Hop, Skip & Jump

Apologies

2008-02-04T20:02:00.000+11:00

This will turn into a post trip blog actually since a lot of the entries will probably be finished in Shanghai or back in Sydney. The main problem is that China blocks blogger so I won't be able to update.

I sure like many are not interested in my travel exploits after my actual journey but it's a thing of personal prosperity that I finish this project.

I'm in Berlin and heading for Shanghai tomorrow. Hope to see you all back in Sydney in 2 weeks.

Day 56 - From Salzburg to Vienna - 25th Jan 2008

2008-01-29T09:56:00.000+11:00

I got woken up early again by the 2 jap chicks who though waking up at 6:30 would be a great idea. So they got up and decided to turn the lights on and I was like Muthafucka!!!! ARRGH. Anyhoo so I didn't get up till about 8:30, had breaky, finished packing, checked out and some quality internet time. I also realised it was raining and I groaned at the prospect of lugging my shit across cobblestones in the rain. I guess this is when backpacks come in handy.

Luckily once I got to the train station the rain had stopped and it wasn't as arduous as expected, however getting a seat on the train was somewhat more difficult. I entered on the wrong carriage and had to lug my shit through the reserved cabins before finally finding a free seat opposite an old lesbian lady and across from two German skanks, one of which shouldn't be allowed near any more make up but still managed to keep applying it throughout the journey whilst being on the mobile the entire time.

The train trip was nice again, saw a bit of snow here and there, lovely little villages. Makes one all warm and fuzzy until you realise you won't ever fit in the village since a. you don't speak german and b. you're asian.

In the 5min from Vienna West Station to Wombats Hostel I already had the feeling that I was going to really like this city. I had the same feeling in New York. There were heaps of supermarkets, food stores, a Miele shop ...hehehe Miele. I also discovered that Wombats also had a kitchen. I haven't seen a kitchen in about a month and I went nuts. I hit the nearest supermarket, bought some pork, pasta sauce and pasta and went cooking and had a very late lunch at 4pm, but boy was it satisfying. I also had a good chuckle been put in the "Pink Wing"...sigh...ghei4life!!!

I went for a night stroll down Mariahilferstrasse to the inner ring (aahahah, sounds dirty doesn't it but I promise I didn't make it up). Mariahilfer is my nightmare, it is one of the main shopping streets and I got distracted on every block. I went to the sports department to check out ice skates and they also had hockey equipment and ski and snowboard equipment. I was like dude I want this entire store.

Anyways, I make it to the MuseumQuarter which is like this district full of arty people and art and media students (like me) and newish museums and exhibits etc. I guess like Newtown but with class, structure and much better architecture? It rates extremely highly on my coolness factor, but again I was distracted by the gift shop. Have I become a compulsive window shopper or just developed a weakness for kitschy pieces of modern art?

Through the MuseumQuarter I duck into the Hofburg which is a collection of buildings and parks forming the centre of imperial governance and residence and although it was dark it was still freaking huge and awesome and a testament to imperial excess.

Having heard that the Vienna State Opera was one of the best in the world (and yes I do like a bit of Opera now and again) and hearing also that they had cheap standing tickets, I though what better way to enter Vienna than with a night at the Opera. Except finding the opera house took several wrong turns, roads which I couldn't find on my map, a stop at the tourist information office and then the realisation that it was in front of me the entire time.

It was 6:40pm and the performance was at 7pm. I rushed to the standing ticket booth and asked for 1...2 euros please...WtF??????? 2 euros to see the best opera in the world? Is this real? I didn't even look at the ticket I just threw my 2 euros at him and ran. Because I was late I couldn't nab a good spot and instead got stuck right at the top on the left hand side and only managed to see about half the stage. But like who cares, it was 2 euros. The performance I finally found out was Manon, I wasn't familiar but the coolest things this theatre had was small screens attached the railings which had the subtitles in both german and english, awesome.

Manon was one of those tragic love story operas were boy meets girl, they fall in love, get separated, find each other again and then bad things happen. Quite universal really. But the main male lead was just phenomenal and every time he finished a solo, the applause would go on for at least 2-3min and he would just have to stand there. His voice was seriously smooth, had power but full of emotion and unlike a lot of opera singers, he had some pretty awesome acting chops too. Nevertheless it was obvious that the entire female population (and some male) of the audience fell head over heels for him, I know I did.

It was a bit soap operaish and not knowing what to expect I told myself that I could leave at intermission if it got a bit boring or I was too tired. But I found myself really drawn into it the longer it played out and soon I was giving it my own commentary. Cursing the stupid girl and the bad men wooing her and feeling sorry for the guy and his anguish...yeah I'm a sap, sue me.

In the first hour I had a group of dipshit hongkies in front of me, one whose mobile ran mid soprano solo and he just froze, he didn't move or turn it off or walk out the door, and it ran FOUR times, with one of those incessantly annoying and loud repetitive ringtones. He was holding the phone between his hands and thighs probably hoping that it would turn itself off, or he could muffle the sound or for him just to disappear into the ground. But EVERYONE just looked at him and collectively wanted to headbutt him. Seriously I was so close to throwing him out of the door, but he finally moved outside after the 4th ring. The rest of the hongkies couldn't stand, cause obviously standing was too hard for them, Some chick dropped her camera on the ground really loudly (and theatres echo man, you can hear shit from the stage easily). Thank god they left the act before intermission. I was about to move away out of sheer embarrassment.

So the opera finished, and now I'm in love with another opera and the leading man...happens a lot really. I know I'm so going to die old and alone half eaten by alsations, I'm heading towards the solitary female lifestyle expect for the fact that I hate cats.

I walked back to the hostel, took a shower and hit the sack, all mind you without turning on the main light, because I'm highly considerate of my roomates. But then by 12am, some chick in the bunk above me gets in, turns the main light on and proceeds to pack her suitcase for about half an hour, I'm like wTF???? 3 people are sleeping have you no brain at all? I was so close to telling her off.

Day 53-54 - Salzburg - 23-24 Jan 2008

2008-01-25T20:13:00.000+11:00

Day 53

I was woken up around 7:30 am by the locks going again outside. It is the weirdest locking mechanism and so bloody loud it echoes through the entire house. I got up to go to the bathroom but alas someone was in there. And suddenly there were like 8 people milling about on our level. Seriously weird since my roommate and I thought it was just us and one other couple. Where did all these people come from? Anyway, I tried to go back to sleep but at 8:20 my bladder was begging for mercy so again I trudged out and yay the bathroom was free.

I had the hostel breakfast and again it was really nice. I stuffed myself with the bread rolls and perhaps had one too many but my god it was good having a Nutella roll with a hot chocolate. Mmmmm yummy, too bad outside it was pissing with rain and I realised I had to lug my shit around in the rain again. I was definitely going to miss Fussen, I like small towns and a small town right beneath the alps...heaven, but in the rain it's nearly not as pleasant.

I finished packing, paid, bid farewell and went off to the train station. My train was at 11:05 and like everything in Germany it was spot on time. I made myself comfy for the 2 hour trip back to Munich. Sleeping in the train was nice but I had a freak out moment when I though I was on the train to Augsburg.

I got to Munich around 1pm and I got some supplies, fruit which I haven't had for days and a salami roll from my now fav sandwich store at the station. I passed the chips stand and couldn't stop myself from buying a cone (yeah a cone) of pommes frites. Shitty thing was some evil teenager emptied the tomato sauce container just as I got there and I was left with the mayonnaise. The good thing was the mayo was a bit tangy and more like sour cream so I wasn't overly sick.

I got to platform 11 and the train was already there and boarding. Holding precariously the fries with the mayo and all my luggage I got on the train and settled myself in the short term compartment cause I couldn't be bothered lugging my crap to the proper seats. So I finished my chips whilst and old lady looked on across from me.

The trip to salzburg was another 2 hours because I saved at least 20 euros taking the slower train which stopped at all the small towns. Halfway through it started snowing on the plains which was brilliant. I had my mp3 player on and was having a pretty good time, the seat wasn't that uncomfortable although the passing scenery gave me a spot of motion sickness. about 30min to go I ducked to the toilette mid-station since I thought no one would be able to runaway with my stuff it we're in motion ahaha. But I have to say Germany has been definitely one of the most civil and safe countries I have been to.

I get to Salzburg and make my 10min journey on foot to the youth hostel. Then waited 10min at reception for the girl to finish her phone call. The hostel overall is fine except for the fact that it has no elevators and I was given a room on the 3rd floor. Ouch. But at least it had free wireless, so lots of net time, buzzcocks and much ado about nothing tonight.

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Day 54

I was woken up at 6:30 by the girl below my bunk leaving, but I didn't get up until 8:30. I looked outside the window and was greeted with the fresh scent of snow on the Salzburg rooftops. I had some quality net time in which I found out about Heath Ledger's tragic and untimely death. Really that single event impacted on the rest of my day. Not to say that I was a huge fan or something but realising how mortal we all are, no matter what age or what socio-economic status. The fact that I'm by myself in a foreign country, isolation does weird things to your psyche and today wasn't an entirely enjoyable day.

Breakfast at the hostel was alright I guess, although the supposed Austrian scrambled egg special wasn't that spectacular. I headed for the Mirabella gardens first, and as stunning as they were covered in snow I'm sure they're even better in the summer. I walked across the bridge into the old town and familiar cobblestone alleys greeted me. Soon I walked past Mozart's birth house which I completely would have bypassed if I didn't on the off chance look up to where it said so.

I took a random stroll around and managed to visit about 4 churches all within 200 metres of each other. Seriously Salzburg is just full of churches and shops selling Mozart Chocolates and overpriced souveniers. I was bored and it's really the first time in Europe that I've wanted to leave the city the minute I got into it. Perhaps it was the overwhelming feeling of sober sadness but Salzburg just seemed unseemingly dull and I really needed something to cheer me up.

I sat in the Salzburg Dom for a while, contemplating celebrities who met early and tragic ends. Leslie Cheung's I think still makes me want to cry. It's strange, I'm not remotely religious but I still feel the power and enchantment of places of worship and prayer. It's not necessarily the religion but rather the outpouring of human endeavour, emotion and hope which makes such places extremely poignant and special.

Another wander through the streets and I found a 7 euro Chinese buffet. I spent 3 euro on yesterday's copy of the Daily Mail so I'd have something to do whilst eating. But by far it was the saddest excuse for a buffet I've ever encountered. Minimal amounts of food sat limp and dead and the bottom of metal pans, barely been heated. I feel sorry for Europeans cause damn you gotta really look hard for good Asian food.

After lunch I found some sun on the other side of the river that runs through Salzburg, the name which alludes me. But the sun was nice and made me somewhat happier, the Daily Mail though didn't so I stopped reading it and tried to make my way to the Nunnery featured in the Sound of Music. Oh yeah that movie was filmed here. The locations are everywhere but because I never really paid too much attention I'm not going to the extra effort of seeking them all out.

Salzburg is basically situated on a lake bed and it's surrounded by mountains. The nunnery is on a pretty steep mountain and for the life of me I could not find my way up the mountain. 30min later, a detour to the toilet and another church I finally found the staircase after asking for directions when I was buying a Sprite. The view was excellent. I've decided perhaps I actually like hiking more than museums.

I made my way back to the hostel along the cliffside of the old town. Many of the buildings were actually built into the cliff side. It was starting to get cold and so I got to the other side of the bank visited a supermarket I passed in the morning for some fruit and chocolate and managed to remember the way back to the hostel without the map.

It was a bit of a weird day, perhaps I was still too exhausted from the 12km trek the other day and maybe also because Salzburg has been the loneliest I've been in the last 2 months. I dunno why I managed to pick up random friends really easily the past week.

But at least I've found that some things really make me happy...

1. Brilliant Scenery
2. Soda
3. Chocolate
4. Mid-Afternoon naps

All this been said, I had dinner downstairs at the hostel and managed to meet some really awesome people. I guess I just need to get off the laptop ahahah.

Day 51-52 - Fussen - 20-21st Jan 2008

2008-01-24T20:26:00.000+11:00

Day 51 - 20th Jan

The Korean girl from the Munich hostel came with me to Fussen today. It's funny how many new people you meet whilst traveling. And maybe it's a character flaw but I'm generally very trusting of new people I meet, and usually become friends with most of them. After checkout we got to the train station and loitered for an hour. I had another one of those brilliant sandwiches for breakfast, I also discovered to my delight that they put sunflower seeds on the bread....Mmmmm schmeckt gut.

I slept a lot on the train but when I did wake up I was greeted by the yellow-green fields and towns a few streets wide, but then the first glimpse of the alps and I had to pinch myself. Alps...things I have only seen in movies and on TV and here right in front of me are alps rising to the heavens, speckled with white snow...Wow

Fussen itself is right beneath the alps and it's a really quaint village. I adore quaint villages however Fussen also had it's share of juvenile delinquents. One Turkish boy tried to acoster 5 euros from us because he was taking us to the hostel. He spoke no English and I was playing dumb and kept saying I didn't understand German. Same night my Korean friend was mobbed by some girl saying Konichiwa to her, and she got pretty pissed off but I just laughed. Maybe it's small town syndrome where the kids have absolute shit all to do and are bored out of their minds, so of course it's fun to play with the tourists.

The hostel was a bit B & B like. The man running it was very nice and spoke English very well. We were put into a 4 bed dorm which had a balcony looking directly towards Neuschweinstein. Like OMFG, It's so wonderful I don't think I could leave. After a brief refresher we sought out the bus to the castles. And luckily we found out that we could use the Bayern ticket from the trains on the bus as well score.

There were heaps and heaps of asians on the bus, and in Munich as well, especially Koreans to the utter disgust of my friend ahahah. But on the bus we met 2 Americans who coincidentally where staying in our room. Small world. Anyhoo we got to the castles and headed up towards Neuschweistein. The road up was steep and scattered with horse manure from the carriages that were using it. But the view was just amazing, cameras can't capture it at all. When we got to the castle we were disappointed to find that the small route to the Marienbrucke (A small bridge overlooking the castle) was closed off due to ice and snow. The castle itself is actually unfinished both inside and out and it is not nearly as marvelous as one thinks it is. But rather it's position on a cliffside is deeply enviable and solidifies its status in the annuls of castledom.

Back at Fussen we had Italian for dinner which was hilarious. I ordered minestrone soup and it came out as a clear broth with broccoli, cauliflower and string beans. No tomato? seriously? What part of Italy are you from?

Back at the hostel we discovered that the coin draw for the internet station was unlocked and you could get free internet by putting the same coin repeatedly through the thing. At 5 euros an hour, it was kinda awesome that the drawer was unlocked. The 2 Americans had some massive issues to sort out including lost train tickets to Berlin which were needed the next day and so the free internet was cool, until the owner walks in at around 9pm to check up and sees that the drawer is open. Bum BUM!!!!

So obviously he locks it again, but by the time he goes I pop out my laptop and manage to ethernet it straight to the router. Voila...free net again. I really think governments consider free wireless for everyone. How cool would that be?

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Day 52 - 21st Jan

I sent off my Korean friend this morning, she was off to Stuttgart. I came back to the hostel and had a nice nap since I was woken really early by everyone in the room getting ready to leave.

