A very long ride.

So, after a final, very Chicago meal of Deep Dish Pizza (tastes good, but nutritionally I imagine is something like standard pizza²), I stayed a final night in the (rather excellent, all told) Chicacgo Hostel, and headed to the train, to be confined in a moving metal box for approximately 43 hours.

Now, I had really enjoyed my time on the train up to now, but it's difficult to compare even 22 hours to almost two days in such an environment. Turns out, however, that I had no more difficulty on this trip than any of the previous legs.

The key, I think, to enjoying a long train trip such as this lies in good preparation and a positive attitude. You wouldn't want to just step onto the train like you were going to work in the morning. I burned through the end of one book and most of another,  as well as almost exhausting a fully charged Ipod battery. The other issue was gonna be eating. After trying the dining car on the trip between Boston and Chicago (I had a very boring, rather expensive burger and chips) I decided that wasn't the way to go. Instead I ate before I got on, and in Albuquerque, where an hour's stopover allowed us the opportunity to get off and have a quick meal. Also in Chicago and Albuquerque, I bought a sandwich and drink to stand in for another meal.Breakfast came from the cafe car, which is far cheaper than the dining car, and snacks were courtesy of a box of granola bars in my carry-on luggage. As that rather long description might suggest, it's certainly possible to travel such a long distance without relying on an expensive dining car, but it takes a fair amount of pre-planning.

One unpleasant and one pleasant surprise presented itself upon boarding the train. Unlike in my previous two trips (but like on the way from LA to San Francisco), there weren't power points next to the seat on my car (other cars did, but I guess I was in an older model). While it did mean that I couldn't spend my entire trip playing Simcity 2000, it lead me to the observation car, a very pleasant surprise. Decked out with extra large windows which curve up almost to the roof, the observation car has benches, comfortable swivelly seats and, downstairs, the cafe car (Along with the coach cars where my seat was, the observation car was a double-decker). This proved the best place to just sit and admire the scenery as it passed - something which took up almost as much of my 43 hours as anything else.

Of course, I say 43 hours, but that wasn't, in fact, the amount of time the trip took. Despite a couple of delays totalling probably 45 minutes to an hour of delay (one caused by a failed switch engine ahead of us, the other caused by some kind of mechnical failure in one of our locomotives), we actually pulled into Union Station, Los Angeles about an hour early. So make that 42 hours.

Over the course of those 42 hours, we travelled through 8 states, and nearly as many type of terrain and scenery. We left Illinois in the middle of a snowstorm, and travelled through snowbound farms and praries until we hit Iowa, which is dead centre of corn country (lots of grain elevators by the sides of the track), but no grain in the middle of winter. It was dark by the time we crossed the Mississippi River, but Kansas City, Missouri (go figure - it's actually on the border, and there's a Kansas City just across the way) was a welcome change in scenery. I slept through the majority of Kansas , and woke up in a new timezone (Mountain Time) and a new state (Colorado). Colorado was perhaps snowiest of all, and certainly rockier and higher than any of the other places we traversed (Raton Pass is 7834 feet above sea level). On the other side of the pass we hit New Mexico, and suddenly it wasn't snowy anymore - instead, we had clear skies, scruffy pasture land and spectacular hills and rock formations. After passing through Las Vegas, NM (somewhat less popular than its sister city in Nevada), an hour-long stop in Albuquerque meant that, as well as getting some lunch, I could spend just a little while poking around the largest city in the state of New Mexico.

After watching a spectacular sunset over the mesas of New Mexico, I had something of an early night, and slept so well that I more or less missed Arizona ( it was dark anyway, and the night was made somewhat longer by another early morning timezone change, from Mountain to Pacific). Once we hit California, it was all home stretch - the couple of hours from San Bernadino to Los Angeles seemed like nothing.

