Eurotrip Begins! Exploring Dublin!

okay so I am going to try and catch up some more! I still have to put all the Niagara photos up, and get some photos from Toronto from someone, but things are coming along slowly.

Tuesday was "Figure Out Phone Bullshit Day".

I met Pepe and Finn that afternoon upon waking, they were very nice. I took my time, drank a few cups of tea, then headed out to North of the Liffey to retrieve my phone. I didn't care if it was fixed or not; I seriously doubted that anything had happened to it.



I arrived to the stupid store, and of course the phone was not ready. They had it at some house and had to bring it from there... It was going to take 20 minutes surprise surprise. The phone had not been unlocked (surprise surprise again).



This time I didn't have my huge bag, and I was ready to explore! I decided I didn't care if they had to wait for me, so I went to a bar that I had heard about on Couchsurfing... I ordered some food (at a discount for couchsurfers! woo!), took my time, watched some Murder She Wrote at the bar...




On the way back (stuffed) I walked down another new major street, and decided since my phone was fucked I might as well get a new one at the Vodaphone store. I got the cheapest phone available (turns out EVERYONE ELSE at the house has the same phone lol - mostly because it's cheapest) and after a measely 50 euros I had a sturdy Nokia, a SIM card, and a 5 euro credit on the phone!

One thing I love about Ireland is the prices listed are the prices you pay. No thinking about taxes! Yay!

So I had all my new toys in their boxes when I headed back to the store.

I got there and the guy with my phone was at the pub. He came out and then of course it wasn't him with the phone it was his friend... five minutes later he shows up. I finally got my phone - but they were saying they couldn't fix it because the person before had damaged the software!

I took it to the first people, but Chinese girl looked confused and gave it to her boss. He looked at it for a second, but then said that it was stopped midway through and that's why the screen was going black right away. He could fix it, but had to take it somewhere else and it would take three hours.

I was not going to wait three hours. BLAH! I told them fuck it I'll get someone else to fix my phone I was too impatient and I was anxious to explore the city and not have to come back to the same place! He said I won't find anyone that will do it for cheaper, but I doubt that. I am going to poor parts of the world after all.

With that out of the way, I was free! I walked over the bridge, and wandered.







I got semi lost in North Dublin for a bit... In the south, I found Temple Bar, and Trinity College (the library was closed because it was after five). It was going to cost 9 euro to get into the stupid thing to see the Book of Kells, so I probably wouldn't have gone in anyhow.



Trinity campus was beautiful! I walked around taking photos pretending I was a student. There were very little tourists there because the library was closed...




When I walked out of the campus, there were a multitude of signs telling me where everything was. I saw one that said "Grafton Street", which is supposedly very well known. I had heard that Pepe might be playing on that street too, so I sauntered down the wide pedestrian street looking at all the shops, pubs, and performers.

I didn't see Pepe, but there was lots of stuff to look at :)



When I got up to the top of Grafton, I was at St Stephen's Green! It was perfect! I got some ice cream, and I had a mini relevelation on how to get back. I had no map (I didn't bring my book with me plus it doesn't go as far as where I was staying) but there was the Luas tram. The Luas was the light rail thing that went right by where I lived - if I followed the tracks upwards, then I knew my way back from the tram station.

I felt pretty proud for figuring this out :) I walked up and ended up finding Camden Street - another cool street to walk on.




I knew what general direction I was supposed to go in, so I took the odd detour if the street looked cool. there were cute little things along the way, and the weather was still sunny.

I saw finn bike by on the way up, Dublin is a small city centre... Eventually I made my way back. At one point I was walking down the street and it turned into Ranelagh which was the one I was looking for. It worked out well :) I had to stop for a little clarification at one point after, but overall it was easy, so now I could walk to the city and back unguided yay.

Ari was home, and she told me that since she worked at Trinity she could get me into the library and book of Kells for free! I was happy! We made a lunch date for the next day, and I watched some more Deadwood before falling asleep.

I woke up the next day and headed to Trinity. I got there without getting lost, and got to see the book of Kells!

The library was more interesting. They only show you one page of the book, and they turn the pages every so often so it was on a mostly writing page. It was cool, but the library was very pretty. I had forgotten my camera, but they didn't allow photography in there anyhow...

After we walked through the library (you could only really walk through that's it) we went out to a market thing for lunch. We got cheap veggie burgers with chips, but it was really good! She had to head back to work (she works in the chem lab) so I went to wander. I wanted to see Dublin Castle a few blocks away, so off I went. Again no camera, but if you really want to see it look it up! I'm told there are much much much better castles. The part I really wanted to see was beside it: the Chester Beatty Library. This was a collection of illuminated books and scrolls and things from around the world. There was also things like ancient snuff boxes, etc.

