Hey Dudes. Arrived in Seattle ok, train ended up being two hours late, so got to the station in the wee hours of the morning, so decided to get a taxi from there to the hostel. immediately i guessed it wasnt far to the hostel, as the cab driver looked grumpy when i said where i wanted to go, as if he wasnt going to get a good fare. The annoying thing was he drove really slowly so his meter went up, plus he drove around the block to the hostel,instead of going straight there. anyway, it cost $4.60, and he said "that'll be $6 then please sir", to which i replied "dont you mean $4.60" gave him the exact change and b*****ed off! tim 1 cabbie nil! if he had have been nice, and drove properly then i wouldnt have minded tipping him, but he was an arse, so, so was i. This is the thing i have found with the US. Tipping is obviously very regularly done, but your not meant to tip if its been a bad "experience", and this had, so screw him. anyway, got to the hostel, and up to my room. whilst travelling around i have always booked the largest room i can in hostel, as they tend to be the cheapest, so this was no different. i booked a 10 bed dorm room. Good thing was, i had it all to myself! plus the hostel was more like a hotel than a hostel. it had en-suite bathroom, so i was sleeping in my own private room with en-suite for only $18 a night, how good is that. 06-12-06 SEATTLE Annoying thing was, because i got in late the night before i was so tired having been on a train the last night, i slept through breakfast, right up to the time i was meant to vacate the room, 10:30, so it didnt really leave me much time to explore Seattle, which was bad because i wanted to do so much. in the end, all i managed to do was walk down to the port area where the big fish market is, take a stroll around there, then headed into downtown to find a 7/11, or equivalent to get some minor supplies for the train, then it was time to head down to the station. if i ever get chance to come back i think i would, maybe if my dad comes over on business ill come with him or something. yeah, so now i had to get a 48 hour train ride to Chicago, where i was to stay for a night, then get my flight to New York. 09-12-06 NEW YORK I know i have skipped a few days, but all i did over the last 3 days was travel, so nothing really to tell, except that Chicago was freezing. Icy and snow all around, with wind chill to match. So i got to my Hostel in NY at about 7pm in the end. after i dropped my stuff off, i decided to go take a stroll to time square. The last time i saw this place was when i got into the US on the 16th October, nothing had changed, but it still made me go wow. Obviously not out loud, as that would have been silly, and people probably would have looked at me funny, but still, at night it is a pretty awesome thing to see. So thats all i did really on the first day. I was shattered, so got an early night. 10-12-06 NEW YORK Next day i woke pretty late as i wasnt feeling well, so that day i took a walk through central park, down into "downtown", and went up the Empire state, which again was an awesome thing to do. It seems that New York has loads of awesome things to do, and as i write this in the airport at JFK, i didnt get to see everything i wanted to. So for the rest of the second day i decided as it was night time to go get some photos of the famous areas and buildings...all sounded good, until i got to the Triangular building, and my battery started to run out. Thats one thing i have found i have liked to do, and if you look at all my albums you can defiantely see it, is to take photos. Maybe its something ill do when i get back also, go out in my anorak taking pictures of buildings. No, but seriously, its something i have come to enjoy. So the remainder of that night was spent updating the comp with my new photos, and then making sure my battery was charged. 11-12-06 NEW YORK Today after a good nights sleep i got up pretty early and went to the History Museum. I was actually one of the first there, so when i got inside, there was about 5 other people walking through this massive musuem, and i mean massive, its literally on about 8 floors, each the size of a couple of football pitches, so you get the picture. 6 needles in a haystack, etc etc. So after walking around for a bit i soon realised that the musuem is pretty much the same as most of them, so didnt spend too much time looking at the different exhibits. You could easily spend a day or two walking around if you looked at every exhibit, but i was in and out within about 4. There was this pretty cool space exploration theather which took an hour of the trip up. So from there again i walked down to time square. I would have taken the subway, but the walks around New York are far better as you get to intake all the atmosphere as you walk through the districts. so i got to time square, the idea being i would take a bus across 42nd street to the harbour where i would take a 2 hour cruise around the harbour etc. but something different ended up happening. i met a girl who was giving out tickets for the David Letterman show, so she offered, and i said yes. Problem was i had to go get the tickets the same time i was meant to take the cruise, so i had to adjurn that thought till the next day. I had to go up to the theather and exchange my voucher thingy for a ticket. I got to the theather and there were literally 400 people who had got given the same thing. i think half of them had bought or reserved them online, but i ended up waiting an hour and a half for them. At this point everyone in the queue was getting pretty excited, but myself having only probably watched about 2 shows max wasnt that bothered, but i just went along for the ride. And hey, it was free. Also, i should point out, that up to this point, we had no idea who the two guests were going to be, but i thought it was going to be good, as i hadnt met any celebs since being in the US. ANyway, after about a hour queueing after i got my ticket we were finally let into the studio. Today was a Tuesday by the way, and we were in there to screen and film the Friday night show, so there were crowd warmers jeering the american in the usual over the top way, plus it was bloody cold in the studio, so shouting and cheering really warmed you up. So i was sat in the studio, and the house band played a bit of music, which was actually really good. Supposedly the guy who was the head of the band is pretty famous!? i dunno. then David came in before the airing to answer a few questions from the audience. He did the usual, "have we got anyone from the NY area here today", then