"Philadelphia, I spent a week there one night"
Trip Start
Dec 10, 2007
1
39
Trip End
Ongoing
Los Angeles, California, United States
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Immediately after my last blog I went walking around New York in the early evening, without a doubt my favourite time of the day in any part of the world. It was beautiful seeing the vibrance of the city change as the sun dimmed below the nearby hils and the lights began to glow from each and every tall building. I visited the Rockafeller Centre which is only slightly lower than the Empire State Building, the view from the observation deck was spectacular and was truly one of a kind. I spent a good half an hour up there walking around in circles trying to take it all in but like many of the amazing things I've seen on this trip it was to no avail.
I had dinner at one of the many Irish pubs (I found out last night Manhatten has 5000 bars, for its size that's either incredible or a lie (Rosspell)
Santa Monica Pier
. I drank a few pints of mothers milk (Polly) and felt glad to be experiencing some of the Irish flavour of this awesome city. After that it was a quiet nightThe next day was to be my last day in New York before heading to Pittsburgh so I tried to see some of the districts that I was unaccquainted with. This included the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Union Square and thereabouts. These areas included some of the slums (relative to the rest) which gave a little insight into what the New York of 10-20 years ago would have looked like. Right now the city is undergoing a dramatic change, particularly in these areas which has seen many great new bars spring up. Naturally I tried a few of them out and managed to become quiet drunk whilst walking around NYC in the sun (aka glazen). My mates Spencer and Luke recommended the Crocodile Bar for $3 beer with a free pizza the Crocodile bar delivered so I thank you two lads for the tip.
That night I arrived at the Greyhound bus station and began what I'll refer to as "The saga of incomprehendible bulls%$#". The bus was chockas, the person next to me was overweight and smelled of B.O, not something I didn't expect on a Greyhound bus so I was pretty happy that there were no surprises. The plan (according to the ticket I bought a month earlier) was to catch the bus to Philadelphia, wait 40 mins and then take a bus to Pittsburgh. The first leg was without a hitch, we arrived in Philadelphia 20 mins late but I had 20 mins to spare
Washington Ave Palms
. I jumped straight in line for the next bus and when it came time to board the 12 people in front of me all got a seat and I was told the bus was full, I showed the ticket and the driver said its first come first serve. I asked when the next bus is and he said 6am (it was now 12.20am). I was in disbelief until a chap from Dallas told me the same thing had happened to him on the 8pm bus and now the 12am bus. Like a wet fish in the face it hit me so I sat down on the dirty tiled floor and surveyed my surroundings. For the next 6 hours I tried to sleep whilst guarding my bags, watching the suss dudes walking in and out of the toilet every 10 mins, feared the dude going psycho with his shirt off in the station and gasping at the crackheads running up and down the corridor. It was a long night and it just disgusted me how unempathetic the staff were at the station. It did bring home the point to me that ...... .... .is a wonderful place, if you have money because all of the luxuries you desire are available with the best service imaginable however if you aren't filthy rich you have to put up with the sub-standard services of companies like Greyhound and then the next day turn around and be one of the people that serves the upper class for $6 an hour. It is a cruel world but arguably a little crueler in the states. Anyway in the end I arrived in Pittsburgh at 1pm ready to meet my next Couchsurfer pal. I jumped on a bus and got off near 106 Meridan Ave, Mount Washington. When I knocked on the door I was greeted by Chad (28 year old actor/waiter) and his two crazy cats. It was pretty obvoius after 5 minutes that we were going to get along dandy over the next 3 days and we decided to go to the local rollercoaster/theme park "Kennywood". The place was SICK. I had so much damn fun. I felt like I was 5 again, we rode a heap of fast, adrenaline pumping rides but my favourite was the rollercoaster. It was so high and got so much speed through the turns, dips and falls. We rode it about 5 times and by the end we were just cackling for the entirety of each lap
Cosmetic foot surgery, you kidding??