Basically this exhibition is possible because this guy, Chester, liked to collect things while he was alive and rich. He collected some rare books and things, and now they are on display. It was extremely interesting! I ended up there for over an hour looking at all the pretty things! It was very multicultural - it was closing though so I had to jet.

Ari told me during lunch that Pepe, her boyfriend, was playing a show that night at a funky place called Shebeen Chic. I was planning on going, but I wanted to get my camera for that night for sure, so I walked back to the house, got my camera, grabbed my leftover chips from Elegance Bar, and eventually headed back.

I got there with enough time before the show to order my first Guinness in Ireland. I took a picture with Ari with my first beer!



The music style was Flamenco, and there were a fair amount of clapping in this loud Spanish way :) It was cool - Dublin is very multicultural (I know Canada likes to claim this but I think Europe is way moreso simply because of the proximity of so many different cultures). There were people from Spain, Czech, Brazil, Venezuela, Ireland, everywhere! I ended up having more than one pint, and met lots of people :)



The next day I went down to Temple Bar with Ari to watch Pepe's busking band. They were playing in Temple Bar Square, and I was told to bring the hula hoops to try busking. Apparently it's really easy to busk in Dublin; the people are generous, you don't need a permit, and there are always a lot of foot traffic. I thought hey why not, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to ask for money by myself until I tried it out first to see how shaky I got in front of people.

I walked down and it was packed. There was a huge crowd around the band, so I went back a little onto an open square part to warm up and use the space. Lots of people were watching. Some guy gave me 1.50 euros and tried to ask me out.

I went for some water, then played on a side of the band! It was fun, but there were too many people walking by. After their break, I tried on the more public side! I still wasn't asking for money, but I wasn't shaky and I think next time I'll be ready!

this is post show, people have thinned a lot:



There was a show going on after the band played, so we all ate 2-euro chicken rolls and put the gear and hula hoops in the venue - a bar on river. We walked to Thomas' house to chill for a while before the show, so we sat on the balcony in the sun.




They were almost late for their own show, but it was fine. The bar ended up PACKED. There were three bands, and a lot of beer. I ended up drunk, and met even more people :)






I had tons o fun - it wasn't long before the bar was closing, and we were there for nine or something early like that... Most people went back to the house, where I left my hula hoops. Duncan, a guy in Cork that's in the band, knew the owner of the bar so we were able to go back and drink more behind closed doors. The next thing I knew I was feeling a little too drunk and kind of tired. When I took a cab back to the house I could see light. YIKES!

Last Day in NA for an Unknown Amount of Time

I woke up nervous. I had my papers all organized in a baggie: passport, vaccine cards, proof of funds, Eurostar ticket. I had my CMTBC card ready to prove my job, and my credit card ready for my ticket.

I wanted to mail back my scarf and some postcards, so I found a post office nearby online and walked out the door... to thirty degrees. Maybe 31 degrees! I walked out in a long sleeve and pants and was sweating in no time at all. I mailed my stuff and got a sandwich on the way back. Some guy was talking in Spanish, but it was the weirdest Spanish I'd ever heard.

I got back and finished packing - no easy task. Everything fit no problem, so next was figuring out how to get to the airport. I'd never been to JFK before, I'd always arrived by land! I had no idea how long it was going to take. It looked like I had a few choices, so I picked one that looked easiest...

And I was off! I had my backpack on in the sweltering heat, which didn't help. I walked to the subway, and discovered that it was delayed due to track work. More and more people were waiting at this stop... and there I was with my giant bag. It was okay in the subway since it had a bit of air conditioning... but it was full for a while and the delay cuased me to miss my connecting bus. Ah well, I was arriving three hours early like the website told me to, but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to need that long.

After waiting for the bus in the heat as well, I finally got to the airport, It was so massive that even the aircoach thing that went to the different terminals took forever!

Check in was funny - it was so relaxed and easy. I ate some overpriced shitty pizza and rolled through security. I am getting used to them now. Immigration was going to be on the other side, which was the scary part.

So there I was very early...

there was a security guard watching a basketball game, so I watched it with him. Orlando was playing, and it made me think of Stacey, the girl I met at Marco's from Florida... she was all about basketball and was checking the scores online all the time. Turns out the guy was rooting for Orlando. We chatted for a while, until he decided that he should go back to work. It was so lax. The security guards were all standing around talking and laughing... not what I've ever seen. This guy kept coming back to visit me: he was really surprised by my itinerary. He gave me his email and stuff - it was cool.