Arriving at about 7:20, I collected my bags and took the special shuttle bus from Union Station to LAX airport. My motel is right down the road, but it was too early to head out there, so I waited in the terminal for a couple of hours, then  took their complementary shuttle back here, where, after a couple of days, I am well and truly grateful for a big bed, my own shower, wireless internet and a change of clothes.

My plane leaves Los Angeles airport just before 2 tomorrow, with stopovers in Taipei and Brisbane before I end up back home. As I've said, once I do get back, I'm gonna write up a bit of a summary post, but that mightn't be for a few days.

Until then, for the last time from the USA,

Jono

Snow and adventure, Chicago

Well, my last couple of days here in Chicago, and I've had a great time in this snowy metropolis.

Snowy being an important adjective there. While it hasn't been insanely cold (a couple of degrees below zero), the last couple of days have really brought the snow. Which, I've gotta say, I'm not terribly opposed to - I guess if you lived here, you'd get sick of it pretty quickly, but I still reckon that a layer of snow makes anything look prettier. Negatives: wet shoes + socks --> cold feet, brown slush in the gutter and on the road, having to relearn how to walk so as to avoid slipping on snow/ice-bound sidewalks (Am yet to make an idiot of myself by falling over, but have had several close calls :P).

Something else I've noticed in the course of my walking-around here. I knew already that Chicago had stood in for Gotham City in the most recent Batman movie, but I've been struck by exactly how much of this city was used verbatim - which is great, because I keep seeing pieces of the city that were in Dark Knight, so now the whole city seems like part Chicago, part Gotham ('Hey, that's the street where Dent was kidnapped!' etc.). Fun.

So anyway, yesterday I got up early and hopped the Green Line (still loving these El Trains), and rode out to Oak Park. Oak Park is a fairly typical middle-suburban neighbourhood, made worth a visit by two famous residents. Ernest Hemingway came from Oak Park, and (more to my interest), it was the long-time home of Architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright's home, and something like 36 houses designed in his characteristic Prarie style are in Oak Park, so I took a pleasant walk around the place, with the aid of a map from the Oak Park Visitor's centre (they really play up the Wright connection (The 'Wright Stuff'? :P) in this this town - precisely for people like myself, I guess). Also in Oak Park is the Unity Temple, one of his most famous buildings, an amazing Unitarian Church with all the hallmarks of Wright's style (incredible Art Glass windows, beautiful wooden detailing, amazing light fixtures etc etc).

Yesterday evening, I had an excellent night out with a group from the Hostel - most nights, a Chicago native leads an outing to an interesting destination in the city. Last night Chuck, a volunteer guide who's been giving tours of this town  for 14 years (an appears to know, quite literally -everything- about the place), took us out to the Green Mill Jazz Club. The oldest suc venue in the city, the Green Mill opened in 1899,  and is rich in history. When the area was a silent film hub in the early 20th century, Charlie Chaplin used to visit. Al Capone owned the place in the 20s, and we sat in his customary booth, which faces away from the stage, but has a clear view of both entrances - they still have a photo of Capone behind the bar. Anyway, the coolest thing about the Green Mill is that it takes its music very seriously. Now, I'm no jazz connoisseur, but I was impressed when, before the band was up, the manager asked everyone to turn off their mobile phones and keep quiet during the performance, out of respect for the musicians.

And the musicians were awesome. Three young guys, dressed the part (suits, slicked back hair + thick black-framed glasses), on Guitar (and later a pedal steel guitar), Double Bass and Drums, played and improvised all manner of jazz, and even a little Blues. My highlight of the evening, though, was in their second set, when a new instrument joins in, seemingly out of nowhere. I look around and behind the bar is a big bald guy with dark glasses playing a real Hammond Organ - which I've never heard live before, but just sounds incredible.

