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Mammoth Fountain
The American falls, as seen from the Canadian side!Why Hello there, It’s that time again for everyone who is interested to read my travel stories again, this time it’s been an intense struggle to find the time and place to actually sit down and type it all out and I doubt I’ll get it all done today which is a dire shame indeed. This journal will document my last 14 days in the USA and at the bottom I shall list all the great bits and then all the shitty bits that have shaped my adventure thus far. Sitting here in Germany in a lazy Country town, it seems like the best place to remenise (sp?) and throw stones. Without further verbal diareah, let us begin.
I had booked 3 days at Niagara Falls whilst I had been in Washington DC, so the following half week had already been taken care of and all I had to do was make it to the Trainstation and get on the right train. I got to Penn Station early and sat around waiting for the direct train to Niagara Falls. For those who don’t know.. Niagara Falls is one of the wonders of the world and is situated in the
Canadian Splendour
The lush gardens of the Canadian side were very special indeed Northwest corner of New York state, about 9 hours by train from NYC. The falls are located on the border between Canada and the US, with each country having it’s own ‘Niagara Falls’ township but really it’s the same town with a big bridge in the middle. The train ride was quite nice, traveling up along the Hudson river all the way along Manhattan and then into the Mainland and heading towards the destination. After the great scenery along the riverbed had subsided, the outside seemed to look like a wasteland, miles and miles of pretty much nothing at all, the occasional car wreck protruding from the tall grasses and of course power lines. Eventually the train passed through the town of Buffalo and the asian family sitting behind me got off, only 6 hours after they began to annoy me to death with their constant yapping (even over my music I could hear them) … anyway … Buffalo was a weird looking town, kinda seemt like the town featured in the movie ‘Gummo’ for any of you out there who have seen that film, you will know what I mean. Turned out that Niagara Falls is similar to an
Horseshoe Upclose
The 'Cave Walk' was a ripoff but being so close to the major Horseshoe Falls was pretty damn cool outer suburb kinda deal to Buffalo, so it made the next 3 days quite a spectacle, well an uneventful spectacle anyhow. The last 45 mins the train went in reverse because it had to back into the Station, as it was a dead end. The station was situated $10.30 away by taxi from the hostel. Myself and a young chinese girl who was also heading to the same hostel were herded onto the waiting taxi’s after being told there were no busses. Such lies but hey at least it saved me getting frustrated with the public transport system, I wasn’t to know how angry I would become in Boston. We arrived at the hostel and immediatley I was impressed. The hostel was situated on a nice clean, tree lined backstreet with only occasional local traffic zooming back and forth. The hostel itself was set in an old 2 storey house and run by some old asian woman, she gave me some dinner for free and treated me with respect and gratitude that I am spending time at the local small town hostel. It was great to be appreciated after all the cold receptions I had received in all the other
Good ole' Boston
Through the rain, you can almost make out a city in the distance and those other things... plants or trees maybe? hostels, well most hostels anyway. The place was cozy and warm and everyone had to be ‘tucked in’ at 11pm each night. It was very cute I guess but 3 nights here is definatley enough hehe.
After the fun and games of the first night and after meeting a cool Korean dude, named ‘Ilkwon’ and having great engrish conversations over doughnuts and grapefruit juice, it was time to check out what I had came here for in the first place, the actual Falls! The hotel was located roughly 15 mins walk away from the Falls and surrounding national park area. The walk there was farily uninspiring. I got a glimpse of a town that looked like it hadn’t survived a Nuclear War, empty buildings, corner stores and houses alike, borded up forbidding access but im sure some bums often slept there. Sleezy looking saloons with creepy american men standing around. A much different experience than in NYC. A whole 4 storey shopping complex was closed down and condemned, too… just walking past there and looking inside at it’s bare floors where merchandise (perhaps the devil’s) had once been proudly on display was a tourist attraction in itself. The actual
Not a Phili Cheesesteak
