Please sir, I want s'mores!!

Sorry for the delay guys, I had no signal at our Pennsylvania camp on Wednesday, and yesterday was just far too busy! We have had such an incredible two days. We fell quite easily into our departure ritual of tents packed up and bags out by the trailer by 7am, breakfast until 7:30, group effort to pack the trailer, and off by 8am. 

Our first stop in quaint little Pennsylvania was the Gettysburg Battlefield and the various fields around it. I think the thing that moved me the most was the military cemetery. It was just an endless expanse of small white perfectly placed headstones, hundreds of which are unmarked because they couldn't identify all the soldiers. An interesting fact about Gettysburg - the bodies of the soldiers lay around in the battlefields for four months before the cemetery was built and they were finally buried. As we drove through Pennsylvania, I kept my eyes peeled for bears and Amish peoples, but saw no bears, and only one (very liberal) Amish couple. I say liberal because they left (much to my disappointment) in a car, instead of a horse cart. Boo. 

Our camp site in Pennsylvania was GORGEOUS. Lush, green and right on the edge of a beautiful lake. A far cry from the power line and highway we camped next to in DC. We pitched our tents looking out over the lake, then spent the afternoon drinking beers and tossing around a football, which I'm starting to get the hang of :) and in the evening we got our big surprise from Anita... A genuine American barbecue at her parents' house!! It was so fantastic. They are lovely people and have a beautiful little house nestled at the base of a forest, with panoramic views all around. They have the cutest little puppy. She's an Australian red healer and she kept us entertained for hours. Her name is Spiffy :) We also played a game called ladderball, which involves six sets of golf balls. You have a thin rope about 30cm long, with a golf ball attached to each end (so essentially, for lack of a better way to describe it, you have golf ball nun-chucks) and each team gets three of these. One member of each team stands at opposite ends of the playing area, behind a broad "ladder" with three rungs. You then toss the balls across to the ladder on the other side and try to get them to hang on the ladder. Top rung is three points, middle is two, bottom is one, first team to 21 wins. So much fun! We ate the most amazing burgers - without doubt the best meal I've had since I arrived - and then they made a huge fire that we sat around (I felt like I was home) and then we made s'mores! There are no words except yum yum yum yum yum! Their marshmallows are funny shaped though. Towards the end of the evening, her sister and her sister's boyfriend arrived. They may as well have been aliens for the similarities between them and Anita and her parents who are so humble and cultured and simply lovely.

It was our first encounter with genuine redneck Americans. We weren't actually sure what to do! I'm not kidding. Most of us just stopped talking and sat and listened, silently dying inside from laughter because it was just such an unexpected cliche to encounter. Unfortunately not a good reflection of the American education system and way of life - they thought England was in France, Australia was in America and that the Beatles were American because they had the Beatles on their iPod so they had to be American. At this point the Pommies in our group discreetly walked away from the fire to laugh themselves silly. Despite their "America is the world" attitude, they were nice people. I also FINALLY tasted beef jerky. It is NOTHING like biltong. If I had to describe it, I would say it tastes like hard, dry, smoked pork. Biltong is way better!!!! :)

The next day, off we went to Niagara Falls! Probably the stop we all looked forward to most. It didn't disappoint :) Niagara Falls is actually made up of three separate waterfalls. The first we saw was the Horseshoe Falls - the one in all the movies :) it is mind blowing to see the size of these falls. For your interest: 2500 liters of water falls over the edge EVERY SECOND! There is a constant cloud of spray hanging around in front of the Falls. The Horseshoe Falls is the one that is shared between America and Canada, the other two are on the American side. They are the American Falls and the Bridal Veil. We then went on the Maid of the Mist boat (the one in Bruce Almighty, for those who have seen it) right under the mist coming off the Falls... Got slightly damp :) but what we did next was just awesome. We did the Cave of the Winds tour. Basically, you pay lots of moola to walk up the rocks right under the Bridal Veil and get completely drenched. And it is worth every penny!!! The strength of that water is unbelievable. You can't stand still when it is pounding you. It felt like standing in a mini hurricane. That was the most amazing experience I've had in America so far!

