Cheers!

Yeah ... I was there. Got a picture and everything ^^
No locals though, only tourists, so I didn't stay.

Anyway, Boston. It tried to drown me sunday and then tried to blow me away today.
And I've had a really good time while that has been going on :D

I arrived here early sunday and found my hostel which was pretty central for once. I figured I'd check Harvard out first because maybe it wouldn't be crowded on a sunday (I was of course wrong). Enjoyed a jazz sunday in a veggie place I can't remember the name of and ended up playing disc golf with some dudes in a park. The drowning started during the disc playing, and my poor always suffering shoes died - they have been slowly falling apart for a few weeks because of all the walking and there had been holes clean through the soles for a couple of days so the sudden death wasn't so sudden. But I had to find a new pair on a sunday ... in the rain ... in bare feet. It took an hour but I found a pair and rewarded myself with some Starbucks time and a couple of new books.

The shoes on the bus to Boston and

before the sole on my right shoe fell off:

I also needed a new pair of socks and went into a souvenir shop and asked if they had a pair of Red Sox red socks .... and the people behind the desk looked at me with murder in their eyes! They take their baseball veeery serious here o_O

There are quite a few irish people here. I found out after I went into an irish pub to have a pint and watch sunday football (yes, I know, watching sport is not something I do but I'm kinda hooked on NFL at the moment) And I realized that that was what Boston reminded me of: Ireland. There is a feel here that makes me think of Ireland; I like it.

My day today was windy, but I didn't mind because I got to see a guy windsurf down Boylston street and I had Granary burying ground all to myself. I ate dinner at a thai restaurant called iPhoo and only choose it because the name made me laugh out loud.

Oh, and I found the most evil shop here . Very, very, very evil. Newbury comics! I'm poor! Gah!

Later ^^

Niagara Falls (edited)

It's wet.
Hm ... yeah ... it's wet ^^
If you are ever in Niagara Falls do not, and I repeat, DO NOT take your camera out when you are on Maid of the Mist and don't let anyone around you do it either. The Falls become more and more impressive the closer you are; it also becomes increasingly more loud and WET! The last fact hadn't occurred to a lot of tourists who kept taking pictures and then started swearing when their precious digital camera couldn't take the mist anymore. Duh!

I like all the black squirrels here; and they are everywhere and there are a lot of them!

Niagara itself is a bit sad really. I stayed in the so called art district and most houses were boarded up and just as many had "For rent" or "Available space" signs in the window. Once you get close to the falls the streets turn into one big tourist trap. Ripley's, Horror Houses, Souvenir shops, Fast Food joints and way too much neon on signs >_< The city sort of has the feeling of a place that used to be a big thing but then fell from glory.

One good thing happened on the way here though: Found two new friends. Anything that takes more than 14 hours produce buddies, hehe. They were men of course .. women don't like me.

I was going to go back to New York after this but it seems my wandering feet wants to go to Windsor here in Canada to say hi to Sarah; and I can swing by Detroit on the way back to New York.

EDIT: Well, I'm in Toronto. I hopped on a bus that turned out to be one and a half hour late so I missed my bus to Windsor and now have to wait five hours before the next one leaves. If I continue I'll be in Windsor past midnight and Sarah went to London until Monday so I can't crash on her couch ... ooooooh well ... maybe Boston would be a good idea. It sounds like a brilliant idea to me. I have to maximize my use of my greyhound pass anyway ;)

Over the mountains.

When I got off the bus in Asheville I instantly got homesick; the air was crisp, cool and there was a yellow brick house just across from the station. I started missing danish autumn right away.

It is nice though to finally be in a place where I have an easy time getting food. I've been to two places here where it is printed on the menu if the dish is vegan or not; awesome ^^ People had warned me that Asheville was hippie heaven but I think they have their catagories mixed up, 'cause Austin had hippies (tie-die t-shirts, long hair with braids and beads, funny hats, sleep outside, was alive in the 60's) and Asheville has health freaks (organic, vegan, recycle, dairy free, work out, holistic medicin), and I really do not mind that :) Especially since I live in west Asheville and everyone does it here so it's the norm.

