DC - The first day (Part 1)

Sunday 27/11 (local)

My cousin Jason was good enough to offer to take me on a tour of Washington D.C. today. Fantastic - makes things much easier for me, very much appreicated. Anyhow, we left in the morning at approximately 9am. Young Matty didnät want his father to leave and was calling for him to come back - "Daddy, daddy". He was also holding his shoes and a little hat. Aww... so cute.

Anyhow, onto the journey down. I'm not exactly sure how many kilometers it is down to Washington D.C. but the journey took somewhere between two and two and a half hours. There are several things that I noticed on the waz down, something that I noticed on the way down, something that i've always known - but only really hit me on the road.

Highways are amazing here in the US. Now, i'm not going into any debates about cars plus pollution or the need to promote public transport here. There are highways everzwhere and the interstates are fat. How fat? real fat, in fact some are 8 lane behemoths. Yea. You know that the proverbial has hit the gan if all of the lanes are choc-a-bloc. Furthermore, these interstates are true highways - not the supremely weak midgets that we have in Australia.

The second point I would like to make is that there's a whole lot of people living in the North East of America. I mean New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. aren't all that far away from the eachother - plus between the towns there seems to be a fair bit of so called 'civilisation'. I mean I drive from Sydney to Canberra and see... not much. Best I can think of is Goulburn.

What's to do in Washington D.C.? Well, sightseeing of course. My guess is that all that happens here is politics and not much else. Monuments - yes, museums - yes times two, politics - yes again, anything else - can't tell. Well, driving around a little... one of the first bulidings of note (up close, that is) was the Australian embassy building. What a piece of ... err.. excrement. Here I thought that America and Australia were allies - canät reallz tell that from the building. You have got to see it to believe it. Oh man, we _so_ deserve better. The location may be ok, the interior could be ok (I didn't go inside), but boy - the exterior sucks.

So the first task in D.C. was to find a spot to park. We all chose (Jason, Carmen, I) to visit the White House frst. Parking was a bit of a pain but we eventually found a spot several blocks away from Pennsylvania Ave (as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is the address of the White House). The reason as to why there was hardly any parking was clear when we get to the White House - many others came to visit the White House as well.

So the White House. We first saw the back of the White House. Nice - but not terribly impressive. Incidentally, the back looks quite similar to the front, just that the back is missing the second floor balcony and the greenery in the foreground is not as impressive or vast as it is in front. The front was obviously much more of a delight, yet it was a little disappointing that I wasn´t able to get a little closer. After a few happy snaps it was time to move on.

Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial features in several films, the most notable of which is Forrest Gump (well the view is from the steps of the Memorial looking towards the Monument). We had to venture back to the car and drive closer to the memorial, as it and the White House aren´t exactly close. So up to the trail and up the steps and there he was - Abe Lincoln... surrounded by scaffolding. Great. I travel thousands and thousands of kilometers and all I see is arms and legs. Damn. At least I can read his "Four Score and Twenty Years Ago" speech, so I thought. More scaffolding. Bah! Not my day thus far. Unlucky to the max.

Interstate 92

The White House

The Trek to Philadelphia

Saturday 26/11 (Local)

Today - another day of transit. Although there wasn't nearly as much time wasted this day. Before heading out of New York I ventured into Times Square. Now that was quite a sight.

Catching the subway to Times Square was no proble. I've figured the system out. One thing that I noticed (almost straight away) is that it isn't the cleanest service around. However, to the credit of the New York subway system services are quite frequent around Manhattan.

Times Square was impressive - very impressive. It looked much beter than the photos that i've seen on the internet. Times Square is intense. I should think that you really need to be there to feel the atmosphere - the size of the buildings, the flashing of neon signs, the chaos that make up people and cars. It's great. There are people everywhere, true hustle and bustle. I ended up taking lots of photos as it's something that is worth remembering. (Apologies for the sporadic explanation - it's really hard to describe).

I only had a brief look around as the hotel checkout as at 12pm (midday). I managed to venture into a couple of stores - the most notable of which is the Toys 'R' Us superstore - "The Centre of the Toy Universe". Yea, no exaggeration there... and i'm serious. The store is so big that there is a 50 foot ferris wheel inside the store. Crazy. Here, I bought a few toys for my nephews Matty and Danny also.

Before heading back to the hotel, I popped by the Visitor Information Centre. I grabbed a couple of brochures and took off. Don't worry it's all free, the NYPD (just across the road) won't be arresting me today.

