Harry Potter on Broadway, and other such delights

New York City is one of the most exciting places in the world. We arrived at our final destination, sweaty and grubby, but in one piece. Devastatingly, i dropped my Obama mug at the Washington bus station and it shattered into a billion pieces, just like the American economy. I was extra specially annoyed because hannah has successfully carried a Harry Potter memorobelia mug all the way from bloody orlando and managed not to break it- typical! I have just searched ebay for a replacement, it is severely lacking in any type of quality tat relating to the US president. Anyway, as i was saying, we arrived and got the metro up to our broadway hostel, annoyed that we had to cash in our Dolla coins in the ticket machine as it couldnt possibly be useful enough to take notes...so we arrive, check in and find our room to be most prison-like of them all, with a bunkbed, sink and window...this is the official title of the room as we did actually spend time ranking them...well thats what you get when you spend two months with just each other for company...we also ranked the craziest people we'd met on holiday, so feel free to ask me about it!
So, we got some pizza from this place called Sal and Carmines, which was just around the corner and it just so happened to be recommended by everyone, including that guy that plays the facebook guy in that film about facebook..anyway it was soo good i think we had a slice a day for our whole stay. Then we had a glass of wine and planned our attack on the cheap ticketing system of broadway.
At 7 am we got up and out to go and get tickets to see a show- its friday today so a prime viewing day, and we go to some theatre and queue up with a load of harry potter nerds (they werent actually, they were quite normal looking) and somehow manage to get standing tickets for that nights performance for a measly 32 dolz. Which is pretty good if you take into consideration the fact that the people sat in front of us would have to add another hundred to their tickets for the pleasure of their view.. Anyway, shortly after that we wander into times square and have a little wander around and then we navigate our way up to the Metropolitan Museum as, joy of joys, the Alexander McQueen exhibition is stillll showing, despite having been scheduled to close just 3 days before. Well, lucky us, we had the pleasure of queueing on 'Closing Weekend'...But that wasnt even the start of it. Museums in America are expensive. we completely take for granted that you can walk into the manchester one near the uni, or the bristol one at the top of park street and check that your favourite mummy exhibition from your childhood, is thankfully still there. in NYC,and indeed everywhere bar washington, you have to pay up to $25 for that privaledge...boo. BUUT, every cloud has a silver lining, some of the new york ones are 'recommended', which means when the snotty looking cashier asked us how much we would be paying to see this world famous McQueen exhibition, we say 'Five Dollars each please'. He was not impressed, but whatever, its culture, were students, he should be thankful were in museums and not out looting and rioting.
So then we queued for 2 hours to get in to see everything and then we queued the whole way around to see everything, (anyone sensing a theme?) All that said, it was wonderful, he was incredibly talented and its sad to think he will never again spray a model with paint on a catwalk.
By now my feet felt like they were on fire, we were both limping around like we'd wet ourselves so we decided to WALK HOME THROUGH CENTRAL PARK. we got lost. eventually made it back to have an hours 'foot rest' before we went back out to see DANIEL RADCLIFFE AKA THE REAL HP on broadway. Our seats were actually brilliant and he was also brilliant. The show was about a guy following a book called 'How to Succeed in business without really trying' or something along those lines, it was pretty funny and hp had a good singing voice too...must be magic! (sorry) anyway, so if any of you are in NYC at any point before december i urge you to get up at the crack of dawn and go down to get tickets. So that was fun, we also managed to fit in a drink at a local bar and chat to some locals who were telling us all about new york in the snow.
The next few days we spent trawling around various shops trying to get presents and things like that...which was fun if not tiring. It was super hot there as well which didnt help matters, and neither did our riding the metro all the time- black crispy bogeys all round!
Hannah and I have both been to NYC before which is why we didnt do 'classic tourist things'...also because theyre expensive and we would rather spend our money on bulk buying Reeces peanut butter cups. anyway, we went to 30 Rock(erfeller plaza) and looked thorough all the NBC tv paraphanalia. I almost bought some House Fridge magnets. . . . . . On our final night we went to this lovely little bar called 'Sip' and drank a massive jug of sangria in celebration of surviving all the nut jobs of america..was pretty good..and on our last day we went to the illusive schnitzel shop which we had been hunting for some time and had schnitzel and potato salad for breakfast....The joys of avoiding wholegrain! Anyway, we somehow got to JFK, it took us 2 hours and checked in about 4 times before we could wander duty free and spend our last, worthless dollars on super reduced alcohol and Key Lime Pie flavoured chewing gum (fyi it was vile)
2 films and 3 episodes of 'Jamies food revolution' later we landed at heathrow and i have subsequently not been able to get up before midday...DAMN YOU JETLAG!

