Contiki, drinking, and other new things...

So I’ve been back in Toronto so far for a week… and done pretty much nothing. I went out Friday night and had a few drinks at the bar down the back here, met some interesting people *Shrugs* drank lots. Got home and a friend I met along my travels was online – this is at about 2.30am, and we were all pretty drunk – anyway, I met Kristin in Ithaca a week or so ago, She showed me her fake ID while we were standing at the bar. Nice one. I mean, it’s a nice fake, and on top of that – nice one Kristin – there was a barman standing there watching you… anyway, she was online and I got told to hold on a minute. Now I don’t remember giving her my number (maybe I did… drunk makes you do funny things) all of a sudden my phone rings, and its her friend, who has a thing for Australian accents apparently. So we chatted drunkenly for about 20 minutes, about nothing in particular, but it was funny nonetheless.

Other than that its been snowing pretty steadily here for the last few days which is pretty. Light fluffy flakes gently swirling around the window… falling slowly, some of them floating back up as if to look back at me, looking out at them…

Oh, I did find something out that’s interesting today… I was a bit worried about my Contiki getting cancelled cause its an odd date late April *Shrugs* anyway, I was on the Contiki website and found a couple of bulletin boards regarding the trip I’m going on, and a few people had registered that they were going on the same one as me – so far these are the names of people coming on my tour – Hayley from Sydney, Elle from Canberra, Amy from an unspecified place in Australia, then there’s Helen from London, and Anna and another Amy from Vancouver as well as someone who calls themselves Yakyak, from Norwich in the UK. And me. Of course. Obviously these are names that you will hear again in the near future when I’m on my Contiki! Anyway, so there’s 8 of us registered on this website, I don’t know how many people it takes to fill up a tour bus, but I’m assuming its more than that. So I thought I’d call Contiki and confirm that its all going ahead – and they said its Booked out! How good is that?! I mean, half of us so far are Aussies, but that’s not all bad… so long as there aren’t too many people that are traveling as a group. That would be not so good… but still… I’m starting to get really excited about this trip… its going to be awesome. Not to take anything away from my up-coming trip down to Florida, that is going to be a blast too, no doubt.

Tonight Shannon and I are going down the street for a pub meal at a bar that we haven’t been to, that should be fun, and Wednesday, Shannon, Sarah, and one or two of her friends are going to come out for a bit… might go ice skating, get dinner, then go out for a while… will see when the time comes… probably will mean another hung-over bus trip on Thursday… ha-ha. *coughs*

Oh, yeah… I’m now on Myspace.com. I’m not really sure what the purpose of that is, but I’m there nonetheless… as soon as I can figure how to link the two Google powered sites together, I will, but until then - www.myspace.com/Trojanmind *shrugs* do with that what you will.

WHITE! And The Difference between Alone and Lonely…

So… I woke up at some point during the night with a really intense feeling of being alone… Nothing to worry about, it passed quickly, but it did make me think. Maybe I might head back to the hostel here in Toronto for a few days… I mean, I probably won’t… but I thought about it. For $20 a night you always meet some pretty interesting people… Anyway; the last two nights I’ve gone to a different pub each night and got a cheap meal and a couple of beers… it’s been nice, but it’s never as nice as if you’d been there with someone else… The first night I just went to the nearest place and got a chicken burger… No where near as good as the one I got in Philly, but you can’t have everything I guess… it was cheap… Last night I thought I’d try something a bit more adventurous, and had the Irish stew at an Irish bar that I found when I went for a run yesterday. It was Terrible. The beef was gristly and full of tendons and bits that I don’t want to think about… the bread, while its meant to be dry, was dry to the point of soaking up all the moisture from the broth, and STILL able to be dry.... but over all, it was a nice warm environment and they had 39c Wings. Now, I don’t usually eat chicken wings – they’re more hassle and mess than they’re worth – but I figured that nothing can be worth less than 39c, so I got wings as well… Made a mess… and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t almost worth it.

Other than that, I need to leave the building to go to the greyhound terminal and buy my Bus tickets for my next trip… Can only catch the Train with the ticket I’ve got from Montreal (Shame about that…) so I’ll head on over there, take a few days to get to New York… Really not looking forward to the 20 hour ride down to Jacksonville… I’m going to be smelly… (That counts as fair warning Caroline!)

So… I can stand being alone just fine – so long as I know that I have friends around that I can talk to… and so far I haven’t scared them all away, so it’s all good. In fact I seem to be collecting some along the way… Loneliness on the other hand… mmm… I guess it’s the feeling that you are really all alone. Almost like claustrophobia… not something I usually suffer from – and I’ll say it was just a moment… Right now; I don’t feel lonely, although I am alone… Just like sometimes when you’re stuck in an elevator you can feel boxed in, but know that you’re not going to suffocate.

Does that make sense?

Oh, and I woke up this morning, sat at my computer, opened the curtain… and EVERTHING WAS WHITE! Just when I thought that the snow might be easing off a bit, in fact it had been above freezing for like 3 days straight, and the footpath was dry enough to run on… Bloody White… It was a bit of a shock, but it looks like its going away again now… so that’s good… I’m more of a “shades of grey” sort of person.



