Boston Round Up and San Francisco

Boston was strange in that the tallest building was only 54 stories high and everything was quite spaced out. The hostel was fine and I met some cool people there, probably the friendliest place I've stayed since New York. A round up of the things I did there:

Went on a duck tour - a duck is a land/water vehicle built for WWII. The guy drove us around town, giving loads of details on Boston's history and points of interest etc. The we headed into the Charles river, where I had a go at steering the thing!

Went to the Science Museum and saw a cool lightning show (remember those friction machines from school that made your hair stand on end? They had a huge one of those that fired of bolts of lightning, oh and tesla coils. It was pretty awesome! There was also a fairly decent Planetarium presentation on the domed IMAX screen. Apart from a nice photo gallery, the rest of the museum was pretty average.

Went to Wally's Jazz Cafe and saw a band play some cool blues and funk. It was Boston Jazz Week while I was there and the legendary (we were told) drummer Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie popped in for a drink and got roped into playing a couple of tunes. Turns out he is the worlds most recorded drummer, he played on albums for James Brown and Steely Dan to name just a few!

Walked around Harvard university, went to a good stand-up comedy night, went to a jazz lecture in the public library (part of jazz week), went to the open night at Boston University's Astronomy Observatory (I saw Saturn, Mars and some Galaxy I forget the name of) and of course I did more record shopping!

I flew over to San Francisco via Philadelphia, which went smoothly. The new hostel is alright, nothing special though and not such friendly people staying here. The free breakfast is great though (loads of different types of bagels, croissants, bread and TETLEY tea! :D There is also a crazy fat ginger woman with a hat fetish who cooks dinner each night that's only $5 - I had Fajita's one night and some breaded chicken and soup another. San Francisco has the most bums and general weirdo's of all the cities I've been to so far!

I've done quite a lot of walking already, exploring the main shopping district and the piers along the coast. Also some greener areas like Fort Mason and Golden Gate Park (where there was a nice Japanese Tea Garden). There is also a cool street called 'Haight' where the cool little shops are (including record shops, of course). Gonna try and do some more organised things in the next couple of days, like a trip to Alcatraz and also to Muir Woods, over the Golden Gate bridge just outside the city.
Friday night I was to 'Elbo Room' where a couple of Dj's span some nice disco music and then 'Woolfy' played a live set, which was pretty funky indie-disco type stuff. Here is the flyer, check out some music on his myspace if you can



http://www.myspace.com/woolfys

Boston

Boston is quite nice, quiter and smaller than the other cities I've visited so far. The weather is crap at the moment though, been raining all day and more to come in the week. I've booked my flight to San Fran now, I arrive May 1st. Not using the net much cos it's so damn expensive in these hostels - $1 for 10 mins is a rip off! I've made sure to book hostels now with free internet. Met some nice guys here in Boston (from various countries) so have been out and about with them most days/nights. We found a weird tea shop and had a nice pot of posh tea. We also found awesome pizza and pastry's in little Italy. Bye for now

Montreal

Not much to write here cos the computers aren't that good. Had a cool time here though, even if it is a bit too french for my liking! Some cool guys staying here from new York (Canada is where kids under 21 come to get drunk!) so hung out with them a little bit. The hockey team won the night we got here and there were riots and stuff inthe street, it was pretty crazy. Not taken many photos and still not uploaded any from Toronto, sorry. Been to the Planetarium, did some more shopping and walked around the Mount Royal park which was nice. There was still huge areas of snow/ice that haven't yet melted. Got some good views from up there. There have been some really annoying other guests in the hostel though, so not had as much sleep as I might have liked. Anyways I am off to Boston on the bus tomorrow, it takes about 8 hours. Only cost me $70 too! Should be nice. Just off out for some drinks now so I'll leave it there. Hope you're all having fun without me there! Take care.

Leaving Toronto

I'm leaving for Montreal today but Toronto has been quite nice, although it seems to lack a little soul. Niagara Falls was spectacular, even though it was smaller than I'd imagined, but it's hard to believe just how much water is constantly rushing over the edge (and there will be even more come summer time). The Maid of the Mist boat tour was not running as the water still contained lots of ice so instead I did all the other attractions: the caves behind the falls, the walk beside the rapids and the cable car over the whirlpools. I took lots of photos but haven't had chance to upload them yet.