After our soaking, we headed out to watch a high school baseball game and dry off in the breeze. The home team won, after three extra innings for each team! Apparently it's a big deal :) finally, we headed to camp and within minutes, our tents were all set up and we were cooking supper (real tacos!). So yummy. After supper, we headed back to Niagara Falls and saw them all lit up and colourful. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, while most of the group headed into Canada to get the better view (the Horseshoe Falls face the Canadian river bank) some of us had to stay on the American side because our work visas would be invalid if we left the country. But luckily it was the young cool group from the back of the bus (Jake, Simon, Hannah and me) so we had loads of fun by ourselves :) 

Today is our road trip day. We are making the long trek from Niagara Falls to Berkshire, so we are armed with wifi in the van (ten points America!) and a fairly reasonable playlist, and we're off! Still getting used to the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing! It feels so weird! Sam and Jordy are looking for Yankees tickets (baseball) for us for the game on Wednesday. Having an absolute blast guys! Hope you're enjoying my stories :) 

See you tomorrow in Boston! 

Stay classy c",)

Taxation without representation

What an educational and brilliant day!!! We were let loose in the city to see what we could make of it and boy did we get our ten hours' worth of touristing (yes I know, I made it up). 

I went with Jakob, Sam, Jordie (the Aussies), Hannah and Simon (the Pommies) and we missioned around Washington like it was our last day on earth. It was madness. These Aussies - Jordie in particlar - are priceless entertainment I tell you. Jordie has us cracking up every time he speaks. Our first stop was the Capitol building, where we all went on a tour through the building which is huge and so stunning! It looks like it should be part of the Vatican. There are statues everywhere and there is a whole section of the interior of the main dome of the building which is covered in intricate 23 carat gold designs, with a painting right in the centre of the dome of George Washington and the thirteen original states. We also went through the Congress Library which is just as fancy as the Capitol Building. The size alone is enough to boggle the mind. Those two buildings alone took us three hours to appreciate. We learnt that District of Columbia (DC) is in actual fact not a state at all in America. It is simply a small area (for lack of more appropriate wording) appointed to be the pinnacle of all American politics. This has led to a disagreement between the people of DC and the government because they are not represented in government/parliament (seats here are allocated according to population of state) and as such have no voting rights, so they feel they should not be paying taxes. Interestingly, the saying "taxation without representation" is printed at the bottom of every DC license plate. I believe there is also some form of petition to get DC recognised as a state.

After the Capitol building, we took a stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue with the White House as our ultimate destination. We saw the FBI, the National Archives, the Supreme Court, many Federal Buildings, an American strike in the Freedom Plaza (what a beautifully ironic choice of location), went to the top of the Old Post House which has gorgeous views over all of Washington, and finally arrived at the White House. Security here is higher than at Buckingham Palace! The ENTIRE street in front of the White House is permanently barricaded off, there is a security detail scattered along the whole road, two men on the roof of the White House with telescopes and rifles, and apparently all police within a 50 mile radius of the president are always in contact and know what's potting. I was blown away by this concept. 

We left the White House and headed down to the Smithsonians we wanted to see. We started at the Holocaust museum. But it was very full and incredibly depressing, (they literally had videos of mass executions playing on a loop in the one room) and we had been on our feet in very humid weather (dressed for the rain that threatened all morning and then simply dissipated!) lugging around heavy rain jackets since 9am, so we headed across to the Air and Space Museum to something a little more enjoyable. Wow! :) 