How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? - Woody Allen

Evil and Rabbits

SO… huh… my little road trip is over – where did I leave you last? I guess in Philly. Philly is awesome. But I think any city is awesome through the eyes and experience of a local. Went out again on my last night in Philadelphia with Julia – found a pub maybe a block away from my hostel, that served 300 beers (Coopers vintage amongst them), possibly one of the messiest (but delicious) burgers I’ve ever eaten, all that and waited on by some guy that wanted to murder us… whatever we’d order he’d look at us like we’d just insulted his mother, kicked his dog, and spat in his beer… not so good… good thing that we were having such a good time, otherwise I might have not tipped him at all. At some point during the night, one of Julia’s friends came out and we went to another bar to play darts – them against me, cause I had drunk more, but was convinced that I was less drunk than both of them put together. I’m not sure if that’s necessarily the case, but I still managed to only loose the game right at the end… good fun… One tip thought – and I will learn from this mistake – don’t always take the word of the bar-person for gospel when asking for 3 of their favorite shots… she poured a very average whisky… very average. And whisky’s never the best shot to take anyway… I felt fine in the morning – but I did get a message from Julia saying that she hates me. So all is well. I leave another city with someone hating me; my goal in life is to have someone hate me in every city I visit. I think I might be on my way…

Only joking.

So from there it was up to Ithaca to see Amber one more time… not too much to say about that. Nothing that I want to write for the world to see anyway, but over all I think it ended as well as that sort of thing ever can. If not better… (?) I can’t say I’m not sad, but life goes on I guess… “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.” - Samuel Butler

Or something like that anyway… *coughs*

From there it was another 7 ½ hour bus ride back up to Toronto… actually had a reasonably comfortable bus and managed to sleep for a good portion of the trip, which was a welcome surprise. And I seem to have managed to sleep for most of today as well… I guess the last few weeks have caught up with me… didn’t realize I was that tired, but it was nice to have a good sleep… In fact I think I’ve been awake today maybe for a total of 3 hours… feel great. I think I probably should be conserving my energy for March and my trip down to Florida…

The title of my entry today I dedicate to the Museum of Art in Philly… Great. Great. Maybe more on that at a later date when I’m looking through my photos, perhaps… just something that caught my eye and made me laugh… very thought and emotion provoking place; the Philly museum of art… in particular I was a peculiar mix of extremely amused and furious while walking through the section titled “Modern art”… *shakes head*

I should be an artist…

Philly… Cold Toes and V-Day…

Right…where do I start? I guess firstly I have to say that a few people who have read my blog have said I’m maybe a bit long winded and maybe a little too meticulous at detailing my travels… I guess I agree with you, but you have to realize too that this is as much for me in the future as it is for you now, you know? So when I look back I can remember the things I experienced… so while I’m having a good time, you’ll hear about it. If there’s too much for you to read, that’s okay too… skim thru it, whatever… see that there’s too much in a post and don’t bother at all… *Shrugs* I’m a pretty easy going sort of bloke, so you know… whatever… *grins*

So today was a pretty shitty day weather wise. Icy rain and a build up of snow on the streets meant that I spent quite a lot of time in-doors. But with the Philly Hostel, they have a policy of kicking people out from between 10.30am and 4.30pm, which means that for like 6 hours you have to find something to do. So I went into a few places, got a GREAT omelet and the best brewed coffee I’ve found in the US from a diner down the street. Went to a couple of information booths etc, then I found one place that you had to pay like $9 to get in, pretty much like a museum of federation. That was pretty funny, you should have seen all the people’s eyes light up when I walked in at about 11.30, I must have been the first person that they’d seen all day when they weren’t expecting anyone… I got the royal treatment, my own personal guide, and they even got the actor guy who obviously normally performs to a full auditorium, to start the 17 minute “play” just for me. First thing he says as he walks in the door was “what? D’you miss your flight?” So that was funny… luckily an older couple came in within a few minutes and he had an audience of 3, which is HEAPS better I’m sure… Anyway, so I sat thru this play on what it is to be “We The People” which made me feel very patriotic… sort of… I like my dual nationalities just fine thank-you anyway…

Then I went and saw the Liberty Bell… It’s a bell… *shrugs* um… yeah…

So, yeah, from there I just wandered up and down the city a bit… not venturing too far out of my way cause of the weather and the fact that after stepping in one deceptively deep puddle, I got water in my boots and now have cold toes. Which I hate.

Anyway, Last night… I should mention last night… BIG thanks to Julia, my guide last night… Great Philly Cheese Steak, and bad luck about the darts… so close… I also have to say “Hi” to Kim. Only because apparently she didn’t want her name on the blog… *Shrugs* And obviously a huge thanks to Caroline down in Florida who knows that I’m not a serial killer and trusted me with her friend… Cheers… All much appreciated. Last night was as much fun as I’ve had on my trip so far, always good to meet really nice random people, and now meeting Julia (Random Twice Removed) who is HALF AUSSIE!!! It’s just added to the number of cool people that I’ve met. Anyway, as I mentioned I had my first (definitely not last) taste of a Philly Cheese Steak – which is like a long roll with chopped up steak and cheese, and onion if you want it… really good. The kind of food that is Great when sober, but you just wish you could find when you were drunk as well… From there we found a little micro-brewery place that serves its own beers… tried a few of them REALLY GOOD!!! Then it was all of a sudden time to meet Julia’s friends and show them that I hadn’t killed her… So, yeah, that was basically the rest of the night… the group of us came 4th in a quiz night, and then 4 of us moved on to another bar where we played darts – and I pulled out a bulls eye to win in a very close one. Then I got a taxi and missed the curfew of 2am by about 10 minutes… luckily there were still people downstairs to let me in or it would have been a long walk back to find someone’s couch…

So that’s Philly so far… Happy Valentines day everyone… for those of you with someone on this very red, flowery love-heart covered greeting card company induced day, I hope you have a great night… The rest of us… there’s always next year… but it sucks being alone when you see so many people not being alone…

There’s Always Beer…

Heights, Other Things...

So, Yesterday I went up the Washington Monument - 52 stories. I'm getting quite good at being inside tall buildings, there was a moment or two when my legs didn't want to walk and i didn't want to let go of the elevator, but that passed quickly and once again i found myself right at the window looking out over DC. One good thing about this and also the Provincial tower in Boston was that there's no "outside" area, so to look straight down, you're still up against some pretty serious glass.

