Another installment of Dave looking cold in front of landmarks!

Me looking cold behind the White House. I was amazed that they are still allowing planes to take off and bank really close to the White House and all the important stuff in Washington DC.


Me looking cold in front of the Washington monument. Washington DC reminds me a lot of Canberra. Everything is so planned out in this city. There are a lot of straight lines and planned streets. The washington monument is the centre of a cross made out of the US Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln memorial. Also, no building is allowed to be taller than the Capitol building so it's very low-lying like Canberra. Plus there are all the important gallerys and museums and things like the Supreme Court.


US Capitol


The front of the White House with the 'National Christmas Tree'. It's a tradition that's been going on for around 100 years. There is the main christmas tree which is lit by the President. Then there are 50 small trees, 1 for each state which are decorated by scout groups/ schools etc.


The best thing about Washington is the Smithsonian Institute. It is a collection of about 18 museums, all free to the public (unusual here) with some of the best exhibits in the world. There are museums on everything. This shot is of the legendary Blackbird which is a really cool plane which was so fast it could outrun soviet missiles launched at it! It's housed at the Air and Space Museum. They also had a Concorde from Air France which was great to see in person.


Looking from the Lincoln memorial to the Washington monument.... Lincoln was getting a facelift so I didn't bother to put up the photo of him with scaffolding around him!

NYC Pictures

Kiddies skating at Rockafeller Centre


The Gaetani's house in Averill Park, NY. Isn't it cute? It's so christmassy!


The view from the top of the Empire State Building.... I was amazed by how built up this city was. Sydney would probably fit in the Financial district at the end of Manhatten Island..... about a tenth of the city.


The beautiful Brooklyn Bridge. It's an amazing construction. The views from it are fantastic too!


See what I mean? The financial district of Manhatten Island from the Brooklyn bridge. The twin towers should be standing in the middle of this shot.


Brooklyn, outside Paul's apartment (Lindsay's Uncle), this is exactly what I pictured New York as being like!


NYC hot dog vendor. There are people selling stuff on the street everywhere!

Grand Central Station

Even colder NYC

So I've been to one of the craziest cities ever! It was particularly crazy the day I was there because the MTA (Transit Authority) didn't agree to the pay rises demanded by the workers union which meant that the second day I was in NYC there was a transit strike!! But it was a blessing in disguise because it meant that instead of catching the subway back from Brooklyn where we'd stayed the night before, we got to walk accross the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhatten. But luckily because the strike started the second day, I got to ride on the world famous NY Subway system which is quite good. Apparently 10million or so people ride the subway every day!

I saw a taping of Dave Letterman!! That was great and really interesting. They basically record the show in real time... it's taped a couple of hours before airing but they are such a well-oiled crew that they basically could record it in real time. The song that the band starts at the end of each segment, they play completely through, and by the time they finish the song, the cameras come back on and Dave starts the next segment... It was really an amazing thing to watch. The band was really interesting to see live and it was great to see Paul Shaffer's talent on the keyboards. For those in Australia, the show we saw taped will be aired on Saturday night on channel 9.
We also got to see Jim Carrey being dragged out of Rupert G's 'Hello Deli' as part of a skit that they recorded for Monday nights show.

The second day after walking into Manhatten over the bridge and being interviewed for some sort of tv, I went to rockafeller centre and saw the kiddies skating around in front of the christmas tree. I also walked through Macy's - The biggest store in the world apparently... (The perfume section was probably half the size of Target at Southland!!)

Then I went to the Empire State Building which was great, I got to see the Chrysler Building and the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as Times Square from the tallest building in NYC!

I am now back at Lindsay's in Albany. I might be staying till christmas day because they are having a big party christmas eve here and it sounds fun! They are wonderful people and they have a lovely house in the middle of a forrest. Tomorrow I am going in search of Deer!!

Cold NY State

OMG, the snow is so much fun. Yesterday Lindsay and I flew into Hartford CT and then drove through Massachusetts to NY state near Albany.

The plane ride was amazing, there are so many lights of cities along the way, totally unlike anything in Australia. We landed at a snowed in airport where they plough the runway at regular intervals. little turbulence.

It snowed here yesterday before we came (the reason for our delayed flight, now there is a foot of snow covering everything which is very cool!

I am going to get a coat today, Australian coats just don't cut it here. It was below zero farenheit (0F=-18C) the other day. Last night is was a balmy 20 farenheit (-6C). Apparently there are deer, turkeys and foxes around so I am going to go try and get some photos after we get back from NY. We are going there tomorrow (Monday) and will get back probably Wednesday.

I'll post photos soon!!

Cancelled!

So our plane flight has been cancelled!! yaaayyy! how bloody exciting. So now we leave tomorrow (friday) to fly to NY.

I'm going with my friend Lindsay, who was put in first class by mistake! SCORE! But the lady at American Airlines told me that if there were spare seats available in coach she would be moved at check-in so we decided to get seats in coach together.

It could have been due to the snow that is predicted in NY tonight (Yay snow) but I don't know. It's probably a good thing though because I had so much stuff to do in the next few hours before we were going to leave. Now I can relax overnight and hang out with Craig (Scotland) and Emily (England)

I'll post again from NY!!

Dave Letterman!!

I'm very excited about going to New York tomorrow night. And I won tickets to the Dave Letterman show on Monday!!!!! YAAAYYYY!!! as I cross another thing off the list of things I wanted to do in the USA....

It looks as though Jim Carrey will be on the show which is really cool!! Other than that my room is a huge mess as I try to pack everything I'm sending home into the box I bought. I want to travel as light as possible on the next part of my trip. I'm really looking forward to travelling again and especially getting to NYC. I am going to ice-skate in rockafeller plaza and see the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park, dance on the keyboard at FAO Schwarz...... how much fun!!