I forgot to mention cheesesteaks.. they were pretty good but so was the center piece to Philadelphia... looked awesome at dusk. tourist area and parkland around the falls was pretty damn good. The lawns and restaurants and other shops lining the lakeside were impressive, it’s obvious the tour busses bypass the real side of Niagara Falls with direct route to the falls but still who would come to see the actual town anyways? I spent 3 hours wandering around, taking tons of photo’s and having a grand time, the falls are mightily impressive. Very loud and mesmerizing to stare at but you cannot do that all day. I went on one of their attractions that costs money, this one was a walk along the cliffs directly below ‘American Falls’ (the smaller of the 2 falls) and it was worth it. Standing beneath a torrent of water in a weird poncho thing sounds pretty stupid but it was good. It started raining at this point which really sucked, not just rain but torential downpour. I waddled back to the hostel and by the time I got back I was completley drenched and in a foul mood. I sat around reading and prepared for a night of socializing indoors with my korean buddy. The night was okay and another dude joined us, his
Lost in Monuments
This close up pic shows that American architecture does have some form of Culture. name was Bobby (Robert) and he was from england traveling the USA by himself before heading to NZ and Aus next month or something along those lines. 11pm came and off to bed. My second day of sightseeing was the most awesome, the rain clouds had parted and I ventured back to the falls but this time walked across the border and into Canada, it was awesome just flashing my passport and entering another country on foot. The Canadian side was breathtaking, not just the view of the falls (the US is on the same side of the falls and the Canadian side grants you the viewing pleasure of the 2 falls from directly opposite) but the town itself, beautiful gardens and huge houses worth millions and millions of dollars overlooking the Falls, lakes and rivers which are all part of this natural reserve. It was clear the canadian side was a thriving tourist mecha whilst the US side was a city pretty much lost in past glories. I walked to a place on my map called ‘The Whirlpool’ which was 4km along the river, took me about 90 mins to get there but the walk was rad, I walked down along a path, the steps tattered and almost nonexistent, perhaps a hidden secret from the tourists, after the walk through the trees I got to the riverbed at the bottom where some local guys were fising and I sat there and stared into the spinning whirlpool and it’s crystal blue water and gazed into the deep blue sky and enjoyed the warmth of the sun, that was probably the last time I saw the sun …. 3 weeks ago 😉 I walked along the beach and through some rocky areas and enjoyed some true bushwalking moments. After a while I sat on a rock outcrop over the water’s edge and once again basked in the beauty of this magnificent day and grazed upon the picnic lunch I had packed. Sounds too poetic I know but it really was a brilliant time. After lunch I kept walking and by now 2 hours had passed and I hadn’t seen another human. Awesome! I walked the 4km back to the bridge and viewing platforms and I ran into Ilkwon (oh no! I thought) and he wanted to take some pics with me and him in them and then spend more money on a walk on the Canadian equivalent of the cliff walk. This one was more crowded and sucked more. After a nice stroll back to the hostel we got talking to Bobby again and this other english girl ‘Susan’ and we all agreed to head back to the falls at 9pm because at night there’s a light display along the falls. It was worth it and we all got some awesome photo’s and had some good laughs but after walking for 8 hours I was ready to collapse in a heap, had to be up early in the morning for my bus to Boston …
After a nice farewell with my new friends and the asian host at the house, I trotted down to downtown to board my 8am ride to Boston. I had decided to bus it to Boston for a few days on my roundtrip back towards Horse and NYC. The bus ride would take 12 hours but I thought I could sleep during this time. The bus departed and drove 20 mins to Buffalo, my first change over of two. I sat there and had to wait 2 hours… err… I could have slept an extra 2 hours and walked to Buffalo and caught the bus from there… much anger brewing. The rest of the bus ride sucked and unfortunatley there’s nothing to report, apart from how it ‘started raining’ when I got to the outer suburbs of Boston. I spent 4 nights in Boston and it didn’t stop raining at all (I mean that seriously) turns out that New England (the Northeastern states in the US) was receiving the worst flooding of all time. Great huh? I got there at 8pm and struggled through the rain to find the right subway to catch to the hostel, had to walk outside and consequently got soaked. After 30 mins I found the ‘red line’ which I had to take for 1 stop and connect to the ‘orange line’ … the Subway system in Boston is the oldest in th USA and the actual trains look and sound like they were designed in the 1920’s, perhaps adding to the character of the city? I guess the fact that the roofs were leaking and the