New York to New Paltz

The trip so far, though not long into it, has been something of a revelation.  It has made me realise exactly how much the people in my life mean to me, and how much I mean to them!

I sobbed my way to the airport and then again as I waited for the plane to leave, and still as we took off the ground.  It wsan't until we had left behind the patchwork of greens, golds and browns that make up the landscape of my home that I was able to look forward to the adventure that lies ahead.  The cotton wool divide between  me and England provided barrier enough for me to stop feeling sorry for myself and start getting excited about my year in America.  In truth, I've not felt as I anticipated feeling.  With momentary exceptions, I've just not found the explosive excitement that usually accompanies my travels. Still, it's early days yet and I'm sure once I have a room to call home things will start falling into place.  I love to sit by the window, despite rendering myself looless for much of the journey. I love to watch the land slip into the sea and back to land again. This time we'd taken a northern route so approximately half way through the flight the seascape turned into small mountains capped with ice. Beautiful. We flew over Canada down to Newark airport. The food was alright; I swear it's better than it used to be, but I missed the slice of plastic cheese!  Upon approaching land, my usual jubilation was non existent.  The land I saw below me was not a land I knew.  It is not my country and not a place I recognise, despite visiting countless times.


Other than my sobbing, the flight was uneventful.  Unable to sleep, I watched the inflight films: Gnomeo and Juliet and Gulliver's Travels. Both very silly and remind me why I don't watch films much these days.  Gulliver's Travels proved to be yet another vehicle for Jack Black. The third film I watched was Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The films are a little Hollywood for my liking but as I'm an childhood fan of the books by C.S. Lewis, I'm still fond of them.  Though the young girl who plays Lucy should really check her acting, lovely though she is. (Everyone's a critic!).  I found myself getting choked up at every single sentimental point in the movie.  The worst being the point in Chronicles of Narnia when the characters are saying goodbye.  I found my tears starting to flow all over again.  My misery was exacerbated by my oh-so-wise choice of a program about West End Theatre.  Luckily I spent most of that getting annoyed about current theatre catering to the lowest common denominator with shows based on movies or making up stories from one band or singer.  Still, that's where the money lies these days.

I must ask my sister about the make up of an aeroplane and how the hell can it fly?

Arriving in the US, it was raining. A lot. Luckily there is an airport shuttle that takes you directly from door to door.  I checked into the hostel in the torrential downpour.  My bags were - and are - cumbersome.  Thanks to Sonia for helping me get to the airport in London.  If I'd gone on my own, I think I would have cancelled the whole trip.  My dorm in the hostel was in the same building as last time, so in a way, it was like coming home.  It was around twelve by the time I'd checked in. Most of the others were already asleep (they told me later they'd gone to bed early because of the rain). I left to get some water and stopped in for a nightcap in the pub across the street.  There's something very weird about American pubs.  I think it's because of the TV screens.  In England, many pubs have TV screens but they are turned on for big games and don't monoploise the room.  In the US, they have walls of them that are on constantly.  This changes the atmosphere in the pub.  In England, the pub is more about the social side of things rather than about the drink.  It's a common place where people can meet their friends and spend a couple of hours chatting or whatever before returning to the obligations of their home lives.  Here it seems like a place to drink beer and watch a game.  Fine, but it's not the same as pubs back home.  I think many people outside the UK think we're all about the drink because people often go to the pub several evenings a week.  Not to deny we drink a lot, but other people don't necessarily see that the pub functions as a part of the community, rather than just a place to get pissed.  In any case, I ordered a gin & tonic and realised I need to specify the call brands that I know or I need to familiarise myself with 'house' brands here.  And I didn't get asked for ID. In fact, I've been here four days now and I haven't been asked for ID once.  A depressing fact that now I really do look over 25 - in fact, someone even asked me if I've got kids! What's that about??

The next morning (Monday 15th August) everyone said goodmorning, as friendly people are wont to do.  If you're not fussy about privacy, sleeping in a dorm is by far the most social way to travel, not to mention cheaper.  One guy, I would soon discover was an Australian called Andrew, saw my hoop on top of my suitcase and asked if he could have a go.  It turns out he's really rather good. We got talking and decided to spend the day together. We went to the Guggenheim Museum, a beautiful modern sculpture of a building whcih houses many wonderful works of modern art.  The featured artist was a Korean artist named Lee Ufan whose work explores space and the relationship between objects.  We also saw Picassos and Kadinskys and Manets.  Shortly after leaving the museum, the skies turned against us and wreaked a kind of revenge that would have scared Noah into building another boat.  We made our soaked selves as quickly back to the hostel looking and feeling as if we'd been swimming in our clothes.  Changing quickly, we made our way the 10 blocks or so down to Times Square where we dined at Bubba Gumps, a Forrest Gump themed restaurant that serve shrimp/prawns by the bucket load in a million different varieties.  I had a bucket of shrimp, fish and lobster claws (exchanged the fries for broccolli to save guilt)  It's not an elegant meal, but truly yum.  Anyway, I'd not eaten for almost exactly 24 hours so I was ravenous. We then proceeded to do New York City in a truly Anglo-Aussi manner by commencing on a mini pub crawl, getting drunk on a mix of beer, gin & tonic and margheritas.

Andrew and I went for breakfast the next morning again in Times Square.  Well, if it's on your doorstep, why not?  We ate this time in Planet Hollywood for the shame, or touristy fun.  The rest of the day was uneventful.  We both sat around at the hostel planning subsequent trips, travel and accomodation.  We lunched at Wendy's - they do the most fantastic apple and pecan salad - before arranging to leave town.  I hailed a yellow New York cab and drove off to Port Authority Bus Station on 42nd Street. Somehow I managed to haul all the luggage that seemed to have accumulated during my two days in NY (This was amazing as I'd not actually bought anything) to the bus that would take me to my home for the next year: New Paltz.

Observation: New Yorkers are as friendly as Londoners.

It took no longer than 10 minutes of the journey for the landscape to alter beyond recognition.  The cityscape disappeared and in it's place were hills blanketed in green upon green upon green.  I spotted many deer along the route as well as a groundhog! I'd not seen one of those for 6 years.

I have spent the last day or so exploring the town.  The first thing I saw was a big old purple house advertising psychic readings.  It's a hippy town.  Lots of veggie shops and hippy clothes and the whole thing smells like incense.

More on New Paltz to come.