To put it in perspective: there is a downtown, but it doesn’t function as other North American cities’ downtowns do. It is the financial centre, but not much else. Up until a few years ago it was also home to Skid Row – one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country. It’s also home to El Pueblo (the old Spanish settlement) and Chinatown. LA then sprawls outwards in all directions into individual communities, quite detached from one another. North is the San Fernando Valley (home to ‘surburbia’ in all its forms – incl. the infamous gated communities; as well as the porn capital of the world), Burbank and Hollywood. East is East LA, Pomona and Chino (yes, that Chino from the OC. South is, well south goes on forever! It’s home to Long Beach, Compton, Irvine, Orange County, Anaheim, and if you go far enough Newport and Laguna Beaches. West is more limited, owing mostly to the Pacific Ocean, with the largest two areas being Malibu and Santa Monica.

So there you have it, LA in all its glory. It is as chaotic and segmented as it sounds, which is compounded by an absolute dominance on personal vehicles (mostly mammoth SUVs and hybrids – strangely enough). Without a car you are nothing here. Seriously, nothing. We complain about our public transport options in Sydney. Jeez! At least we have options. In large swathes of LA, there is no option. It’s drive or, well, don’t go out at all. Puts things in perspective.

That being said, the public transport system that does exist is fantastic. Clean, fast, efficient,massively undervalued and underused. The biggest issue with public transport has come to define LA (and is a large reason why it polarizes opinions): the city has no definite core, so people don’t commute in set directions. They travel A-B, but also A-C, A-D, B-C, B-D and all variations therein. Thus roads can accommodate such flows far easier and far more cost effectively (short-term at least) than rail. Buses are everywhere in most of LA county, but again they are limited by the roads. The latest invention is two-fold. Firstly, to encourage 2+ people in cars, they have introduced ‘diamond’ lanes for ‘high-occupancy vehicles’. These are always the far left lane (think about it …) and oftentimes are linked to other expressways with their own dedicated lane. These lanes are fast, with drivers often travelling upwards of 70 miles an hour on them, but they work!

The second invention is to extend the limited Metro subway lines with dedicated bus transitways, very similar to the T-Ways in Sydney. I used the Gold line most days on my way in and out of downtown LA, and it was excellent. Fast, frequent, clean and safe. Reminded me of the new buses in Vancouver actually. It’s a pity there’s still this stigma attached to taking public transit in Los Angeles – my relatives mentioned that it’s mostly the migrants and very poor who use it. Whilst this is true, it definitely doesn’t have to be this way, and it’s so cheap that it can save people money from the instant they use it. Plus it saves people wasting so much time on the I-5 and I-405, which can only be a good thing!

However, I digress: back to what we actually did. We drove from the Valley along to Malibu pier, through the mountains up to an outlet mall, then back past the Getty Center to Santa Monica. This trip, if you look at it on a map, is definitely not advisable, as we backtracked a lot, but it was President’s Day holiday, so we benefited from far less traffic than a typical Monday.

Malibu was beautiful, full of all the things that make it famous – big houses, fantastic coastline and million-dollar views. You can easily see why people snapped up properties here as LA became popular. It’s a shame most of them are built on cliffs that are suffering from erosion. Makes for a bit of a scary drive as you wind along the coast.

Further north we spent some time shopping at one of greater LA’s many outlet malls. These places are huge and hugely popular, predominantly because Americans love a bargain (regardless of whether they were intending to purchase the item in the first place), and they have no qualms with driving for an hour to find a cheaper store. This particular strip mall was designed fairly well, but it still suffered from a hugely inefficient design that encourages laziness. Basically each shop is set up terrace-style, with one long single-storey building housing about 10 shops side-by-side. Surrounding the shops are huge swathes of open-air parking. Argh! It’s just so stupid! Build up people! Up!

Anyway, the shopping was pretty decent (Banana Republic in particular), and the trip home required us to stop for an In-&-Out Burger, which is never a bad thing. Mmm… best fast food burgers I’ve ever tasted. (And there are rumours of a secret menu – I shall have to Google it!)

After a lengthy drive down the I-5 and I-405 (the two North-South interstate freeways – think 6 lanes each direction and multi-storey intersections), we arrived at Santa Monica just in time for a coffee and sunset on the famous pier. I think if I could live anywhere in LA, it would have to be here – and that may have to do with the large number of British expats who have made it their home. It’s relaxed, still warm in the middle of February, by the beach and with awesome cafes and shopping. The downside is the commute would be a nightmare if you didn’t work nearby, public transport is good locally but poor otherwise, and it’s [expensive. Very expensive.

After another long trip back to the Valley, we met with Devon (my cousin) and David (my uncle) and had an excellent dinner of sushi and sashimi. Mmmm…. Definitely an LA institution and one of my culinary highlights of the USA.

Los Angeles: Day 1 (19 February 2007) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Friday
Aside from being Friday 13 and ridiculously early in the morning, the start of the trip bode well. We all arrived downtown on time and quickly settled into being the ‘back seat rebels’. There were 10 UBCers in total: Hanneke, Kerensa, Daniel, Chris, Claire, Amanda, Jack, Lem, Kate and myself. In hindsight I don’t think I could have picked a better group to go travelling with – we all just connected. This turned out to be particularly important given the enormous amount of time we’d be spending on the bus and together, in one form or another.

Today was mostly spent on the aforementioned bus, travelling from Vancouver to Hope. The highlight was possibly the coffee at a small café in Hope (!) and the Spahats Falls, which were very impressive – and they were apparently smaller than usual! The route from Van to Hope traverses the Coquihalla Highway – one of the most famous in Western Canada, and home to the animal crossing program. Basically, in addition to building road overpasses, the government has constructed forest ‘connectors’ from one side of the highway to the other, at traditional animal crossings. These allow the deer, moose etc. to cross safely at any time without fear of cars (and vice-versa). Awesome idea, eh? Gotta love that Canadian ingenuity.

We spent the night in Valemount at a dodgy hotel with one redeeming feature. The water slide! It was amazing how one small thing like that could unite the group, but it did throughout the trip. Last weeks’ group apparently spent a fair amount of time at various bars, and we similarly spent an equal amount of time at the hotel pools. Each to their own, I guess!

Around the pool we met Perla, Rens, Corinne, Danny (our roommate) and Pedro. Most, in fact all others on the trip I think, were language students from South America or Europe. We were pretty much the only native English speakers, which was an interesting position to be in, but one that I love. Good times!

Saturday
After a very early start for sunrise, we progressed to visit Mt Robson, Jasper, Maligne Canyon, Athabasca Falls, the Columbia Icefields and Bow Lake.

The Rockies are quite difficult to explain to those who haven’t been there. They are as beautiful as people make them out to be, and the scenery is epic and jaw-dropping. Seeing all these places that people had long spoken of, both in Vancouver and around the world, was amazing, and I repeatedly had to pinch myself that I was actually there.

Jasper is one of the main towns in the Canadian Rockies, but was clearly closing up shop for the winter when we arrived. Apparently the last main weekend of the year is Thanksgiving – the week before we left – which meant some shops had already closed, and the others were all holding end-of-season sales. Had we had more time and money, this would have been fantastic, but as it stood it just made the time we spent there feel partly wasted. It was almost as if Jasper becomes a ghost town off-season, or at least until the ski season picks up pace in November-December.

The Canyon and Falls were both very impressive, and the photos only partly do them justice. Again, they are places you just have to visit for yourself. The Columbia Icefields were a bit of a let down, especially after all we had heard about them. The actual time spent on the ice is limited and you aren’t permitted to walk all around the glacier, so you are left with walking over slippery, compacted, dirty ice. Definitely a fun experience, and one that produced some of my favourite photos of the entire trip so far, but I have the feeling it could have been so much better.

Once again, our evening was spent by the pool, but this time with a FAR better slide (3 storeys) and a much nicer hotel. This is really not backpacking!

Sunday
Today was the day of the lakes, visiting Minnewanka (that name still makes me smile), Louise and Emerald, as well as Banff. If anything encapsulates the Rockies in one go, it’s Lake Louise. Reportedly one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, it did not disappoint. The lake, owing I believe to the minerals within, is a light blue colour and looks amazing reflecting off the surrounding mountains and snow. Yes – it’s that lake from all the postcards! All other lakes pale in comparison once you’ve seen this one, so I was partly glad we left it till near the end of the trip.

After our visit to Lake Louise, Claire, Amanda and Lem misread the time we were meant to be back and as such had to sing for the entire bus. Luckily many of us have it on video, so it’s recorded for eternity. Suffice to say, Koom Bi Ah will never mean the same again!

Banff was a great town, and one that I would have liked to have spent more time in, exploring the various sidestreets. It’s clearly designed for the influx of tourists visiting the Rockies, and so a lot of shops sell ski-gear, souvenirs and food, but that suited us perfectly, so I was prepared to ignore how annoying it must be for the locals for the sake of convenience! Plus Kate and I were able to have a proper conversation about life, the universe and budgeting which was great. I haven’t spent nearly enough time with some people yet, so it was good to have some time to do that here.

Monday
After a bloody long weekend, it was time to start making our way home. We were SO tired that most of us slept for the majority of the day, waking only to watch part of Legally Blonde II, study for our various midterms or eat. Oh, and to see Revelstoke – the historic town near Vancouver where the two ends of the Great Pacific Railroad met. Bit one-sided if you ask me! Shouldn’t it be near Manitoba or somewhere?? Apparently that has something to do with the mountains out west, but I think it’s just laziness!

So there you have it … after four days of non-stop action, we had reached the end of our Rockies adventure. I’m sorry this blog post might not seem to do it justice – really it’s one of those places where you NEED photos, so please check them out here (Day 1 & 4), here (Day 2 & 3), and here (Day 2)!

The Rockies! (13-16 October) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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With schools being closed again, Jen kindly offered to drive me to Dulles, and even though I was there with at least 80 mins to spare, a combination of massive line-ups and me lining in the wrong line twice meant I missed my 8:36 flight. Luckily the woman at the desk reseated me on an 8:50 flight through Seattle that actually got me to Vancouver earlier – at 1:50pm. Yay for that!

[start of rant]

Unfortunately I was delayed in security (because I am clearly a bad person!) for 45minutes as I was selected for ‘extra screening’. As such, I missed my rescheduled flight and had to wait for 2 and a half hours in a United service line. There I made such errors as presuming the call centre would be faster and explaining my situation. The woman at the counter was incredibly unapologetic stating categorically it was ‘my fault’ and therefore she was going to be unhelpful. Any requests made by me for the location of my baggage were met with ‘well it’s not going to make this flight so you can deal with it in Vancouver’. Well fuck you woman!

Some people should NOT be in customer service.

[end of rant]

And so it was that I arrived into Vancouver at 9pm, only a mere 30hrs behind schedule. Once again I was sans luggage, but seeing all my old friends and roommates again was awesome and more than made up for it. Sebastian, Rob, Hanneke and I stayed up chatting till about 1am and it was great.

The most interesting thing was meeting Sean and Kevin – the new replacements for Isaac and I. Sean is an exchange student from Cape Town in South Africa and Kevin is another local student. Our replacements share many of our eccentricities and personalities, with Kevin going home most weekends, having his meals cooked and generally staying out of the others’ business. Sean and I have the exchange student thing in common, which accounts for a lot, but we also share a passion for dance music and the Dutch (ahem!).

Friday
Today was my first full day back in Vancouver and already I’m really glad I made the decision to return. Although many of my friends aren’t here because they have already headed home for the holiday (it’s reading week here), I managed to do fairly well. My luggage still hasn’t arrived and my cell phone battery is rapidly dying so we’ll see which one gives in first. Something tells me Air Canada aren’t nearly as efficient as United at returning lost luggage. They clearly need to lose more of it to improve their practices!