'That White House isnt very white....oh, its the Treasury.'

So, we are in Washington D.C, not Washington State, and its so much better than i expected! This isn't really fair, but we kinda added it in as a filler because New York is so expensive...anyway, were staying in a place called the Loftstel. Its weird. There's some crazy woman who was convinced i was speaking Arabic when i was telling Hannah that according to US Weekly David Beckham was paying Usher to teach his children how to dance. AND, then she had the bloody cheek to tell me i should change my name because the new leader of Al-Qaeda's daughter-in-law is called Lucy. She can do one.
Anyway, to add to this were staying in a room in the basement with no windows with the most sullen, po-faced girl ever, who also happens to run the hostel. A lot of people seem to live here so all her stuff is spread all over the room and there's nowhere to put anything, which is annoying...i feel that using all of her expensive products is the only way to deal with this. (joking)
On our first full day we hit up the Organic Supermarket round the corner which is the nicest place everrrr, and we got a little picnic lunch of ham sandwiches and crisps and went off to the metro to be proper tourists and sight-see!
Once we had communicated that we wanted to go to the mall (pronounced Moll) we set off and popped out the other side in the biggest area of free tourist attractions imaginable. it would be bliss if you had a small and irritating child to entertain for half-term. We firstly hit up the Natural History Museum for the tarantulas, diamonds and originally, the rest-room.. We saw the Hope diamond (yes please) and Han persuaded me to see the Tarantula feeding which was pretty cool, except for all the annoying small children who were getting in the way and shouting out answers. Like, obviously arachnids have 8 legs duhhhhhhhh. idiots. We didn't get to hold the cockroaches but LUCKILY saw on in the bathroom last night to make up for it. I especially enjoyed the dead body/forensic section. mmm.
Next we had our picnic, which was excellent, and embarked upon our epic hunt for the White House, which was more difficult than we originally expected. after mistaking the Treasury for it, we eventually find the shining white building and take more comedy photos, to add to our collection of those taken at the Washington Monument..
Today we continued our challenge to see as many of the free (and educational) attractions as possible, starting with Congress which looks kinda like the White House but bigger, and then the Library of Congress, that is the biggest library in the world..it has 520 miles of bookshelves dontya know!? It was pretty stunning inside, much gold leaf and the likes. Its actually quite strange seeing old buildings over here, seeing as its quite a young country. Nowhere else we've been has had anything like it. After the libe we had lunch outside congress and then wandered into the Botanical Gardens which were beautiful. Had to take temporary refuge in a childs wendyhouse during the rain- pretty comical sight, hands and knees and all! It started tipping it down so we stayed and checked out the medicinal plants section and the primeval section too, did all the sniff tests of spices from around the world which, from the height they were set at, weren't for adults, but whatever. Finally it stopped raining so we went to get some comedy Obama related souvenirs and then headed all the way down the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, past the Declaration of Independence memorial and the Vietnam Memorial...god they love remembering things here. Anyway, by the time we were looking up at ol' Linc in his giant chair, it was pissing it down and we took shelter there, and in the gift shop where they had fake old money and Martin Luther King's speech (that's where he gave it..full of interesting facts today!) We took on the rain and plodded all the way back to the metro, only to have our journey interrupted by OBAMAS HELICOPTER FLYING PAST THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT AND THEN LANDING AT THE WHITEHOUSE!! OHHH EMMMM GEEE! made my day. i waved. obviously.
So, now were preparing for our final city, which is meant to be mega hot, by washing our pants and drinking hot chocolate..any tips for NYC feel free to contact..

Lots of love, not long now!