seats were drowned in rainwater added an even sweeter character to the grand city of Boston, too. After 20 mins on the ‘orange line’ I got on the bus which would take me to Church Street but the bus’s loud speaker system was broken and the bus driver refused to announce the stops, so I got up and asked what stop to get off and she said it was the next one, lucky I asked eh? I got off and it was still raining (remember it NEVER stopped while I was there) I got even more soaked but eventually got to the hostel at 2130pm. ‘The Prescott House’, voted best hostel in the world by Hostels.com … but I mean, who would want to come to Boston, really? Not even I did but had a few days to use up. I felt a cold coming on and with soaked socks and shoes I felt like shit. I walked and got something to eat and they put cheese on my breadroll after I said ‘please no cheese’ and it tasted like cheese and I hated it. Today was sucking so bad, hard to think back to how great it was the day before. I sat in the lounge using their free internet (one good thing there) and someone walked down the stairs, it was Mark, my english buddy I met in New York, it was great meeting up with someone you know. The next 3 days were all in all pretty pathetic, I attempted to sightsee but it was seriously impossible with the weather, I bought an umbrella for $3 and that was the highlight of my day. I actually met this cool girl who worked in a record store and she wrote down some cool places to check out around the city, if the weather got SLIGHTLY better I would make an effort to do that. The next day sucked a little less, so Mark and I ventured out and had a few beers and a few laughs, checked out some record stores and had a half decent day together. By this stage I felt my cold right there click into sickness mode, I remember the exact second, as I was drinking a Stronbow cider… The next 2 nights I sat inside and started chatting to a large girl from Iceland, she was mildly interesting, I wish I wasn’t so sick, then maybe my nights in could have been a bit more fun but I sat infront of the TV with Mark and drank beer and well it was cool in it’s own way. I decided to spend 4 nights because my dorm room was vacant, so I had my own room and bathroom to chill out in and be sick without having people running in and out at all hours. Boston sucked for me, that’s the bottom line. I was so happy to leave but the irony was that it has stopped raining and the sun was shining as I walked to the bus. I had made plans to use the ‘China Town Bus’ to get to Philadelphia from Boston, a rival to Greyhound and it worked out $30us cheaper so that was awesome. After Boston’s crappy busses and subway I missed the China Town bus, needless to say I was ready to explode but luckily the lady let me use the ticket for the next bus. This bus came 20 mins late and took 30 mins extra to reach my Connection in NYC, so I missed that connection, too… after practically running through NYC to get to the corresponding bus station, It turned out that the bus from NYC to Philadelphia only runs every 2 hours, so I sat there and did nothing in the middle of NYC for an hour.
I had a connection in Philadelphia, my buddy Wouter from Belgian gave me the contact details for one of his mates who was studying in Philadelphia, it turned out that another of my fav bands ‘Rosetta’ was playing there, so I decided to head down there. After some email correspondance with Brendan (Wouter’s friend) he offered me his uni dorm couch to sleep on for a few nights, so it was an even sweeter reason besides getting out of Boston was my priority! The china town bus from NYC got me into Philadelphia at about 2130pm, I was going to meet Brendan at 10pm, so I walked around in this strange city by myself until I met up with Brendan. We drove back to his uni and made a connection right away, he was a really cool guy, he talked a lot , way more than any normal person should, really 😉 but he had some cool things to say and was into great music. I can’t really go into details about the events of my first night in Philadelphia because my parents read this journal, not that they would care but some people other than them may be shocked and I know for sure my Mum wouldn’t approve but let’s just say it was quite and adventure. I got a tour of the local area’s and quickly realised how much of a ghetto Phili was, looking back now I was lucky to survive walking around the city by myself at night. This is what Horse wanted to see back in LA… real lower class USA, no white people lived in these neighbourhoods, this was just a negro place with crazy looking people on every corner. We got weird looks, 2 white boyz travelling through the streets and even had words yelled at us, one saying was ‘TURN YA DAMN LIGHTS ON’ because Brendam forgot to turn his headlights on hahaha … turns out he had only had his lisence for 2 weeks and was only learning. Quite funny indeed. I think he forgot to turn his lights on at least 5 more times over the next 2 days. We went to the