A Cov bird set loose on the world!

Melbourne

jessiebiscuits — Thu, 7 Jun 2007 17:36:00 GMT

We made the mistake in Melbourne of being lured into staying at a hostel by the fantastic price of $16 a night for our own room. But it was horrible. We didn’t have a heater in our room (and Melbourne at this time of year is very cold) and so it was damp and smelt like pee. The whole place was very run down and luckily we were on the first floor right by the entrance because the building was so creepy that I would not have walked around the upper floors in the dark – it was bad enough in the day. I wasn’t just being a wimp as even Rich didn’t like walking around by himself. We stayed in an area called St Kilda as Rich’s friends Chris and Mark were living near by. It’s a nice area – it’s by the beach and is close to the centre – but is a mix of new fancy bistros and bars, and tramps and prostitutes.

The centre of Melbourne is much like any other big city – lots of tall office buildings and a large pedestrian shopping area. There is a huge oriental influence with an area of shopping arcades that when you walk through them it feels like you could be in China or Japan as everything is written in Chinese/Japanese.

We met up with Chris and Mark for some food and a few drinks on the Monday night – needless to say it descended into a drunken mess with the help of all the duty free we had bought on the way into OZ (a litre of Smirnoff for £4!!). Once again as it was a Monday night there weren’t many bars open and there were few people out. I don’t remember much but a really nice square somewhere in the centre that had fancy architecture and reminded me of Barcelona, and meeting some random Aussie girls. It was really nice seeing some faces from home – even if I was outnumbered by Scousers!

Needless to say the next day was spent mainly in bed and I was sick all day. After not drinking for pretty much the whole time in New Zealand my body was not prepared for that night and took it badly.

On Wednesday we went to the Melbourne museum which was really nice and had some interesting exhibits. The most unusual part was a living forest display that showed Australia’s native forest that was left over from the time it was part of Gondwanaland and connected to NZ and Antarctica, and then moved into the type of forest that developed after this and so was unique to OZ. They also had some of the wildlife that is found in the forests in the display, such as birds, frogs, lizards and a snake (though it was safely in a display cage as it was a poisonous one and it was hibernating when we were there). I had fun posing with the stuffed kangaroos and even took a picture with two giant stuffed reticulated pythons. There were other displays on the aboriginal people, Melbourne’s history including some Neighbours set, the human body and evolution. The weirdest part had to be Phar Lap, a race horse from the 30s who had been really successful and so was on display in the museum in this little shrine as he had meant so much to Australia. People still come and cry when they see him because he means that much, its just crazy.

The highlight of Melbourne though and our main reason for going there (yes I am that sad) was the Neighbours tour. We went on a little tour bus to go see ‘

Ramsey St

’; I forget what it’s really called. It was really weird looking at the houses; you see them on TV every day so it’s weird to then have then there before you. We also went to see the school they use as Erinsborough High, but it could have been any school for all I could tell, and went to the studios where we saw the sets for Grease Monkeys and the garage. With the tour you get to meet one of the stars and ours was Fraser, otherwise known as Ben, who was really nice (and really good looking in real life). We all got to pose with him for photos and got autographs on our souvenir Neighbours postcards and felt like complete dorks. But hey, we got to learn lots of interesting Neighbours facts and the tour was definitely worth it.

The South Island of NZ

jessiebiscuits — Sun, 3 Jun 2007 17:04:00 GMT

At first the south island seemed much like the north; that was until we arrived in Christchurch the other day and I realised that I had not seen a traffic light for 2 weeks. There are huge areas of the south island where you can drive for hours without seeing a house or a turning off the road that would suggest human presence near by. The Southern Alps run down one side of the south island, their western side almost touches the coast so at points you are driving on a winding road perched high above the sea, hugging the side of forest covered mountains. On this side of the mountains it rains 9 days out of 10, and this is where you find the glaciers. The last part of the western side of the south island is a jigsaw of mountains and fiords created by glaciers thousands of years ago. If you look at a map of New Zealand there is this whole area where there is not even a single road and it is totally uninhabitable. On the eastern side of the mountains it is a totally different picture, and whereas rain has made the west an unfavourable place, it is the lack of rain that has the same effect on the east. The run up to the eastern flank of the Alps is flat and you can drive right up to the base of them. All the rain falls on the western side and does not make it over the mountains to the east so that this area resembles desert scrub - there are very few trees and the main foliage is small shrubs and grasses. As you move away from the mountains, sandy coloured hills roll over flat plains and we were driving for at least an hour before we saw green fields and farmland. The width of the Alps is only a couple of miles, yet the contrast is spectacular.