Country livin'

NASHHHVILLLLEEEEEEEE! So, here we go. Its awesome here. Our hostel is about a 20 minute walk away from 'downtown', which is where all the ho' downin' occurs. On our first day we just walked there and looked through all the crazy memorabilia shops..took some comedy photos with a carbon fibre Elvis statue and got some lunch in a bar (its the only place to have lunch in Nashville- they seem to have got it right!) There was a band a playin and we celebrated not being tired and ravaged by bugs. The bassist in the band was amazing, someone mentioned something about him being in a film about Elvis, everyone here is trying to make it, in the fame sense..y'know, the old chestnut about every waiter being a budding young star.. well our waitress was a sullen old cowboy boot who didn't deserve the tip that we HAD to give- compulsory tipping defies the point, i think i even made some kind of old lady comment to Han about how she'd get a surprise if she waitressed with that attitude in England.
Seriously, Hannah and i might as well have gone on a tour to Napa Valley, were such oldies. Our favourite phrase is 'one of my pet hates is........' needless to say, if someone had given me a quarter every time either of us had said that we'd be flying to NYC...
Anyway, the second day we decided we must see the Country Music Hall of Fame, (i was secretly hoping for a big busted shrine to DP, nothing of the sort occurred however..) A very nice lady in the ticket booth said she could tell we were English because we were so polite.. (in truth she could tell we were English because when she asked for our zip code, we said we were from England) but anyway, she was nice. The hall of Fame is 3 floors of memorabilia, cowboy boots, fringed shirts and even Elvis's Golden Cadillac (complete with 40 coats of opaque crushed diamond and fish scale paint). It was coooool! i learnt quite a lot about the Hank Williams Clan, there was an extensive display on him, and Han got all elbow bargey excited at the Taylor swift things, small girls HAD NO RIGHT TO STAND IN FRONT JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE SMALLER! (joking, she was nothing like that) they had some of Dolly's stuff and many people enjoyed our little country dance at the interactive Dolly station...We had a good day.
Today we went to Elliston Place, Lonely Planet says its nice, but in fact, its just a row of shops. Most of the streets of most of the places we've been are deserted, but i think its just because noone walks anywhere. well, you know what they say about mad dogs and Englishwomen. We went to an old fashioned 'soda shop' and got the traditional meat n'3 which, we discovered to our dismay, was as close to a school dinner that I've got to in 13 years..but not necessarily nasty. Were all for trying things, so we got some mac'n'cheese, which was disappointingly out of a packet, and some fried okra and turnip greens (quite bitter) and coleslaw, han had crab cakes and i had baked ham. it was all fine, the piece de resistance was the Vanilla Soda we shared, some kind of weird ice cream soda combo that was, obviously, delicious!
Then we got a coffee at this old Frat house called Cafe Coco which was full of those funny triangle flags that you see in college dorms in movies. It was good coffee too for a change. We are bracing ourselves for a longggggggggggggggg greyhound journey to Washington DC tomorrow evening, and then, tea at the Whitehouse!

Love you all, see you sooooooon!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Asheville- yogurt weaving capital of the U.S

So, i havent writtten for a while and im so hot and sweaty this is going to be a short one...Theres a heatwave in the US atm and were not talking weston-super-mare beach weather, were talking 105 at 5pm in the afternoon. Asheville, North Carolina originally made its way into our itinerary after someone told us James Franco (actor) does a creative writing course there. after lonely planet had confirmed it was a nice place to go we went there. We stayed at a really cool hostel that had a suit of armour and a vegetable patch and even hooks in the bedrooms so you could hang things up..which is a rarity over here. On our first day we went for brunch at a place called Sunny Point and i ate GRITS for the first time. apparently a southern delicacy they are in fact just a corn based porridge that is a bit, well, gritty...but nice, with cheese and sausage...and this thing called a biscuit that is in fact just a scone...MMMMMMMMM. SO thats one thing off the list...we basically didnt do anything the whole time we were in asheville because it was so hot...someone told us there was a great 'drumming circle' we could go and join in (someone would probably lend us a drum..) DO I LOOK LIKE ID LIKE TO JOIN A DRUMMING CIRCLE?! obviously i do, but i dont.
We got the bus into town on our second day, and id just like to say, i cant wait to get back to the uk- there are so many weirdos in america. Its like, i use the bus in Manchester probably 2 times a day 5 days a week and have only ever encountered Crazy Bus lady 10 times (the name says it all) and also there was this one weird bearded man who went on about when he was a student in the 70s...but thats it. Han and i havent got on a bus, greyhound or other, without some weirdo bobbing around. GODDDDDDDDDD.
anyway, we went into a weaving cafe where baby yoga was probably compusory and using non biodegradable coffee stirrers was illegal. we had a nice cup of coffee and looked around the town, which is an artists central, then got back on the bus and hid at our hostel for the rest of our time there...We did go out for drinks one night, met another nutter at the bar with his young ukranian wife (he had a massive white beard and i thought he might have been Dumbledore in disguise)...Han had gone to the toilet and he asked me if i believed in crop circles or deja vu, which in my opinion are entirely different, so i said not really, and then he told me that i should because they were real and then started harping on for the entire rest of our drinks which was quite annoying, because it meant we had to get another one after to carry on our OWN conversation. ANd then as we paid the bar tender gave us one 'on him' and we had to drink that so as not to be rude, so i blame my sore head the next day on ashevilles reputation for being the 'politest place in the states' or something.....
anyway, it was nice, but were in Nashville now and im quite happy being in counrty music heaven, at least the nutjobs here have good taste in music...