We donated two well spent hours to this amazing place. We saw everything from missiles, to moon landing pods, to old war planes, to the Amelia Earhart and Wright brothers' planes. It was incredible. There were dissections of cockpits to show the control panels and such; uniforms, ammunition and medals from wars that were fought using planes; everything from the earliest machines right up to current spy drones, passenger carriers and little Cessna planes. I was a kid in a candy store :) 

We had arranged to meet up with our guide, Anita, at 6pm in front of the Capitol Building. She arrived with a massive box full of food and we had an impromptu American picnic in the pre-sunset in between the Capitol Building and Washington Memorial! Who gets to do that?! :) Best of all we ate all-American, heart-stopping grub. Fried chicken, potato crisps, root beer floats and Popsicles. I could feel my heart slowly grinding to a halt with every cholesterol-filled bite. Luckily we had been walking in winter clothing in hot humid weather for ten hours, so our bodies had at least burned enough calories to survive this calorific onslaught. But I will be drinking and eating water tomorrow just to be safe :-P 

On our way home, we stopped to buy beer (I shan't go there) and I headed to Ikea to buy a towel. It is MASSIVE!!!!!!!!! I got lost twice. Once I found myself, it took ten minutes to walk from the towels to the tills because they really are that far away! Picture the biggest Builder's Warehouse you know, combine it with the biggest Mr Price Home (or any home store) you have ever seen, throw in a bathroom bizarre, a Lighting Warehouse, a furniture store, a garden centre and an electronics store, put them in a warehouse type building large enough to store Noah's Ark, and that is STILL smaller than this store. I wish I'd had my camera with me. Un. Be. Lievable. 

We arrived home just after 8pm (sun stays up late here! It's light until at least 9pm) and the boys started a fire. We sat around it sharing war stories and playing games (it felt and smelled like home...) until the flames died and the long day started to hit all of us square in the ability to stay conscious department. I am now blogging from the cushy comforts of my awesome sleeping bag in which I shall very soon be ridiculously tangled. I don't know what it is, I have this thing with sleeping bags where I go to sleep like a princess, perfectly poised and elegant, and wake up like a five year old that had a tantrum during the night and was unwittingly tied down in the sleeping bag by mom. And the better the sleep, the worse the tangle. It's a long extraction process each morning. But I am so looking forward to my sleep, so I shall now bid you adieu.

Tomorrow we head to Pennsylvania (Amish country!) and will also be seeing the Gettysburg site. Anita has also said she has a surprise for us... We're all on tenterhooks! I'll let you know what it is!

Stay tuned and stay classy c",)

It's kind of a big deal...

Greetings from the capital of America! Sorry for the long silence guys! You didn't miss much on Saturday, just a lot of clouds and a New York movie theatre experience. No bucket of popcorn though :(

So I have started my tour with Trek America. Having such a blast! Even though I'm quite literally surrounded by Aussies and Pommies, they're a really nice bunch of people. We did a lot yesterday. On our way down to DC, we stopped at Philadelphia and saw where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and we ate their signature food called a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. Highly over rated :) it's just a dry roll with mayo and shredded steak supposedly containing Philadelphia cheese but I didn't taste any :)

We continued on our long road trip down to DC (District of Columbia, named for Columbus) where Washington is (obviaas). I learned about the most pointless and confused sport in human history - Australian football. Please do yourselves a favour and look it up. It's a great laugh! Despite the crummy weather and really bad road trip music, we were in high spirits when we arrived in DC. We all had our first Walmart experience (so huge! They had at least ten different flavours of Oreos and I'm sure there was a gun section, we just couldn't find it... Crazy stuff!). We finally arrived at camp, and after a very nifty and quick session of tent pitching, we spent some time tossing around a football. I feel like a traitor for even admitting that, let alone having done it, but there it is. No rugby balls for me :(

We had some supper and then grabbed our raincoats and headed into Washington for our ironically named illumination tour. It was very illuminating. We saw various monuments: Lincoln memorial, Washington memorial, Martin Luther King memorial, several war monuments, and the Capitol building. They were all beautifully lit up. It really is an amazing sight. We also learnt that Americans believe they single handedly won World War II and they actually have monuments claiming as much. So very interesting. They teach all their kids from primary school age that America saved the world (yes I'm paraphrasing, but I mean, really America?!). Can you believe it?! Another very interesting thing we have noticed - American flags EVERYWHERE. Literally. You can easily have two flags in your field of vision at all times no matter where you look. It's become a standing joke with our group, much to the annoyance of our guide. 