So first thing i did yesterday was find the Ford Theatre - where Lincoln was shot, and across the road to the house where he died... I didn't go inside... *shrugs* Then i found the Spy museum... I reckon i spent a good 2 hours wandering around inside there... for the first hour or so it was really interesting, for the second hour I was starting to get a bit bored - it was mostly about the cold war and the manhattan project, but that was still okay. Over all it was still a decent afternoon... From there i headed in the general direction of the Holocaust museum, but detoured via the booth where you get the (free!) tickets for the Washington monument, where amazingly enough they had some spare tickets for the 4pm tour. Obviously i took it.

After the Washington monument I ended up at the Holocaust museum for about an hour and a half. That was interesting too... infact, i think really everything i've been to has been interesting... to some extent. They had a lot of interactive displays and things where you can look up names of people from the holocaust... lots of quiet areas, that sort of thing...

Then I had a fairly early night after chatting with Caroline down in Florida and working out the skeleton details of my trip down there... sounds like it should be a lot of fun...

Right now its snowing fairly heavily, not sticking, but enough to make my walk to the subway a little un-comfortable... anyway, i dont reckon its heavy enough to stop the bus... life goes on.

The photo up there is of one of the fountains at the WWII war memorial... it got my attention, all the pennies just sitting there... so many wishes... I wonder how many came true? I wonder about the people who threw the coins in the water... how long ago? how many are still alive? maybe its better not to think about it...

DC - Bloody Feet & Pillars

Right… so I’ve been in the nation’s capital for 3 days now I guess… and my lack of posts probably says something to you… I guess it could say several things – it could say that I’m having so much fun that I haven’t had time to write anything… unfortunately that’s not the case… I mean, its not that I haven’t had fun. Oh, no… maybe it is… fun is not really the word. It’s been really interesting… I have enjoyed seeing all the places and museums and exhibits and things. The Smithsonian is amazing in all its facets… the monuments and statues are incredible and on such a massive scale – one that’s really hard to comprehend until you’re standing at the base of one of the million or so pillars, looking up at the ornate carvings… I mean, the time and energy involved must have been ridiculous. It’s not like I haven’t seen pillars before… I have… but I reckon if you took all the pillars here, and stood them on top of each other you’d get to the moon, and possibly back again… it’s like an ancient forest of marble. Crazy stuff…

So, the first day I reckon I walked for about 8 hours… timing myself I think I walk about 1 ½ steps per second, that’s 90 steps per minute, that’s 5400 per hour, so about 43,000 steps… at about 70cm per step (conservatively) that’s about 30km… I don’t know if that’s right or not… but the blisters on my feet tell me that it’s not too far off… I guess with time to stop and take photos, you might round that down to maybe 24 or 25km… either way… my feet are sore, and I’m looking forward to getting back to Toronto and wearing my sneakers for a couple of days… anyway; the first day… I first walked down towards Capitol Hill, found that, got some photos, walked around the back of it and bumped into a large group of girls (18-22yo) from salt lake city who got me to take their photo in front of one of the buildings – squealing when they heard me speak – its quite an experience… *coughs* then I walked back down towards the Washington monument, took some photos, then kept on in the same direction towards the Lincoln memorial… took some pictures… walked past the Vietnam memorial, took some pictures… kept on walking and got to the Thomas Jefferson memorial… just around sunset, got some nice photos there… walking walking, back across past the Washington monument, night time, got some more photos… saw the Whitehouse and thought “what the hell” walked to the white house, got some more photos… and then went back to the hostel… took my shoes off, realized that the pub crawl was about to start, put my shoes back on and headed out… had a few beers and got home at about 2am… not a bad day…

The next day I spent sleeping mostly… left the hostel at about 2pm and went to the museum of natural history, which was good, but not as good as the one in NYC… wandered around for a bit, decided to catch the Subway to Union Station, which was pretty cool, got some food, some more photos, and then headed back on the subway, transferring to a different line to go to a supermarket where I got some fresh fruit and some yogurt, which I ate when I got back to the hostel. Spent some time talking to some people that were heading next on their travels to NYC, and then got an early night.

Today, I’m going to walk past the Ford Theatre, maybe go to the holocaust museum… and then I think I’ll be just about done… It’s meant to snow this evening a fair bit, hopefully not enough to stop my bus leaving in the morning… we’ll see…



The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin. - Heinrich Heine

My last day in New York

So, after a really good nights sleep, I stuffed around organizing my stuff until about 11am, then decided to do a bit of a walk around central park until I had to be back here at 2.30 to meet Thomas and Kev and go do the boat trip. Okay, now just some advice for any of you thinking of ever coming to New York… awesome place, great things to do, I mean the people leave a little to be desired in some cases, but in general, well worth it… If you get the chance to go see Central Park, make the effort, go and see it, but leave yourself more than a couple of hours. I got to the park and did what I really like doing in new places- got myself lost… didn’t know which way is up, and I generally have a really good sense of direction, but I was lost… anyway, I eventually found myself towards the northern end of the park and all of a sudden an hour had gone past… so I figured that I had to head south and eventually would run into the reservoir which would mean that I was roughly in the area that I had to be to get back to the hostel at around 103rd st. So I walked and walked, and eventually found the reservoir, and headed around the edge (got some great photos) and again, got to the end of that and another half hour had gone, so not knowing how long it was going to take me to get back, I walked a bit faster. Walking thru some baseball fields, and the eventually not having any idea where I was, started jogging… The problem was that by that time I was in a part of the park that had some really cool things to take photos of, like Cleopatra’s needle, and some statue of a Polish dude on a horse with two crossed swords – awesome… so I was running, and like “Oh, Shit… I have to get a few photos of that” and running some more, and “Bugger… that looks awesome” anyway, eventually I found the edge of the park that I needed to find, and realized that I was on 81st street – 22 blocks from home… luckily there was a subway station right there and I caught it the 2 stops required and all was good… now I have a sore foot from running…

Then it was on to the cruise up the river… We took the 4pm one on the recommendation of another traveler who said that you get the best views at that time of day. Boy was he right… leaving the dock it was a bit glary, but soon enough the sun started to set, and apparently the smog of a huge city gives a pretty awesome sunset… yeah, got some good photos… only problem was that on a cold day, its even colder out on the water with the wind and stuff… there were several times that I couldn’t feel my fingers, at all. Not “I had cold fingers” – I literally couldn’t feel my hands. And then when I could – It hurt like hell. Photos had to come first – who knows how long before I come back?