So after a very fun night at the Green Mill, I had a somewhat quieter one today - I woke up to a snowstorm, and many people decided to stay inside for the day. After considering a visit to the Art Institute Museum (apparently everyone else had the same idea - too busy), I took a long ride on the Brown Line train, as recommended by one of the visitor information volunteers - when you can't walk around (and in this weather, walking isn't very pleasant for very long), it's a nice way to see some new parts of the city. A visit to the public library on my way back was nice, as was the Cultural Centre (with a Tiffany Glass dome!). This afternoon I'm spending getting things in order for my departure tomorrow. Planning on fulfilling my Chicago culinary goal (Deep Dish Pizza) at dinner this evening.

So, as I've got a long train trip coming up, I won't be able to blog for a couple of days - probably my last entry from here in the US will come from Los Angeles in a few days time.

'til then!

Jono

Chicago, man.

Hey all,

Another missive from the last couple of days, this time spent getting to know Chicago.

Which, it turns out, is an interesting sorta place - there's a lot going on here, a lot of construction, lots of museums and galleries, lots of fun  to be had - and despite the fact that the metropolitan area of Chicago is enormous and sprawling (they sometimes call it 'Chicagoland', and it spills into three states), the downtown area is surprisingly compact - unlike Manhattan or San Francisco and even, in some ways, Boston, pretty much anywhere in the downtown area is walkable within, say, half an hour.Which is nice, given the concentration of cool stuff here.

So, yesterday morning was mostly spent walking around the place admiring the architecture. Seriously, from that standpoint, the whole of downtown Chicago is like an enormous museum. Again, I'm gonna do the comparison thing - unlike in Manhattan, where tall buildings are more or less a necessity (tiny little island, lots and lots of people), Chicago's skyscrapers seem to be more 'for their own sake', so to speak. What this means is that there's a lot more variety, a lot more adventurous buildings, and a lot of cutting edge stuff. More or less every super-famous architect has worked in this city, and it shows. Of course, adventurousness sometimes leads to utter failure (whose idea was it to paint a 50-odd storey skyscraper red?), but the successes are amazing.

Speaking of failure, sometimes Chicago developer types tend to overextend themselves, as was made plain to me yesterday morning. The Chicago Spire is a 2000 foot (approx 600 metre), twisting, corkscrew of an apartment building which will be the tallest structure in America. If it ever gets built. I guess the developers chose the wrong time to make a building targeted at uber-rich foreigners on the market for 3rd, 4th, 5th or whateverth homes. They started this thing, but as of right now, all construction has stopped. So, sitting on a vacant site near Lake Michigan is a hole in the ground. made of concrete, about 8 storeys deep and 30-odd metres across, it sits there today, surrounded by snow, with no clear future. Like I said, Chicago is a city that likes to take risks with its buildings.... Unfortunately, risks don't always pay off.

At any rate, yesterday was mostly spent walking around downtown, admiring the real-life architectural museum that is Chicago. The weather wasn't altogether pleasant however - the snow set in in earnest in the afternoon, so I retreated to the Chicago contemporary Photography Museum, which is small but rather excellent.

I talk about the snow like it's a bad thing, but actually it's quite fun being in a place where snow is nothing out of the ordinary. And while I'm only slowly developing the skills for coping in a snowy environment (particularly figuring out things like how to avoid getting your feet soaked by slush), on balance it's pretty and fun and quite a novelty.

So, after a snowbound day and an early evening yesterday, I got up this morning to a beautifully clear sky. It was time to cross off the number one thing on my 'Must-do in Chicago' list: Observation Decks. In fact, when I think about it, observation decks are close to the top of my 'must-do' list in every city I visit. Someone asked me recently what I liked so much about them, which set me to thinking. Certainly, part of it is a weird kind of completionism (I've been up 7 of the 25 tallest buildings in the world, and visited another 6). And part of it is because it's just plain pretty up there. But a big thing, I think, is that it gives you a different perspective on the city you're in - it can allow you to see the big picture. So often, you can walk around a city looking at what's around you, but at best, you're looking through the city - you get caught up in the details. But from up high, you can look out over or across the city - get a sense of its structure and scale, and a feel for the place as a whole. It's also a useful way of picking out landmarks and orienting yourself, which is useful when you do as much walking as  do.

