Memphis

Arrived in Memphis in the early afternoon. It's the warmest place so far - a quick glance at one to the signs showed that it was 100F and getting hotter! A major downer was the fact that there is no longer a hostel in Memphis, only hotels and motels. So it was to be another short stop here. Most of the first day was spent checking out Beale St, which is full of bars and restaurants, most of which have live music playing. Tried a local Gumbo at a bar which had won a prize of it previously. However, looking along the street later it appears that most of the bars have won a prize for their Gumbo at some point!

The next morning was spent wandering along the riverfront on Mud Island. One of the most impressive things their is a scale sculpture of the lower Mississippi - which is 1/4 mile long itself. Then it was off to Graceland, using the free Sun Studio shuttle. I'm not a great Elvis fan but you can't really come to Memphis and not go there. To be honest it is well worth the visit as it isn't too reverential or tacky - I think that has been left for the Heartbreak Hotel which is just outside. Catching the shuttle back to Sun Studio I was expecting to have to hang around there for a while - you're meant to stay at least an hour there and they do try a bit of a hard sell on the studio tour. However, 10 minutes later I was back on the shuttle into town - they don't seem to check how long you have been there which kind of defeats the object!

Next stop is New Orleans - as someone in the Visitor Centre pointed out I am doing a kind of musical tour of the US.

St Louis

Well, finally arrived in St. Louis at about 06:00am after an 18 hour bus journey. Wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't stop every couple of hours for toilet / cigarette breaks - the stops themselves weren't the problem, the driver switching on all the lights each time was! As everywhere was still closed I spent a couple of hours sitting in the park underneath the Arch. After breakfast, headed up to the hostel which was a little further than expected. Met up with a few guys in the hostel and did the Budweiser brewey tour (free beer - admittedly only Bud but when it's free you can't complain - the tour is free as well). In the afternoon a smaller group of us (trying to remember names: I think it was Matt and Tom from the UK, who are in a band 'Special Guests' and Craig from Australia) headed down to the City Museum. For those of you that went to Jackie's birthday do down in Plymouth - its a bit like to park we went to on the Monday but with recycled and scrap material - old cars, fire trucks, planes, dinosaur sculptures etc. etc. to crawl around in! Needs to be seen to be believed (will sort out some photos soon when I find a PC that will take USB or a memory card). After a bite to eat we headed back to the hostel to wait for a phone call to act as extras in a film. Unfortunately the call never came (although they did phone back a couple of days later when I was leaving).

The Tuesday was a bit quieter as the rest of the guys had already headed off to Memphis (which is my next destination) so spent some time wandering around the more traditional touristy bits. So had lunch in Laclede's Landing on the waterfront, spent some more time in the park and went up to the top of the Gateway Arch, which gave some good photos over the city. I then headed to the ball park to see if there was a game on. There wasn't so that will have to be one for another day.

Next destination needs an early start - heading off to Memphis.

Philadephia

Philadelphia is just a short bus ride (2 hours) from New York. For the history buffs amongst you, you'll already know that it was the original capital of the US (before Washington DC) and hence it has quite a bit of history. Visiting it would mean that I had covered all of the American 'capitals' having previously been to DC and Williamsburg (the old colonial capital). I had another more personal reason to visit as well, having talked to a girl from Philly whilst I was travelling around Australia a few years ago.

Unfortunately the city itself was a bit of a letdown, probably not helped by the guy trying to scam me as soon as I got off the Greyhound and the hostel being closed until 4:30pm and it being 1:00pm. This meant a trek back to the Visitor Centre to sit down for a bit (still carrying around my main pack and my day sack). Still it gave me a chance to have a wander around the Visitor Centre, pick up some maps and watch a couple of videos on the historical background of the area. I also grabbed a bite to eat - a Philly Cheesesteak, very very messy! Once I got to the hostel and dropped off my kit I have a wander around the riverfront, looking across at New Jersey. After a quick listen to the jazz concert that was going on, I had a look around 2nd Street. It's meant to be one of the centres for eating and drinking in Philly but was a bit of a let down. Still I expect anything after the New York nightlife is going to be a bit of a disappointment!

Saturday was spent taking a walk down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which is the main road through Philly. Most of it was closed off as they were setting up for a concert (there seems to be a lot of open air and free concerts over here). At the end of the Parkway is the Art Museum. If you've seen 'Rocky' then you already know about the steps leading up to the museum, so I did what everyone else does and ran up them. At the top there is a plaque commemorating the film. Apparently there used to be a statue as well but the mayor had that taken down after a couple of years because it was too tacky! I also had a look around the Water Works which are behind the museum after a tip off from a waitress earlier in the day. Unfortunately whilst it was OK, it wasn't what I was expecting (I was expecting to see loads of polished copper pipes and the like). I had wanted to have a look around the Eastern State Penitentary, which is shaped like the hub and spokes of a wheel. However, by the time I got there it was about to close so I decided to give it a miss.

That pretty much sums up my time in Philadelphia. I guess there was more that I could have done but I didn't really meet up with anyone in the hostel (which was a bit small and didn't have much of a communal area) so I kind of got bored quite quickly. So it's off to St. Louis next - nice 18 hour bus journey to look forward to!

New York

Well I finally made it to New York after countless visits to Washington DC, Virginia and Florida. I'm staying in the HI on Amsterdam Ave. It's a couple of blocks away from Central Park, about 2/3rds of the way up Manhattan from the Statue of Liberty. It's a massive hostel but they have some tours (mostly walking tours and free!) set up, so that will help with meeting up with some others.

