Lidt om Montreal og New York

New York New York

En eller anden paranoid sjael har aabenbart bevaeget sig fra paranoiaens hoejborg - pentagon, og ind i New Yorks administration, og vedkommende har aabenbart besluttet at frihedsgudinden er et oplagt terrormaal - well dough! saa sikkerheds kontrollen foer faergen til Liberty Island er af en anden verden. hvilket har medfoert at det kreaver en hel del taalmodighed at se den lille dame. Noget der ligner 20 minutter for at koebe billetten og 50 minutter for at komme igennem security - man faar dog lov til at beholde Sko og toej paa, foer turen forsaetter paa en jampacked bette faerge.

Min bus til Montrèal afgik kl 8, saa klokken halv syv ringede mit vaekke ur, min krop, eller mere specifikt mit hoved, var absolut ikke tilfreds med det faktum, efter en stoerre intern diskution, stod jeg op og begynde at pakke mit habengut, og hovedet luftede sin utilfredshed med at forvaerre toemmermaendene temmeligt betragtligt. Ned i undergrunden, og til bus terminalen, boarde bussen, phew, saa var det bare at lukke oejnene og blive venner med mit hoved igen. Troede jeg! for i sidste minut inden afgang. tordner en stor sort mand prustende gennem bussen, og beslutter, selvfoelgelig, at saette sig ved siden af mig, to minutter senere snorkede han som noget der var loejn, og mit hoved begyndte igen at lufte sin utilfredshed med den generelle situation - som varede indtil Albany - ca 3.5 time fra New York.

Ved graensen til Canada, blev vi alle smidt af bussen for at gaa gennem graense kontrollen, og jeg fik lidt af et chock da min taske ingensteds var at finde!!! jeg kikkede fortvivlet rundt, indtil jeg saa en dame nonchellant spadsere afsted med den. Jeg gik hen til hende - og startede hoefligt med; Excuse me, det loed for hoefligt, saa jeg forsatte med; what the fuck are you doing with my bag!? hun sagde ikke noget, hun stillede bare tasken og fortsatte til paskontrollen - uden baggage.

Og saa begyndte, yours truely, at blive en anelse nervoes for at idioten havde plantet noget i min taske, saa jeg traedte ud af koen, og gik igennem indholdet fra ende til anden, og maette heldigvis konstatere at alt indholdet var mit. Vel gennem graensen var det bare en time til Montrèal. Men efter 10 timer i en Greyhound har jeg ogsaa faaet nok af busser for et stykke tid! turen var dog rigtigt smuk, gennem blodroede og gule efteraars farver i bjergene, nice!

Nu er jeg saa i Montrèal, paa det fedeste Youth Hostel jeg nogensinde har boet paa, og nogle rigtig cool companeros. Cool by, selvom det hele foregaar paa Fransk, heldigvis kan langt de fleste snakke Engelsk, men det er vist ogsaa det eneste sted i Quebec at de rent faktisk ogsaa goer det.

Torsdag er det videre til Sarah i Toronto med toget, og saa skal jeg lige have fundet en maade at komme fra Toronto til New York... 11 timer med toget, 9 timer med grayhound, 6 timer i bil, og 1.5 time med fly, surt flyet koster 350 dollar :-( da jeg ikke er saerligt frisk paa en ny omgang grayhound ;-)

Bienvenue au Montrèal

Flyet landede som planlagt i Newark Liberty International Airport, og helt som planlagt var turen gennem tolden et mareridt. En anden passager fra havde i et akut tilfaelde af barnlig naivitet, fotograferet et stort skilt med teksten, Welcome to the United States of America, paa sin vej gennem terminalen, staklen blev naermest overfaldet af vagterne i tolden, nej velkommen skulle man ihvertfald ikke foele sig. Da det blev min tur, betragtede betjenten mig mistroisk, indtil han paa en naesten grinagtig, aerke amerikansk accent halvvejs spurgte halvvejs konstaterede "traveling alone!?" hvilket oejensynligt var vaeldigt mistaenksomt, for derefter fortsatte et 5 minutters krydsforhoer, hvilket dog endte med at jeg, med en slet antydning af irritation, grundet taemeligt rationelle grunde til at vaere hvor jeg var, paa det givende tidspunkt, uden selskab, blev lukket ind i det forjaettede land.