The game got me through over two hours - it was actually interesting. Fast paced - plus the score was so close so one team would be winning then losing three minutes later.

The flight was the most pleasant I've ever been on.

The stewardesses and pilots had accents. There was a blanket and pillow on the seat already waiting, and they gave you pop and pretzels pretty much right away. After a little while they served a massive dinner, and I was able to sleep for the rest... so I left at 9:40pm and arrived 9:00am due to the time difference!

This eliminated being fucked up from the time change since I slept then arrived in the morning.

Ireland looked like a patchwork quilt of green from the plane. It was unbelievable. I was not expecting it to be that... I don't know... green?! I was so bright but so gentle... really beautiful stuff.

Immigration was extremely lax. He looked really bored until he asked me when I was going home... that was a bad question to ask, and not one I had thought about. So I told the truth. I was going to be home in about a year because I am traveling around the whole world. I braced myself, but he didn't seem to care that much.

I showed him my Eurostar for June 23rd, he asked me when I was going to leave Ireland, and I said sometime in the next month or month and a half, so he can pick a date anywhere about a month and a half from now...

and he gave me till June 27th! So he gave me two full months, plus it was after I was supposed to be leaving from London, so it was unnecessarily long! Hoorah! He looked totally bored the whole time, it was so easy. That's two months just for the south too, so that's not even counting Belfast.

Mwahahahaha

I got my bag, hopped on a double decker bus (they are all doubles here!) and I was in town within a decent time.

I had all day to get to St Stephen's green for 4pm to meet my host, so I wanted to get my phone working in Ireland.

At the airport, I had tried to get a sim right away, but the old USA unlocked phone was too old and crappy to work in Europe. I was going to have to unlock my nice Canadian phone.

There were a ton of places in the city. I was dropped off in the city centre, on the North Side of the Liffey, so I ended up walking down Talbot street near the Spire. North is old Dublin, recently fixed up and now very nice. South is where most of the attractions are. I found a phone place, but this stupid phone is a pain in the ass.

The girl said 20 minutes, so I went walking with my pack on, came back, but she was having problems so she said she needed more time. After waiting in the store for quite a while, she gave it back saying she couldn't do it: she would have to order an unlock code and it would take 2 days. I was not happy. It was booting up with a weird black screen with writing.

I walked down the street and there was another one and just for the hell of it I asked them if they would be able to. I told them the people down the street couldn't, but they said they'd try so guess what... I walked around for another 20 minutes. It was nice to see lots of North Dublin, but I wished I didn't have my stupid pack on. I came back and they said they were having trouble. Stupid phone.

The guy came up and told me that the chinese girl had used the wrong program to unlock the phone, and now the software was damaged. He would have to downgrade the software blah blah blah it was going to take a while. Grrrrrr.

I went and had something to eat. I took my time. I came back. By now I was getting really tired of carrying my bloody pack around. The guy was still having issues, but I was impatient. I got their information, and told them I'd be back tomorrow. I was going to take it unlocked or locked. I really wanted a phone.



It was pretty easy finding a bus. I just walked up to one and asked where I could catch one going past St. Stephen's Green. That bus did!

The park was stunning - I was there about 45 minutes early, so I had time to type for a bit, and walk around.






I didn't see anyone though, and I was not able to call him cause I had no stupid PHONE!

I waited till 4:30ish, but I didn't see anyone in a green coat with an orange backpack.

I decided to take a taxi since I had no idea how to get to his house from there. I didn't really want to, but it seemed like the only way there at that point. I got in the taxi, but he didn't know where the street was! He had no idea, but he had a GPS. I asked him why not use the GPS and he said he just got it a couple days ago and had no idea how to use it lol.

The poor old man didn't want to just drive around aimlessly, and looked fairly stressed that he didn't know where that was. I offered to figure the GPS out (Annastajia's TomTom finally did some good for me haha) and got it programmed no problem. It directed us there.

I knocked and at first no one was answering. Uh oh! I had tried to call Marcus with the cabbie's phone earlier, and it wasn't working (turns out it was because it had the long distance numbers on it still, don't know why the cabbie couldn't figure that out!) but I walked up to some young guy and tried to ask to use the phone anyway.

he looked at the number and took the first few numbers off and it worked... Marcus was already outside looking at me haha! I got to put my pack down... that felt good.

The house was cute. I was going to get an actual mattress on the floor instead of the couch, so that was rad. Sarah, Marcus' girlfriend, was there too. The three of us went out and got some food and beer. They cooked some chili, which was awesome, and we drank beer, talked, and played cards. It was a good night! I got oriented as to where I was in the city, and figured out where to walk.

