Days 1 and 2 in Pennsylvania

Day 1

I woke up at about 8am, half an hour before I'd gone to bed. I think I was still drunk but managed to pack and say goodbye to Suzy. Luckily Mike was headed in my direction so he made sure I got on the right subway. Once he left me I managed to get off at the wrong stop anyway but only had to walk about five minutes in the heavy rain. It was the first time I'd worn my rain jacket.

"Sit still Amadeus!"
Nine hours on an Amtrak train turned out to be quite lovely except for the kid called Amadeus who kept screaming behind me. I had two seats to myself and there was a few bits of nice scenery. The food was okay, I had a couple of vegan burgers. The deterioration of the restroom over the nine hours was very interesting, it was pristine to begin with and by the end it was like someone had a tp party in there.

I arrived in Pittsburgh at about 8pm, Travis and his friend Tara were there to collect me and we drove to Butler which is about an hour north of Pittsburgh. Travis took me to Eat 'n' Park which is apparently a local hang out for the cool kids... we were the only cool kids there. We met up with Travis' friends Corinne, Bryan and Lucas there, I had onion rings.

Day 2

We had breakfast with Corinne's dad at a diner in Butler, I had a nice veggie omelette. I'm not quite sure where we were most of the rest of Saturday but I think it was mostly Pittsburgh.We went to meet another friend of Travis' called Chris and checked out a few stores in Carson City. We bumped into some more of Travis' friends including Dylan who worked at Goodwill. Chris invited us back to his for some food and he made (microwaved) me some veggie burgers, we watched the end of Rocky II while we ate. We left Chris at his place and headed over to Mike's to watch the end of Back To The Future. Mike joined us as we headed over to Dylan's place, we chatted in his room for a bit and then took him and his friend over to Merritt's place (six in a car, lovely). There was a bit of a party going on at Merritt's but we didn't let in the random trashy looking blondes who tried to get in. I chatted with Merritt's friend about England and I realised my English geography knowledge is quite awful.

Some of us headed to a club called Brillo Box and watched a performance called Night Of 1000 Horrors. It was basically some transvestites acting out classic horror movies to music. We left when the black guy dressed as a nun came on. It was definitely interesting, possibly entertaining but mostly unbearable. We spent the night at Corinne's because she has beds rather than sofas.

Last full day in NYC (September 30th)

I made another good plan and followed it quite well. I got the subway down to Brooklyn Bridge and walked across it. The weather wasn't too bad, it was a bit cold and windy but not too wet. After the bridge it got a bit confusing but I figured out where east was and headed that way. It took me down a street called Myrtle which for about ten blocks was only black people and then I turned north into Israel. There was only amazingly dressed Jewish people for the next ten blocks. Then I hit Williamsburg and it turned into funky town, lots of trendily dressed young people. I had some pizza at a place recommended by Mrs. Reed, it was the biggest slice of pizza I've ever seen in my life, bigger than Mrs. Reed. I then walked up to Greenpoint because it's supposed to be cool and Keanu had been spotted there the day before. I didn't see him but there were some more interesting shops and stuff.

I got the L train back to Manhattan, which going by the name (and the one in Chicago) I thought would be elevated but it went under the east river I think. I headed back to the apartment Suzy and Mike were home from Rhinebeck. We all ended up going to Suzy's parents just to relax and chat at their lovely apartment.

Around ten o'clock I left, said my goodbyes (I was leaving NYC early the next morning) and headed down to around 54th Street where I was meeting a girl called Andrea who I'd met in the Scottish bar a few nights before. We left the first bar after one drink and got a cab up to the Irish bar further north. Connor and Kevin were both working (I'd met them in the Scottish bar) so we chatted with them and played some pool. Then I was told the three bar staff I'd met at the Scottish bar had been fired. Connor arranged for us to meet up with Aiden and Colette in a different bar so he, Andrea and I got a taxi there. I was a bit drunk by this point so I was no good for serious conversation. I just carried on drinking and saying hello to people I recognised. After an hour or so we returned to the Irish pub and to cut a short story short I discovered Andrea had a boyfriend and I felt a bit upset that she hadn't told me, I made a fool of myself by overreacting and then left them to it and went home to sleep at about 3am.

Day 6

"Too drunk, I can;t type. Love you all."

That's what I wrote last night when I got home. Today I'm suffering again. Chatting to bar staff causes the urge not to leave the bar, especially when a barman from another bar turns up on his break and tells you his bar is just around the corner.

Yesterday was Tuesday and I made a proper plan with written instructions. I pretty much followed it although it took longer than expected because I struggled to find some places. I got the subway down to Astor Pl and headed east for some food at Life Cafe, a nice place with some good veggie options. I had a veggie chili thing with cheese on top. I then headed west and accidentally went too far south into Chinatown which is 100 times more of a Chinatown than our one street in London. I then spent the next hour trying to find the Ghostbusters exterior location off Varick Street. It's mainly that I've written down bad explanations of where places are, I need to improve at that. I then headed south towards the financial district kind of area. WTC was kind of weird... it's basically a massive building site. I'd have thought almost ten years on it would be more than that. They have a big transport hub and some PATH trains, that made me laugh because tourists are so going to think that the big sign saying "PATH" is just directing them to a walking area.... that's what I thought anyway. I headed south and walked through a couple of parks including Battery Park. I then stumbled across the American Indian museum which was the exterior location for Vigo's pad in Ghostbusters 2. Then I jumped on the free Staten Island ferry which is something I'd recommend to any tourist, it's free and it's about an hour for a round trip. It was quite dark when I made the return trip and Manhattan looked rather beautiful. Even the giant industrial cranes over the other side of the harbour looked picturesque in the sunset.