Philosophizing aside, however, I have one word for the view from both the Sears Tower and John Hancock Tower - awesome. Sited at more or less opposite ends of downtown Chicago, the two buildings give you very different, but equally impressive view of the city - plus, the 99th floor of the Sears Tower is higher above the ground than I've ever been (while still attached to the ground - flying doesn't count). Got to that tower, for many years the tallest building in the world, just as it opened at 10 O'clock. Luckily, winter is off-season for tourists, so there was no line, and I went up with the first batch of the day. I got out to the John Hancock Building at about a quarter to 4, just in time to watch the sun go down and the lights come on across the city - a truly beautiful sight.

Well, that's about it from my last two days - I've got two more here in Chicago, then I start my long trip back home - only a week until I touch down back in Australia. hopefully I'll get a chance to update a couple more times between now and then.

'til then,

Jono

Taking the train to Chi-town

Good morning from Chicago, y'all.

So, one long train trip down, one to go - and, all in all, this journey was rather pleasant. Taking off from the Boston at a quarter to midday, we were scheduled for a 23 hour trip through Massachusetts, Upstate New York, Ohio and Indiana before arriving in Chicago, Illinois. 

So, I might've mentioned this previously, but I am rather a fan of the train, certainly by comparison with a plane trip. While the train obviously takes much longer, there are several advantages. First of all, there's a lot more room to move around when riding the rails -there's much more leg room, seats are significantly bigger, they recline more and have a little kick-out at the bottom to allow you to stretch out a little more. Sleeping still isn't easy, but most certainly better than it is in the air. Plus, it's much easier to get up and take a walk - my train was something like 10 carriages long, plus there's a lounge car with tables and seats if you just want to admire the scenery. Which is the second advantage - while there's definitely an appeal to looking down out of a plane window at the whole landscape, the view is even better from the ground. Finally, there are power points in a train. Big point, as it meant I could plug in my laptop and spend several hours playing Simcity.

Anyway, enough raving about rail travel. On the trip, we had a short stop in Albany, NY, so I took the chance to hop off and have a little bit of a wander, then continued our trip, arriving in Chicago about 10:15.

Took a  bus out to where I'm staying for the next few days, the HI Hostel Chicago. Apparently it was voted the best large hostel in the world in 2007, and I can see why - apart from the usual (clean, nice staff, free wifi (not in the rooms, unfortunately, but it's free, so I'm not complaining), free breakfast), it's also got its own staffed information desk, a bunch of discounts for local attractions, one bathroom/shower per room (of 8 beds), and an amazing location. I think I know now, the origin of the term 'in the loop' - downtown Chicago is contained within a loop of 'El' trains - elevated above the streets, they put you within a couple of blocks of most of the important places downtown. Anyway, my hostel is inside the Loop, right next door to El tracks (Think Blues Brothers, though mercifully less noisy), and hence within about 10 minutes of anything downtown.

Speaking of downtown Chicago, my time since arriving here has mostly been spent just walking, getting a feel for the town. It seems like a great place - less crowded than New York, but with almost as many tall buildings, and architecturally much more adventurous. Again, as in NYC, I keep running into buildings and places I've read about and heard about but never visited, and it really is great to such such places 'in the flesh', so to speak. 

Arrived into fresh snowfall yesterday, which was absolutely beautiful - and I think I'm becoming accustomed to the cold - I feel like as long as I'm sufficiently rugged up, I could walk around all day in temperatures sitting just below zero, as they were yesterday. The lake (Lake Michigan) is frozen out to a couple of hundred metres, as is a good part of the Chicago River, which cuts through the centre of downtown.

Anyway, that's about it for today - spending my first full day today further exploring the Loop - at some point I'm planning to get up the top of both the Sears and John Hancock towers, but, no that the snow has stopped, I just have to wait for the clouds to lift above about 300 metres, so that I can actually see something from the top :P.