Due to the aforementioned lack of luggage (which came to define my return visit to Vancity), I spent most of my time whining about its loss and buying replacement items. It also meant I had to re-wear my old clothes. Eugh! If this luggage doesn’t come soon it will be one smelly Tristan my friends get to meet.

This afternoon I met with Vivian, a friend from two of my classes last term. We discussed the upcoming AIDS conference and how she could help out. Very positive stuff. We also made a quick trip to the UBC Bookstore so I could buy my UBC patch – the one I had intended to purchase about 4 months ago. I got a really nice one and Vivian had a chance to practice her French with our Quebecois server. Fun times.

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find my C$90 that I was convinced I had packed in my luggage somewhere to no avail. Much of the time was also spent preparing for tonight’s party.

Before to long it was time for Gage E13B to again do what it does best – host parties. By all accounts it was AWESOME. Early on, numbers were down on last time (we even had to call around to get people to come at the start – bummer, eh?), but was SO much fun. Best night I’ve had in ages, if only because all my buddies were there partying with me. Clayts came with his new girl (he’s a changed man I tells you), all the E13B peeps were there (except the new Isaac – no surprises there), there was great music and it lasted longer than last time too boot (helped by the fact that we knew the RAs on duty).

Ended, as all good parties do, with a big group of us going to the top of BuTo with Chris. We didn’t go right to the top as there were too many of us, but we did take some great stupid photos and throw moss at the ground. Good times. To top it off there was a fire alarm at 2am. This was surprisingly good as I had yet to go to bed and it gave me a chance to see a whole bunch of people I hadn’t yet caught up with.

Saturday
The loss-luggage issue continued to be a huge issue for me as my cell phone died last night. This meant that even if the luggage had arrived I had no way of confirming it. I called Air Canada to try and explain this predicament, but they were rather unhelpful. Grr! At least I now know the luggage is in Vancouver! In fact, it’s been there since 3pm yesterday so c’mon guys … why don’t I have it yet!?!?!

The day was complete at 4pm when my luggage ARRIVED and the fun began.

Plans for the big party that night were split between the exchange party that Sean was going to – a costume party at Fairview, or a Rob, Erin, etc. party at a house nearby. I made the decision to go to the Canadian party as I actually knew more people there (!) and wanted to end my time in Van at a place I knew would be good.

In the end this was the best decision ever as we had a ball. Met loads of Jess & Erin’s friends at Annie’s place and really enjoyed myself. That may have had something to do with the alcohol, but probably more a combination of having new clothes, my luggage and being with awesome people. The photos speak for themselves. Fun times abounded, especially revolving a bottle of beer (“once you go browny-translucent, you never go back”), my “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” tshirt and a yoga ball.

That was, until I thought it would be an awesome idea to climb a BC Hydro power box and leap into the tree. Well, Daniel had just done it and been fine, so I thought, well hell with it – me too. In the end I picked the one part of the tree that had just been trimmed and landed stomach first onto a big branch. Eek!! It winded me and I still have marks and will do for some time, but all is generally good.

So the best night ever ended perfectly with a LONG walk back to Gage – predicted at about 2hrs until …. A 99 BUS came to pick us up! How RANDOM was that?! It was awesome because not only did they pick us up, but they drove 100m down the road and picked up our friends. Talk about service!! All faith has been resorted in Vancouver as a city of incredibly friendly people.

We all went back to Jess’ apartment for my first taste of KD (Kraft Dinner – mac’n’cheese), nachos and watching Erin & Adam’s wedding video. Awesome fun, but the video and wedding look … well awkward!

Sunday
After a few days of late starts and bumming around the house, I had huge plans for my final day in Vancity, and I think I met most of my objectives. Well, except for the haircut and piercings, but that’s ok – I can do them anywhere.

A group of us (past and present exchange students) headed to the Chinese New Year parade. Vancouver is known for its ethnic populations and this parade was no exception. Well executed, huge and with lots of firecrackers – simply put it was great. It also seemed apt that I was ending this trip with something that just screams “Singapore” to me. Tying the two trips together pretty well, don’t you agree?

As I mentioned, this trip was made with many new exchange students. Some of the basic dynamics are there from last term, but to be honest, it’s just not the same. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t know a lot of them, but the personalities that existed in last term’s batch aren’t replicated here. There are FAR less Aussies and far more Europeans too, so all-in-all a more diverse group.

Because we arrived so early to the Parade (about 2hrs in advance actually!), we went for a walk around the route, eating bao along the way. Mmm… nothing like Steamed BBQ pork buns to cheer me up! The parade itself was all it should have been – colourful, noisy, imaginative and above all proud. It was amazingly inclusive too, with the Brazillian community presenting a few floats, along with almost every other minority in Vancouver. Interesting, eh?

After the parade I finally met with one of my friends from Singapore (!). Jeff studied at SFU, the other Uni in Vancouver, and so after much cell phone tag we decided to meet and have lunch at Tim Hortons for one last time. It was an awesome way to end my time in Vancouver and a great example of how things have come full circle.

Before too long, however, it was time for me to hop on a taxi to the airport. That was definitely the saddest I’ve felt for a LONG time. I nearly cried many times, including at transit in Portland. I miss UBC and Vancity SO much, but I consol myself with Facebook, Skype and the fact that I’ll be back soon!

Sunday ended with a safe arrival (WITH LUGGAGE!) in LA. My relatives, Chris, Lillian and David all came to pick me up, which was awesome. Now it’s definitely bed time!

Vancouver, BC (15-18 February 2007) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I actually got a lot out of it – not least the Aussie accent! I finally heard a fair and balanced account of Singapore’s politics and media (about time!), cried to an account of HIV Positive kids and the plight that befalls those suffering from a un-talked-about disease. Think about it, when was the last time you saw a fund-raising initiative for HIV. We generally (and largely subconsciously) take it as a self-inflicted illness. Well, for these kids it’s not and their story is DEFINITELY worth listening to.

OK, so now I’m off my soapbox, I’ll continue. In case you hadn’t noticed, health is a HUGE issue for me – public health especially. Methinks I’ll work in that field at some point…

The biggest news that I had yet to hear about from home was the election of Kevin Rudd as Labor’s new leader. Given how politically aware I thought I was that came as a bit of a shock. Odd, eh? I don’t know how effective he’ll be at bringing back my favoured party, as he has the personality of a rock. We’ll just have to wait and see.

And now onto the actual travelling business. My bags arrived at 11 (yay!) – clearly this lost baggage business happens to United frequently because they have a fast and effective procedure in place.

After a brief but touching reunion with my bag (“Ah so that’s where those clothes were!”) I headed straight for downtown. I had lunch at a Subway-style place called Potbelly. It’s a million times better than Subway and surprisingly good for fast food. I had a beef sub there and it was definitely filling, a perfect starter for one of the best tours I’ve ever taken.

Last time I came to DC I found out about the Voice of America tour. The VoA has been in operation since WW2 and is basically the ‘objective’ propaganda station of the US, built to counter the German and then the Soviet media. It has never broadcast in the States, but now broadcasts in something like 100 countries and 20 languages. I think those numbers are actually far higher, but I can’t remember right now. The tour takes you behind the scenes of their studios and why they exist. It was really interesting to hear (from their point of view) how they view objectivity and their purpose. They never broadcast unconfirmed information and take their mission as providers of truth VERY seriously. No one here is unilingual, and that in itself fascinates me. You need to book ahead online to go on a tour, or just show up at 1 or 3pm. Definitely recommended.

After the tour I finally had a chance to meet with Scott, a friend-of-a-friend who works at the IMF. It was a really insightful coffee meeting we had, discussing politics, the IMF and higher education. Given his role there, as an inside-but-independent observer and critic, he’s got a birds eye perspective and is a wealth of knowledge.

Finally it was time to head back to Fairfax to repack. I spent the evening alternating between that and posting lots of photos of Facebook. Ah the dilemmas of a traveller.

Tuesday
Woke to a call from United telling me my flight was cancelled and thus spent the morning fixing that up. I spoke to a really helpful United employee (see they do exist!) and, provided all goes well, I should end up there tomorrow night. Not too bad I guess. I went downtown for one last time to drop off some of my luggage with Cliff for Dad to come and collect later on. We had lunch at the Old Post Office (a really interesting building if you ever get the chance to visit).

From there, I headed straight back to Fairfax to shop at Tysons 1 with Melissa. This mall is the 6th biggest in the US so I felt I should pay it a visit. It turns out not to feel that big, as the Americans build out not up, but it was still huge. The parking alone reminded me of one place: Castle Towers. Nowhere in Sydney has truly terrible public transport like the Hills, and nowhere in Virginia has good public transport, so I guess they share that in common.

I bought some pants, and a long sleeved shirt at H&M and then watched Casino Royale. It’s typical Bond fare. Not too demanding and definitely farcical at times. Good fun and definitely plane material.

One highlight for today were the ads on the Metro. “If you don’t eat on our trains, we won’t sit on your kitchen table” & “4 out of 5 dentists recommend gum in your mouth instead of in our trains”. Priceless, eh?

Wednesday
Argh! I hate the cold weather, it's official. All flights today are grounded from Dulles airport, and indeed 90% of airports on the East Coast due to a severe weather system. Clearly I’m spending more time in DC.

Unfortunately I had nothing planned and really no interest in doing anything so I spent the day using the Internet and watching TV. Oh, and I shovelled snow. Before starting it I saw that as a rite-of-passage – something that must be done before you can say you have truly lived in the snow.

Now, afterwards, I agree with that statement, but I’m still never doing it again. Clearly I’m not doing it right because it kills. It hurts muscles that don’t normally get used.

Washington, DC (Part 2) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So I went hell-for-leather down Michigan Ave, seeing as much as I could in the limited time before the museums closed. I visited the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP – part of Columbia College), the Chicago Institute of Art, Millennium Park and the Magnificent Mile.

The MoCP was a pleasant surprise, and largely defies explanation. I really didn’t know what to expect, and even though it was small, it made up for a distinct lack of photography in my previous travels. There’s something about photography that endears me to it, moreso than most other forms of art. Maybe it’s because I feel I learn something from every photo I see – a new angle, colour mode or perspective – or because I feel like I can replicate it, but there’s definitely something. The MoCP had exhibitions on Japanese love hotels, homes of the San Fernando valley and sex and food. I’m sensing a trend here. All three exhibitions merged into each other and none of them felt at all sexual. It was as if the sex was deliberately removed from each photo. The most pornographic were the San Fernando Valley shots (SFV is the location for 90% of pornographic films made in America. The owners of mansions in that region hire their houses out for the weekend or during the day to use as backdrops for pornos). However, even those were taken to deliberately miss the sex and nudity. The focus instead was on the small details of the rooms that one often misses – the placement of plants, towels, nick-nacks on shelves, that distinguish these from other locations. As odd as that sounds, I found it really interesting.

The Institute of Art is a Chicago institution and definitely did not disappoint. They also had an exhibition on photography (this time on travel photography), as well as an excellent collection of African and Asian art. By no means did I have time to do the museum justice, nor see 80% of what was on display, but I did see the small galleries that particularly interested me – namely the African, Latin American and Asian galleries. Of those, my favourite was the short display on Lunhan paintings. To understand what these are, it would be best to Google/Wiki them, but to me they resembled comic book strips of ancient Japanese warriors. They struck me, shown as they were amongst traditional Japanese art, as different and arresting. I’m definitely in the market for one now … which means some more traveling is in order!

After a quick stroll down a portion of the Magnificent Mile I headed to the John Hancock Tower for the sunset. Hancock is not the tallest building in Chicago (that honour belongs to the Sears Tower, still the tallest occupied building in the world), but it does offer unparalled views of the greater Chicago area and out to the Lake. Especially compared to the CN Tower, this is definitely worth a visit.

