Back to Soho today via Union Square where I could have spent about $10,000 in Diesel. And I would have done except I had about $12 on me. Also checked out the Christmas market and had some hot cider which was a good way to warm up. In the afternoon, we went to see the New York Rangers play the Phoenix Coyotes, and the Rangers were terrible, losing 5-1 and even worse, there were no fights, which to me is half the point of ice hockey. It brought back memories of watching Spurs back home. And they didn't even sell any [View Full Entry]

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Another day of shopping planned for today, starting with Macy's. As expected, it was a bit of a scrum, and my mood wasn't helped because I don't have the money or space in my bag to buy as much stuff for myself as I would have liked. Alex's friends Tom and Cheryl have also flown out, so Tom, Rupert and I wandered round the mens' section trying in vain to find something that didn't make us look like a poor man's Vanilla Ice. The girls had a bit more success then we went for lunch where Alex had a sandwich disguised [View Full Entry]

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Got to NYC yesterday at about 1 in the afternoon, following a pretty rough journey featuring a small amount of snow and a lot of rain. The rain continued when I got to New York, meaning I couldn't really go out and do anything I had planned. The hostel I'm in is OK, 6 of us to the dorm but we have a private bathroom, which is good. Since I couldn't do a great deal, I spent most of the afternoon in a coffee house over the road. Went to the cinema in the evening to see No Country for Old [View Full Entry]

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Spent all morning traipsing around trying to find an internet cafe with a printer so I could print off my reservation for the hostel in NY tomorrow. Eventually found one down in South Street where I was yesterday, annoyingly. Then walked all the way back to the Philadelphia Art Museum, the steps to which are the ones Rocky runs up in the first film. I don't see what the big deal was, I made it myself with a couple of rest stops. The museum was OK, not a patch on the Met though which I hope to see this weekend. They [View Full Entry]

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Got to Philadelphia yesterday at about 2.30, 2 whole hours before I could check in to the hostel. Luckily I managed to find an internet cafe so kept myself entertained until I could get into my dorm room at the hostel, a room containing about 30 people. Great. Went out for dinner to a place Mark had recommended which was really nice, though on leaving the bar man accosted me to talk about football. To be fair, for an American he knew quite a lot - more than me when it came to European football. But then he started talking about [View Full Entry]

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Today Mark took on board my suggestion from yesteray, and we went proper sightseeing. First stop was the Whitehouse, where 2 groups (of about 2 people each) were protesting. One group appeared to be anti war, whilst the other were pro Israel and had a loudspeaker which they used to shout down the anti war guys repeatedly, as well as pretty much demand the immediate nuclear bombing of any state in the middle east which wasn't Israel. Sadly, the guy who usually stands outside the Whitehouse with cardboard cut outs of George W Bush and Bill Clinton for tourists to pose [View Full Entry]

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Disturbingly, Mark had left it up to me to decide what we would get up to, but as usual I was woefully underprepared and came up with the helpful suggestion that we should go sightseeing. Luckily, Mark suggested we go to the National Air and Space museum (part of the Smithsonian), which bought me some time. The museum was basically a huge aircraft hangar, and was a superb collection of commercial and military planes from around the world, as well as items from the space program. Some of the itmes on display however seemed a bit out of place - a [View Full Entry]

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Annoyingly my bus wasn't until half one, and I had to check out of the hotel at 11, so I had a few hours to wander about (though I actually messed about on the internet for most of this time). Got a taxi to the bus station only to discover I had been ripped off (as I'd kind of suspected) when I got a cab from the bus station to the hotel on arriving in Richmond. The bus journey was OK, a bit busier than before, but I still got 2 seats to myself so was pretty happy. Got into DC [View Full Entry]

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Reached Richmond, Virginia yesterday after a 6 hour drive, which is the first time since South America I've had such a day of travelling. Still, it went by fairly quickly and we actually arrived slightly ahead of time. The hotel I'm staying in is in the centre of town (at last!) and is a restored 19th century building, so I felt pretty bad when within about 10 minutes of being there I managed to break one of the (probably antique) chairs in my room. There's not really a great deal to do in Richmond, and it seems to be quite an [View Full Entry]

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So my day in Charlotte was much better than the day I had yesterday - no petty crime or crazy people whatsoever. Took a trip to Discovery Place, a kind of cooler version of the Science Museum. At the moment, they have an exhibition called BodyWorlds - I'm not sure if this is the same as Bodies that was in London a while back, but it basically consists of dead human bodies plasticised so you can see organs and muscles etc. A bit gruesome, but actually really fascinating, especially the section on the development of embryos in the womb. About a [View Full Entry]

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