word is spreading that one of the mountains in Juneau is gonna blow any day now. We’re gonna be in Juneau any day now. ...Wicked? Possibly.
So yeah, like I said, not much to report. Not much to report on Seattle either. It didn’t really leave a big impression on me. Usually a city has a distinct charm about it. Not this one. Though maybe being charmless is what is so charming about Seattle? To me though, it just seems a bit...disjointed. From what I can see, there isn’t a single vision to the city – there’s building built wherever there’s space; it’s pretty much all under construction right now and some things seems kinda run down as if Seattle was still kinda holding onto the glory of when it held the World’s Fair all those decades ago (sorry, I haven’t done any research for this piece ...not that I do any research on any other piece. No internet on the ferry, see. Apparently there was prior to January 1st this year but they’re a changing internet provider which apparently takes a few months... but that is neither here, nor there). Also, there are a lot of homeless people around. The only thing that I liked in Seattle was my hostel and the Pike Place Market. Both were pretty, well, wicked.
That’s pretty much all I have to say right now. It’s kind of a weird place to leave things, but that’s just how it goes sometimes ok? Besides, this won’t be posted on the interweb (oh, how I miss you internet) until we get to Juneau, if Juneau hasn’t been destroyed by that volcano. In which case, I’m not sure when you will get to read this. Anyways, consider this post officially shelved. Until such further time as I see fit to continue with my right to blog.
BLOGGING!
Bloggin on a ferry cont....
Captains log:
We’ve made it to our first stop –Ketchikan after about 38 hours on this godforsaken ferry. No, I’m kidding, the ferry is alright; the food is a bit pricey though but we kinda have no choice. That’s the problem with not having any foresight. We probably should have brought some food with us. Knowing me though our ‘rations’ wouldn’t have lasted the whole trip anyways.
Right, so, when booking this ferry there was one very important thing that I forgot. Seasickness. We went through about 2 and a half hours of open water yesterday. Which, if you know anything about the sea/ boating/ maritime related things, generally means you’re gonna run into some pretty rough waters. To make a long story short, spending $10 on breakfast was a complete waste of money. I’m hoping we don’t run into any more of that today.
Approximately 17 hours to go.
Also, a lot of young American teens have boarded the vessel. No trouble from them so far.
UPDATE!
We've arrived in Juneau! It's a quaint little town. Not many people around which seems to be the recurring theme during my Winter travels. Snow also seems to be a recurring sight.
The rest of the trip from Ketchikan was pretty uneventful, besides all those dang kids making trouble for everyone.
Luckily also, there wasn't any more open water to sail through. We met a few cool people on the way over too. A few native Alaskan's and a few moving to Alaska for work (which, in the last week or so seems to be a really popular thing to be doing).
Anyways, today was mainly spent wandering around Juneau (our hostel kicks us out from 9 - 5 every day. We also have to do chores apparently, but we're only paying $10 a night so I guess that's reasonable) and planning the rest of the week. We also visited an historic trail - a mining area I think. There were a few creepy, decrepit and dilapidated buildings which were cool yet, well, creepy. Also, as we wandered through the sometimes foot-deep snow we came across a beach. That's right, a beach. It was pretty odd. The snow just stopped and at that point, the beach began. That's a combo of terrain that I would never put together in my wildest dreams. It works pretty well though. Also, I can tick 'Bald Eagle' off my 'Alaskan wildlife to see' list. Also hopefully to be ticked off in the next day or two are whales - Humpbacks and Orca's and possibly some other form of sea mammal - sea lions? Otters? Who knows!?
We almost didn’t make it here to be honest. Well, when I say ‘we’ I mean my sister. I made it to the ferry terminal with plenty of time to spare, not to mention a few extra friends. My sister on the other hand, arrived at the terminal with 5 minutes or so to spare before the ferry was meant to set sail. It’s a long story and one that I’d rather not get into but it involves aeroplanes, passports, hitchhiking and a lot of luck. I wasn’t really nervous though, mostly because technology kept me up to date with what was going on. Thank you technology. Once again you save the day. Also, thank you Sheri. You’re my hero.
Not much to report from the ferry thus far. We boarded at 6pm when it was already dark. The lights are pretty though. I'm pretty sure we’ve passed Vancouver already which is awesome. There’s also this outside covered bit on the top of the boat where we’re planning to sleep for the rest of this trip. It’s an amazing little place – and before you ask, no, it doesn’t get that cold up there. The shelter – sort of like a half dome- is facing the stern of the boat (aka back of the boat) (sorry, I thought I’d throw some nautical terms in here. It seems appropriate) so all the wind coming from the bow (aka front of the boat) is going over the shelter if you get what I mean. Also, you’re pretty much sleeping under the stars (which you can see amazingly well). There are also heat lamps.
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow though. Hopefully we get to see some whales or some shit like that. Apparently it’s not uncommon to see such animals including sea lions, whales, otters and birds. Rumour has it though that we’re gonna be running into a storm tomorrow which to be honest, is pretty shit. Also, word is spreading that one of the mountains in Juneau is gonna blow any day now. We’re gonna be in Juneau any day now. ...Wicked? Possibly.
So yeah, like I said, not much to report. Not much to report on Seattle either. It didn’t really leave a big impression on me. Usually a city has a distinct charm about it. Not this one. Though maybe being charmless is what is so charming about Seattle? To me though, it just seems a bit...disjointed. From what I can see, there isn’t a single vision to the city – there’s building built wherever there’s space; it’s pretty much all under construction right now and some things seems kinda run down as if Seattle was still kinda holding onto the glory of when it held the World’s Fair all those decades ago (sorry, I haven’t done any research for this piece ...not that I do any research on any other piece. No internet on the ferry, see. Apparently there was prior to January 1st this year but they’re a changing internet provider which apparently takes a few months... but that is neither here, nor there). Also, there are a lot of homeless people around. The only thing that I liked in Seattle was my hostel and the Pike Place Market. Both were pretty, well, wicked.
That’s pretty much all I have to say right now. It’s kind of a weird place to leave things, but that’s just how it goes sometimes ok? Besides, this won’t be posted on the interweb (oh, how I miss you internet) until we get to Juneau, if Juneau hasn’t been destroyed by that volcano. In which case, I’m not sure when you will get to read this. Anyways, consider this post officially shelved. Until such further time as I see fit to continue with my right to blog.
BLOGGING!
Bloggin on a ferry cont....
Captains log:
We’ve made it to our first stop –Ketchikan after about 38 hours on this godforsaken ferry. No, I’m kidding, the ferry is alright; the food is a bit pricey though but we kinda have no choice. That’s the problem with not having any foresight. We probably should have brought some food with us. Knowing me though our ‘rations’ wouldn’t have lasted the whole trip anyways.
Right, so, when booking this ferry there was one very important thing that I forgot. Seasickness. We went through about 2 and a half hours of open water yesterday. Which, if you know anything about the sea/ boating/ maritime related things, generally means you’re gonna run into some pretty rough waters. To make a long story short, spending $10 on breakfast was a complete waste of money. I’m hoping we don’t run into any more of that today.
Approximately 17 hours to go.
Also, a lot of young American teens have boarded the vessel. No trouble from them so far.
UPDATE!
We've arrived in Juneau! It's a quaint little town. Not many people around which seems to be the recurring theme during my Winter travels. Snow also seems to be a recurring sight.
The rest of the trip from Ketchikan was pretty uneventful, besides all those dang kids making trouble for everyone.
Luckily also, there wasn't any more open water to sail through. We met a few cool people on the way over too. A few native Alaskan's and a few moving to Alaska for work (which, in the last week or so seems to be a really popular thing to be doing).