local uni bar that first night and I was dropped into a frat party with annoying loud obnoxious americans and it sucked really bad, luckily we only stayed for 1 beer and went back to his dorm for a more relaxing evening watching South Park dvd’s. Got to sleep about 3am and slept well after quite an entertaining evening. The next day I spent walking around the city doing the usual walking around taking photo’s stuff, pretty boring. Phili is similar to Washington DC with it’s rich political history and stuff, I even went on a guided tour where the constitution was first signed or something, it was free so I didn’t turn down an offer like that. I made it to the Relapse Records store, Relapse is one of my favourite record labels, tons of my fav stoner and doom bands are on that label and their retail store is located in downtown phili. I bought some stuff there I had been searching for, for ages.. so I was pretty happy and ended up having a wholesome conversation with the store manager about metal, this is what I had been wanting from record stores across america … this one and the store in Chicago were the only decent 2 in the end. After 8 hours of sightseeing, Brendan picked me up, we headed back to the dorm to get changed and then went out on the town. It was celebration night because himself and many others had just graduated. Brendan graduated Law, which is pretty cool… what was cooler though was hanging out with the other people, too… his group was all ‘non american students’ … I love having drunken conversations with german girls and Korean guys… no I don’t actually but it was fun. An american girl ‘Kate’ was also there, she was a late bloomer at 28 and just graduating but she was a barrel of fun. A punk chick, with a pretty gritty record collection at home, which we later found out as the party moved to a more personal level. I got pretty wasted and so did all of us but w eventually left Kate’s house and had breakfast at a diner somewhere… sauasages and eggs… delicious. Got to sleep about 730am and managed 4 hours of sleep or so. The next day was hazy and pretty much a non event but time slowly got to Band time and I managed to find my way to where Rosetta were playing. It ended up being in someone’s basement, a frat house near a different uni. Very different than the ISIS and Pelican shows in NYC. Rosetta seriously kicked ass and crushed the house at the foundations and it felt like it was going to collapse on numerous occasions. During the show, I realised the singer was actually the manager of the Relapse store, so I had been talking to him about his own band the day before, how embarrassing! It was okay though, I bought their cd off him after the show and he remembered me and asked about my holiday and stuff, it was pretty cool. Such a gracious guy from such a ferocious band. The show was only $5, too… a great night out but after the night before, It was time to die.
Spent another chilled evening with Brendan and Southpark and then hit the wall at about 4am, falling asleep as I was sitting up. Not good hehe! But I got like 7 hours sleep this time. Brendam dropped me off at the China Town bus, we shook hands and agreed to hang out again sometime and he drove off. I sat on the bus and thought about the last 3 crazy nights but I had 3 more nights left in NYC before we departed for Europe.
I rocked up in NYC at about 3pm and it took me 2 hours to get to the hostel in peak hour subway traffic. I went back to the ‘Malibu’ hostel but got shipped to their secondary building (with limited hot water) … Horse and I met up in the evening and I went back to his hostel to sink a few beers and catch up with stories and stuff and boy were there some tales to tell haha! It was awesome to meet up, like meeting an old friend again. After a few cans, we decided to check out a local pub with 3 other hostelers, 2 aussies and 1 South African (Jethro was his name) … 1 of the Aussies I actually met in phili … small country eh? So we just went out and had a few more beers, no big deal but it was still a good night. We retired back to our own hostels to sleep it all off. The next morning I was greeted by a cold shower which sucked hardcore but nevermind that now, Horse and I met up again and went to Central park to throw the footy around. I had been carrying a football around, which I had bought in Salt Lake City but had no one to play with, boohoo. After the fun and games it started to rain like hell again and we ran for cover at an italian restaurant and ate a feast. That night we headed out to Greenwich Village for a night out on the town, it ended sourly because Jethro tagged along but that wasn’t the problem, the problem was he was trying to pick up this chick who was so intensely boring and her friend was even worse was tagging along and sitting at the table next to us. We were forced to go to another place with a ‘2 drink mimimum’ … needless to say we got screwed (In a losing money way) at the end of the night and I returned to my hostel bed a grumpy little man.
