I (heart) New York

Well I arrived back into New York on Friday morning after the bus trip from Toronto.
I then had to make my way out to Brooklyn to the Loftstel for my first 2 nights back in NY.

The hostel wasn't bad, clear and tidy and quite comfortable by way of hostel standards. I didn't do much on Friday as I was quite buggered after the bus trip. On Saturday I made my way out to Coney Island for the day. I ended up there for the Irish Festival, however it wasn't really much. However during the late afternoon early evening there was a DJ broadcasting over the net on the broadwalk.

Sunday, I had to leave the loftstel and make my way out to Harlem to the Jazz on Lenox hostel. Not a bad place, but a little noisy and the mattresses are made of plastic.
I have been sharing my
dorm room with 11 other people, 4 who are from Spain and fairly unconsiderate, as they have beem slamming the door as they go out in the morning while I'm still trying to sleep to the bathroom - but that's hostel's for you.
Sunday afternoon I was walking around Harlem when they had the African American parade on, which was quite interesting but a little unorganised. That evening a couple of fellas decided that they would shot each other outside a deli in Harlem - a couple from the hostel were unfortunately caught up in the deli during the shotting and got stuck in there for about 50 mins until the police rocked up.

Monday I went to the statue of Libery and Ellis island. Quite a line up to get onto the erry to get our to the statue of liberty. Once out there she is not quite as big as I expected. As I was walking around and ended up helping a girl take a photo of herself in from of the statue. She returned the favour, and we ended up talking for abit. It ended up that she was from Woodville in Adelaide, over in NY for a business conference.
After that I went out to Yankee Stadium and happened to be there in time for the Yankees team to be walking out to the team buses to go to their next game. Where i ended up listening to a fella just talking about the yankees and who was good, and who each person who came out was etc.

Tuesday I caught the train out to walking over Brooklyn bridge then back over the Manhatten bridge. From there I had lunch baught a pair of black formal shoes from Aldo. After which I went to the Rockefeller center and went up to the observation deck on the top of the rock and waited 2 hours for the sun to set, over which time it got extremely busy up there and hard to get a view point.

Wednesday (Today) I caught the train out to Grand Central Station followed but a lot of walking around down Madison Ave, 5th Ave and Broadway. After that I caught the train out to Central Park and relaxed and read for a couple of hours. After thaT I was walking around and stumbled upon the David Blaine newest stunt.
However I was extremely unimpressed as he spend over 10 minutes on his platform taking a pee and talking to a couple of his helps, 15-20 minutes taking photos with people, and at least 10 minutes where by his helper was holding his head above his heart and his legs were one by one dangling loose.

Tomorrow I head out to JFK airport to catch my final flight to London, and so do not know when the next update will come. But hopefully it won't be too long.

Toronto and the 1000 Islands

Well I left the capital of Ottawa on Monday to head back to Toronto.
On the way I called into a couple of towns along the 1000 Islands stretch and took a boot tour/cruise around the islands - it was an hour late due to a tour bus coming from Montreal with a bunch of French tourists on it was late and we were waiting for them.

It was interesting but a bit overcast and cold so not the best time to do it.
I eventually found somewhere to stay in Toronto as it also was pretty booked out. There are some pretty interesting people around here and I am more or less right in ChinaTown which is pretty ok.

I didn't do much yesterday (Wednesday) except drive to a beach/bay and sit, chill and read my book - which thus meant that today (Thursday) after I took back the car, and met up with Andrea (friend from Vancouver) for lunch we went to the World's Biggest BookStore and purchased another new book.

Back at the hostel again at the moment until I head out to grab some dinner and then walk down to the bus station to catch the bus back to NYC

AA, New York and Ontario

Well I left Vancouver on Wednesday on a flight with AA. I will try the best I can to never again fly AA as they are a shocker to book into at the airport, not only that but the flight from Vancouver to Dallas Fort Worth and New York does not include food - you have to purchase it onboard, or bring it on after buying it at the airport.
The Air Hostess' and Hosts' were ok and realatively welcoming albeit of the older variety.
Also both airplanes had either the overhead TV's or no TV's at all.
DAllas Fort Worth is a massive airport structure with about 5 or 6 terminals all linked by a monorail type system to get you between them all.

New York is quite a sight and much bigger than I expected, although Times Square was smaller. The Hostel I stayed at is a bit out of the action at W101st street, but only about 10-20 mins by train from the action of Times Square etc. The only problem with the hostel is that the matresses are not that soft. You can feel all the springs in it. I tried to soften it up by sleeping on the blanket, and it helped a little but not much. Also I had to slug all of my luggage up the 7 floors to the top one because that's where I was placed.

