Day 225 to 227 - Homeward bound

Buffalo (USA) to Melbourne (Australia)

Day 225

Never buy a cappucino in the USA.

We started the long journey home with a flight from Buffalo to Los Angeles, stopping over in Chicago. The first flight was about an hour and 20 minutes, from a sunny Buffalo to an overcast and rainy Chicago. After waiting around another hour or so we took the next leg to LA, which was a flight of over five hours.

Once we landed we had to wait over half an hour for the shuttle to our hotel, where we'd booked an extended stay so we could have a very late checkout the next day.

Dinner was some very tasty Thai food from a restaurant just down the road from the hotel, just what we needed!

Day 226

Our flight wasn't until 10:30pm, so we took the local bus to visit Venice Beach. We had some lunch by the boardwalk, walked along the beach and checked out the sights. There was some really good skateboarding going on, but the muscle beach bit where we expected to see a bunch of himbos working out was pretty much empty.

After that it was back to the hotel to pack, then another visit to the Thai restaurant before taking the 7pm shuttle back to the airport for the flight home.

We didn't get much further though, after three hours in the airport and another three hours sitting on the plane, we still hadn't gone anywhere. There had been some sort of system error making it difficult to check people in, and it turns out the delay to our flight meant that the flight attendants would exceed the legal limit for hours worked, so the flight was cancelled. We were booked onto an 11:30pm plane the next day, and sent on our way with food vouchers (US$60 for three meals for two people), and information on getting our additional hotel costs refunded.

While waiting in line to rebook our flight we had been able to use the airport's free internet to book a room at the Hyatt next to the airport (the airline was paying), but many people were having difficulty finding a room.

Day 227

An extra day in LA, without transportation - great! At least the hotel was nice, and we'd booked another extended stay with a 7pm checkout, so we pretty much lazed around all day, before leaving for the airport at 7pm.

LA .... so picturesque when you stay near the airport

After checking our bags in we used our meal vouchers that were issued the previous night to get dinner at the airport, we had some trouble but in the end managed to get a reasonable meal as well as a few snacks for the trip.

Our 11:30pm flight was an extra flight that was scheduled because of the problems, so the atmosphere was different to a normal flight, everyone was chatting about what had happened and it was all a bit friendlier usual. We found out that some people had been unable to find any accommodation, so had stayed in the airport all night and all day, we were very lucky that we had been able to get a room.

When the flight finally took off everyone cheered and clapped ..... and 16 or so hours later we landed in Melbourne.

The End

Day 224 - Autumn colours

Buffalo

Having seen the Falls yesterday we didn't have much planned for today, we had read that there were some Amish communities in New York State, and when we did some research we found they were less than an hour from where we were staying, so we jumped in the car and headed south.

As we drove through the countryside the autumn colours were amazing, a mix of green, yellow and red leaves in the trees. We saw many Amish along the way, giving us a friendly wave as they drove their horse and cart along the side of the road, or working in the fields. At one spot we passed an Amish school, all the kids were playing outside, dressed in the same black and white clothing and all wearing wide brimmed hats. The Amish homes were generally easy to tell - washing lines full of plain black, white and blue clothing, no power lines running to the house, and a cart or buggy parked nearby.

We had hoped to stop in at some of the Amish farms to buy some produce or baked goods, but as it was a Tuesday the main places we were interested in were closed, they generally only open later in the week. There was one shop we wanted to visit and they said they were open but we needed to phone, as we didn't have a US phone that wasn't much use to us, and kind of funny that we were in Amish land but needed a phone. What was interesting was that we were in serious Trump country, the front lawns were plastered with Trump promotion and the occasional "Hillary for Prison" signs.

Later on at home as we were pottering about when we had a visit from a couple of deer, who had jumped the fence into the back yard and were munching on leaves. The older one wasn't too phased by us, but as soon as the younger deer saw us it jumped back over the fence and ran away, soon followed by the other one. There was deer repellent (whatever that is) hanging on the fence so we were sure the house owners wouldn't have been as thrilled about seeing deer in the back garden as we were.

Day 233 - Over the border

Buffalo

What's he doing at Niagara Falls?

Today we visited Niagara Falls, which are about an hour's drive from where we are staying. From our place in Angola we took the scenic route as far as we could along the edge of Lake Erie, past mansions on huge properties with great lake views. It is still a bit strange to see that most people don't have front or even side fences between their neighbours, it was only the biggest houses that had a gate and a fence.