Our first stop on the south island was Nelson. We only stayed here for a couple of days as most of the activities available here you can do everywhere else. We found a wonderful hostel, aptly named the Paradiso – large comfy beds, comfy TV area, FREE breakfast and FREE soup for dinner (luxuries you do not find on the north island), and a nice garden area with hammocks and a pool/hot tub/sauna. The area around Nelson and the bay is gorgeous though, and if I was to move to New Zealand to live properly I would probably choose this region.

We then made the mammoth trip down the coast to Franz Josef and only just made it before night fell (I really wouldn’t fancy driving on the bendy mountain roads in the dark). The village of Franz Josef is solely there to cater for the packs of tourists who come to see the glacier. As such there seemed to be about 5 motels/hostels for every house. We through caution to the wind and forked out for the full day trip as everyone we spoke to said that you get to see a lot more and the extra money is definitely worth it – and boy were they right! From a distance the glacier doesn’t look very impressive. The main part that you can see is the dirty terminal face, which is a sludgy grey colour from all the gravel it has picked up as it moved down the mountain. This is the part that you climb on the half day trip and it’s dirty and melting at a very fast pace. The glacier does become white as it leads up the mountain valley, but the main part of the glacier can not be seen from the ground as it sits behind the mountain tops. Once into the whiter part of the glacier the ice stopped melting quite so quickly and became firmer. The glacier apparently moves a couple of metres a day and because of this and the rate at which is melts the features on the glacier are changing constantly. For example, we climbed through a tunnel in the ice that had only become big enough for someone to get through the day before (it was a very tight squeeze – I ended up getting stuck and had to come out upside down). As the ice melts it forms deep cracks where the ice is a brilliant blue colour and we walked through a few of these, which was an experience. Just before we started our decent the guides brought us to a sink hole and somehow managed to persuade four of the lads to jump into it. The look on their faces when they hit the water was priceless. With the prospect of a 2-3 hour trek back down the glacier you would not get me jumping into freezing cold water in just my pants! The glacier walk was exhausting but it was an amazing experience. On our flight from Christchurch to Melbourne we flew over the Alps and I was able to see the top part of the glacier from the air which looked amazing.

Our next stop was Queenstown and by this point we were exhausted and tired of moving every couple of nights so found a really nice hostel and stayed there for a week. The hostel was called ‘the last resort’ but was one of the nicest we have stayed in. It was run by Chris, originally from Newcastle, who had a dog called coco who was similar to a husky but I can’t remember the breed. The hostel felt like staying in a house as there were only 4 dorm rooms of 4-6 people, and an open plan kitchen/dinning/internet/TV area. Chris had brought a new DVD/TV system and he had shelves full of DVDs and videos so we literally sat there for most of the week just watching movies and we had a Lost marathon. This was really good timing as I got a cold on our second day and the thought of moving or doing anything active was the last thing on my mind. When we did go out we decided to walk up the hill next to the hostel which we had been told was an easy 40 minute walk. It started off nicely enough but it was such a steep hill and the main part of the walk was along an access road that went through the forest so that you couldn’t see anything until you got to the top. The view was worth it though. Queenstown is on one side of Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables Mountains (the main ski slopes for Queenstown) are on the other side. Again another great view of mountains and water.

Queenstown is a really nice place and it had the best nightlife (not that we sampled it) of any where in New Zealand, including the major cities. Though we didn’t do much I have fond memories of Queenstown and would happily go back and spend longer there.

Our next stop was Milford Sound, which was amazing. We went for the night cruise so we got to sleep on the boat and spent a lot longer on the Sound than the day cruise. The weather was glorious sunshine which is unusual for the Sound as it rains 200something days a year. The Sound is beautiful but after having spent the past 3 weeks admiring mountains and water it didn’t have the same impact that it would have had if we’d come straight from home. We sailed out to the opening of the Sound and stopped in a bay to do some kayaking before we headed out to the Tasman Sea. It was definitely an unforgettable experience watching the sun set over the Tasman while sat in a kayak. On the boat we got the most amazing dinner (and even got apple crumble and custard for pudding which I have been craving for ages) and sat down with some Americans to play scrabble. It was a funny game but I lost terribly. I would have won if they had allowed one of the guys to put down ‘rerape’. Now I know it’s not a word but it would have allowed me to play ‘zebra’ on a triple word score and I would have caught up with the winner (which was Rich who always wins everything, the b….d). The next morning it was really foggy and when we sailed back out to the Tasman again it started raining. In some ways this was a blessing as we got to see the Sound in both its moods, and there is something very eerie about the Sound in the rain. You can’t see too far in front of the boat so the channels and the mountain sides slowly approach you out of the gloom. The rain also means that the waterfalls are full of water and so they make great splashes when they hit the water and lots of spray comes off them. The best part of the morning was a school of dolphins that were in the Sound. We got to see them jumping about and playing really close to us and when the boat picked up speed they started to swim by the side of us, I guess trying to play with the boat.

