[New York]
Saturday, 29 January, 2005
Hi guys
Just a quick update to let you know whats happening.
WE only have one more day in New York...
We went to the top of the empire state building and
had to fight huge crowds, and deal with terrible
security staff who have absolutely no PR skills and
somehow can't listen. I didn't want my camera to go
through the scanner because this was a really strong
one that damaged film. I told her about 4 times what
I wanted, but still this woman came and grabbed it off
me and put it in the scanner. I had to literally yell
at her back to get her to listen and give it back so
it could be visually inspected (which you are legally
allowed to request). They just yell at everyone. Its
horrible.
Visited the world trade centre site too - which is
still a large hole in the ground. They have plans to
build something there, but I think that will be a
while away. All the surrounding buildings are still
being fixed from their structural problems.
Other than just wandering around the various areas
(chinatown, little italy, greenwich etc) we have
visited a couple of museums. Today I am going to an
art museum while andrew is going to spend time on an
aircraft carrier somewhere. Tomorrow we are taking a
4 hour bus ride to Washington DC. I would be quite
happy if we just skipped out washington and chicago
and went straight to Canada... But andrew is keen to
see a few things in DC...
Anyway, I better go. We have a few things to tick off
today. Don't want to go outside cause it is still -10
degrees. Makes it hard to get motivated to go
sightseeing outside.
bye for now
love nic
[San Francisco]
Friday, 21 January, 2005
we are now in San Francisco and it is a lot colder
than Tucson where we were in shorts and t-shirts and
sweating (too hot). Not its back to jackets in the
winter fog. Pretty city though with the harbour and
hills. Reminded us a bit of wellington. Not sure
what we will do. Wander around town. Visit the
Golden Gate Bridge, maybe go on a tour out to Alcatraz
if not too pricey. We have three full days - fly to
New York on sunday night - the same flight number that
crashed into one of the trade towers - same time etc.
the Greyhound bus trip here was really tiring. Very
different to south american buses which are flasher,
go longer distances in shorter times. There are no
allocated seats here - its first in first served and
you have to queue if you want to sit together (again a
pain). The bus drivers here stop for an hour at each
place so it takes a while to get anywhere. Still, the
roads are good so you can read books and not get sick
which is good. It certainly is 'working class'
america that uses greyhound though. We hadn't
experienced this side of america till now so it was a
bit of an eyeopener. We were nearly the only ones on
the bus speaking english other than a few black
americans. All the rest were spanish immigrants -
mostly from mexico. They are everywhere and
everything is said in spanish before being said in
english. You forget where you are! I didn't sleep
much during the night - so listened to music and read
a book. The scenery today was all farmland - pretty
boring, plus thick fog so couldn't see more than one
paddock away. We did meet some interesting people
though (by interesting I mean weird). One old man in
his 90's sitting in front of us who was telling us
that taking trains in america is dangerous cause they
crash and buses don't. We asked what his name was and
he said "they call me cowboy" and said no more.
We then had some weird truck driver guy who couldn't
shut up, tell us all about aliens taking over the
world and how he totally believed it. He also seemed
to think that all this artificial and plastic food
that americans seem to live on was the way to go (he
wasn't in shape either). He even gave us some of them
- power bar thing that were terrible. We ate them to
be polite but I had to race away and buy a drink to
get rid of the taste. We had two black woman singing
all through the night while up the front of the bus
some poor woman was trying to manage herself and her 6
children ranging from 0-10, a couple of whom decided
to gurp all down their fronts. Met another black
woman who had 4 kids and was moving from Dallas Texas
to San Francisco - two full days and nights on the bus
with her four children. They were so well behaved I
couldn't believe it. Otherwise it was a long long
trip and we were glad to step off it eventually this
afternoon.
Thats about it for now.
Love nicola
[Canyons]
Tuesday, 18 January, 2005
hi
I am really tired and sore after the last few days.
We returned from a great trip into the Grand Canyon.
Actually I'll start a few days before that because I
visited this other amazing canyon called Antelope
Canyon near a town called Page. It was stunning with
orange and red rock being illuminated with the sun
beaming down through it. Hope my photos come out. It
was amazing. Had to pay for a tour for it because it
was on indian reservation land, and I hired a tripod
for it too - worth every cent.
Andrew and I then drove down to the Grand Canyon and
had a morning looking over the edge at all the good
lookouts, then got a back country permit and wandered
down to the bottom of the canyon. Its a long way
down. About 12km long track that drops 1400m
vertical. Good track though - about 2m wide most of
the way and is used by mules lots so is steady
gradient - not steep at all. As you can imagine
stunning views though and huge drop offs on all sides
in places. There is a campground at the bottom that
we arrived at just on dark. Got up early today and
began the long slog back up the hill. Thankfully it
wasn't too hot - it must be terrible in summer. Took
most of the day geting back to the top taking our time
and getting lots of photos. We met a nice american
couple who we then went out and had pizza with, and
now we are at their house for the night two hours
south of the grand canyon - about to have a shower.
Very nice of them and great to have a bed for a night.
Tomorrow we drive 6 hour or so to Tucson and then
wednesday night bus to San Francisco. Will be nice to
be staying with friends from then on for a while.
Love nicola
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