the end. (ish)

Okay so i have 1 day left in the states and i was thinking, what will i tell people when they ask "How  was America?" or "What was it like?"...

Camp America (@ YMCA Camp Jewell)
The absolute best time of my life, so far. Firstly, if you love working with kids, then you MUST do Camp America - it's just too good and you get far more out of it than you could imagine. Secondly, if you do, then try to work at Camp Jewell, which is the awesome camp that i was lucky enough to work for. You will meet some seriously great people and be in such a beautiful place. (I cannot praise this place highly enough - just trust me on it!)

Trek America (Canadian Pioneer)
Like getting bunched with a small group of random people from all over the world? The trek in Canada was FANTASTIC - it was a very well-organised, flexible, and exciting trip where i met some of the most interesting and funniest people, and did some slightly ridiculous but utterly fun things all the way across Canada. And if you ever get the opportunity to choose your trek leader, ask for Ann!

 

Boston

Whether you are careering around the city with a flock of friends, sometime-after-midnight, or taking a leisurely stroll through Quincy Market with family, then Boston is a big, beautiful city with a bounty of things to discover. I think i like Boston so much as a) it was the first American city i was able to explore and b) because although it is big, it is quite clean, tree'ed, and has lots of lovely 'college' campuses to visit (unlike, for example, NYC).

New York City (the supposed Liberty City)

Okay, at the risk of offending some of my American (and maybe non-American) friends, my description of NYC that follows is perhaps a little harsh (but also quite true). Two words: filthy and smelly. Now, i know it is a "big deal" going to New York, but honestly, i only found a few gems (Morimoto japanese restaurant, Chelsea Markets) in a whole lotta hype (i.e., everything else). It's seen as "exotic" and "glamorous" to go to New York, but why? I'll tell you - it's because we think it's "exotic" and "glamorous". Sure, you can watch a movie set in New York to see what it's like, but if you want someting more accurate, try checking out Grand Theft Auto IV. (You know, with all that said, i did love NY from the documentary-photographic angle. And, don't get me wrong, i had an utterly awesome time there too!)

Washington, D.C.

I know it's all you ever hear about when going to D.C., but the museums are FANTASTIC. Spend hours and hours staring glassy-eyed at a model neanderthal or gazing in amazement at the ceiling of Library of Congress.The city is also particularly good if you've read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, as you can almost lose yourself in the masonic history of the place. Dupont circle and George Washington's homestead are great, and so long as you keep out of the ghetto north-east quadrant of the city, you shouldn't have to worry too much about the unexpectedly high crime rate.

Chicago
Chicago  wasn't what i was expecting. Admittedly, my expectations were probably 80-90 years out of date, as i was expecting gangsters and the fruits of the prohibition to be abound, but that's just what i'd read, you know? Anyway, i suppose i really liked Chicago as it reminded me of a bigger Brisbane, only colder. The leafy streets were gorgeous. The metro line was like a theme-park ride. And bike riding along Lake Michigan sure is a good way to feel better about all that food you've been eating while you've been over here.

Austin, TX
Known for "keeping it wierd", this is probably not the place to come if you want to go on a holiday getaway, but heck, it sure is an interesting experience if you're visiting friends. Trailriding western-style at Cheryl's barn was definitely the highlight of the trip, but it was also just a lot of fun exploring downtown Austin and marvelling at all the steakhouses, handlebar moustaches, quirky bars and the eclectic music scene (i managed to complete my TV on the Radio CD collection).

San Francisco
The SF experience for me was one of eating fresh dungeness crab out of the shell, clinging frozen to the side of a Market St tram, eating local Californian cheese and drinking cider in Sonoma Valley (i wish i could say i drank wine, but you know how they are here), and biking my way across the Golden Gate bridge. Of the three times i went here, SF offered something new each time - whether it be crazy weather, a bison paddock in the center of the city, or a beggar scaring ungenerous tourists and passersby with a broken eucalyptus branch. It's a pretty diverse and very cool place to go.

Yosemite
The movie Into The Wild is probably one of my favourites, as is the book. I know Yosemite National Park was not at all featured in either, but i could understand both a lot better from being out there. The mountains/valleys are massive and you can really feel them drawing you in. I loved it.