Da toget fra lufthavnen ankom til Penn Station paa Manhattan, og jeg begav mig ind i det der maa vaere verdens stoerste labyrint, The New York City Subway, opdagede jeg til min skraek at sedlen med adressen til mit Hostel var blevet vaek. Ordene Don't Panic blinkede et par gange i mit synsfelt, uden jeg dog kunne forbinde det med nogen af de mange neon skilte der arbejdede haardt for at finde et tilfaeldig epileptikker at tage livet af. Ikke at fortvivle, det virkede paa trods af den manglede fysiske tilstaedevaerelse til at vaere et godt raad. Saa istedet for at gaa i panik besluttede jeg at det alt andet end lige ville vaere en bedre indgangsvinkel at finde et sted hvor jeg kunne komme paa internettet og slaa adressen op. Efter en stoerre eftersoegning fandt jeg en lille kinesisk internet biks, gemt godt af vejen ca. 20 blocks fra hvor jeg startede min soegning. Og derefter var det bare at finde op til 94th & Lexington paa oest siden af central park.

Efter at vaere blevet installeret paa mit hostel, var neaste punkt i programmet at faa bugt med en kold fadoel, en lille lomme filosofi jeg har, siger at man ikke er faldet til, og faldet ned efter dagens strabadser, foer man er blevet svalet af en kold oel! ca 5 minutter senerere sad jeg paa en wannabee irsk pub, og forsoegte at overbevise en ignorant bartender om at Carlsberg paa ingen maade kunne siges at vaere en Norsk oel, som de ellers paastullerede i deres drinks menu, og at det egentligt var en betragtlig fornaermelse mod hele det Danske folk at paastaa andet! Og en haandfuld oel senere sad jeg paa en lukket klub i Upper West Side til fri bar sammen med to fyre fra mit hostel og underede mig over hvordan precist jeg var endt hvor jeg var, noget med at have den rette accent og mumle nok til at man virker vigtig, men uden doermanden har en chance for at forstaa hvad man siger.

Weekenden gik med plejning af toemmermaend og sigtseeing i New York - der er nok at tage af... Frihedsgudinden, MoMa, Empire State, Ground Zero, Ellis Island, Brooklin Bridge, Wall Street, Central Park var nogen af dem jeg trods alt fik naaet.

Anyway, jeg er lige indviteret paa en omgang oel, saa resten faar i senere :-)

Last post from the Phillipines

Hep hey, so once again your uncle travelling mack brings you news from his favourite corner of the Planet, making the world unsafe for god (and my dodgy alcohol stained memory) only knows which time...

Since i last bothered you guys with mails only slightly more useful than your average penis enchanting offers (or are they?), yours truly have payed a visit to the end of the world - you heard me, thanks to my unrivalIed intelligence, or perhaps the slightly more probable explanation, thanks to alcohol intoxication induced by Filipino rum, I managed to find an end on this planet everyone thinks is round - bullocks I tell you - bullocks!

It certainly feels that way when you're strapped to a toilet with diarrhea, on an island with fuck all to do but diving...

but nice things first, we travelled by pump boat one hour, then on the local bus, on road, which left more infamous potholed dirt tracks around the planet, very little to be desired. However it was rather nice to get off the beaten track and out into the real Philippines - poor but mindblowingly beautiful.

Anyway, after countless hour getting shakn' to the bone, Cambodia style, we got on a small boat that ferried us to a small island, rally nice, white sandy beach, rain forest in the middle, and no noises by the cicada's and waves rushing on to the shore, and as the sun set, hundreds of fireflies was illuminating the ancient rain forest, B E A U T I F U L !

