Niagara

Had an awesome time in Niagara Falls, mostly due to the really helpful people working at the hostel. I highly recommend the jet boat up Niagara River, splashing through the 2m high standing waves in the narrower parts of the river. The pressure of the last wave of water coming down on me hurt my eyeballs for 5 min. Dave took aboard his water proof digital SLR and took some great photos, this is my favorite (it's not me in the photo):

Hi from Canada

I did the required "I'm in the USA, I'm in Canada. I'm in the USA, I'm in Canada" as I walked across the bridge over the Niagara River between the two counties.

It has finally cooled down from a horribly humid 35 degrees (Celsius), and rained instead. But it didn't matter because I was already soaked from Niagara Falls.

New York exceeded my expectations. Lots of tall buildings, lots of people, lots of yellow taxis, New York diners, and an extensive subway system. Some subway stations had 3 or more levels underground, and rickety trains. My one regret is I wasn't there long enough to do a tour of abandoned sections.

The morning I left New York for Buffalo, my alarm didn't work but luckily Dave woke up half an hour before the train left. In that time we managed to get changed, pack up, catch the subway and arrived just in time. I still can't believe we made it.

Off to Toronto tomorrow, then Montreal.

The picture is from the Empire State Building. The green patch in the background is Central Park, and my hostel was near the top, left corner of it.

LA

In LA! Probably won't actually leave Hollywood for the two days I'm staying here.

Took 2 1/2 hours to get out the friggin LAX airport! At the very first traffic lights saw a McDonalds and a Hummer.

Went out last night to Sunset Blvd, listened to live rock/country (well, it was just rock but the accent made it sound countryish). It was awesome. Made me feel like I really was in the US of A!

Other observations:
Hollywood - touristy but fun
Madame Tussauds - creepy
Star spotting - Justin Timberlake

View out the hostel window as I'm posting this:











The Kodak theatre is where the Academy Awards are hosted.

(Something failed with the photo upload. Will put up a better one when I can)

I'm alive!

Going to resurrect this blog to tell everyone how good being in Canada is :) Leaving on the 26th August - two weeks to go!

Hopefully I will have time to post. As you can see below, I wasn't very successful when I went to Europe two years ago. I'll try though.

If you happen to be looking through the older posts below and get to the one about a new blog .... don't bother. It is dead, very dead.

After Europe

Arrived back home this afternoon and the post holiday let down hasn't hit yet, probably tomorrow.

I'll provide a lot more info as I transfer some of my journal notes here, but here are some stats:

29 days
6 countries
13 cities slept overnight
5600 photos
I'm not yet considering the final monetary cost :)

Further adventures

Very busy, I'm not even up to date on my trip diary, let alone this blog.

Today is the last full day in europe. In Berlin, and flying out tomorrow.
I take off tue afternoon, but don't land in Sydney until thurs morning!

Where I've been since the last post (nights stayed):
Nice, France (2)
Turin, Italy (2)
Freiburg, Germany (1)
Munich, Germany (3)
Brussels, Belgium (2)
Bruges, Belgium (1)
Antwerp, Belgium (1)
Aachen, Germany (1)
Berlin, Germany (3)

See ya

Update

Have been spending too much time eating, drinking, sightseeing to update this blog. Sorry!

Quick update:

In Paris until Tue 3rd. Hectic, trying to fit in all the sights.
Train to Lyon. Was here two nights relaxing. Hostel on hill overlooking the city. Drinking bottles of 4 euro wine on the balcony. Beautiful!
Travel to Carcassonne yesterday. Hostel within the citadel. Taken gigs of photos.
Current plan is heading tomorrow to Nice, then Turin in northern Italy.