from the Battery to the gallery

Back to New York, and my last trip blog (sad, I know). I haven't had much to say recently, because I got a cold. Anyone who knows me knows I don't do sick well, and so I stayed in bed for the 2 days I was in Philadelphia. It sucked, because Philadelphia is a really pretty city, and I would have liked to see it. But, it was more important to get better, rather than worse. By the way, I don't think it was swine flu, but it may have been! I knew all the travelling and being in hostels and public transport would take its toll eventually.

So today I was finally feeling my touristy self, and went trundling off to the bottom of Manhattan island for the obligatory cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was a beautiful morning, a great day for being on a boat. So here is me on Liberty Island:

She's not as big as I thought. And here is me with Manhattan in the background (yes, I have resorted to taking pictures of myself with my outstretched hand)

After that I sat in Battery Park for a while and watched the world go by while I ate a true New York hot dog!

Then I went back up the island with the intention of going up the Empire State, however when I got there the wait time was an hour, and I was feeling peckish. So I wandered around Midtown instead, around Times Square and Broadway. Then I went to check out St Patricks Cathedral:And was just in time for Mass. So, bonus points from Mum, that's 2 masses in 3 weeks!
And so that's about it from me. I do have another full day in New York before I leave on Tuesday, however due to some amazing financial work on my behalf, I will be spending the day pumping money into New York's retail sector. And I don't think I need to blog about that.

i'm sorry i ruined your black panther party

Finally made it to Washington DC after a few train troubles - the trouble being there was no train. There was a freight train derailment somewhere in Alabama, so our train couldn't get through. Eventually they sorted some buses to get us from Atlanta northwards (it really is true what they say about southerners moving more slowly), and it actually worked out better, because the people on our bus were all going to Washington, so we didn't have to stop everywhere. And I think stopping at a truckstop in North Carolina has been the highlight of my trip. I got all ya'll a truckers tshirt, I thought you'd like that.
Anyway, arrived in DC at 8:30 this morning, and got straight into the sightseeing. So here are some pictures of me in front of some sites in Washington. Because that really is all you come to Washington for. That and to quote Forrest Gump. And you only need half a day.
The Obama residence.

The reflecting pool.
Then I walked all the way up the Mall (which is a lot longer than I thought) and visited the National Archives. There was a line to get in (see, records ARE cool), because they've got some pretty major stuff in there.

There was a little thing called the Magna Carta...

They've also got the big three - the Decaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They're all on display, but I didn't spend much time battling my way through to see them - since they aren't really pertinent to me, I thought I'd let the Americans stand there and debate the meanings.
That's it for Washington DC, I leave for Philly in the morning (cue Fresh Prince theme song).
One thing about Washington - all the women who work around here dress so well - they put Lambton Quay women to shame, that's for sure!
And...if you are waiting for a postcard from me, wait no longer. Because I haven't sent any. I've bought heaps, some of them I've even written witty little notes that would've inevitably been an anti-climax, but then...nothing. I either don't have them with me when I walk past a post office, or I do, but don't notice the post office. So consider this blog a personal postcard to you - wish you were here.

find a high on peachtree street

Since the last blog, which was meant to be the end of New Orleans, I was coerced into heading into Bourbon Street by the guys in the hostel. I was honestly the only young girl in the hostel, and they promised to look after me (I was worried, because the hostel was a streetcar ride away from the Quarter), and so off we went. Bourbon Street at night is craaaazy - total debauchery! I think this photo sums up the whole place:
(The guy in the photo was one of the Aussies from the hostel, whose name I don't think I ever caught.) I didn't actually drink much, because I had a train to catch at 7am, and I wanted to make sure I could look after myself in a strange town!
Next up was Atlanta (where I am now). And, to be honest, I'm not that impressed. For a city with so much history, it is just a bland town with boring buildings. I wish I'd only had one night here, and then I would be in Washington by now.
But anyway, first stop was paying homage to my favourite book. Here is where Margaret Mitchell sat and wrote the whole 62 chapters of Gone With The Wind:

I took a tour around the place, which was actually quite good - her apartment was super small, and there were no original furnishings, but I still enjoyed it. And they had a whole section dedicated to the movie, including this set piece:

Which is the painting Rhett threw a tumbler of whiskey at (couldn't see any marks on it though).

And that was about it. I walked back up Peachtree Street - I probably could be catching public transport everywhere, but I like walking, and it lets you see a bit more. Although, in Atlanta, it's the first time I've felt uncomfortable being by myself - and in broad daylight! Which is another reason I wish I had left yesterday.

Anyway, next up was my other pilgrimage - the holy site that is the World of Coca Cola. You can't really expect much other than one huge advertisement for the drink, but I did enjoy looking around - they have a bottling facility which was cool to watch.