Anyways, today was mainly spent wandering around Juneau (our hostel kicks us out from 9 - 5 every day. We also have to do chores apparently, but we're only paying $10 a night so I guess that's reasonable) and planning the rest of the week. We also visited an historic trail - a mining area I think. There were a few creepy, decrepit and dilapidated buildings which were cool yet, well, creepy. Also, as we wandered through the sometimes foot-deep snow we came across a beach. That's right, a beach. It was pretty odd. The snow just stopped and at that point, the beach began. That's a combo of terrain that I would never put together in my wildest dreams. It works pretty well though. Also, I can tick 'Bald Eagle' off my 'Alaskan wildlife to see' list. Also hopefully to be ticked off in the next day or two are whales - Humpbacks and Orca's and possibly some other form of sea mammal - sea lions? Otters? Who knows!?
Monday, January 26, 2009
Forget "I <3 NY," I <3 San Fran
Of all the places in the Continental US this is the place where I could see myself living the most. NYC is too busy, not to mention expensive; Boston is steeped in history but there's not much going on there; DC is alright, if a little boring but San Fran is completely different. First off, it's warm. Secondly, everyone seems to be a lot more relaxed and friendly. Everything's within a walkable distance as well. Sure, it's really expensive here too, but the vibe is something that is invaluable. There's a lot of history here too - the summer of love, the hippie movement, the first place to issue gay marriage licenses and of course, it's home to the infamous Alcatraz.
I finally understand all those songs that were written about San Francisco - "I left my heart in San Francisco"; "Sitting on the dock of the bay" (which until now I didn't know was about San Fran. Thank you internet.)and the aptly named "San Francisco".
I don't know what it is with me now. I used to seem to want to write about EVERYTHING that's happened when I've been in a particular place/ city or wherever I happen to have been but now I'm just kinda lazy I guess. Another example of my laziness is my as yet unfinished Obama story. I don't think I'll get it done, to be honest. Firstly, I don't really know where I'm going with it. Secondly, I'm a bit rusty seeing as I haven't done anything...journalistic in the last 6-8 months. Thirdly, I have no idea what I'm talking about and don't really have time to do research.
Anyways, back to San Fran - I didn't really do much. A driving tour of all the different neighborhoods - The Castro (gay neighborhood); Haight Ashbury which is where all the hippies (nowadays the wannabe hippies) chill and Richmond where all the blue collar workers live. We also drove across the Golden Gate Bridge (I mean, C'mon, it'd be rude not to) and took a few obligatory photo's too. Then into Muir Woods where I took the wrong track and proceeded to get lost and get back to the van over an hour later than I should have (oops). The rest of the trip included Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Lombard St (crookedest st on the planet), Chinatown (several times), Fisherman's wharf and of course, no trip to San Fran is complete without a ride on a cable car. Oh, I also went in search of the Full House house but to no avail...
That's pretty much it for San Fran. I'm off to Seattle tomorrow where I'll mostly be trying to sort everything out for Alaska. To be honest, I'm not too fussed about seeing Seattle. It's meant to be raining while I'm there anyways. I just need to find a decent ski shop to buy everything I need.
I finally understand all those songs that were written about San Francisco - "I left my heart in San Francisco"; "Sitting on the dock of the bay" (which until now I didn't know was about San Fran. Thank you internet.)and the aptly named "San Francisco".
I don't know what it is with me now. I used to seem to want to write about EVERYTHING that's happened when I've been in a particular place/ city or wherever I happen to have been but now I'm just kinda lazy I guess. Another example of my laziness is my as yet unfinished Obama story. I don't think I'll get it done, to be honest. Firstly, I don't really know where I'm going with it. Secondly, I'm a bit rusty seeing as I haven't done anything...journalistic in the last 6-8 months. Thirdly, I have no idea what I'm talking about and don't really have time to do research.
Anyways, back to San Fran - I didn't really do much. A driving tour of all the different neighborhoods - The Castro (gay neighborhood); Haight Ashbury which is where all the hippies (nowadays the wannabe hippies) chill and Richmond where all the blue collar workers live. We also drove across the Golden Gate Bridge (I mean, C'mon, it'd be rude not to) and took a few obligatory photo's too. Then into Muir Woods where I took the wrong track and proceeded to get lost and get back to the van over an hour later than I should have (oops). The rest of the trip included Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Lombard St (crookedest st on the planet), Chinatown (several times), Fisherman's wharf and of course, no trip to San Fran is complete without a ride on a cable car. Oh, I also went in search of the Full House house but to no avail...
That's pretty much it for San Fran. I'm off to Seattle tomorrow where I'll mostly be trying to sort everything out for Alaska. To be honest, I'm not too fussed about seeing Seattle. It's meant to be raining while I'm there anyways. I just need to find a decent ski shop to buy everything I need.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Bloggin on a plane/ some thoughts post -inauguration
Well, whaddya know? I’m bloggin on a plane. That’s it then, I’ve (almost) done it all – planes, trains and automobiles. I mean, the only thing left now is a boat, which of course is inevitable and on that day I’ll be able to die a happy blogger. Of course, there’s no internet connection in the sky – just a bunch of clouds and shit. It’s not that exciting, really. The only really exciting thing is that I’m headed to a place which is actually gonna be moderately warm! (aka San Francisco). To be honest, I’m getting tired of the cold so this is gonna be a pretty awesome break. Kinda like Cuba but less... exotic.
Funny story actually, I had an opportunity to buy half of a convertible in DC with this Aussie guy I met and road-trip it to San Fran instead which would have been amazing but after a bit of deliberation decided not to for several reasons. One of them being I can’t really afford it; what to do with the car afterward; the car had a Texas license plate which made me think it may have been stolen; I can’t/ am not comfortable driving on that side of the road and the other guy’s license had expired which lead me to believe that one or both of us would inevitably be arrested or run into trouble and road-trips need a decent amount of time to be done properly.
Now, as you may or may not know, I was lucky enough to attend President Obama’s inauguration which was one of the most extraordinary moments of my entire life. I’m planning a special post in the next day or two about it so watch this area. Also, I’d like to note that I’m officially Obama’d out.
Alright, I guess this is it for now. My battery’s about to die.
Funny story actually, I had an opportunity to buy half of a convertible in DC with this Aussie guy I met and road-trip it to San Fran instead which would have been amazing but after a bit of deliberation decided not to for several reasons. One of them being I can’t really afford it; what to do with the car afterward; the car had a Texas license plate which made me think it may have been stolen; I can’t/ am not comfortable driving on that side of the road and the other guy’s license had expired which lead me to believe that one or both of us would inevitably be arrested or run into trouble and road-trips need a decent amount of time to be done properly.
Now, as you may or may not know, I was lucky enough to attend President Obama’s inauguration which was one of the most extraordinary moments of my entire life. I’m planning a special post in the next day or two about it so watch this area. Also, I’d like to note that I’m officially Obama’d out.
Alright, I guess this is it for now. My battery’s about to die.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Blogging on a bus
So I guess that's it. I've blogged on a train, an airport and now a bus. That must be some kind of record.
Ok, now I'm not bloggin on a bus. But I did and no one can tell me otherwise. ...I just had to stop cos there wasn't enough room for me to type cos there was this wannabe actor guy sitting next to me reading his script and shit. Also, there wasn't a place for me to plug myself in...
I'm gonna start off by saying that Megabus is mega. I mean, first off, it's a double decker. Secondly, it had wi-fi which is pretty snazzy. It's also blue. Not that I have any particular inclination to the colour blue or anything.
That's pretty much it I guess. I'm getting ready to go see history be made. That's about it. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm telling you now though, Obamamania is definitely in full swing here in DC. It's pretty gangsta.
Ok, now I'm not bloggin on a bus. But I did and no one can tell me otherwise. ...I just had to stop cos there wasn't enough room for me to type cos there was this wannabe actor guy sitting next to me reading his script and shit. Also, there wasn't a place for me to plug myself in...
I'm gonna start off by saying that Megabus is mega. I mean, first off, it's a double decker. Secondly, it had wi-fi which is pretty snazzy. It's also blue. Not that I have any particular inclination to the colour blue or anything.
That's pretty much it I guess. I'm getting ready to go see history be made. That's about it. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm telling you now though, Obamamania is definitely in full swing here in DC. It's pretty gangsta.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The second bite out of the Big Apple
Why do they call it that anyway? I have no idea. I mean, sure, it's big, but it's not apple like at all.