That was my day of tourism stuff. After that I headed up to Bleecker St and grabbed a pizza. Too expensive but very filling. I walked up and down a couple of times and found a bar with live music. It was a girl and her guitar so I stepped in and sat down. She had a beautiful voice and it turned out she was half way through a 50 state road trip so I was very impressed if this is what she was like when she was tired. After she finished it was about 10pm so I thought I should head back up to the apartment. I couldn't help myself and went to the Scottish bar, I'm going to call it Bairns because that's in the name of it. Collette was working so it was a new person to get to know. I chatted with her and some strangers, I'm getting better at that. I chatted to a barman dude called Kevin for two minutes and he bought me a drink, very clever because when I left Bairns I thought I'd check out the place that he worked at. It wasn't as fun as Bairns but he told me all about his life and stuff. Bar staff are cool.

I'm not sure what I'm doing today. I don't feel so great.... I will eat some carrots.

Day 4

I went out walking under an atomic sky...

Yesterday was Sunday and I started by going to the Green Bean Cafe just round the corner from the apartment. I think it's called that anyway. I had some sort of veggie thing with rice and tofu which was quite lovely. I got the subway down to 42nd because I've already walked to there and ticked some more shops off of my list of places that sell Page Plus phones. A lot of them aren't even there any more, it's getting quite annoying. The one I went into didn't have anything cheap enough. I think I need a refurbished phone to make it value for money.

I did my usual random walking around, there was a street market sort of thing going on and I accidentally went to Union Square. There were some bendy dancing men and a guy shouting about Jesus. I spent about an hour trying to find a club called Le Poisson Rouge. It gets difficult when they have a few streets and avenues together that don't have numbers in their names. I went into the venue when it opened so it was empty and I could get my bearings, chat to the staff, etc. I started on the orange juice and progressed to a house beer with fish in the name. I spoke to a Swedish guy about life, the universe and beer. I also got chatting to a cool New York "girl" (she was 38). Xiu Xiu were rather amazing, the second band were kind of interesting but they got a bit samey after a few songs and Merzbow was on fine form.

I think that's the Chrysler Building in the far background.

I got the subway back up to 86th Street and decided that if I saw the Scottish bar that I'd go in...... and I did. There were only four people in there so it was nice and quiet. I had a good chat with everyone and made a couple of contacts. Gavin the barman was playing a U2 mix on his ipod so I was singing along to that which was rather lovely. Once everyone had left Gavin explained baseball and American football to me. I understand them a lot better now. I also figured out tipping, you tip $1 per drink and then after about five or six drinks they give you one on the house, that happened twice last night anyway and it doesn't really make much sense. I ended the night with a couple of whiskeys.

Today I've done nothing except for planning and sleeping. Pretty much a wasted day but I needed to recharge. Suzy and Mike have gone to Rhinebeck so I'm home alone in NYC, that would be a good film. I'm now watching Camp Rock 2 and Bill O'Reilly is on Jon Stewart tonight so that should be fun.

Day 2 continued plus day 3

Please be warned, an advert may come up five minutes into the video and it will be a lot louder than me talking although I've just watched it as an embedded video and there's no advert so we may be okay.


25/10/10 video blog
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Day 1 and some of Day 2

I went on a big plane in the sky. It went woooosh! We landed in Newark and I made it all the way to upper east side Manhattan on my own!

Suzy bought me carrots because I'm a vegetarian and Mike is letting me use his 100" monitor iMac. They have been most accommodating. Heather and Fred were at Suzy's apartment when I arrived and we all sat on the roof for a bit (it's a flat roof). The air conditioning has broken so it's rather warm in the apartment and I slept almost naked, Suzy said it's risky because Cosmo the cat might attack my nadgers (those were not Suzy's exact words).

Day 2 - VVVVVLOG!

I was going to do a video blog but I just watched it back and I seem wasted or something. It's quite hot and I've been walking for at least three hours. I haven't actually eaten properly today either. I had some carrots and hummus this morning. I didn't sleep very well although I do have a comfy sofa bed. It's just so hot and I've got to get used to sleeping somewhere other than my bed. I woke up feeling a bit ill actually, so I didn't leave the apartment until after midday although I did some planning online for the rest of my stay in NYC.

So I walked all the way across Manhattan today, east to west and back again. I went through Central Park which is quite lovely, there's a big lake thing and I think I spotted a location used in Devil's Advocate. There are lots of random homeless people in Central Park, lots of black homeless dudes with white beards, there are also lots of random sleeping people who don't look homeless because they have nice clothes... nevertheless they are sleeping on park benches. I walked all the way over to Riverside Park and found the location from The Warriors where Cyrus is giving his speech to all the gangs. It's now a kid's playground and no adults without children are allowed. I didn't see the sign so I walked in with my camera and the nice lady told me to leave. I then walked back through the north of Central Park and got lost in the North Woods, I made it out alive thanks to my trusty compass. I then walked through East Harlem trying to find the phone shops that I'd written down, they weren't very good shops so I'm going to try the ones downtown over the weekend. I don't really need a US phone until I start on my travels anyway.

Mike is home. Rowlands signing off.

*One quick amendment. When Mike got home we went straight out and bought a big fan. Cool.... literally.

I've booked it!

I'll be arriving in New York City on the evening of September 23rd and will be flying back from NYC to London on December 21st. I'll be flying with Virgin Atlantic and have opted for an Asian vegetarian meal and an aisle seat. At the moment those are the only definite things.

I'm sure I'll find something fun to do in the USA for three months....

Much love!