. When we got home we had a couple of beers and played Kung Fu on the original Nintendo, absolute classic!The next day (Friday 30th May) I expored the city of Pittsburgh a little. Its a really beautiful city with a modest skyline that sits at the fork of two rivers (meeting in the Ohio river). The streets are clean and the town clearly lives and breathes for their beloved sporting teams (Steelers, Penguins, and the (insert name here) baseball team. The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently battling it out with the Detroit Red Wings for the Stanley Cup. Whilst I do have a love of hockey my main objective was to see 2 Dave Matthew concerts at the Post Gazette Pavillion in nearby Burgettstown. It just so turned out that Chads brother Chris was heading out to the concert with his friend Jess. So now I ahd a lift and drinking buddies. We got the venue early along with 15000 other people and "tailgated" which is an Americn pastime where you go to the carpark of a concert earlier in the day, sit around, cook burgers, drink beer, play drinking games, blair Dave Matthews and meet all the other fans. It was also SICK. And something I'd love to see happen in Australia.
We got drunk, acted like turkeys, used "Australia as kangaroos as a pickup line"...it worked, mingled and saw an amazing show. Ill add the setlist soon but it was awesome, quiet stoked to see something I planned 4 months ago eventualise and I was on the east coast of the U.S.A, not somewhere I originally planned to visit
Dennis and me watchin the hockey
.The next day was a lazy one except for my wondering of how the hell I was going to make the 25 mile journey to the venue again. Chad helped me find a cheap Laptop and when Chris decided to come to Dave with me Chad offered to let me drive his car (Chris had no license). On the way to dropping Chad off at work I mounted the gutter and would have hit a car if Chad hadn't realigned me in the right lane. Looks like some things never change hey guys. Miraculously Chad still let me have the car and I was a little daunted about driving 10 times the distance to Dave on the wrong side of the road. Late that arvo Chris and myself headed off and I performed pretty well (except for one stall and driving on the wrong side of the road once, Oh Dear!).
Dave put on an even better show for my efforts and we had a great night. Once we got back to town we had a couple of beers with Chad after he knocked off.
The next morning at 5am Chad, god love him, drove me to the bus stop. I said bye to my new friends and felt pretty stoked at how close we became in only 3 days. I jumped on my flight to LA with no sleep under my belt, next thing I know I was at LAX.
LA, famillar territory, I spent my first afternoon/night sleeping and walking aorund Santa Monica. The next day (Monday 2nd) I had another walk around Venice and the walk between both cities. Its strange when you revisit a place overseas. After experiencing so many new and unkown places its quite refreshing to visit somehwere you know your way around, where to get the bomb fish tacos and where the weirdos hangout. Its almost as if you left a piece of yourself there last time and when you return you feel home for that split moment (Geeesus, maybe I've had a few too many free beers). That night Dennis (A german fella I met at the hostel) went to a sports bar to watch the hockey game. The bar was dead set heaven. The waitresses were smoking, there were at least 40 tv's all with sports on them and the beers were chilled. We had a feed and watched the game which went into 3rd overtime (unfreakin heard of). Pittsurgh, who were down 3-1 in the series, were losing by 1 with 1 minut to go in regulation. And looked to be down and out. They scored a goal from nowhere and eventually wonthe game. Afterwards we went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie which I thought was pretty good.
This morning I packed and said goodbye to LA. I did everything I had to do at the airport and now here I am about to see Europe for the first time ever. Even more exciting I'm about to catchup with M$atty and meet his girlfriend Carrie. The states were amazing, I enjoyed every moment and feel like the adventurous spirit in me is alive and well. Once again I met some great people and I got to $experience Cocuhsurfing whish is something I really recommend you guys look into. I think it is very likely that I will surf some more couch's in Europe, particularly if Mckinnon is a snorer.
Im going to close this blog and open a new one considering that from now on I am no longer travelling solo. It was an amazing journey and something that I'll never forget. To think another adventure is about to begin just blows my mind.
Take care and live it up!!!!!!!!
Brad
