Los Angeles

hi all

this will be my last post from the us. i am going to the airport tomorrow night and then will be on my way home. my flight number is QF94 from lax to melb.

i am staying in hostel on the beach. it reminds me alot of st kilda beach. the weather is nice and warm here, it must be somewhere between 20 and 25 degrees c. almost warm enough to take of my jumper but not quite. i quite like it here in la. most of the people are nice and it has a good atmosphere.

i was in san fransisco the other day for a couple of days. i DID NOT LIKE san fransisco. it was intimidating. the people at the hostel were nice but not just the regualr people. i went to visit fishermans warf but wasn't impressed. i was going to go on tour of alcatraz but there were none more until the next day - so i didn't get to tour alcatraz.

i returned the car to the rental place in la - i didnt have any problems. the papers that i was given by the travel agents said that i had to have the car there by 4pm. i was a little bit worried that i would not get there on time as the drive was supposed to be 5 + hrs (no traffic) and 7 + hrs (with traffic). i left at 9am but got lost trying to get out of the city. the freeways can be very confusing. anyway, because i thought i was going to be late i didnt stop for lunch. i made it by 3pm - yay. i got a taxi to the hostel ($25). i haved booked the bus to the airport tomorrow ($10).

anyway i am about to run out of time

see you all on friday

sarah

pistures taken on hwy 101 on the way to eureka. it was very scenic but alot slower than the freeway. the road went through every town along the way.

the bridge looked really pretty. it was made of concrete.

pictures from the underground in seattle. will explain when i get home

more pictures of the mansion in butte

1) picture of montana country side
2) shower at butte. this shower was original to the house. the bars on the side spray water horizontally and the shower head sprays water down. i tried to get it to work but the head at the top only sprayed cold water so i turned that off but then the jets on the side where too powerful. it hurt lots!! it might have been better if i had more time to play with it.
3)this is the room that i stayed in in butte

these are pictures of the garden of the gods in colorado that i visited it was really nice. the lady at the hostel recommended it. it was 1 hr south of denver.

eureka

i am currently in eureka. last night i was staying in eugene. when i got there after being lost for quite a while the guy on the desk said that i didn't have a reservation so instead of getting a private room i had to share which was ok i suppose except that i was looking forward to being by myself.

seattle was really good. i went to the top of the space needle in seattle. it was foggy when i got to the top but after half an hour the fog lifted and the view was fantastic. candice recommended an underground tour that is run in seattle so went on the tour. it was really good.

the original seattle was built on mud flats and the town kept getting flooded with every high tide. when they got toilets in the early 1900s the toilets would reverse flow at high tide. apparently there were '4 foot' geysers. when the city burnt down the told everyone that they had to build all the shops with a ground floor entry and a first floor entry. the city built stone walls on all the 'curbs' and filled in the street with dirt, raising the street level 3ish meters. so to cross the street ppl had to climb ladders to get onto the street and then climb down ladders to get on to the foot path. eventually they build foot paths the join the street with the first floor entries. for a while both the first and ground floors where being used unitl there was a rat plague in the underground part. the ground floor of some of the shops are stilll accessable. this is what the tour is of.


tomorrow i am going to san fransisco.

sarah

eugene

i am at a hostel in eugene tonight i am in a dorm room.

i went to the top of the space needle in seattle this morning - it was foggy and i couldn't see much but the fog raised after about 1/2 hr. candice recommended a tour in seattle that was fantastic.

i got lost trying to get to the hostel i am in a really bad mood

going to eureka tomorrow it is a 7 hr drive. atleast i have a hotel waiting at the other end

later

sarah

seattle

hi all

i wanna come home!!! i am getting really homesick and tired and lonely - its a week from today until i get on the plane but i wont be home til friday cant wait

seattle is very nice i would recommend seattle as well.

i met up with candice last night for dinner in vancouver - thanx for the directions mum. it took me a lot longer to get there than i thought but only because i left seattle at peak hour and was trying to get out of the city with everyone else and i had to wait in line at the usa-canada border for atleast half an hour. i ended up being an hour late. dinner was nice and it was good to meet up with someone i know. i didn't end up leaving vancouver until midnight and i got lost on the way back so i didn't make it back to the hostel until 330am. vancouver is a bit scary - there are lots of homeless ppl on the streets could have been the part of town we were in though.

