There was a time early on during this trip when I thought I would be travelling forever. With a flight back to Brisbane at 8.30pm tonight, apparently that is not the case!
The rest of the US has been a fitting end to it all. New York city lived up to hype, it's an electric, diverse, happening place, one of the most exciting I've been to all trip. You can take a 20 minute subway ride and go from being the only white guy amongst an African American crowd to the only white guy amongst a Chinese crowd. In fact, the subway is one of the highlights of NY, people watching there is first-class, you get all sorts of folks on there. Hitting up some of the world famous landmarks like the Empire State, Central Park and Statue of Liberty was fun, but the most fun was to be had by just exploring all of the neighbourhoods downtown, from a slice of Italy and China, to money and style, then alternative and hip, followed by a business finance crowd within an afternoon. Madison Square Garden was awesome, I saw the best guy in the NBA do his stuff and make sure the disgruntled New York supporters stayed that way that night.
Off to San Francisco after that to wind the trip down. Quality place too. Similar in a lot of ways to NY really, both places developed at the same time, diverse neighbourhoods, world famous attractions (Alcatraz, Golden Gate bridge etc). However one of the big highlights here was seeing some bison in a park. These are basically a huge native American bull with a fur coat over their shoulders and a beard. They really look like they belong in Lord of the Rings with a troll riding them! Also the biggest Chinatown outside of China has bookended the start and finish of the trip nicely.
The crazy adventure has come to an end. Time to become a real person again. Thinking about the logistics of actually doing that worries me, so I am just focussing on watching the Ashes test match on return and I guess I'll take it from there...
Well that's it guys. It's all over. Hope you've enjoyed reading the journal, it's been fun putting the experiences into words. It's by far been the best time of my life no question. However, looking forward to getting home now. The annoyances of travel do tend to grow after seven months on the road. Australia beckons across the Pacific and it'll be great to get home. Looking forward to catching up with everyone on return. I'll be in Brisbane for a little while before hitting Melbourne late November/early December, and of course Christmas is around the corner, so I'll see you all soon!
Until then
Mick
Trip stats (worked out on the long flight across the US)
Countries visited: 26
Hostels/hotels stayed at: 61
Days away: 218
Money spent: A lot!
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