We leapt off our final Greyhound bus of the trip, leaving our trusty pillows in the luggage compartment for some other weary travellers to find and treasure: we had finally arrived in New York and it was time to see what all the fuss was about. It has a lot to live up to: could it beat Sydney, Fiji, the Thai islands, Queenstown, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, San Diego and San Francisco to make it into the top spot? It was an inauspicious start, however, as we fo...

Before we flew into the 'land of the free', I thought that Philadelphia was on the West coast for some insane reason. Mind you, we didn't really have much of a clue where anything was: we thought that Florida was near California; and that Washington was north of New York. It's really a wonder we've been able to navigate from coast to coast with so few mishaps until now. After a great few days in North Carolina with Barbara, it was hard to leave the idyllic neigh...

We arrived into Raleigh bus station just as Barbara was pulling up to collect us. We didn't stop long at her fantastic house before heading out for dinner with her colleagues at an even more impressive house, decorated with an array of interesting African art. Not only were we treated to fabulous food, but everyone was fascinated to hear about our trip and were even more eager to be included in the blog. The following morning was spent catching up on some sleep ...

Providing the perfect base from which to explore the city, our hostel was smack, bang in the city centre; minutes from the big names offered by the capital. And as soon as we'd caught up on our sleep, like any self-respecting tourist and West Wing fan, we headed straight off to the White House. 'It's much smaller than I imagined,' is what almost every tourist apparently goes on about, and we were no exception. It still looks great, though, and I found myself hum...

The Greyhound got us into Boston around lunchtime, which gave us a few hours to get our bearings before we were expected at Jeff & Nancy's. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our side and it proceeded to throw it down for most of the afternoon. This did mean though that we got a taste for the various food courts around, but when we realised the rain wasn't going to let up, we were forced to make a run for the nearest subway station. The weather got decided...