poutine ahoy!

I don't remember what has happened since I last updated!
Um. We went on a picnic at Mont Royal, it was a really long and beautiful walk to the top of the little mountain. The others mocked my fear of squirrels dropping out of the trees to try to steal our food, but allowed the move from a table to the grass away from the trees. Later we visited the cross on the peak. At night the cross lights up and can be seen across the city.

Another night we went and saw David O'Doherty perform as part of the Just For Laughs comedy festival. That was Thursday, I think, because on Friday Jason and I stayed here in Longueiul. There is some knd of festival happening in the main street here. We danced to Cuban music and browsed markets and ate seafood in a nice cafe. Pretty much it was just a nice, low-key date, just the two of us, while Claire, Dane and Maddy went and saw a band in the city.

During summer in Montreal, fireworks are let off the Jacques-Cartier bridge twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday nights. We'd been going to go see them on Wednesday, but they were rained out and we ended up spending the evening in a karaoke bar in the gay district instead. Last night was our last opportunity to see the fireworks before we leave for New York, so we went down to the Old Port and watched the fireworks. They played classical music along with the fireworks, to heighten the experience, except all the music was movie scores, which made it kind of hilarious. The fireworks are also themed. Last nights were China themed, which meant lots of Olympic-ring inspired fireworks. After we went for poutine with a Montrealer friend of Maddy's who knows all the good places.

On Sundays there is percussion in the Mont-Royal park, which we had been planning to attend today, but we woke up to pouring rain so that's off and instead we are sitting around Anik's house in Longueiul watching CNN.

Next stop: New York!

so meet us there, if you wanna change the world with us

We are in Canada! The night we arrived we stayed at the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed in. It was for my birthday, one night only. Jason had a birthday surprise for me: he took me to the Old Port area of Montreal and we walked along the docks (going through customs took 2 hours so we didn't have enough time to do much there, but just walking was lovely), then we went to a very posh Italian restaurant that Jay had chosen because it had a reputation for excellent risotto (my favourite). We got back to the hotel and found they'd left a slice of cake and chocolates for us. Whether it was because it was my birthday, or because they knew it was our honeymoon, is uncertain, but either way they were delicious and rich and nom nom nom.

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel, put our bags in lockers at the train station and wandered around Old Montreal. We went to a museum and saw a couple of exhibitions, one of how the evolution of women's clothing is linked to social change, one of modern Inuit sculpture, one of portraits of Montrealers from the last few hundred years. We also stopped for poutine and beer at Peel Pub before heading down to the Grand Bibliotheque where we met up with Maddy and Dane and Claire.
Maddy, having contacts all over the world, had managed to wangle it so we're crashing on the floor at the home of a family friend while we're in Montreal, which is very generous of the friend, and nicely budget-friendly for us.
I thought it would cooler in Canada, being so far north and all, but it is 33 today. We've fallen into the routine of sleeping most of the morning away and going out in the later afternoon when it's cooler.
Last night we went for poutine in the Latin Quarter. Today's plan is op-shopping and a picnic at Mont Royal. Tomorrow, who knows. It's weird to think in a few weeks I'll be back in Australia, wearing scarves and coats to keep out the cold. I like summer.

maybe WE don't believe in YOU.

It's 4th of July, and I'm in Roswell. We're here for the UFO festival, though, unfortunately, the most exciting part of it is tomorrow (the alien parade!), which is the day we fly out to Montreal.
Tomorrow is also my birthday. Jason has some kind of suprise planned for the evening and has been sneaking around arranging things. I tried to guess what it was, but the only thing I could weasel out of him was that it's somewhere between roller skating and McDonalds. What does that even MEAN?

The last time I updated we were in Flagstaff trying to work out how to get to the Grand Canyon. Well, we got there, and it was amazing. We did a walk around the rim (only a tiny way, of course, that thing is huge!) but didn't go down into it at all because Jason was scared. We saw squirrels and condors and deer and a raccoon but no mountain lions.
Flagstaff was a fantastic town too, I should add. It has this laid-back, hippiy kind of vibe to it, and the bead shop there was fantastic. While we were wandering around looking for somewhere to get dinner on our last night there, we stumbled across a parade of locals who were marching to show their support for two young men who were beaten up the previous weekend during the Flagstaff mardi gras.