the whole Out of town thing, then his last one was "do we have anyone visiting from another country?" to which i clapped and shouted out yeah. turns out i was the only one in the audience from outside the US.....oops, and red i did go. Especially as im not really one for shouting and jeering, i go and make a complete tit out of myself. anyway, benefit was i got to shake hands in a welcoming manner with David Letterman. Pretty cool hey. Then they announced the two guests on the show that night....wait for it.......they were pretty good guests.............Clint Eastwood....and......Matthew Fox, which for those who dont know who he is, he's the guy who plays the doctor in lost, AKA Jack. so they did the show, then at the end of it we got to meet the two guests, shake hands with them, etc. again, David introuduced me as the only none american, which was good as i was only about 1 of 20 people to meet and shake hands with them. I also got one of the bands picks. suprisingly to myself i was on a natural high after that, it truely was an awesome thing to do. So if you come to NY, then Def find the lady on time square giving out tickets. think she's only there mondays and tuedays. That night i took a walk over the brooklyn bridge to get some city shots of the bridge and skyline, which i think came out pretty well, then headed back to bed. It often occurs to me that i seem to be writing this as if a was in primary school. i.e the cat sat on the mat. then headed back to bed. but i did want you at the start i was rubbish at writing stuff! 12-12-06 NEW YORK Right well today was ok i guess. i took a walk down to the square and then took a bus over to the ferry port. i has bought this city pass, and one of the things it allowed me to do was to have a 2 hour harbour cruise. last time i took a touristy cruise thing was a couple years back in zante, which was ok for the first minute or two, but after a short while got a bit tediuous, oh wait tell a lie, we did do one in turkey earlier this year....twice. that one was acutally pretty cool. but anyway i digress. the harbour cruise was OK, not bad, not great, but ok. basically it led us around the harbour, as it dictated it would, along the way pointing out where certain things are. i.e the place where titanic was meant to land, the area where the twin towers fell, and did you know, that three towers fell that day of the world trade centre, not just the two, i dunno, it interested me. i got to see wall street, etc etc, then on the way back we went close up to the statue of liberty. supposedly after the terroist attacks, you can no longer go up the statue, or even visit the island unless you have gone through this speical tour thing, but i think that only runs in summer. anyway, we got back into the pier, which was extremely cold as the harbour breeze isnt felt in the city, so i went to dunkin doughnuts, for the first time let me tell you, and grabbed a hot chocolate. tonight again was going to be spent not doin a lot. something i have also found is that the people staying in the hostels, especially New York tend to be under 21, which isnt a bad thing, but it is if you want to go out for a beer with someone on the odd occasion. but i guess it probably wouldnt have been a good idea as i had already overspent on the US trip, besides i did have to pack my bag for tommorrow and sort out what i was to be sending home. 13-12-06 LAST DAY IN NEW YORK Woke early again, three days in a row now! ok, so i had to be up early today to check out, but still i did plan to get a lot into this day before having to get my flight to Lima. so i packed my bags, put them in storage for the day and headed downtown in search for the NYC Fire Musuem. Now for those of you who properly know me will know that i am i bit of a fire buff. ok a fire geek! so this was definately somewhere on my list to visit. i arrived early again, but the good thing about this place is that i can strike a common interest with some of the people inside. so i got talking to them about what i did in the fire service in cheshire, and how different things were over here. I spoke with this retired firefighter for at least 45 mins, about geeky stuff you wouldnt be interested in, but i think in the whole time i have been over here, other than with Ford, the most i have probably spoke with people is about 20 mins max. Its at this time i tend to stray away from the conversation and get bored. but this place was full of the old fire appliances and carts that were used when the borough of New York was still 5 independant cities. but the besr exhibit of all was the memorial to the 9/11 firefighters. it wasnt much to look at if im honest, but it was about the prettyness of it, more of the meaning, and it really did bring back to me the fact that the lost so many bodies that day, all of which are plastered in picture form on the memorial. kind of makes your realised why they are so pissed off with Osama and his guys. so i must have spent a good 3 hours looking around this place and talking with the guys, which for any normal person probably would have taken an hour tops. so from there i headed down to the site where the twin towers used to be. By now they have replaced on of the towers with a brand new shiny one, but there is still a massive gap where they are currently building the new tower, called the "freedom" tower i believe. dont know how tall its going to be, but from the pics, it looked pretty big and shiny. i got directed by a police man, or cop as they say over here to where the groung zero memorial was, but for the life of me i couldnt find it. is it actually a concrete thing? or just a place where people go to think about their losses? i dunno, but i couldnt find it anyway. so by now i was running a little low on time, so i still had to post my package home, then head down to the airport, going via the hostel for my bags. after much arseing about in finally got to the airport way to early. i was the first to check in! lol, i have never been that early before. now i am one to panic a bit with times, and would rather get there way before i need to, but i must have been 4 hours early! but it did have its benefits. when i checked in i asked again about getting a seat with extra leg room, and then cheekily for an upgrade to business class. which forutnately paid off. another one of those occasions where if you dont ask, you dont get! so i checked into my business lounge, read the wall street journal, which was utterley boring, then headed down to my flight. this was actually the first time i got a decent cooked meal in ages. and eventually arrived in Peru