Right, so, round two in NYC thus far has been a mix of old and new experiences. I'm staying a few blocks from where we were staying for Xmas/ New Years so now I'm pretty much an expert on the area surrounding around 110th and 101st and Broadway but not really anywhere else. That's about the extent of my knowledge of Manhattan.
So the things we re-visited thus far are central park (though it was covered in a thin layer of snow this time), the Guggenheim (but they were in the process of taking down the exhibits that were on during Xmas/ New Years so there wasn't much to see). And sort of the Statue of Liberty although we took the actually ferry instead of the Staten Island one.
New things pretty much include the Met, Battery Park and UN Headquarters.
Also, I'm pretty much running out of things to do here. I mean, really, who would have thought you could run out of things to do in NYC?! Well, sure, there's still the Empire State Building, a Broadway show and a taping of David Letterman but these all cost money. Again, money that I don't have.
Also, on another note, the other day I was just randomly looking on Hostelworld.com for accommodation in DC for the 19th to the 21st (for Obama's inauguration) sort of already knowing that there wouldn't be anything there. But no! Something had come up! And was reasonably priced! That to me is pretty miraculous. So that's it then. I'm gonna be a part of history. Excellent. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about it though. I mean, I'm going to experience such an important moment in history but what am I gonna do to commemorate it? I suppose I should do something... journalistic seeing as that's what I'm meant to be after this year...
Wow, I'll be finished uni next year. That's kinda nuts. I'll be out on my own. No more studying, well, not necessarily but y'know. My plan is to go traveling in 2010 but I'm not sure where or when. Probably Europe seeing as that's where I have a high concentration of friends now. Hopefully that works out slightly cheaper. I dunno. I'll worry about this at a later date I suppose. Not sure why any of this paragraph is in here actually. I just kinda rambled on for a bit. I think I'll stop now.
Right, so, round two in NYC thus far has been a mix of old and new experiences. I'm staying a few blocks from where we were staying for Xmas/ New Years so now I'm pretty much an expert on the area surrounding around 110th and 101st and Broadway but not really anywhere else. That's about the extent of my knowledge of Manhattan.
So the things we re-visited thus far are central park (though it was covered in a thin layer of snow this time), the Guggenheim (but they were in the process of taking down the exhibits that were on during Xmas/ New Years so there wasn't much to see). And sort of the Statue of Liberty although we took the actually ferry instead of the Staten Island one.
New things pretty much include the Met, Battery Park and UN Headquarters.
Also, I'm pretty much running out of things to do here. I mean, really, who would have thought you could run out of things to do in NYC?! Well, sure, there's still the Empire State Building, a Broadway show and a taping of David Letterman but these all cost money. Again, money that I don't have.
Also, on another note, the other day I was just randomly looking on Hostelworld.com for accommodation in DC for the 19th to the 21st (for Obama's inauguration) sort of already knowing that there wouldn't be anything there. But no! Something had come up! And was reasonably priced! That to me is pretty miraculous. So that's it then. I'm gonna be a part of history. Excellent. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about it though. I mean, I'm going to experience such an important moment in history but what am I gonna do to commemorate it? I suppose I should do something... journalistic seeing as that's what I'm meant to be after this year...
Wow, I'll be finished uni next year. That's kinda nuts. I'll be out on my own. No more studying, well, not necessarily but y'know. My plan is to go traveling in 2010 but I'm not sure where or when. Probably Europe seeing as that's where I have a high concentration of friends now. Hopefully that works out slightly cheaper. I dunno. I'll worry about this at a later date I suppose. Not sure why any of this paragraph is in here actually. I just kinda rambled on for a bit. I think I'll stop now.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The East Coast Odyssey - The Abridged Version/ A quick goodbye
So, I'm just chillin at Halifax airport (I seem to do a lot of writing at airports and/ or trains) where the internet is free which is pretty awesome. Umm, so I'm here a day earlier than I planned to be. I'm actually kinda sad cos on Thursday a couple of new people moved into the hostel and they were pretty ace. It's just too bad that only a few hours prior to their arrival I had booked my ticket outta here... But anyways, yeah, yesterdays weather was pretty awesome. That's really what I wanted from the start but I suppose that's just how it goes though eh? I'm kinda sad to leave Halifax now, so I didn't do anything that I had planned to do but the people at the hostel were pretty awesomely cool. On my next visit to Canada (cos there definitely will be one - it's just a matter of when) I'll definitely give this another try. I'll do research this time, and come during Summer! I promise!
Also, of great importance is that this is pretty much the end of my trip in Canada. Y'know, besides going back to Vancouver for my flight home. You'd think I'd be sad about it and I kinda am but it's not so bad because firstly, as I just mentioned, I will most probably be coming back. Secondly, I've already said my goodbyes and there's no one left here to say goodbye to. Except to Canada. Goodbye Canada, I will miss your freezing cold temperatures, your friendly people and the general ridiculousness of your great lands. Though there were still many things I did not do in your country the people I met and the places I DID go to have changed me forever. I never got to see a moose, a chipmunk OR a raccoon but that's ok. There's always next time right?
Also, of great importance is that this is pretty much the end of my trip in Canada. Y'know, besides going back to Vancouver for my flight home. You'd think I'd be sad about it and I kinda am but it's not so bad because firstly, as I just mentioned, I will most probably be coming back. Secondly, I've already said my goodbyes and there's no one left here to say goodbye to. Except to Canada. Goodbye Canada, I will miss your freezing cold temperatures, your friendly people and the general ridiculousness of your great lands. Though there were still many things I did not do in your country the people I met and the places I DID go to have changed me forever. I never got to see a moose, a chipmunk OR a raccoon but that's ok. There's always next time right?
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Bloggin at the airport AND the train. Ooooh.
So here I am, bloggin at the airport again. There’s no internet access here so I’m gonna have to CTRL + C/ CTRL +V this thing when I’m done.
I’m sitting at gate A11 at Newark airport waiting for my flight to Montreal and subsequently my flight back to Toronto. I’ve had real shitty internet access at the hostel that I moved to after posting the post below. The first hostel we were in was pretty much a hole. The room smelled of something that none of us could quite put our finger on; the beds squeaked; the mattresses were generally uncomfortable and the bathrooms left a lot to be desired. There was though, good internet access and a slightly better location than our next hostel and an elevator. I suppose the compromise here was a good internet connection, location and elevator for a more safe/ secure non-smelling room with still, pretty average showers.
The second hostel we stayed in was pretty much in the middle of Harlem which to be honest, wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Apparently it’s an ‘up and coming’ area of NYC and you can kinda see that happening. Granted, you still probably wouldn’t walk around there at night unless you didn’t have a choice. You also kinda have to stick to the main streets. But besides that, it’s pretty cool. The food is really good too. Deli’s are pretty much awesome. Think of a dairy crossed with a deli in the supermarket which also makes excellent sandwiches. Excellent. Mostly.
Also, I’m not sure where I left off on my last post so I’m just gonna start with the Staten Island ferry. (This is what happens without the internet) (I love you internet). So forgive me if I cover some stuff again. Also, all the days seem to roll into one so I can’t really distinguish which bit comes where... Thank god for my over 500 photos from this trip.
OK, so as I probably may have mentioned, Christmas was pretty uneventful, I got a bar of Grenadian chocolate (which I still haven’t eaten yet) and supposedly some money in my bank account (which, as of yesterday, I still haven’t received... ). We all went to an Italian restaurant for dinner (which I’m pretty sure I mentioned already....) I think I also mentioned the Guggenheim and MoMA (mostly because I distinctly remember writing ‘the goog’ in my last post for some reason. If not, then, I dunno, I guess that word just stuck in my mind.) Just in case I didn’t though, both MoMA and the Goog were pretty cool. I’m pretty gutted that I missed going to the Van Gogh exhibition for free though. Long story.