I didn't make it to the castles till 11am. At the ticket booth I considered getting a tour to the inside of both Neuschweinstein (The fairytale one) and Hohenschwangau (the one Ludwig II's parents lived in). Supposedly the latter has more interesting interiors and because I wanted to visit Schwangau later in the day I didn't think I'd have time to do both, especially as I wanted to make it up to Marienbrucke along another route.

So Hohenschwangau was nice, but however the interiors weren't all that interesting and the guide had that slightly weird German sense of humour that rarely makes you laugh but more smile meekly. I was kinda glad I didn't get tickets to the other tour, it really wasn't worth another 40min trek up the moutain. The views were still amazing from Hohenschwangau and I spied the Alpsee which I headed to next.

The alpsee is a huge lake and it was mostly frozen over that morning. I squealed in absolute delight. I have a thing for frozen lakes. I took so many pictures I lost count. I saw a guy walking on the banks, getting rocks and flinging them onto the ice. I'd thought that'll be fun too so I found an opening to the bank and beneath my feet were lots of pebbles big and small. When you fling a rock, it skids across the ice and makes a whipping noise which echoes across the ENTIRE lake. Any noise you make echoes through this amazing acoustic hall. It was so awesome. I spent at least 30 min doing this. But the ice wasn't thick enough to really step on although I had a mighty good time trying to break through the layer near the bank. I tend to find amusement in very simple things.

Anyhoo I had to drag myself away from the alpsee so I could start my trek up towards the marienbrucke, because the route was still closed at the top, I had to take the extra long route normally buses and cars take. It was an exhausting climb but the road was wide and not that icy. But again the view was spectacular and this time I didn't have to deal with the smell of horse crap.

I think 35min I got to the Marienbrucke and fucking hell it was scary. It was an iron reinforced wooden bridge across a ravine which had a waterfall underneath and neuschweintein to the left. It was magnificently gorgeous but I didn't like it when the wooden panels moved ever so slightly on each step. Again pictures nor video could capture the feeling of sheer terror and natural beauty.

On the way back it seemed that everyone who got there had taken the small route from neuschweinstein. Obviously big danger signs and barriers didn't stop them. I though okay why not take that way back. 10 metres later down a very very icy slope I end up hanging for dear life on the railing next to the cliff as my legs slide from beneath me. Suffice to say I learnt my lesson and went back the way I came up. I don't really think I wanted to tempt fate by falling down an alp.

I spent some more time at the alpsee and then decided to head for Schwangau. I was originally going to catch a bus but since it was one every hour I'd thought I'd just walk the 2km. The route was gorgeous and I did a lot of it backwards admiring the open fields, then the castles and the alps. I have never seen anything so devastatingly beautiful in my life.

The reason I wanted to go to Schwangau which is like the next village is because it's on the Forgesee. Since I had a thing for frozen lakes I thought why not. So it was 2km to the city centre but another 1km to the Forgess. I was pretty tired already but decided to press on. So I got to the Forgesee and what happens? It's a mud pile. Seriously I was so fricking disappointed after the alpsee. Anyhow I didn't know if I could get a bus back to Fussen from Schwangau and it was a 3km trek back to the castles but only 3.5km trek to Fussen at my current point. So I thought, what the hell I'll just walk back. So essentially I walked a round trip between 3 villages. It was bloody tiring and then it got dark, I started thinking. Are there serial killers or wolves lurking in the Bavarian woods? And every German goes past on their bikes staring at me going wtf is a lone Asian doing walking in the Bavarian woods?

But luckily I got back to the hostel at one piece and my new room mate was a chick from Minnesota, had a similar sense of humour and used to play ice hockey. I was like Ha dude you're like my new fav pal. So we ended up having a great time at an Asian restaurant (note no distinction between cuisines, it's just ASIAN). It was run by a mini Viet lady who was watching some Viet soap on a laptop at the counter. Then we had cheap ice cream at the Italian restaurant last night.

I walked at least 12km this day. Like I'm still surprised I was moving.

Day 39 - London - 8th Jan 2008

2008-01-24T20:14:00.000+11:00

So after a particularly bad night for both of us we didn't get out of the hotel till 1:30pm. We popped into Mark's & Spencers down the road which is like the brit version of david jones except with actually quite a good food hall. But today they had refrigeration problems so half the food wasn't even available, Megan got her soda and we managed to find the nearest park, Finsbury Circus to bum at for a bit. It's a bit weird when a circus is actually just denotes a round piece of land. Finsbury Circus is an actual park with a bowling green in the middle but Piccadilly Circus is a glorified roundabout at the intersection of 3 roads or something.

Anyhoo, we set off for downtown and saw the London Stock Exchange and all that, we got to the Monument to the great fire of London and saw it being restored which is disappointing. I guess that's one of the issues with traveling in winter everything is under renovations or closed. The other problem with traveling in winter is that you have to stop every 2 hours and eat. Your body just burns through so much food. So I got myself a sub of the day for 1.99 pounds at subway, Mmmm meatball sammy.

We headed for the Tower Bridge and on the way also bypassed the Tower of London and saw an ice rink which I squealed at. But of course we also squealed at Tower Bridge, and after 6 years since I was last in this city I finally walked across it.

The weather was still windy and cloudy but relatively dry. The southbank walk was nice and we passed the Globe Theatre and had a wander through the Tate Modern, which has as its most recent installation a gigantic crack down the middle of it's exhibition floor called amusingly the turbine hall. I love modern art. Afterwards we trotted along the newish millennium bridge towards St Paul's cathedral. I was thoroughly disappointed that they fixed the wobble of the bridge.

A attempt to make it to Leicester square on the tube was thwarted by "passenger activity", aka the tube's version of saying someone jumped the tracks I guess. So the Piccadilly line was all but shut down and we ended up walking from Holborn through Coventry Garden. We had dinner at the West End Kitchen which I found using some dubious directions like off a treasure map. I also discovered that Gammon steak is some piece of salty ham.

In our bid to find chinatown we ended up walking around in a circle through Piccadilly circus and Soho, the red light district. In fact it was only about 1 street away from where we were but we walked in the opposite direction. London is funny, even it's red light district is more quaint then seedy. Chinatown itself was small and spans about 2 streets. Not incredibly exciting.

We tubed it to Tower Hill for the Ceremony of Keys at the Tower of London. Whilst waiting we were watching people ice skate and this girl fell 4 times in succession the last of which was pretty hard. I couldn't stop laughing. I know it's bad but it was hella funny and the skate marshals couldn't really skate themselves and one of them just looked at her and shook his head. The ceremony of the keys was very interesting, something that has happened non-stop for about 600 years or so. It's basically a bunch of soldiers locking up the Tower of London in a very formal fashion. Possibly fantastic if it wasn't for the blizzard winds descending upon London at that very minute.

Going down the tube stairs on the way back to the hotel I managed to stack it. I guess it was karma for laughing at the girl but at least my stack was very graceful in comparison. We got back and all I craved was a hot cup of Tang. If you're mainland Chinese you'd understand. It seems that the UK doesn't have Tang, nor do any of the Hongkie Asian supermarkets. Major disappointment.

Sometime I wish this blog would write itself

2008-01-23T04:58:00.000+11:00

Okay so new plan now. I'm so behind it's not funny. I'll start writing for the current day from now on and try and polish off some old ones. Otherwise this blog is going to end up like it's stuck in a time warp or something, always perpetually 2 weeks late.

Although it also doesn't help that I haven't had internet access or rather very expensive internet access. My last hostel in Fussen charged 5 euros an hour which was robbery basically so I resorted to plugging in my laptop into the router and stole a few minutes to blast off some emails home so my parents new I was alive. But now I've got free wireless for 3 days here in Salzburg which is fantastic cause it means I can catch the Torchwood ep tmr night. Ah yes don't you just love priorities?

Anyhoo, more posts, I promise...I'll even sacrifice my youth hostel partay time with drunken Aussies and Kiwis (I cannot believe how many Aussies and Kiwis there are, is there anyone left at home?). Socialisation just eats away all my free time but I tend to stay away from the bar anyhoo.

DAY 37-38 - NYC to London - 6-7th Jan 2008

2008-01-19T22:32:00.000+11:00

Day 37 - 6th Jan

Nothing much today other than lots of time spent traveling from place to place and spending time at the airport. Megan said an emotional goodbye to her family and we were off.

Our shuttle (funny how they use that term instead of flight) was late to Philidelphia, which funnily enough is only about a 1.5 hour drive from NYC, so we could have been there earlier with a car. Anyhoo, the shuttle was actually a propellor plane. Yes folks, no engines, just 2 nice propellors to keep you in the air. They didn't provide for a smooth flight either, then again I didn't expect them to.

In Philly I was so hungry I couldn't think so I ended up getting a Maccas salad...why I don't know but it seemed good at the time. I was still hungry though and 6 oreos later I was very regretful that I was hungry in the first place. All whilst US Airways announced that they overbooked the flight and would like volunteers to give up their seats for a return ticket to anywhere that US Airways flies, a meal ticket and a free night's accommodation in Philly. Both Megan and I were like over our dead bodies, we need to be in London tomorrow.

So we got on the plane and although the guy at check-in said we were sitting together, it was obviously not to be. Both Megan and I were stuck in middle seats 10 rows away from each other. Yeah together my arse. And then what happens? I see like 15 free seats. Either US Airways have problems counting the number of clients they have or a load of people missed their connections.

Thank god we got dinner on the plane, although by then Megan had already bought dinner for us. The state of US airlines is just shite, you're happy if you get food on a flight. It was barely a 7 hour flight to London and although I got some sleep I wasn't too enamoured of being woken up at 2:30am for a rectangular breakfast donut. WTF??? who serves that for breakfast?

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Day 38 - 7th Jan

So we get to London in the morning and we're all happy at Gatwick airport. I get our train tickets to Cardiff and Birmingham sorted and got to Farringdon station via a first capital train. Even though there was lovely scenery of green Megan and I both slept most of the way. We got to Farringdon and realised...FUCK...the station has no escalators or lifts. 2 staircases later with a LOT of luggage (Megan's going to France for an entire year, one look at her suitcase and my back waves the white flag) we make it to the otherside of the platform so we can get the tube to Liverpool Station were we can check our bags since it was only 11am and Travelodge doesn't let you check in till 3pm.

We should really have headed people's recommendations of not traveling on the tube with mighty amounts of luggage. Alas it wasn't peak hour at least. London really needs to look into have disabled access to it's public transport system cause they are going to be fucked for the 2012 olympics if they don't. 70% of the tube stations don't have lifts or escalators...like come on, we know we have legs but our suitcases don't.

So after what seemed hours checking in our luggage, where the women kept asking questions like...Did you pack your bags yourselves? and making us take our laptops out, we finally got out. And the first thing we did? Tube to Westminster, walk out exit number 2 and turn around...and stare Big Ben RIGHT IN THE FACE. I love it. This is exactly the feeling which makes me love traveling so much.

Too bad it was pissing with rain and windy, ah London, so predictable. So we walked across the bridge to the southbank, walking backwards and taking pictures of course. I acted nonchalant like an old hat since I've been there before. We got to the south bank and it was still windy and pissing with rain and what do we see? A McDonald's...or rather shelter. I was hungry and we both baulked at the prices, but I parted with 10 bucks for a big mac meal. But it was damn satisfying.

Once we got out it was sunny. So we made hay. Went around the sights nearby, Westminster Abbey, St James Park, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square all the while the weather couldn't make it's mind up about whether it wanted to be rainy or sunny. I think it was quite confused. We had a quick run through the national gallery where Megan kept falling asleep on every bench and then decided perhaps it was time to pick up our bags and head for the hotel.

I looked at the map and the Travelodge we booked at was quite near Liverpool St Station so we decided to walk it but not before asking the left luggage person, who said something to the effect of "I've lived here forever and I ain't heard of city road", perhaps it was my mispronounciation of "ci-y"? Next we asked a taxi driver, whose reply was oh yes just over that way and up. So we started walking...it was wet and lots of cobblestone, we were in the old town after all.

But still 15min we weren't there. Twisting and turning through a group of roads called Finsbury Square, jet lag, rain and heavy luggage was taking it's toll and tempers were starting to flare, and it wasn't any better that my map was saying it was only a little bit further but still no sign of city road. Another 10 min and we pass a brightly lit foyer...hey wait...isn't that?...the sign said TRAVELODGE, in the hallowed words of RTD...HOORAY!!!! On second thought it was actually quite close but everything combined and not knowing where the actual place was made the trip seem like hours.

So a bit of a refresher later at a new yet somewhat motelish Travelodge we decided to go in search of food, heading towards Old Road Station. This is were jet lag stupour really hit in. What we should have done was got some food, ate it and headed straight back to sleep. Instead we found supermarkets around a 20min walk away and decided that it'll be a good idea to haul back fruit, a jar of jam and 6x1.5 litres of water whilst it's pissing down with rain.

I was so close to chucking a spaz, but I kept my cool and then we just crashed at the hotel and ate some inedible psuedo Asian takeout.

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more pics here http://picasaweb.google.com/LJK131/London

DAY 35-36 - NYC - 4-5th Jan 2008

2008-01-18T09:28:00.000+11:00

Day 35 - 4th Jan

Went straight to Moma this morning. And although Moma had a fantastic collection especially the graphic design and product design sections one particular thing left a sour taste in my mouth. No eating in the museum, not in the foyer, not in the gardens, not ANYWHERE. But they only enforce the rule when you're on your last bite. But why have ubiquitous bins around in the statue garden if you're not allowed to eat? Do people discard a lot of paper in the statue garden? Am I not allowed to admire Henri Matisse whilst sitting on a chair in the middle of a pavement munching an apple?

Seriously, MOMA definitely wins on museum anal retentivity. I was so hungry I nearly managed to chomp down an exhibit.

Afterwards we met the rest of the Hau clan for a very late lunch at serendipity. Famous for its frozen hot chocolates and massive deserts. Writing this makes me insanely hungry. But not having had lunch I first woofed down a footlong hot dog, as massive as it sounds, it really wasn't all that filling. Then came the pinnacle of my time in the US. Peanut Butter Pie. I can't say I love it, but it was a definite memorable experience. I would liken it to eating a half jar of peanut butter along with 2 cookies. Absolutely sickening, yet a life experience.

I woke up today, and I was already tired and by Serendipity, I wanted nothing but a bed. So afterwards whilst the others all headed for MOMA's free friday night, I headed back to the hotel and ultimately crashed for about 4 hours. I've been running around NYC non-stop for about 8 days, and my body was just saying no.

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Day 36 - 5th Jan

Today was shopping and supplies day. I hit Century 21 first after sending off some postcards at the US postal office. Century 21 is NYC's answer to the factory outlet. It's a department store but has all the unwanted stuff from other department stores and top brands.

So essentially I went pretty crazy, well not that crazy cause I didn't have much room in my suitcase and I didn't want to be lugging extra shit around for the next 1.5 months. But I did leave with a red polo jumper and 2 pairs of nike sneakers. Oh if I had more room for sneakers I would have bought HEAPS. They were like 40 bucks for a pair which would go for around 160 in Aus. Note next time bring empty suitcase.

