And back again

And I'm home. It feels like it went fast but I did so much that it also seems like things just a few weeks ago seem a long time ago.

It was nice to be back in Melbourne though and see familiar sights, taste familiar food, see cars on the correct (rather than right) side of the road.

A lady in the queue with me to go through immigration asked if I was Australian with "an accent like that". I was like yeah, I don't think I have picked up a change to my voice. I've been sick so I sound a bit different to myself but that'll pass.

I do find some strangers accents sound quite broad to my ear, but the family voices sound normal.

San Francisco

The trip is amost over. This time tomorrow I will be on the plane home.

SF is nice. Very hilly. A bit chilly by the bay.

There's sadly a lot of homeless people. You can' walk two blocks without someone asking you for money. Unlike the beggars in Melbourne, these guys (and some but fewer) women look like they need it for real and not for drugs.

Washington DC

I slept pretty badly last night. All the walking around in the rain in New York has left me with a bit of a cold. But I'm ploughing through!

I took the Airport bus into the US capital this morning. I was surprised by how unimpressive the Pentagon is from the ground. Sure it's a very large building, but it's just walls and windows when you drive by it. I wasn't sure at first it was even it.

I got off near the Air and Space Museum so that was my first stop. I had a mild space interest as a youngster (and later if you count all the sci-fi I watched) so it was interesting.

One of the Air displays talked about the Battle of Midway which is a key event in a book I'm reading so that was interesting to see.

I headed up to the Capitol for a look and then heading back down the other side of the Mall, visting the Art Gallery and the Natural History museum. By this time all of the museums were full of kids on field trips, but they were easily avoided.

I made my way to the Holocaust museum (not the most cheery of places but it has a good message), then to the Washington Monument and finally the White House.

I stood at the fence and peered up the lawn to the hill. It's an impressive site, as is knowing how many hidden cameras are watching you as you walk by. I heard one girl say something about climbing up one of the trees. I thought she should so we could get a demonstration of the Secret Service response!

I had a bit of a look around the rest of the city. It really doesn't have a life to it. It's very cold and beaucratic and lacking the energy that the other cities I've been to had.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to my last stop, San Francisco. Only three days and I board the plane home. Man it's going quick!

So long New York

I've left the Big Apple behind and made my way to Washington DC. Well technically I'm near there. I won't be there until tomorrow.

New York was a great city and of all the places I've been, it's the one I'd really want to go back to. The size of the city is daunting, and up to and including today I was still getting confused which way uptown and downtown were, but it feels easy to get used to.

I was crossing streets, dodging traffic like a pro. It's odd to jaywalk in front of police but it's the NY thing to do! On the downside there were a few too many people walking around with their bluetooth headsets for my liking (it looked like the Cybermen or the Borg were silently invading).

I got to see Central Park (huge) and the Statue of Liberty (huge queue, not that big) and the big landmarks.

I loved being at Times Square. I ended up seeing seven Broadway shows. I figured who knows when next I'm going to get the chance to see something on Broadway. On top of the three I've already mentioned I saw Mary Poppins, Tarzan, Spring Awakening and Curtains. All good shows although I think I liked Curtains the best of these.

I also saw a movie today (28 Weeks Later) in the time I had to fill between checking out and getting picked up. The drive to the airport took ages and was an adventure and a little more scary than the film.

At the airport I was told my bag was 8lbs over weight. I've got no idea what 8lbs means and the guy wasn't very helpful. I've checked up and its about 3.6kg. Not much. I should be able to fit that into my carry-on for the next flight. For the trip home Qantas are more generous with their allocations.

I flew JetBlue for this short leg and I wonder if our cut-price airlines will introduce personal TV sets for passengers by default anytime soon? Maybe that new Tiger Airlines will do it?

New York part two

I've continued my roll of musicals by seeing Avenue Q last night. It was extremly funny and well peformed!

This morning I headed down to the Statue of Liberty but the queue was so long and there were no 'time passes' left so I gave up on it for today. I've learnt a 'time pass' is if you want to go into the monument so I will go back (probably over the weekend) and just tour by on the ferry. That's all I really need to do.

I made my way uptown and to the site of the World Trade Centre. When the WTC was mentioned in the video at the Empire State Building it was quite emotional for me. The actual site though is just rubble and it's hard to comprehened that two huge buildings once stood there. There are still a lot of workers there cleaning up debris nearly six years later! On one of the memorial plaques I saw a casualtity (a "hero") with my surname which was a little confronting. Life has gone around the the site but the horror of that day and those images stick to your mind.

For something more fun, I moved on and saw some TV locations. I visited the apartment building from Friends and 'Monks' from Seinfeld. The latter meant I got up to 112th street. The city just keeps going on and on. It's so big. You could spend a month touring and never see everything!