Anyway, that took 2 hours, and afterwards we went to Starbucks and got a hot drink to warm us up a little bit… then I went back to Macy’s and bought another suitcase… *coughs* its not that I bought that much stuff in NY, and I was almost going to get another suitcase before I left Australia… but I found a good one and at a decent price and it will save me carrying around like a duffel bag or whatever which I can maybe leave for Shannon and his 60+ books that he’s collected over the last 8 months or so… *shrugs*

Anyway, then I got back to the hostel, relishing the fact that it was only 9pm and I was going to get a good nights sleep after being really organized and getting my bags packed before bed and all… but Irish had other ideas for what was also his last night in the big apple… and we went out for a “couple of pints”. Interesting night… he decided to try the old “buy a round of drinks for the girls at the bar” trick… which apparently works… sort of.

*coughs*

Anyway, I got back to the hostel at 3am, and although not hung over – I am pretty tired and I might just let the gently buffeting of the bus lull me to sleep…

Next stop – the nation’s capital – Washington DC

Post-It!

Okay, so what’s happened since my last post? Right… well, I posted them Tuesday shortly before I was heading out… We went to that comedy show I'd mentioned which was OK. There was only about 10 of us in the crowd that had braved the Cold, including 3 Jewish guys from Melbourne... that was funny enough... but yeah, the comics were actually pretty good. Then we went to the city looking for a bar… so, the first place we found was ok, met a random Australian guy from Sydney who kept looking around when I spoke, and eventually came over for a bit of a chat… From there we found another bar and met 3 guys, one of which was from somewhere… ah… not sure, but somewhere that he had to fly back to at 6am the next morning. So yeah, anyway we chatted to them for a while, and he told us that the reason he had to fly back in the morning was because his wife was having their third child, so we were like “HEY!!! AWESOME!!! SHOTS!!!” so we all had a shot of something that one of the guys had made up himself on a previous occasion which consisted of Jaegermeister with Crème De Menthe floated on top… not a bad shot, although, as with anything that involved crème de menthe, it just tasted minty. At one point a couple of girls came over, a girl from Scotland, and a girl from the West coast… I think the guy with the baby asked them to come over and have shots with us… I really don’t remember. I do remember that the Scottish lass was an engineer and appreciated my toast to the new baby that whatever it was, it was intelligent… and the girl from the west coast turned out to be an assistant buyer with Macy’s who had actually bought most of the clothes that I was wearing that night, but had a very low opinion – in general – of men. I replied that that was okay because I have a very low opinion – in general – of women… so we discussed that for a while, and I’m pretty sure that in the end we both saw the other’s point of view… She agreed that women can be “difficult” and I let her think that I listened to what she was saying. JOKING PEOPLE!!! Its okay... they were really nice, and I actually would have preferred to stay there talking to them, but Irish and the guy with a baby coming and his 2 friends wanted to go to somewhere called the “meat packing district” yeah, sounded dodgy to us too… but we caught a taxi down there and wandered around for a while – just 5 guys looking for somewhere to have a couple of drinks, and getting rejected from every single place. Was quite funny… eventually we took a cab back roughly to where we’d been in the first place and found a place to have couple of drinks and play some pool… we got back to the hostel at about 4.30am, leaving the other guy to pack and get to the airport extremely drunk… I feel a bit bad, but i'm going to blame Irish. He drank heaps more than me and egged the other guy on to stay… *shrugs*

Anyway, after about 4 hours of sleep and being woken up by a couple of annoying Japanese guys who talk in a way that worries me… like corny Japanese TV voice-over people hosting one of those shows where Japanese people hurt themselves or other people in cruel and unusual ways to the hilarity of the audience… Makes me think they're talking dirty to eachother... Anyway, was meeting the English and French guys and heading down town, ended up checking out Greenwich Village, which was pretty cool once you knew that it really wasn’t a village that I was looking for, but a section of the city that is sort of old-school… almost like it escaped damage from the fires in the 1800s and is still sort of plodding along at a slightly slower and more scenic pace than the rest of the city. From there we found the Flat Iron Building, got some good photos, took some photos of the Chrysler Building, and then went thru Central Station and got some more photos. From there Me and the French guy went to the Guggenheim Museum of Art… really interesting building for something that was built 50 years ago, architecturally its really cool… a big spiral to the top wandering past Picasso’s and Dali’s artwork… as well as a lot of other stuff that I just can’t remember the artist’s names, but yeah, that was good…

Then I went and thought I’d find Bloomingdales. Went in, looked at the price of a pair of jeans and walked out again. Ridiculous. When %15 off a pair of jeans makes $50 difference, and still doesn’t make them affordable, you know that you’re in the wrong place…

Then I went and fixed my bus ticket and got back just in time to head out again, this time We were going to Chinatown for Dinner – one of the guys had had a $4 plate of Chinese that was apparently pretty massive and wanted to go back, so this time it was English, French, Irish (who'd gotten out of bed at about 6pm!), and a random Argentinean that had just moved into the bunk next to mine and I met while getting ready to go out… Very multicultural of me, don’t you think? I even left a post-it note on Kendall’s door to see if she wanted to come along and bring some friends… She didn’t get the note until later… Anyway, we went, ate, when it became apparent that we weren’t going to go to a bar, Irish and Argentinean left, and we went into Times Square and took some photos… and that was it up until pretty much right now… I slept like a log… I could probably do with another few hours, but *shrugs* I’ll sleep on the bus to DC tomorrow…

Hopefully.