We started with US side of the falls and walked around the state park, before visiting the observation deck and the boat platform to get closer views of the falls.

After that we walked across the bridge to the Canadian side of the border, where the view of the falls was spectacular, especially as it had turned into quite a beautiful day. As we walked along the promenade by the river to admire the view the number of people grew, it was getting super busy. We later found out that it was a public holiday in both the US (Columbus Day) and Canada (Thanksgiving).

After the falls we walked up into the town of Niagara Falls (the Canadian one) to see what that was like, it was one of the most overtly commercial places we have ever visited, it was like an amusement park, with a row of garish chain restaurants and tourist attractions - we are so glad we decided not to stay near the falls!

On the way back into the US we each had to pay 50 cents each to go through the turnstiles into the immigration area - one of the most ridiculous instances of needing to pay to enter a country, since going the other way into Canada cost us nothing, and the machine ate K's money and she ended up jumping over the barrier anyway!

Day 232 - Heading North

New York City to Buffalo

We had a short flight today from New York to Buffalo, all pretty smooth travelling, arriving in Buffalo around 1pm.

We weren't able to check into our Airbnb until 4pm, so after picking up our rental car we drove into Buffalo. It was sunny but not warm at all, the cold wind coming off the water kept a real chill in the air. We had some lunch and explored the Canalside area which was pretty quiet, the busiest area was near the naval museum which had a huge warship you could visit, though we didn't bother.

No, we're too scared to try these

Fron there we drove to our Airbnb in Angola right on the edge of Lake Erie, stopping along the way to pick up some groceries at what is possibly the largest supermarket we've ever seen, once again we were spoilt with choice and spent much longer there than we really needed to.

The place we are staying at is an old wooden house with a view of the water, so this should be a nice base for us for the next couple of days before we start the long journey home.

Day 231 - Half-decent coffee does exist in NYC!

New York City

Today is our last full day in NYC, and the grey skies and drizzly rain reappeared. We headed off to the tiny flea market at Hells Kitchen which wasn't able to hold our interest for more than five minutes - almost not worth the trip.

However around that area we were running into people dressed in superhero costumes, and we figured out that the NYC Comicon was on. We followed the crowds and had a look at some of the costumes people had dressed in, at one stage there was a group of people (many of them in Spiderman costumes for some reason) doing a bit of breakdancing, which was fun to watch for a while.

From there we walked to a cafe near Times Square which was advertised as having "Australian-style" coffee, and had a flat white. The main differences between the coffee here and what we had become used to in the US were that a) it actually tasted OK, and b) the small coffee was actually a small coffee. Of course we met some other Aussies there, and they told us that this was their 10th visit in 10 days.

After our proper coffee fix we caught the subway down to the south end of Manhattan. We weren't really paying attention though, and somehow we ended up in Brooklyn, so had to change trains and return to Manhattan - how did that happen? When we finally made it to the correct station we managed to evade the horde of touts trying to get us onto a boat to the Statue of Liberty. and reached Battery Park, where we walked in the rain along the Esplanade, getting a final look at the Statue of Liberty.

Why are there skyscrapers in the Nullarbor?

Day 230 - The Nexus of the Universe

New York City

Yet another beautiful day, and warmer than yesterday as well, so we broke out the shorts and took to the streets again, walking all the way from our apartment on 105th St to the "Nexus of the Universe" (according to Kramer from Seinfeld, anyway) at the corner of 1st St and 1st Avenue, passing through many different districts of Manhattan along the way.

After walking all that way we rested by taking the subway back, then headed out again a short while later to follow the path on the edge of the Hudson River to the Boat Basin on W 79th St, After a couple of drinks there while soaking up the sun, we headed back to the place we'd visited yesterday afternoon.

There we got talking to a New York couple who presumed we were living here as we were in such a non-touristy area, that's one of the good things about Airbnb, you can stay in "non-tourist" areas and (maybe) get a bit of an idea of how the locals live.

Interestingly, even though the US is a lot more like home when compared to the other countries we've visited on this trip, we've found that free wifi at restaurants and bars isn't as widespread here as it is in Central and South America. That's possibly because everyone has a smart phone with internet access, though places like Starbucks have it, as you can tell by the number of people who seem to be parked there for the day with their laptops (nearly all Apple Macs of course!).

