From the South to the North I venture from Rio de Janeiro to New York City!! After spending all day with some Scandinavians hang gliding off the cliffs of Rio I race back through the cities traffic in a desperate attempt not to miss my flight that afternoon. The owner of the hostel had assured me it was only a 30 minute cab ride so I said my goodbyes with ease and walked down the stairs to flag down a cab. As per usual here in Brazil, the local spoke no English and my Portuguese was still appalling so the question as to weather or not I would make it to the "airporto" in time went unanswered with a baffled look as if I was going crazy in the backset with anxiety. The trip took just over an hour and a half and I had indeed missed my flight as boarding had been closed for just over 20 minutes. As 2 American's in front of me at the American Airlines customer desk swore abuse to the female representative at the price that they had been quoted to catch the next flight to NYC I instantly began to feel sick. I grinned the cheesiest of grins and tried to sound as distant to the two before me as I could with the most Australian accent possible and asked if it was possible to be seated on the next flight….
To my amazement there was a spot for me and surprisingly at no extra cost! This sort of customer service was uncommon for American Airlines as I would discover later on in my trip but I gleamed with joy as I only had a 2 hour wait and this flight was direct rather then heading south to Sao Paulo for a few hours. This was my 2nd flight that I have ever missed and in almost 200 flights thats not bad odds.
I arrived in NYC dressed in my summer attire from Brazil. Unfortunately the NY summer was not there to meet me and I was greeted with wind, rain 12 degrees Celsius. I made my way from NY down to Philadelphia where I was greeted by my cousin. For those of you who don't know, I used to live in Philadelphia with my cousins and as this was my first time back to America since 2003 I had planned a surprise or two. I had lived with my distant cousin Gary and his family; wife Ginny and kids Kyle, Conner and Shane. Gary had lived with my Grandparents in Sydney almost 10 years before this so I had grown close to him whilst I was an adolescent. Gary was born in county Tyrone in Northern Ireland and his younger sister Ciara had also not been back to America since 2000 so we had decided to surprise them all as she returned on the same afternoon. Some tears, a few swear words and allot of hugging went on when we absolutely stumped Gary and his two youngest who were also not filled in on our arrival. I stayed for a few days so that I could celebrate the St Patrick's Day March in Philadelphia (which is a few days before St Patrick's Day) and a spot of shooting at the local gun club then made my way to New York.
I had been to New York 4 times before and never really enjoyed my experiences. Mostly I put this down to not having enough money to see or do what I wanted. This time it was different and I really enjoyed my 2 weeks here. Accommodation is the most expensive part of your trip to NYC and is double what I paid for in any other capitol city within America. I was fortunate enough not to have to worry too much about this….Thanks Meli! Had some good times touring about the city and even though I never really like cities too much I could see myself living in NYC. I was blessed with the 1st few weeks of spring though and I am sure it's not the best spot to be in the colder months. Whilst here I got to see the St Patrick's Day parade and celebrate in the aftermath until sun up the following day. The NYC parade is the largest in the World and once we finally found it we were amazed to find that it wasn't really that Irish! Allot of people looked more Scottish then Irish in their kilts and I'm sure I could have performed a better jig then the Irish dancers. As I have been quiet slack with the writing over the last few months I am actually a long way away from New York as I sit here in a small bar having lunch in Carndonagh, Donegal which is where the monks of St Patrick settled after his death.
From New York I ventured north to meet a friend Lisa who was studying in Boston. As this city is know for being one of the most Irish colonized American cities I found it to have almost identical weather conditions and it rained heavily for the 5 days I was in town for. Still had fun though and without the rain Boston is a very beautiful city.
After 3 weeks of jacket and scarf wearing weather I was looking forward to hitting the beaches of Miami and soaking up some sun. Staying only a few hundred meters back from Miami Beach I got to do this most days. Great for sunbathing but horrible surf. Unfortunately it was more expensive then anywhere I had traveled to before in America including Alaska a few years back which was surprising. The night life there was overrated and definitely not my scene and I don't think I will be back anytime soon.
Off to the airport for a flight to Vegas. I missed the check in cut off by 2mins and unfortunately the manager couldn't do anything as it's all controlled by computers. They even charged me for the next flight which was odd as my flight from South America was complementary because of the type of ticket I had (a One World Alliance Around the World) however here in Miami that didn't fly! So…finally a few hours later I was on a plane heading away from the east coast...