today i went for a drive around seattle it is a nice place then i went to see a movie. tomorrow i am going to see the space needle on the way out of the city.

the hostel here is nice it is the best hostel yet and would probably be nicer than some of the hotels. except that there is no parking - there is metered parking on the street but it starts being metered at 8am.

later

sarah

Spokane

I didn't have access to a computer last night so i will write about butte now

I was staying in a period b&b. it was fantastic. it had some great chandeliers. i have some photos but this computer wont let my upload anything. the lady at the b&b suggested a walking tour of the town but as it was really cold i drove it instead. I also drove up to the look out. it was kinda scary. it was on a dirt road that was covered in ice and snow - but it was fun. i had my first encounter with ice on the road yesterday. i was driving up a side street and started slipping on the ice it was very scary but after the first time i was able to do it easily. the lady at the b&b gave me a personal tour of the b&b which was a 1890s mansion. it was really good.

The drive today was not at all boring. the road was all wet and it started to snow. its not hard to drive in the snow just annoying - it blows horizonatally into the windscreen but doesn't have enough water in it to require the windscreen wipers. it just cuts the visablity. today i drove out of the mountains. it was very steeply downhill. i didn't realise just how high up i was as i have been climbing very slowly through vallies. today i descended the whole lot in an hour. it was fun driving fast down the windy mountain. the road was really good so everyone was still doing 80 miles/hr (approx 130-140kph) the wet road and the snow just made it more interesting.

i am supposed to be meeting with candice tomorrow but i havent heard from her since last week and i dont know how to contact her - grrrrrrrrrr.

also i forgot to complain about the hotel in billings - some idiot pulled the fire alarm at 3am in the morning - everyone had to get up and wait outside while the fire brigade checked the place out. it was very cold outside at 3 in the morning.

any way i dont have anything else to write

sarah

Billings

I am now in montana. montana is much more picturesque than wyoming. i had a short drive today through what i thought would be mountains but it is just paddocks with the occaisional hill. i drove next and around the mountains but not through them. it is colder here. i think that it is quite elevated here which is why it is so cold. i am staying in another hotel tonight. none of the lights work in the room but that is the same as all the hotels. only one lamp works.

I hope that mark is enjoying my nice comfy bed!!

I sent a postcard from NY - have you recieved it yet?

there is nothing else interesting to say today

sarah

1) this is a picture of the hire car if anyone is interested - it is a saturn ion

2) this is where is stayed in denver - it was someones house. all the houses are old and the upstairs floor squeaks lots and loudly

3) garden of the gods - colorado springs

Casper

Hi all

sorry i didnt write much in denver. the hostel i was staying in had its private rooms in some lady's house. she didn't have a communal computer so i was using her personal laptop. denver was very nice. the weather was great - something like 10 degrees c! I visited the main shopping mall - its kind of like the burke st mall with shops and resturants lining the street. i had a very nice meal at a chinese resturant. entree, main, dessert and 2 burbons and coke for $30 and it was an actual resturant!

this morning i went to colorado springs and the garden of the gods. it was a long way out of the way (south 1hr when i should have been going north) but it was very nice. it is some very impressive rock monoliths.

i am currently in casper, wyoming. it took a long time to get here because of my detour. the parts of wyoming that i have seen are not very interesting - grass, grass and more grass. i think that they have cattle on the farms but it is kind of hard to tell as there are lots and lots of paddocks with nothing in them but grass. there is the occassional cow.

i have been having trouble getting more credit for my phone - they dont call it 'mobile phone credit' here but i dont know what they do call it so noone seems to know what i am looking for.

mum - thanx for talking to bax hill for me

claire - it is nice to know that im not the only one to forget about different time zones. how was the honey moon?

hope your all having a good time and that the weather is nice - it is going to be 70 here tomorrow!

later

sarah

Denver

Denver is really fantastic.i really should have taken more time here. i am staying at a hostel

i will write more tomorrow there is a queue for the computer

sarah

1) there are actually animals called wolverines here. this is a photo of a stuffed one in the american museum of natural history

3) You can 't see it very well but it is the statue of liberty - i went on the staten island ferry (that was escorted both ways by the coast guard)

4) Niagara Falls - the river at the top of the falls is running but not the river below the falls - it is frozen solid!

