Day 8: Hi from bloomy Boston!

Hi from Boston!

The last few days have been so awesome but some bumpy rides! First
things first England are through:D Thanks for keeping us up 2 date!
Second we picked up our shiny car :D Oooh, it is a real beauty! Haha,
we had a bit of trek 2 get it as we had 2 go back to JFK to pick it
up. I have to say the service was awful, well they seemed really
really pissed off. I think that's a general observation of people in
NY- they get pissed off when you ask them to do their job! Hehe,
anyways the original plan was for Oscar to drive the East coast, but
the car was booked under my name and credit card and the agent
wouldn't let us change it without paying extortionate price. But 1
good thing was that they ran out of "compact" cars, so they upgraded
us 2 levels up to a "fullsize" :D I don't know much about US cars (and
i'm sure you don't care) but it's a chevrolet malibu maxx V6 :D Its
got some grunt baby!

So once we checked it out, out first adventure was driving it back 2
NYC and finding parking :S Now in england I'd be fine, but over here
not only do they drive on the right, but we have no clue about highway
code, no idea of the best route, plus I havn't driven an automatic
before and needed to get used to the car itself, and then there is the
problem of crazy New York drivers. Haha, quite a challenge! The real
funny thing are the breaks. They are so strong that just tapping them
will make you lurch forward. But luckily through some good luck and
magic we somehow made it back:) The V6 sounds super under a bit of
gas.

Okay enough about the car. On our last planned day in NYC we finished
the tourist route including going up to the viewing deck of the
Rockerfeller builidng in the evening, which was really nice. We also
went uptown, did the NBC studio tour and went to some comedy club on
the west side that was actually quite good (though the drinks were
like $10 a pop)! That brings us onto Friday, where the real first leg
of the road trip started, with a drive down to the 6 flags theme park
in Jackson, New Jersey. Again I was behind the wheel and Oscar was
navigating, well reading my highlighted route in the road atlas.
Getiing out of NYC was a hassle NY is basically an island and you have
to pay a toll to use any of the bridges or tunnels. But once we were
on the interstate towards NJ driving was pretty comfortable. The
speed limits are lower and not too many maniacs on the highway. BTW,
does anyone know what the difference between a highway and freeway?
Either way I think we make a pretty good team! Also tbh, once we were
on the highway with the sun shining, windows down and wind in your
hair, some soft american american rock on the stereo, it was just such
an awesome feeling! Just wish you guys could be here to experience it
with us!

The theme park itself was really cool. Can't say I am a big
rollercoaster fan but Oscar loves them so we added it to our road
trip. First ride was Scream. Man all I know was that it was kinda
violent with so many twists and turns. Either way it's put me totally
off rollercoasters! :( Oscar on the other hand lapped it up. Hehe,
actually we kinda split up and got lost until nearly closing time at
8pm. But still Oscar went on all the rides and I just soaked up the
weather and other entertainment. When I was waiting for him to come
out of the last ride, I sat in the latin themed area of the park with
the late sun. They were blasting some salsa music out and it just
accentuated the fact that we never went to a salsa club in New York!
So once Oscar was done we decided to go head back to NY that evening
and find a salsa club for the next evening. Well that was the plan at
least:)

We left the park at like 9pm and it was basically dark and we had to
somehow head back to NY! Now driving in the day is scary enough cos
the road signs are not always obvious, but driving in the pithc black
with crap headlights is a real daunting proposition. For example we
went down some small road with speed limit of 45 mph, then without
warning the road just stopped at T junction where we could only turn
left or right. Arrggh, emergency brake!!! Haha, the signs aren't
reflective so I only just made out the chevrons in time:s lucky
escape I think. We kinda ended up in a small town called Allentown
and asked the locals where the nearest motel was. I have to say they
were soooo friendly! It was such a contrast fomr New Yorkers! Even
when we got to the motels which were all booked up, the receptionisits
were so friendly and helpful at giving us directions to motels nearer
to NYC that we weren't too pissed off that there were no rooms.
Anyways we ended up at some nice motel just outiside NYC and crashed
for the night.