On Saturday I went to the Royal Ontario Museum, at first I thought it was going to be kinda boring like the Shoe Museum but it ended up being really good and I spent all afternoon walking around. There was lots of cool Art Deco furniture, some nice paintings, huge amounts of dinosaur and other animals bones, fossils etc plus lots of historic items from around the world. There was also a big exhibition on Darwin which was interesting, I've bought one of his books to read on my travels as I've nearly finished Blade Runner. I visited some free galleries yesterday and went back to an arcade I'd found earlier in the week with the aim of completing one of the games. It was nice to play a few videogames and I spent about an hour playing Sengoku 3, an old Neo Geo side-scrolling Beat Em Up. It was only 25c a go, which is like 10p!

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DSC00376, originally uploaded by acidbearboy.

My hostel is on the right of the green, view from CN Tower.

Metropolis

DSC00379, originally uploaded by acidbearboy.

Toronto Islands from the CN Tower

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View of the city from Toronto Islands

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DSC00422, originally uploaded by acidbearboy.

Toronto Islands

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DSC00434, originally uploaded by acidbearboy.

Toronto Islands

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DSC00466, originally uploaded by acidbearboy.

Toronto Islands

The pin for disc golf

DSC00467, originally uploaded by acidbearboy.

Toronto so far...

The weather here has been super nice - warm and sunny with blue skies and a few fluffy clouds. Yesterday I caught the sun a little bit when I went over to the Toronto islands on the ferry. There are no cars there, just beaches, forests, rivers and a few houses. They also had 'disc golf course' which is kinda like real golf but instead of clubs, balls and holes you have a frisbee and pole. I didn't have my frisbee so couldn't tell you what it was like though. It was a nice place to walk around but I had to come back a bit sooner than I might have as none of the shops were open as summer season still hasn't officially started yet and I was hungry and thirsty. I found a nice place for dinner called Fran's diner and had good old shepherds pie with veg. I've never tucked into green vegetables so keenly, it's suprising what you miss!! The bus girl emailed me to say she wasn't going to the bluegrass gig so instead I went to club Rex to see a live jazz band. There were a lot of beards, slacks and roll-neck sweaters around, but the music was quite good and there was a younger crowd in too.

Today I went to Bata Shoe Museum. It was a bit dissapointing really, lots of ancient sandals, moccasins and other 'historic' footwear but a real lack of anything modern, cool or sexy. Afterwards I wandered around a different section of shops, found a few more records. After staying slap bang in the middle of Broadway in NYC and not seeing a show, who would have thought that I'd have gone to see a musical in Toronto? Well I did tonight and Evil Dead: The Musical was very good. Yes, you did read that right, some crazy Canadians have taken bits from the films and made a stage show out of it. The songs were quite good (kinda Rocky Horror/Grease style Rock n Roll), there were plenty of laughs, the girls were hot and they even had loads of fake blood squirting out into the audience! Hopefully it will make it's way to the UK at some point.

Tomorrow I plan on going to Niagara Falls and at the weekend a museum or two. On Monday I go to Montreal by train. Just spending a few nights there and then on to Boston for a week. Hostels are already booked, as is the train. I'm just uploading some pics from the CN Tower and the Islands. I'll add more another time.

Toronto

I have safely arrived in Toronto. I took the Greyhound bus, which left New York at 10am and I got to the hostel here about 10pm - it was a pretty long day but the drive was quite nice. It was weird to have to walk so far to find a shop open here when I arrived, New York never sleeps! The hostel is really nice, award winning infact. Check out the website for an idea of how posh it is:

http://www.clarencecastle.com/

I had a nice long sleep (in a nice comfy bed) last night and today was a real nice day. First thing I did was to go up the CN Tower and take some photos. Then I walked along the waterfront and through some shops. Most of the afternoon was lost in a record shop! I was chatting to a woman on the bus who lives here in Toronto, she emailed me today to see if I wanted to go to a Bluegrass evening this week. I'm pretty sure that's country music though!! :-/

I'm just trying to upload my photos now so if I post a few after this messgae, be sure to check the flickr link on the left for the full set.

Some more photos

The last few days here have been pretty chilled. I've been walking around the areas I've not been to and they are nice and relaxed compared to thehustle and bustle of the times square area. East Village and Grenwich Village in particular are full of nice buildings and cool little shops. There are now 3 other guys from the uk sharing the room with me, one of which, Nick, has been out and about with me a few times. We went to Coney Island, New Yorks seaside resort the other day. By the time we got there though there was this thick fog/mist so the photos were all spooky looking. Talking of photos, Paul has uploaded a bunch of his for you to see.

CLICK HERE

Tonight I'm off to club APT for some funk and then on to Shelter for some House. Tomorrow I shall sleep in preparation for the 12 hour bus ride to Toronto on Monday. Bye for now!