Day 229 - Thanks Google Maps

New York City

We awoke to another nice day, so it seemed a shame to waste some of it, but we had already decided that we'd visit the Museum of Natural History. We walked there from our apartment, and found it wasn't too busy, the good thing about visiting museums on a nice weekday is that they are relatively quiet.

There were at least a couple of highlights in the museum. First there was the various animal sections, with lifelike models of animals of all sizes set within realistic scenery, made from the actual skin, teeth and bones of animals killed in the wild - we had no idea bears could be that big! There was also a very impressive dinosaur display with lots of reconstructed skeletons.

We didn't want to spend too long inside though, so the lovely day inspired us to head further afield, and we caught the train to the Bronx. It was obvious not long into the train journey that the demographics had changed, and once we started walking the streets of the Bronx we felt at times that we were back in South America, some parts of the suburb were quite run down and different to the nice clean part of Manhattan we'd been staying in.

USA's national bird - behind bars!

We used Google Maps to plot a course for us from the station to the "real" Little Italy in the Bronx, and for some reason it directed us to go through a part of the Bronx Zoo. On the way through we managed to get a look at the Birds of Prey exhibit, which included a lone tawny frogmouth from Tasmania. What we found espeically sad though was the Andean condor that was huddled on the ground in a corner. After having seen these majestic birds in the wild in the Andes soaring at a great height, it really seems cruel to lock birds like this in a cage where they're not able to fly at all. We are not exactly sure how we managed to get in to see any of the exhibits in the zoo, as we didn't pay to get in, and we exited through a gate that was closed to the general public.

The Little Italy in the Bronx was an area with lots of Italian restaurants, and some shops/delicatessens - a little similar to the one in Manhattan, but presumably more authentic as it was frequented largely by the local Italians, many of which were out on the street chatting to each other, and we couldn't see any other tourists while we were there.

We caught the train home again and finished the evening at the riverside bar we'd visited yesterday. .

We've been the following the news about Hurricane Matthew, so we are glad we left the Caribbean and Florida only a short time ago, somehow on this trip we have managed to be a couple of weeks behind or ahead of the major storms during this part of the year (first Earl and now Matthew).

Day 228 - At the top of NYC

New York City

A beautiful day in NYC without a cloud in the sky meant we started the day off with a walk through the streets of Manhattan. Overall the traffic here has been quieter than we expected and the roads in the city area seem to be less congested than at home, though today it seemed a little more lively with more pedestrians walking and shopping - must have been because it was a nicer day.

The Maccas of shoeshine places?

We had bought combined tickets when we visited MOMA that included entry to the Top of the Rock, which is the observation deck of the Rockefeller building. We had put off visiting in the hope that the grey skies and weather would improve and it paid off as today was perfect.

The lift the to the 67th floor is incredibly fast and made more exciting by a glass ceiling so you can see how fast you are barreling upwards. The three different levels on the top were all interesting and the views were clear and spectacular, even if we couldn't agree whether it would have been better to see the view from here as soon as we arrived to get a better understanding of the layout, or whether it's better to wait a few days after you've had a chance to explore at ground level.

Autumn sunset in NYC

After that we headed home, and after doing some research on the local area to find a nice spot to spend the rest of the afternoon we found an outdoor restaurant/bar close to our apartment and watched the sun set over the Hudson River.

Day 227 - Coney Island baby

New York City

Today we headed to Coney Island but we weren't quite sure what to expect, so we were surprised to see huge roller coasters that put the rides at the Magic Kingdom to shame, though only some of the rides were operating.

The beach was much larger and wider than we expected, so after getting some lunch from Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs we walked the very wide boardwalk along to Brighton Beach where we had apparently entered the Russian part of town. The difference was noticeable, with people speaking to each other in what sounded like Russian, Russian restaurants and signs with Cyrillic lettering.

From Brighton beach we caught the subway to the Lower East Side, where we loosely followed the path of a self-guided tour, including a visit to the site of CBGBs, though it is now a menswear shop with music inspired clothing.

From there we walking through the Midtown area, with lots of shops and lots of people, walking via the Empire State building and Washington Square Park. From there we continued along 6th Avenue to see the very interesting Flat Iron building that is still architecturally noteworthy today, and then to Bryant Park where there was a band playing.

Day 226 - The sun returns

New York City

The sun is back in NYC, break out the t-shirts! We started the day with a walk along the High Line and over the Meat Packing district. The High Line is an old above ground railway line that's been converted to a walking trail.