Right now I have to get up and have a shower and maybe go for a wander around central park…

EVEN more from NYC

Okay… today was a much bigger day… So, Kev (Irish) and I had talked about going on the walking tour of Greenwich Village this morning – a guided tour around that part of the city departing at about 10am… so I got up (groggily) at about 8, and wandered around until about 9.30 when I made a mad dash in a T-shirt down the street to the ATM cause you can only take $100 out at a time at the one here and they charge you an extra $1.75 on top of it… stuff that… plus the tour cost $10, and they only take cash. Anyway, 10.15 rolled around and we were advised that the guide had called earlier and cancelled due to the fact that it was freezing cold outside and there were only 2 names on the list… nice of them to tell us earlier (by the way, most of the people working at this hostel are from New York… it’s a shame… but they’re rude, boring, and have very little personality… real shame)

Anyway so Kev and I were sitting around with nothing to do, so we decided to get the City pass book which gets you into all sorts of city touristy things, and start the day by taking the ferry tour around Staten island and the statue of liberty etc… all well and good… we took the tram to times square (Helped by some locals who told us that the 2 and 3 trains are express and only stop at a couple of places – one of them 42nd which is Times Square) finally figured out which direction we were meant to be heading, walked the 15 odd blocks to the dock, and found out that the tour during Jan and Feb isn’t running on Tuesdays or Wednesday s… funny… ha-ha… yeah. So the next closest thing was the Empire state building… so back we trudged towards the towering peak – that’s one thing about New York… If you do happen to get lost, you can generally always see the tip of the empire state building sticking up above you somewhere… which is sort of comforting in an overpowering sort of way. So we found it, and we found the entrance and we headed up to the start of the tour, where we found out that because we got the City Pass book, we got the “Sky ride” for only $10 instead of the usual $25. The sky ride is like a virtual helicopter ride around New York… on like a hydraulic platform that seats probably 30 something at a guess… and after some initial problems (that were apparently solved by closing a door properly and asking the dude what time he was heading to lunch – the answer was 2.30 by the way for those of you interested… I know we weren’t) we were taken on a fast paced stomach lurching virtual tour of the city. Pretty cool, but I’d feel mighty pissed if I’d paid $25 for it, even if it was commentated by Kevin Bacon…

From there we headed to the lift. Those of you who either know me or have read my blog at all in the last week or so would know of my fear of heights and of my recent visit to the Provincial Tower lookout in Boston. At a mere 50 stories, I was not afraid at all and quite comfortably looked out over the edge of the building to the streets below… The Empire state building is a building that a month or a year or 10 years ago I could have quite comfortably told you that I had no intention of ever going to the top of. But it was part of my city pass book, I’d paid for it, and it’s really only 46 stories higher than what I’d been in in Boston… only twice the height, HA! Nothing… a Piffle… and on top of that I was strengthened by the fact that Kev from Ireland is even worse with heights than I am – to the point of burying his face in the corner of the lift as we went up… Pretty funny… *coughs* anyway, we got to the top, and once again, I surprised myself by being OK. I mean… not fantastic, and no where near as comfortable as I had been in Boston, but OK. I even went outside and got right up to the edge (eventually) and took some pretty amazing photos… Very proud of myself… it’s something that a lot of people would not believe I could have ever done… but I’ve changed guys… I even talk to girls now! I know… amazing…

So after another hilarious lift ride down to the bottom we decided that the next stop would probably be the Museum of natural History, so we went there, had a look around, there was an awesome show in the planetarium which would have been awfully romantic to take a girl to… and there I am with an Irishman… *frowns* something wrong with that picture… but it was a 25 minute presentation on collisions – from the collision that formed the moon, to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs to a few other ones that I cant recall right now and hosted by a voice out of the darkness that although initially I thought was going to be introduced as God, was actually Robert Redford… after the show Kev was bored and decided to come back to the hostel for a nap, and I continued to loose myself in the museum. No, really… I got lost… its an amazingly huge place… but I got some great photos of the exhibits… really pretty cool… and Huge… not something you can really do in half a day, so I figured that Id look at a couple of floors and promise myself to come back at some point, with a romantic interest and do the whole thing properly… with someone who appreciates that kind of stuff…

So I eventually found my way outside – fortuitously on the side where central park is – which is where I wanted to be, just as the sun was beginning to go down – and looking like it might have been a really cool sunset I decided to find some places to take some good photos… I think I did alright – played with the shutter settings on my camera a bit and got a couple of what I think are probably alright shots… some of you will see them at some point… *shrugs* some of you might not… some of you will if you want to ask me nicely. Anyway, I killed a good hour wandering around Central Park towards the city (past a part of the park that they were pumping throat burning artificial snow into for some festival or other) and then caught the subway back to the hostel… where I am now…

Tonight I’m going to a comedy thing on Broadway… I’ll let you know how that goes in the next few days!