I havn't had much luck with meeting people I knew before coming here: My friend in New York thought that I had meant october so I haven't met up with her yet. The one in New Orleans got attacked on her job and is now spending some time with her family in Canada. And I went to Asheville because I could meet up with someone I've talked to a lot that lived here, but she isn't answering at all! So I've met a bunch of new people but no old.

Oh yeah: I'm going to CANADA! ^^

Is it hot enough for you?

Getting ready to leave New Orleans. Despite the humidity my nordic self isn't melting away like some of my travel buddies, hehe. I started talking to a couple of guys when I got on the bus in San Antonio; they were both heading for Florida, but they ended up getting off the bus in New Orleans with me. We spent a lot of our time in the french quarter at the Cat's Meow singing our karaoke ass's off. And I've now got two new places to stay if I come back here ^^

"N'awlins" is constantly partying, but 99% is out-of-towners and 50% of those are foreigners. It makes for a cool loose atmosphere at night, but I actually like it better during the day (yes, despite the humidity). The place has some seriously interesting shops and artwork that has me engulfed for hours. I also have to come back for Mardi Gras one year; the guys say they'll come with me :)

I'm going to Asheville, North Carolina tomorrow. See ya fat cats later.

Surfing USA.

San Antonio ... mmm...
You don't even have to go to Mexico to get the mexican feeling; go to San Antoniooooo!

I'm couch surfing here. A really kick ass family; musicians, teachers, theater people. And as is befitting Texas: Huge house, huge cars and a huge circle of friends that I'm being introduced to ^^ Even the heat is of a serious size. It's HOT here. Seriously. Damn! I'm starting to understand the whole deal with driving everywhere: You have your aircon with you ;)

Downtown is not that big, I guess it makes sense since it's a really old town and all the historical stuff is within short walking distance - but it is slightly misleading since San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the states. Soooo many people here o_O

One last note in case you're not familiar with San Antonio's history: REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!

Well, I'm going to New Orleans. Later!

These boots are made for walking!

I'll never be a cowgirl, let's face it. I'm never going to honky tonk it down at a local bar after herding cattle all day on my trusty horse. I do not eat enough meat or drive enough truck either. BUT I used to ride horses though and that's more than can be said for most of the people I've met in Austin; some of them have worn cowboy hats and boots but they've never been to a farm or seen the landscape from a horse. HA!
Fair enough, Austin isn't your typical Texas town; it's quite off-beat really. Maybe it comes from being the capital, a university city and having kind of an odd history. And BATS, lots of bats!
Did I mention that I love it here?! Hehe.

About the bats: It's a tradition here that people watch the bats fly out at dusk and it really is awesome. Couldn't get any good pictures though :(

Austin is a music mecca apparently. A lot of the most interesting country and rock seems to come from here at the moment. They have music festivals scattered through out the year and I've managed to land here in the one month they don't have anything going on (lucky me). I guess it's alright since it has been raining on and off since I got of the bus here (once again, lucky me)

But seriously, I really do like Austin. This is the first place where I've been able to say: Yeah ... I could live here. New York is brilliant and I could probably spend some serious time there but it doesn't feel like a place I could live for an extended periode and Austin is. Funny ... I didn't think Texas was a place for me, heh.

Anywoo! People love my Elvis shades. Graceland's finest ^^

Pork... Pork! PORK!

Memphis is a hard place for vegetarians, vegans and people with heart problems (maybe that's why they call it the heartland (poor joke I know)) On my first day here I found one place that was willing to make a vegan meal; an irish pub called Silky O'Sullivan's where the food was so hot I couldn't taste my ale after I'd finished eating, hehe. It also introduced me to the strange concept of serving food in all plastic containers and with plastic cutlery for an extra challenge (I felt sorry for the people with a steak o_O).

Well, I went to the mother of all tourist traps: Graceland ^^
The house was a well preserved piece of the 70's. And I saw a woman break down crying when she came to Elvis' grave. It was cool to look at the trophy room where there were scandinavian gold records hanging on the wall. I decided that paying an ekstra $30 to see all that Graceland had to offer wasn't worth it so I quickly made my way to the Sun Studios afterwards.

