Maysie's Travels

Looks like her plane was a tad delayed by 2hrs 38mins at JFK!



Jess' flight took 5 hours 27 mins and covered 2,582 miles.

Bonus Whatnots:

Listen to Jess' plane flying into SFO:
(Communications between pilot of AA179 and SFO Tower)

Today is my last day in the Big Apple.

Thanks for the post Lee..hehe, it made me smile - no idea how you put the map on there though, you're making my posts look quite plain..tut.

I've been a busy bee again today. I walked to 9th Avenue, down to 42nd Street and then over to 12th Avenue and the Hudson River to catch the Circle Line Ferry - it was 75 mins and went out to the Statue of Liberty again... I thought it did a bigger circle than that, but it came with my 3 day touring pass so I got my monies worth.

Back on dry land again at 12 I walked back along 42nd Street to 8th Avenue and got on the uptown tour to Columbus Circle, Central Park, Harlem, and the upper West and East sides. I got off at Strawberry Fields to see the John Lennon 'Imagine' disc on the floor and eat my lunch - a salad box - and then got back on the tour, went past the Apollo Theatre - everyone was playing Michael Jackson music in the cars and there was crowds outside the theatre to celebrate his life.

The tour then started down the Museum mile, and the only one I stopped at was the City of NY museum (which also came free with my pass :-)

It's now 5:30 and I've been on the move since 9am - every day I get back about this time and crash, but tonight I'm going on the night tour at 8 so I can see the city all lit up with lights - should be ace!!

Tomorrow is my last day here and I'm not sure what I want to do yet... any suggestions?

xxx

Howdy. This is Lee posting on Jess' behalf.


I am going to be acting as an intermediary since I kinda nicked all of her internet time chatting (whoops). Therefore I'll be feeding back to you what we've been chatting about over the course of about 20 minutes.

So let's begin no ?

Today Jess has been super duper busy yet again since she has just 2 days left in New York, New Yorrrrrrk before she jets Westward to San Francisco for a month's worth of wwoofing.

She woke early (as she does) and jumped out of bed at like 6:30 (ish) for a spot of breakfast before heading outside to see the stuff, and man did she see the stuff !! She went alllll over the Southern half of Manhattan, starting with the King of the Stuff - the Empire State Building.

Jess fearlessly rode up to the lofty heights of the 86th floor observation deck and stood atop the tallest piece of stuff the city has to offer like a pretty british super hero, taking in upto 50 miles worth of sights *on a clear day (I just checked that), and also getting away from the wafty bin type smell that kinda lingers around in the city streets below (refer to previous post for more info on said wafty bin type smell).

Next up, she took a brief hike Southward 18 blocks (which is just under half a mile) to Union Square where the Union Square Greenmarket is usually in full swing (held Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between 8 AM and 6 PM year round). It is kinda like the farmer's market in Stroud, but with the addition of street performers, people sunbathing, old dudes playing chess, maybe the odd man or two on a microphone telling everyone to repent and possibly another guy on possibly another microphone telling everyone that Swine Flu is a conspiracy - that kinda thing.

Leaving the hustle and bustle behind, she continued a leisurely stroll South into Greenwich Village which Jess describes as "more hippy and all the buildings are lower by law and there are lots of trees... its 'bohemian'". While there, she checked out Carrie Bradshaw's house from Sex & The City (pictured) - and may or may not have walked up and down the stoop outside as if she was Carrie Bradshaw - several times - or at least had an epic inner struggle with the idea (although this is my own opinion and not based on fact).

From there, she swiftly sauntered South-Eastish alllll the way down Bleecker Street which runs diagonally across Greenwich Village ("which there was a market on - it was soooo hot though - 26 degrees or more - and humid")" and then caught the bus over to Ground Zero where the new World Trade Center One (formerly Freedom Tower) is under construction. She says: "They have the first steels in for the tower, you can see them from ground level.".