Spent most of the first evening taking a walk along Riverside Park, all the way down to the Columbus Circle at the southern end of Central Park. Then took a walk through Central Park back to the hostel. The guidebooks seem to suggest staying away from the Park at night, but during the evening it is packed with runners, walkers, cyclists and people walking their dogs so its not so bad.

The next day was spent wandering around Central Park again before catching the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry (which is free!) to take a look at the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately by the time the ferry left the dock, the fog had comein and so there wasn't a get deal to see, so I took the ferry straight back to Manhattan. From there I took a wander around Chinatown. Visually the place is pretty full-on, with lots of foods for sale, in little restaurants / cafes and normal food stores. What I wasn't expected so much was the smell that came from this mix of different aromas. At times it smelt wonderful, but then this was balanced with the times which smelt like an open sewer - not pleasant! I decided to give my nose a rest and headed to the UN building. To my surprise it didn't really stand out that much and seemed lost in the midst of a number of other buildings and from the look of it nothing much was happening there. After that I decided to head back to the hostel to join the first of the walking tours - the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building tour wasn't just limited to the ESB but we were led around a number of the other sights as well, including the Columbus Circle (so a second visit in one day for me and a third in the space of 24 hours!), Union Station, FAO Schwartz (the toyshop with the big keyboard - if you've seen the film 'Big' then you've already seen the inside of this store), 5th Avenue and the Chrysler Building. By the time we got to the ESB it was already dark and we were all quite tired but we had to see the NY skyline by night so we all made the trip up to the top (luckily via a series of elevators rather than steps!). The overview of the city was stunning - once you made your way past the mass of people. After that a few of us (couple of English s and an Aussie ) headed off for something to eat. The original plan was to head off to Little India but by the time we got to street level we were all too knackered to head off there so we hit the nearest fast food place - the first of many on this trip I suspect.

The next day (Weds) was spent revisiting most of the places I had already seen the day before, but in daylight this time (including some shopping on 5th Ave - very minimal as I knew I would have to carry it along with the rest of my stuff for the next year). I also managed to fit in a number of more cultural places - the Public Library and the Natural History Museum. I was a bit disappointed by the museum as it doesn't match the standards set by the museums in London and the Smithsonian in Washington DC. The evening was spent on another walking tour - going back to the Statue of Liberty. This time the weather was much better and as it was evening we got to see both a daylight and nighttime view of both the statue and the Manhattan skyline from sea level. Whilst on Staten Island we also managed to get a quick look at a minor league game of baseball (featuring the Staten Island Rangers). I don't think they're very good - the only 3 batters (is that the correct term?) we saw from the home team didn't even make it to first base. Still we had managed to blag our way in for nothing so we hadn't lost anything! Before heading back to the hostel we took a walk around Times Square - lots of neon and lots of people looking upwards. Rather than call it quits there, a few of us decided to head back out for a few beers. Originally we were going to go to a bar near the hostel but after a recommendation from someone else, we headed back to the Times Square area. Funny old thing - we ended up in an Irish bar! A good night was had by all - I think (hic!).

After the night in the bar, Thursday started very slowly! Still I managed to make my way out to Brooklyn in order to walk back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a kind of wierd feeling crossing a bridge on a walkway with the traffic passing below you. After that I decided that I should just chill out for a bit and so headed for Greenwich Village to just sit and people watch in Washington Square. The square had a triumphal arch, a bit like the Arc d'Triomphe in Paris. Having been to Paris whilst I was at school, I could now say that I had seen 2 links between the 2 cities (the Statue of Liberty being the other).

Whilst I didn't have time to do everything that New York had to offer, I decided to head off on the Friday to my next stop - Philadelphia.

And so it begins ...

Well, I've finally started my year off and so I thought I really ought to get my blog started as well (although this is really a new start for the blog for those of you who have been paying attention!).

For those of you who haven't already heard, I made the decision to take a year off whilst travelling in Peru for a month last year (for you guys on the Budget Expeditions tour - it's all your fault!). Several people tried to talk me out of it but it's something I've been meaning to do for a long time and finally decided I ought to get on and do it. After lots of going back and forth, I finally decided on the following route:

USA (including Hawaii) - 2 months
Fiji - 3 weeks
New Zealand - 2 1/2 months
Australia - 3 months
China - 1 month
South East Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore) - 2 months

This will bring me back to the UK at the end of July 2006. It still leaves lots of places to visit (in particular Africa and a return visit to South America) but those will have to wait for another time. It's a bit of a simple start with only English-speaking countries but at least it gives me a chance to get used to travelling again without having to worry about whether I can get a room!

Spent the final few months sorting out what I was going to take (and what I would have to leave behind!). Also got fully jabbed up - not sure there are any more shots that I could take!

Also did the rounds of leaving meals and parties. Still not convinced that having a party on the Saturday night before travelling on the Monday was a particularly good idea (the hangover on the Sunday didn't help with the clearing up!). At least it gave me a chance to say goodbye to everyone though.

Made some last minute decisions about what to take, in particular my mobile phone. I originally was going to leave it at home to save on carrying it and the charger everywhere. However, as I was driving myself to the Heathrow, I decided to take it with me in case my car broke down. Including it turned out to be very fortunate (but you will have to read about that later).

As it was the journey to Heathrow was very uneventful (and so it should be at 6 o'clock in the morning!). Flight over the Atlantic was fine as well, apart from the fact that you had to sort yourself out with food beforehand (British Airways caterers were on strike).

Landed in New York, where I am planning to spend the first four days but that is going to be the subject of the next post.

I also have a photo site which will be updated whenever I can download the photos to it. It is at:
petesphotos.myphotoalbum.com