Right, lets skip forward a bit shall we? (fast forward noises) And here we are, a few days ago on the Staten Island ferry. It’s free and apparently not a lot of people know about it. I don’t think there’s a lot to see on Staten Island, it’s pretty much a residential area. But as a wise man once said: ‘the most important part of a journey is not the destination but what happens in between’ (or something to that effect. This would have been much better if I had googled this quote (he he, goog). Once again, I apologise for my lack of internet access). Anyway, the point is that the Staten Island ferry goes right past the Statue of Liberty. And it’s free. Being as poor as I am, free things/ things that cost very little money come top of the list when deciding what to do. Hence why we didn’t go see a Broadway show, plus we didn’t have a lot of time to do it... There’s a ferry which takes you right to the Statue and to Ellis Island too but of course, that costs money. Money which I don’t have.
Ah, yes, I remember now. This is the day where one of my friends was meant to be on a plane to India the night before but went to the wrong airport. We spent the day on the Staten Island ferry and were lucky enough to make it to Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. We also visited the Seinfeld diner (which is actually called Tom’s Restaurant) which was pretty cool. Obviously in the show it’s only the facade that’s shown but it’s still pretty cool. The food isn’t too shabby either. It was super busy too. We were pretty lucky though, that the diner was only about 3 blocks up from our first hostel.
A trip to New York probably isn’t complete without seeing Ground Zero. Right now it’s under construction so there’s not really much to see but there’s like, a visitors centre/ museum across the street which is pretty much designed to make people cry. The whole sentiment of the exhibit is designed to be very emotional, very patriotic and very well, pro-America. Children’s paintings – ‘not just NY’s finest, but the world’s finest’; missing persons posters; sappy movies with interviews with people; random things found in the rubble. It does the job though, I suppose. It made me almost want to cry. Just being so close to something so big. There’s just a big empty space where you think there should be something but there isn’t. Just a big patch of blue sky. Visiting the museum is a must but it really brings you down. It kinda ruins the rest of your day. You get kinda depressed and don’t want to do stuff. Luckily though, when we were there it was getting dark anyways, so we just went off to find a bar somewhere.
Let’s skip forward to New Years Eve. Being in NYC for New Years you can’t not go to Times Square right? Apparently though, the whole Times Square thing is for tourists only. Apparently New Yorker’s go t Central Park instead which would have been cool too. But I think it’s true. None of the people we talked to were from New York. Pretty much anywhere BUT NYC. This New Years Eve also was the coldest on record in NYC history which is pretty cool. It didn’t really feel that cold though because all the people were huddled together. But as soon as it hit like, 12.10am on the 1st pretty much everyone had left the area and you could definitely feel the -10 degree winds then.
The actual ball drop itself to be honest, was kinda lame. The ball is super tiny and the ‘fireworks’ weren’t spectacular at all. The event has a lot of potential which isn’t being taken advantage of which I find surprising – I mean, NYC is one of the cultural powerhouses of the US but it can’t put together a decent New Years show. It could just be so much better. I mean, for people who are pretty far away from the ‘action’ there’s not much going on. I mean like, Lionel Ritchie was performing and apparently the Clinton’s were there but no one where we were gave a shit. I dunno, it’s not really what I expected to be honest.
So that was round 1 of my trip to NYC. Flying home was pretty uneventful, except for when I fell down the stairs at the hostel and twisted my ankle and when my bag didn’t arrive at Montreal airport (cos apparently when you arrive at Montreal airport you need to pick up your bag and go through customs again to recheck your bag on your next flight. So, I waited for my bag for like, close to 2 hours which made me miss my flight which meant I had to book another flight to Toronto. Luckily for me the flights were hourly so I didn’t arrive too much later than I was meant to. I was kinda scared that my bag wouldn’t turn up and I’d have to postpone or even cancel my East Coast trip (on which I am writing the rest of this post) ( It was there waiting at Toronto airport for me and thank god for that!) It was also my last night in Toronto last night. It was pretty uneventful, a few drinks at Mick E Fynn’s (well, just the one for me) and one final night staying at the Primrose.
I’m now sitting on a train bound for Montreal. Nothing much to report really. I’m just sittin, writin’ shit. Bloggin on a train. Being kinda anti-social listening to my ipod but trains aren’t really set up for that kinda thing anyway. Plus, the lady next to me doesn’t seem very interesting. It’s kinda weird travelling on my own again but I don’t really mind it. I was meant to be travelling with someone originally but plans change and I’m cool with that. So yeah, everything seems to be running on time as far as I know, and I should be in Quebec City late this afternoon. Cool.
I’m sitting at gate A11 at Newark airport waiting for my flight to Montreal and subsequently my flight back to Toronto. I’ve had real shitty internet access at the hostel that I moved to after posting the post below. The first hostel we were in was pretty much a hole. The room smelled of something that none of us could quite put our finger on; the beds squeaked; the mattresses were generally uncomfortable and the bathrooms left a lot to be desired. There was though, good internet access and a slightly better location than our next hostel and an elevator. I suppose the compromise here was a good internet connection, location and elevator for a more safe/ secure non-smelling room with still, pretty average showers.
The second hostel we stayed in was pretty much in the middle of Harlem which to be honest, wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Apparently it’s an ‘up and coming’ area of NYC and you can kinda see that happening. Granted, you still probably wouldn’t walk around there at night unless you didn’t have a choice. You also kinda have to stick to the main streets. But besides that, it’s pretty cool. The food is really good too. Deli’s are pretty much awesome. Think of a dairy crossed with a deli in the supermarket which also makes excellent sandwiches. Excellent. Mostly.
Also, I’m not sure where I left off on my last post so I’m just gonna start with the Staten Island ferry. (This is what happens without the internet) (I love you internet). So forgive me if I cover some stuff again. Also, all the days seem to roll into one so I can’t really distinguish which bit comes where... Thank god for my over 500 photos from this trip.
OK, so as I probably may have mentioned, Christmas was pretty uneventful, I got a bar of Grenadian chocolate (which I still haven’t eaten yet) and supposedly some money in my bank account (which, as of yesterday, I still haven’t received... ). We all went to an Italian restaurant for dinner (which I’m pretty sure I mentioned already....) I think I also mentioned the Guggenheim and MoMA (mostly because I distinctly remember writing ‘the goog’ in my last post for some reason. If not, then, I dunno, I guess that word just stuck in my mind.) Just in case I didn’t though, both MoMA and the Goog were pretty cool. I’m pretty gutted that I missed going to the Van Gogh exhibition for free though. Long story.
Right, lets skip forward a bit shall we? (fast forward noises) And here we are, a few days ago on the Staten Island ferry. It’s free and apparently not a lot of people know about it. I don’t think there’s a lot to see on Staten Island, it’s pretty much a residential area. But as a wise man once said: ‘the most important part of a journey is not the destination but what happens in between’ (or something to that effect. This would have been much better if I had googled this quote (he he, goog). Once again, I apologise for my lack of internet access). Anyway, the point is that the Staten Island ferry goes right past the Statue of Liberty. And it’s free. Being as poor as I am, free things/ things that cost very little money come top of the list when deciding what to do. Hence why we didn’t go see a Broadway show, plus we didn’t have a lot of time to do it... There’s a ferry which takes you right to the Statue and to Ellis Island too but of course, that costs money. Money which I don’t have.
Ah, yes, I remember now. This is the day where one of my friends was meant to be on a plane to India the night before but went to the wrong airport. We spent the day on the Staten Island ferry and were lucky enough to make it to Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. We also visited the Seinfeld diner (which is actually called Tom’s Restaurant) which was pretty cool. Obviously in the show it’s only the facade that’s shown but it’s still pretty cool. The food isn’t too shabby either. It was super busy too. We were pretty lucky though, that the diner was only about 3 blocks up from our first hostel.
A trip to New York probably isn’t complete without seeing Ground Zero. Right now it’s under construction so there’s not really much to see but there’s like, a visitors centre/ museum across the street which is pretty much designed to make people cry. The whole sentiment of the exhibit is designed to be very emotional, very patriotic and very well, pro-America. Children’s paintings – ‘not just NY’s finest, but the world’s finest’; missing persons posters; sappy movies with interviews with people; random things found in the rubble. It does the job though, I suppose. It made me almost want to cry. Just being so close to something so big. There’s just a big empty space where you think there should be something but there isn’t. Just a big patch of blue sky. Visiting the museum is a must but it really brings you down. It kinda ruins the rest of your day. You get kinda depressed and don’t want to do stuff. Luckily though, when we were there it was getting dark anyways, so we just went off to find a bar somewhere.