There are a few people living at this house. There is Marcus (Sarah is in a lot but doesn't actually live there), Ari, Fin, and Dania. Ari is from Sevilla, Spain, and her boyfriend Pepe is also around a lot. Fin is a tall irish guy from somehere-I-don't-remember, and Dania is Polish and mostly is only in her room hanging with her polish boy or in the kitchen with him making food. They are a pretty fun crew to be with, I'm super lucky :)

I met Ari the first night, and Dania briefly (and still have seen her only once in a while for the past week). I fell asleep after watching Deadwood.

It's pretty damp here, so going to bed feels a bit weird at first until your body heat warms things up and it feels dryer. That was a bit interesting. Sometimes I sit on the couch and it feels wet, but I put my hand on it and it's dry. I think it's just cold.

It is a rainy city, but it's in short spurts and you end up not really minding since it's such a light short rain. Nothing like the torrents of Vancouver.

Kinko's, Dubstep, and Subways

Okay! typy typy time - I want to get caught up on this so I can write stuff about Dublin.

So on the Friday, there was "Earth Fair 20009". Sounded interesting. I like the Earth. I wasn't sure what they were going to show, but it could be cool and I wanted to support it... So woke up, got ready, and went to Earth Fair solo. Elliot was at work, and Nic was super hung over.

There were a bunch of stalls in Grand Central station, lots of people trying to give everyone cards or brochures etc. For an Earth Fair they were wasting an incredible amount of paper and such. I got a free reusable bag from some crazy enthusiastic Asian people convinced that becoming vegan was the solution to global warming. That was cool. I also got some lettuce seeds, a refillable marker made from 50% recycled plastic, organic hand creme, and a cycling route map of NYC, which I though was the most valuable since I could leave it at Elliot's for other Couchsurfers to use!

I am really starting to appreciate biking: looking forward to Holland!

So I am walking and walking; the thing was indoors and outdoors. Luckily, it was close to that Bryant Park, so I bought some food (including a cinnamon roll for a homeless girl outside McDonald's that looked SO FAMILIAR and was drawing; definitely not on crack) and went to the park. It was sunny, and very very warm. As in over 20 degrees, probably was about 25. I lay in the park with my new things. I lay there for a while, jumping between writing, enjoying the sun on my face, and taking a few pictures. I made a list of things to do before leaving the continent.









As the sun started to hide behind a building, everyone was moving into a smaller patch of sunny grass. It was funny - we were all shifting closer and closer like we were all addicted to the light... Elliot met up with me just as the sun was leaving the park, so he joined me as I printed out my new Eurostar ticket at Kinko's. I was at Kinko's for the third day in a row - made me think of Mitch Hedberg. The idea of a 24 copying store is now justified (at least in New York) haha.

I was gong to see Ana Sia tonight! I was super excited! The whole show was going to be good - Sub Swara, the Glitch Mob, and Ana Sia. I had to get back to get ready, so we headed back (can't remember what I did for food) then later I took off to find this venue in the Noho area.

It was easy to find - there was a huge line. I was arriving 20-30 minutes after the doors opened, but there was still people everywhere. I had a will call, so I ended up getting in right away though :)

I love skipping lines even when I'm not important haha. The show started slowish, but someone had brought a small glow hoop, so I got to play a little while there was room. The place ended up packed though, and I was informed that it would be going till 5am. Ana was originally going to be second, but she was pushed to 3:30-5. I was told that this was because she has a chiller set than glitch mob, and the Californians would stay up later (they are on Californian time anyways). I was slightly peeved, but the glitch mob played the best set I've seen out of them, and I still caught an hour of Ana, so II was happy. I met a lot of people at that show, but of course I'll probably never see them again.

I decided that it was time at about 4:30am. I was exhausted. I had been totally sober the whole night, drinking only water, so I was feeling the tiredness in my legs and my brain. I started walking back to the subway. When less and less people were in the street, suddenly I became aware of the fact that I was walking in an unfamiliar part of New York (I knew where to go though) at a strange hour. It felt odd. I got into the delapitaded subway station and saw only three people while I waited... but then the subway came

By now it was probably ten to five....

And the subway was FULL of people!

My jaw dropped as the subway went past. ALL the sections had people in them, and not just two or three, but a bunch of people... almost all of them looked asleep too. Tons of heads were bobbing side to side in a half-sleeping state as it stopped at the station. I got on and realized that being a city that never slept kind of made it safer. I mean, I was on a subway car full of people looking very very tired. I couldn't help but wonder what the hell all these people were doing, where they were going.