I hit Modells for some more thermals, and the pharmacy for some stuff. Then I settled down, ate a really shite burger meal and packed whilst watching Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves. Tonight was my last night in NYC and it was the only chance I'd get to see the Blue Man Group perform. I first heard of them through the Intel Ads and fell totally in love with the music they were making.

Going to NYC I definitely wanted to see 2 things, Avenue Q and Blue Man Group. So the first was done but the 2nd kept getting delayed longer and longer. So I rang them up to see if they had $26 student rush tickets on offer (they go on sale 1 hour before the show), the guy said very unlikely, so I asked if the 10pm show was possible (they had 3 shows a day on Friday but the 7pm didn't have student rush), he said yes definitely. I was elated because the original price of a ticket is $78. So it's a huge saving.

I get to the theatre at around 8:50. And it's a really small theatre. That's the thing with New York that really surprised me, most of the broadway theatres and this one (even though it's not actually on Broadway) are really quite small. The Avenue Q one is probably smaller than the Seymour and the BMG one was essentially a basement theatre.

So I got to the Ticket booth at 9pm, asked the chick. Are you selling student rush yet? She looks at me and goes, oh I dunno if we're selling student rush tonight. I looked at her like my soul has been crushed and went...but but...I phoned and the guy said you were. *pout*...she then looks at the guy across the room and he says something like yes and then she goes okay and i'm like OMFG< thank you for making my night. And yeah 26 bucks for front row. Sure it was right in the corner but still front row baby. To thank them I also bought a 25 buck t-shit, see when you're nice to students you actually end up earning money.

The show itself is just phenomenal. Part comedy, surrealism, music, music education, music humour and audience participation. And this is all done with the 3 blue guys never saying anything. I got sprayed with some banana gunk during the middle. Oh and did I mention the first 5 rows get ponchos? And on your ticket it actually says seating area...PONCHO...how friggin' awesome is that? In the end giant rolls of crepe paper were unravelled and passed down from the back of the theatre to the stage entangling the audience whilst strobe lighting cause you to see single frames of everything during a gigantic session of electronic. It was an experience, and bloody hell it was one of the best this entire trip. I came out and was like, omfg, I might have to go see them in Berlin, I don't care that I don't know any German. They are that good.

Funnily enough I got back to the hotel at about 12:30am and Megan's clan also arrived just as I was waiting for the lift, they'd just come back from Atlantic City and I was like...my night was so fricking awesome.

Day 32-34 - NYC - 1st-3rd Jan 2008

2008-01-18T03:30:00.000+11:00

I'm running around 15 days behind right now. And my memory isn't to be relied upon at the moment so I'll give my best shot with the rest of NYC with the notes I currently have, which are running about 50 words a day. So depending on how much my photos tell me, these entries might be a bit short.

Here we go.

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Day 32 - 1st Jan '08

Ahoy we're finally into the new year and we started off by getting kicked out of our rooms and moving into new ones. Our new rooms were only slightly bigger than our old ones but now at least I had a bed. A shared bed, but a bed nonetheless. Settling into life in Tribeca (where supposedly Robert De Niro also lives) I basically lived off the 2 24 hour markets a block away from the hotel. Soup, pound food, bagels with cream cheese and of course all the general supplies, fruit and water. It's so brilliant having markets which never close. Craving something at 1am? No problems.

So after starting the day with some soup and bread I headed off to Bryant Park to skate in the early afternoon. I've probably mentioned it before but Bryant Park has free ice skating...like OMFG. I got there and there was hardly a line and I got in pretty quick, but problem is that it was packed to the rafters. Although you couldn't skate really fast because of the people, and despite the fact that all the people have made the ice very choppy, it was still nice dry ice, none of the wet crap in Sydney.

At 17:00 they cleared to ice to Zamboni it. 20min later I was one of the first people on and although I got told to slow down, my god was it cool. The feeling was absolutely sensational. Fresh ice, middle of New York, flying and then SCHhhhhh STOP. Skategasm.

When I had enough I went back to the hotel and was told that Megan would bring back dinner. So I waited hungrily for a long time and ended up with Pho, which is totally fine except for the fact that raw beef was put on top of noodles which were separate from the now warmish soup. Fine if I had a microwave but I didn't want to take my chances with the raw beef, especially when half of Megan's clan was sick with some viral crap. So a very soupy dinner was had along with a tv menu of Kill Bill 1 & 2 and the new Superman.

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Day 33 - 2nd Jan 2008

I went skating in the morning after a bagel with cream cheese...Mmmm. I'm going to get back to Sydney and totally be craving that. It was cold and about 10 people were on the ice which should have been fantastic except that after about 20min the blisters I received from last nights marathon session started playing up and I couldn't go for any longer. Which sucked. Anyhoo.

I trotted up to the Avenue Q box office and managed to get quite good discount tix to tomorrow nights show. Then I headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was fantastic baring a few things.

- random exhibitions which closed early
- dickhead staff
- the sea of people

Museums really start sucking when there are way too many people, and there where way way too many people. But on the plus side I saw a lot of Picassos, Miros and Monets...Mmmmm awesome. And they have an entire Egyptian Temple rebuilt inside it. Like Whoa. They had an entire wing of Rembrandts but then I wasn't really a big fan so I passed through pretty quickly. Andy Warhol's huge portrait of Chairman Mao was however, brilliant.

Came back to the hotel and had expensive Japanese for dinner near the hotel.

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Day 34 - 3rd Jan 2008

Today was FREaking FReezing....-9C. I walked out with Megan's cousin Michelle and it was so cold we had to run most of the way through the city. It was so cold water froze from the fire hydants and I cold feel my thermal pants cracking when I walked. In other words, it was BLOODY COLD!!!.

So the day went like this, cream cheese bagel, nintendo world, get top of the Rock tix for later and then to the Natural History Museum.

The Museum was freaking awesome. Much more friendlier than the Met, cause largely it was aimed at kids. As a big kid myself I absolutely loved it. I went totally giddy at all the Dinosaur fossils and went around embarrassing myself shouting...OMFG STEGASAURUS...and the like for most of it. The other stuff was generally creepy dioramas but sure hell beats the Australian Museum which I think has like butterflies and that's it.

We met up with Megan and her Dad at the Top of the Rock at around sunset. Going up it doesn't seem that high but it is. And of course it was freezing. The good thing was that all the outside decks had perspex walls stopped some of the wind. It was nice cause we got to see the sunset and also NYC at night. And it was pretty bright.

Got back to the hotel via the Rockefeller and got some pretty bad pound food (it's like a buffet but you get what you want and then they weigh it and it's like 6 bucks a pound) from the market and then Megan, Tracey and I headed to Avenue Q on Broadway.

Since I've already seen the bootleg I new what was pretty much going to happen but it still didn't diminish the awesomeness of this musical. You will never look at puppets again and I also had a brief freakout moment when I realised by this time next yeah I'll just be like Princeton, 23, with an Arts degree and no purpose. ARRRGH.

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More photos are here http://picasaweb.google.com/LJK131/RestOfNYCLotsOfMuseums

hmmurgh

2008-01-14T03:47:00.000+11:00

Hi People, I'm still alive, I just haven't had the internet for about a week and I have written nothing because insidious cough has come back and travel fatigue has really taken it's toll, even meeting John Barrowman didn't help too much.

However I'll try and finish off the bulk of NYC and start on some fascinating tales of old Britannia cause god knows this is the leg of the trip where EVERYTHING fucks up.

I love this country so much, but by golly the past few days have really taken it's toll on that love.

Too tired to really hate things though, I've just realised that I've spent more time overseas than Amazing Race Winners. I have strange dreams about returning home to rest and then continuing my journey, but then I wake up and realise I won't see home for another month and a bit.

I love and miss you all, I just wish things would stop fucking up for a few days cause I really need rest. Currently in Stratford-Upon-Avon...and hungry.

peace out,

LJ

DAY 31 - NYE in NYC - 31st Dec

2008-01-03T14:48:00.000+11:00

This was my downtown manhattan escapade. I got up pretty early and walked to and over the brooklyn bridge. It was cold but pretty awesome. So I got on the other side to brooklyn and kind freaked out a little. I mean it was brooklyn. But I ended up have pancakes at a diner near the exit of the bridge. 3 huge pancakes, coffee and 2 sips of orange juice was supposedly $3.95 but add tips and tax it was quickly over $6. That's the problem with this country, sometimes things are deceptively cheap, it tends to fuck with my head.

I got the subway to the financial hub. It was pretty empty since everyone was off for NYE. However once I got to wall st, there were hordes of tourists doing the obligatory of visiting the New York Stock Exchange, I was no exception. But wall street is like any other financial center in the world, hideously dull, so taking a stroll past the harbour I went down to Battery Park.

The lines for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferries stretched for an eternity. Obviously I was not going to get to either today, so I walked to the Staten Island ferries, which go to Staten Island obviously but other than that, they are free, and go straight past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

On the outside of the ferry, the wind chill added to an already chilly day, and it was absolutely FREEZING, but I managed to last long enough to see both sighs. The statue was kind of disappointing really, it's tiny, all the movies and pictures make it out to be this awesome sight right next to Manhattan, but rather it's this tiny thing way in the distance. You can hardly see it from Battery Park.

I got back and managed to make my way up to the Bull near Wall St. I wanted a picture with it, but poor thing was being harrassed by a horde of barbarian tourists whom were climbing on it and everything. So I decided to give it a reprieve of a few days till my fat arse lands on it.

Kept heading north and found the WTC sight. There wasn't much to see other than an obvious construction sight, but it was still a bit emotional standing there. I was in time for the sunset on the Hudson river which was glorious as sunsets always are.

After some soup and a bagel with cream cheese (which is shaping up to be one one of my fav foods ever) I had a nap in prep for NYE at times square. The clan headed to Chinatown for some shanghainese style dinner at around 8. We didn't actually make it to Times Square till about 10pm and thus were penned on 40th St facing the back of the Crystal Ball, meaning we couldn't see jack.

It was well that we only waited 2 hours cause the resulting crappiness had to seen to be believed...no countdown no nothing, 10 seconds worth of fireworks off one building and that was it, everyone either went home or to an after party. Perhaps it was my lack of inebriation but by god that was probably the most sucky NYE I've ever had. I think NYE in Sydney is probably the best in the world now.

We got back to the hotel and ended up watching the South Park movie on telly. I think that was the highlight of my night. I love that movie.

DAY 30 - Random NYC cont... - 30th Dec

2008-01-03T13:30:00.000+11:00

I was going to go skating this morning but then decided to get up at 10:30, and the Knicks vs Bulls game at Madison Square Gardens I had tickets to, started at 12pm. I got off at Chelsea and took a nice little stroll up to the gardens with my bagel in tow, how very New Yorker of me.

The game kinda sucked, the knicks really sucked at the moment, especially with the entire crowd chanting .."fire isaiah"...Isaiah Thomas been the much useless and maligned coach of the current Knicks. But to be actually watching a live NBA match at the gardens when I'm a huge basketball fan...priceless.

Finally had my first NY hot dog after the game, tasted good but it was actually quite small. I'll have to demand all my hot dogs with sauerkraut now.

I had time to kill so I headed up to Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the upper west side. Supposedly it is the largest cathedral in the world. Part of it was destroyed in a fire a few years back so it is under heavy construction. On my way there I actually got lost and a couple of German backpackers asked me for directions and I directed them the wrong way. Funnlly enough I've been asked directions a lot, maybe I act like a true New Yorker ahaha, usually I'm actually pretty successful directing people.

When I got out of cathedral it started raining, pretty tired I did some fruit shopping before heading back to the hotel. I had a dinner of classic buffalo wings, ribs and seasoned fries with the the younger part of the Hau clan. Dinner was great only marred by the fuckwit service I received at Baskin Robbins after.

DAY 29 - Random NYC cont... - Dec 29

2008-01-03T13:23:00.000+11:00

I had another late start to the day, sleeping on the floor hardly puts me in a good mood. However after having what could be considered lunch I headed to the ice rink and picked up my skates, lined up for about 30min and finally got in.

It was fantastic, skating in the open. I haven't done that since I was 10 in Beijing. But this was in between skyscrapers. Although it was so full you could hardly skate, and that I also had to break in my new skates, I couldn't do much, but the prevailing feeling was of utter sweetness. The rinks in Sydney could never compare, even when the surface is choppy the ice doesn't turn into slush and by the end of the sessions you're not swimming in a shallow pond. Did I also mention no actual session times? So you can literally skate from 8am to 12am, a whole 14 hours if you wanted. But I was pretty spent after an hour and desperately hungry too, so I decided it was time to leave.

I headed to the burger joint on 57th St which came highly recommended on several top burger lists. I bypassed it with really knowing a couple of days ago when I was near Carnegie hall. However the actual address directs you right into the Le Parker Meridian Hotel, the thing is that the Burger Joint is a hole in the wall place in the lobby of the hotel. No signs other than a neon burger directing the way, and both days there was a hefty line outside. So I join the back of the line.

35min I was finally inside. It was small 6 booths, 1 stool table and 2 normal tables, the kitchen resembled some of those floating stalls in Blade Runner and the Fifth Element. The food was quite expensive for the fare, $11.75 for a burger, fries and a drink. The burger was small compared to most, but the pattie was thick. It was tasty, but I can't help thinking I would have enjoyed the entire experience if I had lined up for less time and had more time to enjoy my food rather than scoffing it down because everyone behind you is giving you the death stare. Then I found out you could actually call in and order, I think I might do that next time, but still, I guess you'll loose the atmosphere, and the price is a tad too high for takeout burgers.

I digested in the lobby of Le Parker Meridian. New York nearly doesn't have enough resting spots, I think hotel lobby's are a fab replacement. Usually I guess in Sydney, I just bum on the UTS couches.

I headed down 5th Ave later, and squealed thoroughly over the NBA store, pity that it only sold adiddas stuff though. And there wasn't anything particularly old school to tempt me. Walking down 5th Ave I realised that New York fashion is so much more hip and heaps cooler than the west coast. Although San Fran had its indie moments, I just want to take all of NYC with me in my suitcase. Every clothing and shoe store I pass I'm like ohhhh, that's nice. Whereas in LA it was like, yeah that's nice if I'd like to go hang with my homies in south central.

The crowds around Rockefeller and Times Square were insane, shoulder to shoulder and to cross the road you had to shuffle. Through the rockefeller, I found something that I was looking for since I got to the city.

The nintendo store, 2 levels, full of Wiis and DSs for your pleasure....and pleasurable it was. I need to go back and get countless nerd T-shirts I've always wanted. But I could just spend days in there playing every single game they have. And they even had the Wii Raygun system setup too, *salivates*...heaven.

At night I had cheap roast duck wonton noodles which were cheap and totally fabulous and a wonder through chinatown and little italy. Maccas and Burger King both had signs in Chinese, like wtf? And little Italy was like a bright more neon sparkly version of Norton St, not very Godfather at all. I was a little disappointed.

times square at night

DAY 28 - Random NYC #2 - 28 Dec

2007-12-31T17:33:00.000+11:00

Another late morning resulted in a hurried dash to central park. I got to the Wollman rink and proceeded to devour the leftovers of last night's Korean and an apple still from San Fran. Central Park itself was quite bare as it was winter, but it's vastness is breathtaking. Beyond the literary walk and some ponds and nice architecture I found myself in the random bushes called the rambles. Think Blair Witch project and that's what it was like, very serial killer movieish. In a guide book I read it actually warns against walking through it's area at night. I wonder why, it felt pretty creepy even in daylight. I was so excited to see an area marked on the map as the Shakespeare gardens, cause been the uber Shakespeare fan I am, but once I got there it was a tiny patch of dirt with plaques hailing quotes from Twelfth Night and the like. Note to self...come in summer next time.