That evening we went so many different places it seems odd to recount it as all one continuous event, but it was so I will. We began at a really nice Italian restaurant, Bice, for some excellent pasta and wine. From there, a few of us headed to the famed Second City improv centre to watch a ‘cutting-edge’ amateur improv group strut their stuff. To be honest it wasn’t the funniest show I’ve ever seen, but the team had talent, they just need to work on delivery and continuity. Arvind is studying there as well so in a few years maybe I’ll come back and see him up on stage!

After Second City, we made a trip to Rock’n’Roll McDonalds (seriously, that’s what its called – Arvind said so in the cab!). This place has to be seen to be believed. It has leather couches, gelato, a history of the last 50 years through McDonalds toys and loads of photos on the history of America & Maccas. So much fun, even with all the pre-pubescents out on Valentine’s Day formals!

Our final destination was a hip bowling/pool place downtown. They had a cool out-of-the-way lounge area that we relaxed in before playing some pool. I finally had a chance to learn how to play and it was awesome. Definitely a skill that I’ll have to practice when I get home! Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to bowl as it was too expensive. Maybe next time, eh?

Sunday
After waking later than I had anticipated, I headed out for one last time to see the sights of Chicago. It turns out the weather wasn’t as great as I had hoped so the late wake-up wasn’t too much of a loss. I followed my intended route – Navy Pier & Millennium Park, but I found I had more spare time than expected so I continued onwards.

Navy Pier, off downtown Chicago, is part amusement-park, part-museum, part-pier, and (on the day I visited) part-gymnastic competition. It’s far more substantial than I had expected, stretching for about (I’m guessing) 1-2kms. On it are rides, the obligatory Ferris wheel and a conference centre of sorts. It’s another of those ‘in the summer’ attractions although, despite the cold, it was pretty busy. That might have been more a product of the gymnastics and the fact that it was Sunday more than anything else, but ah well.

After a short bus ride back to Millennium Park I took the compulsory photos of myself under the bean – as you can see on my Facebook. The weather wasn’t as great as before, so I didn’t get quite as good a reflection as I had hoped, but hey, you can’t have everything. As mentioned above, I had some extra time, so I decided to do that quintessential Chicago thing – ride the Loop. The Loop (always in capitals it seems) rings the downtown area and makes for an interesting ride. It’s an elevated track so you ride at about the 3rd storey of all the buildings – great for perving! The trains and track are surprisingly old. Scrap that, almost disgracefully old. They are renovating them, but c’mon Chicago – 2nd city my arse!

From there I walked up State St to revisit Rock’n’Roll McDonalds and the Chicago Theatre and then back up the Magnificent Mile. Whilst walking I learned something about Chicagonians (or is it Chicagonites?) – they don’t put ketchup on their hot dogs. Come to think of it, do we? I think we (Sydneysiders) do, eh? Well, at least I do. Clearly mustard is the winner in the States!

And that was it – time to head back to DC! O’Hare lived up to its reputation as a big mess, successfully losing my luggage (ARGH!) and delaying the flight. Fair enough the weather was shite, but c’mon, this is Chicago – it’s hardly unexpected! United really need to get their act together on check in. They have moved to a self-service-only system and it just fails when there are more than 100 people queuing to check in. The solution is simple – hire more staff to collect the bags and then us customers won’t be left standing around unsure of what to do once we’ve got our boarding passes. Grrr!!

In the delay I did learn that the plane I was flying on supported the US troops. Now I don’t know about you, but was that really necessary? I don’t know if that is a good thing or not, although clearly a substantial portion of typical United flyers do, or they wouldn’t have it on the plane. In many ways it kinda makes me less likely to fly with them, although I can’t pinpoint why. It’s not the usual ‘makes us a bigger target’ nonsense, because I don’t buy that, or really care. As an Aussie, I’ll take what comes to me – I seriously doubt someone will target us anyway (one of the benefits of being so insignificant) and if they do, well it’s clearly my time to go. Thoughts anyone?

Due to the delay and the lost luggage I kept Jen waiting for an hour at Dulles, so I do apologise there. The important thing though is the luggage should arrive tomorrow morning. Should!

Chicago, IL remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I have to say though, in my limited knowledge of the place, Buffalo is a bit of a hole. Now that could have been because my experience is solely related to the bus terminal, but it just didn’t scream “visit me” like so many other cities have. It was dirty, unsafe and really cold!

Other than that, everywhere was pretty non-descript. Chicago’s O’Hare airport, reputedly the busiest in the world, definitely lived up to its reputation for being big, annoying and busy. This place is HUGE and the signage is limited. The problem stems from the fact that it has built up over time. This makes all the links between terminals and with the public mass transit system cumbersome and non-sensical.

Upon arrival at Arvinds' (another NUSer) place, however, I felt immediately at home. We went out immediately and hit two bars and a 24hr breakfast place (Golden Nugget) before crashing at 3am. I was so tired before arriving at Arvind’s that by the time I got there it was just nasty. The specific details of the evening are a bit hazy, but I do know that I had an awesome amount of fun, didn’t spend nearly enough money (Arvind! How dare you pay for all my drinks!! [Thanks though! ]), and met some cool people. I also remember that the portion for my 4-egg breakfast omelette-monstrosity was HUGE. This thing covered my 2am breakfast and my brunch the following day. I’m clearly back in the States!

Toronto, ON - Chicago, IL remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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My first impression of Toronto will stick with me for a while. To me it symbolises what differentiates it from other cities around it. You arrive from Ottawa on a rapidly expanding highway, approaching 9 lanes in each direction about 45mins out of downtown. Nowhere else in Canada that I know of ever gets to this level and I can only dread to think about how bad the traffic is in rush hours.

Suffice to say, the scale alone shocked me, and it was clear from the onset that Toronto was a different bread of city – big, brash and very very business-focused. Not a lot of tourist sights here, unless of course, you are here in the summer months. Then, I’ve been told, it’s awesome. It’s just I wasn’t visiting then!

After meeting my 2nd cousins (I think that’s how we are related – Norm is my Dad’s cousin) at the bus terminal, we drove straight to Niagara Falls. After checking in (to the Embassy Suites no less!) we had drinks at the Manager’s Reception and I headed out in the blistering cold to the IMAX theatre. Despite the amazing view from our room (see the photos), the weather was overcast, so I decided to go watch a movie on Niagara in the summer. See it how it should be seen, I guess.

The movie ended up being on the history of the falls, and more particularly on how people have attempted baralleling over it in various contraptions. The movie documents the success stories and has some awesome footage of the falls themselves, as only IMAX can. It also tells the legend of the falls, which involve a First Nations woman who, upon being given to the oldest and wisest man in the village, decided to leave rather than deny the old man his gift (if that makes sense). Legend has it she kayaked to the falls and fell over, becoming the “Maid of the Mist”. That term has since been the name of the boat that goes right up to the falls in the summer months.

I think today ranks up there as one of the coldest so far – the high was -13 Celsius, which became -27 with wind chill. Buffalo, just across the border in the US was 3F today. Ouch!

But I digress. We eat dinner at the Keg restaurant which overlooks the Horseshoe Falls (on the Canadian side). The steak and salad were of Canadian proportions but incredibly juicy and delicious. And the brownie I had for desert was definitely a fudge brownie, and as rich and thick as one should be. I have been spoilt this trip!!

Following dinner, Norm and I headed to the nearby Fallsview Casino, which really didn’t impress me at all. If anything it gave me a chance to see just how bad gambling really is. There were absolutely no redeeming features here to entice me. It was just row after row of poor, desperate, predominantly superstitious (lots of rubbing the screen here) people eager to ‘beat’ the house. Look, it’s not going to happen, and you will waste your money and ruin all that you have worked so hard to achieve. Argh! It got me so worked up! At least I saw the end of the Superbowl, which the Indianapolis Colts won rather convincingly.

Monday
We awoke this morning to find the poor weather gone, revealing a bright blue, sunny sky and the falls shimmering in all their glory. The mist was down too on yesterday, revealing more of the Horseshoe falls. The photos speak for themselves really – it was an awesome sight, and really noisy!

Luckily for me, Norm and Anne had a car, so we drove past the falls towards Niagara-on-the-Lake, passing many vineyards and the hydro plants on the way. Niagara-on-the-lake is renowned for its ice wine, and after a false start (we stopped at the one winery that didn’t make it first!), I tried some and bought a bottle. It’s so sweet – a sugar rating of 18 (desert wine has a rating of 8) – but really quite good.

We stopped twice more on the way back to Toronto (or as Jane would call it ‘T-dot’). The first stop was a quaint little Scottish pub known as the Queen’s Head in stylish Oakville. There I had my first Scottish Meat Pie, which was the perfect antidote to the biting cold outside. The second stop was an outlet mall where luckily I was able to withdraw some Canadian dollars. Once again, Toronto outdoes all other Canadian cities with its many strip malls blighting the landscape. These places are so wasteful! Doesn’t anyone realize how inefficient it is to have each shop in a separate building, surrounded on all sides by a mammoth single-level car park? Argh!!

Tuesday
After having re-checked my sightseeing guides to Toronto, I realized that there just wasn’t enough to see here to cover my three days if I proceeded at usual Tristan pace. So I gave myself loads of spare time to explore the city. This turned out to be most interesting, and led to some great times in Chinatown and in the PATH system.

My first stop, given the good weather I was blessed with, was CN Tower. Just to clear things up first off: CN is not CNN spelt incorrectly. Instead it stands for ‘Canadian National’ and refers to the railways company that operates Viarail and all intercity rail in Canada. It still stands as one of the tallest structures in the world, despite it being over 30 years old. The viewing platform that I reached was 346m above the ground!

To be honest, I don’t think its worth the exorbitant fee charged (C$22+). To start with, it’s such a symbol of Toronto that to take a photo from it defeats the purpose. You spend your whole time going ‘but where is the CN tower’ in all your photos. In addition, the ‘amazing’ glass floor doesn’t run the whole way along, but rather a very limited portion of the level, enabling you to see the concrete spire below and not much else. Being winter, the outdoor viewing deck was closed (a fact they failed to mention anywhere), so my pics were limited to those taken behind Perspex. Pity, because the view is amazing and the weather was perfect, if freezing.

From the CN Tower, I took the PATH underground city back to Union station and from there the subway to Museum. I emerged opposite the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), however I chose to leave that to another day and begin my walk back downtown. Starting along University Ave, I reached the Legislative Assembling buildings (otherwise known as the Provincial Parliament).

Some of you may be wondering, as I did, why the provincial government is in Toronto, but the national is in Ottawa. It’s all due to history, apparently. When the province (Ontario) was first colonized, it was done in Toronto, and so the legislative buildings all grew there. Ottawa as a national capital was added later (located where it is to appease the Quebecers & Ontarians).

The buildings themselves are well worth a visit, and I was lucky to have essentially a private guided tour. They have led an interesting history, having been burnt largely to the ground in 1909. Unlike the national Parliament, where the library was left intact, the library in Toronto was destroyed. Instead they were able to save the chamber, and it stands, partially restored, as a monument to colonial Canada.

From there I made the obligatory rest stop at Tim Hortons before making a brief visit to Old City Hall (now a large courthouse and subsequently mostly off-limits). I also stopped in the enormous Eaton Centre shopping complex, spending quite a bit of time lounging in Chapters and HMV. It was here that I caved in and bought the new Fall Out Boy album (early thoughts: nowhere near FUCT, but growing on me).