Ciao for now…

More from NYC

So… Big day… started latish and decided to go straight into the centre of the beast – 42nd St – Times square. Even in the middle of the day this place is lit up like Christmas, the 4th of July and New Years, all rolled into one big extravaganza of corporate advertising and Neon lights. Amazing place… you could just stand there for an hour transfixed by the flashing colors, and then strangely have the urge to go eat McDonalds, have several gallons of coke, eat some M&Ms and then go see 15 Broadway musicals… including about 3 versions of the phantom of the opera, and 5 things you can’t pronounce. Anyway… I didn’t spend too much time there, I quickly found the direction I needed to head to get to Madison Square Gardens and pick up my hockey ticket for that night – which I did with no hassles at all… very quick and easy (having said that I saw the line up that night before the game and I’m glad I did it early).
From there I thought I’d go and see if I could find the empire state building – I did… eventually I looked up high enough and there it was… towering above me like some really… um… tall building… It’s ugly… I mean, I guess when you’re that big you don’t need to have cosmetic beauty, its all about how friggin big you are… was actually a bit scary - I looked up towards the top of the building and there was a window either open or had been smashed, and it looked like how it looks in movies when the door opens in an airplane and the air is all rushing out cause of the difference in pressure… there was thick ice all around the window and you could actually see the air escaping… - I tell you one thing – I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near that window. Ever. And apparently I’m thinking of going to the lookout at the top today… I think im crazy. But I did the one in Boston okay… this should be fine… *fingers crossed*

From there I found the Manhattan Mall… which was okay… just a mall… got something to eat, had a look around… I did find a really cool shop that sold a range of college and humorous t-shirts (sometimes they’re the same thing…) 3 for $20… I restrained myself… as much as I love a funny T-shirt… don’t know… I might have to go back today… *coughs*

Then I saw Macy’s… and being a big fan of department stores in all their shapes and forms, I figured I’d have to like “the biggest department store in the world” I ended up deciding that I needed to buy a “going out” outfit, which I managed to do in only 2 hours. I find it hard shopping for clothes for myself when I don’t have anyone there telling me something looks bad. So I went a fairly safe option, a nice pair of Levi’s a shirt and a couple of “sweaters” all name brand stuff and all came to just over $100… not too bad considering I know I would have paid at least that much just for the jeans alone in Australia, and ON TOP of that being a tourist at Macy’s entitles you to a further %11 off your already fantastic value purchase! Even if the service was a bit average (at one point a manager blasted about 6 staff who were all standing around talking – GREAT STUFF!) I figured I did pretty well… Funny thing in Macy’s… I reckon I heard more British accents than almost anything else… it was quite funny, and actually it seems to be a resounding theme throughout the city that there are a LOT of Brits here.

Anyway, by this time it was time for me to head to the Ice hockey game. Detroit Vs New York… without going into it too much; I was allowed to take my camera into the game, which was good – and I got a few good action shots, I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t been able to take it into the game at Montreal. Madison Square Garden, while possibly being the most famous stadium in the world, is definitely not the biggest… the stadium at Montreal was definitely bigger, and more comfortable. Maybe that’s just cause its newer… who knows… maybe its because new Yorkers would be uncomfortable if they were comfortable… *shrugs* Anyway, I spent an enjoyable game listening to the swearing of a couple of Russians behind me… where the Rangers lost a close game 3 to 4. Having let a 3 1 lead slip from the first period, the fans were rightly pissed off… I would have been too if I’d actually cared who won, as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed myself – apart from worrying that my batter was going to run flat or I was going to run out of space on my memory card and the bread stick that came with the beer…

As we got up to leave the announcer cheerfully suggested that we rug up as it was a toasty 15F outside… so it was a fun ride home wrapped up as one comedian commented “like the mummy”. No, actually it was a fun ride home on the subway… I had my headphones in my ears and my I-pod playing music I like, doing some people-watching. Its funny the looks you get as you’re fumbling in the bottom of your bag with gloves on trying to find a pen and note book under recently purchased clothes from Macy’s with only your eyes showing between your beanie and scarf. Across from me sat a woman who looked remarkably like Whoopi Goldberg… there were people reading books, staring off into their own little world, or with headphone in like me riding the subway to their own personal beat… feet tapping, singing away in their head… was a nice moment… people are still people, even if they’re from New York… whatever they might think… Some people even fall asleep on the trains… it’s a crazy thing to do – a couple of South Africans in my room cheerfully recounted that the last night on the way home after “a few” drinks they fell asleep on the train and ended up on 250th street… I cant even tell you how far out of their way that is – but our stop is 103rd… so that might give you some idea…

Oh, just an observation – apparently the brand “The North Face” is THE jacket to own in NYC… I reckon at least 1 in 4 jackets is that brand… which means there’d roughly be 2 million of them walking around the city… amazing… its everywhere…

Anyway, so I got back to the hostel after the game and who should be sitting at the computers? None other than my Irish friend from Montreal… crazy stuff… so anyway, we got chatting and ended up going out for a few drinks and got back at about 2am this morning… pretty funny…

As for my own personal view on New York City… I mean, everyone says they Love NY… I don’t know… I mean… I don’t think I love it… I like it… its an amazing place, and I respect it… how can you not? It’s a pulsating, girating, hive and hub of civilization… but love? No.
Not yet anyway…

Minutes on a day in New York… Colts, Ground Zero and Spiderman…

Firstly… I have to say I think today is possibly the coldest day I’ve experienced… at least on a par with when I went to Niagara falls… really really cold… today, I woke up at the reasonably early hour of about 9am after still getting around about 14 hours sleep I was understandably quite refreshed, I decided to catch the subway into the city… not knowing exactly all of the things that I wanted to look at in New York or even if I did know what I was looking for, then where these places might be would have still alluded me without a map.. I got a map. Good thinking… anyway, I got the no.1 train right to the end of its track which is at south dock or south pier or south… something… anyway, it stops where you catch the ferry to Staten Island. I looked at the map and saw that there was nothing on Staten island that I particularly wanted to look at, so I decided to head out along the waterfront where you could see in the distance – the statue of liberty… took photos, walked some more… got cold… found a sign that said “world trade center site” and thought that I’d go have a look…

