I'm Back!

I decided I actually quite missed blogging and I figured that you all missed my witty reparte and amusing anecdotes... really you do!

The aim this time is to chart the training for my half marathon. I'm running the 'run to the beat' marathon in September in London, (http://www.runtothebeat.co.uk/) combining my new found love of running with an old love of music - (plus I find I go faster when I have music to pace myself to). I'm actually cheating a little bit, I started running back in September when I discovered that without cycling to work everyday I was getting fat. I thought about doing a cycle ride each evening but the roads around Cambridge are dark and dingy. So armed with a pair of old trainers and a day glow jacket I set about exporing the streets of Cambridge.

Catherine suggested the "Run to the Beat" half marathon during a skiing trip this Febuary and I decided it was the perfect excuse to extend my distance and raise some money for a good cause.

So watch this space for updates on getting lost in Cambridge, the best way to navigate when you have absolutely no idea where to go (or indeed where you are) and how to recover room keys from the bottom of the river Cam. Plus (hopefully) new stories of improving speediness, glorious summer evenings and evntually kicking some half marathon arse in September.

Home Sweet Home

I'm back on English soil, so this will be my last post under the guise of Far From Home, although I'm considering keeping up the blog but about different things... I normally hate lists but so many people have asked what were my favourite/worst moments, how many miles did I travel etc that I've decided lists are the best way to do it.

The stats: 6 months travel , 28493 miles in airplanes(~ 4 metric tonnes of CO2 = 8 trees to offset), >3000 miles in buses and 5 countries.

Top 5: beautiful places
1. Sunrise over Annapurna range from Poon Hill, Nepal
2. Grand Canyon - Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia
3. Night sky - Western Australian Desert
4. Parsa Village - Dang, Nepal
5. Coral Bay - Western Australia

Top 5: Moments
1. Walking with the girls, Blue Mountains
2. Evening prayer at HVP school
3. Gliding over vineyards in Hunter Valley, Australia
4. Counting stars in Parsa
5. Dancing to New Orleans Jazz in New York.

Bottom 3: Moments - because it wasn't all fun!
1. Loosing my Camera in Boston - kind of self explanatory here!
2. First night in youth hostel in Perth Australia - the air con was noisy, the dorm was full of unfriendly people who snored and it was my first day away from Phil.
3. Arriving in the noisy, smelly, bewildering and sticky city of Bangkok - not sure I'd go again!

I travelled on the train back up to Leeds today, the train manager advertised cheese and onion pastie as the lunch special of the day - home sweet home!

Are you Californian?

I soak up accents like a sponge, I was the only girl at school who could 'do' a Geordie accent due to spending one week with some geordies at a horse camp. So travelling around must be playing havoc with my accent, even though I am unaware of the changes. Today i have been accused of being Californian, Australian, Scottish (by an American who was particularly proud at not calling a Scot English, I let him think he was right!), Texan and most surprisingly someone who was convinced that my accent sounded like I'd lived in South America for a couple of years! Very very confusing.

I arrived in the old town of my namesake town Philadelphia yesterday evening, to be greeted by a rather ominous looking 28 person dorm room - I'm sure even boarding school students don't have 28 bed dorms! in a hostel decorated entirely in a hideous orange and green colour combination... not a good start. However after my initial trepidation, Philly has proved really interesting. As one of the oldest towns in American, the home of the Declaration of Independence, and the Liberty bell I've been stocking up on my American history (history older than 1800!) and getting my fix of really cute rows of houses with beautiful coloured shutters. I also ran up the famous Rocky steps at the museum of art, although I have to admit I've never seen Rocky and so initially had no idea why all these people were running up the steps to the art museum...

Aside from the history though there is a really bustling art scene and i spent most of yesterday afternoon wandering round teh Magic Gardens on South Street. this project was started in the 60's when the town council was threatening to knock the whole area down. A group of artists started to cover a whole block of houses with mosaic tiles. the area survived and today there are three houses covered inside and out with a variety of mosaics made from mirrors, tiles, bicycle wheels, broken plates, wine bottles - you name it and these artists have put it into a mosaic. the whole effect is amazing. Its so colourful, bright and yet strangely disorientating. The area surrounding the houses has become a mecca for local art galleries and street artists. Some of the work for sale in teh streets was amazing (and incredibly cheap) I had to restrain myself from buying a 3ft x 2ft canvas of London for $60 (it was really beautiful I'm now kinda regretting not buying it) with the reasoning how was I going to get it home! (I didn't reject the piece without first taking it to the UPS shop and asking how much it would be to ship to England, needless to say the cost was prohibitive for a $60 piece of art work.

As well as lost of history the sounds of the pier last night rocked to a free concert of jazz music, which I attended with some of the girls from the giant hostel room - I love cities that promote free music concerts, its such a good way of getting different types of music to those who can't afford to see it otherwise, plus concerts add a whole new element to teh music. Tonight I'm going to another concert R&B this time, followed by fireworks. Should be fun :)

I think I've found my ideal job... while at one of the Smithsonian museums yesterday i found the children's science lab. Inside there we're three chemists playing with Lego (to explain organic chemistry) and making bangs and explosions for the kids - what fun.