Next we went to Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in the southern hemisphere. You approach Mount Cook village from the eastern flat side of the Alps. The village is beautifully nestled in the base of the mountains and the view from every window is of the mountains. We only spent one night here as there is only one hostel and it’s very expensive. There are several tracks that lead from the village and we decided to do the Hooker trail which led to a lake at the base of Mount Cook. The walk was really nice and followed a river that flowed from the lake. We didn’t stay long at the lake as it was sandfly heaven, but it was beautiful and had little mini icebergs floating on the water. The trail wasn’t hard so we had worn trainers but my converse decided that they didn’t like my little toes and so gave me the biggest blisters. The blister on my right little toe was as big as my toe again and almost doubled its size. Who says exercise is good for you?!

Our last destination in New Zealand was Christchurch. It’s quite a nice city with lots of old colonial buildings and open spaces, but you don’t come to NZ for the cities. From Christchurch we flew to OZ…

Gallery: New Zealand - North Island

jessiebiscuits — Wed, 23 May 2007 10:31:00 GMT

New Zealand - North Island

jessiebiscuits — Wed, 23 May 2007 10:25:00 GMT

New Zealand, where do you start? NZ is the most amazing (apologises for using this word far too often, I need a new one) country. We’ve now travelled pretty much from one end to the other and everywhere you go there’s breathtakingly beautiful scenery and lots of outdoor and adrenaline fuelled activities to do. As you can probably tell from my pictures there are mountains, trees and some from of water everywhere, you can’t escape it. Yet still, it’s all different and everywhere offers you something new; from deep gorges and rapids to vast open lakes, roads that bend at ridiculous angles round huge mountain ranges to straight roads that go for miles over flat plains, lush forest to the barren desert road, and sun in the north to cold and snow in the south.

We landed in Auckland and after a brief trip up to the Bay of Islands in the north headed down the spine of the north island, and then down the western side of the south island. We didn’t stay long in Auckland. It doesn’t really compare as a city to San Fran and NZ is all about the outdoors after all so headed north after only one night. Paihia is the main town in the Bay of Islands, and like most places here “is a lot livelier in the summer”. Coming in the winter has its advantages in that we don’t have to book hostels in advance as nowhere is ever full and the prices are generally cheaper than the busy summer months. The downside is that there is no nightlife and everywhere is fairly empty but the silver lining of this is that we’ve saved money that we would have spent on getting drunk! In Paihia we went for a bike ride part way round the bay, tried to use the pool but it was freezing so opted for the much better option of the hot-tub, and went kayaking round the bay.

Next we headed south to Rotorua, slap bang in the middle of the north island and in the heart of the volcanic region, and boy did the place stink! Rotorua is famous for its natural hot springs and geysers and with this comes sulphur (you could see the stuff coming out of the ground all over the place) which basically just makes the whole town smell like rotten eggs. The first thing we did here was the skyswing and luge, which are on top of a mountain over looking the town. I’m so glad that I didn’t see anybody do the skyswing before we did or I don’t think I could have done it. It involved being strapped into a seat alongside Rich and pulled back and upwards about 150ft, at which point Rich had to pull a cord that released us and my god! We rocketed forward over the side of the mountain at a ridiculous speed (my stomach followed a couple of seconds behind) and then swung back and forth for a while. It was however great fun after I got over the shock and I’m glad I did it. I was a complete wimp on the luge at first and went at snails pace down the beginners track (in my defence it was a steep track). I was holding on so tightly that the handle bars made huge indents in my hands. I did however pull myself together and made it down the intermediate track on my other runs at a decent speed and enjoyed myself.