'til next time,

Jono

Spending the day in Cambridge, MA

Just a short blog this evening, I'm afraid - I'm leaving town tomorrow for Chicago, so I've gotta get everything packed back up and ready for the next leg of my great train trip.

Anyway, yesterday I took a trip out to Cambridge, MA,, home of Harvard and MIT. The place, like everything around here, it seems, is terribly pretty (although I have reached the conclusion that everything is more attractive with a coating of snow :P). MIT is the home of 56 Nobel prize winners, and its small museum is very interesting - everything from electric cars to sonar to holograms, robots and kintetic sculptures make an appearance, all of them coming from researchers and students working here.

Further along the Red Subway Line is Harvard, and its adjacent community, Harvard Square, which exhibits a now familiar pattern  of development - lots of bookshops, record stores, cafes and priviledged-looking, wealthy white people. Yawn. That said, the campus itself is beautiful, and the history in America's first college, a place which is over 350 years old, is undeniable. 

Coming back to Boston, I paid a visit to the Boston Fens (close to the famous Fenway Park Baseball Stadium). These form part of a network of parks known as the Emerald Necklace, designed by a man who is now officially a hero of mine (amongst his many achievements were Central Park in New York, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and one of the original layout plans for UC Berkeley). While I usually associate the term 'fen' with an ugly swamp, these fens are surrounded by beautiful, maybe 15 foot tall reeds, and in the snow are a sight to behold.

Today's exploits involved even more walking than usual which, in my case, is rather a lot of walking :P

Started the day out with a stroll around the Institute of Contemporary Art Museum in South Boston (Contemporary Art/Modern Art museums have somehow found my way onto my 'must-see' list, regardless of what city I'm in.), which is architecturally awesome, and, while small, had a couple of excellent exhibits. Walked back across the bridge to Bosston proper, and explored the North End of town. Traditionally the Italian part of town, the North End used to be cut off from the rest of the city by a great big, ugly surface freeway. After an enourmous, hugely expensive project to put the freeway underground (the infamous 'Big Dig'), this part of the city is once again connected and easily accessible to Downtown Boston. An incredibly dense, warrenlike connection of small, 3-5 storey buildings, the North End was also the home of famous revolutionary Paul Revere. More importantly, it's the site of any number of awesome Italian eateries - Boston's Lygon Street, if you like, and after an awesome sandwich in just such a place, I pushed on.

Last on my list for the day was the Bunker Hill Memorial, a 221 foot tall obelisk across the river in Charlestown. Commemorating the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill, the memorial is situated at the site of the battle, on top of..... Breed's Hill. Apparently, they decided to fight from the hill next-door. And no-one mentioned that when they named the battle. sigh. Anyway, Charlestown is another lovely, old-school New-Englandly city of the colonial era. Unfortunately, the stairs to the top of the monument were closed today, 'too icy', apparently :roll:, but the museum across the road was informative, plus it had dioramas - and I'm a sucker for a good diorama.

Anyway, that was more or less my last couple of days - I leave for Chicago in the middle of the day tomorrow, with an ensuing 22-odd hour train trip (which, strange as I am, I'm actually rather looking forward to - a good chance to relax, watch the scenery and catch up on some reading :P). I'll update again in a couple of days, live from America's second city.

'til then.

Jono

From New York to Baawstun

So, my last few days, one in New York, one in transit and one in Boston (I can't get over that accent! - Baaaaawstun) have really run the gamut.

So, got up on New Years Eve and met up with Alice and Bonnie again, for a trip to the Top of The Rock observation deck. so, there are two observation decks in New York City - one at the top of the Empire State Building, and one up top of the GE building at the Rockerfeller Centre. Now, I'd never been up the Rockerfeller Centre one, but we all knew that we didn't want to wait in line for hours to go up the ESB (Literally hours - every time I went past, the line was out the door and halfway down the block). The Rock Observation deck has a timed entry system, so the night before I went and got tickets, and we walked right in at midday, no queues or lines at all.

