Text 39669, 76 rader
Skriven 2006-09-24 12:55:16 av David Drummond (3:640/305)
Ärende: Newsy stuff
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My nephew is currently visiting USA with his wife. I thought some may like to
read his observations/impressions.

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We're now into the second week of our tour of the US. Thus far is it has
been mildly exciting with moments punctuated by other moments.

At this moment I am writing from Buffalo in NY state. We've been here
after visiting a number of other remarkable locations.

Our first stop, after flying across the Pacific and then across the US
itself, was New York. We spent a few days there in a cheap hostel on the
Upper West Side. We got a lift from the airport in a shuttle bus driven
by a man from the Caribbean who had pasted up pictures of Haile Selaisse
on the windows obscuring our views. He was rather amusing, yelling out
"fuck off motherfucker" in a very strong accent to one insolent driver.
At the hostel we discovered that our booking had not been received.
Fortunately they still had a room. Desperate for food and water - the
service on the flight across the US was appalling - we went to a local
deli and discovered the legends about the food in NY were true! A roll
with with cheese, salami and salad was enormous and I could not finish
it.

Our first day in NY was spent in typical tourist mode. We went to Times
Square and got on the double-decker loop buses which ferry tourists
around to all the sights. It was a good deal, $50 for two days, hop on
and hop off at will. Our first stop was the Empire State Building. We
went right to the top. Not the 86th floor with the other tourists, the
but up much higher in a tiny lift where the lift operator, once he
discovered we were Australian, became very enthused about Australian
lamb.

Other stops included Ground Zero. The guide on that leg of the tour was
a source of entertainment and intrique as a veritable bevy of conspiracy
theories erupted from his gob about what really happened on 9/11. The
site itself was strangely underwhelming. A big hole in the ground. We
did a boat ride across to the Statue of Liberty. A few other sites we
visited in our remaining days in NY included the Metropolitan Museum of
Modern Art, the Guggenheim, and Brooklyn Bridge (in driving rain), and
numerous shops and bookshops. We also walked through Central Park on the
Saturday, through the hordes of joggers and cyclists. Not a peaceful
place, but worth visiting again. Very lively.

We went by train from NY to Washington DC. The pace was definitely
different there. More like Canberra but a bit bigger in scale and
importance. The streets were quiet. On the Mall, though, there were
heaps of tourists, including us. We did the usual sites: the Washington
Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Space museum. We also did the
Capitol Hill tour. That was very underwhelming. After a lengthy security
check we went through three echo chambers. In one of them, one member of
our group was pulled aside by the cops for filming too much!

After Washington we went up Lancaster in Pennsylvania to visit the
Amish. My "Witness" inspired dreams of a rural idle with peaceful Amish
in their horses and buggies were exposed as delusions first by the
unattractive city that was lancaster and second by the hordes of
tourists (again including us) on the very crowded so-called farmland
around lancaster. Still we got some knick-knacks and had some good food.

Now we're in Buffalo after seeing Niagra Falls. They were worth the
effort.
Buffalo itself is less attractive. but more on that later. I've run out
of internet time!

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regards

David

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 * Origin: So where the bloody hell are you? (3:640/305)