I got as far as the Jackie Onassis Reservoir which felt bigger on the map, but it was still pretty damn big. One thing I hated about central park was that since it was winter was that they turned off all the water bubblers, presumably so the pipes don't freeze and crack, omfg, if I was running in central park I'd be totally pissed off.

One thing about America and to a degree the northern hemisphere are squirrels. Everytime I see one, I squeal in delight and now my camera is just full of squirrel pictures and there are many a squirrel in Central Park. Possums don't even come close in novelty and cuteness.

I head back down to 9th Ave Pizzeria for lunch, it came as recommended on menupages.com but frankly it was pretty average. The food was relatively cheap so I didn't really mind. Then I made my way down to 44th and found the much famed Actors Studio started by Lee Strasberg and made such greats as Al Pacino. It wasn't greatly exciting though, I'd though they might have had pamphlets but they probably don't even need the extra publicity.

9 Avenue through the 40s is the area known as Hell's Kitchen, a district known for its links to the theatre and the arts, it's close to the Broadway theatres and many famous actors made their homes here since rent was cheap. Now the area has been much gentrified but the remnants of the old district still survive, the ubiquitous delis, small restaurants, laundromats and greengrocers. It has the largest collection of essentials which I have seen around mid-town and although 9th avenue is a bit old and dingy compared to say 6th or 5th, it really embodies a great cultural atmosphere.

Megan's flight still hadn't arrived so I thought I might go check out Bryant Park which I knew from my research had a free ice rink during the winter. Consulting my map I realised it was actually behind the NY public library I went to yesterday. How did I miss an entire park? I definitely need my eyesight checked when I get back. Seeing the ice rink made me think about the ice skates in the sports store i encountered yesterday before I got to Grand Central Terminal. So on a whim I thought I'd go seek it out, since they sold cheap thermals. So around i walk, 41st, 5th ave, nothing, i got another 3 blocks the other direction nothing. Ask 3 cops and 1 security guard...do you know a sport store around here?...No. Nothing...1 hour later, 5 circles of around 4 blocks each I finally find it, adjacent to Grand Central terminal and a block away from where I started. And indeed it was a sports called Modells. Perhaps people would understand if I actually asked for Modells...*collapses from exhaustion*

So I'm browsing skates at Modells, $50 with 20% off, so $40 for a pair of Bauer Supreme Elites, or CCM hockey skates and Bauer Vapours for $57, Bauer vapours are like AUS$300, I squealed then realised the last 3 pairs are all not my size. I debated heaps long, and ended up purchasing the $40 CCM ones, + skate guards, bag and my thermals, it was like $80. I didn't even think about the fact that I'll have to lug around ice skates through half the world, I just wanted to skate.

So I hurriedly got back to Bryant park to drop my newly bought skates to be sharpened, upon taking them out of the box, I realised...shit, only one skate had laces. I asked the sharpener dude he's like sorry can't help you. So I run the 4 blocks back to Modells, take some laces out of another box and run back to my hostel since it had been an hour since Megan called to say her flight had landed. I get to my hostel drenched in sweat, look up the address of the hotel we're meant to be staying at the made my way downtown. I'm so glad everything is so insanely close and runnable and subwayable in New York.

I met up with Megan's clan and ended up having a very unsatisfactory dinner of Viet food cooked by Japanese people.

DAY 27 - randomly walking NYC - 27th Dec

2007-12-31T17:24:00.000+11:00

I woke up late cause couldn't sleep, got woken up during the night by a very loud street and people coming back to the hostel very late, but that's what you get when you share a room with 8 people. The hostel was situated in mid-town, very handy with only a 2 block walk to times square, i guess which is the centre of NYC.

The day was very wet and quite cold. The rain was misty and light but just didn't stop. I didn't really have a plan for the day so I just started walking. I walked up 8th avenue through the entire theatre district all the way up to Carnegie hall, which was a tad ugly on the inside. I'm sure it's all pretty on the inside but I couldn't manage to get tickets to the last concert for the year and the only on in the period I'm in NYC.

I headed down to 8th Ave and 38th St to have lunch at the village 38, which was cheap and very filling. I kept walking along 38th through the garment district which was full of material stores with my personal favourite, Spandex World. The NY Public library was just up ahead and they are currently having an exhibition on Beat writer and pioneer Jack Kerouac. I just wish I was more well read and actually knew some beat literature. Anyhoo, the library is quite awesome, very classic design.

About 2 blocks from the library was the Grand Central Terminal, so much has been said about it but personally I was a tad disappointed. It just didn't seem as grand as I thought it would be. But it was still pretty cool.

Another few blocks up was the Rockefeller centre It's a huge collection of buildings, stores, with an ice rink and a huge Christmas tree to top it off. Pedestrian traffic here is insane. I thought Shanghai would be the only city to have that kind of pedestrian traffic, but like whoa. It was a human sea, elbow to elbow and you had to bump people out of the way to get anywhere. I absolutely loved it, just being around so many people.

Back from Rockefeller, I went through 37th street which was literally diamond alley, lined to the hilt with jewellery stores and diamond dealers. It was like a piece of Dubai stuck in the middle of Manhattan.

Times square at night is possibly brighter than it is at daytime. There is an aura of bright white light which emanates from the square it's visible many streets down. I walked into the 2 level M & Ms store, marvelled at it's level of commercial crassness and use the 2nd level windows to take pictures of the humongous Rambo billboard which was up. I seriously love this city.

I went down to 32nd St for dinner at a Korean (buffet by the pound, presumably they have a buffet, you pick your food and they weigh it $6.49/lb). I quickly realised that 32nd st was Korea town. Manhattan is funny in away, everything, every culture is condensed down to one street or a series of streets. Every avenue also has it's own flavour and culture. It's a society of amalgamation, a cultural hot pot of goodies around the world.

The streets are also covered with these steel doors on the pavement, you think they're just grills but in fact they lead to the cellar of every street store and all the deliveries are made down this front hatch every morning and every night. In crowded and competitive environments humanity invents ways of meeting its needs and economy.

I guess that's why I've totally fallen in love with this city so quickly. It doesn't bother me at all that the streets are dank, the subways filthy and funky smells come from everywhere. But it's seriously global, it's smart, hip and very cool. I'd like to think of myself as somewhat a global citizen and since I got here I've realised I've developed a NYC swagger. The minute I stepped out onto the streets, I felt like this could be home. It's FANTASTIC and London watch out cause New York could become my next fav city.

DAY 26 - BAY AREA TO NEW YORK - 26th Dec

2007-12-30T15:13:00.000+11:00

So again I got up at some ridiculously early hour to get to my flight at San Jose. My aunt drove me to the airport and dropped me off at Terminal A, turns out that United Airlines was actually at Terminal C. So I had to track down a bus whilst my aunt went and parked her car. Got to the terminal and the lines were gigantic, after spending 10min in the self check-in with the line going absolutely nowhere, i decided to spend 2 bucks at the curbside check-in where the line was only about 4 people long.

Bade farewell to my aunt and headed through security who insisted on checking my bag, cause fuck knows what was in it. The guy ended up taking out a glad-lock bag with my stapler and locks etc. Ended up putting the bag through the xray again and was satisfied that my stapler wasn't some kind of weapon. Seriously, the more I travel in this country, the more pissed I'm getting at its airports. Is it possible to have some form of decent customer service rather than treating every passenger like some form of potential threat. It's no wonder that tourism has gone down here. Why would people bother if the experience is so unpleasant.

Anyhoo, I get to the gate with about 10min before boarding started. So I dump my stuff on a seat and crash for a bit. I get on the plan and we're in the air and then I realise...FUCK my scarf is not around my neck, and if it's not around my neck it's very unlikely to be in my bag either.

I get to Chicago O'Hare Airport and go through my bag. Nothing. It's my favourite and ONLY scarf, mum got for me a couple of years back. And it was a nice khaki green which kind of went with all the clothing I had. Especially my new Burton Jacket and Timberland boots...ARRRGH.

So then I check the departures board after having a moments of silence for my scarf which is probably indentured by the TSA in San Jose. What do I find? My flight to New York, Scheduled for 3:50pm departure...delayed till 5:25pm....FUCK!!!!

So even though my plan of getting an earlier flight to New York would have left me some time to enjoy the big apple before I go to bed tonight, it has been thwarted by hideous flight delays. So now I've spent $50 on accommodation for tonight when the entire day has been either spent on a plane or in an airport.

Chicago O'Hare would also like to charge me $7 to use their wireless network...FUCK this...ARRRGH. Instead I'll try and finish all my journal entries whilst listening to the Cheungmeister to keep me sane and relatively happy.

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Okay so then the plane gets to gate B18 at 4:55...we are then told...sorry the plane can't go out now because it's due for a mechanical and we don't have a crew, we'll make a final decision at 9pm when we hopefully find a crew, but currently please feel free to head to the customer service desk and ask to go on standby for the next available flights to New York La Guardia. So everyone's like Oh. FUCK!!!!, thanks for telling us NOW.

So i'm in the line at the service desk with about 20 people in front of me, and 50 people behind me and the chick yells to everyone. Okay, I've got every flight booked from today and tomorrow, I'll put you guys all on standby but your chances are slim. Seriously? United Airlines you suck!!!

I get on standby on the 6:00pm flight I head to the gate and listen to the names being called. I swear it was like something out of the Amazing Race. So anyway, we get to the end and I see the chick who was behind me in the line get her name called WTF? Someone else told me later than standby doesn't rely on first come, first serve, but more on how much you paid for the ticket, obviously I didn't pay enough.

So the 6:00pm flight leaves, supposedly with all of my flight's luggage too, so the plane actually has room from all the luggage from another flight but not for any of the passengers. And to add insult, my suitcase will end up in NY before I do. I check with the service desk again and yep my flight UA 688 has now been officially cancelled, yay.

So I wait, I talk to random people, I wait, I sleep whilst my standby status rolled over to the next flight. I just wanted out of Chicago. At least I was by myself and wasn't dragging around a kid or something, this other woman had a toddler, that would have sucked. Luckily I got onto the 8:45pm flight, which was the last flight to La Guardia out of Chicago that day. I get to NY at around 12:00, and by the time I get my taxi and hit my hostel it was 1am. I just spent the entire day on planes and at airports.

So my 1 hour layover at Chicago turned into 6. Lessons learnt for the day:

1. Never ever transfer through Chicago O'Hare even if you have to cut off your right leg.
2. Never ever fly United, or if you have to, expect lots of delays and cancellations.

blogging

2007-12-29T16:06:00.000+11:00

ahaha so I'm still horribly behind. What I've decided is that I won't post pics along with the post until i full catch up. Because that's what takes the most time, so the blog will just have to suffer through the fugliness. Check out the photos on picasaweb if you have the time, there are more on picasaweb than the ones I put on facebook.

I think the meeting with jacky cheung still hasn't worn off, I made a very impulsive purchase of ice skates today, like wtf? i guess i wanted to do a lot of skating around the world. but they were 40 bucks, so i guess it's okay, my poor credit card though.

new york is fab, more on that later, and of course a huge post vegas jacky thing is still to come, and perhaps some retrospective stuff on the rest of northern california, e.g. alcatraz etc. Blogging whilst travelling is intense, i dunno how people manage to do it properly.

till later, toodles

DAY 20 - Monterey

2007-12-29T16:02:00.000+11:00

Monterey is a seaside town 2 hours south of the Bay Area. There is famous nature park drive called the 17 mile scenic drive which offers some spectacular views of the pacific ocean, million dollar houses, golf courses and wind swept cypress trees. This is where the very rich reside. 2 acres of pacific front property will set you back around a steep 19 million. However the area does provide a photographer's dream.

Seals and various bird species laze around the marine park but you also find valley girl types in mini skirts wandering around the cypress bushes in their skank uggs. Not even the beauty of baby seals can make up for that sight.

pics here

DAY 19 - Napa Valley & UC Berkley - 19th Dec

2007-12-29T15:57:00.000+11:00

I far from being a wine connisuer, I hardly drink the stuff. But in one day at Napa I somehow turned into a wine appreciator who kind knew what she was talking about. Ha, I gotta thank my parents for taking me on that winery tour in the Hunter Valley that year. Anyway, Napa is a part of a very large winery county in Northern California. It is absolutely huge, we only managed to perhaps cover 1/10 of the area that day. It was overcast but the misty created such a beautiful atmosphere. Wine regions are always beautiful no matter what, and Napa is no exception.

The real shitty thing is that tasting costs money. We got some free passes from the tourist centre, but I'm so used to the free for all tasking available at the Hunter Valley. So when I see people pay $25 to taste like 8 wines, I think it's an absolute ripoff. That been said, I had an absolute blast getting tipsy at Aturri's, partly cause I didn't each much breakfast.

After going lobster red, we'd thought we'd picnic at Atturri's with our previously acquired KFC. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and coleslaw to dilute some fine wine. Heaven.

Met a bunch of nice people at St Clement's later in the day. I really feel sorry for my cousins cause they're 19 and drinking age is stupidly 21 in this country so there were thoroughly bored, whilst I was having an absolute ball cracking jokes, getting drunk and pretending I understood wine and the like.

Coming back from Napa, we took a stop at University of California, Berkley, where both my cousins are studying undergrad medicine. Very smart boys most of them. Surprisingly I actually liked the Berkley campus more than Stanford. It doesn't purport to be what it's not, aka some historical institution. Outside of the main campus the town is also very nice and has a real college atmosphere. Taking a squiz at their library made me realise just how inadequate UTS is in the world league of Unis. We're like a primary school compared to the likes of Berkley. However, you have to share rooms like school camp. The dorms are all like 3 to a room. And that would kinda suck. I like my privacy too much.

pics here

DAY 18 - Downtown San Francisco part II - 18th Dec

2007-12-29T15:55:00.000+11:00

Another day in downtown San Fran, I took the BART again, and it was pissing down with rain. I hung around the union square shops for a bit and then went around Yebuena gardens, which were indeed very grey and very wet and cold. I thought about going to museum of modern art which was right next to the gardens but realised would have to take off most of the layers i was wearing and I really couldn't be bothered.

So I made my way to the Powell st cable cars and took a cable car to Lombard street, a bogan aussie family sits next too me..by god, does the aussie accent really sound that bogan? Rain starts pissing down the minute I get off the car on
Lombard street. It's still grey and wet, but i decided to walk down and up anyway. The street supposedly holds the record for being the crookedest road in the world. It's just really a series of zigzags down a hill. Perhaps it's prettier in summer when all the flowers lining the road bloom.

So it pisses down some more and I caught the next cable car to fisherman's wharf. Relieved myself at the restroom in the Del Monte Cannery. Brilliantly hidden public restroom in san fran that I know about due to the fact that the restroom at Starbucks the other day was out and I was directed to this one by the starbucks guy. Oh yeah and it is a working cannery. I don't know what they can but it's probably fish.