DOLLY 4EVA xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Insult to injury...

So....Charleston, South Carolina...
After what turned out to be a 24 not 21 hour bus journey, complete with 3 changes of buses and a 5 hour layover in a bus terminal not even out of Florida (complete with weird ticket doling out guy who started hitting on us because i said he had harry potter glasses) we arrived in Charleston. This is the place that the Civil War of America started, there is a Port Moultrie, which Hannah practically wee'ed herself over, and its meant to be a beautiful place where Americans holiday themselves.
If any of you watch the news ever you will see that there is currently a heatwave in america and our 40 degree highs of Las VEgas are being beasted by the impressive 108 degrees F that we are having to cope with...
Anyway, the journey was CRAP, and we arrived to our nice hostel in an old colonial house to find a CRAZY CAT LADY in our dorm. SHE HAD A CAT. I HATE CATS. well, it was a kitten, which was even more retarded than a normal cat, it didnt have any pavlovian reflexes yet-i.e. foot=>kick. anyway, we napped and then got up and went to this cool local bar, it was my kind of local, next door. we had some drinks and sat in a hammock and watched a folky type band 'jam'... i got majorly eaten, probably because i was sat on an ants nest or something, because when i say we were in a hammock, the combined weight of me and han meant we were sat on the floor with a kind of mesh blanket underneath us.. anyway, i got bit on the ass. not cool.
We headed home and went to bed, the cat was safely locked in its basket, luckily for it..the next morning, hannah wakes me with wailing cries 'IVE BEEEEN RAVAGED BY BUGS'. now i think, ok, i got bit on the ass, maybe shes now got a matching one. No, she has literally been ravaged, there are trails of bites all down both of her legs. poor thing, i joke no more about it.
So we got some benadryl and went to try and explore, down king street which is the main shopping street.,..unsuccessful exploring really because with both of our itchy legs and the heat combined we just couldnt cope. So having purchased some dinner and an iced coffee in a gourmet food shop we struggle home, to our alcoholic lemonade and eggplant thing that was pretty nice. We went to bed super early, after listening to the Woes of this girl who we have named Shakras seeing as she is somewhat of an earth lover. boy issues. also she had just auditioned for American Idol, but sadly didnt get through. anyway, after a lot of talking about auras and alignment and being in 'different spaces' (hannah's boyfriend would say she was a yoghurt weaver, an expression which i love. think 'eat, love, prey') we went to bed with fingers crossed for less inflamation tomorrow.
This has not occured. its still there! hannahs legs are impressivly lumpy, although my ass-bite has been reduced. Today, has been as much of a fail as yesterday, we made it to see 'Rainbow Row' which is a row of colourful colonial houses. we agree weve seen better in bristol, and head back to the pharmacy to see if anything will sort what hannah has named 'niknak' legs (google them, theyre a type of deformed, fluoro orange crisp..) shes now dosed up on antihistamines. we retreated and ate noodles and are leaving tomorrow.
Not the most successful visit. Please can more of you cross your fingers for us, it didnt seem to work last time. come on slackers, its not as if were swanning around and youre at work all day!