No one really looked like they had been out partying all night, but I guess it's hard to tell that. Maybe they worked odd jobs? Construction? Shitty commute? What the fuck?!

It was starting to get light as I walked back to the house. There was an extremely tired girl that was so out of it she forgot how to get out of the subway station. I made sure she was okay then I was on my way. I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

Saturday was my last full day in New York. I had done a lot of things on my list, but laundry I had put off, as well as buying a patch and finding stamps.

It was bloody hot out. another 25 degree day or so. It was ridiculous! I went to the laundromat sweating. I brought a book to pass the time. There was a dirty dating tv show on though that kept ditracting me. It was on BET channel, and the guy's version of a date was getting the girl in her underwear in the shower and making out with her. WTF.

My clothes were not dry after 40 minutes on low heat (I wasn't sure how hot high heat would be...) so I brought them back clammy (I was impatient!) and hung them up on my hula hoops and various doors thoughout the house. There were 2 cats in the house, so they had to be up high. I would have used my mini clothes line in the bathroom, but it smelt like kitty litter in there and I didn't want my clothes to smell like kitty litter...

By then it was late afternoon early evening. I still wanted to try and find a patch in chiinatown, but I was freaked things were going to be closed. I got there and boy was I wrong!

Everything was open, sun still shining, it was still summer-hot out, and it was super busy. Nic and Elliot were right, there were a million cheesy tourist stores there! I found a patch my number 5, plus a couple other things.




I wandered around Chinatown, which was surprisingly cool. Usually I found one to be the exact same as the other, and after San Fran's all of them seemed small. This one was not... the buildings were somehow different, but not in a Chinese way. I don't know what it was. I had an ice cream and walked around. Tried some clothes on, found Little Italy by accident, which was also beautiful. People dressed up, patios EVERYWHERE with people eating pasta and speaking Italian. There were even Italy coloured christmas lights lining the streets.

I was contemplating an I <3 NY shirt, but I didn't want people thinking I was American on the road so I opted out.

ERIN! DO YOU REMEMBER THESE! This brought back memories...


By the time I got home it was kinda late. I didn't feel like going out, so I started organizing my bag and sewed on three patches. One from Toronto, one from Niagara, one from New York.

Tomorrow evening I was going to leave the continent.

NYC Adventures and Frustrations

Yay! I have made it to NYC in this blog! I have been in Dublin a week now, so I am still behind, but at least I'm only one city away now haha.

New York was prep time for Europe. I was freaking out about the border and immigration officers after my horrible time with the USA's. I had no proof I was leaving Ireland, or Europe, so I was researching things I could do, but it wasn't enough. I wanted to talk to someone.

I looked up the Canadian Consulate, and decided to check it out. I found it pretty easy, it was attached to one of the big subway stations so I just followed the signs. I came across "Services to Canadians" and got to ask them what they thought I should do. I don't think they were used to this type of question, so after they looked confused for a bit they told me they didn't know... recommended asking the airline or a travel agent about what the border is like.

Well that was useless, so on my way out I asked where I could find somewhere to print some forms out... like a library or something. A man in a uniform showed me how to get to Kinko's, so I ended up printing stuff off there... I was downtown, so I asked where a TD Bank was too, so I could see about getting proof of funds in case that would suffice for not having a ticket.

The bank idea seemed fine until I told them it was a Canadian account. Unfortunately, even though the name is very similar (TD Bank instead of TD Canada Trust) they are not able to access each others accounts at all... they are separate! The guy was still helpful, and called the number on the back of my debit card to try and get information faxed over or something so they could sign it. They were not going to fax information at all, but the woman on the phone told me to print out a bank statement from online, then if I need it signed bring it in there.

It occurred to me afterward that that sounded like fraud. They couldn't sign anything I printed off if they didn't know it was true from their own records. I was not about to do that - a regular printed bank statement online would have to do!

I came back with two failed attempts and a printed off visa application for a long stay in France as an option. It was so sunny out, so Nic and I went to Prospect Park when I got home and hula hooped. I may have done this tomorrow but I can't remember so I'm throwing it into this day as an assumption.

I had a good time hooping it up :) I was to meet Elliot at a bar to watch the hockey game with some friends, so I found my way back to Manhattan... We had food and beer, until everyone took off. I can't even remember who won because it was a ranger's game not the Canucks. When it was over, we wandered into a bar across the street simply because it was called KGB Bar. Who names a bar after the KGB? I had to see it.

