I Love NY!!

Hi everybody,
sorry for the long silent but it is true that in NY the people doesn't have time!!
At the moment I am in Niagara Falls where the life is more slow and relaxing and I have some time to write.

Back to the NY stuff:
as you know I landed here on Friday evening and the flight was good because on the plane I had my own screen to watch movies, music and play some stupid games...oh, I suggest you to watch Gran Torino, the last Clint Eastwood movie. Very good!!
Anyway, I took the shuttle to the hostel "Chelsea International Hostel" located in the middle of Manhattan and went to sleep.

Day 1: Saturday 02/05/09

I took a walk in the Chelsea quarter, just to worm up, and breakfast in Starbucks...veeery original!!!
After breakfast I started walking and God knows how many kilometers (oh, miles not kilometers) i have been walking!!!

Here is my itinerary:

1) Little Italy and China Town:
very nice areas even if they don't look as Italy and China (i guess) at all but if you are look for food, well you're in the right place!!

2) US Court House and City Hall Park
Nice area with nice buildings but i preferred the parks...I was so tired that I tried almost every bench of every park!

3) Broklin Bridge
During the morning the weather was not the best, cloudy and some rain but when I got to the Brookilin Bridge the sky cleared and and the sun come out :)
Crossing the bridge was just great. It takes around 15-20 minutes depending on how many picture you'll take and on how many people ask you to take a picture of them.
The view is amazing as you see Manhattan getting far and far and finally you can take some picture holding the camera horizontal and not vertical...oh, and you can also see the Statue of Liberty from the bridge even if it is quite far.
In Brooklin I stopped in one of the park under the bridge to have sandwich before coming back in the noise of Manhattan.

- Financial District
This part of the city is fantastic but is not a good place to take pictures, in fact it is impossible to make fit and entire tower in the 1,4" screen of my camera. I will need Photoshop to make a collage :D
I also went to Ground Zero but there is not much to see there now, just people working in a big hole and even if the towers are not there anymore you can feel that in thet place there was something big...very big. Strange feeling!

After that I had only the strength to get on the subway and go back to the hostel and sleep!

Day 2: Sunday 03/05/09

The day started very early...let's say around 4:00 am. The world should have only one time zone!!!
Anyway, at 4:30 I was completely awake and already walking for the room so I decided to go outside and was funny to see people having the last slice of pizza or the last hot dog before going to sleep.
This time I decided to have a walk in the central part of Manhattan starting from Madison Square Garden and walk Broadway street in north direction passing for the Empire State Building and ending in Time Square, where I stopped for the breakfast around 7:00.

After the coffee I went back to the Hostel to contact Carla end Ivo to go together to Harlem to assist to a celebration in the Abissinian Church (a kind of gospel mas). When we got there there was almost 200 meters of people standing in a row and waiting to enter. It turned out that that church is presente in almost every tourist guide in the world...conclusion, we did not go in!
As consolation prize we decided to find a place to eat the tipical Soul Food (chicken and waffels).

The day almost flew away and after a brief visit to the Closter Museum (medioeval stuff from europe..not very interesting for me) we went back to downtown and In the evening we went to a dinner party in the Queens with some Ivo's friends. Fun night and good people :)

Finally back to the hostel to pack and get ready to fly to Buffalo in the morning!

P.S.
Sorry for not posting any picture this time but I will post some as soon as I can download them!!!

FOLE IN AMERICA!!!

Hello to all,
here I am once again ready to go and ready to cross the ocean!
This time the destination is the USA and precisely the northeast with a small tour in Canada in Toronto.

This is my travel plan:

- May 1st: Departure from Bergen at 15:15 and arrive in NY at 20:20 (local), with a stopover in Amsterdam.

- May 2nd,3rd: NY City

- May 4th: Flight to Buffalo in the morning and transfer to Niagara Falls

- May 5th: Niagara Falls

- May 6th,7th: Toronto

- May 8th: return to NY by plane and then transfer to Boston by bus

- May 9th,10th: Boston

- May 11th-17th: After Boston, I will go south of NY city to visit Washington DC and Philadelphia, but the program is not yet defined :P

Unfortunately, or fortunately, this time I am gonna travel alone but in America there is a lot of people so I guess it wont be so hard to meet somebody on the way!
Indeed Berga and Giò dumped me this time... not for their desire but for "acts of God" ;)

Ok, now I am going to finish the bag because the plane will leave in a few hours.