I walked out and it was all sunny, wtf? san fran is becoming more like sydney everyday. I hung around the wharf a bit, checked out Hyde Pier which had moored boats you can tour.

Decided weather was good enough to visit the wave organ. But was famished so hopped into In & Out Burger. Last time I had In & Out (A Californian tradition since the burger chain only exists in this state) I didn't get a chance to try the burger, this time I had the works, a burger, fries and a strawberry shake. The shake is still the most awesome shake ever. Right amount of creaminess and not too cold and not overly sweet. The fries are fresh but are not double fried which means they lose their crunchiness very quickly which is disappointing. So by the end of your meal you end up with some very limp fries. The burger although very fresh still felt a bit greasy and the entire slice of raw onion they put in played with the flavour a little too much. I like my onions grilled thanks. But overall a very satisfactory and filling lunch for $6.17. Did I also mention that I was served by Derrell, whose identical twin brother, younger by 22min Terrell was serving the 2nd counter? Only in America.

I hiked (san fran offers a lot of urban hiking) to the bus stop to get a bus to the Palace of Art, a huge grecian column thingymajigmy in the middle of San Fran, built in 1915 for some fair. It's great, it's beautiful but it really doesn't have any other purpose than just sitting there and looking pretty.

Took a detour around Marina park, absolutely stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Beach was full of people and dogs. Took my time getting to the Wave Organ which was at the end of a piece of random land jutting out from the Marina. It was wet going but once I got there, the wave organ was thoroughly disappointing as it was too small and hardly made a sound. Perhaps the tides were too low, however I found something else to occupy my time. Standing there it felt like being in the middle of the ocean. Golden Gate to the east, Alcatraz to the west, Marin County to the North and Downtown San Fran in the South. I was standing in the middle of beauty. A few other people were standing just like me, deep in there own thoughts, in awe of what man and nature have created in this city.

I took the bus back to fisherman's wharf and the light was waning and the seediness of the area became more and more evident. So I hopped on a streetcar down the Embarcadero and caught the BART home in time for my cousins birthday dinner.

pics here

DAY 17 - Stanford, Muir Woods and Sausalito - 17th Dec

2007-12-29T15:53:00.000+11:00

What do I think of Stanford? Not much really. The campus is massive just like every single thing in this country. The main buildings are nice but the prevalent feeling is the same type of shallowness which engulfs this entire country. Oh yeah and did I mention that the Law building is massively ugly just like every other law building in the world. You think Architects hate lawyers? Anyhoo, Stanford is like UNSW with oodles more money. It's wannabe sandstone but it still doesn't quite reach it. Take Oxford for example, it doesn't have a majestic boulevard leading up to it...but it's quaint and history seeps through every brick.

Then we drove right through the city over the Golden Gate bridge to Muir Woods to see redwood trees. The road down to the woods was insane. Winding and unfenced, even though we were in the right lane, it was still hella scary. My aunt was driving a Toyota 7-seater family van with front wheels which needed some serious realigning. On the way up I almost crapped my pants cause, 2 inches to the right and we would have ended 30 meters down into the woods. My aunt looked at the trees and remarked, don't worry those will stop us a bit.

Muir woods itself was cold and wet but fantastic, I only wish it was more sunny there was nearly as much light as I'd like. Thus all the pictures are a bit dull and feel like an episode of the x files. We took a bit of a different road on the way back and passed a house downhill between the woods and the beach. It was so brilliantly peaceful, it be really cool to have a holiday house like that, just away from humanity.

At dusk we headed down to Sausalito right near the Golden Gate. It's a very quaint seaside tourist town with lots of solo commercial gallery stores. Really nice, but I only walked a bit in fading light, but it was really relaxed

Then we drove back home down through san fran once more and used the San Mateo bridge, its so insanely long it took like 15min driving across it. It crosses one of the widest sections of the san fran bay between Hayward and San Mateo. Google tells me that it's about 8 miles long, that's a 10.8km long bridge, insane.

I spent most of the day with a map in hand directing my Aunt across the San Francisco Bay Area. It was fun yet totally frightening everytime she was on the phone, thinking or distracted, she stopped in a middle of a freeway or makes a wrong turn. But I've discovered that I'm a person who is quite good at navigation, I belong on the Amazing Race.

pictures here

DAY 16 - Downtown San Francisco - 16th Dec

2007-12-29T15:48:00.000+11:00

No pictures today because I stupidly left my SD card in my SD card reader, but Megan and Tracey might have some.

I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Which is like a carpeted metro train. Slightly old now but very one time, as opposed to Sydney trains Unluckily I also ran smack bang into an Oakland Raiders fan. Therefore I shared the carriage with multitudes of rabid Raiders fans and what turned out to be the slowest BART train in history. But and old man tried to give me his seat which was really nice but I was like, uh no thanks, usually i'd be giving up my seat for you. The US is weird, if you're female, men will give you a seat no matter how old they are.

I got out at the Montgomery St station, which is in the financial district. Finally my first proper high rise downtown in 3 weeks or so. I took a turn on Grant Ave into Chinatown. It's a very narrow street filled with kitsch souvenier shops. I purchased some cheap postcards which were cool. San Fran shirts were selling for about 2 bucks each, which begged me to make those bad 2 dollar, 2 dollar jokes.

On every cross street I was amazed at the hilliness of San Fran. This city is like an entire rollercoaster ride, steep dips and steep inclines. It's crazy. I turned onto stockton street which has become the main shopping street for chinese people in San Fran. And boy was it like China. Markets, fruits, veges, meat and lots and lots of Chinese people. The pavement was hard to get through and a couple of times I felt like yelling, move it or lose grandma to the tiny old women in front of me who seem to think it's totally fine stop right in the middle of the pavement and have a 5 hour conversation.

I met up with megan's clan and unsuprisingly had Viet for lunch. We were then driven to the Golden Gate bridge. A monolithic feat of construction, it's narrower than I thought but it's beauty is unparalleled. The huge expanse of the pacific on the west, the expanse of the bay on the east, downtown to the south and the north, the hills of Marin County. We ended up walking 1/3 of the bridge before people decided it was too cold to continue. We then decided we wanted to go ride cable cars and thus got dropped off near Fisherman's Wharf.

With my trusty map in two I directed everyone to the Powell Mason line, we bought $11 all you can ride tickets (considering 1 way is already $5, this was probably a good idea). The cable car is an interesting concept, rickety yet sturdy, it's the rollercoaster carriage working on the rails of San Fran. At the end of the line we ended in the crowded and brightly lit shopping district of Union Square, we then boarded the other line, Powell Hyde, which was much more hilly (if that is even possible) and the views were brilliant.

Went to get Starbucks near the Del Monte Cannery for hot chocolate, then I bid goodbye to Megan and family till New York. I walking around the cannery a bit I decided to get back on the cable car to Union Square. Halfway up Hyde street we had to stop because there was a traffic accident up ahead. Unable to get off or go anywhere we just waited. I guess that's the problem with cable cars, it has to share the same road as normal cars, so if anything gets on the rail it stops. On the cable car I had to stand next to drunk Chinese-Russian gangster and his Russian beauty queen girlfriend. Humanity is the same all around the world.

Ended up having a very unpleasant Burger King dinner at Union Square before heading back on the BART. San Fran is awesome, burger king is however not.

ARRRGh

2007-12-19T17:47:00.000+11:00

I'm behind on updates (what a surprise, 3 days to be exact)

I actually have everything written down in point form on my laptop but I just haven't had the time or energy to put anything up. I'm thinking about taking my laptop to vegas so I can finish an entire block for san fran in my downtime between concerts. But lord knows I'll find something else to do.

Like go bowling.

supposedly my hotel has a 70 lane alley...like wtf?

but it's okay, i'm still alive, except insidious cough is back again and my spleen will soon be over the hills of San Francisco

DAY 15 - San Jose, Ice Hockey and Ice Skating - 15th Dec

2007-12-17T18:22:00.000+11:00

My aunt took me around Fremont this morning, showed me the park etc, my cousin's high schools, then I got dropped off at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, for the San Jose Sharks ice hockey match.

Fans walking to the HP Pavilion, the Pavilion itself and the pregame show

OMFG was it fantastic. I've been waiting to see a live hockey match for YEARS, ever since I first saw the Mighty Ducks and became absolutely obsessed with ice hockey. It was San Jose Sharks vs Dallas Stars, the first 2 periods were fantastic with some great goals and great fights, but San Jose totally lost all momentum and energy in the last period and ultimately lost which sucked.

Megan, Tracey and their 2 cousins Michelle and Frankie (Hey, ho) came as well. Frankie is only 13 but can pass for at least 16, and is the only 13 year old I've seen who's taller than my brother. We ate expensive subs made by Viets after the game. I've since discovered that San Jose is very much Viettown and much of North California is Asianfied, more so than Southern California.

frankie, me and michelle outside the Pavillion, frankie is 13, michelle is 12, go figure the height difference. Sights of San Jose

We were meant to go skate at the downtown outside ice rink afterwards. However there was a 25min wait to get on the slushy small piece of crap they called a rink for an overpriced $14. So instead Frankie called his dad to pick us up and go to the local rink. Got to the local rink, and after picking up my jaw off the floor (cause I realised they had 3 rinks in the one complex, with one dedicated solely to hockey) we found out that the public session didn't start until 7:30pm. It was a saturday and no public session till then? stupid. Anyhoo, I resisted the urge to by skates and Sharks merchandise, but it was still only 5:30 so we decided to crash back at Frankie's (hey ho) house till it was time.

At Frankie's house, the one Megan and family are staying at, we got fed, like in any Asian family and killed time on Guitar Hero, which was boring yet strangely addictive.

Time to skate? yeeehaawww

Coolest thing about US rinks? They actually hire out proper hockey skates...like OMFG...HEAVEN. I carved up the rink but I was disappointed with the amount of people (there were heaps) and the actual lack of awesome skaters. I think I might have actually encountered better skaters at Macquarie. But then again this is California.

It was Michelle's first time on the ice and by the end of the session she was doing awesome.

And what more is there to love? The last 30min the direction was changed so your skates got less of a wear and tear on one side and you can develop your weaker leg. I had no idea exactly how weak my right leg was until I was forced to do right crossovers. But omfg, I can almost stop in the other direction now. I wish Aussie skate rinks did this, my skates would be balanced and I can turn right and not only left like an anti-zoolander.

Overall, awesome, awesome day.

DAY 14 - LA to San Jose to Fremont - 14th Dec

2007-12-17T18:17:00.000+11:00

got up very early - 4:30am
left very late, almost 6am
got to the airport at 6:30am
tried the self service check-in, screen said Megan's dad couldn't check in
lined up at manual check-in
made it through with about 5 min to spare.

US airport security is insane, shoes, belt, everything off. If you have water in your bag, you can't touch your bag, you have to let someone with blue gloves ask you if you have anything sharp in your bag first and then take it out for you. If you take your passport pack etc off and put it through the x-ray then forget to take your boarding pass out, you will have some security guard on your ass check it for you. I was smart enough to not take water but alas I wasn't smart enough to take off my belt.

This is a 45min domestic flight from LA to San Jose. Seriously.

Aunt was late due to issues with fedex and work. So I went to megan's relatives house, we had lunch then played basketball in the backyard with an unfenced pool and spa. I nearly stepped into the pool a couple of times and managed to break a pot. But man did I miss basketball. I'm in the land of basketball and that's the first time I've played since I got here.

Aunt picked me up and had a tour of Fremont. Went to Costco again and was made to try all the taste testing thingies. I felt pretty sick. Got to Aunts house and had a pretty laid back evening. It was awesome that they have a piano. Now all I need is a printer and I can break out some Jacky Cheung sheet music, yah!.

Anyhoo, I was stuck with 9 year old cousin since Aunt went out to work at night. He "accidently" dialed 911, and then hung up. 911 then dialed back and my very confused and scared cousin handed me the phone. I went,

Me: hello?
911: Is there an emergency in that household?
Me: um wtf, no
911: Well someone must have dialed 911 from your household, because that's how I got the address.
Me: WHAT?
911: Was the child playing with the phone?
Me: OMFG, I'm so sorry.
911: Please tell the child not to play with the phone because we will send a unit out.
Me: I'm really sorry, I'll tell him off now, there's no emergency, I'm so sorry.

Then I asked my cousin to please not scare the living daylights out of me ever again.

Fun times

DAY 13 - LA - Santa Monica - 13th Dec

2007-12-14T15:42:00.000+11:00

Last day in LA before I fly to San Jose and meet up with my aunt in the San Francisco bay area. Spent the morning shopping at Norstrum Rack. Bought a pair of CK corduroy pants and Polo Jeans jumper. Not as cheap as I'd like but they were quite nice.

Megan's aunt (one of many, I just got their names down pat and now I'm leaving) took us to Santa Monica. It was a bit dirty and a bit smelly, but we were all glad about been at the beach. The chili cheese fries were kinda scary but the sunset was extremely pretty. And there's something about the beach, you just can't help taking weird wanky artistic album covers.

Looking forward to San Francisco. LA has been great, and although my first impressions weren't glowing I think I'm beginning to like this city more and more. Except for the traffic. Peak hour here is nuts, 12 lanes of chock-a-block automobiles. I think Arnie really needs to invest in some public transport infrastructure for this city.

Speaking about things been big in this country, because everything is. Even the seagullls here are majorly obese. Megan tried chasing 2 but they ran away from her...ahahahha

DAY 12 - LA & Walking - 12th Dec

2007-12-13T19:06:00.000+11:00

Late start, got up at 10am and watched some ER, had a ham sandwich and then Since there was no one to drive us anywhere today and another day of Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency was a little too much to bear, we decided to walk to the nearest Shopping Centre (aka Mall). We checked up google maps and it was 4 miles (6.4km). We thought, oh well might as well work off all the crap we've eaten.

Walking in LA is weird because no one walks in this city. Therefore we got stared at a lot. 3 bogan asian females walking around the suburbia of LA with their jumpers tied their waists because they horribly misjudged the sunniness of the walk. Hispanics sat on roadside corners near petrol stations and leared at our insanity. We crossed bridged over manmade creek-bed thingys like in Grease and Terminator 2.

So we got to the mall and guess what? It was a Westfield. AHAHAHA halfway across the world and Frank Lowy has made it like home. Except of Myer however you get Macy's, and H & M. But we did find a Target, although it sold more than just clothes and electronics, it also had cereal and frozen goods. WTF??? when did Target ever have frozen goods?

Even the food court at Westfield is the same. Chinese, Sushi, Korean, Gelato, fusion Italian, etc etc. Except EVERY and I mean EVERY shop was manned by hispanics and had hispanics cooking the food. I don't know but I'm not entirely comfortable with Chinese food been cooked and served by Mexicans from a franchise Chinese food outlet called Panda Express. There's just something wrong with that. I settled for a foccacia which was quite awesome but possibly full of hydronated trans fats like everything else in this country.