Let’s skip forward to New Years Eve. Being in NYC for New Years you can’t not go to Times Square right? Apparently though, the whole Times Square thing is for tourists only. Apparently New Yorker’s go t Central Park instead which would have been cool too. But I think it’s true. None of the people we talked to were from New York. Pretty much anywhere BUT NYC. This New Years Eve also was the coldest on record in NYC history which is pretty cool. It didn’t really feel that cold though because all the people were huddled together. But as soon as it hit like, 12.10am on the 1st pretty much everyone had left the area and you could definitely feel the -10 degree winds then.
The actual ball drop itself to be honest, was kinda lame. The ball is super tiny and the ‘fireworks’ weren’t spectacular at all. The event has a lot of potential which isn’t being taken advantage of which I find surprising – I mean, NYC is one of the cultural powerhouses of the US but it can’t put together a decent New Years show. It could just be so much better. I mean, for people who are pretty far away from the ‘action’ there’s not much going on. I mean like, Lionel Ritchie was performing and apparently the Clinton’s were there but no one where we were gave a shit. I dunno, it’s not really what I expected to be honest.
So that was round 1 of my trip to NYC. Flying home was pretty uneventful, except for when I fell down the stairs at the hostel and twisted my ankle and when my bag didn’t arrive at Montreal airport (cos apparently when you arrive at Montreal airport you need to pick up your bag and go through customs again to recheck your bag on your next flight. So, I waited for my bag for like, close to 2 hours which made me miss my flight which meant I had to book another flight to Toronto. Luckily for me the flights were hourly so I didn’t arrive too much later than I was meant to. I was kinda scared that my bag wouldn’t turn up and I’d have to postpone or even cancel my East Coast trip (on which I am writing the rest of this post) ( It was there waiting at Toronto airport for me and thank god for that!) It was also my last night in Toronto last night. It was pretty uneventful, a few drinks at Mick E Fynn’s (well, just the one for me) and one final night staying at the Primrose.
I’m now sitting on a train bound for Montreal. Nothing much to report really. I’m just sittin, writin’ shit. Bloggin on a train. Being kinda anti-social listening to my ipod but trains aren’t really set up for that kinda thing anyway. Plus, the lady next to me doesn’t seem very interesting. It’s kinda weird travelling on my own again but I don’t really mind it. I was meant to be travelling with someone originally but plans change and I’m cool with that. So yeah, everything seems to be running on time as far as I know, and I should be in Quebec City late this afternoon. Cool.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Start spreading the news - Xmas in NYC
I'm assuming you've read the post directly below this so you know how difficult it was for me to get to where I am now. I'm writing this in true New York fashion, sitting on the window sill of my room by the fire escape. The only thing missing really, is the cigarette. Too bad I don't smoke. Besides that, I think I've got this New York lifestyle down-pat. It's not so hard.
But seriously though, NYC is pretty massive. The people here are really friendly too, contrary to popular belief.
Since arriving (late, well, not that late, but still, later than I was originally meant to be there) we've just been wandering around. Xmas day was pretty uneventful as well, only got one present - a bar of chocolate from Grenada which I am still yet to open. We also went to an Italian restaurant for a late lunch/ dinner which was pretty cool. It didn't snow either which was sort of disappointing but there was still snow on the ground which I suppose sort of counts... I didn't really feel like xmas though, to be honest. Sure, there were lots of xmas decorations around but I just couldn't get into the spirit. I don't know why, I guess family makes xmas. That's pretty much all I can put it down too. Also, the fact that I didn't need to buy any presents for anyone this year. I hope you'll all forgive me for that, I kinda can't afford it right now.... (see exchange rate below)
We also checked out part of Central Park and Times Square and had a museum day where we visited the Guggenheim and MoMA which were extraordinary. Some of it wasn't really my kind of thing but I mean, you can't be expected to like EVERY piece of artwork, right?
Also, the exchange rate is killing me right now. As of this morning it's 1NZD to 56 US cents so I'm pretty much paying double. For EVERYTHING.
On a brighter note though, my fake ID is working. 3 out of 3 bars and 1 out of 1 nightclubs (which wasn't that great by the way - drinks were super expensive and everyone was super old. I suppose that's what happens when the drinking age is 21 huh? Also, for those of you who think that me having a fake ID (sorry, a souvenir ID) is wrong, I can justify it by saying that the drinking age at 21 is just stupid.
But seriously though, NYC is pretty massive. The people here are really friendly too, contrary to popular belief.
Since arriving (late, well, not that late, but still, later than I was originally meant to be there) we've just been wandering around. Xmas day was pretty uneventful as well, only got one present - a bar of chocolate from Grenada which I am still yet to open. We also went to an Italian restaurant for a late lunch/ dinner which was pretty cool. It didn't snow either which was sort of disappointing but there was still snow on the ground which I suppose sort of counts... I didn't really feel like xmas though, to be honest. Sure, there were lots of xmas decorations around but I just couldn't get into the spirit. I don't know why, I guess family makes xmas. That's pretty much all I can put it down too. Also, the fact that I didn't need to buy any presents for anyone this year. I hope you'll all forgive me for that, I kinda can't afford it right now.... (see exchange rate below)
We also checked out part of Central Park and Times Square and had a museum day where we visited the Guggenheim and MoMA which were extraordinary. Some of it wasn't really my kind of thing but I mean, you can't be expected to like EVERY piece of artwork, right?
Also, the exchange rate is killing me right now. As of this morning it's 1NZD to 56 US cents so I'm pretty much paying double. For EVERYTHING.
On a brighter note though, my fake ID is working. 3 out of 3 bars and 1 out of 1 nightclubs (which wasn't that great by the way - drinks were super expensive and everyone was super old. I suppose that's what happens when the drinking age is 21 huh? Also, for those of you who think that me having a fake ID (sorry, a souvenir ID) is wrong, I can justify it by saying that the drinking age at 21 is just stupid.
Bloggin at the airport
So, I’m sitting at Toronto airport. Y’know, just chillin as I usually do. I had a flight to New York City this morning. It went well. The flight was delayed three times and then cancelled, after sitting on the plane for about 2 and a half hours. Now I’m sitting at the baggage carousel, waiting for my luggage. Nothing new has come out for about 20 minutes. Best Christmas ever. The next flight out is at 6pm which makes things better though. Hopefully I’ll be on it, luggage and all. This is the first time I’ve had any trouble at the airport and it just happens to be on Christmas Eve; a Christmas present and congratulations on your first Christmas away from home from Toronto. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Right, so after about two hours of waiting at the luggage claim, my bag finally comes though. It’s covered with wet spots from the rain/snow but I don’t care. I don’t care about any of this shit at this point. By now it’s about 3pm. I’ve been at the airport since 6. Now I have to go in search of a new ticket. Hauling my recently acquired 20kg bag around (cos I can’t afford the $2 for a trolley) I literally walk from one end of the terminal to the other trying to find the ticket counter. I manage to get another ticket for a flight which at 5.15 which isn’t too far away, no guarantees it’ll be taking off though. So now I have my new ticket, I’m back at square one. I need to go back through customs and do all that shit. Again. I got a bit hungry as you can probably imagine and airport food isn’t that cheap. Especially for what you’re getting.
It’s been a long day, and I still haven’t left the country yet! I need a drink. ....Fuck!
Right, so after about two hours of waiting at the luggage claim, my bag finally comes though. It’s covered with wet spots from the rain/snow but I don’t care. I don’t care about any of this shit at this point. By now it’s about 3pm. I’ve been at the airport since 6. Now I have to go in search of a new ticket. Hauling my recently acquired 20kg bag around (cos I can’t afford the $2 for a trolley) I literally walk from one end of the terminal to the other trying to find the ticket counter. I manage to get another ticket for a flight which at 5.15 which isn’t too far away, no guarantees it’ll be taking off though. So now I have my new ticket, I’m back at square one. I need to go back through customs and do all that shit. Again. I got a bit hungry as you can probably imagine and airport food isn’t that cheap. Especially for what you’re getting.