I knew I had to be opposite the MuchMusic studios for 6:30pm to meet Jane and her friends, so I made the most of the rapidly depleting sun and headed for Chinatown. I’m very glad I made that decision as Toronto’s Chinatown is the real deal. For starters, the majority language is Mandarin, not Cantonese, the markets are wet markets and the shops signs are all written in characters. This is my kind of place – for some bizarre reason it felt comforting, like home would. Odd, eh? I take it as a sign (if ever I needed one) that I’m a born ‘egg’ as always will be.

Think about it … what do eggs look like? White on the outside, yellow on the inside yeah? So … geddit? Ah forget it!

To continue the egg theme, I met with Jane and her friends (including another egg, Peter) for some Korean BBQ. We ate far too much and it was awesome. Great company, great food. What more could you want!? After nightcaps in Starbucks I headed home to watch some TV with Norm.

Wednesday
To my regret, a lot of my spare time in Toronto was wasted attempting to activate wireless internet in Norm & Anne’s apartment. I should have resigned myself from the outset that this was an unachievable goal and moved on. Instead I let it get to me and it came to define my time in Toronto. In the end I had to get my internet fix and did so at St Lawrence Market, but that wasn’t until Thursday. Before then, I bummed around the house watching BBC World. I guess there are worse things, eh?

And so it was that I found myself at midday in Starbucks on Bloor St, peoplewatching. To be honest, I love people-watching. It’s like stalking without the creepiness. Well, without most of the creepiness. You never know their names or occupations, but it’s always interesting to think about where they’re going, or what compelled them to dress the way they did. But I digress …

The aim today was visit some of Toronto’s museums. The first stop was the aforementioned Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). This place is destined to be huge, once the additions are finished (in the summer, obviously!), but in the meantime it’s a great venue to see Asian art – in particular Chinese and Japanese – and the history of Europe through art. From the ROM I made my way south to the CBC Museum. CBC is Canada’s version of ABC or BBC (hence the acronym), and is surprisingly good. It is seemingly well-funded and produces some excellent documentaries. Plus it hosts the Hour and Rick Mercer. With those two shows alone I’d watch it!

However, the museum was small, and lacked anything to make it stand out. It focused too much on the technical improvements in broadcasting, and less on what makes CBC important, interesting or historically engaging. A pity because it could have been so much better!

I also headed to MEC (Mountain Equip Co-op) to check out the day bags (mine is just a little worn!), but I completely forgot that you need membership to buy anything. Bugger. Another thing to add to my Vancouver to-do list.

Wednesday evening was destined to be a highlight of my time in Toronto due to one thing – the NBA! Norm bought us tickets a few weeks ago and so I’d been really looking forward to it for some time. The game, between the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic was wicked fun and pretty close. Neither team played their best, but it took me back to primary school and collecting NBA cards. Back in the day! The final score was 113-103 to Toronto! We won!!

Oh, I almost forgot – for dinner we went to this little Japanese place in their apartment building. Great food and clearly Norm & Anne are regulars – we were treated like royalty! I even tried Sushi Pizza, which is raw salmon on crusty rice. Good stuff!

Thursday
As I mentioned earlier, today was the big day: I got internet again! And had a really nice mocha to boot! I started the day at St Lawrence Market – an old-style food market, similar to Eastern Market in DC or possibly a small version of Flemington Market in Sydney. The downstairs part has given way to a large number of tourist-style shops, but the upper level still feels like a proper weekend food market. It was definitely another side to Toronto, which was great as in a city of 5 million people I was beginning to feel it was all just commuters, businesspeople and work.

At St Lawrence I picked up my pride and joy, a Tim Hortons tshirt. Well, not a real one, but one that I think is even better! It says “As long as I get my Timmys no one gets hurt!”. Gotta love that, eh?!

After a brief stop at Pizza Pizza (What would Toronto be without Pizza Pizza?!), I met Carol at Union Station. Carol and I studied together in Singapore, and it was great to see her again. Within a few minutes it was like we’d never left and in this cold weather it made me smile. Somehow talking about Singapore made me feel warm! Odd, eh?

Later on we met up with Jane and Ira (also ex-NUS exchangies) at Starbucks and went hunting for some Moroccan cuisine. The place, called 93-Harbord or something similar to that (my memory is a little hazy!), served Moroccan fusion cuisine and did it very well. I think the place was far more ‘nice’ than we had expected, but the food was amazing and the service (especially for Ira!) was great. Jane’s friend Louise also joined us and made sure we didn’t talk about Singapore the whole night!

We had our nightcap and said our farewells at (where else) Tim Hortons. There’s nothing like a double-double (my first one!) and TimBits to warm you up! And that was it! I was back at Norm and Anne’s for one final night. Luckily Norm was awake and we got to have a good chat about politics, Canada and everything in between. Despite all I’ve said against Toronto, it does have its charm, and in a city this big it is always the people that make or break a city. For me, it was the people that were its savings grace. Thanks guys!

Toronto, ON & Niagara Falls remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Thursday
Lorali had to work on Thursday, so I had the day to myself to go exploring Ottawa. Lorali, being the awesome host that she was/is, had gathered some promotional material on the sights and events, and I spent some time this morning reading through them. To be honest, I had no idea Canada’s capital could be so interesting. There’s definitely something about capital cities that makes them targets for awesome museums and events. Must have something to do with national pride, I guess.

I had decided to do the ‘Big-4’ today: Canadian War Museum, Museum of Civilisation, the Petra exhibit and an IMAX film. Surprisingly enough, I managed to do all 4 in the one day, although I did rely quite substantially on the late-night closing of the Museum of Civilisation to do so.

The newly-opened Canadian War Museum (CWM) lives up to all its hype. Well, in my mind at least. It’s housed in an architecturally interesting building, reminding me somewhat of a bunker. I’m not convinced that was the intention, but regardless, that’s what I see. The exhibits focus on all conflicts Canada has ever been involved in – starting with First Nations civil conflicts, moving through to the omnipresent Franco-English skirmishes, to more organized warfare like WW1 & 2, and then the post-WW2 conflicts of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and UN Peacekeeping. After being bombarded (bad word choice, I know) with WW1 & 2 information in high school and University, I found the exhibits a bit repetitive. But that can hardly be blamed on the museum. What most interested me was the Peacekeeping exhibit, and of the two and a half hours I spent there, almost half was in this final section. If anything, it strengthened my resolve to work in that field at some point in the future, possibly right out of college. Who knows where such a decision will take me, but that is largely the point!

What also struck me the most about the CWM was the similarities with our own (Australian) Armed Forces. In WW1, for example, our involvement was almost identical. The battles of Hill 70, Vimy Ridge, Beaumont-Hamel and Passchendale are as important to Canadian military identity as there are to the Aussies. It brought back memories of our 2001 Battlefields tour and generally made me more aware of the similarities between our two nations.

This afternoon was spent almost exclusively in the Museum of Civilisation (CMC). This place is huge and deserves a few hours to do it justice. My first stop was the special exhibit, currently on the Stone City of Petra, in Jordan. You know the one, in Indiana Jones, carved out of the rock face. Given my knowledge on the region was pretty much limited to Mr Jones, it was really interesting to see/hear and read about the city’s extensive influence and power. It was built in an easily fortified location at trading crossroads, and survived for many decades before finally a series of earthquakes rendered it unliveable. Like so many ancient cities, it managed to maintain an ample supply of water using a complex array of pumps, aqueducts and tunnels. It was only after the earthquakes destroyed much of the infrastructure that the city couldn’t continue to exist. Knowing this makes me feel quite sad that we are no longer able to think outside the box to best maintain our environment.

Following my visit to Petra, I continued around the museum, visiting the First Nations Hall (which is awesome btw, with loads of artifacts. Uber-PC though, which gets a bit tedious at times) and the Canadian history exhibit. Both exhibits go step-by-step, exploring themes and issues in Canada’s history, from traditions to inventions, people and places. Although much of it I had heard before (the importance of the railroad for example), it was still really well presented.

My final stop in the CMC was the IMAX Theatre to watch the film Fighter Pilot. I had actually originally planned to see this at the Air & Space Museum near Dulles airport, but circumstances denied me from doing so. As it turns out, it was more convenient and cheaper to do so here! The film itself follows one pilot and his crew in training sessions conducted near Las Vegas, Nevada. The shots are awesome, and do what IMAX does best: show us a world we would otherwise never see. At times stomach-churning, this film was well worth going to see.

By now it was well past night-fall, and I made my way (losing my Greyhound bus ticket on the way, and losing my direction majorly twice!) to Tim Hortons to see Jana & Laurie. I had ‘worked’ with Jana & Laurie on Ko Phi Phi, Thailand in July 2005 and it was only through a bizarre twist of fate (and Facebook) that we had stayed in touch and were able to meet in Ottawa. It was awesome reminiscing about the good ol’ (warm) times in Thailand, and it looks like I’ll see them again at Winterlude! Yay!

Friday
After a late start, Lorali and I made tracks for Cora’s. Cora’s is an institution in Ottawa, known for its substantial breakfasts served all-day. I had a fruit custard crepe, and it was huge and oh-so-good. I’m not entirely convinced by its supposed nutritional value, but mmmm…. Custard has a tendency to make me forget silly mundane things like eating properly!

After a brief visit to the police station (it was going to happen at least once on this trip, eh?) to report my lost Greyhound ticket, we headed to Chapters to buy a book that Lorali had been raving about for the past few days. I haven’t really looked at it much since, given time constraints, but it concerns the Canadian general (Romeo Delaire) who led the UN Peacekeeping force in Rwanda and his (in)ability to act when it was most needed. Should make for interesting (and disturbing) reading.

From there we made the trip downtown to visit Parliament Hill and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We took a tour of Parliament Hill just after 3pm and both found it fascinating. No matter how many parliamentary buildings I visit this trip, I don’t think I’ll ever become bored – they all differ so much in their style, substance and supposed power. Ottawa’s Parliament Hill is very traditional, modeled substantially on traditional English buildings.

Unfortunately the Photo museum was closed, so we made our way to By Ward Market to sample Ottawa’s most famous export – Beavertails. Now I’ll leave it up to you to work out whether I mean actual beavers tails or something different (the photos should tell you the answer!), but suffice to say they were awesome. Everything I’d expected and more. Truth be told I’d eaten one in Montreal a few days ago, but this time I changed toppings to Maple Butter and Nutella. It went EVERYWHERE and was soooo good!

A quick trip through the Rideau Centre reignited our travel plans as we stopped to grab brochures on the Trans-Mongolian railway and started to look at just how feasible the whole idea was. To our surprise, it looks like we could fit everything into 4 months. It will be a pretty intense four months, but definitely worth it. So far the plan entails flying to Germany, taking the train from Moscow to Beijing, heading south through China to Tibet, India and Sri Lanka, then onwards to South East Asia. It’s predicted to take about 4 months (throughout the northern summer) and cost about A$10,000. So far I have no money at all, nor any idea of really where I’ll be in 2009, but it’s a plan, and that’s a start. Something to look forward to in any case.

After a brief dinner of pesto pasta (my first one in months, and very much needed!), Lorali and I left the house for her friend Shari’s place. After a few pre-drinks, an attempt to fix their broken computer and some awkward comments made in front of Shari’s 12-yr old son (not by me!), we left for an even-more-bizarre cab ride downtown. Let’s just say I’ll never think of partitions in taxis the same way again! It was a pretty good night, all told, although I’m torn between the Anchor & Crown’s attitude and Bar 101’s fights for most interesting ‘scene’! It all ended well with pizza and laughing over slightly tipsy people falling over on the ice outside.

Saturday
After picking up Shari and her son Steven, Lorali and I drove downtown to Winterlude – Ottawa’s winter festival. As I’ve said before, winter festivals such as this bring cities alive. It makes winter worth looking forward to, and gives people purpose in the bitterly cold months.