Megan's very old cousin invited us out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with his very secret (hot) girlfriend and daughter. The portions at this place are HUGE, I couldn't even finish my $14.95 chicken fettuccini. People who know me, know that I'm a big eater and if I can't even finish something, it was be bloody big. Megan hardly made a dent in her angel hair spaghetti with chicken and mushrooms. Tracey almost died working her way through her salmon salad. For dessert we had 2 slices of cheesecake between 6 people and still left stuff on the plate. America is crazy. And the entire time we were been obnoxious Aussie bogans and there were like OMFG they're so cute, they are so full of energy, and take pictures of everything and laugh at everything and have really cute accents.. But I swear they didn't understand half of what we said and had no idea where we are coming from.

Lesson of the day. Australia is a really really worldly country. We are hyperaware of world geography, politics, languages and accents. Of course this could just be the fact that we're educated and smart. hehe.

DAY 11 - LA & lots of TV - 11th Dec

2007-12-13T19:05:00.000+11:00

Didn't do much today. We watched lots of ER in the morning, John Stamos is hot and I totally don't know which season it was but Neela needs to get together with John Stamos cause they're sooooo cute together.

We also watched way too much, and by that I mean so much like 4 hours worth of the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency show. It's so trashy it's completely fabulous. The woman is a true contradiction, she validates anorexia and botox yet has enough morals to reject 15 year old models like WTF?? but really my mind has been completely and utterly disturbed by her and her show. And the most frustrating thing is that last week when we went down to downtown LA, where were in the same building that her office is in, except of course we didn't know then.

US tv is interesting, if you're rich and lucky enough to get complete cable aka like 700 channels or something, you can spend the entire day watching TV. Because there is just so much on. Trash, movies, more trash and the golden stuff. Endless repeats of Full House, family matters, and of course there's BBCAmerica which is the BBC + ads, wonderful. Funny thing is I haven't managed to catch one primetime show here, perhaps they're on hiatus but other than the random bit of Grey's Anatomy I caught last week I haven't seen anything else. I've ended up watching the Amazing Race on Youtube.

We also went shopping a lot. Discount centres like Marshall's which is where all the department stores dump the crap they can't sell. Last week I got an awesome Burton snowboarding jacket for $50 (originally $190) and in Australia it would have been $300 or something. But the problem with these stores is that there is so much crap you have sift through before you find anything good. So it becomes a highly tiring and time consuming effort. You exchange time for discounts.

from the forthcoming series of photos - LJ in silly hats

Clothes in America are cheap, but only if you know the intricacies of every rewards system, discount outlets, and sale timetables. I'm lucky enough that Megan's aunts know everything otherwise clothes are the same price as Australia. The one major difference is that discount outlets are as ubiquitous as Target and Kmart in Australia and it's kinda both a little hillbilly and cool at the same time. Although if you were a guy and purchased all your clothes from these stores you'd come out a skatey hispanic homie wearing DC shirt, Volcom hoodie, Nike trackie dacks, and Puma shoes.

Ended up at Taco Bell for dinner and it was a very interesting experience. For 5 people the total was about $17. It's insane, and the drink cups they give you for the combos are the size of those jumbo cokes you get at Hoyts if you're looking for a sugar overdose. And you know what? it's free refills too. Although I can't say I'm too much a fan of the pseudo Mexican gunk that comes out of there.

Again tracey's head as a measurement device, this time against a taco bell cup

DAY 9 & 10 - Las Vegas - 9-10th Dec

2007-12-12T05:07:00.000+11:00

We got woken up at 6am and piled into an 8 seater Chevrolet, dragging behind pillows, backpacks and newly bought ski jackets. It was freezing it was dark and we were delirious from the lack of sleep. Packed like sardines into the last row of seats we proceeded to sleep until daylight flooded the car...and then continued to sleep some more.

I woke up somewhere after the we passed the outskirts of LA. The first thing I realised was the striking landscape. Barren, yet mountainous, covered in power transformers stretching lines to far flung towns and 3 lane dual carriage-ways snaking their way across the plains. It was beautiful and the first time I realised, hey I'm in the USA. There is no bush, no eucalyptus, instead the replacements were cactii and lots of it, at times stretching as far as the eye can see.

Snow capped mountain ranges dot both sides of the highway. A rare sight in Australia unless you actually find yourself in the snowy mountains, but here they are ubiquitous, yet again, tall, but utterly barren, like the heavens cast them down as protectors of the dry arid landscape.

The highways in the US are also very different, large, multilaned mostly dual carriages. However the most remarkable aspect is the straightness. Like ruled lines they stretch into the horizon. Our 4-5 hour trip to vegas felt like a standard 3 hour trip to Canberra. Minimal stops were made which obviously contravened the whole "Stop, Revive, Survive" campaign back home, but the comfort of the roads reduced the fatigue remarkably. I can't imagine the 6 hour trip to Perisher being as easy.

I think the next time I come to the US I'll make an extra effort to really explore it's landscape. I didn't get to see the Grand Canyon this time, but that's a definite for the next trip. America's culture takes it's cue from it's landscape, at times arid, barren and f but always big and the vastness is immense. It's a wonder why this country can foster so much in the elite of human endeavour yet still lag behind in social welfare. It's not a country for the faint hearted, and undoubtedly it is the place where people chase their dreams.

On the way to Vegas at our last pit stop I had my first taste of American Maccas. 1 double cheeseburger for 1 dollar. Sounded good at the time but boy did it do a lot of damage to my stomach.

Las Vegas itself is everything that I expected to be, shallow and fake with a dash of kitsch, vast amounts of seediness in the daylight and neon coolness in the night. But through television and movies you still can't comprehend the true immensity of the casinos. Yet although the facades are themed differently from each other, castles, pyramids, pirate ships, an entire Roman Forum, inside they are almost carbon copies bar the intracacies of the decorations. In fact most of them have a similar floor plane. Casino here, lobby there, theatre there. Some felt slightly more swish than others but overall Vegas exist for the sole reason of the public throwing their money at rich moguls and the government tax department. And boy do they.

We checked into the Monte Carlo which was directly opposite the much famed MGM casino complex on Las Vegas Blvd (also know as the strip). We had a lacklustre buffet lunch at the hotel. I managed to stay away from all the seafood, but still somehow it didn't sit right in my stomach. I've learnt that buffets never really do.

Megan's parents were interested in seeing Mamma Mia so we took the tram (like yeah there's a monorail linking 3 casinos) to Mandalay Bay to purchase tickets for that nights performance. Before we got to the tram on the large advertising screens we spied that the Spice Girls would be performing at the Mandalay that night as well. Tracey expressed her disgust whilst Megan and I deliberated whether we should give into our trashiness or not.

At the box office Mamma Mia tickets were $50 and the only Spice Girls tickets left were $110 and so thinking about are already much shrunk bank accounts, we decided to forego the Spicey Girls (as Megan's aunt referred to them as) and settled for a night of ABBA (which are equally as trashy and annoying.

Little did we know our mistake, but more of that later. We went on a rough walk down the strip, Megan's dad was accosted by many migrant workers handing out cards for ladies who will get to your room within 20min (guaranteed I suppose) funny how they only give cards to the men on the street. Wouldn't you feel discriminated if you were a lesbian?

We got to the Bellagio (featured in the Oceans 11 series of movies) and stayed for the 5min fountain show at the front. This casino has an entire man-made lake out front. Then we made our way through the joint walkway to Caesar's Palace, which was built like a Roman forum, it was insane. This was the hotel which signed Celine Dion for 3 years and BUILT, yes BUILT her a theatre in the shape of the Colosseum and actually called it that. Okay so many Celine Dion jokes were made whilst Megan's other aunt inquired about tickets to one of her 5 last ever shows. Walking away from the box office I squealed when I spied a certain poster.

Maybe it was the long car trip, the fatigue or just the lack of pizzazz in the Vegas production but my god Mamma Mia sucked to the heavens. I'll disregard the Australian character who couldn't hold an Australian accent for more than 2 words at a time and then reverted back to a cross between a New York/southern accent whenever he could. But overall there was a serious lack of something in the production. The set was gorgeous and hydraulics of the stage were fantastic but I wished the cast and the audience ingested some amphetimines or something before it all started. The jokes were flat, there were no wogs even though the entire thing was set on the Greek Islands. 15min in I was asking for death and asking Megan if we could skip over to the Spice Girls and scalp some much needed tickets. At intermission I was considering running out and obtaining the most potent cocktail I could get because I seriously needed some alcohol to survive. Thankfully the 2nd half was a lot better and the 3 song ABBA tribute encore after the show left me on a happy note at least. I guess ever trip has a regretful step, this might be my one, picking a (surprisingly sucky) ABBA musical over the Spice Girls.

Hungry and tired we headed back to the Monte Carlo for a night of fast food and bad TV, I had $10 italian and Megan got jipped with a $10 subway footlong. At about 2am one of Megan's aunts came back from the casino for a much-needed 30min nap before skipping back. This lady actually waddled to a casino whilst we were on a toilet stop 1hr from Vegas itself. We only saw her in the car both days. Funny stuff.

This morning we woke up, took way too long to get ready and checked out of the Monte Carlo. Packing my things back into the car, I checked my wrist for the time but realising I didn't have my watch I freaked out and made everyone go back and get another room key and go up and search. But in the end the watch was in my black day pack, yeah stupid me.

Ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and then off, back to LA we went. We all waved goodbye to Vegas on the freeway, except for me who will see it again in 1.5 weeks for Jacky Cheung... Oh YEAH!!!!

Surprisingly I find Vegas kinda alright, because it doesn't purport to be more than it is. A kitsch, fake and money hungry town in the middle of the desert. In all the furor of traveling I didn't even get a chance to gamble. Maybe I'll finally get to that important step in 1.5 weeks. HA!

DAY 8 - The Getty Museum - 8th Dec

2007-12-09T17:38:00.000+11:00

Days of shallowness, now finally a proper educational and cultural experience. The Getty museum is madness. It's on top of a hill and you take a tram up from the parking lot. The ENTIRE thing is FREE It's huge, it's on top of a mountain and it's bitterly cold, but it will also be the museum were I finally saw the bridge over the water lily pond by Monet. I nearly cried.

Architectually the museum is beautiful, the off-white facades, tall columns, gardens and open views of L.A are just absolutely spectacular. There's not much to put into words, I'll just picspam.

Me and Monet

DAY 7 - LA more shopping - 7th Dec

2007-12-09T16:10:00.000+11:00

Slow day, lots of ice cream consumed and lots of rubbish TV watched. Went shopping for all of Megan's electronic stuff for the next year.

Fry's electronics is like 3x Bunnings warehouses. And it sells electronics...and water. Megan finally bought a laptop after a year of whining =p, and also a camera and other accessories.

Costco, is like a warehouse supermarket where everything is BIG. We bought groceries and laughed at everything.

In & Out Burger is a Californian Institution, although we didn't have burgers, we had the awesome shakes which tasted like churned neapolitan flavours of icecream. We also had the animal fries which although not listed on the menu is something I read about online. It's fries with 1 slice of melted cheese, relish, chopped grilled onions and thousand island dressing on top. Completely sickening but also FANTASTIC.

DAY 6 - Universal Studios - 6th Dec

2007-12-09T15:28:00.000+11:00

Is it predictable that I had more fun here than at Disneyland? I hung on to every cheesy joke and film reference made today. It was brilliant. The only disappointing aspect was that the rides I've been looking forward to all these years, i.e Back to the Future and E.T were closed.

The walk to the entrance of the studio was populated by a street full of referential eateries and mid-upmarket clothing stored. The coolest restaurant I spied was Bubba Gump Shrimp...oh yeha from Forrest Gump.

We first went into Shrek 4D cinema event which was pretty cool, but then the most awesome part came. The studio backlot tour. To get down to the trams you have to take the escalators down the cliff. In fact the entire studio complex is built on a cliff side and an intricate web of escalators work to transport you from the upper and lower lots of the theme park.

The backlot tour was cheesy and probably using the same jokes and footage as 15 years ago but I couldn't care less. I've seen it on TV for so long and finally I'm experiencing it. Although some parts of the tour were clearly choreographed ride bits, we went through actual studios and production offices, saw sets been built and a student film been shot. The coolest bits were undoubtedly the tour of Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives, which only happened on a weekday due to the current writer's strike in the US. The other highlight was the plane crash set of Spielberg's War of the worlds. Which was awesome because he moved an entire 747 onto the lot.

There was a definite lack of moving rides at Universal Studios. I counted 2, the Mummy Indoor Rollercoaster which was awesome but far too short. And the much famed Jurassic Park ride which got my entire left leg soaked The ride was very cool but dated. Other things at Universal were all about the movie experience, SFX and sound stage demonstrations, a VERY outdated Backdraft demonstration but overall everything was gloriously fun, but I'm a gloriously sad movie buff.

We screamed our way through the haunted house, which was a walk through thing where out of work actors leap at you from corners of the room dressed in scary characters. At one stage I had Megan hiding behind one arm and Tracey on the other. They figured if I screamed at everything first then it'll be okay for them. Little did they know that they'll end up getting chased by the characters anyway...ahahah.

The Waterworld show was just as cheesy and bad as the move and it was populated by walk on roles from shows like CSY:NY, ER and Mission Impossible 3. However the effects were awesome, at one point an entire seaplane leapt over a 5 storey wall, like wtf??? and it wasn't even held on by cables or something, it was just launched over.

The best was to come last though. We waited for the Terminator 2 3D experience to start and the fake Cyberdyne video played and it's uber craziness foreshadows many a things. From the look of Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong in the actual video I'd put the ride at somewhere around 96-97, which means the ride (experience) is probably more than a decade old, but that Cyberdyne video was scary. It describes a world where Skynet controls the Star Wars type missile system that George Bush wanted to build. The entire video was like the current terrorism scare campaign. It was so eerie, I'm not sure if the majority of the US audience got all the irony but I certainly did and James Cameron I salute you.

The actual experience is a cross between a live action show and a 3D cinematic experience. It was so absolutely awesome because both Tracey and I WORSHIP Arnie. And he happened to be in it. So the majority of the time whenever he uttered any of his catchphrases we cheered emphatically. I seriously almost had the ultimate geekgasm in this thing. It just embodied everything I wished for at Universal, cinematic in-jokes, irony, science fiction, total coolness and a bit of Arnie. This was heaven and I didn't do anything afterwards because this was the last thing I wanted to savour from Universal Studios.

DAY 5 - Downtown LA in 1.5 hours - 5th Dec

2007-12-08T18:42:00.000+11:00

Downtown LA is like every main tourist destination in big cities. Rundown, dirty and full of homeless and hawkers. I didn't expect it to be much but in reality there really is very little to see around.

We walked to the kodak theatre which looked kind of bland, went through it's shopping centre and found the deck viewing the Hollywood sign, it was so far in the distance it was quite hard to capture on camera. Overall the facade of the Kodak theatre is rather unmajestic. They must sprinkle some serious fairy dust before the awards ceremonies to make it all pretty and nice.

Grauman's Chinese theatre, although steeped in movie history still felt as tacky as the area and people surrounding it. Perhaps it was my mood on the day or the effect of earlier material I've read about downtown LA but even though I've wanted to see the walk of stars and the star prints for as long as I can remember, I felt like I wanted to leave the minute I got there.