Unfortunately, that was how much i got to enjoy, as monsoon rain, and severe stomach problems kicked into gear at the exactly same time, conspiring bastards! but all the same, considering this island, is smack in the middle of monsoon winds, we've been really lucky with the weather so far, so all the same. More worrying however was the fact that i was 6 hours from the nearest doctor, and displaying all the symptoms of dengue fever. As the boat that was to ferry us to the reef we were heading to dive was broken down, we headed back after two days

(and a miserable birthday, in company with a toilet which at this time had come a very close friend of mine)

when we got to the port city on our return leg, the surf looked like it would make any Hawaiian's mouth water and grasp for the nearest surfboard, which with our luggage unfortunately wasn't an option. after some looking around, and quite a bit of bargaining, we found a sailor, which, i trust, by mere coincidence looked very much like Buddha, and with his very little, rickety, but somehow charming boat - we threw ourselves into the waves - (since you are now reading these lines, and guess ill just have to drop the suspence and say that i survived)

so a couple of days of restitution awaits here on the resort, i am allready feeling better, after the family doctor (she sometimes come in handy my step mother) got me on a antibiotics treatment

Tthen we will head back to the Manilla meyhem!!! DADADAM!

catch you guys when i get home :-)

regards

El Grande Mucho Stefano Con Patatas!

Holla Mi Chica Cuapas!

Greetings from the white shores of Puerto Gallera on the phillipines, glad i got here in the first place...

Our flight to Frankfurt had gotten delayed, so when we landed in Frankfurt Airport we had only 30 minuttes to catch our flight for Manilla - unfortunantly the otherwise splendid airport in Copenhagen has been declasified to a high risk airport by our friends in Bruxells, so when we got of the plane we were houled by busses, to outside the airport area, to have a "proper" security check, fair enough, but unfortunantly it also left us in a rather delicate situation - as we had to recheck in on the plane, get through security, and immigration, and get to the gate in something rather close to 20 minuttes.... if you've ever had the questionable honors of transitting through frankfurt, you will know that this is indeed utterly impossible. Luckly i was able to charm a rather dodgy looking german lady, into checking us in to the flight anyway, following was a hectic run through the airport, my brother managed to have a immigration counter open just for us, and a 'apparently' gay securtity worker, let us straight trough to que to the security check. So against all odds we managed to catch out flight, albeit we had a large airbus with a mere 400 passengers waiting just for us for something like 10 minuttes.

VIP or what? :)

After a short stopover in Guangzhou, China - we landed in the terribly run down airport of Manilla, looked alot like something bought from a soviet airport wholesale some 20 years ago, just wondering how they managed to transport it here :) first impressions proved to be right, the country seems to be quite pure - much worse than Thailand and the likes, however i have to say that so far i like the philipinos very much.

Anyway, due to high seas on the crossing to the island we were go to, mindoro occidential, we had to spend the night on Hotel in Manilla. for dinner we went to a rather fancy Japanese restaurant, quite nice to be greeted by a large choir of "Irrashaimase" again - allthough to rest of the family seemed rather perplexed by this. Apparently it was really a japanese restaurant, so i had to order for the whole family in Japanese. including a fair amount of Kirin beers for sleepers.

Next day a bus picked us up in the airport and drove us to Bandang, from there we had to take a small ferry boat over the strait to our hotel. We have a typhoon roaming somewhere up north, so the sea was pretty rough, oddly enough it was the Asians that puked, while all the Europeans seemed ok.

This afternoon we arrived at our Hotel - and holy cow - what a change from the standard im used to when travelling this part of the world. Our bungalow, for instance, have a line connected to a house, which residents, a quite nice family, only serves our bungalow, shocking! can't say im to fond of the principle, allthough it is very nice. i just don't like being the rich white boy very much. Allthough i do like the fact that mojitos are 6 DKK a piece :)

The resort is stunning, nested around a small cove, with crystal green waters, a white sandy beach, and the bungalows in traditional phillipino style - dotted around beneath the palm trees. Gotta love Asia man!

anyway, im gonna catch a nice cold beer, prepare for my dives tomorrow, and leave you guys to it...

ill keep you updated, when i can drag myself away from the beach bar :)

- Stefanowich