The world trade centre site is an interesting experience… I, personally, found it very emotional… (But I find most things emotional, so no real surprise there…) anyway, I took a few photos, then got around to the part where the memorials and photos and things are… and my eyes started leaking. They had a list of most of the names of the people that had died… it’s a big list… they had pictures drawn by children saying that they miss their mommy or daddy and they had… you know… flowers and stuff… I don’t know whether it was one particular part of the memorial… but… yeah, I got very emotional… good thing it was so cold that I had my scarf wrapped around my head several times and all that could be seen between that and my beanie would have been my red watery eyes… could have just been from the cold… yeah sure… anyway. *coughs* From there I went across the road to the church – forget which one it is now… more old gravestones, and some more memorial stuff on 911… from there went and found a shop that sells stationary things and got some blank DVD disks so those of you who I said I’d send some photos to can expect them to arrive some time in the next … say… 6 – 8 weeks… I’ll get to them eventually. Don’t worry.

From there… I went half way along Brooklyn bridge (I figured if I don’t need to go to Brooklyn, then I mean, the bridge is symmetrical, its going to look the same from the other side… so from half way along you can see heaps of stuff (some of you might know it as the bridge on Fantastic 4 where the Thing pulls the fire engine back from the edge etc, or more importantly where Jessica Alba strips off to her underwear…) including the empire state building which looks really tall… and looking up at the suspension wires you can maybe see where the inspiration for Spider Man came from too… the cables look awfully like a spiders web… .It’s really quite cool…

Anyway, I was pretty cold by then so I decided to start heading along Broadway towards whatever might be the next subway station… past quite a few dodgy looking shops, and heaps of gangsters… some of them were pretty scary, but most of them just made me laugh… I just love the way they talk (y’all). On the way I got what is currently my favorite drink from dunkin’ donuts – their white hot chocolate, and a blueberry (my favorite berry) donut. Was all good, and before long I found myself at the subway…

Overall it was a very good day, planning on starting maybe at times square tomorrow and heading south towards 34th street where I have to pick up my ticket for tomorrow nights hockey game… I think there’s probably easily a days worth of stuff to do within those 10 or so blocks… I may come back tomorrow a little financially drained… we’ll see… it would have to be something pretty amazing, cause whatever I buy from here means I need to get another suitcase as well… which sucks…

Oh, and apparently the cold loosens your shoelaces…

The day ended downstairs in the Hostel (which I think may at one point have been an asylum or hospital or something… ) in the TV room watching Super Bowl XLI, which the Colts came from behind a very early start by the Bears to win 29 – 17. Good game… really interesting to watch it in America where people actually have some idea of what’s going on, and can actually get into it a bit more… pretty funny. Once again, met some nice people… this time I didn’t get their names – one girl who’s just moved here from the west coast and is an environmental engineer with the Govt… she’d been to new Orleans with the recovery team… all sorts of places… really interesting… and then I met Kendal in the hall way afterwards… in fact it was one of those situations where every time I walked out of my room she was there, or she’d walk out of hers and I was walking past… funny… after the 3rd time we were laughing, after the 5th she introduced herself… she’s just moved here from another state and is going to school… staying here until she finds an apartment… Like I said… gotta love hostels!

Bed time… there’s an old (slightly scary) Argentinean man in the bunk below me who I’m SURE is going to snore tonight… piss me off… anyway… I’m gone.

More later…





Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense. - Carl Sagan

Bahsten and beyond...

So… Boston was fun… as always, met nice people at the hostel, this time another English guy and another French guy, this time who could speak English quite well… still hilarious some of the things he said, but good people. I found that the Boston accent is in some cases very Australian sounding... which was cool...

Anyway, Friday night was the Boston hostel’s pub crawl… well, not so much of a pub crawl, as go to a pub, then go to a dance club… which we did… and on the first night in Boston this season that they’ve had real snow. Excellent… Anyway, it was a good night, there were only about 8 of us in total, all guys… one other Aussie, which is always nice… I think I would have had a much better time if I hadn’t drunk so much… I was pretty sick… and once again, I had a bus to catch the next morning… Stupid… oh well… its all good now. So anyway, it was pretty funny, at one point we got “scouted”; a couple of girls sent they’re male friends over to find out about us (me and the other Aussie) and then came over afterwards and tried to pick us up… it was interesting… and at the same time, I wasn’t interested in the slightest… from that point on I don’t really remember much… apart from maybe finding out that it was some random girls birthday at the dance club… maybe... *shrugs*

Like I said, the bus trip from Boston to NYC was okay apart from my hangover… the bus was absolutely packed. Then I caught the subway from the bus depot to about 3 blocks from the hostel. Again this would have been fantastic if it wasn’t for the hangover, and the bag that I must have somehow packed to be unevenly weighted to the left while I was still drunk and hung over that morning… today should be much better, I packed a lot lighter and I got about 15 hours sleep…

Anyway, I’m off to see the Big Apple...

Facing a Fear... and walking a long way

Today I woke up fairly early in my top bunk of the Boston Hostel international, having slept intermittently thanks to the snoring and fidgeting of a couple of Koreans in the same dorm... I decided, after my breakfast bagel, to go for a walk with my camera - so I walked until i found something that looked like it would be good to take a photo of, then found that I could actually go to the top of this particular building and it had a 360 view of the city. Those of you that know me would know that I'm scared SHITLESS of heights... now this is fear to the point of phobia... its knee trembling, gut scrunching paranoia... the kind of fear that freezes you in your tracks like a deer in a trucks headlights... its not good. But, for some reason, today I decided that it was time to face it, so I went to the 50th floor of this building that looked very much like it wouldn't sway in the wind (a very good thing) and had a REALLY good time. Didn't even have a moment of fear... it was great... and got some great photos too...