It was not as exciting as you would think. No crazy Russians. ah well.

I think we may have just taken a cab back, but it is kinda hazy.

The next day I woke up and wanted more food other than cereal. I wanted a bagel. I looked up where a good place would be in Brooklyn, and found a place named Bergen Bagels. It was highly rated, and not too far. I took a subway and found it no problem. I got to see a new part of Brooklyn too. The bagel place itself was amazing - decent price, and they had so many different types of cream cheese set up like those gelato bins. They had fresh chicken to put on panini's, baking that was obviously done there... just yummy all around.

I walked out with my breakfast and ate it outside on a bench looking around Atlantic Centre. This worked out perfectly, since this stop would take me to my mission of the day: getting my bank information printed, and checking out the Library at the same time. I got on the subway and found the library with little difficulty. It was huge and old - looked a lot like the city hall in San Francisco on the inside - made with huge lighter coloured stones, with embellishments and plaques and busts and the like.

I found the internet area, but I wanted to print directly from my computer not theirs. I didn't want to log into my bank information on a public computer... but they didn't have a way for me to print from my computer.

I looked around the library a bit instead then, took some photos... there was a room with a painting exhibition, and a pretty frescoed ceiling.





Walking out of the library you are right beside Bryant Park. I had heard of this park before last time I was here and didn't see it, so I went next door to check it out.






I think New York's parks are a large reason why I like this city. They have a lot of nice always-used parks where you will always see people enjoying nature and being chill right in the middle of craziness (the grass was closed today for some reason though). People eating lunches, people sitting smiling doing nothing but letting the sun hit their face. Big buildings are all around, but the sun still gets in there fully somehow. I took a couple pictures, on my way around.



Amazingly, looking around the park I saw a kinko's across the street... they are everywhere. I went in and asked about printing from my laptop, but they told me to go to the other bigger Kinko's across on the other side of the park. They faced each other on opposing sides: pretty funny.

I got to use it just fine, and walked out with two bank statements.

Next stop was the bank in case there was a way for the people in Canada to confirm balances by phone or something now that I had statements. You never know, right?

This was a different TD Bank, but they said it was not going to be possible to get anything confirmed by phone, and mentioned that my bank statement should be fine on it's own.

I left feeling a little bit accomplished, and found a subway station back that I had never tried: Grand Central Station. It was impressive! I think they have filmed movies there because it looked quite familiar.



Now here I am not sure if I hula hooped with Nic now or the day before. Meh. Either way Revival, the Couchsurfing weekly meet up, was going on tonight. Nic and I were going to meet Elliot there, so we took off. It was busy already... met lots of people as usual... two for one drinks and free food means my stomach gets full of chicken strips and gin. Yum. I ended up drunk but not too drunk... Elliot and Nic were definitely drunk haha. I headed back with Elliot and got ghetto fried chicken in Brooklyn through bullet proof glass. It was pretty awesome.

ok one more post and I am going to start doing stuff.

Niagara to NYC = Hateful Border Guards

Bus Day.


not that one, I just thought that was kinda funny.

The bus was an hour late, plus once again I had arrived early. It gave me a chance to start that book.

the border was hell as usual.

I was confident at first because I had a reason to come, a set amount of days that I was to stay, and a place ticket proving I was leaving.

Only problem was, that ticket was not on paper. The bus ticket was not was well. I had a confirmation code that the bus driver checked off from his paper - the border guy started getting pissy right away because it wasn't a ticket.

Next was the fact that my airline ticket was not on me. This is where it all started to fall apart for me - I realized I was once again entering with no proof of me leaving, and once again they were starting to get really pissed off. Of course printing the ticket seemed like it would be such a waste considering it was a fucking paperless ticket, and the ONLY TIME I WOULD EVER NEED ANY OF MY SHIT ON PAPER AT THIS POINT IS WHEN I AM DEALING WITH THE FUCKING BORDER.

Grrrrrrr. So I explained I could show him the ticket if I went online, and he said "oh well you can't use the internet here. You're not here to use our internet" (NO SHIT REALLY)! So I'm sent back to the wait bench and I realize that the bus outside the door is giving me a really good wifi signal. I was actually able to retrieve my online ticket, prance up, show them, then they were all kind of nice. He warned me that he would have sent me back to Canada without the ticket, and I said "well that was close then". Luckily some swiss guy had been given a hard time too so everyone on the bus wasn't just waiting for me... he was getting his stuff checked when I got through the first part.

The bus was pleasant - definitely recommend Megabus in the eastern US. I was able to sleep, etc, and the next thing I knew it was NYC!!!!