New York

I'm loving New York. It's really great here. Lots to do and see. It was raining yesterday but it was still very warm. I haven't explored too much yet. I was at the Empire State Building today and I've seen a lot of Times Square. My hotel is well located right in the middle of the city, but it's still quiet enough at night to sleep.

I had a lot of trouble getting here. My flight from Vegas was delayed, then my connecting flight was cancelled, and I just got the last seat on the next New York bound flight. That plane then sat on the runway for about an hour because a storm had come into Chicago and all planes were grounded. But I got here eventually.

On the shuttle bus from the airport this loud Italian woman from Brooklyn was entertaining the passengers. She tried to set me up with this french girl who was also travelling solo. Upon learning I was Australian she described me as a 'young Russell Crowe' which made me laugh! She also missed the comment when the driver picked up his wife and was trying to set the two of them up too. It was a very entertaining way to end the day.

Yesterday I did my bit as a broadway audience member. I saw Les Mis from front row centre. It was a great show. I didn't know that it was a tradegy; three times the tears came to my eyes.

It put me in the musical mood so I went to the half price ticket booth and got a ticket for Legally Blonde. This seat was in the mezzanine but it was a good view and a very entertaing and funny show. I may however be singing "Oh my god, oh-my-god you guys" at random moments for the next few weeks.

Grand Canyon

I was woken today at 5am by a phone call. My thoughts went something like this:

That's a phone

That must be next door

That's my phone

Who's calling me?

Oh no what's wrong at home?

I better get up and answer it.

Turns out it was the tour company confirming my 6am pickup. Well thanks for the wakeup call but I had planned to get up 15 minutes later!

I got on to the bus across the road and (as in my Disney trip) was taken to a terminal to process my ticket and then get on another bus. Along the way the driver was hard selling the other tours and upgrades you could do. This went pretty quickly and soon we were on our way.

Two full buses headed out to the West Rim. Mine was full and I ended up sitting next to a lady from some Northern state who was pretty chatty.

Our first stop was at the Hoover Dam. Because of September 11 there's now a police check before you get there, were a cop gets on your bus (or looks through your car) to make sure you're not sneaking in a terrorist. Just before the dam they are building a bypass so fewer travellers will need to be checked. Having just spent a month working on a major road project I found myself more interested in the huge bridges they are building than I might otherwise have been.

There was a brief photo stop there and then it was full speed to the Canyon. At least it was full speed half of the way. Once we got closer it became an unmade and very bumpy road. The host was apologetic and also very knowlegedable and made the trip out enjoyable. I gave him a good tip at the end of the day. I think it was a good tip.

The first stop at the rim was the Eagle Point. The view was amazing. The canyon just stretches out seemingly forever. It really is breathtaking. I snapped a lot of pictures today (over 300) and I filter out the best ones when I get home.

The main attraction at this point was the rock formation that looked like an eagle, but now it's the Skywalk. 4,000 feet above the Colorado River below you walk out onto a horseshoe-shaped glassed platform suspending out over the cliff face.

The view straight down is not that scary. The platform feels really strong. It's not however that well protected and if you wanted to make a final splash there's nothing to stop you which surprised me. As with all great heights the fear of falling does take hold as you walk among the cliff faces.

Lunch was at Guapo Point (which is probably misspelt). Not sure what it was (other than the piece of Chicken and the Corn Cob) but it was nice enough. I was starving after a very light breakfast much earlier in the day.

The views from this point were even better stretching in three directions. It also allowed me to snap some photographs featuring the helicopter tours. The helicopters helped put the towering cliff walls into scale (and made them look as huge as they were).

The bus back left at 2:45 plus the twenty minutes delay waiting for some stragglers to make their way back to the bus. I read most of the way and half paid attention to the DVD the driver screened "National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation".

I got back to my hotel about 6 and made my way straight over to the Star Trek exhibit. It was interesting to see some of the real props and costumes, but I felt like I knew all the 'trivia' and information on the displays already. I did one of the rides, the Borg Expeirence 4-D which was pretty good.

After dinner I jumped on to write this up, and now plan to head back to the hotel to pack and get some sleep. It's a 4am start tomorrow due to the stupid 3 hour before policy the airlines have. Next stop New York

Las Vegas

The first thing you notice when you arrive in the Las Vegas terminal is the slot machines in the departure lounge. Just in case you want to gamble a little bit more before your plane takes off I guess?

The second thing you notice is how hot it is! I thought LA was hot but that was just warm in comparison. This is Broome-like in it's heat. I was building up a sweat just sitting in the shade waiting for my shuttle bus to come.

The Las Vegas strips stands out as the only tall buildings surrounded by houses, retail, no noticable industrial, and then flat dry land out towards mountains that seem to be in all directions.