Before we went out, Horse and I decided to leave the USA one day earlier, so he rung the airline and arranged a new flight for us. 2110pm Tuesday night instead of Weds. The idea behind this was, that we had both seen enough of NYC and it’s magic had faded into a thin nothingness, the visitor’s thrill was now nothing more than tedium. The last day was a bit hectic, I went to visit the Empire State building like I said I would, remember? It was pretty wicked but the line up was dead on 2 hours before you got to the top, with various security checkpoints along the way to add to the fun. It was all worth it though but I only spent 5 minutes or so at the top before lining up to come down again haha. Horse was 59 mins late in meeting me at our arranged place (not like him at all eh?) so I was stressing we would miss our plane. The subway to JFK airport would take about 2 hours and then who knows how long we would have to wait. We made it though, with 90 mins or so spare after customs clearance. We gorged ourselves on a huge Mc’Donald’s feast, our first and last meals on US soil (quite poetic, we thought) and after shrugging off this girl who latched onto me at customs (note I have no issues meeting girls overseas, just at home… but this one was err even too weird for me) we bought some Cheap duty free booze and waited for our flight number to be called … Very exciting isn’t it? We were beaming with confidence now with traveling, a stark contradiction to how we felt 3 months ago back in Adelaide airport. Eventually the boarding process began and we all lined up and slowly meandered to our seats for the next 7 hours and that’s where I shall end this American tale … my last 14 days off my chest, perhaps not the most interesting for other people to read but I cannot do my first european journal without first completing the American half of the holiday… Join again with me now as I jot down in bullet form my favourite parts of the holiday, if you’re still with me… if not then I guess this is goodbye for now…
THE GOOD
- Leaving Adelaide Behind, such a good feeling
- Arriving in USA for the first time
- Night out with the Danish Lads
- Leaving LA
- Our 5 Days in San Diego (especially talking to Mindy)
- Training it up the Californian Coast
- Seeing the San Francisco skyline for the first time
- Seeing SubArachnoid Space live and meeting Melynda and drinking beer with the goddess
- Our 12 days in San Francisco (as a whole it was great but certain situations lean over to the bad)
- Meeting my Aunt Conny and Louie and spending a pampered time in a close family environment
- Meeting my Aunt Geisala and Lee and also spending a pampered time in a close family environment
- Cruising the Mountains of Colorado and also crashing our 4 wheelers
- Not having to use my health insuance or dying from the crash
- Leaving Horse and becoming independent (sounds harsh but we both agree it was the best thing to do)
- Leaving Seattle and the bus Ride to Vancouver
- Meeting Shelle and spending great times and experiences with her while in Canada
- My rocky mountains adventure, memories ill treasure for ever
- Meeting Marcia and hanging out with her in the rockies
- My Last day in Vancouver spent lazing about with Shelle in the most awesome sunny day ever
- The 49 hour train ride from Vancouver to Chicago, a time to contemplate future events
- Meeting John and Gary in Chicago. I love those guys
- Meeting Rachel in Chicago… another great girl
- Finding time just to chill the fuck out and read a book
- Seeing the New York City Skyline from a distance for the first time
- Immerging from Holland Tunnel in the midst of Manhattan
- Walking the Streets of Manattan
- Seeing ISIS and Dalek Live
- Meeting Mark and spending a stupid amount of time with him and drinking way too much beer
- Seeing Pelican and Mono live
- Seeing Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side
- My walk to The Whirlpool and my cute picnic lunch
- The 9pm lightshow at the falls, with the niagara falls hostel crew
- Meeting a cool bartender in Boston who gave me some awesome advice on other places to check out
- Finding out Mark was staying in the same hostel as me in Boston
- The large girl from Iceland …
- Having a room to myself in Boston …
- Leaving Boston, finally
- Saving $30 by taking the China town bus!
- Meeting Brendan! What an awesome guy and a super host! Bravo!
- My 3 nights in Philadelphia… coloured and hazy nights
- Meeting Kate, though she scared me sometimes…
- Seeing Rosetta and being soo impressed with the humility of their vocalist. Much respect for that band
- Meeting Horse again in NYC and catching up over a few beers. Heartwarming even
- The Empire State building
- Watching the sun set over the Manhattan skyline, as we watched it through the window at the airport in the distance.
- The Excitement of boarding the plane, destination: Europa
The Bad Times… Regrets…memories
- Hating LA
- Not talking to a lot of interesting and/or attractive girls early in the trip
- The Rudeness of most of the american workforce
- Most american food
- The train system in the USA
- The non backpacker friendly system of the USA
- Arrogance and more Arrogance
- Spending too much money on shit early on
- The losers in the San Diego dorm, one who farted all night and one who talked on the phone all night
- Old men in HI USA hostels
- Going to church in San Fran
- The Dinner Party
- Spending too much money
- Having Seizures and panic attacks
- Not choosing wisely where to go, spending money on busses and trains and backtracking… begginers mistake
- Not being able to see the South of the US … next time though
*lists are not exhaustive, especially the negative one!
Okay now Im all done… thanks for sticking with me through my american journey, I really appreciated it. Let’s hope that the euro part will be just as good if not better, all depending on the net café’s here on how often I can do a journal but I am pretty confident… Until sometime soon…
BYE!!
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Thomas Birdunter
non-member comment
exhausting
What a trip, and not a dull moment, good or bad, it seems. I crossed Military Road the other day to meet Master, who was walking up from the train station after work, and I was quite glad to get back to the security of my backyard. Your journey sure sounded exhausting, albeit great fun. Enjoy your chill out in the Bavarian countryside and hope the European leg is even better. You'll find the train system there light year's ahead of the U.S. Cheers for now