On the saturday we drove into NYC via the stupid toll tunnel again,
parked up on some small side street (free parking space is hard to
find!) and found ourselves a hostel downtown. This one was 16 people
shared and was rather grubby but bareable. We then went for lunch and
ended up splitting up for a bit. Oscar relaxed with a beer and I went
off to midtown to buy souvineers and to search for salsa clubs
downtown. It took me like 2 hours to find anything and walked back to
meet oscar. Haha, only problem was he'd already left and I was
buggered cos for the life of me, I couldn't remembr the address of the
hostel. Fun adventure huh! So I walked for an hour to the lower east
side and still couldn't remember the address and gave up. It was like
7pm and so I put my jack bauer hat on and jumped in my SUV and went to
follow some leads to uncover the truth. Well okay fine, the SUV was a
yellow cab; the leads were just backtracking hostels that we visited
earlier which led to where we ended up staying; and the truth was that
I hav a really bad memory! Haha, half an hour later and I found my way
back, and it turned out I was like 2 blocks away before I put my baeur
hat on. So close! Hehe Oscar had actually gotten so worried that he
bought a phonecard to try and call me even though he couldn't remember
my number. Getting lost and randomly walking is fun though, cos you
get to explore the city!

After a shower we headed to the salsa club I hd found on south
Broadway on houston st. It was called Gonzalez y Gonzalez and was
absolutely awesome! The exterior had some epileptic inducing latino
neon lighting affair. Inside was set up for dinner with a band stage
down the end of the hall, but was very nicely decorated. And the bar
staff were really friendly, typical stereotyped barmen, very chatty
and interested in learning about "soccer" and the world cup. He
grabbed random people and barmen cos he was so excited that we were
from London and he even gave us 2 free shots of tequila as a welcome
to NY:D The salsa didn't start til like 11pm when they cleared all
the tables out, got the live band on stage and gave a free quick
lesson, so we decided to have "one" drink to warm up. Haha, yeah
right! 1 frozen margerita, 2 coronas & 2 tequila shots later we were
really ready for some bum wiggling:D As expected New York style was
on the cards and it just topped off a great stay in New York.

So just as we were leaving we started to see the real depths of what
NY had to offer, and just shows off the beaten tourist track there is
so much more to see. Definetely will come back to NY, but we had to
moveonto the 2nd leg of our road trip to Boston:)

So conclusions of New York City and maybe america in general so far?
Well first it is very much in your face The buildings are so much
bigger and taller, the pizza is so much bigger, the streets are so
much wider, the lights are so much brighter and the people are so much
louder. Everything is just on a grand scale! What is annoying is the
added tax. Fine it is not as much as UK but it is not added to the
advertised price, so rolling up to the counter thinking you have just
enough cash for a life saving bottle of water, you realise you are 8
pennies short! New yorkers themselves are a funny bunch. Some are
friendly and helpful, but others are just plain rude. Like we went
into a nice café and the waitress got really pissed off when we asked
about the size of their wine glass. It's almost like people feel
patronised when we ask them a question about their job. Anyways, the
salsa club was last place we went and it serves as a nice memory of
the city.

On Sunday (yesterday) we had well deserved lay in and checked out at
11. Had a quick glance at the route I'd mapped out before and headed
out of town, again via a tolled tunnel. Man so many small hidden
charges! Once we were on interstate 95 it was a breeze, well a 4
hour- 300 mile breeze, and boy was it knackering driving!

So far the trip has been really scary for being unplanned but really
exciting for the serendipity of finding and exploring new things.
Like the long drive up interstate 95 from NY to Boston, there were so
many random malls on various exits, and we are talking like lakeside
sized malls here! There is just so much space around they can afford
to build them. Also like rolling into a new town with nowhere to
stay&park and doing it all ad hoc! Just so fun & exciting:D

First impressions of Boston are good, really good! We managed to get
a really nice room in an en suite student dorm (schools out for
summer), just as it was getting dark. Tip of the week! Use the
concierge service at really posh hotels to find cheaper places to
stay:D Haha, well they are paid either way so they enjoy the company
I guess. But yes, the lady serving us was so friendly and helpful,
she even gave us maps and the hotel phone to ring around the hostels.

After we checked into the dorm we tasted some fine pizza at some place
called bertuccis. Again the waitress was very friendly. Also cheaper
than new york so far but just as generous, just the way I like it:D
We also found somewhere the park the car overnight for free...well,
minus the $110 impound fee:D Haha, last night we weren't sure whether
to laugh or to cry, cos it was free parking on Sundays but because of
some really badly signpost saying "random street cleaning every
monday", as the clock turned 12:01am, they towed the car and we were
too late to stop them:( Oh well, "miscellaneous expense", but at
least it is safe so we will pick it up later after we explore the
town. All part of the experience I guess.

Right, it's 12:31pm here, the sun is shining, its blody hot and
sitting in library using wifi. Gonna go see the sights now!:)

Speak soon!
John