There are quite alot of things to do in NYC. Especially when compared to Sydney and Los Angeles. There are bus tours, helicopter tours, stacks of landmarks and theatre. Looks like its going to be full on and choc-a-bloc when I return to NYC. I'm definitely considering a helicopter - tres expensive... but i'm sure it'll be worth it (problem is... do I have time?). Hmm.. that also reminds me - need to brush up on my French and German.

Moving right along: I checked out late and was not charged for it. Bonus! Then I ran into a bit of a problem - how can I get to Penn Station from Grand Street? See map. Hmmm... first option looking at Manhattan would be to change lines twice. Not so good - especially when hauling around luggage. So what did I end up doing? Have a look at the subway map and see what you would have done. I was impressed with what I came up with - i'm a genius! Have a think before reading on.

Considering the fact that I was lugging around luggage (assonance, anyone?) the number of transfers should be zero or one. Furthermore stations with disability support would be highly desirable, as they have elevators. So, I ended up taking the subway out to Athletic in Brooklyn (east across the river). Mark, you're a genius - yep. Haha. Anyways, the plan worked out nicely and that placed me at Penn Station.

Amtrack, the American national railway has electronic ticket booths. I went to a booth and picked up a pre-ordered ticket arranged by my cousin. Easy. America is great - lol. One thin that I noticed at the booth was that the carry-on baggage restrictions for all Amtrack services. Two bags maximum, smaler than 26' x 24' x 11' (something like that) or 50lbs. Oh dear. I was carring 2 bags of luggage and a backpack. So what I did was to shove my backpack into my larger suitcase and hoped that they wouldn't check. They didn't. Woohoo!

The train was the 3:52 pm service to Harrisburg, PA (Pennsylvania). It was on-time, full, and clean. Three out of three. Well, what can I say - it was a nice train and a pleasant journey. Although the train fell slightly behind schedule by the time I got to my destination.

Upon arrival I was somewhat shocked because my cousin Jaon and his son Matty was already waiting for me. I wasn't shocked because they were there on time, but I was shocked because they were waiting at the door out of which I disembarked. Strange co-incidence.

Today was a special day for my cousin as a surprise party was planned for him. This party took up most of the evening. Unfortunately he wasn't 100 percent surprised. He knew a party was coming, but luckily he didn't know that it was today. So a partial success.

One fact that I didn't know (and perhaps many of you don't know) is that there are a fair number of Aussies and Kiwis in Philly. So much so that there is an Australian Club there. There you go - you learn something new every day.

Times Square

Times Square at Night

Touchdown in New York City

Friday November 25 (Local)

A fairly uneventful day today. Today was primarily a travel day.

Woke up at 5:30 am to ensure that there would be enough time to get to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The flight was scheduled for 8:30am. I managed to get to the airport well on time - checked the baggage in and proceeded to wait. Unfortunately, I had to wait a while.

The weather in and around Los Angeles was not great. The weather wasn't so good for Mid-Western USA either. As a result of this the plane that I needed to embark upon was late. Unfortunately, I had to wait for an extra hour.

The flight to New York City wasn't anything special. It wasn't poor, yet it wasn't anything special. The in-flight entertainment consisted of the same material as the Sydney-to-Los Angeles flight. I took this opportunity to watch the movie Redeye. It was quite an interesting movie. The storyline was a little far-fetched, but oh well. Not a blockbuster, but not a shocker. Furthermore, the main actress. Rachel McAdams is quite the actress - or maybe i'm just biased because she's attractive. Hmmm... maybe I should talk about plot more than the actresses when it comes to movies. Oh well.

The meeting new people on the plane theory held true for the LAX-NYC(JFK) flight. Strangely, I met another American exchange student headed home. This student was male, studies psychology and went to the University of New South Wales. Wow, these Americans must love studying abroad.

Touchdown in NYC-JFK was fine (at about 6:00pm), although the taxing and docking stage took ages. The reason for this was that JFK airport is huge - absolutely enormous. (Or it seemed that way from the plane windows). We seemed to drive around for ages before docking and disembarking. To get a gague of the size of the airport - a train links each of the 7 terminals at JFK airport. Massive.

Accomodation. The place that we had to stay for the night was the Windsor Hotel in Chinatown. This was really the only place available in the Midtown or Lower Manhattan areas - due to the fact that it was the Thanksgiving week. First of all, getting to the hotel was a bit of a challenge as hauling around luggage via the NYC subway is not for the faint-hearted.

I'd like to take this opportunity to speak a little on the NYC subway system. It's a mess. The Metro Rail System in Los Angeles is fairly straightforward. The New York City subway system looks like a bowl full of spaghetti. You will not be able to get around the Subway without a map. If you want to see what i'm talking about then check the NYC subway map.