I bet I know what she's thinking

The line gives you a good view of the areas you walk over, and has lots of greenery, artwork and seating. The Sleep Walking Man is very realistic and we also enjoyed watching people playing Jinga with large cardboard boxes. We left the trail at one point to visit the Chelsea Market, not really a market now though, mainly lots of eating and food places.

After getting to the end of the High Line we caught the subway downtown and wandered around Greenwich Village for a while, ending in Washington Square Park with its arch modeled on the Arc de Triomphe.

It has to be the dolphin at that price, right?

From there we visited Chinatown and Little Italy, then as it was starting to get dark we hopped back onto the subway and headed over to Brooklyn Heights, so we could view the Manhattan skyline at night, and see the Statue of Liberty lit up in the distance.

Day 225 - Peace be upon you sister

New York City

We thought it was time we visited Harlem, so we caught the subway and followed a self guided walking trail through some surprisingly empty streets. We walked past an incredible number of churches, and as it was Sunday morning some services were still going and we could hear sound of gospel singing coming from inside.

When we reached the Abyssinian Baptist Church, which is one of the larger and more famous churches, K walked up towards the door to listen more closely. She was stopped by a sour faced woman who told her not to come any closer, but it wasn't said in a nice way, the woman was quite nasty in her tone and manner. A little later we passed another, smaller church - pretty much the same thing happened. We were shocked at how unwelcome we were made to feel ... aren't churches supposed to be places where that kind of behaviour should never happen? We get that they may not want tourists interrupting their church services on a Sunday, but they sure could be a lot nicer about it.

It soon became pretty clear why the streets were so empty, everyone was in church. Before too long the streets started filling with people dressed in their Sunday best, they were mainly dressed in all black or black and white, some of the men with white ties and the ladies with either black or white hats.

We walked from Harlem back to our apartment, and finished the afternoon with a visit to the diner featured in Seinfeld which is just a few blocks from our apartment, then a walk along Riverside Drive and Riverside Park, which both run along the edge of the Hudson River.

Day 224 - Art overload

New York City

Today was also grey and overcast but at least not raining so we caught the train to MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art. As it was Saturday we wondered how the crowds would be. It was busy but still not too bad which was just as well as it's not a huge museum like the MET, though there are a number of floors.

It started off very promising with a couple of excellent exhibitions related to refugees. One was about the journeys some of them had taken, the other was about refugee camps, both were very interesting and thought provoking.

From there it was still good, but didn't quite hold our interest as well as the refugee exhibits. After having been to MOMA in Hobart, the Tate Modern in London, as well as attending some of the visiting exhibitions in Melbourne over the years, there possibly wasn't enough of that "wow" factor, some of the material we saw here was very similar to, if not the same as what we'd seen elsewhere. Having said that, the museum was still worth a visit.

After MOMA we headed out and as the day was improving we walked to Central Park, entering from the south end this time, where there was a huge number of horses and carriages with tourists in them, walking nose to tail.

The north end of the park we visited when we arrived the other day is a little wilder and not as developed, whereas the south end is very picturesque with the water, bridges, wide paths and arches. When we reached the lake there were a few couples having their wedding photos taken, and as we walked along we came across buskers, some doing a spot of ballet or opera singing.

After walking along the Mall we went past the Summerstage where there was a band playing and through the Arcade, before turning left to head back towards our apartment. We passed the Strawberry Fields John Lennon tribute where there was a guy playing John Lennon songs, and a couple of drunk guys singing along and dancing. Once out of the park we crossed the road to find the Dakota Building outside which John Lennon was shot and Yoko and other celebrities still live.

We then walked from there to a supermarket which started in the basement and went further down over three levels, we're not sure whether it was because it was late on a Saturday or whether it's normal but it was so packed you could barely move anywhere. The check out lines had to be seen to be believed, they even had a poor girl whose job it was to stand at the end of the line almost at the other end of the store with a giant sign on a stick that said "End of Line".

Day 223 - Grey day

New York City

Rain was expected today meaning it was a good day for indoor activities, so we decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the MET as us New Yorkers call it.

We stepped outside straight into rain and walked through Central Park with our umbrellas to 5th Avenue. We knew we had arrived by the horde of people lining up to get in - surprisingly we are not the only tourists to think that visiting a museum on a rainy day is a good idea. As the day progressed the museum became even busier but the place is huge and set up in a way that there is plenty of space for people to move around the exhibits.