Photos 1

the first picture is inside tullamarine, the second picture was my plane from melb. to la. the third picture was the hostel room in NY the fourth picture is of central park NY and the fifth picture is of NY from the top of the empire state building

St Louis

Hey hows everything going?

i am currently in st louis. the hotel here is nice but not as good as the one last night. I had my car valet parked last night because the on street parking started being paid parking again at 8 am. the only problem with the valet parking was that they flattened the battery in the car - dont ask me how - and the ppl had lots of trouble finding jumper leads. it was very annoying, he made it out like it was all my fault.

i am going to see the golden gate arch tomorrow if its not snowing. there have been some warnings of 2 in of snow by tomorrow which sounds a bit scary. it rained while i was driving for the first time today. just like driving in the rain at home.

i wish that i had of scheduled a couple of more days in chicago cos i liked it there. i went to see 'there will be blood' - it was crap. it was boring and not even 'artistic'. does anyone know if one the oscar cos it didnt deserve it.

When i bought the ticket i went to sit in the movie theatre and waited for it to start after it was about 20 mins late and not started yet i went to complain and the guy ripping the tickets said i was 40 mins early - apparently i had crossed into a new time zone and hadnt realised. it was pretty embarassing.

any way i am going to have some dinner now and i will come and up load some pictures later when its not quite so busy

later

sarah

chicago

i have just arrived in chicago. it is cold here too. the hotel here is very nice. it is a days inn hotel and has complementary free internet access. Today was a fairly long drive too but it is pretty easy until you are trying to find the right off ramp. the traffic in chicago is terrible. it is sunday afternoon here and there was a traffic jam on the freeway through the city.

i have been drinking water here. coke tastes absolutely disgusting!!! it is undrinkable it doesnt taste at all like the coke at home - for those who say that i am addicted to coke it is not true! - i have been almost a week without it and there have been no problems.

the people here are quite nice unless they are working in a shop then they are very rude and unhelpful. everyone has a very strong accent and i some times find it difficult to understand what ppl are saying - especially 'black' ppl. it is like a different language. i still havent been able to find a supermarket. i am going to a mall tonight to see a movie so maybe ill see a supermarket too. i am already craving anything green.

i am all caught up now - i will try to put some pictures on later

sarah

Cleveland

The drive from Niagara Falls to Cleveland was very uneventful. on the freeway there are service stops that have a couple of takeway places and a petrol station - sout of like the ones on the freeway from melb to bris. cleveland was very cold too but i think that niagara falls was colder. i stayed at a B&B in cleveland. it was a very nice place but it was the attic floor of someones house and i felt imposing a little bit.

not much to say about cleveland except that i found the place i was staying with no trouble at all.

ps the food here is terrible - it is almost inedible. tonight i am going to try a proper resturant maybe that will taste better - wouldnt be hard

Nigara Falls

hi all

sorry it has taken me so long to post again. it is really hard to find a computer. i think that anyone coming here should bring a laptop with wireless rather than looking for computers. there are wirless access points everywhere!!! - but no computers.

I am currently in chicago the hotel here is very nice - it is an actual hotel!!

any way starting at the start -

i picked up the hire car from new york and drove to niagara falls. it was easy to get the car and quite easy to drive straight out of the hire place. the traffic was walking pace. the ppl that worked in the hire place were really rude and unhelpful. it was just lucky that i had hired a bus with mary and sort of knew what was supposed to be happening. i took me a while to find the freeway to niagara falls but eventually found it - i did make a wrong turnoff but the ppl in the petrol station said that i was actually going in the right direction and that i had taken a short cut, which was lucky. it was a long drive from NY to Niagara Falls about 7 hrs and it didn't help that i got lost when i got off the freeway. i drove around in circles for about 1 1/2hrs - it was very frustrating. i stayed at a hostel in Niagara Falls. i was a house that was converted. the lady didn't give me my private room but she did give me a dorm with 8 bunks just for me and charged me the shared room price and just for one night rather than two which was nice of here but the bed was really uncomfortable. Niagara Falls was very, very cold. I went for a walk to see the falls and it started snowing! I didnt realise how cold it was going to be here. There is snow/ice/slush all over the ground (not the roads tho) and you definately need gloves and a hat. my blue zip up jumper is warm enough and i haven't had to wear my jacket yet but my jeans just aren't warm enough. I saw the falls from the american side. they were pretty impressive but the river was frozen over. all water here is frozen over. it looked strange watching a waterfall fall into solid ground. i will add some pictures later. i spent 2 nights in Niagara falls.