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity..."John Muir

Las Vegas

 If you want a holiday, i'd definitely recommend coming here. Why? Because in all the other American Cities I was too busy just trying to "live" whereas here, everyone's on holiday (heck! i mean, so are you!) and relaxed and enjoying themselves, so you find that you can too. Whats more, there is so much money here that you can actually appreciate clean footpaths, good food, cleaner air, few beggars, and, of course, the glorious themed hotels & casinos along the Strip. And, if you're getting sick of carrying around that heavy wallet of yours, then don't worry, because by the end of your stay here it will be light as a feather! 

Los Angeles
The first two words that popped into my head on arriving in L.A.  were "glorified Logan". Now, if you live anywhere near Logan City, QLD, then you'll have a better idea of what i mean here. Basically L.A. is a whole lot of ghetto suburbs. There are "Green Doctors" and botox clinics abound. And the traffic is terrrrrible. However, it really wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. We were lucky enough to be staying in the only hotel on Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills (coincidentally, this is the most expensive place to shop in the world) and therefore our area was extremely beautiful. A good friend of mine said she'd kill me if i saw a celebrity - i'm still alive but i'm pretty sure we passed a few (not that i would know too well anyway) and i am almost 100% certain i saw Eugene Levy (two-left feet in Best in Show) at dinner on our last night here. Santa Monica and Venice beach were fantastic for shopping & eating, by the way, and you could really see the vegan/gypsy culture shine through...

Coastal Roadtrip L.A. to San Francisco
Somehow, we managed to leave one of the best parts 'til last - winding our way through Malibu, Santa Barbara, Carmel, Monteray, Santa Cruz, and Big Basin on Route 1.  One of the problems we have often found with america is aptly summed up by my mother, who said "The problem with America is just that sometimes there are too many Americans!" and it's true as sometimes it is simply so hard to escape the massive cities. However, when you do, such as on this beautiful drive, it is just so worth it. Among the gorgeous rugged mountains and coastal scenery, one of the highlights was staying at the Redwood Croft B&B in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where we were treated with a jacuzzi under the stars, an exquisite loft to sleep in, a full and delicious cooked breakfast (with real tea!), and all set in the midst of a towering redwood grove. A perfect end.

okay. well. i don't know where it goes from here. it's funny how you get so used to living one thing, that it becomes so hard to change. i want to go home, but i don't want to leave. summer has barely ended yet i am already so nostalgic for it.

america is, and was, something else.

yosemite (yes, i've skipped san francisco)

for some reason, whenever i am with the land, i have this wierd urge to become a native and just wander around talking to myself about the earth and all its stories.

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, 

he finds it attached to the rest of the world." 

John Muir

chicago continued.

okay well atleast i find it amusing to write (this is my kind of my diary to remember whats happening anyway) and a few devoted followers are better than none!

chicago reminds me a lot of brisbane in a lot of ways. a lot bigger, of course, but similar architecture and business districts, and a nice feel to the city. we were staying in a little neighbourhood called Wrigleyville, which is just north of the city. its a short ride on the metro rail (above ground, rusty tracks, fast trains whipping around corners and wooden station platforms - it was heaven for me and Kyp to take photos). (photo: our local church, across the road)

the apartment was in a yellow fall leafy neighbourhood with little brick terrace houses, we were staying in a trendy apartment - 3 bedrooms, a small porch out the back (a little rotten almost, and looking out onto the alleyway), and windows all along the front.

the luxury of this apartment, of course, was that on one particularly stormy morning we slept in until about 12pm... however our activities besides that included:

wandering down to the lakeside, hiring bikes and biking about 5-7miles along lake michigan, going on a boat tour up and down the river to view all the architecture (first sky-scraper ever was built in chicago), and skipped paying $15 to go to the observatory deck at the John Hancock Building and instead caught the elevator to floor 96 and drank cocktails (or the dreaded mocktail, hahaha) while sitting in the "house" seat and watching the sun set over chicago.