Unfortunately the Rideau Canal was packed (today was the first day the whole thing had been open – a product of a particularly mild winter), so I never got a chance to skate on it. I did, however walk on it, so that’s part of the way there, isn’t it??

My particular highlight was eating poutine (chips, gravy, cheese – heart attack in a cup) then Taffy on snow (maple syrup frozen on ice) whilst watching all the ice sculptures being, well, sculpted. Some of them were simply amazing, and the photos don’t really do them justice (clear ice on white isn’t the best combination!). I will never cease to be amazed by chainsaws used to carve intricate details on ice.

We spent the afternoon re-visiting the Parliament for its open day. We walked all through the buildings and up to the Peace Tower, with its unparalleled view of downtown Ottawa and Gatineau. After a fire destroyed most of the building in 1916, only the library remained. The photos I’ve posted show the difference in architecture and explain why there are so many statues relating to WW1 throughout the building. Definitely worth a visit.

Following that, Lorali, Shari and Steven headed back, and I met up with Jana for a leisurely stroll through the Crystal Garden (with the ice sculptures). All too soon it was time to head back and continue my adventure through Eastern Canada. But not before Lorali and I had dinner at Baan Thai. This place was pretty authentic and served a mean duck curry. Lorali and I, both of whom have been to Thailand, were very impressed, and it was an excellent way to end an awesome few days.

Ottawa, ON remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Underground City proper runs between five Metro stations, linking about 8 shopping malls and numerous office towers in the process. Mostly they are separate underground passages that run beneath the buildings, but occasionally they sprawl out into wide open (covered) spaces in shopping malls and office lobbies. I heard later from Juliana that, because of the underground city, many office workers wear normal summer suits and just one coat to and from work, because the only time they are outside is waiting for a bus outside their apartment or at the Metro. Again, unfortunately (sort-of) as a tourist, I don’t have the luxury of merely commuting in this weather. Tourists, I’ve noticed, spend an inordinate amount of time outside admiring buildings, exploring cities or just getting lost. All this is mighty hard to do in -25 degree weather!

Tuesday
After yesterday’s issues with Museums being closed, I was determined to see more today. And, despite the weathers best efforts, I achieved it! My first stop was the Biodome, a remnant of the Olympics, displaying 4 separate and disparate ecosystems in the one building. The first, tropical forest, was probably the most lively, although it was so hot and humid in there (probably a 40 degree difference from outside) that it just wasn’t feasible to spend a long time there. The others, Laurentian Forest (modeled on a Quebec forest), St Lawrence Marine ecosystem and the Polar World, were all awesome and very interesting. I did find, however, that they were somewhat lacking in animals. I guess even indoors they hibernate in the winter!

The afternoon was spent largely in Vieux Montreal. Walking through Vieux (Old) Montreal, I really got an idea for why people live here. It’s a beautiful city, full of history, culture and amazing food. The difficulty is understanding all that when it’s FREEZING outside and your camera has just frozen!

I visited two museums this afternoon, both on the history of Montreal, and both very different. The first, Pointe-a-Calliere, focused more on the serious, archeological history of the city, looking at primary artifacts and the First Nations in the region. The second, the History Museum of Montreal, was far more tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at Bill 101 and other issues of Franco-Anglo rivalry. I actually think I preferred the second museum, even though there was less actual information provided.

Tuesday evening I went to see the Last King of Scotland. It was an awesome film, one of those movies that makes you realize just how bad the injustices in the world are. It looks at the rule of Idi Amin in Uganda and how a Scotsman managed to become his personal physicist. Whilst the country slowly degrades, he refuses to believe it’s due to Amin until the very last moment when his life is in danger. Definitely worth all the praises it’s been given!

Straight after the movie, I met with Angela’s friend Jenny, who has been studying at McGill University in Montreal. We went for dinner at a Tibetan restaurant, and then to a place called Juliete et Chocolat for some of the best fondue I’ve ever tasted. Great stuff!

Wednesday
Today was rather lazy, well at least judging it against yesterday. I woke late, spending most of the morning sorting things out online – including this stupid Greyhound bus ticket business. But now that it’s all sorted (sort-of), Dan & I can go off and eat at Schwatz’. This place, as famous in Montreal as La Maison de Bagel, is the renowned leader in dodgy smoked meat joints. Similar in appearance and style to Katz’s in NYC, Schwarz’ serves all manner of smoked meat sandwiches, and it does it well. It’s particularly notorious for coming down hard on cheapskates – splitting one dish between two people (which, given their portion size is entirely possible) is taxed heavily, as is not tipping. Dan was telling me that they have been known to chase people down the street for not tipping! Having dined there, I can definitely see that happening!

My final afternoon in Montreal was spent rather leisurely, enjoying the sunshine that somehow managed to poke its way through the thick cloud (& snow) cover of earlier today. My first stop was McGill’s McCord museum and it’s entertaining exhibitions on the weather, childhood in Montreal, Nuvisavik (weavers from Arctic Canada) and Montreal’s history as a city. To be honest it was largely a repeat of the other two museums, but it was nonetheless interesting. From there I walked around downtown again and managed to get some photos of Notre Dame cathedral before my camera died (of the cold, not because the batteries were actually depleted!).

I returned home with plenty of time to make my train, and so Dan & I decided to head to the top of Mont Royal to see the city from up on high. It was well worth it, walking past the requisite tubing lanes and skating rinks. I even had a chance to walk straight over a frozen lake. See Mum, I can walk on water! The photos speak for themselves, but the view was amazing. There’s nothing like natural hills to make for excellent viewing locations. No annoying reflective plastic windows to blur the view!

And that marked the end of my trip to Montreal. My train to Ottawa was non-descript and time passed fairly speedily. I decided a while ago that I wanted to travel by train for at least part of the trip, and this was the leg where the price differential made it a worthwhile alternative. It seems that only a few others had made the same decision as the 2-carriage train was only half full. Not too worry – more room for the rest of us! It seems to be the season for post-med/dentistry interviews. I met some people in Boston who were traveling around with suits taking interviews. The same occurred on the train to Ottawa – the three people sitting around me were all there for that reason!

Montreal, QC remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Regardless, we got to Tremblant, Quebec’s most famous and arguably best ski resort at 1:30pm. I hired my gear (with shoes that fitted perfectly!) and we all bought our 2pm onwards lift passes. We got to the lift, reached the summit and Juliana’s nose began to bleed. We guessed this was due to the altitude or the extreme cold, but we never really found out. The short of the story is, after dealing with completely inept first-aid attendants, we didn’t begin skiing till 3pm. For Tremblant, this was the last ride up, so we drove for 2hrs for one trip down the mountain!

Shit happens, so it’s not an issue at all. And the weather was absolutely amazing, so that made it all better. Wearing Dan’s uber ski-jacket and orange glasses helped too. As did our decision to take the green run, which took (no joke) 90mins to ski down. This run was HUGE and went from the absolute top of the mountain to the ski hire place right at the bottom. Impressive, eh? It was the first time I had skiied properly and without an instructor so I was stoked. Dan took some awesome photos too, so it’s all recorded for posterity!

Dinner was eaten at a crepe place Juliana had been raving about all day. It certainly lived up to expectations, and to top it off we had Timmy’s!! My first Timmy’s in over a month … is it right to be suffering withdrawal symptoms for really bad coffee and bagels? I must be turning Canadian!

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It turned out today was the first main day of Carnaval – Quebec City’s big winter festival. These events are fantastic ideas. It’s -35 outside and typically no one in their right mind would spend any more time than completely necessary, however for the few weekends when the weather is typically at its worst, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE comes out to play. The cities put on concerts, sledding, public ice rinks, ice sculpting and tubing, not too mention loads of chocolat chaud cafes. Mmm…hot chocolate at -35!

So it was that we ended up hurtling down a ice slide in an old wooden sled, spinning down snow in an inflatable tube and eating beavertails. I’m converted! This weather has its benefits after all!

(FYI: Beaver Tails aren’t as bad as they sound! I can just see Gabe and others out there going “what!! Tristan you’re a bad bad man!”. They are like stretched out donuts – take that sugary pastry, add maple syrup and nutella or more traditionally lemon, sugar and cinnamon and you have it. Brilliant invention, eh?)

Before too long it was nightfall (one of the downsides of being winter) and subsequently dinnertime. We opted for Aux Anciens Canadiens, a ‘typical’ old-style Quebecois restaurant. It was amazing – located in a converted house, with most of the tables in the loft, the food was hearty, unique and so Quebecois. We dined on buffalo, pheasant, bison and other meats, all prepared in thick, rich stews and gravies. Just how I like it!

To top it off, on the way home we visited the world-famous Ice Hotel. It was just as touristy as we had imagined, but it was special nonetheless. We’d missed the last tour for the evening, but we had a chance to wander around and see all the nifty sculptures, and take a ride on the mini ice slide there. We also went to the bar and had cocktails served in ice-glasses. As you do. The bar was pretty awesome – everything that could be made out of ice was – but it was just too cold to spend any substantial time there. Juliana kept ourselves amused by dancing around just to keep warm. Well, we thought we were clever!

I nabbed one of the special Heineken ‘bottles’ made of aluminium so as not to freeze, but I left it at D&J’s place. Ah well, that’s what memories and photos are for.

Our final stop for the evening was the 24-hr Maison de Bagel back in Montreal. This place is world famous and rightly so. There are queues there round-the-clock for the super-fresh bagels. Mmmmm… bagels

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I think the coldest it reached (before arriving in Montreal) was a balmy 7 degrees – Farenheit – in Lebanon, NH. Gotta love that town name, eh? Bet they’re annoyed at it now!! I can just see it at the airport security checkpoint: “so you’re born in Lebanon I see”. “Wait! It’s Lebanon, New Hampshire!”. “Of course it is, sir … just step right this way …”

Dan met me at the bus station and we went straight back to their apartment. They live fairly downtown – especially for a sprawling metropolis like Montreal – and have an amazing view of Cote-des-Neiges and its cemetery. We had dinner – a really nice Romanian dish of rolls of cabbage and meat, sort-of like Vietnamese spring rolls – and reminisced about our time together in Central America. Not exactly your typical Australia Day, but I never expected that in Canada!

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Sunday
I arrived late on Sunday afternoon owing to a flight cock-up on both United and my parts. Basically, if you book a flight through unitedairlines.com.au, you don’t ‘book’ it, you ‘confirm’ it. This means they take your credit card details but you don’t pay for it. Thus you can’t check in because you don’t have a ticket. So instead of quickly checking-in and boarding my 8am flight, I was put in the “ticked purchase” line which only had one person in front of me but still moved SUPER slow. A ‘friendly’ attendant informed me that I had missed my check in deadline and had missed my flight, before moving on to serving the person in front of me. I guess this was meant to help the situation by making me resign myself to taking the next flight, but I had never missed a flight before. I’ve been close (see my entry on Jan 9-10), but never missed one. Thus I didn’t know how it worked with ticketing or extra costs or anything.

Luckily, after a pricing scare (“That’ll be $540, sir”), I boarded the next flight (at 11am) fine, and having paid the original price (US$60). Phew!

So … instead of having a lot of time on Sunday (which turned out to be a really nice, sunny day), I had about 2 hours. So I went to the Boston Public Library (which is really worth a visit) and Chinatown. When I returned to my hostel, I met Alex, a Brit working at Disneyworld in Florida, and we decided to head with the hostel-organised group to the Jazz Club. There we met Aubreya, Ocean and others. So there you go – I can make friends in hostels. Singapore was an anomaly.