It’s been a long day, and I still haven’t left the country yet! I need a drink. ....Fuck!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
It's all coming to an end. The first four people in our little (or rather, large) exchange family have gone. Two aussie girls and the two English girls have returned to their respective homes and they've left a little void here for the rest of us in Toronto. A couple more have their last night tonight and the large majority of us have our last night in Toronto tomorrow. We're all going our separate ways but we'll always have Toronto. Always.
I may have mentioned it before but a reunion of sorts has been informally organised in Australia for June or July next year which would be amazing!
We've already done the 'you're welcome to come stay with me/ us whenever you're in ________ (insert country name here)' which will be handy in the future ahahahahaha. Of course, I've said the same thing, and I mean it.
I thought I'd be a lot sadder than this right now, but it just feels right. The time has come. It's not goodbye forever though, just indefinitely. The title of this post says it all. You can thank Mr. Churchill for that one. I'm pretty sure I'll see them again. It's not a matter of if, but when. Hopefully in 2010 after I become a fully trained Journalist! That's right! I've been unofficially put into the major that I wanted for my final year of Uni! (Final year?! Oh, god. It feels like I've only just started yesterday!)
I've also layed out a unconfirmed plan for my travels before my flight home which is cool. About time too. I have to book at least some of it by tomorrow before I leave for CUBA! Anyways, here it is:
http://tinyurl.com/5n79gj
Keep in mind that this is just a provisional plan and could change (though most likely, the dates will change, not the places). This seems like quite a lot to fit in to the time that I have left to travel but I think I'm up for the challenge.
That is all.
I may have mentioned it before but a reunion of sorts has been informally organised in Australia for June or July next year which would be amazing!
We've already done the 'you're welcome to come stay with me/ us whenever you're in ________ (insert country name here)' which will be handy in the future ahahahahaha. Of course, I've said the same thing, and I mean it.
I thought I'd be a lot sadder than this right now, but it just feels right. The time has come. It's not goodbye forever though, just indefinitely. The title of this post says it all. You can thank Mr. Churchill for that one. I'm pretty sure I'll see them again. It's not a matter of if, but when. Hopefully in 2010 after I become a fully trained Journalist! That's right! I've been unofficially put into the major that I wanted for my final year of Uni! (Final year?! Oh, god. It feels like I've only just started yesterday!)
I've also layed out a unconfirmed plan for my travels before my flight home which is cool. About time too. I have to book at least some of it by tomorrow before I leave for CUBA! Anyways, here it is:
http://tinyurl.com/5n79gj
Keep in mind that this is just a provisional plan and could change (though most likely, the dates will change, not the places). This seems like quite a lot to fit in to the time that I have left to travel but I think I'm up for the challenge.
That is all.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Traveling plans coming together nicely
All of my post-uni traveling has more or less been planned. Well, until the middle of January anyway. First stop is Cuba which should be pretty sweet. That's from the 13th to the 20th of December. Then back to Toronto for a few days to pack up all my stuff (*sniff) (I have a cold). And then off to NYC (from the 23rd to the 2nd of January) but by which means I'm not sure yet. Then hopefully by train back to Toronto where I will be starting my East Coast odyssey with one of the kiwi girl's I've met. I'll be meeting her in either Montreal or Quebec City (this is all by train by the way) where we'll be spending a day or two and then off to Nova Scotia where we will be finding our own way around, mainly because no tours run around that time. Anyways, this tour will cover Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Hopefully too, we can make it far enough up north to see Aurora Borealis which would me super amazing. That should take us to maybe the 10th or so of January? Then I'm planning on going to Washington DC on January 20th to see Obama get sworn into the White House aka to see George Bush get kicked out of it. Accommodation will be pretty hard to find but luckily I know someone who knows someone who lives there so... And then after that I dont know but I have to be in Seattle around the 30th or 31st of January so I can fly cheaply to Anchorage which has been the part of my trip that I've been excited about most! Firstly, cos, c'mon, it's Alaska! Gonn' see me some polar bears! Also, it means that my North American Odyssey will soon be over. Which is both a good and a bad thing. I'll let you know closer to the time.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Boston - where everybody knows your name
So this past weekend we kinda decided to spontaneously go away for the weekend. This happened after our PR class on Thursday night so as soon as we got back to the Primrose, instead of going out like regular people, we went back to my room to look for these flights right? The original plan was to fly to NYC but we couldn't find these mythical $79 flights that we'd been hearing about. Possibly cos we were booking last minute or on the wrong website or something? Possibly both. Anyways, we decided to look at other places seeing as we're going to NYC for Xmas and New Years anyways and the further we seemed to go from Toronto the more expensive it was. I mean, it cost like, about a grand to get to like, Chicago and it cost about the same to get from Toronto to Russia or even Greenland. Anyways, we settled on Boston because it wasn't super expensive and Boston Uni was our number 1 choice of exchange university before they dropped out. (To be honest though, I probably couldn't picture myself studying there - too much school spirit shit, and frat houses and sororities and whatever.)
Right, so we were up until like, 3.30 in the morning and still hadn't booked anything and hadn't got confirmation from the guy who's idea this actually was. I didn't get to sleep till about 4.30 though cos I had issues. Don't ask. So on Friday we went ahead and booked our flights to Boston but weren't able to find accommodation so decided to wing it. We actually managed to find a nice place to stay though, it was a little bit out from the CBD but was really nice. Just like your Grandma's place would look like, the lady who ran it was lovely too. We settled on this after being so determined to find something within the city but seriously, Boston seems to only have only like, 5 or 6 hostels in the ENTIRE CITY.
Our first flight was to Detroit, Michigan which left a 6.50 in the morning. My first trip to the US was going well. We spent a few hours at the airport just hangin out. Breakfast was kinda American. The bacon was like, deep fried and crispy. Yum.
I also kinda hate 'hash browns' that are like this. They need to be in rectangular form dammit! Or even triangular! Circular even! Not this shit!
Anyways, the flight to Boston was pretty uneventful (not to mention short!). And, as mentioned before, we went looking for accommodation. We wrote down a few addresses while waiting at the airport in Detroit so had sort of an idea of were to go. Or so I thought. The first place we went was totally in the suburbs and looked kinda dodgy. Sort of like a crack house. A nice crack house though. And that's not even the worst bit. The cab alone from the airport cost us like $40! To get to the middle of suburban Boston! Not a good start. Not a good start at all. Luckily, another cab had just turned the corner. He was a lot more helpful, though he decided to drop us off at a place where we knew had no vacancies, at least for the Saturday night anyways but we thought we'd try our luck. As a last resort we decided we would check out the hotels around the city (which I kinda knew that we couldn't afford anyway). Half of them were fully booked for the Satureday and the other half were waaaay to expensive - almost as much as the flights! In the end we decided to go back to the place outside the city because we didn't want to waste any more of the daylight.
Turned out there wasn't much of the daylight left to waste anyway. It started to get dark around 4.30ish which was weird. Like, as if it were 7 or 8 pm.
This is Boston at 5pm.
Not having had anything to eat since our lovely Detroit breakfast, we decided to grab some lunch/ dinner and apparently there was some good ethnic food around where the hostel was. So we (by we I mean I) decided on Chinese, seeing as I hadn't had any for a while. It was an....interesting experience. We ordered the roast pork fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and broccoli with oyster sauce. The latter was absolutely fine besides the extra large sized pieces. The sweet and sour chicken was cold, 80% batter and had maraschino cherries in it! The rice was also soaked in soy sauce, so much so that it looked like they used brown rice instead of white! It was also served on this weird, silver platter thing. I don't have a photo of it but man, it was weird.