LOve you all xxxx

Miami Heat

So, we have been in south beach for 3 whole days, we added an extra one on the end because we couldnt face the idea of the 21 hour bus journey that we will be making tomorrow (wish us luck). Miami is super cool, C.S.I and other bad crime dramas, where i get all my American Info from, really doesnt do it justice. Were staying in an area with the largest collection of art deco buildings in the world..though dont quote me on that, i think its what the guidebook says. People rollerblade around in bikinis. its that sort of place. We have mainly been at the beach and eating as many vegetables as possible, a difficult task here in the south i tell you! Yesterday we went to the museam of erotic art because it was hot and we wanted to do something that involved air conditioning that wasnt in the hostel. It was pretty amazing...and embarrassing when we found ourselves walking down the street afterwards with our EROTIC MUSEUM ENTRY stickers still on. fail.
Its really weird here, weatherwise, without fail every afternoon theres a massive thunderstorm with lightning and everything. the beach gets evacuated, i guess because crispy electrocuted surfers probably wouldnt do too much for the tourism industry.
ANyway, we went sunbathing all morning as someone gave us a beach umbrella, and this evening we are going for a nice cuban meal to prepare ourselves for this bus journey.. will stay away from the cocktails this time.

Anyway, wish us luck please, see you on the other side, in sugar-sweet charleston
xxxxx

Welcome to Miami

Well, its certainly been a while. sorry about that but internet has been awkward to acquire to say the least. We have been to New Orleans and Orlando since i last wrote so ill try and fill you all in from what i can remember.

New Orleans was amazing. It was so humid though it was basically impossible to look nice at all because you were sweating so much. everywhere, all the time. The guidebook warned of the dangers of Post-Katrina new orleans but we didnt really have any problems. You can tell areas are dodgey, but only in the same way as any other city has 'unsavoury' areas. We mainly just wandered around looking at the beautiful french colonial style buildings of the French Quarter, sampling the delights of the creole influenced cuisine- Crispy crawfish, gumbo and jambalaya. yummm. also we had coffee in the oldest coffee house in the city and i may have bought some to bring home. not a wise move considering the size of the can.
One night we went to see Rebirth Brass Band which is a favourite of mine- ive seen them at a couple of festivals- but they have a weekly slot at this cool little club and seeing as in the entire 4 weeks weve been here we havent been out, we thought we'd maximise on this opportunity. turns out not to be such a wise move when you have to check out of your hostel by ten am.
Our bus to Orlando wasnt smooth to say the least- firstly they didnt have any room so we had to come back the next morning- which was inconvienient to say the least- and secondly, when we did get on we had a crazy bus driver who introduced herself like this 'Hello. i am mama, not big mama, small mama, fat mama, thin mama. just mama. i am your mama, you ARE my babies. we will leave now'..scary. anyway, she was so obsessed with being punctual that she threw a little girl off the bus because her dad wasnt back yet from the break...after that, she was 'not so cool mama', to us at least.

Orlando. Well people generally come here for only 1 reason, and that certainly isnt to appreciate the fine city. just as well because its not fine. its like the ass of florida. Thats probably not fair, there are 2 reasons and its mostly an either/or situation- Universal or Disney! We picked Universal, and more specifically their Islands of Adventure. now dont judge us, but this had a lot to do with the Harry Potter experience that is the newest installation to the park. It was incredible. they have made a Hogsmeade and a Hogwarts and you can drink butterbeer and have your photo taken with the driver of the Hogwarts express..you can send postcards by Owls and buy Bertie Botts every flavour beans. The ride itself was pretty cool, you wander through the castle before you get on and they have taking and moving portraits and 3d harry, ron and hermione telling you all about the adventure youre about to go on. We were like little kids! Theyve also got Dr Seuss Land, jurassic park (very cool) and several Marvel Comic rides though just as we were about to embark on the Incredible Hulk Mega Coaster the skies opened and there was a massive thunder and lightening storm. apparently they dont send guests up when theres a chance of lightning strike- which i think could be an added fun risk to the ride. Anyway, instead we bought tickets for the new HARRY POTTER MOVIE (are you sensing a theme yet?) yes, we got a bit carried away, and the only showing was at 11.20pm so by the time we had laughed and cried and clapped our way through it was 2am and the sugarrush of a day was all a bit too much. as was our 8am wakeup. but anyway, ive never been in a cinema where the excitement was so palpable, there were whoops and oohs and aahs and basically a standing ovation at the end. cool. So anyway, we were meant to get up early and get an early bus to miami but couldnt face it, and it was just as well seeing as there was no local bus and it would have been impossible for us to make it on time. things (especially lie-ins) work out for the best! Anyway, weve just got into Miami and are at quite a nice hostel which make a change from the dive we were in in Orlando..Were setting ourselves up for a couple of days on the beach to get rid of our tourist tans!

Lots of love xxx