New York Day 2

hi all,

today i am going into the city to see the sights and hopefully find some shopping. It is very quiet here - all residential with milk bar/fish and chip shops on every corner. Yesterday i went to the american museum of natural history. the train is very close (2 mins walk). it is a little bit confusing about how to buy a ticket but i think i have worked it out. you have to put credit on a metrocard. each trip is $2 but i am not really sure if this one way or not. most of the ppl in shops and customer service are not very helpful. except the guys that i bought the sim card off. they tryed to sell me everything in the shop! i pick up the car tomorrow and it is looking scarier and scarier. the traffic doesn't really seem to follow the rules properly and i still have trouble crossing the road. one thing that really freaked me out was how to cross at the lights - there are walk and don't walk signals for pedestrians but no button to press to get the lights to change. there signals change on their own. most ppl just seem to walk when they feel like it.

the food here is fairly cheap but not very nice - the only stuff i seem to be able to find is fast food (from the fish and chip shop/milkbars. there are no supermarkets in this area.

i am about to run out of time

love sarah

New York

hey

how is everything going?

i spent the first day in the plane. it was very odd. the plane from melb to la was only half full so i had two seats to myself. the plane searved lunch at about 130 aust time and then turned the lights out and gave us breakfast about 2hrs out from la. i managed about 3 hrs on and off. the transfer from the melb-la to the la-ny plane was very rushed and lots of us missed the first boarding call but the plane left on time. the plane from la-ny was very empty i got 4 seats all to myself so i was able to lie down it was so empty that everyone had 4 seats so everyone was asleep. so all together i got about 5hrs in just over 24.

when i got here on of the ladies on the plane who i was talking to had her luggage lost - she was from brisbane and had been rushed with the transfer at la too. luckly i had no problems.

the train worked well and i made it here with no fuss. it would be scary if you were staying in brooklyn!! sorry i didn't call last night but the internet at the hostel isnt working and the internet cafe where i am now wasn't open. ny ariport was bare - there was nothing there, no shops or anything so i was not able to find a sim card i am still looking. the room i am staying in is very small and the mattress is covered in thick plastic so it is very noisy when you move. also there is heating in pipes (maybe 5 cm wide) that run from the floor to the ceiling and the one in my room hisses. i didnt realise that the pipes were heated until this morning when i burnt myself on one in the bathroom - it really hurt! apart from that i was soo tired that i slept pretty well.

it was dark when i got here at 630 last night. it is currently 145 pm here. the area here is weird. it is a residential area with 5 milk bars withing a 2 block radius but nothing bigger. i had noodles for dinner last night. i also bought coke. it comes in 597mls or 1 litre but atleast it is cheap. 98% of the ppl in this area aren't 'white' and some dont speak english all the time. i have trouble understanding some of the ppl here and was able to understand the guy in the chinese shop the best!

it is not as cold as i expected it to be. it is probable between 10 and 15 degrees c but everywhere inside is really hot. i have been wearing a jumper outside and a tshirt inside.

the money here is very confusing - it is all the some colour. it is hard to distinguish between $1 and $20 without pulling it out and reading the numbers on it - but you have to show the whole world how much money you have. just about all of the money is green notes. i have some coins now but they are all 25c. it is about the size of a 10c piece but very light.

anyway i dont know how much longer i have so i had better go before i get cut off.

please write back
sarah

Tullamarine Airport

take two - it cleared the other message

i am at tullamarine waiting to go through customs - i dont have to be there until 1130. claire and matt got off well to their honey moon and mark just left after waiting with me to checkin

i will post agian at JFK these internet booths are quite good

love

sarah

First Post

I will leave tomorrow morning - very early. time to go to bed