So I've finally made it to Washington D.C. and the last week of my trip. Back into full tourist mode, after the relaxation of Cape Cod, I've been on tours of the White House, the Capitol building, National Museum of American History (highlight being Kermit the Frog...), the Holocaust museum, danced to Welsh folk music (?!? - Smithsonian folk festival which basically consists of Welsh, Mexican and African American folk, they are showign teh similarities between them all with a final concert with a welsh harpist and male voice choir, performing with Maraichi band and a gospel choir - wish I was here for that). I am currently in the student union of Georgetown University (Alma Mata of Bill Clinton).

D.C. is hot! 97 F for the Imperialists ( ~35 C for the Europeans amongst you). But the city is really great, I've learnt more about American history than I really ever needed to know, and its pretty amazing to see the places where decisions that affect us all take place. For instance did you know that the room that originally housed the Senate (I stood on the square where Lincoln had his desk) has a strange acoustic trait that means its impossibly hard to hear the person sitting next to you, but you can hear people at the other side of the room loud and clear? Or that the original Capitol building was nearly burnt to the ground by the British in 1815? Or that the oldest house in DC was built in 1765 - which makes it more modern than most Oxford colleges. A host of stereotypes were then displayed by two lovely ladies from Mississippi "oh my god! its so old, (then turning to me), I bet you've never stepped foot in a building this old before" - then upon learning that I'm from England where many buildings are this old "my ancestors are from England, from London, do you know any of my relatives" ?!? Surprisingly we failed to find any of her relatives that I knew - I tried explaining that the UK has a population of ~60million but...

Seriously though D.C. is a great city, there is an efficient and clean public transport system (admittedly the metro crashed on Monday killing 9 people, so maybe the systems not that safe), the museums are free (thanks to a legacy set-up by Englishman James Smithsonian who wanted to educate the American people, even though he never went to America) and everyone I've met has been extraordinarily friendly.

I've finally found a way of using the internet so should be able to update my blog more often for the last couple of days. Finding internet access during the second half of my trip has been harder than expected! Australia had internet cafes on every corner, I think due to its status as a backpackers mecca. Nepal had a number of internet cafes, I suspect this is how most Nepalis get online, but the power situation was so bad that finding and internet cafe with power got to be quite difficult at times. At the other end of the scale America has no power troubles, but is also not as popular with backpacker type travellers. Every second cafe has free wifi access, but i have no computer to access it with. Sublime to ridiculous?!? Anyway I finally found out, via a trip to Borders to browse the travel guide section, that FedEx Kinkos offers internet access. This took looking in 12 separate DC travel guides, asking bewildered student attendants at book shops and getting hopelessly lost in possibly the largest book shop I've ever been in. Its the simple things that are hardest right?

Oh well today I'm taking a break from monuments and museums and am exploring Georgetown, looking round some amazing boutiques that would make Paris proud and reading Obamas book in the Park. Tomorrow I sample the wonder that is Amtrak (Americans have pretty much abandoned trains for long distance travel, so I'm quite intrigued to see what the trains are like?) and head north to Philadelphia.

Pilgrims, Rain and a visit from Phil

Phil arrived on Thursday evening for teh weekend. Being the dutiful girlfriend I made my way on the bus up to Boston and sat in the airport for 2 hours waiting for his plane to land - the difficulty of th American public transport system meant a two hour wait. Unfortunatly in this two hour period I have managed to loose my camera and with it all my Nepal photos... The irony is I was getting worried about not having backed up that I was taking the camera to Boston to find a photo shop that would accept my 8GB card as no shops on the Cape had the equipment. After much tears and ringing every lost and found office in Boston I've accepted that the camera and more importantly my photos are gone. Luckily I have a CD of Australia photos up until the last week of Sydney and there were other people in Nepal who I can steal from. So really all thats lost is a fantastic shot of Mount Everest that I was planning to enlarge and frame and my photos of New York...



Aside from loosing my camera on the way between the Cape and Boston I visited the Plimouth Plantation which is a replica 1627 village representing the colony from the MayFlower. As well as the period role play actors in the pilgrims village there are Wampanoag people the native American tribe who origionally settled the New England area. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon learning about the Wmapanoag people - i was shocked to learn that there are only 2 museums in the US that have Native Americans as staff to talk about their own culture, all other museums about the native Americans have non-native American curators! It was also interesting to find out about the share arrangements that let the Mayflower and other Plymouh pilgroms sail out. Its quite incredible to think that in 1627 North America was really sparesly populated (1/2 colonies) and yet by 1700 the population had exploded and its easy to find evidence of proper houses from that time all around New England.

The next days we explored Boston (in the rain), which is a great city, our tour was helped by Phils old boss who showed us round the best parts and then showed us an amazing bar at the top of a sky scrapper with amazing views of the city. We then spent a rainy weekend on the Cape, exploring the old towns and looking in art galleries.