In fact I was so disenfranchised I couldn't even be bothered finding the stars of celebs I liked nor did I take any photos of stars. The entire walk just seemed to tacky, fake and unnecessarily full of unworthy celebs like Phil Collins...ha. Perhaps I've become WAY too cynical, or rather I had most of my fun on the Hong Kong Version of the walk of fame in 2005 and thus my excitement was diluted, but it just seemed the more I looked at LA as the movie capital of my dreams the more I didn't want to be here or work here. It's funny how films create a dream reality but once you really look into the substance that's actually there, there isn't much. There is ample reason why LA and hollywood in particular is billed as shallow community. I'm not sure when my LA cynicism started but all those movies and TV shows which previously made everything look so appealing seem to have marginal affect on me now. Of course there are still appealing aspects of Hollywood, but perhaps I'm old and educated enough to realise that I need something more substantial than what this place offers.

It seemed that there were only limited prints outside the Chinese theatre, either very recent ones or very old ones. I think those in the middle get shafted somewhere else. John Woo was the most recent and I happily got a pic with his prints. And he also wrote his name in chinese...yay!!! And of course I got a pic with Spielberg's prints cause he will forever be my hero.

After Grauman's we went for a drive up Sunset Boulevard, through Beverly Hills (aka the suburb of great hedges) and Rodeo Drive. It was dark and I didn't see much other than that Rodeo Drive was insanely sparkly and top end. But rather i was too tired to care. I don't like traveling when I'm tired because I get grouchy and I don't care about the places I'm seeing. It's a pity since I hoped to see downtown and the rich parts of LA on a better note. Perhaps next time.

For Alan and Lam,

DAY 4 - LA - Knottsberry Farm - 4th Dec

2007-12-06T17:01:00.000+11:00

You wonder why Americans might have less brain cells than other nationalities. Theme parks are insane in this country. We went to Knottsberry farm today, which according to its ticket is the oldest theme park in the country.

The rides are insane, it's stomach churning just looking at them but awesome once you're on. One ride is called the Xcelerator, the loop (which you go OVER) is higher than Space Probe 7 in Wonderland and the only safety precautions are a lap bar and a seat belt, it is just insane. And I went on it twice in one go. AWESOME!!!!

The XCELERATOR, Tracey has a video of me on it.

I also went on the most uncomfortable rollercoaster ever called the ghostrider, first time I ever wanted to get off a roller coaster mid-way. We also sampled the much talked about funnel cake (aka fried bits of batter with syrup on top). I was also nearly dragged away by a cowboy which i totally didn't mind at all.

A small sprite is the size of tracey's head

The ghost rider at night and me next to it

Day 3 - LA - Disneyland - 3rd Dec

2007-12-06T16:36:00.001+11:00

Every kid wants to go to Disneyland, because from the time we were born it is marketed to us as the place of dreams, were dreams come true and as the most fun place on the planet. Even though as a kid I wasn't a huge Disney fan I still wanted to go to Disneyland. After all it's iconic place in world cultural history is unparalleled . But more so for me it was about finally experiencing the rides I have heard so much about, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, the latter which unbelievably spawned a film trilogy. After experiencing the various imitations of its rides on the Gold Coast and at Wonderland, I was finally at the real thing.

Disneyland is in Anaheim, which is right through the city from where I was staying (Winnekta). So setting out at 8:30am we ran smack bang into my first LA traffic jam. 12 lane highways chock-a-block. We didn't get to Anaheim till close to 11am. Thankfully I slept for most of the trip.

We parked in the Timon section of the Lion King carpark and then took a tram thingy to the actual main gate. Yup even the carpark doesn't escape from disneyfication. So first impressions upon entering Disneyland? Not much really, I think the major problem is that every theme park around the world has taken from disneyland and disneyland itself has taken things from other themeparks previously. So it feels like every other theme park I've been too (Well like 3 anyway) except now there are disney characters running around the place and every shop was hawking disney merchandise.

We made our way through to adventure land, I spied Tarzan's treehouse and desperately wanted time to climb up on the rope bridge and generally be a monkey but sadly everyone else wanted to do the Indiana Jones ride. I was sad, an I never ended up getting the time to go back, but oh wells, next time. Now the Indiana Jones ride is something I've been anticipating for years but somehow the TV really made it look better than it is. The entrance and walkway to it is awesome in it's set design but the actual ride was a tad too short I felt but there is a lot of cool stuff in it still. Perhaps my anticipations were a little too high.

Pirates of the Caribbean was really quite boring and a little too long. Again it was one of those diorama rides but unlike Indiana Jones it really had nothing else but dioramas and sets. In the ultimate sign of reflexivity it turns out that the ride is now based on the films, which were themselves based on the original ride. Go figure, success begets success?

My entire shoe got wet on splash mountain when waves of disney water decided to crash on it randomly even before we got to the actual splash part. Then I went and molested Eeyore with Tracey and went on some more rides which were enjoyable but ultimately didn't live up to expectations.

Before we got to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster, I came across the Shootin' Exposition which is like one of those old timezone games where you put a coin in, shot a rifle across a scene with targets and if you're on target, something happens in the scene. This was always my favourite and I shelled out $1.50 for 3 goes. It was awesome and I think I thoroughly scared Megan and Tracey with my shooting skills. Perhaps I'm more American than I thought.

Tracey and I indulged in childhood fantasies at the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, Megan dutifully sat out due to inability to deal with going around in circles because of motion sickness (such a pussy =p). Anyhoo the best ride of the day will go to Space Mountain, which isn't anymore than a rollercoaster inside a building, but what it lacks it makes up in atmosphere, The space is completely black save for stars and music it almost seems like one is flying in space.

We made our way back for the big parade, which was undoubtedly cheesy but fun. I bought a $4 mickey mouse shaped ice-cream, and because the woman only had one left, Megan, Tracey and I decided to take turns in mangling Mickey's head.

For winter Disneyland closes at 6pm, which was disappointing since we only arrived around 11:30am, however the queues generally weren't too long on average 15min, compared to summer where lines could stretch for hours. However I felt disneyland truly came alive at night when the lights on it's a small world ride came on and the fireworks and fake snow flowed.

Overall, I think although not perfect, Disneyland is very enjoyable however I wish I made it here 10 years earlier, because at this age cynicism has really too strong a hold.

Day 2 - Los Angeles - 2nd Dec

2007-12-05T19:22:00.000+11:00

A yellow fire hydrant, from the valley into the ranges and a yellow schoolbus

The jet lag really hit about 4am this morning. I work up underneath the thinest blanket shivering and unable to go to sleep. Why I didn't ask for another blanket I don't know but damn I was really freezing. LA is bone dry, drier than Sydney, if such a thing is possible. We passed hills and mountain ranges just covered in small Cacti. It's a formidable and harsh environment and it's a wonder why this region was once referred to as the "wild west"

Went for a walk around the streets this morning, marveled at the gigantic cars and jogged with Tracy whilst trying to breathe in the dry air and wondering why Americans got so fat cause no one was walking or running on the streets. All we saw were cars, cars and more cars.

That's a MONSTER TRUCK, in someone's driveway

Quite slow day today, went shopping at the LA version of DFO at Camrillo. It's insanely big, just like everything else in this city. All the major brands and non-brands have factory outlets in an area the size of a small suburb. I think it probably has it's own postcode. I bought a pair of Timberland hiking boots which I'm extremely happy about for $60, which is insanely cheap for good quality brand name hiking boots.

This is one small section of the complex. It's set up randomly in the desert and very big.

The funny thing is that clothes in the US is possibly cheaper than China, if that is possible, without the need to actually worry if the clothes you are buying are fake or not. Levi Jeans are $25, jackets are the same and T-Shirts are about $10. But since I can't be bothered lugging crap around Europe for a month I can't really buy much, only what I need.

Megan's family is crazily funny. I often love being around big families cause the social dynamics of such families are just brilliant (since I only have quite a small extended family). I had a similar experience with Connie's family in Hong Kong in 2005. Except in Hong Kong I half understood the language, I can't understand a lick of Vietnamese but it's still funny.

Megan's aunt was driving us back from the DFO at night, doing 110km/h on an 12 lane freeway. This is the following exchange in the car.

*we hear a cracking noise from the driver's seat*
Megan (To Tracy, her sister): Hey Tracy can you help Aunt with whatever she's doing?
Tracy: How? She's cracking nuts.

Yes indeed, her aunt was cracking and eating watermelon seeds whilst driving her giant SUV Jeep on an 12 eight freeway at 110km/h with 4 passengers. Did I also mention that like every other American she plays with her mobile whilst on the freeway. And occasionally she'll ask if we'd like some chocolate which she'll rummage for behind her. Tracy, Megan and I collectively gasp and ask her to concentrate on driving.

It's a crazy crazy town.

At the DFO there was a shop dedicated to just apple on a stick covered with different flavourings.

Day One - Los Angeles - 1st Dec

2007-12-02T15:33:00.000+11:00

Suburban street in the valley

The first thing you realise once setting foot in LA is it's sheer size. Everything is big, the cars, huge petrol guzzlers, carbon emitters, whatever. Lam if you were here you would have had multiple heart attacks by now. The cars are just gigantic, even Mercedes here are bigger than anything I've seen in Australia. Freeways are 6 lanes, single way, so 12 lanes across. Public transport is non-existent and the distances to everything although ridiculous do not necessarily excuse the rampant use of cars for every activity. Ironically people's cars are larger than their actual houses. Perhaps it's because the population of LA spend way too much time in their cars.

Huge cars and huge stores

The sheer size of everything is just ridiculous. Various kinds of shopping centers, department stores, discount supermarkets, all selling variations of the same things but set out over the size of an airport hangar. If you think you can't find shit in Kmart of Tarjay, Walmart is near impossible to find anything though. Except I was really underwhelmed by Walmart considering the pedestal I was putting it on before I stepped into it's blandness.

First impressions of LA support all the cliches. On the way to the gigantic shops we passed by a house with 6 police officers in the front year apprehending a bloated hispanic man, half naked and covered in tattoos. Coming back 2 police cars were still stationed in the front yard.

The entire city bleeds the stink of excess. It almost makes Sydney look really good in it's shallowness. In fact LA looks possibly more tired that Sydney. The fast food palaces and ubiquitous Chinese restaurants feel old and there just for the need to be present.

There is no such thing as a local shop and even 7/11s warrant humongous car parks. I understand why Bush couldn't sign Kyoto, it'll be near impossible, how can you control carbon emissions when the majority of your population rely on the exact object which is so detrimental to the environment.

However these are first impressions and I'm sure some things in the city will eventually grow on me, however the general vibe I'm receiving from LA is not hugely positive. I've spent the majority of the day putting on various versions of the west coast accent, funnily enough I haven't even had an extended conversation with an actual American in public yet.

Anyway, I bought 4 tubs of Ben & Jerry's ice cream including Chunky Monkey and Phish Food. Something that I've been waiting to try for the longest time. I'm salivating at the thought of it, but I'm also cold, needing a desperate shower and having not slept for 30 hours, delirious.

Cheese WOW, the cheap imitation of Cheez Whiz, which is canned artificial cheese which you spray from an aerosol can...only in America

Sydney to LAX (Written on the plane)

2007-12-02T02:44:00.000+11:00

My United Airlines plane

14 hours on a moving piece of metal hundreds of miles up in the air. Is a most unnatural and uncomfortable way to travel.

I have 48% battery left on my laptop, and 3 hours left till we arrive at LAX. I'm sitting here sandwiched between Megan and a old man who has had 3 whiskies since takeoff, and feeling the want to remove the remnants of my tail bone because sitting for so long on my butt has caused chronic and intense pain in my buttocks region as well as my lower back. There is a reason why long haul travelers choose business class. Because the sardine carnage of economy is really too much for more than say 3 hours.

Somehow we found ourselves in economy plus this time, although I really don't know what the difference between that and stand economy, perhaps a difference of 2cm width and leg room. Not enough to really make a difference though.

Anyhoo, so in total I've slept for a total of about 2 hours, when we arrive in LA it'll be 9am on the day that we left. Crossing the international date line is a serious mindfuck, but thank god i'll be too delirious from lack of sleep to really notice it.

Anyhoo, so my skin is all dried out, I want to sleep but instead i'm watching Andy Lau kick Daniel Wu's ass as a triad boss.

Best thing to happen all flight was intriguing tall Asian flight attendant offered Megan and me a Dove chocolate bar to share whilst we were standing and stretching to starve off the threat of DVT. Receiving chocolate makes me feel and act like a 6 year old. Really we never change from been kids

Did I also mention that I totally cried whilst saying goodbye my entire family. Seriously when did I become such a sap? My tears are just uncontrollable. 15 hours since saying goodbye and I can still summon the tears. There is something seriously wrong with me.

I'm currently anticipating yet dreading breakfast. I'm actually not hungry but i'm just so uncomfortable that I'll do anything else but think about sitting in this seat. Lesson of the day, always request for an aisle seat. It doesn't matter if people have to repeatedly climb over you or that you have to stand or have your elbows knocked by the trolleys, it is still better than sitting in the middle, because at least you have the choice of moving whenever you like and not have to suffer the claustraphobia.

and god the sound card (or rather the integrated sound card) is a piece of utter shite. ARRGh everything sounds like utter shit. And I really wished I downloaded half of youtube so I can waste my time on better things but instead i'll continue this diatribic stream of consciousness crap that's happening because I refuse to sleep.

The Big Day Is NEAR (Well it's actually like tmr)

2007-11-30T23:21:00.001+11:00

Last post before I leave. Therefore last post to do with pre-trip planning. I'm excited yet strangely serene. Packing has been okay, it's been interesting to see how much crap I can fit into my suitcase without destroying it. I've gone for a combination of rolling and folding my clothes, I don't know which is better but so far the game of Tetris has been vaguely successful although dollars to donuts my jeans are going to be quite wrinkly on the other side of the world.

I've decided to forsake my 30gig MP3 player, instead I'm taking along a crappy $50 1gig one. I've decided since I never really listen to 30gigs of music anyway I'll forsake it and save some space from the charger and other odds and ends. Plus I won't have to worry about losing it or it being stolen or me dropping it into a ravine or something. I'm still taking my laptop, so I've transferred about 10gigs of music onto that and I'll mix and match. I still can't believe the amount of electronics I'm taking, I guess this is why geeks shouldn't really travel. (Yes, if you're wondering, I am taking a 4 plug powerboard with me)

my bags stuffed to the brim...how am I meant to bring stuff back?

----

VIENNA

THINGS TO DO

Schonbrunn Palace (Schloss Schonbrunn)
Imperial Palace (Hofburg)
St. Peter's Church (Peterskirche)
St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom)
Imperial Treasury (Schatzkammer)
Naschmarkt
Museum Quarter (MuseumsQuartier Wien)
Museum of Fine Arts - Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Belvedere Palace (Schloss Belvedere)
Church of St. Michael (Michaelerkirche),
State Opera House (Staatsoper),
House of Music (Haus der Musik),
Sigmund Freud Haus Museum
Ringstrasse
Inner Ring

FOOD

Sachertorte
Apfelstrudel

EVENTS
Opera at the State Opera House

---

BERLIN

...Partay like it's 1989...

