Well I arrived in New York with a hurricane, and two hours late..but luckily for me NYC is the only true 24 hour city and I managed to make my way to the Upper West side where Jim (from Botswana and Cape Town etc.) was waiting with his girlfriend the lovely Lauren, where I was given a bed.
The next day I with the rest of the rain drenched New Yorkers cramped into MOMA to admire the great space, the weirdness of DADA, the proportions of Picasso, the iconic symbolism of Warhol and the scribbles of Pollock. Museumed out, I trudged downtown (well caught the subway) to meet Jim, Lauren and their friends Gabe and Ali. Through torrential rain we sloshed and charged back to the warmth and dryness of Ali's flat where we polished off large quantities of wine and talked about cures for jellyfish stings - yup something about urinating on someone's face - maybe mine, as I think I was the only one to have head butted an unfortunate jellyfish/ blue bottle.. and no I'm not talking about a bottle-nosed dolphin!
Sunday was spent basking in the joyous sunshine, having a righteous brunch, meeting Jim's folks and then charging on a train with Jim to Philly to catch up with the gorgeous Melissa and Jon, again, who was in Philly for a wedding. Philadelphia has a lovely charm to parts of it and is rather old especially around the University of Penn area. So after spending too short a time with the Botswana crew I headed south to Washington DC to stay with Chris, who Meg and I met in Zanzibar.
DC is definitely worth a visit, all those monuments, parks and free galleries and museums but... the police are a little over officious - complaining that you are standing 6 inches into the road as opposed to the sidewalk and calling for back-up when someone tried to turn into a one way street. They also came across a couple of men sleeping on the freeway so shut off the road a mile in either direction, in rush hour causing a 13 mile tail back in case the men where armed. Okay so they caught the Washington sniper that way, but hey, slightly overdramatic. DC has some charm, I kept trying to find it in Georgetown, but failed... instead I was drawn to Foggy Bottom, maybe it was just the name! The subway is clean and empty, yup everyone seems to own a car and with drive-through ATMs why wouldn't you?
Chris was a great host, driving me around and getting me tours of Capitol Hill - awesome! But no matter its plus sides, DC (well America for that matter) has one resident too many... the infamous George W Bush!
DOWN ON BUSH
Okay so I copied that phrase from a pair of pants (using the UK meaning of the word) that I found on lower east side. The Americans I met seem to be heartily embarrassed about their president, and this seems to be a general trend. Admittedly I didn't go to Texas or the real middle America so not a true sample group, but.. it is country that is starting to iconise John Stewart of the Daily Show who is incredibly funny, sarcastic and all about humiliating and taking the piss out of Bush. Something we highly political English like! There are daily protests in DC against the war and Bush, but unfortunately we are stuck with Bush or Chimp until 2009.
NYC
I returned back to spend my last week in NYC with Kelleigh, who Rachel and I met in the Delta in Botswana. She had a lovely apartment Harlem way again the Upper West side not far from Central Park and Columbia university. Kelleigh was a fantastic host and she took me under her wing, which included nights out bowling, meeting fabulous international people, a reunion with the girls from Botswana (sadly minus Rachel) and a lesbian party. I had a quiet week for me, being rather introspective, spending far to long 'chilling' in Central Park thinking about the future, or lack of future.., Pounding the streets of Manhatten, Visiting the Guggenheim (not worth it!) and trying to find a decent cup of coffee.
The last couple of times I'd been to NYC was with Meg and it was strange being back there on my own, It was fun, but I probably didn't have as good a time, as I was missing my party partner! Anyways I made up for it on the last night, having got drenched in Chelsea and the Village I went home, changed and met Kelleigh for a friend's birthday party which turned out to be a lesbian get together. From there, I jumped in a cab with a couple of strangers (this is NYC) who took me to a club on the Lower East side where the fashionista were all out, free champagne flowing and Vincent Gallo. I then hopped in a cab again, this time flying solo, and headed to Marquee (still the best club in NYC for celeb spotting) to meet my friend Rich, who had arranged free entry - Brilliant and then partied til almost dawn. I collapsed back at Kelleigh's at 5:30 am having had coffee with a New York Times sport editor and former Kansas professional footballer!
Too soon, it became time to pack up Brad one last time (who went AWOL again in the US. He decided he liked Phoenix, so stayed there for a couple of hours more than me on the way to Denver). Brad and I then made the dreary way out to the airport on a gloriously sunny day and with a heavy heart went through one final round of me versus the airport security, check in staff etc.
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