Unfortunately, between the time we went inside the building and the time we got to the top, the snow which had been dusting the city most of the morning really set in. From the top, we could still see the buildings arround us, but not much else - no Central Park, no rivers, no downtown. That said, it ws hardly disappointing - in the place of clear vistas, we got an eerie, Gothamesque view of the city which made it look like the whole thing had no beginning and no end.

(pictures are returning, however only in a limited capacity - I'm uploading these directly rather than via Flickr)

So, after a spot of lunch, we took a little time to rest before heading down to Times Square to finagle a place for the big New Years Eve celebration. Arriving just after 4PM, we got a place relatively close to the action - relative being the key term here - in fact, we were 6 blocks back from where the famous New Years Ball drops, at the intersection of 48th St and Broadway. The next day, I would speak to someone who had an even better position - she was 3 blocks forward of us, at 45th - who arrived at 10 in the morning. Our 8 hours standing in the cold seems like a pittancee by comparison :P. Anyway, after a long and sometimes difficult wait (it was -10 degrees through much of the evening), the big countdown came, and made it all worth it. A couple of minutes before midnight, they played John Lennon's 'Imagine', then the big screens counted down from one minute, the ball dropped, a tonne of confetti was released (literally one metric tonne of confetti), a million people yelled "Happy New Year" (again, no hyperbole here, there were literally 1 million revellers in and around Times Square), and they played Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" - and I think I really understood what 'ole blue eyes meant by "I wanna wake up in a city that never sleeps". So, after stumbling, stiff and bleary-eyed, back to my hostel, I slept soundly, with a truly once in lifetime experience (never again!) under my belt.

Waking up the next morning was somewhat difficult, but I managed, packing up my stuff, checking out and hauling my bags down to New York's Pennsylvania Station. As I may have mentioned earlier, my whole trip back across the country via Boston and Chicago is happening on Amtrak trains - after a good experience from LA to Berkeley, I figured I'd give the cross-country thing a shot. So, first leg being the shortest, I hopped the 1 O'clock train to Boston. I've gotta say, if this trip was anything to go by, I don't think I'll have any problems with the trains, thankyou very much. Unlike at an airport, I didn't have to take off my shoes, belt, jacket, watch, Ipod, wallet, coins etc before boarding, and we left within 15 minutes of our scheduled departure. The cars were warm, had big seats which reclined generously, and there were power points next to every seat for me to plug in my laptop and tap away. Plus, I could get up and walk around as I pleased, or look out the window at the beautiful New England scenery. 5 hours passed by in a flash, and I arrived in Boston safe and sound. Overall, a very positive experience.

Today, then, I got started on exploring Boston, on the first of my 4 days here. Without knowing too much about the city, I wanted to have a bit of a wander, get a feel for the place and generally try to get a handle on the city. The snow of the last couple of days wasn't falling today, but it was still thick on the ground through much of the city, and it just adds to the beauty of the place. There are a couple of insights that I gained in my walking today. Firstly, Bostonians looooove themselves a good statue, plaque or memorial trail. As a very old (as in early 1600s, about as old as you can get on this continent) and traditionally important city, Boston can lay claim to a great deal of firsts and historical events. They've got a Freedom Trail, which walks visitors through important Revolutionary points of interest (remember the story of the Boston Tea Party?), and a great number of historically important people and buildings to memorialies - a task which they tackle with vigour. Another key realisation about Boston is that it really is "America's College Town", as the literature goes. The storied institutions are, of course, Harvard (first University in America) and MIT (home of 56 Nobel Prize winners), but really, there are universities and colleges scattered all over the place. As such, there are all of the wonderful things you expect in a college town - lots of book shops and record stores, lots of upwardly mobile young people, and a really impressive public library (All of these were very familiar from my time in Berkeley). In the afternoon, I got up to the observation deck (I'm a sucker for these things - there are two more on my 'must see' list, in Chicago) on the Prudential Centre, which gives a great view of this rather lovely city.