As Rotorua is supposed to be the best place in NZ to go white water rafting, that’s what we did. I was so scared at first because I don’t like going under water and there was a chance that the raft would flip going over the main waterfall. After our first waterfall I began to relax and it was so much fun. I was a bit of a wimp and couldn’t paddle as fast as the boys but it was all good. The main waterfall that we went down was 7m high (highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world or something) and it was the longest 3-4 seconds of my life. Thankfully the raft didn’t turn over but as we were in the very front of the raft the force pushed us under water, and though it was only for a second or two, it felt like forever.

About an hour south of Rotorua is Taupo, the skydiving capital or something. At least it claims to be the cheapest in the world or something. I’m afraid I did not skydive. I decided I didn’t want to do it on this trip but I would definitely do it if the opportunity arose again and I could spare the money; watching everybody else do it made it a lot less scary. Rich did skydive however and he said it was amazing. We went out on the town on the Saturday night which consisted of 2 bars and not much else. We did however see Vegas Brown. He sings and plays guitar and he was so good. He didn’t play the usual crap that pub performers come out with - anyone who can do rage against the machine acoustic is well worth seeing! Anyone going to NZ should really look him up.

We stayed in Wellington for a couple of days before our ferry ride over to the south island. Being a capital city there’s slightly more going on in Wellington, but we tried to go out on the Monday night and there was only one bar open and there were about 15 people in there, all backpackers. The Te Papa museum was really good and we got the cable car up the hill and walked back through the botanical gardens (all nice and free (cable car was $1) activities). When we were in the Te Papa Rich was trying to read something and someone walked in front of him so he looked up to say something to him and it was his friend Craig from Uni. Totally random! Rich didn’t even know Craig was travelling. We met up with Craig and his friends for our very quiet Monday night out.

Next we headed to the south island….

Flight Q26

jessiebiscuits — Wed, 23 May 2007 10:22:00 GMT

Our flight to New Zealand left LA on Tuesday evening and everything went smoothly. That was until about 10 minutes after takeoff we all felt this huge jolt, which was like when you drive over something in the road. Everyone looked a bit worried and you could feel the nerves in the air but after 30 seconds everyone forgot and carried on with their own business. About 20 minutes later the captain told us that there had been a problem with the engine and so we were going to have to return to LAX, but would have to spend an hour dumping fuel first. What he did not tell us was that the engine had exploded!!! Luckily I had put my window shutter down, if I had seen the fireball I would have totally freaked out! We were told later that a rotor blade had come loose and caused the damage. Least I can vouch now for the fact that planes can actually run with only one engine working. I tried to bury myself in my book to make time go faster otherwise I think it would have been the longest hour in my life. It was such a relief when we finally came into land and made it down safely. We had fire engines following us and everything.

Qantas put us up at a Hilton hotel for the night which was very nice and we were given food vouchers for the day to use in the hotel restaurant which was really nice so at least we got something from it. Though we weren’t given our bags back which was a pain, and I think I must have stank. I will now always take a spare pair of pants in my hand luggage whenever I take a plane, just incase. We were put on an Air New Zealand flight the next night so only ended up losing one day in NZ. This was definitely a life experience that I could have missed.

Coachella

jessiebiscuits — Wed, 23 May 2007 10:19:00 GMT

Coachella is a 3-4 hour drive outside of LA so we hired a car and found 2 Canadian girls (these were nice Canadians) to share with. I don’t think they had quite realised what they had gotten themselves into as this was Rich’s first time driving on the right-hand side and driving an automatic as well. He did very well and didn’t crash or have to do any emergency stops, but Pam and Keddy did look rather scared in the back. American driving is crazy, for example you can turn right on a red light if there’s nothing coming. This goes against every rule that they teach you while learning to drive – Red means Stop! As we were driving all eyes were glued to the thermometer which gradually rose as we headed further into the desert until it topped 99F (about 37C) and this was at 6pm!! We were dreading what the midday temperature would be.

My advice to anyone who wants to start a music festival: DO NOT PUT IT IN THE DESERT!! Why on earth they chose Coachella as a place for a music festival I will never know. It’s a beautiful area – the site was surrounded by red hills that looked amazing against the pure blue sky – but it’s just far too hot. The temperature was about 40C everyday. I can’t imagine why people even live here, never mind putting a festival there and making us camp. From about 9am to 5pm it was impossible to do anything but cower in the shade. There were lots of shaded tents but after the first day they were just filled with flies and they didn’t get the benefit of the breeze so you just sweated really badly, you just couldn’t win. The only area that had lots of trees and so had a nice area of shade that received a breeze was in the VIP area – typical!! Luckily the only person that I wanted to see who was on the main stage when it was still hot was Regina Spektor, and as she was on at 3.30 it wasn’t too bad and she was well worth it. Anyone who can hold the main stage of a festival by themselves with just a piano and a guitar has my respect!