Monday
On Monday, Alex and I went sightseeing. We visited the Aquarium, with its excellent displays on Penguins and awesome 3-storey tank housing all manner of aquatic life! From there, we had lunch at historic (and touristy) Quincy Market (and saw the replica Cheers bar), before heading to Charlestown Navy Yard and the USS Constitution Museum. The USS Constitution is the oldest US Navy ship still in existence, dating back to 1797. That’s quite a life considering it’s a navy vessel!

For the afternoon, Alex and I parted ways – Alex to Harvard, and me to the Freedom Trail. I only got to the first stop, because I decided to take a tour of the Massachusetts State House that ended up lasting 90mins. Basically the woman giving the tour (to two of us I might add!) used the opportunity to tell us the history of the US through the paintings, rooms and what-not in the building. Awesome, eh? I felt very special!

Alex and I met up afterwards to do the Skywalk at the Prudential Tower. The view was pretty good, given it was nighttime, but a lot of the commentary required a clear day to see the buildings. That and the movie on Boston constantly referred to “in the summer”! Argh!!! If I hear that again I’ll hit someone! But it is definitely worth a visit, especially on a clear day, if only to admire the view and hear the “Immigration Rap”. It is as bad as it sounds.

That evening, Alex and I joined others from the hostel (Sarah & Jimmy from the UK) for a trip to a local Irish Pub. When in Boston, I guess! We tried all the local brews, with my favourite being Harpoon UFO. Good stuff, that is.

Tuesday
Today was rather unintentionally sporty. We began with some ice skating, and ended with a tour of the Boston Red Sox’ home Fenway Park. This was the first time I’d skated since I was about 7 (seriously!) and I sucked. It took ages for me to get used to wearing the skates and then I was so petrified of falling over that I didn’t have the confidence to skate properly until just before we decided to leave.

On the plus side I got to skate on the Frog Pond in Boston Common! Yay! Now hopefully I’ll get to skate in the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, or at least somewhere further north. One of the perks of it being freezing cold!!

After a fairly dodgy lunch in a city food court, Alex and I headed to Fenway Park for the Red Sox tour. The Red Sox are probably the most famous baseball team in existence. Despite it being a largely US sport (with some help from the Dominican Republic and Japan), there has always been something about the Red Sox that made both Alex and I want to visit. It turned out that we were the only two people there for the tour, so we had our own personal guide! Apparently during the season the tour can get as large as 170 people, so wooh to us! Unfortunately the field was covered to protect it from the snow, so we didn’t get as great as an experience as we perhaps could have done. To be honest though, I would prefer 2 people to 170 over that!

From there, Alex headed to the airport and back to Florida and I finished off the Freedom Trail. Unfortunately most of the museums were closed, so I’ll go back and see them tomorrow. I did make it all the way to the Old North Church though, so it was quite a walk, given the weather.

Wednesday
Last night I received an email from a contact of mine in Boston to meet her this morning at 10am. I replied as soon as I could, but didn’t hear back from her before I went to bed. So I decided to head out and see whether she got my email. As it turned out, she had, and we had an excellent Italian breakfast in Boston’s North End. Mmm….real coffee!

I was meeting with Yasmina to hear about her plans for an AIDS conference to be held in Kuala Lumpur in May 2007. To be called AIDS Action Tank, it will focus on establishing worlds best practice for the treatment and prevention of AIDS in young children in Africa. Instead of being another talking heads meeting, it is designed to combine practioners with researchers and academics to actually make progress in the field. Good stuff, eh? I’m definitely on board, and if you or anyone you know can help us out (i.e. if you’ve been in the field or done research in the area), comment or send me an email!

After meeting with Yasmina I finally did the Freedom Trail. Properly. The Freedom Trail links a number of sights from Boston (& the US’) history, winding its way from the Boston Common to Bunker Hill & the Navy Yards. It’s meant to be fantastic to do in the summer, but in the middle of winter it’s a bit brutal. But it has to be done, and so, sufficiently bundled up, I began.

You start at Boston Common, 48 acres of public park in the centre of town. It’s been this way since 1634, making it one of the oldest public parks in the country. From there, head up the hill to the Bulfinch-designed Massachusetts State House, dating back to 1795. It’s the one with the big gold dome on the roof. Turn and head back to Park St for the Park St Church and it’s burying ground. The church’s basement was a holding location for gunpowder in the War of 1812, and the burying ground is the final resting place for Hancock, John Quincy Adams, and Paul Revere (i.e. big names in US history). Continue downtown to the King’s Chapel (constructed 1668) and the Old South Meeting House. The OSMH has a fascinating house as a place of free speech, dating back to 1729. It was originally a Puritan meeting house, and grew to play a substantial role in the Civil War. Continue towards Quincy Market, passing the Old State House (built in 1713) and the sight of the Boston Massacre on the way. At Quincy Market you’ll find Faneuil Hall, constructed in 1742. Upstairs there’s a great little military museum and a brilliant hall (surprisingly enough!). Just try and find the stairs!! (they’re in the back corner).

Cross into the North End (the Italian Quarter of Boston) and visit the Revere House, dating back to 1680. Amazingly enough, this place still stands – and not because it was the home of Paul Revere! He wasn’t famous until after his death, and it’s just by luck (because the previous owners didn’t have enough money to redevelop it) that it is kept in its original condition. Well worth a visit! After the Revere House, head up the road to the Old North Church. It was here, on April 18, 1775 that two lanterns were displayed to warn the citizens the Red Coats were coming ‘by sea’. (‘One if by land, two if by sea’). Just beyond the church is the Coop’s Hill Burying Ground. This place is super old – dating back to 1659. I can’t remember if any famous people were buried here, but its age alone makes it worth visiting.

For today, that was the end of my Trail. Tomorrow I’ll go to the other side (near the Navy Yard) to board the USS Constitution and see Bunker Hill. Instead, I went to the exclusive Beacon Hill neighbourhood to snoop around. It’s very impressive, as the photos show. Basically it’s all own brownstones and similar buildings. Even the 7-11 is done up nicely, selling ‘sundries’. Aw!

This evening I headed with Paul & one other mate from the hostel to the Museum of Fine Arts. This place is awesome, and even more so on a Wed evening as it’s free! It’s surprisingly huge and has an excellent Asian & Egyptian art section. We didn’t get there till quite late, so it was a bit of a rush near the end, but so worth it. I even managed a quick chat to one of the guards there about her upcoming knee operation! Best of luck!! We then went out to dinner at a gourmet pizza place near our hostel (down Hemmenway Rd). Quite impressive food for a basement restaurant.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and stayed up till 3am chatting with some Argentinian guys. As you do!

Thursday
This morning, on the advice of Yasmina, I decided to visit Harvard University. I walked around the Yard and saw the statue etc., but my main reason for visiting was to see the Kennedy School of Government. You see, at some point in the future I would like to study there. Seriously! They have an excellent Masters program in International Development, and so I went to ask about it. I had set up a meeting with the head of the program, and she was more than happy to answer my questions. I think she felt it a little odd that I would come all this way when it is at least 4 years away, but ah well, I hope one day that works to my advantage!

Anyway, I learned very quickly that Harvard is not just another university. It’s a clear step above, and this was apparent in the answers to my many questions. For example, I asked if there was a language component to the courseload. Most other Masters programs include this, and I couldn’t see it in the paperwork she’d given me. Her answer surprised me, but in hindsight it probably shouldn’t have. This is a School where the alumni includes Foreign Ministers, heads of the WB and Presidential advisors. Basically, Harvard don’t require any language component because “most students arrive speaking 3 or 4 languages already, so we feel it’s fairly superfluous”. Oh, shit! Better get back to that Mandarin then!

After being suitably impressed at Harvard, Paul and I met up once more to have lunch at the oldest continuously running restaurant in the US, opposite the Holocaust Memorial. It was pretty good actually – I had a burger with blue cheese, and one final UFO. From there, we took the train to the Bunker Hill Monument, which commemorates the first major battle of the American Revolution. The weather was awesome, so we thought we’d walk up to the top for a decent view of Boston. Unfortunately, it was another of those ‘in the summer’ situations, as the Monument was closed for the season for renovations! Argh! We did get to board the USS Constitution though, which was great.

From there, Paul headed to the airport and home to Arizona, and I had a domestic night in blogging at the hostel.

For photos of Boston, see here

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We had lunch at the National Museum of American Indian which was AMAZING! This museum, which by many accounts doesn’t live up to the Smithsonian standards, has a hidden food court at its base, serving Native American food from around the continent. Thus you can have salmon, buffalo, traditional dressings, burgers and everything. In the end we settled for a “five region sampler for two” with cedar-plank fired salmon steak and buffalo (!) with an assortment of beans and vegetables cooked in traditional methods. It was fantastic, and really not what you expect from a museum food court! Especially in the US! We were so impressed with our meal that we left too late to make the aforementioned IMAX film and had to run against the wind back to the Air & Space museum. Never try that in -5 degree temperatures. It’s FREEZING!! Haha!

For the rest of the afternoon we headed to Connecticut & 18th to explore the “shopping district” of DC and check out Filene’s. Really I don’t understand why they call this the shopping district, because there are no more shops here than elsewhere in DC, and it’s mostly office towers anyway. Filene’s was good though, although small compared to New York.

For my last meal in DC we had Ethiopian on 18th Ave in Adams Morgan. This had been recommended to us by a few different people so we felt we should give it a try. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I think it was at 2450 18th. Ethiopian food is excellent – lots of meats and dips. Basically you eat with your fingers by ripping a piece of bread (more akin to naan than sliced) and wrapping it around the meat. I also tried some Ethiopian beer which was pretty decent!

We stopped off at the busiest Borders in America (!) on the way home and I picked up L’Auberge Espagnole (Spanish Apartment) on DVD for $6 and a guide book to Boston. Then I packed – for hours!

Photos from Washington, DC

Washington, DC: Day 11 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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One of his pet projects, and the one I’d most like to assist with, relates to increasing community involvement in the local public schools. They still have some of the lowest literacy rates in the nation, and are largely neglected by the incoming affluent families. DC’s education system is largely African-American, and most parents who can afford it send their children elsewhere. So Dan’s goal is to hold meetings, fundraisers, and the like to encourage more parents to commit time, money, and effort into raising the level of literacy and therefore hope for these children. And a damn fine one it is!

Dan also took me to the fish markets along the Potomac River, and the Jefferson Memorial. These are places that, without a car, I would have not been able to visit, so I owe Dan a lot for going out of his way to show me them! Thanks!

After leaving Dan at lunchtime I visited the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Holocaust Museum. The Library was very impressive, and its Reading Room is just amazing. A huge open space with leather chairs and old mahogany – I want one! The Supreme Court was similar, and justifiably imposing.

The big find was the Holocaust Museum. It’s tucked away off the Mall, but well worth the visit. During this trip I’d been to a few Holocaust memorials, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin, as well as Dachau Concentration Camp. Thus I knew the issues, facts and figures and stories. But it’s always worth reminding yourself that we owe a LOT to the generations before us, and the more we learn from history, the less likely we will repeat their mistakes. What set this museum apart from so many others, in my mind, was the large number of primary artifacts from the time. Walking through a train car that had been used to transport thousands of Jews to their deaths, or seeing the seals on the gas chamber doors does not leave you easily.

After a quick bite to eat at McDonalds – don’t ask me why – I met with Cristian. Cristian is another contact of Dan’s who works in the aid industry. He also studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Cristian started off as an engineer, but has since studied IT and a mid-career program in Public Policy, showing that you don’t need a PoliSci background to enter the public sector. This is refreshing, I guess, as meeting with too many PS students gives you the impression that we control the world!

I was also meant to meet with another friend at the IMF, but unfortunately his meeting ran late, and we’ve postponed it. I had dinner with Jen and her parents at their home. Her father is in defence as well (is everyone in this town in defence!!?) and has just returned from Beijing, so I heard a lot about his time there and saw some excellent photos. Oh I can’t wait to go there!!