My hotel is okay. The check-in desk is in the middle of the casino which I found surprising. It's not a fancy room but it's pretty big for just little old me. Being on the first floor (yes this is one of the few US buildings I've been to yet that has a first floor that is not the ground level) I have a view of a few casinos.

Outside there's just so many people around, as you would expect from Vegas and staying in the middle of the Strip. Every casino looks the same when you walk in the door and I haven't laid any money down yet.

There's also a few malls, most of which have these cool fake sky blue ceilings with clouds painted on them. I thought they were moving through some trick of lights or projection, but they don't. When you walk you see them in your peripheral vision and they just appear to be moving.

I went out last night and saw "Phantom the Vegas Experience". It's a cut down version of the Lloyd-Webber Phantom of the Opera (down to 95 minutes) but it has all the songs and was pretty well done. The cast were good. The staging was well done, and so were the special effects which included a crashing chandelier and fireworks (a bit too bright for my tired eyes). I kept being thrown by changes to the lyrics from the movie version that I have the soundtrack of (and have listened to a lot) but I generally enjoyed the show.

Then tired I went back to my room and ended up watching Kill Bill Volume 2 on the TV. It was the first time I'd seen it again since it was on at the movies. (When will the special edition DVD of those two movies ever come out!) Speaking of "at the movies" I was thinking of seeing Grindhouse today but there's no movie theatres in the yellow pages. There must be some around!

I was concerned I wouldn't be able to sleep due to noise and light but I was still pretty tired from the Disney trip and the early rise to catch my plane.

I took the bus up and down the strip and out to the outlet mall. Picked up some new shorts for aerobics here and took the change to use an internet outlet.

Tonight I'm going to check out a few of the other hotels and get along to the Star Trek Experience museum. I won't have a long night because I've got an all-day trip out to the Grand Canyon tomorrow leaving at 6am and then the next day I'm getting picked up at 5am to go back to the airport.

At this rate I'm going to sleep all the way to New York!

LA post three

Today I went to Disneyland. It was fun and cute, but really busy. Much busier than Universal Studios was. I would hate to visit in a busy period (like summer!)

I'm pretty tired now so this will just be a placeholder post for me to come back to and add more.

And to answer a recently asked question, no I haven't checked out the bar/club scene here. I feel too intimidated to go to the bars/clubs back home. Imagine how much worse it is when the local LA guys going in look like movie-stars!

Second post from LA

I'm finding I don't have as much time to blog as I was expecting. I suppose that's a good thing, it mean's I'm keeping busy.

I went for a very long walk yesterday. Way too long. I'm really hurting from not having a Melway-equivalent! But I was thrilled to find a couple of things not available in Australia yet so the walk was kind of worth it. But my leg's might not agree!

I was rushing home to watch a new episode of Veronica Mars (without having to torrent download it) but it got bumped because of the bushfire in Griffith Park. It was kind of cool because I could see the fire, and the helicopters flying over it, from my hotel window!

Yesterday was stinking hot. Much hotter than I realised it was going to be. I found the hotel pool and went for a bit of a swim which was nice.

Another thing I'm struggling with is "plus tax". If you see an item and it has a big price listed next to it, I assume that is the price. No, that's the price before you add the tax to it. It's almost impossible to get the exact money ready because there's this extra little charge for everything!

I visited Universal Studios today. Got there early which meant I could get on some of the better rides quickly. The place is very much like Movieworld or the former Fox Studios Backlot back home. There's the same sort of feel to all the rides and attractions.

I saw Wisteria Lane, which was cool, and the jet crash site from the War of the Worlds movie. I rode on pretty much everything you could ride on. The Mummy ride was pretty good (I did that one twice). The 3/4D shows (Shrek and Terminator 2) were pretty fun too. There was also an extremely entertaining special effects tour with great hosts.

Coming home I stopped in Hollywood proper. It's pretty seedy really. And then West Hollywood which was interesting at least. I bused down to Santa Monica to eat and was surprised to find a fine mist coming in off the ocean. In my shorts and t-shirt I was freezing! I ate dinner and came straight back to the hotel.

There is Internet access at the hotel which is a little pricey but it's convenient.

I'm taking notes for longer entries than these, but knowing my track record I might never type them up.

I might have to see if I can try uploading photos next time I come down here.

LA

Finally found somewhere to go online (a photocopy etc shop).

It's really hot over here. The temperature is only 20 but it feels so much hotter, it's very humid and the sun is very hot.

My flight over was okay. It was a very long trip. I watched three movies on the way over but there was so much choice. I watched Becomming Jane, Man of the Year and History Boys. I could have watched more if I hadn't tried to get some sleep.