As you can imagine, we got out of there as soon as we could. We headed back into town to check out some of the city. We stumbled upon a massive food market which was in the middle of packing down for the day so they were trying to sell all there stuff for ridiculously cheap prices - (puts on a Bostonian accent) 'boxxa beans fer a buck!' (or something to that effect. I wasn't paying much attention).
We also found Qunicy Market and Faneuil (rhymes with 'manual') Hall which was a massive market with two long buildings filled with shops and one which was just a massive food court which was amazing. There were candy stores, oyster bars, bakeries, and a lot of ethnic and Bostonian foods. Which would have been a lot better than Chinese food. Ha. There was also replica of the bar from 'Cheers' which was pretty awesome. The real one though was only a few blocks away.
So, it was totally wet and kinda raining so we went to see 'The Dark Knight' at Imax which was pretty ridiculous. I mean, I've seen it before but seeing it on Imax was well, ok, it was exactly the same but on a bigger screen. But I think after taking Hollywood and Society and uni and learning about the history of cinema it kinda made me appreciate what like, widescreen and cinerama and stuff like that may have been like. Anyways, that's enough nerding for now. Oh, we also saw the Paramount theatre which first opened in 1932 and had enough seating for about 1700 people and was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking movies. Ok, THAT'S enough nerding.
Right, so after heading back to Grandma's place, we decided to plan our next day. Our only full day in Boston. We picked up a few pamphlets at the airport. One of which was for whale watching - 'whale sightings guaranteed!' it said. Why the hell not? Also, how can you guarantee a whale sighting? - which was at 8.30 and took about 3 hours so we thought we'd go do that and then check out Quincy Market by day cos apparently it was alive and kicking at about 11.30ish. Sounded like a plan. We rock up to the whale watching place at 8.30 am on the dot and ask whether we can still get tickets. (Lady behind glass with microphone) ' ...there is no 8.30 sailing (idiots). It's fall, so the earliest one is at 12.30'. Right. So, plan B. What the hell is plan B? We decided to buy the tickets and grab some breakfast from Quincy Market. We made it back just in time to join a tour of the city, which conveniently took about 2 hours - we'd make it back just in time to board the boat to watch some whales. Guaranteed whales!
The tour was actually pretty awesome. It was one of those hop on, hop off tours but no one in our trolley thing wanted to leave cos our guide was really funny. We learned a lot about the history of the area including Paul Revere, Sam Adams and the start of the American revolution. A lot of which I can't quite recall right now but it all started with the Boston Tea Pahty where John Hancock and Sam Adams dumped an equivalent of $1.2 million dollars of tea into the ocean. Party over. Anyways, they were wanted for high treason by the British. Long story short, Paul Revere, the legend that he is, rode his horse Brown Beauty to where Hancock and Adams were hiding to warn them that the British forces were coming. This was the start of the American Revolution. Ok, there's a LOT more to it than this - something about farmers using nails as bullets and overpowering the British or whatever. We also saw the balcony where the declaration of independence was first read and has been every Independence Day since. I'm pretty sure we saw a lot of other stuff which I don't quite remember (which is totally my fault for leaving this post so late after the fact).
Whales! It took like, about an hour to get to the sactuary and I was standing on the bow of the boat for the whole time, freezing my face off for no reason. The annoying thing was that 2 minutes after I finally caved and went inside the first whale was spotted. It was pretty slow to begin with, only one whale here and there but then it started to pick up with several pairs of mothers and calves and they even breached the water a few times which apparently doesn't happen very often. I took like, more than 100 photos cos I couldn't really tell what I was taking photos of...
WHALE!
Right, so we were up until like, 3.30 in the morning and still hadn't booked anything and hadn't got confirmation from the guy who's idea this actually was. I didn't get to sleep till about 4.30 though cos I had issues. Don't ask. So on Friday we went ahead and booked our flights to Boston but weren't able to find accommodation so decided to wing it. We actually managed to find a nice place to stay though, it was a little bit out from the CBD but was really nice. Just like your Grandma's place would look like, the lady who ran it was lovely too. We settled on this after being so determined to find something within the city but seriously, Boston seems to only have only like, 5 or 6 hostels in the ENTIRE CITY.
Our first flight was to Detroit, Michigan which left a 6.50 in the morning. My first trip to the US was going well. We spent a few hours at the airport just hangin out. Breakfast was kinda American. The bacon was like, deep fried and crispy. Yum.
I also kinda hate 'hash browns' that are like this. They need to be in rectangular form dammit! Or even triangular! Circular even! Not this shit!Anyways, the flight to Boston was pretty uneventful (not to mention short!). And, as mentioned before, we went looking for accommodation. We wrote down a few addresses while waiting at the airport in Detroit so had sort of an idea of were to go. Or so I thought. The first place we went was totally in the suburbs and looked kinda dodgy. Sort of like a crack house. A nice crack house though. And that's not even the worst bit. The cab alone from the airport cost us like $40! To get to the middle of suburban Boston! Not a good start. Not a good start at all. Luckily, another cab had just turned the corner. He was a lot more helpful, though he decided to drop us off at a place where we knew had no vacancies, at least for the Saturday night anyways but we thought we'd try our luck. As a last resort we decided we would check out the hotels around the city (which I kinda knew that we couldn't afford anyway). Half of them were fully booked for the Satureday and the other half were waaaay to expensive - almost as much as the flights! In the end we decided to go back to the place outside the city because we didn't want to waste any more of the daylight.
Turned out there wasn't much of the daylight left to waste anyway. It started to get dark around 4.30ish which was weird. Like, as if it were 7 or 8 pm.
This is Boston at 5pm.Not having had anything to eat since our lovely Detroit breakfast, we decided to grab some lunch/ dinner and apparently there was some good ethnic food around where the hostel was. So we (by we I mean I) decided on Chinese, seeing as I hadn't had any for a while. It was an....interesting experience. We ordered the roast pork fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and broccoli with oyster sauce. The latter was absolutely fine besides the extra large sized pieces. The sweet and sour chicken was cold, 80% batter and had maraschino cherries in it! The rice was also soaked in soy sauce, so much so that it looked like they used brown rice instead of white! It was also served on this weird, silver platter thing. I don't have a photo of it but man, it was weird.
As you can imagine, we got out of there as soon as we could. We headed back into town to check out some of the city. We stumbled upon a massive food market which was in the middle of packing down for the day so they were trying to sell all there stuff for ridiculously cheap prices - (puts on a Bostonian accent) 'boxxa beans fer a buck!' (or something to that effect. I wasn't paying much attention).
We also found Qunicy Market and Faneuil (rhymes with 'manual') Hall which was a massive market with two long buildings filled with shops and one which was just a massive food court which was amazing. There were candy stores, oyster bars, bakeries, and a lot of ethnic and Bostonian foods. Which would have been a lot better than Chinese food. Ha. There was also replica of the bar from 'Cheers' which was pretty awesome. The real one though was only a few blocks away.
So, it was totally wet and kinda raining so we went to see 'The Dark Knight' at Imax which was pretty ridiculous. I mean, I've seen it before but seeing it on Imax was well, ok, it was exactly the same but on a bigger screen. But I think after taking Hollywood and Society and uni and learning about the history of cinema it kinda made me appreciate what like, widescreen and cinerama and stuff like that may have been like. Anyways, that's enough nerding for now. Oh, we also saw the Paramount theatre which first opened in 1932 and had enough seating for about 1700 people and was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking movies. Ok, THAT'S enough nerding.
Right, so after heading back to Grandma's place, we decided to plan our next day. Our only full day in Boston. We picked up a few pamphlets at the airport. One of which was for whale watching - 'whale sightings guaranteed!' it said. Why the hell not? Also, how can you guarantee a whale sighting? - which was at 8.30 and took about 3 hours so we thought we'd go do that and then check out Quincy Market by day cos apparently it was alive and kicking at about 11.30ish. Sounded like a plan. We rock up to the whale watching place at 8.30 am on the dot and ask whether we can still get tickets. (Lady behind glass with microphone) ' ...there is no 8.30 sailing (idiots). It's fall, so the earliest one is at 12.30'. Right. So, plan B. What the hell is plan B? We decided to buy the tickets and grab some breakfast from Quincy Market. We made it back just in time to join a tour of the city, which conveniently took about 2 hours - we'd make it back just in time to board the boat to watch some whales. Guaranteed whales!