Sun Studios ... damn! A three room slice of rock history. Such a tiny little place that had such a big impact on the world and it had an impact on me unlike Graceland. Sun Studios was sealed off after Sam Philips moved shop in the 60's so when it opened up as a museum much later it was exactly as it looked in the 50's when Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins recorded there. Soooo cool!

I also spent way too much time in the Rock and Soul Museum. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know. Plus I spent half an hour listening to Robert Johnson - king of the delta blues. Mmmm ...

I went to my second Gibson factory as well. Rock on \m/

There's more to tell but I'm out of time on the computer.

I'm going to Austin now. Texas here I come!

Leaving Nashville *Yeehaw!*

I did some very touristy things today: Went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and also bought a cap with their logo on it for my dad (hope he likes it). Although it was a rather touristy thing thing to do it was pretty cool; it cleared up a few cultural references from movies for me.

For some reason three random people unrelated to each other took pictures of me today; very odd.

My Boston people left. So sad. They gave me one of their beds when I first got here; I arrived really late and the hostel managers had all gone to bed. So the nice Boston people gave me beer and a bed. Awww ... ^^ That first night I also realized that Nashville mosquitoes have a weird appetite for my knees (seriously!)

Anyway, Moving on to Memphis. Going to Graceland *shakes hips*

Another picture: I see anime everywhere O_o

Lazy days ...

Relaxing big time ^^

I haven't found an adaptor for my phone charger yet so I'm phoneless, musicless and timeless. I'm fairly okay with that (except the music part).

Nashville is great for live music though ... most of it is Country ... but it is not baaaaad Country ... so far anyway. I'm kinda enjoying it - and I don't know how I feel about that o_O

Anyway, I just uploaded some of my first pictures and realized that I only take pictures of stuff I think are funny. So I don't have any pictures of people - I should since I've met quite a few brilliant people.

Something I thought was funny:

Howdy y'all

I'm in Nashville. And I like it. Yes, you heard me.

I went to Washington friday and lived to regret it. When I got off the bus someone pointed out that I was the only white person; I hadn't noticed up until that point and it sorta set the tone for my time there >_< There was no vacant beds anywhere unless you wanted to pay 200$ for a room so I was walking around at night looking at monuments with my backpack on (since there was nowhere to store my stuff either) I tried to get a bit of sleep on a monument actually but guys kept thinking I was homeless and wanted to give me money to get a room so (and this is a direct quote) "the black guys wouldn't rape me"! Gah! Plus in the middle of the night I was talking to a couple of girls that had been attacked and one of them was pretty upset (large dane to the rescue) And one final thing: A lot of rats. Damn!

So anyway, to get some sleep I went back on the bus and am now in Nashville. I like it here ^^
I realize that I'm mainly here so my parents will envy me for the rest of their days but I'm not sorry I came. The weather is nice and people are nice. The town only have one hostel but it is awesome.

I'm going to stay here for a few days before moving on to Memphis. Going to rest my poor feet and chill out in a hammock with a book. We're going to BBQ tonight and I'm looking forward to it :)

Moccachoccalattewhitewhipstuff to-go plz ^^

Yes, the first thing I did when I arrived in New York was to order a coffee at Starbucks; I was just honouring Tina and Anja's wishes.

Getting here wasn't a big thing; Finnair now has personal entertainment systems for all passengers so i watched movies and cartoons all the way. This personal system also shows you the take-off and landing from outside the plane, wicked cool! And off course I had to buy a few things at the Moomin shop in Helsinki.

I've been living in Chelsea since I got here; and just in case you don't know what that is: Lots of gaybars, rainbow flags everywhere and it's on your way to the west villiage.

My legs are busted and I have a hard time walking today. I had the inspired idea to walk the length of Manhattan; zig-zagged Broadway from upper Manhattan to Battery Park down south where I had some nice moments with the statue of liberty. I have to say that the south of the island is more me than the lights of the north.

Well, apparently it's Labour Day on monday and that means everything is booked up for the long weekend. This kind of long term stuff does not go well with my care-free style of travelling. So after 4 days in the big apple I'm moving on to Washington DC.