What was worse about the heat was that there were no water taps so you had to buy bottles of water everytime you needed a drink (which was often!). I tell a slight lie in that there was one tap in the arena, but you had to queue for an hour in the blaring sun to get to it so wasn’t worth it. There was definitely none in the campsite. Furthermore, you weren’t allowed to bring in any food or drink (including water) into the arena and you weren’t allowed to come in and out so you had to buy all your food and drink in the arena. It was basically geared towards squeezing as much money out of you as possible. While we were watching Arcade Fire this girl ran passed me retching and she was sick on my leg, totally gross!! Because of the heat and lack of water people were being sick everywhere and fainting all the time, it was awful. At first we had been really annoyed because you could only drink in the bar areas but you really didn’t want to drink in that heat. But at least they had showers, but again you had to queue in the sun and as soon as you came out you started sweating again anyway. But for those few glorious moments under the water it was heaven.

My favourite bands had to be Damien Rice (he only did 6 songs – we were robbed – but they were so amazing) and Arcade Fire who I have a new found love for. We also saw Artic Monkeys, the Kooks, the Klaxons (who were also really good), CSS, Soulwax, Faithless (amazing), the Rapture, David Gueta, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rage Against the Machine (who were really good), the Fratellis, the Cribs, and probably some other people but I cant remember anymore.

Coachella was fun and I would go back again (though not sure if I could camp again) and would be a lot more prepared but we were so glad it was over. Staying in LA that night felt like luxury as it was a nice temperature in the mid teens so slept very well that night and managed to sleep past 7.30 without having to scramble out of my tent for air.

San Francisco

jessiebiscuits — Wed, 23 May 2007 10:13:00 GMT

We arrived in San Francisco on the Friday afternoon and it was such a nice change from New York – it was glorious sunshine, even though it wasn’t especially hot, it was less hectic and had a really nice vibrant atmosphere. As soon as you walked in the hostel you felt relaxed and everyone was really friendly and there was a huge ballroom which they used as the common room/dining room so we spent most nights just chilling in there with people. Any one that goes to San Fran has to stay at the Green Tortoise. There is free breakfast as well as free dinner on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which was really nice and very close to a home cooked meal (which I already am really missing even after only 3 weeks – I dream of a meal that comes with vegetables and a carbohydrate that isn’t deep fried!). We stayed in the annexe which was a block away from the main hostel, which only has 8 rooms with its own kitchen and bathrooms (and no noisy Canadians running around at 3am). The annexe also had a terrace which looked out onto the Bay Bridge and the skyscrapers in the city centre.

Friday night was ‘Pub Crawl’ night so we thought we had better go along. Everyone was really nice but we had the unfortunate company of a group of 19 year old Canadians who had fake IDs. They were so loud and absolutely off their faces before we even started. They kept on going round shouting “Canada, Fuck Yeah!!” and one of them was challenging people to a fight saying that he could beat anyone down as he was Canadian. You can imagine how annoying they were, though it helped to bring the rest of the group together so at least something good came of it. We managed to loose them after the 3^rd bar as they were becoming a liability. One of them, Pat, decided to stay with the main group and spent the rest of the night buying us all drinks (sweet!) to make up for his friends behaviour and to show us that not all Canadians are idiots. Though I shouldn’t really laugh I did get some pleasure from the fact that the ring leader who had been going round trying to start fights had obviously done it to the wrong person and had been bottled! He did really deserve it, and it was only a small cut….

The most random part of Friday night, however, happened to Stuart, who we met on the pub crawl but then left us all to go to a gig. He was staggering home at 3am and managed to make it back to the hostel, but when he was crossing the road to get to it three police officers on motorbikes swarmed in on him and gave him a ticket for… crossing the road before the little green man came on! I didn’t even know that you could be arrested for that!! It was so funny, but the crazy thing is that something so simple could affect whether he would be able to enter the country again. Stuart had to go to court on the Monday to sort it out and the best part was that the police officer had filled in the ticket in incorrectly so it was invalid and he got away with it.

We spent a large portion of Saturday in bed as poor Rich was feeling a tad hungover – as it rained all day this wasn’t such a loss. That night we went to see Electric Six, which was really cool. Everyone loves a bit of Gay Bar, Gay Bar!