Today we are being let loose in Washington to do as we please. Hopefully I will have time to see the White House, tour the Capitol building, the Supreme Court, the Shakespeare Library, a few Smithsonians and as many other things as possible, before we head back to camp at 6pm for a camp fire and a nice relaxed evening. Yay!

Until tomorrow... Stay classy c",)

Alice in Wonderland

I took it fairly easy after my crazy Thursday adventures all over Manhattan. I just wandered down to Central Park with one of the girls in my room and spent hours exploring the massive garden.

On the way down to Central Park, we stopped at Starbucks to grab coffee and then two blocks down at Broadway Bagels we had the most delicious scrumptious bagels filled to bursting with sundried tomato cream cheese. I will definitely be back for more of those!!! 

We spent hours ambling through the incredibly green wonders of the park. It was a fairly warm day, but under the trees it was cool and breezy and there were endless sights to keep our greedy eyes entertained. Some very odd sights too! Groups of children wearing luminous safety vests, walking in a long line clipped by their sleeves to some form of leash, being led from the front and herded from the back by harried looking women; ladies jogging with prams in front of them (hell of an achievement if you ask me!); hundreds of cyclists, joggers, tourists and squirrels all over the place; artists and groups of musicians randomly scattered throughout the park, creating a lovely medley of confused sounds that carried all through the park; statues of various people and stories - the best of which was definitely the Alice in Wonderland statue; and my absolute favourite - a man making MONSTER bubbles that floated for ages before bursting. There were two small children standing there and they were chasing these bubbles with such joy and abandonment I could have watched this all day! 

But my long and crazy adventure the day before (and possibly still some jetlag) started to catch up with me and I headed home (definitely got the hang of this subway thing now!) after that to rest and relax for the rest of the afternoon before catching some very early zzz's to recuperate for today! Still working on a plan to post pics for you guys... I am dying to show you! Please be patient :)

For now, I am off to experience the world of American movies. I am going to watch Ironman 3 and feast on a bucket of popcorn (it's not American if you don't get the bucket!). After that I will go and find an electronics store to see what I can do about pics.

Stay tuned for today's adventures! And as always... Stay classy c",)

Take me out to the ballpark!

What an amazing day! I did so much. Not a second wasted :) I met up with a friend I made on the flight over here and we walked sixty blocks down Broadway avenue (sore feet!). We walked down town to see a place called High Line that is an old railway track that was turned into a garden. Such a cute idea! On the way down we saw the Juilliard School of Music (eeeep!), the Lincoln Centre (for anybody who doesn't know, that is a huge cultural centre spread out of many blocks and buildings that hosts concerts, performances and all sorts of non-Broadway productions as well as competitions), Trump International Hotel and Tower (so huge!!!), a tip of Central Park, the Apple store (where I tried and failed to buy a converter for my camera to put photos on my iPad, so I have no pics to upload yet, sadly) and of course, Times Square and Broadway again :) we had a subway sandwich for lunch (it was so big I had enough left for supper too!) then we split up and my adventurous day truly began.

I hopped on the subway and headed further down town. I'm getting better at this subway thing, I took the right one this time! It is a massive web of underground lines that are not all connected and there are four or five different subways that stop at different points along the track, so if you take the wrong one, you could accidentally bypass your intended stop and end up in the Bronx! Often, you actually have to take one subway to a certain point, hop off, walk a block or two and get onto a different subway to get where you want to be! It's crazy. 