Washington, DC: Day 10 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Regardless, today was spent largely in awe. My first stop was the Smithsonian Institutions’ Museum of Air and Space Udvar Hazy Centre. What a mouthful. More commonly known as “Udvar Hazy” or “that new place near Dulles”, it’s essentially 3 or 4 large aircraft hangers containing about 100 aircraft. They’re just there, without any big displays or historical information. The aim is to walk over, under, around and in them. Most are huge and completely overpower any attempt to compare humans to the machines we create.

There’s a full-size Boeing 707 there, a Concorde, a Space Shuttle and the Blackbird – the fastest plane ever built. There’s also a new Joint Strike Fighter – the plane that’s destined to replace the F-18 as the main fighter jet for the US Air Force. Now all this usually wouldn’t interest me, but what with my connections to the defence industry and the way it’s all just, well, there, it’s hard not too. You just look at them in wonder. Even after a tour of the place by an ex-air force general, I knew more about them specifically, but was still even more dwarfed by their size.

The final thing I saw at Udvar Hazy was the Observation Tower. Designed to look like the one at Dulles airport, it comes with mock controls and an awesome view. Pity the weather wasn’t so crash hot today, or I would have been able to see Virginia, DC and apparently even Western Virginia.

After being dropped off at the Metro station by Ellen (thanks again!), I went downtown to buy some phone credit (I had been at zero balance for 2 days, which was causing many problems!!), and walked over to the Capitol Building.

This place, often mistaken for the White House, is HUGE. It contains Congress, the Senate and some of the administrative functions that go along with running what is arguably the single most powerful government in the world. The building itself has crazy security procedures (incl. no sealed food/drink), but is very impressive. It’s built with mixed Greco-Roman styles, but the overall impact is one of power. It’s designed to look imposing, and it’s location at the end of the National Mall reflects that. There are only a few places one can visit within the building in this post-9/11 world, but there’s a nifty museum outlining the history of the various parts of the building downstairs. Definitely worth visiting.

My final sightseeing stop today was a return visit to the National Building Museum to see the Globe Theatre exhibition, and admire the official collection of artifacts from DC. The exhibition on the Globe Theatre was excellent, although I found myself focusing on their obsession with the spelling of ‘theatre’ vs ‘theater’ more than the content! They had a disclaimer at the front stating they would be spelling it the American way unless it was the name of an actual theatre outside the US. Wow, I’m really glad they cleared that up, or I would’ve been totally confused!!! Odd, eh?

Finally, before heading back to Jen’s I went to H&M to buy some clothes. I had hoped to find a nice coat on sale, but that wasn’t too be, so instead I got myself a long sleeved top (which is SO warm) and a new pair of jeans to replace the ones that I am throwing away. How I wish there was an H&M back home - $30 fashionable jeans are hard to say no too!

Washington, DC: Day 9 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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This morning I went to the Australian Embassy to meet with Dan, one of the AusTrade representatives there. We went for coffee and he showed me around our mighty impressive Embassy in DC. It’s much more substantial than I expected, and has some excellent artwork and very interesting photographs of past and present PMs with Presidents. Clearly some very important people have walked these halls. I also had the opportunity to learn more about the workings of the Embassy, and how all the various different aspects of it (Defence, DFAT, AusTrade, AusAID, Passports etc.) function. Pretty interesting stuff, actually, although I’m not entirely sure whether I could work there. It might just be too confining. I think I need to do some more field work first.

At lunch I went with Dad’s workmate Cliff to the Old Ebbet Grill right near the White House. This place just screams old money, but it does serve amazing food. I ordered the crab cakes and they came warm, soft and delicious. I have been so spoilt on this trip!! Backpacker, my arse!

For the rest of the afternoon I did some sightseeing along the National Mall, taking advantage of the fine weather and visiting the Washington Monument. The view from the top is amazing, particularly when it’s not that busy on a winter weekday afternoon. I highly recommend it! There’s a nifty exhibition on who Washington was, and his achievements, and also on the elevator down they discuss the different stone used in the construction, and the parts donated by each of the states in the Union.

Just before sunset I nipped over to Arlington Cemetery. Arlington is famous for being the resting place for JFK, Robert Kennedy, Robert E Lee and many other powerful Americans. However, it’s also the burial ground for any ex-military personnel should they request it. Thus it’s a working cemetery, with approximately 6 funerals a day. This means it’s always growing, and it’s HUGE. I only had time to walk around a small section of it, but it’s always a sobering experience and one that I won’t forget easily. That many dead – as far as the eye can see in most directions – just seems such a waste.

Tonight Jen and I had dinner at the newly-opened Whole Foods in Fairfax. This place is HUGE and awesome. Think of a Coles/Woolworths with almost entirely organic fresh produce, and a mini food court inside, selling cooked versions of the fresh food they sell. Great stuff!

Washington, DC: Day 8 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The other weather-related issue is transport. Many airports and train stations in the area close down for some or all of winter as the snow and wind makes travel hazardous. Chicago’s O’Hare Airport is notorious for cancelled flights, so hopefully I’ll be able to build some buffers into my trip to allow for delays.

Anyways, so today on my mission was the International Spy Museum, Ford’s Theatre, the National Building Museum, the Smithsonian Castle and seeing Akemi. And, surprisingly enough, I did it all! Just!

I started at the International Spy Museum, near the FBI. Interestingly enough, for one of the few non-free museums in DC, it is one of the most popular. It’s two stories of espionage, intrigue and gadgets. It’s very well done, although a bit tacky in parts. The history of spying goes right from the Chinese in 500BC to the end of the Cold War. Interestingly enough, there is little discussed beyond 1990. I’m guessing this is largely because they can’t access or display the still-classified records, but it would have been nice to speculate.

There were also some interesting exhibits on Hollywood and spying, and how one has influenced the other. Apparently, the CIA etc. took cues from the early Bond vehicles when outfitting their protected cars. Nifty, eh?

Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Museum, just down the road, were my next stop. It was here that Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth whilst attending the theatre. It was quite a small museum, and unfortunately due to rehearsals we couldn’t see the box Lincoln was sitting in when he was killed, but the artifacts that are there are as chilling as they are interesting. They even have the pillow that he was sitting on, and his coat! Complete with blood stains!

From there, I headed down to the National Building Museum to see what it was like. I’d heard good things about it, but to be honest architecture in and of itself is not my forte. I like admiring buildings and structures, but not necessarily reading about them. This museum though, is something special. The building itself disguises an enormous atrium, which is home to one of the Presidential Inauguration Balls. The two exhibits that I managed to fit in today were on Green Houses – or how to build an environmentally friendly house – and on DC itself. The first exhibition was fascinating, and really well done. It showed the many different options for homebuilders, citing examples from around the world, who want to live in a ‘green’ house under a budget. I picked up the booklet if people want to look at it. It makes for very interesting reading.

The second exhibition looked at the initial design for Washington DC by L’Enfant, and how the current city differs from it. DC, like Canberra, is a purpose-built capital city. It was located near the Mason-Dixon line (the line separating North and South in the Civil War), and was built on a swamp. It was originally a diamond, half from Virginia and half from Maryland. The SW part (belonging to Northern Virginia) has since been given back, and is now Arlington County. The rest is divided by the US Capitol Building and the Mall into NE, NW and SE. As it turns out, L’Enfants plan was fairly well adhered to, but only after many years. Initially only the Mall and its direct surrounds were kept to plan. The rest has come since.

I had a quick visit to the Smithsonian Castle to look around and watch the video on why the Institution exists etc. It was founded on money left to the US by Mr. Smithson, a Brit who had never set foot in the US, but wanted to create a place for people to learn (but not a university). Nifty, eh?

That night I headed to a bar in Courthouse to farewell Akemi. Akemi is a friend from USyd who now works for USAid and is heading off to Iraq on assignment with them. I met some of her excellent friends in DC and had a great Shepherd’s Pie. Stay safe Akemi!! If you want to read of her deeds, check out her blog .

Washington, DC: Day 7 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Monday 15 Jan
After so many days of not really doing anything, I decided to make the most of my remaining 5 days in DC. It didn’t get off to the greatest start with me sleeping in, but that was fine. I more than made up for that later.

My initial plan was to visit the White House and surrounds and visit the Compucat Washington office (my Dad’s work). Due to the aforementioned sleep-in, I had a quick whistle-stop visit to the White House (which was OK as you cannot enter it post-9/11). For lunch, Emily, Ellen and I had planned to meet and discuss Sydney. Ellen works with my Dad in DC and Emily, her daughter, is heading to Sydney on a study abroad program in February. So they both came armed with loads of questions on Sydney and Australia and University etc. etc.

It’s Emily’s first trip abroad on her own, so it’s a big move! She’ll have an awesome time, that’s a given. The only issue that was raised was her taking Health Sciences units. These, at USyd at least, are taken on a different campus. One that is quite far away from downtown. So I think she’s decided to scrap them, which luckily at USyd is a really easy process. We never have ‘full’ classes so changing preferences is easy. (Not that I would have ever considered it ‘easy’ before I traveled abroad!)

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Café in DC. As far as I am aware, this was my first trip to a Hard Rock. It was surprisingly good actually! The portions were gigantic, of course, and the beer was poured horrifically badly, but the meal itself was tasty and SO filling.

After lunch I visited the National Archives. These house the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution), the US Constitution (with Hancock’s famously large signature), and a copy of the Magna Carta. It was a fascinating museum, although being a public holiday (for Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday), the main documentary wasn’t running. I’ve heard this place can be mega-busy in the summer, but right now it was dead quiet, which was nice. I can imagine 100 people all bustling to see the Bill of Rights wouldn’t be pleasant.

From there I walked back down the National Mall to the Freer Gallery of Art. I really didn’t expect to stop here at all, but once I was in, I was hooked. It’s a fantastic gallery of Asian artifacts and design. Being the egg that I am, I am always on the look-out for anything Asian and here it was, right in DC. I think I was the only person in some of those galleries at the time, but nonetheless the calligraphy and everything else was amazing.

It is little stops like that which make me happy to be traveling independently again. If I was in a tour group, there would have been little chance that we would have stopped at the Freer Gallery, let alone spent time there to see the whole museum. I really enjoy going at my own pace again!

Washington, DC: Days 5 & 6 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We visited the National Mall (the central boulevard of Washington, DC – NOT a giant shopping centre!). Off the Mall are all the Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery, the monuments, the US Capitol Building and the White House. Many government offices also spread off the 2-mile long stretch of lawn and pedestrianised pathways. Today we visited the Korean, Vietnam and WW2 War Memorials, the Lincoln Monument, the US Postal Museum and Union Station.

We had intended to eat at the famed canteen of the National Museum of the American Indian, but due to a burst water main, both it and the National Air & Space Museum were closed for the day! Just our luck! We eventually found lunch in the Union Station food court. We ate dinner at an Iranian restaurant in McLean, VA. The place is called Shamshiry, and has the greatest menu I’ve ever seen. In fact, it was so good I took a copy for my collection of souvenirs!

An excerpt:

“ Shirin Polo – This is one of the most excitingly different, unusual and demanding of the Persian rice dishes. But it is also one of the most rewarding. The sweet rice is seasoned with spices, perfumed with sugared orange peel and made crunchy with pistachios and almonds. It tastes as if imaginative honeybees created it.”

“Baklava – Baklava is considered the grandest of all pastries … the taste of baklava will please you.”’

Washington, DC: Day 4 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I overestimated the amount of time required to check in and pass security so I ended up with an hour spare at JFK airport to surf the net and relax.

