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.

New York, New York...

Alrightyyyyyy so I had left off at Times Square...

I was not expecting it to be that crazy! I was actually expecting a square haha - not a huge insane amount of lights and people:





I had not put in a few other pictures from the daytime... here they are now..

ground zero





soooooo I wandered around afterwards, thought about going up the empire state building... didn't end up wanting to spend the 20$ and freeze my butt off.

I ended up back around ten. There were people from Sweden staying at the house as well! We all had a chill night (no gin seeeeeee) so I could wake up the next day...

To get on a ten hour train.

This one was excellent! I slept multiple times, read the hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and looked out the window. It was pleasant all around! They took off that bloody piece of paper out of my passport YAY!

I made it to Montreal!!!

CANADA!!!

So happy my money counts as... what it's labelled as... yay!

30 Hour Train to New York

I am somehow super behind again lol

This is what I typed out in New York...

I couldn’t fall asleep on the train right away though… I managed to for a while in the afternoon. This was a single level train instead of the double level I had on the West Coast, so it was similar but not quite as nice looking. The seats were the same though… I managed to get pretty comfy though by sleeping across two seats :)

The train was an epic 30 hours. Midway through an Egyptian proffesor sat beside me, so I couldn’t lay down anymore. He did not want to stop talking to me… It was entertainign at first – he showed me practically every photo on his computer, including like 20 pictures of his wife and daughter standing in various rooms in his big house in Washington. His wife worked for the UN, so he had one of his wife shaking hands with Bill Clnton.

There was an awkward moment where he was talking about how pretty he thought I was, and how I am such a sweet girl… then he reached his hands towards me and asked if he could kiss me! I turned my head and said no pretty loudly and not very nicely. He was all “oh no no no I meant on your cheek! I am very respectful! That’s what we do - you are like my family blah blah blah” so I kind of went “oh”.

After that he would try to apologize repeatedly or express embarrasment about asking every couple hours. I was getting annoyed with this guy. I tried to watch some Deadwood I’d downloaded, but I was missing a codec so I pretended to be listening to other stuff while I typed a bunch of this catch up stuff up lol.

Eventually I tried to sleep again, but it was uncomfortable so I’d never last more than a couple hours before having to wake up. Once the Egyptian guy was gone, I was able to lay down, but it was only a few hours till NY, so I again I didn’t make it for more than a couple hours before getting up.

My first few hours in New York were confusing. Penn Station is MASSIVE!

I knew the numbers of the trains I could catch to get where I wanted, but there were sooooo many options and knowing the numbers 2 or 3 was not enough. There were actual trains there as well as subways, and people like to use the word train and subway interchangibly. I didn’t know if I was supposed to go to tracks 2 or 3 or go to subways 2 or 3, plus there’s two or three levels and lots of long hallways leading to a million different things. It took me over half an hour to get a coffee and find out what I was supposed to do. Once I was on the subway it all made so much more sense.

The house was super easy to find – I didn’t take one wrong turn :) Someone was home too which was a bonus, so I picked my couch and ened up taking a long nap. I slept until about seven pm.

Turns out I had perfect timing because the New York weekly couchsurfing Meetup was on Thursdays, and it started at eight! I was able to freshen up from the train, and get there in perfect time.

I was one of the first people there, but the bar slowly turned into couchsurfing central, and by eleven most of the bar had nametags lol. Yes, that’s right, they give you name tags out here it was charming! They had a bunch of food for us too; I was pretty happy with how active the scene is here  I ended up talking to a guy from Paris for a while – he’s been living here for three months or something. We got pizza after. The pizza is the same price here as san franciso pizza – they have not figured out the whole 1:50 slice thing that we have. They’re double! WTF.




So I slept in again yesterday (Friday). I know, I know, one day and half of it is sleep. Silly Leanne. Meh. I am a lazy traveler, and I would much rather sleep than be tired on a subway. For my day I decided to:

Take the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. WOW. I have never been to a museum that has even 1/1000000th of what that one has. Just unbelievable. Seriously. WOWOWOWOWOWOW.














Behind the Museum was Central Park. Walked around there.






Went back to the city part and walked down a Lexington street for ages half looking for a coffee shop, half just looking around. My feet got sore from walking for so long though, and I eventually found a little place after walking for over 20 blocks (started around 80th ended up around 60th).

I walked down Fifth Avenue, found Rockafeller Centre, the ice rink thing, a few big cathedrals, radio city, a big Apple thing (Minka you would like it), Union square, some other stuff… then got some gloves because it’s FREAKEN COLD here especially compared to the deep South. I got used to wearing a thin little hoodie thing out at night and it being plenty warm. NOT HERE.








I met up with my host - finally met him for the first time haha! He had been working a lot, and had to go play hockey while I was at the couchsurfing meetup. He took me to a much better part of the city, in the lower east side area. We went to a couple dive bars and ate poutine. I was much more happy with this!

I sort of realized that one day really wasn’t going to do it here. I mean, I hadn’t even been to Times Square yet… or seen the statue of Liberty.

I drunk called Amtrak at two in the morning. Amazingly I was able to change my ticket to tomorrow (the 15th! Just squeaking in!! ) for only seven dollars more!! Mwahahahahaha. That also means I could sleep in – still have to wake up tomorrow early but oh well. I will not drink gin tonight.

Today I went to Battery Park and saw the Statue from far away! Now I have seen it! I am currently in a coffee shop in I’m guessing Greenwich villiage – a funky area so far, tons of tattoo shops and café’s and the like. They have really good coffee here. It’s super yummy and has not hurt my stomach somehow. I am off to Times Square next :)

Well my battery is dying so I best be off!

.... and end the copy & paste time. more to come.