So here we are!! 16 states later and Im back where I started, in the hostel in New York where I spent my very first excited and terrified night in the city! Its actually mad to believe that so much has happened in the last 15 weeks, and even more amazing to think that it actually went all as I planned it, with an extra stop along the way!!! If you ask me, knowing my luck, its the most amazing yet baffling part of the whole trip, but hey ho!! My knee has pretty much completely given out at this point, its pretty painful and keeps swelling up and is refusing to be walked on mostly but I have a bus tour pass for the next 3 days on one of those hop-on, hop-off dealios so I should be ok, I dont have to walk up and down subway stairs and hopefully will get dropped off directly at most of the sights. Then I need to be at the airport at 3pm on Friday and have to check out by 11am so am just considering getting on the subway then and heading over. If JFK is anything like Heathrow I should be able to amuse myself there for a few hours quite easily!!
So what have I been up to since I last posted?? Well Ive been in 3 states, haha, so you have another epic post to read sorry!! Denver was lovely, its an absolutely gorgeous city and the university isnt bad either!! Didnt see any musuems in Denver in the end, in my defence I tried but the US minting place was closed by the time we got there so we went and got our nails done instead to get over our devastation!! :) Ha. We also had lunch in the cutest little clocktower cafe where I had a lovely pizza cooked in an outside oven and Julia had the randomest hotdog with apricots in it!! She says it was nice though......... We then went home and ordered a Dominoes (its not as good as in the UK, no complimentary crust dip!!!) and went to bed ready for my early start.
And early it was!! It was still dark, which was ridiculous and I got my shuttle and headed to Denver airport. Its a really nice airport, with the most hilarious underground train system that plays different pieces of jaunty (Im sorry I had no other word for it!) with every different announcement. I got on my flight, its true what they say about Americans treating aeroplanes like buses, mine stopped at Chicago to let some passengers off and more on, then in Louisville where I got off, then it was heading on to Birmingham, Alabama before finishing in Orlando, Florida. And this is all one flight! Bizzare! Met Brittany at Louisville airport, had the expected tearful reunion (haha) then went back to her house in Lexington, about 50 miles away. We dumped my stuff and headed out to meet Keara (her sister who was also at camp) for a southern dinner. I had chicken and sweet potato fries, with yeast rolls and mashed potato. I then had strawberry cobbler for dessert which was delicious! We then went for a tour of Brittany's old neighbourhood including her high school, which looked just like Grease :) We then headed back to hers so I could pass out after my ridiculously tiring day of sitting........
The next day was awesome, we went apple picking at an orchard!!!!!! We had apple cider slushies (wierdly apple cider here isnt alcoholic!) and went out and ate and picked a load of apples. We then took some ridiculous photos with some scarecrows and headed in out of the heat (it was a non-apple-picking-friendly 94 degrees!!) It was Brittanys birthday so we'd done present stuff that morning, my necklace I bought her in Vegas survived the trip and Keara got her a beautiful floor lamp that we put pink bulbs in and it looked awesome!! She had vouchers to spend so we went to a lovely air conditioned mall and had tea there in a delicious Chinese restaurant. We then headed back and put on Sweet Home Alabama to keep the southern theme going and fell asleep!! After Keara got home from classes the next day we went out to a village that had been run by a group called the Shakers. They are similar to Amish people (although different enough that there were some Amish people visiting, who I confused with the people working there, oops!!) They were a religious group with some pretty interesting and convincing religious ideas that I think I need to look more into to see if they actually happened like we were told!! We wandered around there for a few hours then went to a steak restaurant for a somewhat awesome steak dinner!! We then decided to go to downtown Lexington to see if anything was going on for the start of the World Equestrian Games that are being held there, but it was raining so aside from the concert we had nearly missed there wasnt anything!! So we went back to the house, put on 10 Things I Hate About You (which is still so sad coz Heath Ledger died!!) and fell asleep to a movie again!!
Had to get up at stupid o'clock again (I dont know why I booked my flights as early as I did, in hindsight it was an error!!) but once again had a smooth flight to Washington DC, with a boring change in Detroit, Michigan. Arrived at the airport and met Fatemah, the girl who was kindly letting me stay with her, who I lived with last year for a term when she was an exchange student at Lancs (so that damn flat gave me something good in the end!!) We got some food and went back to hers to eat it and to catch up, then went out and wandered around her town of Rockville, Maryland whilst eating frozen yoghurt with fresh peaches and strawberries, yum!! We then went back to hers so I could once again pass out from exhaustion, ready for the epic day of sightseeing the next day. And epic it was!! Im thinking of writing a book on how to see all a city has to offer in a day, coz once again I managed it, with the exception of the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress, but that wasnt my fault, they were closed!! I went around all the monuments, the Lincoln memorial is pretty impressive and saw the White House, which is a bit of a let down, as bizarrely its just in the middle of a bunch of other buildings and is actually quite tiny!! Finally got my museum trip in the form of the Holocaust Museum, which was a pretty awesome place. We then went to Fatemah's sister-in-laws for some food, she made us quesedillas, which are mince, tomatos and cheese in tortillas with sour cream and are delicious!! We then spent a couple of hours scaring ourselves watching Criminal Minds and then I was nearly asleep so we went home! Had another early start the next day, Fatemah dropped me off at the train station before she went to work at 7.15 and I got the train into DC. Dropped my bag at a storage place and went for a tour of the Capitol and then to the Library of Congress. Tour started with obligatory and hilarious video on how wonderful America is, but the rest was pretty interesting, had a very amusing tour guide called Brandon, who clearly loved his country and his job!! Library claimed to hold lots of interesting things but I couldnt find any of them so went back to station to collect bag and wait for train. Did some stuff to prepare for coming home, which was a bit depressing (making docs appointments about my knee, ugh!) and then slept for most of the journey. Was awake to see Philadelphia station and one in New Jersey so can say Ive seen the states :) Getting the subway to the hostel went very smoothly, and am now probably off to bed (at 7pm how sad!!) so I can get up and start my bus tour at a decent time tomorrow!!
I dont have that many days left to blog about now so there will be no more epic posts, Ill probably update you on what happens here from the airport on Friday. Im actually really excited to be going home, I didnt think I would be but Im definitely ready to stop travelling now!! Im so bloody tired!! Its been amazing though and Im so excited to see New York! So Ill write soon, and see you in less than a week, eeeeeeeee :)
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