I arrived into Dulles at 5pm and Jen (a friend of Claudia’s from Cambridge that I met when I visited Claudia) picked me up. For the next 10 days I’ll be staying at her place in Fairfax, VA. It’s a fair way out of DC, but it’s close to the Metro, and I’m eternally grateful to Jen for letting me stay for such a long time!

Within about 10 minutes we were chatting like old friends, sharing stories about traveling and the like. Ah, good times!

I spent the next two days bumming around the house. I think the furthest I ventured was the grocery store nearby, and even that was under semi-duress! I think I really needed it, because I was fine sleeping 12+ hours, which even I’m not so used to! I sorted through all my luggage and decided on what to keep and what to discard, and I answered all my emails. I even began blogging again – after a long long time!

Ciao for now!

Washington, DC (10-13 January 2007) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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There’s a huge military presence in Guatemala that makes itself known quite early on. It’s not in-your-face, it’s just, well, there. There are multiple military bases on the way from the border, and armed guards patrol most shops and tourist areas.

Flores island itself is really touristy but great. Along with Isla Mujeres it stands out as my highlight so far. There are some cool little cafes, some great shopping, bargaining and local carnivals to boot! Our hotel is really nice and perfectly located to catch the sunset. Look, alright, these things are important!!

Sat Jan 6
Today was one thing: Tikal.

Tikal, along with Tulum, is a set of Mayan ruins. Instead of being a city centre, Tikal is a set of pyramid-like structures designed as a means of worshiping the gods. Again, it’s not really something that I can do justice with words, so check out the photos! We went for sunrise, but it ended up being misty until about 10am, so all that early rising was for nothing! Actually, the mist added ambience to the whole event that made it quite special, but it wasn’t the amazing ‘sun rising over the back of the pyramid’ scenario that we expected.

After the four-hour tour with an excellent guide (highly recommended that you do get a guide if you go), we headed down the road to the Canopy tour (Q$200). For the Aussies reading this, it’s a series of flying foxes. For the others, it’s a ZipTrek. It was a great was to see the jungle from above and the view was oftentimes spectacular. The only downside is you can’t stop half-way along to take photos, so much of the time was spent talking about it all!

By the end of that we were hot, dirty and sweaty, but unfortunately we couldn’t have a shower as we had already checked out of our hotels. Instead we went down the road to another hotel’s pool and had dinner. I’ve never felt so clean before!

Sun Jan 7
Last night was the overnight bus to Antigua. It was quite a nice bus, with loads of leg room, but unfortunately the bus was too noisy (what with Spanish movies and some of the group getting drunk) that not many of us got a whole lot of sleep. Dan decided to dance in the aisles, and this morning Frankie hit the roof over her lack of sleep. Interesting times!

Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala, is a fantastic city, and already I want to spend more time here. The streets are all cobblestone, and there are loads of interesting alleys to get lost in. After an excellent breakfast at La Casa Contina on the square (such good eggs!), we collectively realized that most of the ATMs in Antigua wouldn’t accept our cards and therefore we didn’t have any money. This caused a minor catastrophe as people debated how to get money – c’mon guys there aren’t really any options – WE NEED MONEY!

In the end, our driver from the bus station came and took a group to a nearby ATM. Turns out the ‘there isn’t any money in Antigua’ story was just that – a story fabricated by stressed tourists.

That afternoon we visited the local markets and the jade museum and store. It was really interesting actually, despite all the many jade stores I’ve been to (China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and now Guatemala), I actually liked this one. I bought two pieces there – one for me, and one for Ange.

That night we had dinner at a place near the arch for one last time as a group. It was an excellent place (despite Rachael eating pork [she’s Veggie!]). Afterwards, Ange wasn’t feeling too well, so I took her back to the hotel before heading out to find the others. The group had split and so some of us went to Reds to have some drinks. We drank far too many cocktails, met “Chase of Base” who was apparently a ‘bartender’ there (and thought Lorali was perfect! Aw!), and ended up only paying for half of them! Then we headed to the Salsa club and met up with the others. There was no one there, being a Sunday, so it closed early (12:30). Ah well, still a good night in my books!

Monday Jan 8
Another long day today, visiting the coffee fields, a macadamia plantation, another old town and Pacaya, one of the local volcanoes.

It all began (as usual) with breakfast at La Casa Contina. We headed from there to the coffee plantation (where Starbucks imports some of its coffee), then to the macadamia place, which was designed to train local communities to create sustainable industries. From there, we spent some time in another old town nearby, with its communal washing area and hot springs.

After a quick lunch (after getting lost trying to find out laundry place), we headed to Pacaya for sunset. BAD idea. We weren’t properly warned of the temperature issues, or the fact that it had erupted THAT morning. Grr!! Regardless, we went, some of us with proper winter clothing, most of us without. It took 90mins to walk from the base to the peak and by the time we reached the top it was pitch black.

I have to admit it was awesome seeing all the lava (which was fresh, although we didn’t know that at the time), but it was dark and foggy and some in the group failed to realize the importance of keeping together. As Rachael put it, “this is how people die”.

Luckily no one was injured, or at all affected by the experience. For the most part we were just kinda shocked by the whole thing. Definitely not something I’d recommend you do at sunset. There’s a reason why most tours leave at 2pm and no later!

Our final dinner (which turned into a bit of a bitchfest unfortunately) was had on the square, and we all went to Reds for some drinks and tequila. How fitting that we ended our Central America tour with tequila!

Tuesday Jan 9
Another LONG day – this time from Guatemala to New York.

Ange and I went with Rachael and Lorali to visit a nearby hotel (whose name escapes me at the moment). It turned out to be the one that housed the magical ATM that accepted everyone’s cards, and was actually an old monastery. They have really done an amazing job with the restoration that just walking around the place gave you a sense of its history.

From there, we headed back to our hotel, grabbed our bags and Dan & Juliana and said farewell to everyone. It was quite sad saying bye to all these people, although given that most of them are from Sydney, Ange and I will no doubt see them again! Ange & I got a ride to the airport with Dan & Juliana and we all boarded our flights to New York.

At Charlotte airport, being our first stop in the US, Ange & I had to clear immigration. Once again I had issues, namely that I didn’t have my final ticket home to prove I wasn’t staying in the country. Our flight had already been delayed, so instead of the expected 2hr layover, I had 1hr. 70mins of that were spent in Immigration as they detained me (I even spent time in the room for suspected illegal immigrants!) so they could check my records. Now I look back at it and I understand their motives, but seriously – it’s an e-ticket anyway, it’s all on my passport. Just look it up and save everyone the hassle!!

So the short of the story is, I JUST made our flight. In fact, they brought it back from taxiing so I could board. Seriously. I got to the gate and the plane was making its way to be re-attached to the bridge. I am SO grateful to US Airlines for doing that for me – thanks!! Phew!

Ange and I spent that night in a taxi to Suk’s to pick up our luggage, and then onto the Holiday Inn Express JFK to repack and sleep. I think it would have been better to have had another night in New York to relax, but ah well, it all worked out in the end. Just.

Photos from Guatemala

Guatemala (Jan 5-9, 2007) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We arrived into Belize City at 11:30 to find it nowhere near as bad as Coral had made it out to be. Instead of the barrage of touts and cab drivers we found an empty bus terminal. The touts began once we got outside, but we had got our luggage and our bearings by then so all was well.

Belize is clearly a much poorer country than Mexico. I’m sure this has something to do with its lack of proximity to the US. It has many grand old buildings that have since become derelict. There are clearly strong Chinese communities (as noted by the number of shops that have signs in English and Chinese), who appear to have taken over much of the trading. The official language is English, although it’s spoken with a Creole accent, so for the most part it is unrecognisable. The other strong community here are the Christians. There are SO many churches of all denominations everywhere, even in very small communities, which I wasn’t expecting.

Our cabanas are on the island of Caye Caulker. This is truly paradise – a Caribbean island with one main road, almost exclusively for backpackers. No big resorts, no food chains – perfect. Our cabanas are really basic and a bit out of the way from the centre of things, but in this island everything is relative – the whole thing takes about 20mins to walk around.

The other thing that keeps me amazed by this island is the food. For lunch we had Mango fish burgers and banana shakes, and for dinner I had the best grilled fish I’ve ever had. Seriously. With lemon garlic sauce. Ange had Lobster tail too, so I sampled some of it, and it was just as good. I know it’s an island, and so the seafood should be good, but so often it just isn’t, so we were really pleased!

Thurs Jan 4
After having the worst shower EVER (which the whole floor heard about due to the paper-thin walls), involving a screen that creeped inward, and hard, cold water. Argh! My biggest fear of travelling is the showers (possibly too much information, but hey!) So far, I’ve been in all kinds of showers – tall, short, hard, soft, cold, lukewarm, hot, complicated and easy. But this takes the cake!

I had deliberately got up early to fit in a proper breakfast. It turned out that no one else had woken up early, so I went for a walk around the island on my own, which was fantastic. It gave me a chance to clear my head – exactly what the doctor ordered! We all eventually had breakfast at Rasta Pasta – mmm egg muffin and ginger beer!

After that it was off for the main event – a full day snorkelling tour. It was AWESOME! We went to two separate coral reefs, saw turtles and swam with sharks and manta rays. Talk about wicked, eh?

We also stopped at the other (larger) island near Caye Caulker – San Pedro. There we had lunch and the girls bought some really nice jewellery.

We got back to Caye Caulker around 4:30pm and we were all so tired (and some were quite suburnt). Thus the rest of the day was just chilling. We went out as a group for dinner to Habaneros for some excellent (and quite expensive) fajitas. From there, a smaller group of us went to the i-and-i reggae bar to try the local drink: a ‘panti ripper’. Essentially it’s just a double Malibu and coke, although it’s potent!

Tomorrow morning we leave Belize and head to Flores in Guatemala. Hopefully it’s a fairly smooth ride!

Belize photos

Belize (Jan 3-4, 2007) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The buildings themselves are mostly located according to certain lunar-based rules. For example, on the 6th of April, the sun aligns in a certain way and the boy born on that day is declared King. For more information, visit Loco Gringo .

We ate lunch at the hostel nearby (and I tried some Mola, which is chocolate-flavoured sauce over red beans, guacamole and meat – so good!), before boarding another 4hr bus to Chetumal. Chetumal, on the Mexico-Belize border, was our overnight stop before tomorrow’s journey to Belize.

The bus itself was fine – air-con, TV, bathroom – but came with this ABSOLUTELY annoying kid who continuously ran between his seat at the front of the bus to the bathroom, opened the door, and ran back to his seat. This meant that the ‘aroma’ from the bathroom filled the air. Eugh! If I see that kid again I’ll kill him! We even plotted to feed him sleeping pills hidden in M&Ms! On the plus side, I watched Princess Bride 2 and Suddenly 30 in Spanish. It helped that Mila knew the plots inside-out, so I had a running commentary. Plus, let’s be honest, they are hardly deep films! The bus passed such Spanglish classics as “Chilly Willy’s International” and “Wonderfull Sex”.

Had dinner at our hotel – Mayan Chicken (cooked in oranges!). Really quite tasty, although not exactly what I expected!

Photos of Mexico

Mexico: Day 6 (Tulum & Chetumal) remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We ate an awesome brunch off Fifth Ave (Playa’s main street) at a place called Hot (on Casa 14). Then we spent the rest of the day on the beach, as we’d already done the whole shopping thing. There we bumped into Justin, Lorali and Rachael and just before sundown headed back to Cancun.

Unfortunately, we had dinner on our own again. Luckily we ate at our favourite restaurant on Av Coma near the supermarket. There Ange and I aired our opinions on group travel and the group dynamics that we expected to develop. I guess it was just my uneasiness talking, but it seemed a shame that 24hrs into our trip we’d all gone our separate ways! Hopefully tomorrow is much better!

Cancun: Day 5 remains copyright of the author tristanr, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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