Our journey from Phoenix to El Paso was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. The over night bus broke down and we spent seven hours waiting for another, plus a couple of the passangers got drunk and abusive and were arrested. There's more, but I cried so much during the trip that I don't really feel like bringing up memories of it again incase I cry some more.
We've given up on the Greyhound. We're not riding it again, EVER. I won't give the full list of terrible things that have happened on the Greyhound, but let's just say there hasn't been a single bustrip without incident. We caught a TAXI from El Paso to Roswell. The driver gave us a good deal though, and the trip was so easy and relaxing.

Yesterday was our first full day here in Roswell. The UFO fest has begun, but it's mostly panels of UFOlogists and authors giving talks so far. If the buses are running today, we'll head back into town to attend a few and maybe buy one of the obnoxious souvenir t-shirts from one of the millions of tourist-oriented stores on Main St.

exhausted but not dead.

It's been a whirlwind couple of days, but I'll try to make this linear.
We spent a lot of time on the bus, going from San Francisco to Visalia, then from Visalia to Vegas, and finally from Vegas to where I am now, Flagstaff, Arizona.

I hardly remember arriving in Visalia. It was hot, and the motel we stayed at was kind of on the fringes of town, but our room had air con and cable and was near a little restuarant complex so it was OK. Our first night there we stocked up on food and beer and hid away in the cool darkness watching endless episodes of Scrubs. Heaven, after the Greyhound. They're dirty and never on time, and waiting at the San Francisco station with us was a man who was either schizophrenic or had Tourettes. Either way, he kept spitting everywhere and having little outbursts of crazy muttering. Jason and I both got wet from all his sputtering. I've never been so relieved as I was when he boarded a different bus than us.

Anyway, back to Visalia. We caught the shuttle to the national park and spent the day hiking and climbing. It was beautiful. I climbed to the top of Moro rock while Jason waited below. We also saw the biggest tree in the world, and took a lot of photos. It was just gorgeous.

The trip to Vegas was relatively uneventful, but the town itself is an abomination. On the positive end of the scale, the buffet at Harrah's casino is to die for. It was so hot there that a man we spoke to got third degree burns when he fell on the footpath. I could feel it radiating through my sneakers so strongly it actually hurt.
We ended up ducking into a mall attached to a casino. It was pretty cool, they'd painted the ceiling to look like the sky and had it all set up to look like we were outside when we actually in sweet, sweet air conditioning. We took advantage of happy hour at a bar and saw a couple of magic shows, and then I bought shoes. On our way back to the hostel we ducked into Circus Circus and caught a free performance.

Today has been a bit of a nightmare. We got up late and hungover from our little happy hour adventure last night and had to run for the bus in our huge packs while trying not to vomit. We caught the bus just in time, only to have it breakdown on us two hours out of Las Vegas. We managed to get to a gas station before the bus died completely. It was 6 hours before another bus arrived, and we ended up arriving in Flagstaff at 6.30pm instead of 11.45am. But we're here now and the hostel seems decent and hopefully, if we can sort out shuttles and all that, tomorrow we'll be going to the Grand Canyon.

titles are for jerks, anyway.

I started this blog at the request of my mother, but I have my doubts that she's even reading. Mum, are you out there? (If you are, sorry for not calling. The time difference plus the fact that you're at work most of the day makes it almost impossible.)

Anyway! Tonight is our last in San Francisco, tomorrow morning we're catching a bus to Visalia (pronounceed Vyse-alia, as we learned today after a very confusing conversation with the man at the Greyhound station).

It is 12 degrees in San Fran right now. That's right, TWELVE. It's colder here than it is in Sydney. Crazy. It was about 30 degrees the first couple days we were here, but yesterday we woke to discover the temperature had plummeted and suddenly we needed jeans and coats. I even bought a cute little crocheted beanie to keep my ears warm.

Despite the sudden-freezingness, yesterday was a great day! We went to the music festival I mentioned earlier, the one in Golden Gate park. On our way out we fed ducklings and saw a waterfall.
Then we caught the bus up to the Golden Gate Bridge and walked across. My new beanie came in handy. By the time we were done my nose and cheeks were cold and bloodless. Each breath exhaled was visible in the air.
We ended the day with dinner at a fancy restaurant and a visit to Borders bookstore. We ate snails! They were delicious. The wine was amazing also. We made up a silly review for it, that I might type up later (but not right now because I really hate this computer room, I feel like everyone is peering over my shoulder as I type and it makes me so uncomfortable so I'm just typing up the basics so I can get out of here. Though as I wrote that, the man who was sitting way too close in an 'ever-heard-personal-space-buddy?' kind of way moved so it's a little better now).