During the day I was there I walked around the city saw Times Square, M&M's World etc.
At 4pm I went back to claim my backpack and laptop, and this woman was there talking to the staff when she turned around and saw that I was wearing the T-Shirt that Yoshi bought for me in Narita a couple of years ago. She had to make a comment that it had a big dragon on the back of it, I then pointed out that there was also a smaller one on the front and one on my sleeve, at which point she decided to tell me that the dragon is a sign of the devil. Of which I replied telling her where I got it from and mentioned that to me it was just a dragon and meant nothing. Her reply was that it was a sign of the devil in a lot of cultures around the world - all I ended up saying was that it was a picture of a dragon and meant nothing to me other than it was a dragon. After a couple of minutes of this conversation I took my bag and left of which I mentioned to the doorman that it was just a dragon and he and the staff behind the counter were about as perplexed by the conversation as myself.

I then caught the bus up to Tornoto, and ended up chatting the a nice young girl on the way up between sleeping. After which when I got to Toronto, I picked up my car which was suppost to be a subcompact, but ended up being an economical Toyota Yaris. Kinda small and just fits my luggage on the back seat.

On the way up I stopped over in Belleville for the night then continued on up to Ottawa. Then found a nice hostel in Ottawa for a couple of nights.

Went out to a club with some of the people here, and then at about 1.30am I got kicked out of the club because I was apparently stumbling and kicked over a it's wet sign then bend over and picked it up.

Today I went with an English fella whose here and we walked around Ottawa seeing the sights for the day. Now it's raining and raining a lot.

Vancouver Back Again

Well I arrived back into Vancouver from Tokyo on Wednesday and eventually crashed around 5pm and woke up around 10 hrs later.

Thursday I picked up the hire car (A Ford Taurus) then went with Paul to White Spot for lunch, after which I started my drive down to Seattle to visit Mel & Jared for a couple of days.
When I got to the US boarder I had to obtain a Visa Waiver, of which the border control agent was so serious in dealing with me it was quite funny.
Once I was through the boarder, I tried to find somewhere to buy a phone/sim card (which is really really hard to do in both the US and Canada) In the end I went to Radioshack as the direct phone company agents/stores do not sell pre-paids.

Eventually got to Mel & Jared's place, after which we went out to dinner at their favourite tequilla place, after which I crashed.

On the FRiday Jared & I went out to the Boeing Factory to take a tour around the place, however due to industrial relations action the tour was cancelled. However as a result we were able to get to see the gallery and a driving tour around the perimiter for free.

After that we went for lunch at the RedNook Brewery, and then took a $1 brewery tour. Really not much of a tour, only basically one room which was a tumbler cup beer, followed by some talking, another taste test, followed by more talking, more taste testing and talking, then another taste test followed a look at the fermtation barrels then the last taste test and that was it.

After which we came back to the apartment and had a BBQ dinner followed by some games of Quoridour and Family Business.

Saturday Mel & Jared took me to see the Microsoft offices where Mel works, followed by a long and traffic orientated drive downtown to see Pike Place Market. Where we ended up having some clam chouder for lunch while watching a juggler.

After which I left at about 7pm to drive back to Vancouver, stopped for some dinner, the felt tired so I stopped into a couple of rest stops to sleep before heading off again in the morning back to Vancouver.

Got back into Vancouver and went to Kyle and Annas place for a visit which was good and got too see a few people I haven't seen since I left. Followed by Paul and I in the afternoon climbing and doing the Grouse Grind which was a chore but well worth it in the end to make it to the top.

Japan to Vancouver

So I have finally arrived into Vancouver and it was a bit like a home coming really. Remembering where all the areas are, the fact that you have to walk 500m or more before you come accross a toilet in the airport arrives walkway.

Overall it was good to be back even if it is only for a week.

The flight from Tokyo was good, even better was the fact that JAL have a camera at the front of the plane, so you get to see the view from the front of what it looks like in take-off and landing. Pretty sweet I tell you, pretty damn sweet.

But onto other matters, I am now about to go off and get my hire car to drive down to Seattle and visit Mel and Jared and do a bit of a catch up for a few days. Should be all good seeing the old housies again.

Tokyo and Rain

Well it's my final day in Tokyo and Japan and I finally get some sunshine for 2 days in a row without rain. Although yesterday did rain a small fraction, but not enough to worry about.
I never got to climb Mt Fuji this time around becuase of all the rain which has been falling here in Japan over the last two weeks that I have been here.

It's been fun catching up with my Brother and his family and my Sister and everyone else that I know and have seen here in Japan htis time around.

It is not time to start thinking about packing my stuff up, back into the suitcase and getting myself ready for my next flight and section in Vancouver and Seattle - it should be fun and I am looking forward to seeing my friends in Vancouver again.