More New York

Just a quick one today as I'm in the Apple store using the internet on a display iMac. Monday night we went to Deep Space New York which was a cool club night in the posh part of town. Luckily it was free to get in before 11pm, as the drinks were $11 each! Paul has gone home now so I'm on my todd. After he left on Tuesday evening I did a few boring things like washing, looking up some things to do this week on the net and also looking into travel to and accomodation in Toronto, which is where I'm heading next. I can't get a room in Boston next week as they have a marathon going on. I will head there after Toronto and Niagara. I'm trying the Greyhound Bus for the trip, it takes 12 hours and costs $90. The train was the same price and duration but it left at 7am instead of 10am! I leave on Monday, staying until Sunday.

Yesterday I hit the record shops, it was a nice day and I bought loads of good stuff. Will need to find the post office before I leave to send a package back home - if you're reading this mum, can you please text me grandma's postcode as I'll send them there incase you move! Last night it rained so I didn't go far, just to a bar we went to last week to see some baseball. Today is really sunny so I'm gonna stroll about central park and the upper eastside, probably ending up at the Guggenheim art museum. Maybe more record shopping tomorrow and then some clubbing at the weekend.

There are a few photos on Flickr now, but it's hard to get (free) internet time and they take a while to upload so I'm not sure when I'll get the rest up. I'll try and get Paul to upload his NYC pics somewhere public now he is home. Bye for now!!

New York part 3

It was a long que for the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island. It was a nce day again though and we got some good pics of the statue of liberty. Ellis Island is the immigration museum, it was a bit dull really. There were some photos from how it looked in the 80s when it was deralict, the restoration they have done has left it looking very cold and sterile. Got chattingwith Matt and Sandy our Australian roomates, nice guys so we headed back to the bar we went to last night with them. Got a bit drunk - I don't reccommend a Long Island Ice Tea after you've already had plenty of vodka! Definately don't have a second one!! Sunday was spent sleeping off the hangover. We had a walk over the huge Brooklyn Bridge in the evenin, which was cool but very cold and windy. Later we went to the cinema and saw Vantage Point - it was alright 6/10. Nice comfy seats in the theatre though.

Today we went to Macy's - dunno what the fuss is all about - it's just a glorified Debenhams!! Had a nice long walk around some other parts of town - found a cool bargain basement record store and got 5 LP's for $10 - will be gong back there later when Paul isn't mocking my Disco selections! Gonna go to Deep Space New York tonight which is a clubnight run by legendary NY DJ Francois K. Paul flies home tomorrow so I'll be doing more record shopping and clubbing for the rest of the week. I'm booked in at Boston for the 14th, arriving by train.

New York part 2

Hey guys, nice to read some of your comments, hope you're all keeping well :)

Thursday we met one of Pauls old friends called Micky and his wife Sarah. They came into town to pick us up and took us out to the Army base that they live on (Sarah is inthe Band for the army). It was a nice drive through some great scenary, especially Bear Mountain and its bridge. We had a nice relaxing day away from the busy city. Went for a drive into Cornwall, which is a small traditional looking town/village on the Hudson river. The views were great, small mountains, lots of trees and the huge river. The longest train ever went past us too, nmust have had over 100 carriages of cargo. We also had the biggest pizza ever for dinner! Sarah taught us how baseball works, its on TV all the time and we didn't really understand it 100% - it seems like a pretty good sport even if half the players are fatties.

Paul left his phone at their place so yesterday he got the train to meet them. I took this oppurtunity to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). It was cool, really nicely laid out building and a nice selection of works to look at. I grabbed a quick hotdog for lunch and then made my way to the American Natural History Museum, which like our own, was pretty boring. The huge planetarium they have there though was well worth the admission price. In the evening we got the subway to downtown and walked around a few shops in Soho and Greenwich village. I got a couple more records and a cool t-shirt, then we came back uptown for dinner. After dinner we found a cool bar, nice music, pretty people and a good basketball match on tv.

Now it's today and we are heading out for more sightseeing as the weather is good. The plan is to do the ferry ride to Ellis Island (the immigrant museum) stopping at the statue of liberty on the way. Maybe go up the Empire State building too. No photos today, maybe later!

Also, happy birthday to DARRYL!! Have a beer for me dude ;-)

Rockafella

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Me and the Empire State building

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DSCF1808, originally uploaded by acidbearboy.

Time Square - the Swatch shop in on the croner of our street fro the hostel.