Anyway, I hopped off the line at the World Trade Centre. What a sobering and amazing experience. I walked out of the subway and looked straight up to see the partially constructed Freedom Tower. It is already a monstrosity of a structure, towering (no pun intended) over the rest of the city and as far as I heard, once completed, it is intended that it will forever be the tallest building in the city (I suppose symbolizing that freedom is more important than everything else?). There was quite an interesting moment while I was standing at the WTC memorial, when an elderly black gentleman suddenly burst into song. It was a beautiful moment, really. He had a powerful voice, hat held in his hands, belting out The Star-Spangled banner at the top of his lungs in front of the Freedom Tower. I guess Americans are nothing if not patriotic :) he gathered quite a crowd and earned himself an appreciative cheer and some scattered applause upon his triumphant finish.

But I get ahead of myself. Before I walked around to the memorial site, I actually walked up a block from the subway and found the little church where the firefighters had hung their civvies clothes and changed before going into the towers. What a poignant place. There are 9/11 memorials placed all around the church. A table filled with post-it notes containing messages from everybody who has visited the church; various photo boards with pictures of that day and descriptions next to them; pieces such as a fireman's helmet, jacket and boots, a cross made out of bits of steel from the mangled remains of the towers; and an American flag with the names of every single person who died that day written along both the red and white stripes of the flag. Outside this church is the Bell of Hope. Erected exactly a year after 9/11 happened, it is to commemorate the bond between England and the USA, and is rung every year on 9/11. I left this church and walked down to the site where the memorial fountains were built in the foundations of the fallen towers, but unfortunately even though it's free, you have to book online for the tour so I'll probably do that on Saturday.

I left the WTC and hopped on another subway line. This took me to the southern most tip of Manhattan. Here I got onto the Staten Island Ferry amongst masses of people. I didn't realise how huge these ferries are! We sailed (if a ferry can be described as sailing?) fairly close to the Statue of Liberty. She's smaller than I expected! But still an awesome sight. I got off at Staten Island and meandered aimlessly through the ferry station unsure of where to go. As I wandered out of the doors, I saw St George's Ball Park in front of me. I headed up that way, curious to finally see a baseball diamond up close (I saw so many when we landed!) and it turned out there was a college (university) game on, so I sat and watched the last four innings. Cricket makes so much more sense :) it was an amazing field though, as it is right near the edge of the Island and has a perfect view of the Manhattan skyline! Quite an awesome experience.

As soon as the game ended (Staten Island lost to the visiting team), I returned to Manhattan via the ferry as it was getting chilly and clouds were starting to form, making it fairly dark. I caught the subway back to the hostel, getting in at 7:30 (in total, a ten and a half hour adventure... Very sore feet and slightly sunburnt!). But my day didn't end there! At 9pm I joined the hostel pub crawl and, much to the dismay of my aching body and feet, we walked ("because it's such a lovely evening") another twenty blocks to our first pub instead of the usual subway trip.

American pubs are exactly like South African pubs, except instead of cool things like rugby on tv, they have basketball, baseball and hockey. Amazingly, the basketball commentator sounded exactly like Hugh Bladen to me (South African rugby commentator to you non-rugby watching peeps) over the dull roar of the pub because I couldn't hear his accent, only his voice. I felt quit at home after that :) I stumbled across a few games of beer pong happening at the back of the pub and stood watching for ages while nothing happened because Americans suck at beer pong :-P due to my extremely long day, sore feet and sunburn, I lasted two hours before I decided to brave the two blocks to the subway and go home. Before you panic, mom, the subway is as full at 11:30pm as the Gautrain is at 5pm ;) This really is the city that never sleeps!! 

I wish I could upload some pics for you guys to see but I'm still working on getting around the incompatibility of my iPad with every other piece of non-Apple technology on the planet. I hope to be able to put some up soon though!

Until later... Stay classy c",)