I'm in a bad mood. Blogging in a bad mood is like drinking and driving: you just shouldn't do it. So I'm going to go take a nap or maybe read before dinner, and maybe think about how delicously warm it will be in Visalia. Adios.

san francisco loooove

Jason has a new love. I'd be jealous, but it's not a person, it's a city: San Francisco. I share this love. It's the perfect blend of city-busy and peaceful calm, and lots of fun quirky little places to visit.
Jay wants to move here and open an Australian-style pub. We went looking for a bar last night to have a quiet drink to relax after the long bus trip, but all the bar in the down-town area are pretty awful. Either too upmarket for us, or loud and playing doof-doof music. One seemed to be a gang bar. We fled from that one pretty quickly, and ended up buying some beer from a corner store (they sell booze EVERYWHERE here, it's so weird) and sitting in the games room in the basement of the hostel.
Oh, and sort of off-topic, also kind of related because it's what Jay and I talked about while drinking said beer: there is a John Steinbeck museum! Except it's several hours south so we can't exactly get there, but I'm impressed none-the-less.

Today was our first full day here (we arrived at about 8pm last night so it doesn't really count) and we made the most of it. We searched fruitlessly for a flea market we'd seen mentioned online and ended up in Castro, the spanish quarter, where we went op-shopping. I bought a messenger bag to carry instead of my backpack, as we look too much like tourists in our backpacks that are obviously the little day packs that zip off the big backpacking bags.

We spent a few hours of the afternoon in an Irish pub by the ocean. We also went swimming, and despite the crazy, brain-frying heat, the water was so cold my feet ached until they went numb. Wandering home along the water, we ran into a lady selling her handmade jewellery at the markets, and she told us about a free music festival that's happening in the golden Gate Park on Sunday that sounds fantastic. There are details about it here, incase anyone cares: http://www.radioalice.com/pages/427796.php

We made our way back to the hostel through Chinatown, and it was only not having enough cash on me that prevented me from buying up on gifts and trinkets. I have to remind myself that anything I buy now I'll have to lug about with me for weeks, so I should wait and see if Chinatown in NY has similar items.

In the meantime, I'm off to have a cup of tea. I finally bought some milk, no more of that disgusting powered creamer that has taken over the continent!

like gum to your sneaker, so are the days of our lives...

Alright, I have a lot I want to get down and approximately 14 minutes in which to get it done.

Spent a few hours in Korea waiting for our connecting flight. During this time, I learned 3 things:
1. Coke DOES taste different in different countries. Specifically, it seemed to be softer, less carbonated.
2. 2000 won may sound like a lot of money, but it won't even buy you a pen.
3. There is this weird trend happening that I'm going to call "twinning" - where couples dress the same, in cute little matching tees, and sometimes whole outfits. It's kind of weird, and kind of adorable. Jason and I should try it some time.

Today was our second full day in LA (the first one was pretty much a write-off since all we did when we arrived was find food and then crash. Oh, and there's a fun story in there about the near-death experience of catching a shuttle from the airport). Yesterday we wandered around Hollywood getting a feel for the place. It reminds me of Brisbane. I think it's the smell.
We went vintage shopping, and spent hours wondering around Amoeba record store, a place that is both delightful and extremely upsetting (but only because I don't have the money to buy all the amazing things that they have). Also, we had breakfast at IHOP at the behest of Centine. Just in case she's reading, she can now sleep securely, knowing we have followed her advice. It wasn't all she said it would be, but it was alright.

Today we went to Universal Studios. We took the tour and got photos, and wandered around in the sun (don't worry, Mum, we applied sunscreen obsessively).

We kind of blew our budget for the week, pretty much entirely on food. From now on we're going to be sensible about money, and try to only buy from supermarkets and then do our own cooking at the hostel rather than eating out.
Sidenote: I now understand why America has such a problem with obesity. We had to go to FOUR different supermarkets before finding actual fresh fruit.

And before I go, here's a fun little quote from Jason about eating on a budget:
"The more I eat of what I pay for, the less I have to pay for more!"

travel blog, rah rah rah.

I'm in a mad hurry right now, so please forgive and any and all typos, errors and idiocies.
In 10 minutes I have to call a cab to the station! We're only going as far as Sydney today though, just to go stay with my uncle so we're close to the station. The real adventure begins tomorrow morning.

See you all then. (Or you know, not then. Some time after. Probably I'll update from LA or something.)