Onward to New York

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The flight to New York was about 6 hours, it was hot on the plane and there wasn't enough space in the overhead lockers for bags. We crossed more timezones and went from 1pm to 9.30pm at night in about 6 hours. And so by the time I had got off the plane and travelled a few travellators in JFK airport it was nearly 11pm and it was rather quiet around the place. I now had to get to my hostel in New York City. I had a page of instructions on what to do now that I was fully let loose on the soil of my new country. I was supposed to notify the office that I had arrived, they were alseep and had the after hours message service, there was an unenthusiastic and unfriendly information desk person who gave me a map and said get the 103, I didn't know what that meant but assumed I would figure it out. The last shuttle bus into the city had just left so I was left with the option that I wanted to avoid. The Subway.
Turns out the whole, airbus, train, subway system in New York is very bloody complicated! especially when you are half dead jetlagged at it's the middle of the night. There was a weirdo on my carriage yelling about titties, it was annoying when he decided to stare, however I am very accustomed to weirdos on the train from the colourful assortment you get in Melbourne, especially the Frankston line.

Luckily to counteract the rude staff I had met, there were also some incredibly nice people that helped me along the way and I remembered the basics of which lines I had to get off and which ones to get back on again. It was about midnight now, I am not scared of night train rides or anything but the fact that I had massive bags and completely looked like a tourist was not the best. There was this great new smell of dirt and a sort of unloved industry of the underground rail system. The people were so cliche New York on the subway as well, I would have loved to taken arthouse photos but i didn't really feel it would be a wise move to whip out the digi cam on the Bronx train when I looked like a knobby tourist.
I still felt like I was in TV, as though if you watched NYPD blue you would see me in the background with my hemp necklace and towing along my dufflebag on wheels, looking back I probably also also felt like I was in TV due to a bit of middle of the night flying around the world jetlag induced psychosis.

It got a little more complicated when at a major inner terminal I saw a lovely little notice that said there were trainworks this weekend and that my stop wasn't going to be a stop. Shit. This was not what I wanted at 1am. I spoke to an indian guy in the ticket booth who I found incredibly hard to understand, basically he said I had to go 5 more stops towards the end of the line that said Bronx. and then I had to get off and get back on the downtown or uptown train (I had no idea which went where) to get back to my actual stop. I wasn't keen to be getting any kind of lost in the Bronx side of New york in the wee hours of the morning. So I made a gut instict last minute decision which may have not been the smartest one. I got off early and decided to walk the 10 blocks to where I wanted to be, so I walked up Broadway, I had at least heard of Broadway and assumed main streets would be my best bet. Besides I wanted to soak up some New York vibe. I was in freaking New York!!! Oh btw, duffle bags on wheels that weigh 28kgs and subway stairs are NOT fun.

Broadway was a bit more quiet than I had thought but I had burnt my bridges now, I was walkin and there was no avoiding it. It was actually a little bit similar to Melbourne but the neon signs were bigger, as though signs here were designed for the uber visually imparied. I got excited at the all night diners and I saw a bit of an arthouse looking dingy bar, awesome. (New York seedy bars are on my bucket list) There were some freaks out but again, nothing I am not accustomed to. I just didn't want them to know I had an accent along with the luggage I was dragging along like a sore thumb. I was also hoping that the street I had to turn down would not be a dark and scary one like the ones I was passing. My hostel ran parallell to Broadway.

Found my street - hooray. The numbering streets system is fantastic. I turned right. I noticed the doorways with arches and big wide stairs with boxes out the front were very Sesame Street. I almost expected Snuffleupagus to come out. Up ahead I saw a big group of people and two cars playing rap music, hanging out n dealing drugs I guess. As I walked up the side street in the direction I had to go, there were a group of suburban looking while girls, the kind that in Australia would have had a hills hoist in a backyard of an estate and kids called Jayden and Tanaya. They decided to warn me.
'Are you from here?'
'Uh no' I shook my head
'You be careful down there'
'Ya you be real careful'
'ya'

At this point I was a little bit concerned but I had no option, this was where I had to go to get to my hostel. As I got closer the hip hop loiterers ALL stared at me. I then turned right onto the street that my hostel was on, I now had approached what seemed to be the New York version of commission housing. Tops. I decided maybe I should not just walk up and down this street randomly looking for my hostel but also maybe also not a good place to get a map out, so I chucked a uey and went back to Broadway. I had a bit of a breather also. Man this was like a Harry Potter adventure. The cars from the congregation drove past me with their sunrooves and the 'yeap yeap' music blaring.
Take two and I had the number of the hostel firmly in my head. I went back again. It was on the same corner as the congregation. They were hanging out what seemed like some kind of milk bar. I wasn't going to get any snacks there. I crossed the road and scurried into my destination like an ant.

The lift was broken and I was on level 4, I didn't ask but these two Russian boys insisted on carrying my bag upstairs, they were so nice, really I could have done it, that must be what Russian boys do. It was SO incredibly hot and muggy, It felt like Cairns in January.
I got to bed at 3am, I woke up at 4. I had to meet some guy who I assumed was some group leader in the lobby at 6.30am to get on a bus for 7 hours to Portland Maine.


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Early in the morning in the lobby, an Aussie guy in thongs came and asked if it was the place to meet for the bus to Portland. I said yes. Through a little bit of chatting he said he was meant to meet Some chick, I laughed, because that chick was me. Turns out I was also meant to meet him. We were equally clueless about what, where and how of this bus to Portland. However due to my crash course in NY subways I knew how to get to Times Square because I had been there the night before. So off we trundled. He was from country Victoria and had lived in Melbourne. Hah - home follows me.

Stupid exchange summer camp company was meant to provide us with a bus and everything, they did nothing of the sort so we found Greyhound ourselves and bought tickets. We had a long wait before our 11am bus so we went exploring the streets of New York, we tried McDonalds, mine was fabulous, his was terrible. We both had long shorts and thongs on, (it was hot ok) very Australian, very touristy. People tried to sell us tours. We had to call people because our bus instructions and arrival times were wrong, things and phones wouldn't work. Bahh.

New York was great though. There was still that inspiring dirty kind of smell, and the masses of neon lights in the theatre district. We saw a group of women who were men in the newstand, they weren't very friendly and looked straight out of taxicab confessions (if you ever saw that show). Also seriously I could not have had a better random person to be lumped with for a day, it would have been much worse if I was stuck with some fuckwad. The window gazing through New York and Queens was entertaining and I couldn't get over how green it was, I loved the roadhouse stop too, there was lots of chicken options, this was also very funny. America was so much like the cliche sometimes I couldn't help but find it amusing, I felt like I was constantly smiling to myself. We bussed it to Boston with a very witty busdriver and onwards to Portland, about 6pm I arrived and was picked up by some members of my new tribe.

The drive to my camp was beautiful, with gorgeous farmhouses and gardens, spacious, green and surrounded by lush, happy trees. My new lakeside home to be.

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haiz where da updatez