SEE YOU IN AMERICA!!!

Eight and nineth stopp: Cancun and Chichen Itza

In the last post we said that we would have been in Chichen Itza on Sunday, but there was a little problem with Berga's feet...They war so big that he looked like an hobbit!!! :-) Then we had to stay an extra day in Cancun. Me and Jannicke decided to go to the aquarium and take a swimm with the dolphins and feed the shaks...scary, isn't it? (in the pic above we were ready to get in the cage and go underwater...face to face with 4 sharks!!!)

On the way back to the hotel we stopped to have the last bath in the Carribean sea...but this time without get burned!!!

In the evening we had to go to Chocolate City...a restaurant where you can find all kind of dessert made of chocolate...We didn't ordered a simple cake or an ice cream...we get the fountain!!!

On Monday morning we finally left Cancun and moved to Chichen Itza. We stopped one day, just the time to visit the old Maya city and get some rest...the day after we left at full speed to go to Puebla, the last stop before Mexico City...Time is flying and we have to hit Mexico City before Saturday to go back to Norway and to the real life!!! :-)

Sixth and seventh stop: Palenque and Playa del Carmen

In the last two steps we have had some problem...everything looked good in the beginning, but it wasn't in the end...we left San Cristobal to Palenque, the idea was to visit the maya ruine. On the way to Palenque we stopped at the Aqua Azul (blue water) waterfalls.

When we hit the place we saw a lot of people in the water, so we decided to have a bath too!!!

We also met a guy, Artemio, that for only 20 pesos (1,5€) offerd himself to watch at the car for all the day...look at the pic and tell me if you don't trust him!!!

Once in palenque we found a nice place in the middle of the jungle and not far from the ruine...and now everything looks good...

From this moment on strats the drama...during the night an heavy tropical rain came and last all the following day, so we couldn't visit the archaeological site. Then we decided to leave and go to Playa del Carmen (two days of relax on the beach).

The next day we went to the beach and we have been in the water all day long...but in the evening we looked at oursefs...we (me and peco) were completly red...from head to feet!!! But Gio wasn't!!!

Yesterday we were supposed to go snorkeling, but we couldn't...we have been all the day in the hotel room. Now we are in Cancun and tomorrow we will leave to go to Chichen Itza.

Fourth stop - Puerto Escondido

Today just relax and sun on the beach in Puerto Escondido (on the Pacific coast). Enjoy the view!

Second and third stop - Taxco and Oaxaca

Wednesday (20/02). Leaving Mexico city to go to Taxco, a small and very nice colonial city








Thursday we left to go to Oaxaca...11 hours by car passing through semidesertic regions...but with a lot of cactus (see pic above).
We also stopped to buy some fresh fruit...








After a visit of the city we went to Monte Alban, a very important archaeological site close to Oaxaca. Then we went to a very nice market in a small city, where people use to eat taco with grasshoppers...of course we did not eat that!!


Tomorrow we ar going to Puerto Escondido, on the pacific coast.
Now we have to go and taste the famous oaxoqenian chocolate!!!

First stop- Mexico City

We arrived in Mexico City on Monday in the afternoon, around 17:30 after a short flight of only 12 hours!!

On the plane everything went fine, and KLM gave us food and drinks all the time...the only starnge thing is the route...see the picture...

All the way up, flying over Scotland, Greenland and down over Canada and USA, and during most of the flight we just saw ice.

Once arrived at the airport we ordered a taxi, an authorized one (in fact in mexico it is full of pirate taxi). The way to the hotel by taxi was an adveture...cars without lights, the indicators are optional, busses odl and full of people and an unbelivable traffic.

The hotel is nice and clean and is also just 10 meters far from the main square. Before going to sleep we have been in a small restaurant close to the hotel and we eat some very good and cheap tacos.

The only problem so far is the mornig...at 5 o´clock we were completly awake...damn timezones!! So at 6:00 we were already eating the breakfast: fresh fruit, pastry and spanish chocolate.