We also made a trip to the Cheesecake Factory (i had previously tried a delicious Oreo cheesecake in boston) so mum could try it out, where we got each of our meals literally on a serving platter, rather than an actual plate. Needless to say, mum's meal fed her that night, and then all three of us the next night. now why is it that so many americans are overweight...?

we also got a Godiva chocolate cheesecake to "take-out", which was lovely, but extraordinarily rich.

checagou ("wild onions")

i sit here, next to mum, on a couch, watching "Man V Food" (ridiculous show about an American filling himself with lard, with a side of lard), with a lovely full tummy, writing about the last fourish days in Chicago.

chicago is a combination of leafy apartments in suburbia, strips of "rust belt" and ghetto neighbourhoods, a hive of incredible architecture, and a happening downtown of sky-high buildings puncturing the blue. And it's all perched on the side of the massive Lake Michigan.

To both kick-off and close our lovely time here, we visited our 'local' japanese restaurant, Ukai, where we tasted exquisite japanese-fusion foods, cheaply and (for once) in a respectable serving size! Included in our tastings was grilled eel, hanger steak, air yuzu, gomae and other complex delicacies.

ta ta ta ta ta... i am actually wondering whether it's really particularly interesting reading what i am doing? probably not. i'll leave it here i think...

Wahhshington, Deastrict ahv Cahlambia

is it a bad sign that i have start writing phonetically in American? probably, though i would like to think that in real life, my accent has remained pretty un- err, unchanged.

the past 4 nights have been spent in a trendy renovated apartment, about 3 blocks south of the National Mall. I have been able to actually cook (something decent) the past couple of nights too as our apartment had a well-stocked kitchen, including basics like pasta and herbs and spices. It even had a couple of different liqueurs; two strange mexican-looking ones which i didn't touch but also a pleasant creme de vanilla liqueur, which was somewhat port-like in flavour and a provided nice nightcap.

so our weeks' events included:
An evening walk at the east end of the Mall, up by Parliament House and then in the morning an exploration of several of the noted Smithsonian museums. We visited the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Native American History, the second of which we stopped to have special mexican spiced hot chocolate (they also served buffalo and other native foods) and i also purchased a native american book of recipes and traditions.

we also visited Mount Vernon, the home and farmlands of George Washington, which was just so beautiful, lovely big gardens and paddocks and forest and slave-houses and his mansion. It reminded me somewhat of Clarendon and the big estates by Stanley, in Tasmania (however not as grand as the tasmanian places, i found...)

What else, what else... Arlington cemetry, Washington Monument (the big masonic obelisk... brings back memories of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown), Lincoln Memorial and the White House.

Today we also went to Dupont Circle and browsed through old record shops, tiny japanese boutiques, tea shops, and! a combination of some of our favourites - had a late lunch at Teaism, a japanese restaurant/cafe/tea shop, where i had sweet matcha and a bento box in a beautiful old terrace.

Our last night is tonight but i highly doubt we will get up to too much as we are going to need to try to squeeze in the great number of things (mum) bought.

New yoke

last night concluded our holiday in New York, where we were staying in "A rest stop for rare individuals" at the Hotel Chelsea. we celebrated by going to the famous Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's japanese restaurant, and i have to say, the food was absolutely some of the best i have ever had.

We started with a lamb carpaccio with scallions and chive oil, and the thin slices of meat just melted in your mouth. the flavours were both subtle and absolutely delectable, and i took a good minute to savour each bite.

I then had beautiful fresh yellowtail fish, seared in the bowl at my table, sitting on a bed of rice and egg. the taste was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Mum had a chef's selection of sashimi (so beautifully presented) and dad had chirashi.

For dessert we had yet another gastronomical delicacy of warm flourless chocolate cake with pear gelato, thinly sliced pear, and caramel popcorn (a slightly bizarre combination that tasted absolutely superb) and a sobert combination of raspberry, lemon, and apple.

Anyway, this was definitely the highlight of my new york trip, as i am so gastronomically and cooking-ly inclined. The restaurant was also beautiful in that it was designed by famous japanese architect, Tadao Ando (whom dad has apparently followed for years).

