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Florida (and New York), United States of America (15 - 28 April 2007)

For as long as I can remember I've had this massive desire to travel the US of A. I'm not sure exactly why as most people's opinion of the US probably isn't all that high hehe, but anyway. Mo did a two-month work experience stint in The Bahamas, and when she suggested we meet up and spend a couple of weeks going around Florida straight afterwards I jumped at the opportunity! At this stage my longer-term plans are to relocate to Canada some time within the next few years or so and from there I intend to travel throughout the States (whereas I'm mainly concentrating on Europe at the moment), but like I said I've wanted to go there since forever so why not :) Below is our itinerary, and a map showing the route we took around the state:

 

The best route I could find to Florida from Edinburgh was via Newark, New Jersey. The flights I booked to Florida gave me just over an hour in Newark Airport to do the immigration thing, collect my luggage, figure out where to leave it again, do the security thing, and board the next plane. Needless to say, an hour is cutting it pretty fine and I was pretty worried, but it was either that or eventually arrive late at night and be totally stuffed and probably jetlagged so I took my chances. On the other hand, the flight back to Edinburgh from Newark left in the evening and so I deliberately booked an early flight from Miami to Newark and put in a five-hour stop over with the intention of going for a wander around Newark (like I've been doing around Glasgow during work lately). However, I wasn't aware of Newark's proximity to New York City at the time, so that plan quickly changed when I got there ;)

This is looking down Princes Street at 6am on the Sunday I left - dead and gloomy (with the occasional drunk fast asleep on the footpath or in the gutter hehe)!
Edinburgh Airport's runway - goddamn was I glad to be leaving this shit!
 
Dollar dollar bill y'all. The exchange rate between the pound and US dollar is exactly half at the moment (i.e. £1 = US$2 - nice!).

The US immigration card cracked me up!

"Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were you involved, in any way, in persecution associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?"

Ummm, yes!

"Have you ever detained, retained or withheld custody of a child from a US citizen granted custody of the child?"

Ummm, yes again!

The immigration card above wasn't the half of it; I've never been so interrogated at an airport before! While in the check-in queue I was asked a number of questions about the intentions of my trip and all this other bullshit, and had my drivers license and passport taken off me for ten minutes while they went and did God-knows-what with it! Then, just prior to boarding, I was interrogated further and had to remove my shoes so they could check for weapons or bombs or smelly feet or something (despite having already done this at security). Everyone on the flight got the same crap, and obviously it was all due to this being a US-bound flight, but even so I was still taken aback.

 
 
After watching Casino Royale on the plane I nodded off for a couple of hours, and woke up to this! The flight attendant said we were over Canada, but I'm not sure where exactly. Somewhere cold!

 
 
I'm buggered if I know why but for some reason we all got mustard in our food box, but no food that you'd actually accompany with mustard! I knew I was in for an interesting diet over the next fortnight hehe.
 
On our approach to Newark this was the view above...
 
...and this was the view below! We broke through the clouds literally 60 seconds before landing (and so I didn't get to see squat of Newark or New Jersey), and it was pissing with rain!

As I mentioned above, I only had an hour to go through all the formalities and rigmarole in Newark Airport, and it seemed like the fates were against me! Despite arriving bang on time the plane was delayed at the gate for ten minutes due to debris on the ground, my luggage took forever to emerge, and the queue for security moved as slow as molasses! When I eventually arrived at the gate (after a healthy 200-metre sprint) I was bang on time to board - phew!

 
 
The 2.5-hour flight down to Florida can be summed up in just one word: turbulent! It was awesome! Women were screaming, kids were crying, the wing flaps were getting a workout, the plane was plummeting, and I was loving it! As fun as that was, it was making me really nervous about the weather - I'd come here expecting heat and sun, not this crap that I'd just left behind!
 
As I kind of expected due to the swaying, we landed (hard) on just one set of wheels and it was at least a second before the other side hit. It had been a stressful trip (with the Newark rush) and the weather was looking ominous, but I was in the US - at last :)

Yup, I was finally here but as it turns out that one-hour mad-rush of a stopover at Newark could've well been the least of my worries. The shitty weather was affecting the majority of America's eastern seaboard, and it became so bad further north that for the following two days after my arrival several flights were cancelled. That would've been a great start to my holiday - stuck in some random airport for 48 hours!

 
On the first night I met some of Mo's mates that had been in the Bahamas with her, and we all headed out to find some grub. While out, we raided the local food store. The Yanks are crazy about their peanut butter!

 
 
We'd never seen nor had Twinkies before hehe. As the packet says they're sponge cake with creamy filling, quite nice :)
 
I didn't want to try these ;)
 
But I did try one of these hahaha!

 
 
I love Dr Pepper! It kind of tastes like Cherry Cola mixed with Creaming Soda, hard to explain but I like it (and so does Forrest Gump if anybody remembers that scene :)
 
Lazy bloody Yanks won't even brew their own tea...
 
...or make there own toast!

 
 
As well as their food, the Yanks seem to absolutely love their pets too and take them wherever they go hahaha!

 
 
This guy seems to love his owner too - he's not tied down as far as I can tell!
 
Why did the chicken cross the road? No idea but we saw several of them just wandering the streets.
 
They apparently don't like raccoons though hehe.

 
And man do they love their vehicles! Corvettes...
 
Ferraris...
 
 
Lamborghinis...
 
 
Mustangs...
 
Excessively large 4WD's...
 
 
Some with dual rear wheels even!...
 
And some nicely done up!
 
 
Some old classics...
 
 
More Ferraris and what ever the hell that thing is...
 
Some bloody nice bikes...
 
 
Some real hunks of junk...
 
And of course the classic American school bus! :)

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Page Comments


There ya are Dav you impatient shit, my Florida shots are up!! ;)
- Aaron

Holy shit I bet he was sore that next day - especially his hands; the part where he had to move across by only his fingertips just looked painful!! Bloody impressive though.

And Dav I've sorted the pics and have now just gotta put 'em up and caption them, should be done by next week (you whiney little bitch!!)

Feel free to put a link up to your blog on my main comment board by the way - it's funny stuff...
- Aaron
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It seems that Davydd is suffering from some sort of clinical illness
- Joseph

hahahaha you're not the most patient man Davydd!!!
- Jen

check this out - http://influks.com/post1090.html
- Dav

I am watching this space. I can't see anything. Maybe if I stare hard enough some pics of stars and stripes might materialise in my eyes.
- Davydd