Hello all,
It's my last day in Philadelphia today so I thought I would write a quick update on how things have been going so far in America. It's been pretty much non-stop since I arrived, and I've seen a large number of states in not very much time at all!
Had a small crisis in Melbourne airport with a big delay, but luckily they held my connection to New York long enough for me to make it onto the plane. As my phone doesn't seem to operate abroad I had to use Starbucks wifi (by sitting outside on the floor) to meet up with Rhys, Chris and our old lacrosse coach Alex in a pub which served a ridiculous array of beers.
We spent the next day doing touristy things, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero etc, although there are limited photos of this as Rhys decided not to bother bringing his camera along. We went to watch the Yankees play baseball in their new stadium. The ground is incredible, unfortunately, the evening was ruined by the sport being played in it. Sorry America, baseball is dull, and this comes from a man who watches cricket.
We decided to go in search of "real 'merica" and our search led us to Wilmington, Delaware. Not somewhere you find in the top 50 places to visit, or probably not top 500. But Rhys had decided we needed a break from driving the 3 hour drive to Baltimore, and the hotel was pretty nice.
Then began the main reason for us being in the East coast at this time, watching the end of the college lacrosse season. We watched the quarter finals in Maryland, surrounded by pretty much only the friends and family of the teams, and were very disappointed to find out they don't serve beers at the tournament (more on that theme later).
We then spent a couple of days in Baltimore, staying with my friend Kelly and two horse-sized dogs. We went for a night out with her work friends and showed the Americans how to booze. Amazingly they had never thought to set their drinks on fire before having them.
Went to the Naval Academy for their graduation ceremony, which involved a group of 200 freshers having to climb a greased up monument, which was one of the most surreal moments of my life. Apparently in can take up to three hours to complete, we did not stay til the end.
Had a mini sight-seeing tour of DC whilst we were in the area, staying at a very bizarre hostel run by the Somalian version of Basil Fawlty, who seemed to be possibly the least capable man to run a hostel. Although he did upgrade us for no reason, so we can't complain.
Made it to Philadelphia no problem and found our flat which is being lent to us by someone Chris knows, and the family also took us out for dinner on the first night. Met up with the Reading LDO Colin and got considerably better at beer pong, aided by the use of red cups.
Went to the Philadelphia Eagles stadium to watch the lacrosse for the last 3 days. Although, after the lack of beers we had discovered, decided on the second day just to get very drunk beforehand. This led to Chris and myself leading chants for a team who we hadn't heard of and making it onto the big screen, John watching the game in another section to us; and Rhys not being allowed into the stadium and spending an hour lost in a carpark.
However, we all managed to remember the final match, with Duke beating Syracuse and then had an American BBQ at Colin's house. We are just about to get in the car and head to Ocean City Maryland which should be good fun. All the college people have just graduated and so we have to go uphold the reputation of Brits abroad. Wish me luck!
Those of you who I said I would write postcards to, I have done. But I haven't got round to sending them. So many of you will get Australian postcards sent from America.
Peace out!
Sam
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Monday, 13 May 2013
Australia part 2
Hi everyone!
I have been travelling around Oz for a couple of weeks and I refuse to pay for wifi in hostels so apologies for the lack of blogging, I'm sure you were all eagerly anticipating it.
Been packing in the activities in the time I've been here. Went on a big road trip down to Adelaide, then flew acrosse to Sydney which was wicked. I have taken about a million photos of the Opera House and Bridge so expect them to jam up a Facebook page near you soon.
After hitting up those two cities I left Maddy and Dad and headed off on my own up to Byron Bay. Rocked up to my hostel and found I had zero room mates! Not exactly what I expected, in fact, I had a completely free room up until the time I had to wake up to catch my greyhound bus 3 days later, when I found it had been infested with large men in the night. I had to pack up my stuff with only the aide of an iphone screen light which wasn't easy.
Had my first experience of surfing in Byron, took a 4 hour lesson with one of the many schools there. The instructor said I was a natural. Well, he didn't exactly say those exact words, but I could tell in his eyes that he wanted to. On my second day there I went for a big walk round the coastline and completed my animal checklist. Managed to spot dolphins, a ray, turtles and a shark, which led to slightly nervous swimming for the next few hours.
Headed further up the coast to Fraser Island for a tour which was amazing. Drove a 4x4 through the rainforest and on the beach and drank a large quantity of cheap wine. Managed to complete the double of failing the breathalyser test both mornings which meant I couldn't drive until after lunch.
Headed back to Melbourne and had my second AFL experience, me and Andrew went to see two undefeated teams play each other and got quite merry and vocal in support of Geelong. The day after the game, feeling slightly under the weather we headed off to play some lacrosse. A local team had agreed to let us play, and I like to think we were the difference-makers, ending up winning 19-5. Managed to get my standard minute penalty for unnecessary roughness, so an all round successful day.
Flying to New York on Wednesday morning to meet up with Chris and Rhys and to watch the NCAA lacrosse finals, before heading across the country for 6 weeks. Will try and post more and some pictures when I get the chance. If anyone wants a postcard send me your address!
Sam
I have been travelling around Oz for a couple of weeks and I refuse to pay for wifi in hostels so apologies for the lack of blogging, I'm sure you were all eagerly anticipating it.
Been packing in the activities in the time I've been here. Went on a big road trip down to Adelaide, then flew acrosse to Sydney which was wicked. I have taken about a million photos of the Opera House and Bridge so expect them to jam up a Facebook page near you soon.
After hitting up those two cities I left Maddy and Dad and headed off on my own up to Byron Bay. Rocked up to my hostel and found I had zero room mates! Not exactly what I expected, in fact, I had a completely free room up until the time I had to wake up to catch my greyhound bus 3 days later, when I found it had been infested with large men in the night. I had to pack up my stuff with only the aide of an iphone screen light which wasn't easy.
Had my first experience of surfing in Byron, took a 4 hour lesson with one of the many schools there. The instructor said I was a natural. Well, he didn't exactly say those exact words, but I could tell in his eyes that he wanted to. On my second day there I went for a big walk round the coastline and completed my animal checklist. Managed to spot dolphins, a ray, turtles and a shark, which led to slightly nervous swimming for the next few hours.
Headed further up the coast to Fraser Island for a tour which was amazing. Drove a 4x4 through the rainforest and on the beach and drank a large quantity of cheap wine. Managed to complete the double of failing the breathalyser test both mornings which meant I couldn't drive until after lunch.
Headed back to Melbourne and had my second AFL experience, me and Andrew went to see two undefeated teams play each other and got quite merry and vocal in support of Geelong. The day after the game, feeling slightly under the weather we headed off to play some lacrosse. A local team had agreed to let us play, and I like to think we were the difference-makers, ending up winning 19-5. Managed to get my standard minute penalty for unnecessary roughness, so an all round successful day.
Flying to New York on Wednesday morning to meet up with Chris and Rhys and to watch the NCAA lacrosse finals, before heading across the country for 6 weeks. Will try and post more and some pictures when I get the chance. If anyone wants a postcard send me your address!
Sam
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