On the Friday night the hostel had organised a trip out to "Trannie night" which was an infamous night in a club called the Middle East in Cambridge, on the other side of the river from Boston. In total there were about 10 of us who ventured out into the wild side of Transvestite entertainment. Coming from Blackpool it wasn't the first drag show I had seen (I'm not saying I've seen hundreds though - don't want you getting the wrong impression:-). One of the guys (Paul) from London was decidedly nervous and had never encountered anything like Becka Da'Bus who certainly did look like a back of a bus, he was around 6 foot 5 - 18 stone and had the scariest make-up on I'd ever seen - the trannie not Paul:-) . The acts ... read more

The next day I got the subway to the tip of Manhattan - Lower Manhattan and walked up through Soho and Tribeca to Greenwich Village. After a visit to the flatiron district I ended up in Times square with the madding crowds. That night I decided to head into Greenwich village and the infamous Bleeker street, which is crammed with bars. Most of the bars had live music on so I headed on in there and ordered a pint and was immediately accosted by a group of locals and was in their company for the rest of the night! The next day suffering slightly from the night before I visited the natural history museum and central park. At sunset I caught the Staten Island ferry (which was free) to take some landscape pics and then night ... read more

This won't be one of my usual blogs as there is a huge amount of information out there on New York and Boston already so I will just be including the more interesting tales of my trip to the States. By a miracle I arrived at JFK early, considering the amount of snow that was lying around at the time, numerous airports had been closed - trains had been delayed and increased security measures due to the undie bomber - plus worries about even being let in the country due to the places I have recently visited - all led to a surprise when I walked out of the airport into the freezin' NY sunshine. I got the air train and subway to my hostel in east village which took about 50 mins and $9 - ... read more

There is an easy way to get from Rio to Isla Grande, (direct hostel to hostel transfer) I realised too late, but as always I had to make it more difficult for myself and my new chum Ellen. So after a bus to the bus station and then another bus to Angra dos Reas, then another local bus to the port (where I stepped on it and it then drove off without Ellen)!! and then a walk to the boat and then a 90 min boat journey to Isla Grande ending with a 15 min walk to the hostel!! I find travelling much more fun this way - needless to say Ellen got the direct transfer on her way back:-) I had picked the Aquarios hostel as it had good reviews but it was at the ... read more

Finally arrived in Rios bus station after my mammoth journey from Argentina. The journey just flew by though, the seats were more like beds and fully reclined so I good a full nights sleep. I even watched Appaloosa again, not that I had much choice as it was piped over the speaker system. I don know what it is about that film but every time I travel its on, so know I have watched this film on the flight to India, the flight to Sao Paulo and the bus to Rio!!. When I got off the bus I met up with a fellow Israeli traveller called Marine (who I would bump into again on Isla Grande and in Sao Paulo and wandered round aimlessly until a local took pity and pointed us to the bus to ... read more