And at the end of the tour, there is a room where you can sample 63 different types of drinks that Coca Cola produces all around the world. It made me feel a bit sick after about 25, because of all the bubbles and different flavours. And after that, you get a commemorative bottle of coke. Awww.

Right next door to the Coke place is the Georgia Aquarium aka the biggest waste of money. I love aquariums, but this one I felt like I spent more time looking at video screens and walking through corridors. And when you get to viewing windows, they are super small. And the tunnel through the biggest tank is only about 10 metres long.

But there were Beluga whales, which were really beautiful:

That was it for yesterday - I was back at the hostel quite early, because I didn't want to be walking around too late in the day.
Today I'm feeling a wee bit tired, so I'm going to go watch a movie somewhere before I leave for Washington at 8pm.

six feet of water in the streets of evangeline

Again I'm behind on blogging, as was pointed out to me - it seems ya'll are liking the blog!
Day two in Chicago was spent wandering around the town. I went up the Sears tower, the tallest building in the US. I spent about an hour in line, and then spent about 10 minutes up the top, haha.

They have these freaky ledge things completely made of glass - different from the Sky Tower's glass floor, because these ones literally stick out over the edge of the building.
Then I kept walking around - it was super hot, so it was nice to be outside. I visited Buckingham Fountain, which was cool - heaps of water!

Next up was the 20 hour train trip from Chicago to New Orleans. Thanks to mum and dad, I had a sleeper car for this trip! It was awesome - I had the best sleep, and no crazies!

And I got to the hostel, and there are 2 guys from Taradale here - they went to school with Matt and Josh, which is totally crazy. All the way to New Orleans, and I can't get away from home.

Today I caught the streetcar into the French Quarter (which was cool in itself). First stop was St Louis Cathedral, apparently the oldest Cathedral in the US. I know I said the church in Boston was cool, well this one was fantastic. Us Catholics sure know how to decorate a church, that's for sure.

Then I walked around the French Quarter, and through the French Market. It is so cool around there. New Orleans is totally unique - NY, Boston and Chicago are almost interchangable, but New Orleans is pretty amazing. There's really one word to describe it - sultry. No wonder Rhett brought Scarlett here for their honeymoon. I only hope it was not during summertime, because it was stinking hot. It's crazy, there were just people walking around drinking cocktails at 10am!

I walked down along the Mississippi river:

And then this afternoon, I took a steamboat cruise down the Mississippi, which was really cool:

I actually took heaps of photos around New Orleans today, but they are mostly of buildings - who knew I was such an architecture fan?!? The wrought iron railings on the balconies around here are so pretty.

I have a 7am train to Atlanta tomorrow morning, and will be travelling all day.

Chi-city, chi-city, I'm coming home again

I'm a wee bit behind on the old blog-o-rama, so here is Boston day 3 and Chicago day 1. It was a beautiful day, so I decided instead of catching the T to Harvard, I would walk. From Boston to Cambridge. With pre-existing blisters. Actually, it wasn't that bad. Certainly on the way there it was a nice walk - about 30 minutes, walking across the bridge and through MIT. And it helped with the tan. So Harvard is obviously a very nice campus, and Cambridge is a quaint little town. First stop was the statue of John Harvard, for a little luck-giving foot rubbing. Interesting fact - this is known as the Statue of 3 Lies, because the inscription says John Harvard Founder 1638 - it isn't John Harvard's image (because no one knows what he actually looked like), he wasn't the founder, and Harvard was founded in 1636. So how on earth can you trust a school that is based on lies?!?
After Harvard, I decided to walk back into town, which was my undoing. I'm sure Mum mentioned something about good walking shoes before I went, maybe I should've listened. I had a nap, and then decided to walk into Boston town, and do the Freedom Trail, which basically stops off at all the places important in the Revolution, like the burying grounds and the massacre site - really uplifting, feel good stuff. My favourite place was Kings Chapel. I'm a sucker for old churches (even if they aren't the right flavour), and this one had some especially cool features. It was the church Louisa May Alcott went to, and her grandfather is in the crypt. The burial ground next door houses Elizabeth Pain, the apparent inspiration for Hester Prynne (from The Scarlett Letter). And the best part was the seating arrangements in the church - no pews, only little sections for each family. They kind of reminded me of the corrals for sheep at the A&P show. Here is me enjoying my corral:

(I thought I was posting too many pictures that didn't include me, and people would start thinking I'm not actually on this trip, so I used the self-timer on the camera - I however refuse to smile for a self-timed portrait.)
There were a few more stops along the Freedom Trail, and I saw Cheers (didn't go in though). And that was it for my time in Boston. I didn't get up to Salem as I had hoped, but maybe next time.