New York, Munich, Fuessen, Salzburg

2007-11-28T22:54:00.000+11:00

NEW YORK

THINGS TO DO

Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Ellis Island
Central Park
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grand Central Terminal
Staten Island Ferry
Bryant Park - free ice skating
Chrysler Building
World Trade Center
Times Square
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Museum of Modern Art
Greenwich Village
Statue of Liberty
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Bloomingdale's
Carnegie Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
Fifth Avenue
Empire State Building
Empire State Building - the bull statue
Chinatown
Little Italy
Macy's
Actor's Studio Hell's kitchen
Ice Skating in Central Park/rockefellar/Wollman is best at dusk/night

FOOD

Bagels
Bialys
Katz's Deli - hot pastrami sarnies
Carnegie Deli
Hot Dogs - Gray's Papaya
Street Vendors
NY Pizza
NY burgers

SHOWS/EVENTS

28th 8pm, carnegie hall concert
30th 1pm, Knicks vs Bulls

Avenue Q
Blue Man Group
Spamalot
Rent
Altar Boyz
Forbidden Broadway
Hairspray
Spring Awakening
Les Misérables

---

MUNICH

THINGS TO DO

Nymphenburg Palace (Schloss Nymphenburg) - the place where they shot Last Year at Marianbard, the film, 1st year MAP students have to endure.
St. Peter's Church (Peterskirche)
Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche)
Old Pinakothek (Alte Pinakothek)
Staatliches Hofbrauhaus
Viktualienmarkt
Marienplatz - Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus)
Andechs Monastery (Kloster Andechs)
Deutsches Museum

REGENSBURG DAY TRIP

sausages near the old stone bridge

---

FUESSEN

Fairytale Castles

---

SALZBURG

Salzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg)
Mozart Residence (Mozart Wohnhaus)
Salzburg Cathedral (Dom)
Mirabell Palace and Gardens - Do-Re Mi
Mozartplatz
Salzburg's Old Town
Mozart's Birthplace (Mozart Gerburtshaus)
St. Peter`s Abbey
Sound of Music Locations

San Francisco

2007-11-26T21:50:00.000+11:00

THINGS TO DO

alcatraz
golden gate bridge (walk across it, catch the ferry back from Saulsalito
Lombard Street
Fisherman's Wharf
Pier 39
Street Cars up powell st
Exploratorium - walk to WAVE ORGAN
Legion of Honor - lincoln Park
SFMOMA
Presidio Park
Ocean Beach - The pacific from the other side
Twin Peaks
Chinatown + Tin How Temple?
Union Square Shopping (window)
Golden Gate Park?

FOOD

In & out burger, Fisherman's wharf
Swan Oyster Depot - 1517 Polk St.

TRANSPORT

Buy a CITYPASS for $54.00 or a 3day/7day MUNI pass, $18/$24
BART is $5 from Fremont to SF
Muni is $1.50 for a 4 hour ride or something

When Bargain Hunting Goes Bad

2007-11-23T15:34:00.000+11:00

So I won a $50 travel credit for expedia (At Oportos of all places). Thinking great now I can save $50 on my flight from Vienna to Berlin. Wrong, cause the voucher is only valid for hotels. So I think...fine, I'll cancel my booking in Las Vegas and rebook through expedia, since they are having a 10% sale also I'll get at least I'll get $60-70 off which is like 2 nights for the price of one. Cool I thought.

So 3 days of emailing back and fro I get my original reservation canceled by the insanely nice people at the hotel and then I go and make the booking through Expedia. I get to the last section of the booking form then BANG!!! "Your voucher has already been used"...I curse my stupidity, cause I typed in the code to try it out 2 days ago but I thought it wouldn't count if I didn't go through with the booking. HA, I was so wrong. So back to square one, no voucher. When I made the original booking with the hotel the Aussie dollar was at 0.94, today it's back to 0.86, so I've saved about $10 for all the effort I put through. Added onto that I need to wait 7-10 days until the money is refunded and by that time the Aussie dollar might have gone up again.

I also took out travel insurance with Medibank Private on tuesday, thinking that since my family are members the 10% discount would give me a good value for 3 months of cover at $460. I came back home and checked that I could get the exact same cover for $355 online. So I cancelled that and now have to wait another 5-10 days to get my money back.

So here I am, watching my bank balance go lower and lower whilst all my money has been taken hostage by financial institutions. I never seem to learn my lesson. Research before you buy and once you buy don't change your decision. It's like the detour option in the Amazing Race, I'm the perennial detour switcher and although it might stop me from coming last, I might have had the same result if I just stuck it out with one task.

Only positives currently are that I booked most of my US tickets/ebay purchases etc before the dollar crashed below 0.91. Ahahha I can't believe I think 0.86 is low. Only seemed a few years ago that we were hovering around 0.55/0.6. But I guess I didn't care then cause I wasn't travelling and ebaying.

A lesson for those who read this blog...bargain hunting is sometimes really not worth it.

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Currently I've booked everything that I need to book. Some show/event tickets I will book once I get to LA and hopefully the dollar goes up a bit. I've done most of my shopping, so for the next week or so, it's packing and researching and hopefully cleaning my room.

LA

2007-11-20T22:38:00.000+11:00

THINGS TO DO

La Brea Tar Pits - dinosaurs and fossils in tar, awesome
J. Paul Getty Center - it's a museum, with lots of stuff ( Including Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne), in 6 buildings. supposedly one of the best and biggest in the US - free admission a plus
Grauman's Chinese Theatre - possibly the most famous cinema in the world - star prints as well
Hollywood Walk of Fame - can I actually be bothered tracking down the people I like?
Universal Studios
Hollywood Sign
Sunset Boulevard - will try and hold back the urge to belt Sir Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard whilst walking down the street.
Beverly Hills + Rodeo Drive
Santa Monica Pier
Garment District?
Mulholland Drive?
DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!

FOOD

Ben & Jerry's (esp Phish Food and Chunky Monkey) + all sorts of weird and wacky junkfood
In & Out Burger - double double, animal style fries, chocolate shake
Tex-Mex
Pink's Hot Dogs - chilli dog + onion rings

SHOPPING

Winter Jacket (columbia or northface?)
Boots (hiking/timberland?)

Random updates

2007-11-16T22:07:00.000+11:00

I bought a supposedly cheap ticket to the Knicks vs Bulls game on December 30th. I say supposedly cause it still set me back $60. And it's a pretty shitty seat. The minute I clicked I confirm I realised I could have gotten better and cheaper tickets through fan ticket exchange. Curse me for been impulsive.

So Current list of shows/events I already have tickets for:
- Jacky Cheung, 22/23 December
- Knicks vs Bulls 30 December
- Barrowman in Aladdin Panto 12th January
- Henry V at the RSC 14th January

Tickets I still need to get for things I've definitely am seeing:
- San Jose Sharks vs Dallas Stars 15th December

Things which need urgent attendance before I leave:
- cleaning my room
- buy SD cards for camera
- hair cut
- travel insurance
- chinese visa
- dentist
- Tel + karaoke
- suitcase
- Green Ps (booked test already)
- Extend time in Shanghai till around the 20th. - confirm and get a printout of my ticket

---
Great Britain still hates me and my credit card, so I'm either going to have to phone them up or worst case scenario, cop the overpriced train tickets once we get to London. Add to that, finances currently are horrifically stretched, my original budget has been way conservative, and I'm just realising how much ACTUALLY this will cost me. It's insane.

I also decided to extend my stay in Berlin by an extra day, and cut a day from Munich. I was browsing around and realised Berlin is possibly a much cooler, cleaner, friendlier and more culturally interesting than Munich. Plus the hostels just look absolutely AWESOME.

Now that my exams are finished I can finally continue on researching the place I'm going to, so hopefully I'll be posting City specific itineraries now. I also need to start printing off maps and details for log books which will be accompanying me and helping me not get lost and into trouble or something.

2 weeks exactly left, and I'm absolutely stoked and petrified at the same time. Like OMFG, I fear I'm going to get homesick like crazy.

O, for a muse of fire...

2007-11-04T21:05:00.000+11:00

So I booked my ticket for Henry V at the Royal Shakespeare Company on Monday 14th January in Stratford-upon-avon. I'm a bit disappointed since I won't be able to get to the RSC for Tennant's Hamlet, oh well. But I'm still as excited as ever, watching Henry V at his birthplace, enough to make a Shakespeare nut like me slightly faint.

RSC Courtyard Theatre

I also tried to buy all the UK train tickets today but First Great Western won't take my credit card, and every other site wanted a UK address for registration, even though they had "Australia" as an option...ARRRGH, Brits and their privatised train system.

Online credit card validation systems are still far from perfect. The hotel i was meant to book in Vegas screwed up halfway through the application and for days I didn't know whether they would return the deposit to my card, even when I haven't completed the reservation. I still don't have accommodation in Stratford-upon-avon as of now, the B&B I contacted seem to check their email once a week.

Still so much to plan and do, so little time. Hmmmphfff

ARRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-10-27T16:08:00.000+10:00

So my chase of frequent flyer membership has come back and bit me on the arse. I delayed booking the flight from San Jose to Vegas for the Jacky Cheung concerts for about 2 days so I could get my Thai Airlines membership and now US Airways has sold out of all tickets...ARRRGH, instead I'm paying about 50 bucks more for southwest airlines.

oh the irony of life. I should have realised something when Orbitz was telling me there was only 1 ticket left for the flight I wanted. I didn't know that many people wanted to go to Vegas from San Jose. But anyhoo, it's booked. Oh shit I realised now it's hella cheaper and probably easier from Oakland Airport - CURSE my STUPIDITY. *fingers crossed I can cancel the booking and rebook*

ARRGh and now their system is down...*WOE*

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PHEW!!! all done now, US$175 - wooohoo, hopefully i get the refund back.

Date	Flight	Routing Details
Sat Dec 22	500	Depart Oakland(OAK) at 12:45 PM Arrive in Las Vegas(LAS) at 02:10 PM
Mon Dec 24	936	Depart Las Vegas(LAS) at 11:05 AM Arrive in Oakland(OAK) at 12:35 PM

Frequent Flyers

2007-10-26T19:21:00.000+10:00

I just enrolled with Thai Airlines Royal Orchid Plus frequent flyers. The card I'm meant to print out with my membership number looks very very dodgy, I'd be quite embarrassed to actually present it at flight check in or something.

But looking at points awards etc, Royal Orchid seems to be the best one in the region. And the real good thing is I don't have to pay a membership fee like Air New Zealand or Qantas. Whether it'll actually help me obtain flights at another date is another thing altogether. I think the most I'll get out of it is probably a return flight from Bangkok to Shanghai.

I was looking at discount Asian flights today and bloody hell some legs are really really cheap. Like Singapore to Shenzhen for 32 singapore dollars, which is like $25 bucks. And Darwin to Singapore is only around $40. But then you look up prices from Sydney to Darwin or Melbourne to Singapore, the prices jump way into the hundreds. If the government would just deregulate the airline industry in Australia and open it up completely to the Asian airlines, travel in this country would be great. (Okay I take most of this back since I just checked the airfares WITH TAXES, and $40 jumps to $200...FER CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!)

But so far Qantas is allowed to hold it's monopoly on the big cities and really the Macquarie Bank takeover of Sydney airport has really pushed up costs, I mean Sydney has one of the highest airport taxes in the world, but it's still a shit airport with the only good thing going for it is that it's really close to the city compared to most other international airports.

Supposedly Singapore Airlines was knocked back by the government on the trans-pacific route as to preserve the duopoly between Qantas and United. Sheesh, can you imagine having the comfort of Singapore Airlines on the 14hr flight to LA? HEAVEN. Instead I'll have to endure crappy ancient United with projection screens.

Panto in Birmingham

2007-10-23T15:14:00.000+10:00

On a whim today I decided to check out the seats for the Aladdin Pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome starring our favourite Captain Jack. I'm glad I did because it was pretty much sold out bar the cheapest tickets. So I acted quick and bought the 2 closest tickets to the stage which were left. The coloured boxes are the only tix left for the stalls and the situation in the Circle is not much better. Phew thank heavens I was procrastinating again.

They're not to bad but not the greatest either. Now all I have to do is book the trains to get there.

Things which still need to be booked...

2007-10-19T14:40:00.000+10:00

Hotels/hostels
~~Las Vegas~~
~~Stratford-upon-Avon~~
Munich
Fuessen
Salzburg
Vienna
Berlin

Flights
Oakland<-> Las Vegas
Vienna -> Berlin
Berlin -> Munich

Trains
Megan and I have given up trying to make the UK train booking system work. Therefore we shall wing all once we land at Gatwick *fingers crossed* the prices don't go up by that much.

London -> Cardiff
Cardiff -> Birmingham
Birmingham -> Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford -> Heathrow

Things To Do...

2007-10-19T14:16:00.000+10:00

List of important things to be done before I leave (I'll keep adding):

Finish all assignments including ~~practice file, ~~copyright essay~~ and script~~
~~Study for and pass (try to anyway) evidence and remedies exams~~
~~Get my green Ps~~
~~Fill out my tax return~~
~~Get a 1 entry visa to China~~
~~Buy a suitcase~~
~~Buy accessories for trip, winter jacket etc (i'll buy in the US)~~
~~Get atm/keycards/cash situation sorted out (Would be helpful eh?)~~
~~Save as much money as possible (HA, very unlikely)~~
~~Have a sister Act marathon~~
~~Go karaokeing~~
~~Finalise thesis topic and start researching under the pretence that I will actually do reading on copyright whilst in a plane or train...AHAHAHAHA as if!~~
Buy presents for Aunt + cousins in the US

TRIP ITINERARY

2007-10-19T00:28:00.000+10:00

So far the trip goes like this:
1st December 2007 - Fly from Sydney to LA with Megan + her family
14th Dec - Fly from LA to San Jose
16th Dec - Somehow get to Fremont (Aunt's place) from San Jose
22nd Dec - Fly to Las Vegas for 2 Jacky Cheung Concerts (I still can't believe I'm doing this leg, not even 3 days and it's going to cost me around 1K, oh well he's worth it)
24th Dec - Fly back to San Jose/Fremont - spend Christmas with Aunt + family
26th Dec - Fly to New York
28th Dec - Meet up with Megan + Family in New York

6th January 2008 - Fly with Megan to London.
7th Jan - Arrive in London
11th Jan - Take train to Cardiff
12th Jan - Take train to Birmingham - See John Barrowman in Panto...in Birmingham of all places, possibly almost as whack as me flying solo to Vegas. Oh the life of a fan.
13th Jan - Megan leaves for France (bye Megan, won't see you for an entire year *sniff*). I take the train to Stratford-upon-Avon.
14th Jan - Henry V at the RSC - O, for a muse of fire!
15th Jan - Take the longest journey ever from Stratford-Upon-Avon to London Heathrow, then fly off to Munich
20st Jan- Train to Fuessen
21nd Jan - Fairytale Castles
22rd Jan - Train back to Munich then on to Salzburg
25th Jan - Train to Vienna
30st Jan - Fly to Berlin

5th February 2008 - Fly from Berlin back to Munich then fly to Shanghai for Chinese New Year with family
15th Feb - Fly from Shanghai via Seoul Incheon back to Sydney.

A solid 2.5 months away. I don't know how homesick I'll get. The longest I've ever been away was for 3 weeks. It's going to be very very interesting. More planning on specific legs to come.