On Sunday there was a big festival to celebrate Earth Day in Golden Gate Park. There were lots of bands playing but we only saw Steven Marley, who was really good. The festival is all about being eco-friendly so it was hippy heaven – I felt out of place as I wasn’t wearing tie-dye and didn’t have dreadlocks. We then had to mission it back in time to get the ferry to Alcatraz. Alcatraz is an odd place, it looks really lonely all alone in the bay and so it has a mysterious air about it. Inside the prison is smaller than I thought it would be but the tour is well worth it. It’s a very good incentive not to do anything that would lead you to jail!

On Tuesday we hired bikes and cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge to Salsalito and Tiburon, two very nice idyllic harbour towns on the other side of the bay. A total journey of 21 miles! Boy did I feel like I’d achieved something! The view of the bridge as you ride up to it and then of the bay once on the bridge is breath-taking, and yes I am the fool who forgot to take any pictures (I also managed to delete all of my photos of Coachella, dumbass!!) so you will have to take my word for it.

I fell in love with San Francisco while we were there, it’s just a very chilled out city (think it’s all the hippy influence) and very beautiful. You all have to visit!!

Gallery: San Francisco

jessiebiscuits — Wed, 2 May 2007 08:59:00 GMT

Gallery: New York

jessiebiscuits — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 02:37:00 GMT

The Big Freezing Apple!

jessiebiscuits — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:55:00 GMT

New York New York...where do you start? We arrived late Monday evening and after having navigated the subway system (nearly got on the wrong train and would have ended up some where in the Bronx!) to get to our hostel found that our room resembled a prison cell (having just been to Alcatraz the prison cells look nicer!). All it had in it was a very hard bed and a sink with about a half metre strip of floor space down the side - though it was clean which is the most important thing i suppose.

We woke up very early on Tuesday from the jet lag and found this little diner for breakfast - the food was so nice, cheap and you got so much of it. You can easily see why americans are so fat. A standard size bottle of coke is larger than ours at just over a pint and contains 65g of sugar!! To burn off our hearty breakfast we walked to the Empire State Building - we didn't go up to the top as it was rather expensive - and then on to Times Square. Before we knew it we were in Central Park and then wandered round until we came to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is just amazing. They had a new gallery of Roman Art but it was only open to members - rude!!! Spent all afternoon wandering round the museum, which must have been miles in itself, until they chucked us out. We had been walking constantly since 9am till 5.30pm, so what did we decide to do? Walk the 63 blocks home, which if you look at a map of NY is a long long way! By the time we got home i was about ready to collapse.

We took it a little bit easier on the Wednesday and treated ourselves to getting the subway downtown. We went to Ground Zero first, which is a strange place. It just looks like a typical building site but its the huge gap in the middle of all the skyscrapers that it takes up which makes you appreciate the scale of the World Trade Centre and the destruction it caused. After this we walked down to get the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and the immigration centre on Ellis Island, which was very interesting.

Wednesday night at our hostel is free pizza night!! yay, the cheap skate in me cries! that was until i spent all night throwing it up. I don't think it was the actual pizza that made me ill as rich was fine and i can eat pretty much anything but something wasn't right. Least it was free food that i wasted, would have been more annoyed if had paid for my meal and then was sick. I was fine by the next day, though it took a couple of days for my appetite to get back to normal.

Thursday was are last day in NY but we didnt do much. We walked back up to Times Square and did some more site seeing, but everything in NY is expensive and we couldnt afford to go shopping. That night we went to see Hot Chip who were really good - though turns out i know less of their stuff than i thought i did.

Our flight to San Francisco was on Friday morning, and so to make sure that we got up in time i bought an alarm clock. Dumass here though set the time but forgot to switch on the "alarm on" button so it failed to go off - luckily rich woke up not long after we were meant to. We got the subway to the airport which just took forever! We were only a couple of stops away from the airport but had less then an hour and a half to get our plane when some idiot on the train infront pulled the emergency cord and so we were stuck at a station until they could sort out the problem. As you could imagine i was a little panicked. We got off at that station, which was somewhere in Queens and found a taxi. We got to the check-in desk on time but then had to queue to get through security. It was while we were still in this queue that they made the final boarding call for out flight!! We pushed to the front and then had to run to our gate, which was obviously number 40 and miles away. But we made it, thank god!

San Francisco here we come!