A walk along the frozen Charles River topped off a thoroughly enjoyable day, and cemented my impression of Boston as a pretty and very pleasant place - it's not as exciting and hustle-bustley as NYC by any stretch of the imagination, but neither does it have the sheer, overwhelming (even alienating) hugeness of its bigger sister to the South.

And that really is an awesome accent.

'til next time,

Jono.

Around about Downtown Manhattan

Hey all, back again with an update from the last couple of days.

Unfortunately, flickr connection is still borked, so still no photos :(

So, I've spent a good part of the  last couple days hanging out with fellow Australians Alice and Bonnie, and I've greatly enjoyed having awesome people to chat to and see things with (not to mention having someone to take pictures of me in front of New York skylines - very important, that.)

Yesterday, after a bit of stupidity on my part (left my mobile at my hostel, had to return to Brooklyn to get it in order to arrange to meet), we caught up at Battery Park, at the Southern tip of Manhattan Island.  After taking in the excellent view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, we walked up through downtown, past Wall St and the New York Stock Exchange, to the City Hall and Civic Centre. We then braved the crowds to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, a spectacular structure, built in 1875, with an equally special view of both Downtown and Midtown Manhattan. After a stop for lunch on the Brooklyn side, we paid a visit to the incredibly picturesque Central Park, which is especially spectacular at its Southern end, with skyscrapers as a backdrop to the pond and landscaped beauty of the place. After a visit to the Apple Cube (Which I think I mentioned a few days ago) and FAO Schwartz, plus a walk through the bright, flashing landscape of Times Square, the girls were ready to call it a day. Before I headed back to Brooklyn for the night, I took the oppurtunity to do a bit of exploring in Midtown, and some night photography - if Flickr was working, this would be the point where I posted an amazing shot of the East River and Queensboro bridge which I stumbled upon in my walkings. Instead, you'll just have to imagine it, and take my word that the view was -amazing-.

Today, my morning was taken up with more mundane tasks - specifically, laundry - which I hadn't done since I left San Francisco. That out of the way, I headed into Manhattan, taking a long walk in the low-rise neighbourhoods between between Midtown and Downtown. Starting in Chinatown, I visited Little Italy, Noho, Soho, Chelsea, the West Village, Greenwich Village, and probably some other neighbourhoods that I didn't even know were there. Later in the afternoon I met up again wit Alice and Bonnie, who had spent the day at museums which I'd already hit up. We endured the long lines at Magnolia Cupcakes (Made famous, I'm informed, on Sex and the City), but the resulting sweets were well worth the wait - I mean, I don't use the term 'best cupcakes ever', but damn, these were really good cupcakes :P.

After another early night on the part of my travelling companions, I again took a night-time wander in this wonderful city. Taking the Subway South to 34th street, I paid a visit to the base of the Empire State Building (line was too long to consider going up), then moved on to 'the biggest store in the world', Macy's New York. Certainly, this is an enourmous store, and it has a lot of old-school charm. Of particular note were the wooden escalators throughout the uooer floors - I've never seen escalators that old before, and I suppose that through a combination of nostalgia and inertia (if it ain't broke...), they're still there in Macy's, running just as well as you'd expect an escalator to run.

After a wander through Macy's I realised that I hadn't, during this visit, been to see the famous flatiron building. Anyway, I felt like a walk, so I schlepped down Broadway, took in the flatiron by night, then continued down to my subway stop at 14th St.

Well, that's all from me for the time being. Big plans for tomorrow - it looks like it might snow in the morning, we've got a visit to the Rockerfeller Centre Observation Deck lined up, and, of course, New Year's Eve in Times Square.

Might not get back to the blog for a couple days, and New Year's Day has me taking the train to Boston, MA, where I'll be staying for a few days.

'til then!

Jono