The museum had a very wide range of exhibits, including ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman artifacts, rooms with period furniture, and lots and lots of paintings, it was kind of a mix of art gallery and museum of ancient history. The place was well worth a visit, and the "pay what you want" model means there's less pressure to see everything in one visit.

Eventually we had to brave the rain again which which was now heavier than when we'd arrived, so we joined the throngs in the subway to head back home.

Day 222 - On Broadway

New York City

We had to dress warmer to go out today, we could feel the chill in the air as soon as we stepped outside, we thought it would be cooler in New York, but not as cold as this!

We caught the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across to Brooklyn using the information from a self-guided tour to identify the points of interest along the bridge and the Manhattan skyline. One weird thing we saw was that as well as the usual locks that star-crossed lovers put on bridges, there were hundreds of sets of headphones (apparently there are also condoms and tampons, but we didn't see any of those).

On the other side we walked along the Brooklyn Promenade, then back through the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area.

After that it was back on the subway to visit Grand Central Station, which was busy, clean and quite glamorous looking, but also a bit dark with no natural light. Then to Times Square to pick up some cheap Broadway tickets.

We joined the incredibly long queue for half price tickets, but it moved quite steadily. By the time we'd reached the front of the queue we still hadn't decided what to see, so we flipped a coin, and bought tickets for "Something Rotten".

After a quick visit back to "our" apartment to get organised for the evening, we made it to the St. James Theatre in time for the 7pm show. The theatre was a bit smaller than we expected, we had seats in the fifth row which gave us a great view of the stage. The show was OK, the writing was clever in parts but many of the jokes were a bit lame and obvious, we did enjoy the show but it wasn't as good as we thought a "Broadway" show would be, so not a high recommendation from us..

We walked back up to Time Square and checked out all the night lights before heading home where the shops, supermarkets and restaurants were all still buzzing late at night - it's good to be in the city that never sleeps!

Day 221 - Balls to the Wall (St.)

New York City

We bought an unlimited weekly ticket for the subway and then caught it to South Ferry station. From there we took the free Staten Island ferry to enjoy a short cruise of the harbour with a good look at the Statue of Liberty as we sailed past. As it wasn't peak hour the only people on the ferry seemed to be tourists, and 99% of them just turned around and got back on again when it pulled into port.

We decided we should at least have a bit of a look at Staten Island so walked up the hill, we were hoping to stop somewhere for a coffee but couldn't find anything interesting, so we walked back and returned on the next ferry - maybe there's a reason everyone just goes back again

We then walked up to Wall St, we saw the Charging Bull at the beginning of the financial district, it wasn't hard to find but very hard to see as there were so many tourists surrounding it and bizarrely lined up to have their photos taken sitting under its testicles. If only we'd had the balls to do it as well!

We then walked across to see the outside of the stock exchange before heading over to the 9/11 reflecting pools. The memorial pools are at the base of what were the north and south towers, and the walls are inscribed with the names of the people who died. However they now expect that the number of people who have and will die from the after effects of the disaster will end up greater than the amount that died on the day.

We visited the museum underground in the basement of the buildings, the exhibition was huge, with displays ranging from twisted metal girders and crushed fire engines, to pieces of paper from the in-flight magazines that had fallen from the planes, and front pages of newspapers from around the world, including the Herald-Sun.

We then visited Time Square, it wasn't as big as we expected but still packed with massive screens on the sides of buildings advertising goodness knows what, and heaps of tourists like us gawking at those screens. Lots of advertising dollars, lots of technology, but I can barely remember what any of them were advertising.....

By this time the weather was also changing with it getting quite chilly, we weren't dressed for it as we thought the beautiful weather from the day before would continue, so we were still in shorts and sandals.

Day 220 - Hello New York

Washington DC to New York City

We booked a door to door shared shuttle bus for our trip to the airport for our flight to NYC and we also arranged one at the New York end, they seem to offer a good service and it's all booked and paid for online.

The flight was pretty short and we were the first ones in our shuttle to be dropped off at our Airbnb apartment in the Upper West Side (UWS). The apartment is in a good location, close to Broadway Ave, and also to Central Park and the subway. It has one bedroom and a combined kitchen/living area, so a cute place for us to stay.

