New York Photos

the ones looking over new york are taken from the top of rockerfeller center, about 850 feet up, the others are jusy NY randoms

More New York

Sorry, no photos yet blogfans but they will come soon. New York is still amazing me, everything is so big, the food, the buildings, the people (well some of them). Have spent the last couple days walking miles, went to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), walked round Harlem (nowhere near as rough as the part of Brooklyn i'm currently staying in-a taxi driver refused to take me there last night!), been wowed by Times Square, the UN building and many more. Went to my first Couch Surfing event www.couchsurfing.com and met a bunch of locals and other travellers. Its a resource to bring people together who are either travelling or want to meet travellers from around the world, will be staying with one of them tomorrow night which is very kind. Have met loads of random people, New Yorkers seem to be very kind, despite the common perception of them abrupt and too busy to help i am finding quite the opposite, complete strangers have gone oput of their way to help me several times already when i have been lost (often!), one person even kindly escorted me from the subway to the restaurant i was looking for!

It's a truly wonderful city, basically London x1000 and then some more. Loads more to do here so signing out for now.

NY/The Big Apple/Gotham City!

finally here, staying in a hostel for the first time ever, bit weird at first but will have to get used to it! had dinner last night with a friend in a cool bar/restaurant called Sip on Amsterdam Avenue, drunk sangria and ate good food, for once not ridiculous sized portions too! this morning woken up by one of the guys in the dorm (plus he snored all night, must buy ear plugs) so got up by 8am, did some exercise and stretched, had breakfast and then found some shops. bought a new camera, so expect some sexy photos soon and then had a nice walk round central park, or at least part of it as it is massive!

have got some very fun things lined up with some random new yorkers organised through www.couchsurfing.com include a flash mob event on saturday afternoon, can't wait for that!!!

My First US Club

we hit a very good club yesterday, the Do Over at Cranes. if you like hip hop, great clubs, friendly people and are in LA then definitely visit this place in the heart of hollywood (without any LA pretension whatsoever) www.thedoover.net , this place is awesome, it's in Cranes Hollywood Tavern, a club that looks like it was someones house and they just woke up one morning and said to themselves "i'm gonna make me a nightclub right here in my front room", and then turned the house into a bar and lounge and the garden into a dancefloor! awesome hip hop, funk, disco beats, great crowd, friendly and up for it and even a BBQ! beers were cheap, funnily enough english ale and stout in cans was very popular and the BBQ chicken delicious.

pics of the dancefloor below and have also added some random pics from LA/hollywood

Hollywood

Was hot, well it was hot everywhere in South California yesterday actually. Hollywood pretty much consisted of the famous Chinese Theatre, stars imprinted in the pavement, tatoo parlours, sex shops and loads of tourists. We saw someone famous in America filming a TV show outside the chinese theatre (Kathy Lee Gifford-I'm assured she is famous) and drove down Sunset Boulevard where all the clubs are like Viper Room and Whisky A Go Go, drove through Beverley Hills and saw some serious wealth, and Beverley Hills police station (ie Beverley Hills Cop).

Also saw this ultra hard looking Latino homeboy with tatoos all over his shaved head driving a pimped out ATV listening to gangster rap, thats when you really know you are in LA. In fact, alot of people here look scary, although i think that is my over active imagination, I'm sure not all Americans carry guns and dead bodies in the boot of their cars, although most do in the movies.

Seeing the iconic Hollywood sign up in the hills was cool, although, first time i saw it i was distracted by Heather, my host and guide for the day pointing out Home Depot, a home supplies shop, she obviously thought tourists are more interested in that kind of thing!

Team USA

well firstly, i caught a fish! very exciting, this was my first ever experience of fishing and therfore my first ever fish caught, although from the excitement and fuss i made reeling the thing in you would think i had just landed a killer whale. this happened on the pier at huntington beach, a very nice town about 40 minutes south of LA, with miles of beaches, waves, surfers and generally good vibes, not to mention an obscene amount of restaurants! i have eaten alot since i got here (although we didn't eat the fish) so i am bound to put on the weight i lost in spain this summer.
today we played golf on a gorgeous course and had some great tacos for breakfast, then hot dogs for lunch and i have now got over my initial fear of everyone looking like they are carrying a gun and could be ready to shoot me at any given moment, like they do in the movies.

talking of which, tomorrow we hit hollywood for the ultra touristy stuff, can't wait! watch this space film fans.

Californ.I.A

finally got here after staying awake for nearly 24 hours and flying via NY. it is morning and i think i have managed to reboot my body clock to accept this fact, time will tell. i'm staying in a place south of LA called Huntington Beach with a friend of a friend. heather is very kind and has given me use of her bicycle to go exploring and even left me with some pocket money for today! will be hooking up with my good old friend dan this evening and his wife melissa, really looking forward to seeing them.
i feel like this is finally the start of my travels, woohoo! will keep you posted, hopefully some good times lay ahead.

kenilworth

this isn't a castle, it's my nephew Charlie, nearly one and almost walking!

here's some random photos of kenilworth castle i took the other day whilst walking past


as you can see, it's a ruin now

odds and sods

ok, some random photos. my leaving party at the ranch, jose cooked 2 paellas (he is officially the 6th best paella valenciana cook in the world), which were as you can see, delicious!
the meat paella, containing chicken, rabbit and snails. not for the sqeamish!
thats jose on the right, with benja and adrian
es vedra sunset. mad rock sprouting out of the sea, rumoured to be a landing base for UFOs (according to ibian hippies-the drugs don't work fellas)

aguas blanca, a pebbled beach north east of the island. mid august and literally no more than 15 people on the beach. it is somewhat off the beaten track.

Back Home

Well, I'm back home in Kenilworth until next week, like the rest of the UK it is cold and wet. I don't miss wearing shorts and flip flops all day, popping down to the beach, sleeping in the hammock or whizzing round on my scooter at all. Honest.

Luke Skywalker described his home planet of Tatooine as something like "if there's a bright centre of the universe this is the point furthest away from it", kind of feel like that right now,of course it's great to come home and see family and friends though.

Keeping busy planning for LA and NY, have got a couple of dope looking clubs to check out in LA, just looking for the same in NY now, and can't wait to go on the hip hop tour of NY http://hushtours.com/ and see the birthplace of hip hop!!!!!