Today I made it to Washington DC - after a flight which was delayed by boston storms for 6 hours... had a great time exploring Capitol hill, the Library of Congress and the Mall. Tomorrow I do more museums and then head to Gerogetown for the day on Thursday.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears...

Mmm one post a week... not good, I'll try to do better!

So the Cape is experiencing one of the coldest Junes in a long while, its raining and not yet touched more than 20 degrees! Which means rather than laying on the beech working on my tan, I've been helping Mikey (my cousin) with Junior English homework, "Describe how Shakespeare uses rhetorical questions in persuasive speech, illustrate your point uses text from Anthony's funeral speech in Julius Ceaser"... Answers on a postcard please :)

So this week has been graduation and prom week for Katrina, my eldest cousin. Leaving high school is such a big deal out here, its kind of overwhelming. Very different from BGS's "see ya and don't fail your A-levels speech"... although to be fair I do remember getting dolled up for the sixth form ball. On Wednesday after endless rounds of hairdressing appointments, manicures, pedicures (me and my Aunt did this one) etc etc Katrina and friends left for the Prom. They looked gorgeous! Some of the dresses alone were worthy of the red carpet. Before arriving at the prom they all made their way to various friends houses and then onto the park by the ocean for hundreds and hundreds of photos. I've never seen so many stretched limos and beautiful dresses congregate in a park! Quite an experience... 

The prom (and prom worry by my aunt) was soon over to be replaced by graduation worries. Basically all the year group, class of '09, get together in the gym for speeches, get given their diplomas and throw hats in the air. I learnt lots of new terms, that somehow years of cheesey American teen dramas have failed to teach me:

Valedictorian: Person who gets highest grades in class.

Class President: I don't think we had anything like this at school, I suppose the closest would be head boy/ girl. I think they arrange the class events etc including prom.

Salutatorian: Second highest ranking student.

Basically all these students got up and delivered addresses at the graduation ceremony. The children then all went off with hidden bottles of alcohol to various graduation parties around the cape: great fun - more worry for parents!

Oh well, I'm home in 2 weeks. Next stop Boston, then Washington before heading to Philadelphia (for Ken). 

Travels on a Greyhound

New York is quite un-American in some respects... I think this is why I enjoyed the city so much. For instance most people don't own a car (rather like London) and get around on a rather excellent (if a little confusing) public transport system that runs throughout the night (why can't the tube run throughout the night?!?) or make their way on foot (revolutionary as most US cities are strangely devoid of pavements). I was most worried upon leaving the party on Friday and noticing that it was 4am... taxis to the other end of Manhattan are not cheap and I assumed that public transport would be out of the question - surprisingly though I wandered to the subway stop and up pulled a train that made its way helpfully to the stop just outside my hostel - amazing. It was interesting that even at 4am the subway was quite packed, and not only with hobos and drunkards, perhaps NYC really is the city that never sleeps...

The next day I awoke at 7am (why my body can't let me sleep in is a complete mystery!). I spent the day wandering round lower Manhattan and the villages - stopping off again at teh Brooklyn bridge (for sunny photographs!) Around Brooklyn bridge I heard a strange thing - the sounds of Metallica, closely followed by a Pink Floyd tune. Being a fan of music and a definite lover of street performance (free!) I decided to investigate. Stepping under the bridge (something my sense would normally tell me was probably a dodgy area!) I was confronted by the sight of hundreds and hundreds of youths all with skate boards... Again my sense of self preservation would normally kick in and thinking the worst of people carrying skateboards I would probably have left. Then I noticed a couple of police officers drinking cans of Red Bull and rather comically trying to skate board - something about officials on skate boards is hilariously funny. So I investigated further, it turns out I'd stumbled quite haphazardly on some kind of skate competition. On closer inspection there were cameras from MTV as well as loads of young boys idolising their skating hero's. The whole set-up was quite cool, the bridge had been made into an impromptu skate park, there was music (I heard everything from Bob Dylan through to the Dave Brubeck Quartet right back round again to some scary rap types) and the obligatory Red Bull girls in skimpy shorts. Quite an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a bit.

The next day I spent a very enjoyable morning reading in Central Park and watching the world go by. On a completely side note since being away I have read over 40 books - which is an average of one every 3 days... I've just started the first offering from Barack Obama about the life of his father and race issues in America (written before he became a politician). The afternoon was spent at an open gallery in a converted warehouse in Brooklyn, before heading out for pizza and beer.

The next day I travelled to Cape Cod. It was really quite interesting to watch New England pass by. Including some rather beautiful little towns just off the highway...

This week is Prom week for my eldest cousin - which is great fun. We've had dress alterations, nails to be manicured, hair dyed... watch this space. Interestingly prom night is one fo the most dangerous nights on America roads as lots of illegally drunk 18 year olds try to find their way home from after prom parties! Wish us luck :)