We spent the lovely autumn afternoon exploring the streets in the local area, which didn't seem touristy at all, everyone that was out and about in the UWS appeared to be locals. We then took a very pleasant walk through the northern part of Central Park, before returning to check out the local supermarkets in order to stock up on supplies, the big thing we noticed here is that there are a lot of pre-cooked and pre-prepared food options, many of them sized for single people.

Day 219 - Hi Obama!

Washington DC

Back into DC today to visit the superb Natural History museum which took up a good part of the day. It has some really impressive sights including the Hope Diamond, an African Bull Elephant and a lonely looking Easter Island statue- so a very varied range of exhibits.

We then walked up to Capitol Hill, and back down the Mall to the White House. We weren't too far away from there when we saw quite a few people hanging around the street corner and a lot of police around. K asked some locals what was going on, who told her that the roads had only just been closed and they only do that when the President is coming. Sure enough about a minute later there was a cavalcade of police motor bikes and cars followed by a black car with flags. The crowd went crazy with cheering, which we were not expecting as we couldn't imagine a crowd going wild in Australia if our Prime Minister drove past. The people behind us in the crowd were so excited they were sure that Obama had been looking at them, we could only see a silhouette through the dark windows and he was probably reading paperwork or on the phone, not looking out the window at the two people behind us! We managed to take a video of it, see below, it can also be seen by clicking here..

Yesterday our first look at the White House was from across the huge expanse of lawn between it and the Washington Monument, this time we went around to the other side. On the way we were stopped again at a road block, but this time it was a couple of large black cars with no presidential flags so it couldn't have been Barack (yes, we are on first name terms now). Once we reached the front of the White House we had a much better view, we could also see what we think was a sniper on the roof.

After a couple of photos there we visited the White House Shop which we found very amusing, all sorts of things there like paper doll books with paper dresses for the First Lady, golf balls, and all manner of clothing. Once again, we can't imagine buying a plate to hang on the wall with Malcolm Turnbull's face on it!

Day 218 - Canberra on steroids

Washington DC

We had booked a free walking tour of the major sights in DC for the afternoon, so we caught the Metro to the massive Arlington Cemetery.

Once there we walked up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and arrived in time to watch the changing of the guard. One of the soldiers addressed the crowd and told them to be silent and upstanding, then the changing ceremony commenced. It continued to a point where the guards had swapped and everyone thought it was over, so the crowd started murmuring and chatting amongst themselves. All of a sudden the lone soldier starts yelling and tells everyone off in quite an aggressive manner, it was quite a surprise and actually quite funny, lucky we didn't laugh out loud as he sounded like he was liable to shoot someone. The ceremony continued a bit longer with the laying of a wreath.

Be quiet or I'll shoot!

From there we headed to the JFK memorial and we could clearly see the Pentagon in the distance and planes flying over head as we contemplated how scary it would have been for the people who were standing here and saw the plane crashing on September 11.

We caught the train to the start of our walking tour near the Washington Monument. We had signed up for the four hour tour, and our first stop was between the White House and the Washington Monument before moving on to visit the World War II, Korean and Vietnam War Memorials.

The composition of the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial is thought provoking and a bit different to the others. The Lincoln Memorial is a massive statue, as is the Jefferson Memorial, but the Roosevelt Memorial is different again as it covers quite a large area and consists of multiple outdoor rooms, and as a result is a much more effective tribute (in our opinion anyway).

Day 217 - To the capital

Orlando to Washington DC

We drove to Orlando airport and dropped our rental car off, then caught our flight to Washington DC after making it through the ridiculous security queues.

We used Lyft (a service like Uber) to get to our Airbnb in the suburb of Takoma Park, which is just across the border from DC in Maryland. The difference in the weather was immediately noticeable, it was cool but sunny and quite pleasant, with the sort of feel you get in autumn back home.

We checked out the neighbourhood, it appeared to be a very middle-class kind of suburb, with an expensive natural foods co-op grocery, coffee shops and a few restaurants and bars.

Does anyone know if these are edible?

We decided to go a little further afield to see if we could find a cheaper grocery store, and walked about 20 minutes to the next suburb. As soon as we crossed a major highway we could see the difference in the houses, they weren't as "grand" as the nice ones we'd been walking past, and as we walked across the car park to the supermarket a beggar approached us asking for spare change. In the supermarket the range of food was very different - it now had Mexican, Asian and Carribean sections, and of course much more reasonable prices.