We arrived somewhere in between 11:45 - 12:15... I knew my way though, and got back to Elliot's by 1. There was a South African guy there named Nic. We all chatted but they were both tired so we all shut the place down.

My first day back was fairly uneventful. I slept in a ton, and did some stuff on the computer for most of the day. Nic also did this... until I found out there was a couch surfing meeting type thing in Brooklyn and for an hour and a half they were giving out free beer!

FREE BEER! So we ordered pizza and left. Elliot was going to be working and doing skydiving stuff until really late, so he didn't make it out. We ended up there until maybe 1 or 2 or something - caught a cab back but the driver didn't know Brooklyn, he was from the Bronx. I recognized some streets though so we got back without any wrong turns. I was feeling pretty pro on being able to (sort of) direct someone back to somewhere I hadn't been for a month and a half or something.

I <3 NYC.

Documentaries, Toronto,and Niagara Falls

Exodus!

I was awoken at 9:30am by people filming a documentary. These people were separate from the previous documentary I was filmed in; there were more people and more crew. It was chaos! The two french girls and Tania were all packing to leave around ten to go to Quebec City (I would have gone if I hadn't ended up visiting Chris) and Marco had to go to work... All of us were packing and running around, so there was lots to film! I was trying to eat as much of my food as I could, so I wouldn't have to carry it everywhere. The chaos was short lived though - soon enough everyone was gone. I was pretty much done packing, but I had to shove the food in my bag still.

I ended up being the only one there, which was nice. I rested. Shai came over and gave me the book he was exchanging for my Hitchiker's Guides. It's called "Three Cups of Tea". Should be interesting :)

I took off with the backpack to meet my ride for 2pm. I got there ten minutes early, so thankfully she showed up on time. There was another person coming too, so we all put our stuff in the trunk and took off.

I had a hard time remembering their names because they were both odd and both started with M. The driver was a little asian girl, a student at McGill, and the fellow passenger was a young guy from france I think. He had lived in Vancouver so there was lots of conversation there. The girl knew her movies, so between talking to the two of them and sleeping the 5 1/2 hour car ride went by really quickly!

I arrived in Toronto around 8 ish? Took the subway into town, and found the hotel. Chris had gotten lost so he was running behind, but I only had to wait ten minutes in the lobby before they showed up so I could drop off my bag. We got ready fast and went out exploring!

Toronto gets such a bad rap - I really don't understand it. I mean, even the aussie guy I was staying with for the first week in Montreal was ragging on Toronto when he came back from his weekend there. He claimed it was too business oriented (as if any big city isn't) and it was too "hip hop". I saw way more neon leggings and hoodies yes, but it didn't bother me... the first thing I thought when I got there was "this kind of reminds me of New York". It has big billboards. It has lots of people. There are hot dog stnads all over, and people are still walking on the streets at night.

It was also WAY warmer than Montreal for some reason. I was happy aobut this!

Chris, Megan and I wandered looking for a patio and beer, since it was so nice out. I was wearing a t shirt at night outside for the first time since New Orleans. The streets were clean, people were out, and we wandered down until we saw a patio with space.

Turns out we found the perfect place! It was under a record store, beside a head shop, there was local art all over the walls, and it had a really good live band. It was a small place too, so we tried some Amsterdam beer, and ended up trying a lot of it.

There were some very silly VERY drunk photos taken of this night but they are on meg's camera predominantly so I still have to get them. I have one of us hugging this sketchy tree art thing...




Meg is from Detroit and had never had drunken-poutine before! Although skeptical while not drinking, she converted once trying it with me. Chris maintains his oppositional stance and I think he is crazy.

Things got a bit hazy at this point, but from what I was told the next day, we missed our turn to walk back to the hotel and just kept walking down the street for a long time, so we took a cab from wherever we were.

I woke up with a killer hangover. I had not slept long enough because of stupid check out time... I wanted to sleep in the car but that would be silly without eating first.

So we checked out, dropped my bag in the trunk, and went out to a place called Fran's for breakfast.

I was too hung over to eat right away, and still felt like lying down. The lovely part abut traveling is it makes you so much less self conscious in public situations. I lay down on the bench side, and I didn't really care if it looked weird. I ended up falling asleep on the bench after I ordered... until the food came haha. I nibbled, and it helped as much as it could.

Unfortunately, Fran's had very bright lighting, some trippy mirror panels, music, light purple 50's style decor, and a screaming child to deal with. Don't get me wrong, the place was awesome (had lots of awards for best late night dining) but it would be better at 4am. Like when people go to Denny's (they had 24 breakfast). Almost everyone around us seemed to be a gay man too, including all the waiters. Ours was dancing to Micheal Jackson while checking up on us haha!