Yesterday at lunchtime, I got on a train headed westward. This morning at 9:30am, I got off that train. It actually didn't feel like it took that long, the worst part was sleeping - I kept getting a sore back. Surprisingly, the guy next to me who drank continuously was actually good company, and he was so excited by my trip, and me going by myself, he was going to tell everyone back in his one horse town about me.

I went for a wander around Chicago this morning - first stop was Millenium Park. I thought the Bean was pretty cool:

And here is me, reflected in the Bean, with Chicago in the background:

I then headed further up Michigan Ave, in search of more touristy/cultural things. I appeared to get lost in clothes stores, and had to spend money to find my way out of them. Oops! I don't think I mentioned this - I made a deal with myself, no clothes shopping until my last 2 days in New York. The next stop after that little mistake was the Art Institute of Chicago. Again, another big column-y building with statues out the front. Again, my favourite section was the Impressionists - they had 4 of Monet's London paintings (Charring Cross Bridge is my favourite):

These photos aren't good, because my camera's batteries ran out, and I had to quickly turn it on to take the photo and couldn't fiddle with the settings. And the other cool section was the American art section, featuring...

Neat huh! Anyway, I have another day in Chicago tomorrow, before my train trip to New Orleans at 8pm.

Boston, you know we love you madly

Ah, Boston. What a beautiful city. Arrived here yesterday afternoon, after a 4 hour train trip through Connecticut and Rhode Island. And if my first husband is coming from the Upper East Side, my second husband is coming from a house along the waterfront somewhere in New England. Seriously, what an amazing area - we just don't have houses like that back home.
So when I got to Boston, it was nice and warm, so I thought I'd take a stroll around and complete my brother's errands. Unfortunately, I left New York with a bit of a tummy bug (don't worry, I won't go into details) so my time here so far hasn't been too exciting.
First off, I discovered my hostel is right next to this campus:

The Berklee College of Music! With the famous drop-out that is John Mayer, I was very excited. Actually, yesterday was a very Mayer-day, with the train going through his hometown.
Next up was number one of Josh's errands - McGreevys.

I didn't stay too long here, because the girl behind the bar made me feel like I was speaking another language (this feeling is becoming more and more familiar - how on earth do Americans understand Flight of the Conchords, but not me?!?). Next up I went to Fenway Park - no pictures, because as I got there a tide of Red Sox fans were leaving after they had just lost.
Obviously yesterday was 4th July, so last night I went to Harvard Bridge (aka Massachusetts Ave) to watch the fireworks. I didn't get any photos of the fireworks, but Boston looked really nice at dusk:

This morning I went to Mass (good girl aye Mum!) at a church just across from the hostel. It was so weird - I didn't know any of the songs, but all the parts of the mass that I knew the words to, I still couldn't do, because all the American accents around me kept putting me off, and they all pause at different parts! Oh well, it was better than the Mass in New Caledonia.

Then this afternoon I went to the Museum of Fine Arts. What a great museum - not as good as the Met, but definitely still worth the visit. Apparently every museum here has to have a figure on a horse outside:

And the Impressionist section was my favourite here. There were none from the Monet exhibit at Te Papa (this is the Museum most of them came from, but I think they are still touring). And I don't think I gave any other paintings a chance - my favourite was the Renoir girl, aka Dance at Bougival, of course because of Gilmore Girls.


Tomorrow I'm going to head to Harvard, and if I don't stay all day there, I'll go have a look at some of the Freedom Trail - probably not the whole thing though.

imagine all the people living for today

Day 2 in New York was spent getting blisters on my feet walking around Central Park. It was a beautiful day though (but a thunderstorm is meant to be coming), and so it was nice to be out in the fresh air.

First stop was the Dakota building where John Lennon was shot, and the Strawberry Fields memorial across the road in the park. There was a guy there singing Beatles songs, a kid placed a guitar pick on the mosaic, and there were heaps of people taking photos.

Next up was the Museum of Natural History. Apart from the "ooo I saw that in Night at the Museum" factor, I didn't think it was that great. Just a bunch of stuffed animals. If they were alive, now that would be cool. But I did like the statue of Theodore Roosevelt out the front!

After that I walked across the park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Also known as my new favourite place in the world. I sat on the steps for a while (like a good Gossip Girl fan should) and watched life on 5th Avenue. The buildings around that area are amazing, so I know where my first husband is coming from. I walked around the museum for ages, my favourite section was definitely the Greek and Roman Art collection - they actually hold a few Greek vases we had to study in 7th form there, so it was cool to see them in real life.

And finally, I walked back to the Subway through the Park (east to west), and had a look at the Alice in Wonderland statue (pretty neat) and a few other things, including the fountain where the Friends opening credits are set!
So that's it for my first part of New York - I'll be back here in 2 weeks after the railroad journey. 4th of July tomorrow!