There was effectively no sightseeing today, unless exploring Chinatown counts. Furthermore, it was damn cold - approximately 0 degrees Celcius and windy. Ack! I wasn't quite prepared for this. I've learnt my lesson now.

Watching Seinfeld and That 70s show was what was done at night time. Oh, and I ate Vietnamese Pho for dinner. I told you... not much happened today.

The Rocky Mountains

Los Angeles - Day 3

Thursday, Nov 24 (Local)

Today started off in a similar way to yesterday, minus the morning walk. Woke up multiple times before my breakfast at Maccas. I must say that today was most interesting. Read on for some strange circumstances.

First stop on the sightseeing on day 3 was Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Something that i'm sure that the girls will love. The drive was choc-a-bloc with the powerhouses of fashion. You name it - it's there. Tiffany's, Versace, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Dior and mnore. The drive is only several blocks long but i'm sure that there are millions and millions and millions worth of stock in that little strip. Impo0rtant point - there was hardly anyone around when I arrived. There were a half-dozen people max. I guess that would be expected considering that it was Thanksgivings Day.

After my brush with fame it was off to Santa Monica. Why? Because a bus driver told me to.

After inspecting the area and taking a whole stack of photos something bizzare happened. A couple of busses arrived packed with girls. I didn't really think much of it until the busses started unloading. From a distance I could tell something strange was afoot. The girls that were being unloaded were wearing tiaras and sashes. That's right!

Upon closer inspection the sashes bore the names of states - the states from which each particular girl had come from. I believe that the first girl that passed me was Miss Connecticut, but I can't be sure. Anyhow, minutes later I was able to speak to one. That's right - I get to find out what is going on.

Miss Texas walked across the road and said hi. Now, i'm not too sure as to why she walked over - she either came over to chat or was looking for a particular store. Who knows. You guys can figure that one out. Anyhow, onto the chat. Miss Texas was lovely to chat to, she filled me in on what was happening. Los Angeles (Anaheim to be exact) is the scheduled finals week for Miss 2005. There are several age categories and each state (50 states) has one per category. There you go. Unfortunately I missed out on a photo op. Damn, i'm hopeless sometimes. It totally slipped my mind! Anyhow I wished her luck before moving on to explore more of Los Angeles.

After my brush with fame it was off to Santa Monica. Why? Because a bus driver told me to. Eh? What was that? Read for more deatils. On my way to Rodeo Drive the bus was literally empty (Route 20) and so the driver struck up a conversation. He told us a little about the area and suggested places to go. One of them was Santa Monica. He did mention, however, that Rodeo Drive was overrated. Obviously he wasn't lucky enough to be there when the beauty pageant came to town. Bwhaaha.

Santa Monica was somewhat livelier as the 3rd St promenade (shopping area #2 for the day) had some stores open. The stores here were much more accessible than the Rodeo Drive ones, in a financial sense. I ate lunch in an Italian restaurant, looked into several shops, bought a tie for my dad, and ventured down to the beach. In total, I probably spent approximately 2 hours in Santa Monica. Oh yea, the Miss 2005 girls were also out and about in Santa Monica. I saw, but did not speak to: Miss Maryland, Miss Pennsylvania, and Miss West Virginia. All Eastern States. A strange day indeed.

I didn't do terribly much afterwards. Ventured back to Hollywood to do some souvenier shopping via Union Station. Did I take the wrong train? Nope - I needed to go to the bathroom. Here is the scenario. Caught a "rapid" bus from Santa Monica to Westlake/Macarthur (or as a local told me "ghetto town"). As Union Station was closer than Hollywood/Highland I went to Union Station to use the bathroom. Note to the MTA Los Angeles people - you need toilets at train stations.

The only thing left till the end of the day was to watch television. Ghostbusters was on followed by the Apprentice. Admittedly, it was the first time that I watched the Apprentice. Reasonably interesting. Some of the business tasks that they had to do were quite intriguing. All I can say is that Adam sucked and deserved the boot!

Rodeo Drive

Miss 2005 girls disembarking

Apologies for the delays

Hmm.. haven't had too much free time to post things. I've got stacks to blog so pleased bear with me. I promise to get some more stories out to you all as soon as possible. Thanks for all of the "hurry up" emails. I've read them all - soon, soon.

Anyhow. What i'll do with the photos is add them to the bottom of the relevant stories when i'm at a computer that can read my usb flash drive (i.e. not these internet kiosks).