We all needed to get out of there. Once I was outside, with a little food in me, I was much better.

We walked around, looked in a few stores, walked some more.






I ate more of my leftovers, but it was getting soggy and I wanted to heat it up before eating it again. When we all got hungry again, we went up to a restaurant right at the main square, but up a ton of levels so we had this crazy view! It was rad - again we got to enjoy sunshine and warm weather :)




I was trying to decide what to do about afterward though. The drive back to Detroit was about 5 hours apparently. I had suggested us seeing Niagara Falls at some point, but it was not going to make sense for us to drive all the way back to Detroit, then go all the way back to Niagara. It would be best to see it... now?

This was an on the spot decision: If I was going to Niagara all of a sudden, it would not be optimal to go back to Detroit after... it would make more sense to go to New York after, perhaps the day after.

We came back to the hotel where we had left the car in parking, grabbed my laptop, and came up to use the internet to see if this would work. If I could find somewhere to stay for the night in Niagara, and a bus/train that left from there, then it was a go.

I found a hostel that said they had availability so I wrote down the address and phone number etc, then looked up buses and it turns out it is incredibly easy to get to New York by bus from the buffalo region. Megabus even had a stop in Niagara Falls (the only other Canadian stop they have is Toronto I think, so it was pretty crazy when I saw the option).

It was a go then!

It doesn't take long to get there - only about an hour and a half... we got there while there was still daylight, but it looked like it might get dark soon. It was perfect timing: we got hot drinks, saw the falls, walked along, and it got dark. We went inside a building to warm up and figure out where this hostel was in relation to where we were...










The lights came on when we were outside again! It was spectacular!















I was so happy we got to see the falls :) It was such a spontaneous journey so I think the results were felt a little deeper. There was no time to build up what the falls would be like, so there was only appreciation :)
I had some fun with my camera haha



By now it was getting late, and Chris and Meg still had to drive back to Windsor/Detroit. We found the hostel so easily, but no one answered the door at first. I was thinking "oh crap I didn't think about check in times, there might be no reception on duty so I might be locked out and sol!" Chris called, but there was no answer in there. Someone opened the door though, and at first I thought it was the owner. Turns out it was a guest, just an older guest, but he said the owner was out at the casino and he's pretty laid back so I should be fine. I met a couple aussies, and a couple from ireland/soemwhere else. Carl (another aussie) was a staffer, and confirmed they had room, and that it should be fine, people might be going out whenever Patrick gets back...

Patrick didn't get back by midnight and by then for some reason I was getting sleepy. I decided it was time to sleep, so that's what I did.

My first full day in Niagara was beautiful. There was a little breakfast deal in the morning, and after getting ready I went down and met Patrick. I had been warned that I would need half an hour trying to get out the door because he is chatty, so I was curious.

It took well over half an hour to get out the door.

We talked for ages, then he decided to come with me to walk down to the waterfall. The maid of the mist was not open yet, which was too bad, but the boat was in the water ready to go soon!















I was really lucky that I was with Patrick, because he was a walking encyclopedia on the place. He knew all sorts of stuff about the history, how the waterfall was made (not erosion), all sorts of stuff. He recommended a couple books once the conversation got a little more philisophcal. Eventually all the walking made food the next thing on the itinerary. He showed me an all you can eat chinese buffet in the casino with a nice view of things. After that we walked back to the hostel, since he was supposed to be working haha.

I decided on a bus to NYC. I thought the next afternoon sounded good - got me into town after Elliot would be off work - so that was that. I packed up a bit, and then picked out what I wanted to do now that it was my last day.

A lot of the attractions in Niagara are very cheesy. There was Rilpey's believe it or not, Guinnes Book of Records, or the giant wheel thing to see the city and the falls. The rest (and there was a lot) didn't appeal to me. It was still nice out though, so I opted for the giant wheel. They had a coupon at the hostel, and Patrick and Carl ended up wanting to come with me on the wheel, so we all left.

The wheel was cool. I don't know what else to say about that. My photos from it are crappy sorry.
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Post wheel was cheap food from somewhere you would never guess: the keg. I had not been to one in a long time, but I was informed that they split meals for free, so you could go get a steak dinner for 25 bucks, but they would bring each of you a plate with full sides on each, and each a salad before. So you pay half the price, but all that's missing is half a steak. I could barely finish mine as it was.

We drank a bit in there too, the hockey games were on so we watched some of that.

Niagara is very chill, but still very entertaining :)