They turned off most of the plane's light's halfway through the trip (and it got dark outside the plane) but I just couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. I couldn't stretch my legs out or recline enough. I did doze off for about ten-fifteen minutes a couple of times but mostly I just spent a couple of hours with my eyes closed. Wasn't the same as sleep.

Once we got to LA immigration took ages. There were only four people having to process the entire plane. My seat was at the back of the plane (third row from the back) and although I tried to disembark quickly I still ended up near at the back of the line.

Got through ok, picked up my bag but the terminal was very small. Nowhere to buy a drink, only local payphones. I got a shuttle bus to my hotel which took sometime too. I was the third drop off. (You know you're in LA when your bus driver has a photo resume on hand).

The hotel room is very nice. I have a good view of the hills (and can see the Hollywood sign). I rang home as soon as I got to the room -- sorry about the late hour, but I said I'd call so I knew I had to.

I've done a bit of sightseeing. LA is very VERY spread out. You really can't do anything on foot, although I tried. Buses are pretty frequent though but there's two competing lines so if you get an all day ticket with one you have to let the others go past. (Our system's better).

I walked around Beverley Hills shopping area (all very pricey looking stores) before lunch. Then I went down to Santa Monica in the afternoon. That was where I was going to stay and if I came back I would. There's a lot more variety of shops and stores and the beach looks pretty nice. (But what the guidebooks said about homeless people was right - lots on the foreshore area - but they're easily avoided).

I didn't do much last night because I was pretty tired. Still awake and alert but feeling fatigued. I spent time flicking through the TV stations. I get a lot of channels but American TV seems to have more ads, that or they all have ads at the same time so when you're flicking through channels it's all ads.

I couldn't watch 24 or Heroes which were too far ahead, but I could watch new episodes of "Old Christine". I saw some of the US Dancing with the Stars too. It's much quicker show they had two dances danced and judged in the first 13 minutes.

I slept well, about 12 hours sleep, catching up on yesterday. I went walkabout again today, checking out a few shops, including visiting a Westfield shopping centre! There's no general discount department stores around. No Target or K-Mart type store which is bit annoying.

When you just look around the shops and streets it doesn't feel very different to Australia. It's only when people talk and you hear the predominant accents that it really feels like another country. I also did ask for toMAto on my sandwich at lunch today and got looked at strangely and had to correct myself to say toMAYto.

The driving on the wrong side of the street is annoying. When I was in the shuttlebus yesterday I kept getting worried each time the driver would turn left from the middle of the street! It's now ok when I'm in a bus but I haven't learnt it yet for crossing the street. I keep by instinct looking in what here is the wrong direction. Even when I'm half way across I still look to the left to see what's coming. The other problem is that the pedestrian traffic lights don't make any noise, so I keep standing there and not noticing when it's a green light!

Cases packed (almost)

I'm flying out tomorrow morning. I think I have nearly everything ready. I haven't quite packed my suitcase. Well, there's a lot in it, but it's not really in any order.

I took some advice to halve what I originally packed and removed a few things I didn't really need. Maybe a quarter-less rather than a half though.

I have to leave pretty early tomorrow to get to the airport so I will finalise my case tonight, I just don't see the point of doing it too early. I think if I did that I'd be more likely to forget something.

Cashed up

I went to the bank today to get some American money. The guy there gave me a quote but suggested I try the money exchange booth across the road near the Opal shop. I went over and the lady gave me a higher quote (a lower exchange rate) and I said ok but no.

Turns out you can haggle! She knocked $4 off (half the commission) and I saved a couple of dollars on the bank's offer.

It was nice of the bank (Which bank?) to send me somewhere I could save money. That's good customer service.

The money feels a bit flimsy, being paper and all, and it doesn't have that green look I was expecting. I realise that my expectations of American money were based on the look of it on The Simpsons.

Bits and pieces

Today I dealt with three outstanding things that needed doing before I leave (less than a week away).

Firstly I got my insurance materials from Flight Centre. The guy that booked my flights was on leave so I'm glad I chased it up because I wasn't going to be hearing from him. All my tickets are e-tickets so I don't need to collect anything else from them.

Secondly, my mobile phone won't work in the US. It's not a tri-band phone, or something like that. But Ursula, Drew and Natalie have all suggested I just get a international phone card - which are really cheap - while I'm over there.

This does mean one less thing I have to worry about carrying around with me. I wouldn't be using it much anyway other than calling home. The only catch is I was thinking of using it to carry some mp3s around with me. I wonder do I take my mp3 player now or just rely on the natural sounds of the US?

And thirdly, I've suspended my gym membership since I'm going to be out of the country for most of the month I don't see the need to pay for it. Unlike those other months where I don't use it but am in the country!