Still thirsty for more adventure, an eager Jess then took the Brooklyn Bus Tour (sometime before 3pm - which is when the website says the tour runs until) from the nearby Battery Park on the South-West corner of Manhattan, travelling through Camden Plaza, Brooklyn Heights, Old Fulton Landing, and onto the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

Next, Jess visited Grand Central Station in East Midtown NYC (the one in that B&W picture you always see at Ikea (pictured left)) - saw that, and then walked alllllll the way back 2 miles West to her hostel, stopping in at a deli to get some well deserved dinner - "a Siciliano Panini". I can't find any images of a Siciliano Panini on Google, but I'm sure it was a taste sensation.

Then she got on the web about 6ish and chatted with moi.

Her favourite part of the day was Greenwich Village.

Tomorrow Jess is going to explore uptown Manhattan, including a ferry ride and a museum or two. Stay tuned...

She sends her best wishes and much love to everyone back home.

After several teaful goodbyes, at home, at my sisters and then at the airport with Lee, I have cleared security and I'm currently sitting in the departure lounge ready to board my plane... but as usual I am a little early... tee tum!

I am feeling both excited and nervous, it still doesn't seem real after years of planning - although I feel like I haven't planned at all at the same time... just generally quite disorientated!

I am sad to leave everyone, the final 'cold feet' feeling, but I also just want to get there.

I have 10 minutes on this for £1, which has ticked by really quickly and I haven't written much... but then I am just rambling.

Love you all

Jess xxxxx

I have finally got my wwoofing placement sorted (willing workers on organic farms - FYI), but instead of being on the East coast, I've gone West!

1.5 hours north of San Fran is McDonald Ranch where they have an 'animal sanctuary and university for children'. They have horses that I can ride, goats, chickens etc etc and also school kids who come to learn animal husbandry, which is not as my sister thought, getting animals to mate, but how to care for them!

Linda McDonald seems really nice and emailed "I will make room for you if I have to move to a tent myself and give you my room! LOL!" which i thought was nice, hope its comfy :-)

You can find out more about the farm at http://www.mcdonaldranch.org/ and I'll let you know how it goes.

I now have only 2 sleeps before leaving for New York... eee..... 5 nights there and then wwoofing!

Wish me luck! xx

Ever consider getting a special international Sim card so that calling the UK from abroad doesn't involve selling a kidney?

I've just spent the best part of two days trying to figure out; what type of phone I need, who provides the best deal and who is a reliable company... There aren't many/any comparison sites for international Sim cards so it does involve some internet digging.

The type of phone I need is an unlocked GSM quad band (850,900,1800,1900MHz), which luckily I have with my Motorola U9, although I need to get it unlocked. The different bands allow you to use the phone in nearly every country in the world as they will use one of the four frequencies (except Japan which is on 3G, 2100MHz). Yes, i have become quite the phone expert!

I created a spreadsheet with the different countries that i will be travelling to in rows and then added columns with: receive call, outbound call (land line), send text. This then enabled me to add the different rates per country for each provider - a little homemade comparison sheet - bingo!

Because I am going to India I was hard pushed to find a company that charged less than £1.50 to receive a call and less than £2.00 to make a call... a 5 minute call home would end up costing a nights accommodation at that rate (although perhaps everyone at home would be happier as I'd run out of money and be back in no time)!

Two companies stood out for me, they didn't offer any free inbound calls, but I'm not going to Europe (which is the destination for 90% of the free calls offered by other companies) so by paying a lower rate in each country it works out cheaper overall.

Max-Roam and Global Roaming Inc. were the two companies - Global Roaming being the cheapest and subsequently the one I have gone with - fingers crossed because after lots of research I went with a relatively new product and took a gamble!

More to come in 5-7 working days (that's how long it takes to ship the Sim card) and I will then also go online and unlock my phone...

This is my rough itinerary... I am not going to be planning my every move in these countries as that is almost impossible and very limiting.

I can change my flights for £30 so I have lots of flexibility to change and adapt my travel destinations and length of stay somewhere.