My good friend Al Morgan recently set off on his world travels, and we thought it'd be pretty neat if he became a guest blogger here to tell us all about his adventure. I'll let him introduce himself.
Hi folks, my name's Al. I've taken up residence on Alex's travel blog as I made the decision to spend my inheritance on travelling the world for a few months, and I'll document my exploits from time to time as I go. Sometimes I'll be travelling alone, sometimes with friends, and sometimes just crashing at somebody's flat (cough Alex and Lachy cough) - it's going to be interesting, as I'm not one to often leave my comfort zone. My journey starts with a tour of the US, followed by some time in Fiji, a few weeks in Australia, and ends with a brief stint in New Zealand. Let's do this.
Part One
So then, my first week. It's been pretty hectic. I left all my packing until last minute, and I even had my friend Callum take a photo of each unread page of my book the day before I flew so that I could read it on my iPad rather than bring the book with me (he offered, I'm not some slave driver). I met a guy named Hal on the plane, who made the whole 'flying into New York City on my own at night' process a little more bearable by being a decent guy who I could chat nervous ramblings to.
I arrived at the hostel at around midnight local time - so 5am frickin' me time - and got into my bunk, when the guy next to me who I'd introduced myself to offered me some food. How could I say no to late night dunkin donuts on my first night in New York? Me and Jay from South Korea proceeded to eat and chat in the cafe, and thus ended the first night of my world trip.
The following day the hostel ran a 12 hour 'grand tour', led by a local retiree named Jerry. I saw Brooklyn, crossed Brooklyn Bridge, visited Ground Zero, rode the Staten Island Ferry, saw China Town, Little Italy, Grand Central Station, and finally Times Square. It was a long day, I'll tell you that. And Jerry was insane, he sang 'Run Rabbit Run' three times in succession for no reason, and put on an Asian accent whenever he spoke to this one Turkish guy. Also, his motto was "when you looky looky, don't walky walky, or you'll hit something."
In the next few days I walked the length of Central Park twice (TWICE, it's massive!), went to the top of the Rockefeller Centre, had birthday drinks in Greenwich Village with a Brazilian bloke named Rodrigo, met my school friend Jenny for MORE birthday drinks, wandered around some museums etc., but the biggest highlight? Seeing Billy Joel live in the Madison Square Garden. Holy crap, why can't I do that every night? He was the tits, cracking jokes and getting the audience to vote-cheer for different songs. One highlight was him cracking out the electric guitar to play ACDC's Highway to Hell, while some bloke screamed the lyrics before dropping the mic and walking off.
I could talk about Billy for a while, but I won't. I then visited Washington, D.C. for a couple of days. It's a chilled, tidy city, full of free museums and huge monuments dedicated to everything and everyone ever in American history. The holocaust museum was a highlight, very moving. It was pretty damn crowded in there, and I saw a bored lady bust out a few moves to some onscreen Nazi parade music. I don't think she realised what she was getting jiggy to, but it was inappropriately entertaining for a few seconds. Next stop, the even norther-east US.
~
Al is in fact the best.
More coming soon.
-Alex
-Alex
Meet Al
Meet Al
Part One
So then, my first week. It's been pretty hectic. I left all my packing until last minute, and I even had my friend Callum take a photo of each unread page of my book the day before I flew so that I could read it on my iPad rather than bring the book with me (he offered, I'm not some slave driver). I met a guy named Hal on the plane, who made the whole 'flying into New York City on my own at night' process a little more bearable by being a decent guy who I could chat nervous ramblings to.
I arrived at the hostel at around midnight local time - so 5am frickin' me time - and got into my bunk, when the guy next to me who I'd introduced myself to offered me some food. How could I say no to late night dunkin donuts on my first night in New York? Me and Jay from South Korea proceeded to eat and chat in the cafe, and thus ended the first night of my world trip.
The following day the hostel ran a 12 hour 'grand tour', led by a local retiree named Jerry. I saw Brooklyn, crossed Brooklyn Bridge, visited Ground Zero, rode the Staten Island Ferry, saw China Town, Little Italy, Grand Central Station, and finally Times Square. It was a long day, I'll tell you that. And Jerry was insane, he sang 'Run Rabbit Run' three times in succession for no reason, and put on an Asian accent whenever he spoke to this one Turkish guy. Also, his motto was "when you looky looky, don't walky walky, or you'll hit something."
In the next few days I walked the length of Central Park twice (TWICE, it's massive!), went to the top of the Rockefeller Centre, had birthday drinks in Greenwich Village with a Brazilian bloke named Rodrigo, met my school friend Jenny for MORE birthday drinks, wandered around some museums etc., but the biggest highlight? Seeing Billy Joel live in the Madison Square Garden. Holy crap, why can't I do that every night? He was the tits, cracking jokes and getting the audience to vote-cheer for different songs. One highlight was him cracking out the electric guitar to play ACDC's Highway to Hell, while some bloke screamed the lyrics before dropping the mic and walking off.
I could talk about Billy for a while, but I won't. I then visited Washington, D.C. for a couple of days. It's a chilled, tidy city, full of free museums and huge monuments dedicated to everything and everyone ever in American history. The holocaust museum was a highlight, very moving. It was pretty damn crowded in there, and I saw a bored lady bust out a few moves to some onscreen Nazi parade music. I don't think she realised what she was getting jiggy to, but it was inappropriately entertaining for a few seconds. Next stop, the even norther-east US.
~
Al is in fact the best.
More coming soon.
-Alex
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