The tour was actually pretty awesome. It was one of those hop on, hop off tours but no one in our trolley thing wanted to leave cos our guide was really funny. We learned a lot about the history of the area including Paul Revere, Sam Adams and the start of the American revolution. A lot of which I can't quite recall right now but it all started with the Boston Tea Pahty where John Hancock and Sam Adams dumped an equivalent of $1.2 million dollars of tea into the ocean. Party over. Anyways, they were wanted for high treason by the British. Long story short, Paul Revere, the legend that he is, rode his horse Brown Beauty to where Hancock and Adams were hiding to warn them that the British forces were coming. This was the start of the American Revolution. Ok, there's a LOT more to it than this - something about farmers using nails as bullets and overpowering the British or whatever. We also saw the balcony where the declaration of independence was first read and has been every Independence Day since. I'm pretty sure we saw a lot of other stuff which I don't quite remember (which is totally my fault for leaving this post so late after the fact).
Whales! It took like, about an hour to get to the sactuary and I was standing on the bow of the boat for the whole time, freezing my face off for no reason. The annoying thing was that 2 minutes after I finally caved and went inside the first whale was spotted. It was pretty slow to begin with, only one whale here and there but then it started to pick up with several pairs of mothers and calves and they even breached the water a few times which apparently doesn't happen very often. I took like, more than 100 photos cos I couldn't really tell what I was taking photos of...
WHALE!
WHALE SPLASH! aka too slow to get it coming fully out of the water!
This was a total fluke. It's also my favourite shot.
Right, so we got back at about 4ish and the sun was beginning to set on the way back to port. Having not eaten since breakfast we decided to grab some dinner. At about 5pm. Crazy. But anyways, its was super dark and we decided to go to a seafood restaurant seeing as Boston is kinda famous for it? I dunno. Anyways, I had the clam chowder which apparently has been served a seven presidential dinners as well as the tuna and Boston cream pie for dessert. Which, to be honest, tasted kinda like cheesecake. We also managed to get a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (GASP! Underage drinking!) which was nice.
Boston Cream Pie
We called it a night after this I think. Back to Grandma's house we went. And after discovering our flight back was at 4pm instead of 2 we decided that in the morning we'd walk a bit of the Freedom Trail which we missed on the tour (the car went right around it and this part was best seen on foot) head over to Harvard University. So we went to see Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church which was one of the 3 beacon signals which was used to signal Revere to start his ride. From here we made our way to Harvard. Luckily there was like, a tour group close by which we kinda snuck into. I was all like 'sup, yeah, I'm thinking about going to Harvard'. But yeah, the grounds were amazing. The economics building looked kinda like the White House and the dining hall looked amazing too! Did you know, that Harvard University has the largest collection of secular stained glass windows in the world? Wow. Anyways, the dining hall looks a lot like the one from Harry Potter with the long wooden tables and the majestic interiors. The food must be amazing. Better than the Chinese food for sure. Ha. Speaking of Harry Potter, apparently Emma Watson was at Harvard looking at the campus a few weeks before we were there. Woah.
Back to the lovely Prescott International Hotel and Hostel we went. Picked up our stuff and headed off to the airport. We tried to hail a cab from the street which was simple enough, funny this was though was that this particular cab was actually there to pick up his son from school (at 2 o'clock!?) but we got in as well. Funny. Fast forward to airport security (cos lets be honest now, this post is just getting ridiculous. I apologise). I totally had to get pat down by the security guard and I have no idea why. He then proceeded to ask me about how New Zealand is. Ok. Also, what was kinda unfair is that the other person I was with got bumped up to first class cos some guy wanted to sit next to some woman who he hadn't seen in a while. Loser. So I was kinda sad about that but that gave me time to work on my presentation which I had to do on Wednesday. Blah blah blah, fastforward to when we got back to the Primrose. Weekend over.
And thus (kind of) began my American odyssey. Kinda prematurely but whatever.
Right, just one more par. about other stuff. The day after we got back I had to pay for October's rent cos apparently I hadn't. I assumed I had seeing as they hadn't called me about it or anything. I also payed for this month's rent too which made me super poor. Also, I found out that my contract at the Primrose doesn't expire until April which obviously a massive problem. I was kinda freaking out about it for a while just trying to find a way out of it but I may have found someone to sublet my room after I leave. Only thing is, is that I would have to pay some of the rent to make it worth their while. Lame. It's a hotel policy thing about filling vacant rooms first. Don't ask. Also, my camera is pretty much a write off which is also lame.
Oh, wow. I think this is the end! Thanks for sticking with me. This was as much of an effort to write as I'm sure it was to read. Hopefully the photos made it somewhat bearable though.
This was a total fluke. It's also my favourite shot.Right, so we got back at about 4ish and the sun was beginning to set on the way back to port. Having not eaten since breakfast we decided to grab some dinner. At about 5pm. Crazy. But anyways, its was super dark and we decided to go to a seafood restaurant seeing as Boston is kinda famous for it? I dunno. Anyways, I had the clam chowder which apparently has been served a seven presidential dinners as well as the tuna and Boston cream pie for dessert. Which, to be honest, tasted kinda like cheesecake. We also managed to get a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (GASP! Underage drinking!) which was nice.
Boston Cream PieWe called it a night after this I think. Back to Grandma's house we went. And after discovering our flight back was at 4pm instead of 2 we decided that in the morning we'd walk a bit of the Freedom Trail which we missed on the tour (the car went right around it and this part was best seen on foot) head over to Harvard University. So we went to see Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church which was one of the 3 beacon signals which was used to signal Revere to start his ride. From here we made our way to Harvard. Luckily there was like, a tour group close by which we kinda snuck into. I was all like 'sup, yeah, I'm thinking about going to Harvard'. But yeah, the grounds were amazing. The economics building looked kinda like the White House and the dining hall looked amazing too! Did you know, that Harvard University has the largest collection of secular stained glass windows in the world? Wow. Anyways, the dining hall looks a lot like the one from Harry Potter with the long wooden tables and the majestic interiors. The food must be amazing. Better than the Chinese food for sure. Ha. Speaking of Harry Potter, apparently Emma Watson was at Harvard looking at the campus a few weeks before we were there. Woah.
Back to the lovely Prescott International Hotel and Hostel we went. Picked up our stuff and headed off to the airport. We tried to hail a cab from the street which was simple enough, funny this was though was that this particular cab was actually there to pick up his son from school (at 2 o'clock!?) but we got in as well. Funny. Fast forward to airport security (cos lets be honest now, this post is just getting ridiculous. I apologise). I totally had to get pat down by the security guard and I have no idea why. He then proceeded to ask me about how New Zealand is. Ok. Also, what was kinda unfair is that the other person I was with got bumped up to first class cos some guy wanted to sit next to some woman who he hadn't seen in a while. Loser. So I was kinda sad about that but that gave me time to work on my presentation which I had to do on Wednesday. Blah blah blah, fastforward to when we got back to the Primrose. Weekend over.
And thus (kind of) began my American odyssey. Kinda prematurely but whatever.
Right, just one more par. about other stuff. The day after we got back I had to pay for October's rent cos apparently I hadn't. I assumed I had seeing as they hadn't called me about it or anything. I also payed for this month's rent too which made me super poor. Also, I found out that my contract at the Primrose doesn't expire until April which obviously a massive problem. I was kinda freaking out about it for a while just trying to find a way out of it but I may have found someone to sublet my room after I leave. Only thing is, is that I would have to pay some of the rent to make it worth their while. Lame. It's a hotel policy thing about filling vacant rooms first. Don't ask. Also, my camera is pretty much a write off which is also lame.
Oh, wow. I think this is the end! Thanks for sticking with me. This was as much of an effort to write as I'm sure it was to read. Hopefully the photos made it somewhat bearable though.
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