Then I went thru Boston commons, meeting maybe the most friendly squirrels ever in the process... and eventually found the freedom trail - 4 or so hours later i got back to the hostel... had a really good walk...

that's all for now, more later!

Montreal - Notes d'une ville française... (Notes from a French city...)

SO… 3 nights in to Montreal and it’s been a whirlwind, but great fun. I have decided so far that I like Hostels. I’ve met quite a few people already, and every one is really friendly. The first night I got here, I went into the common room and instantly got invited to play some pool… met an Irishman and two Canadians from Nova Scotia, and ended up getting invited out to a bar later on… so about 5 of us went to this place that had been recommended – keeping in mind it was recommended by a Frenchman – the place was only playing French pop/dance music. My first impression was that of a normal sort of nightclub but where everything is French and the music, while sounding like it came from the early 90’s, was also French, and also really bad. I later think I remember thinking that it’s good that they make music for white people to dance badly to, and I also remember being glad that the French, after all their reputation, still can’t dance… So, anyway, I ended up loosing most of the people that I went out with in the first place, and left the place at close which was about 3am… and went around the corner with my new French friends and got pizza… over all a really really good time…

The next day, I thought was the day that I was meant to be going snow shoeing… but it turned out to be the day of the big hockey game Montreal vs. Ottawa. I got a cheap ticket thru the hostel and when I got there I realized why – it was up in the “nose bleeds”. But I enjoyed myself thoroughly, for my first experience of ice hockey I was very impressed, and I’m even more excited about going to the NY Rangers Vs the Detroit Redwings… should be fantastic… someone told me its an inter-conference game too so it only happens between these two teams once every few years… Interesting thing about ice hockey – its played in 3 17minute periods… each of which lasted at least 35 minutes… with penalties, stoppages, and advertising… Crazy… *shrugs* I guess that’s the way the world is now…

Yesterday was the snow shoeing and the pub crawl… but it turned out that there weren’t enough people for the guided tour, and only one other person who wanted to go snow shoeing… the guy at the counter suggested that we go anyway, so we did. Cynthia was over in Montreal from Victoria BC for an interview with an airline, and had always wanted to snow shoe. So Snow shoe we did go, very tiring, but a lot of fun, got some great photos, and snow in my shoe… and very cold, we rode the bus/metro/underground there and back… was a good day…

The pub crawl for me started at about 6 when I was sitting in the computer room of the hostel surprising myself by fixing the problem I’ve been having with the wireless connection on my laptop… now, excuse me while I introduce the cast – because it sounds like the start of one of those jokes where an Irishman, and Englishman, and an Australian walk into a bar… but it was very much like that… there was an Irishman (who came out with everyone the first night) an Englishman (newly arrived from Vancouver) A Frenchman (literally just off the plane from Paris) two other Australians (from Sydney on holidays for a few weeks) and myself… We spent most of the first half hour trying to decipher what the French guy was saying (lots of hand signals… like the most painful charades experience of my life) in the end it turned out that he works for Luis Viton, has a girlfriend back in Paris… (you don’t want to know about the hand signals he used to tell us that…) and he was hungry… anyway, we went out into the cold (0 F) and found a decent little pub with reasonably cheap meals, and happy hour prices of $10 jugs… of which we got 4. The Englishman and myself polished off one each and the other 4 shared the other 2, the French guy was the biggest lightweight I’ve ever seen… so funny… the Irish guy had been drinking all day, so we forgave him, and the other guy and girl from Australia did okay… but we can take into account that they’re from Sydney… so its okay, it was good to have other Aussies there after hearing nothing but French accents for a few days I was starting to go a little bit nuts – I think the first night I actually dreamt in French.. Nothing I understood, but scary nonetheless…

Anyway, we got back to the hostel in time for the tour guide to show up late, which was good, and headed to the first of maybe 4 or 5 bars… drinking was done, numbers dwindled from about 12 (we were joined by a couple of Belgian girls, a German lad, another Australian, and a French Canadian girl who also worked for the Hostel and helped our guide with stuff)… to by the time we got to the last place (which also happened to be the nightclub we went to on the first night) there were maybe 7 or so of us… it was going off… songs that I knew this time (still from at least 10 years ago… but in English this time!!!) and once again the French people that I met the first night were there and I got in at 4.30 this morning… great great night… so funny… *coughs*

ANYWAY…. And now I’m on a bus, slightly hung-over and ready for a nap, having had only about 4 hours sleep…

Oh, this is another reason I love hostels – this morning when I got breakfast (another reason I like hostels) I saw a girl there I hadn’t seen the previous nights, and thought nothing more of it… until I saw her again at the bus stop, and we chatted for about an hour while waiting for the bus… Caroline, about the same age as me… got 18 months thru a 2 year shiatsu massage course, and developed carpel tunnel syndrome… then some other stuff happened, and now she’s decided to quit everything for a while, get away and go to Burlington in Vermont to meet some friends… *shrugs* was nice to have someone to chat to… the randomness of hostels, while I can see it would be tiring doing it for too long, is fantastic…

I slept for a bit… and we just stopped at a little place called White River, transferred busses cause the other ones heater was broken… so I went over and got McDonalds… over salty very average fries, and a burger that I’d never seen before – always one to go for the thing that’s most advertised – I tried the “Big and Tasty” burger… definitely wasn’t big, and certainly wasn’t any more tasty than any other McBurger that I’ve tried… disappointed but not surprised unfortunately. I thin to surprise me they would have to have lived up to the name of the burger.

And now – To Boston – and back to the English language…



The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. - From "Taxi"