Some other highlights of the new york trip included:

A pedi-cab tour of central park by a very jovial and knowledgable young man, Amadou. The park was very gorgeous and we got to visit all the movie locations and ponder this and that.

We also went up the Empire State Building at night, you know, doing the whole touristy thing (i figure that in new york, i would rather not be anything but a tourist). It was quite amazing, just to gauge the extent of the city and how built up it is.

We visited the Chelsea Markets several times (it makes my heart melt, to see all those gourmet bakeries and the artisinal cooking and so on), wandered aimlessly through Greenwich, Noho, Soho and Chinatown. Ate bagels for brunch and drank hot-chocolate to stave off the cold. Walked under the Brooklyn bridge, past tall brick housing complexes, tiny graffiti'ed playgrounds, and forgotten alleyways.

We walked up Wall St, got our photo outside the U.S. Stock Exchange building, contemplated the affects of 9/11 at Ground Zero, and took many reckless taxi-cab rides ducking in-and-out of bumper-to-bumper traffic and streams of pedestrians.

We pretended to be from the upper echelons and wandered through Trump Tower, Madison Avenues high-end stores, and sat at the top of Columbus Circle, directly overlooking Central Park, sipping cocktails (or fruit juice, as was my case) and listening to a jazz performance by Horizon.

I got sick at Ellen's Stardust Diner from eating the "American" (i.e. 100% plastic) cheese on the top of my dish (however the atmosphere was cute - absolute 1960's diner with singing waitresses and poodle skirts). A sample of diner food below... (to be avoided at all costs?)

And we of course we stopped by times square and grand central, just for a peek.

re-unite

i'm finally getting up to date!

Yes! I have now re-united with good ol' Mum and Dad. I was most definitely looking forward to seeing them again, as travelling alone is very wearing and lonesome sometimes.

We met in Boston where i took them to their first american breakfast at Au Bon Pain, which was very lovely and peaceful, and then we stored our luggage at my hostel and i took them on a 'mini-tour' of boston - the boston commons, downtown, Quincy Markets and the harbourside - before we headed over to our apartment on Newbury Street.

Newbury Street is a highly trendy and popular street packed full of designer clothes shops, boutiques, gelaterias and restaurants so it was a gorgeous location. Best of all, we were in a little basement apartment, just out of the movies, which was very comfortable and modern inside, and i had my own bedroom and bed for the first time in... what? 4 months? (privacy is a thing i know little of any more haha)

For our first dinner together i took them to a lovely french cuisine restaurant called Stephanie's.

and for now that is all... i will update more in the foreseeable future.

the last leg (of canada)

okay finally i will conclude the canada trek.

So i left off last in Quebec... i enjoyed my last day there sitting in a restaurant with my english pals Vikki and Shona, feeling warm, watching the rain pour down outside, and eating salty french onion soup with gruyere cheese and bread melted on top, and a blue cheese, goat cheese and brie platter. perfect end to canada, no?

From here we ventured south across the canadian-usa border, where the US officials of course wanted to make a fuss about my passport (and my passport only), and only let me through after paying $6 to have a small sheet of paper stapled into my passport (which had been ripped out by US officials on me first entering the country anyway... huh.)

Once in Maine we headed down to Acadia National park, our last real destination and national park. Here we enjoyed watching the sunrise hit the first point in the US (the top of Cadillac Mountain, where we were positioned) and i tried my very first go at deep-sea fishing. I caught 1 mackeral and 1 pollock - a star effort i thought for a beginner! it was much fun too and we each got a free Maine lobster to take home and eat.

So, as you can imagine, we had an excellent dinner that night of fresh caught pollock grilled over the campfire, fire-roasted corn, and the most beautiful lobster i have ever eaten. so fresh and sweet and all.

After that we celebrated by heading in to Bar Harbour (the small little town on Acadia Island) and having delicious gelato, and then popping into a very small and sweet bar for special blueberry mojitas (not too great - very strong, very sweet, but free thanks to the local friends Jo and I made).

Last night! we ventured into the tiny outlet-shopping town of Freeport for some shopping (or a little stop to sit and watch the world, as i did) and then on to our last campsite, one which was closing up for the winter and meant that we had one whole half of the campsite to ourselves (huzzah!).

Ann made us a special mexican gumbo-type thing which was amazingly delicious and then we partying on into the night enjoying our last night together (and getting roused on once or twice by the camp ground owners) and doing the Cupid Shuffle (it's a modern-day line dance... look it up on youtube) together.

And so that fairly much concludes my canada trip. by no means is it all inclusive though, so you'll have to ask me more. honestly though, if you are ever doing a trek in america, go with Trek America and ask for the tour leader Ann and you will have the best time ever.

Montreal - Canada continued

Yippee we were now in Montreal! We started our orientation by stopping at the top of Mont Royal and snapping shots of the city underneath us. We also were staying in a hostel for two nights too which was nice to have an actual bed instead of a ground sheet to sleep on.

That night we celebrated by going out to a lovely italian restaurant named Ferrari's and all having a drink, as i was finally in an 18+ drinking age area. Montreal nightlife is said to be some of the best in the world so we had a fair amount of fun ducking in and out of little irish pubs and sitting watching pool and then finally going to a couple of little nightclubs (where we got free entry, all the better) before trying the local specialty - poutine (basically chips, cheese and gravy... it seems all i am eating is rubbish doesn't it?? trust me i wasn't eating that type of food all the time haha)

The next day i wandered about montreal visiting the underground city (because it gets so badly snowy there), the Tam Tam Jam ('for free-loving spirits', tam tam drums and little hippy-ish stalls), and the Italian and Old Town provinces.

Our last canadian destination was Quebec. For those of you that don't know it already, Quebec was by far the most french of all the places we visited. Just about everything was parlez-vous francais, and it was just g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s. with little cobbled streets and french provincial buildings and the big citadelle from 'back in the day'. We first visited it at night after dinner at our camp and went over via ferry, which gave us a beautiful view of all the city lights. we stopped by le petit cochon (the little pig) for dessert where i had a special maple cake and belgian hot chocolate (again, a great view of my diet, hey? really, i don't eat like this all the time!!) and then we went wandering for a bit.

Quebec was by far my favourite canadian city, and has really made me want to see europe for all the gorgeous alley-ways and history and heritage.

the rest of canada...

Alright so obviously i got a little stuck in the writing-about-canada process. honestly, time just seems to fly by sometimes and by the time i get back to my dwellings for the night i am beyond exhausted and just want to settle in for a cup of tea and maybe a little sit in bed with something to read.

But! Let me briefly tell you the rest of what happened in canada:
In Algonquin park it was getting was really getting cold and we were now in full bear-country, so had to bear-proof the campsite that evening. The next morning was canoing in Lake Opeongo, with my awesome english friends Vikki and Shona in my canoe, and then a 7.7km hike around another lake to the top of a mountain to a beautiful view of the colour-changing leaves and the undisturbed canadian wilderness.

The next day was a nice early wake-up call (5.15am or something???) so that we could get to our white-water rafting by 9am. Needless to say, they had no wetsuits to fit me, so i was wearing something far too baggy and couldn't even find my swimsuit to wear under it. And it was freezing. And it was raining.

However i had immense fun, even though it was cold and i couldn't feel my hands. It was also very beautiful country by the riverbanks. We camped under a giant shed that night and had a big party, as there was a little pub at the place where we were staying. This is the river, the next morning:

Next up! Ottowa where i tried a "beaver tail" (fried dough with a topping... cinnamon & apple or chocolate & banana or something like that) and wandered around the markets. I also saw my first groundhog! how quaint.

The next day was bungee-jumping outside Ottowa and on to Montreal. Now yes, i will admit i was seriously considering doing it. I even said to Ann, our trek leader, that if she did it i would do it (she did it). but... when i got there, it was MASSIVE and over a big waterhole, and i thought to myself, do i really want to spend $110 to hurt to myself or something equally as bad? So no, i didn't do it, but had a lot of fun watching the 4 who did want to, and considering it was never one of my great ambitions i left with the attitude that atleast i have an extra $110 to spend on buying things for myself!