Janet and John

If anyone fancies checking out my new adventure with Janet you can here

janetandjohnsadventure.blogspot.com

Go on you know you want too....

New Blog....

During my year away I started taking picture of football stadiums and football pitches around the world as I worked on my desire to attend a football match on every continent I visited.

I collect lots of pictures during the year and so have decided to start a separate blog to focus on this particular strand of my trip...

I'l also continue to add pictures as I continue to indulge in my favourate pastime watching the beautiful game.

The blog can be found at: http://worldfootballstadiums.blogspot.co.uk/ check it out....

The Everglades

My last stop before a return to civilization was supposed to be Miami from where I was flying home, but after a week in NoLa I fancied getting away from the big city for a bit.

I flew into Miami but jumped straight onto a bus to one of the best hostels I stayed at during the whole trip! The hostel was set about an hour south of Miami on the edge of the Everglades National Park and was a great base for exploring both the Everglades and the Florida Keys.

After the heavy week I'd had in New Orleans I was ready to get out and about and do some exploring. The best was to explore the Everglades was on bicycle and luckily my hostel hired them out!

The Everglades although a fascinating wetland environment, by its nature has little shade and so the cycling was definitely warm in the 35 degree heat! Even so I managed to see some amazing wildlife including several wild alligators! Although by the most impressive thing I saw all trip the the biblical thunder store that chased me back...

So here is the gator:

and here is the storm...

I did make it into Miami for a day where I again hired and bike and cycled along Miami beach. I wasn't overly taken with Miami but I think a lot of that was just being sick of cities. All I could think of as I was winding my way through the marina full of multi-million pound yachts was Grand Theft Auto Vice City..... Which probably says more about me that about Miami!

All that was left now of my trip was a visit to the Florida Keys. I actually made the trip down twice. The first trip was to the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo where as well as a key lime pie, a relaxing swim and a wander through the the amazing forests of mangroves, I booked a trip glass bottomed boat trip over the coral reef itself... something I missed out on in Australia.

The second trip on my last day was as far as I could make it down the Keys to Marathon where I spent my last day visiting a somewhat neglected Crane Park Museum and Nature centre which was a lovely way to end and amazing trip.

All that remained was one last bus trip back to Miami before the long flight back to London and real life.

So thats it, better late than never....

JT out

X

New Orleans

And so on to New Orleans....

The first thing that struck me about Nola was the oppressive stuck heat particularly after to cold of San Francisco but after a couple of day I got used to it.

I lucked out with the hostel I stayed in, which had single rooms available for not much more than the dorms including a little kitchen!

Just around the corner was a 24 hour bar, bizarrely with a launderette at the back, where I went for a drink the first night. With what I found was typical southern hospitality, I was soon drinking free beers and getting involved in singing Pogues songs with the 'Irish' locals....

After taking some time to recover, the next morning I set out to explore. The oppressive heat kept me off of the streets for most of the day so I visited a few museums, including a fantastic second world war museum and a tiny civil war museum.

One of the highlights of Nola was the discovery that the New Orleans Saints were playing a pre season game while I was there and I managed to get a ticket! I do love a bit of American Football and so had a great evening. Again the local fans kept me in beer which was incredibly generous at $9 a pint! The Saints beat the SF 49ers do a was good.

The days were fun but Nola is all about the nights. I did make one evening trip to the famous Bourbon street strip of tourist bars, but I mainly hung out on Frenchman Street, which is literally teaming with live music bars and clubs. With blues, country and folk all night I was in my element!

While heading out one afternoon to find a bar known for showing all the Premier League football, I took a trip though the expanses of derelict space which is the result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I sobering trip, I was amazed quite how much of the devastation still remains 6 years later.

New Orleans was certainly the friendliest place I visited in the US and somewhere I would love to return to even just for the nightlife!

So with only one more stop on my trip I might even get this blog finished before the first anniversary of my return! Here's hoping.....

San Francisco

So here we are, I've had another moment of inspiration and have decided to add another quick entry...

I arrived at San Francisco (SF) after an awful Greyhound bus trip. I couldn't believe that there was any need, on an 8 hour night trip, to stop at 3am at a roadside Burger King. But I'm obviously the only weird one as the entire bus trooped of to tuck into late night snacks! At least I made it although tired and headed down to the Mission District where I was booked into a nice hostel. The hostel kindly let me, after some persuasion, catch up on a bit of sleep before checking in!

I was instantly taken by SF. Firstly it was a comfortable temperature, or in fact a tad cold when the mist rolled in and secondly with narrower streets and great public transport, it felt much more like the European cities that I know and love!

I was lucky enough to have a list of hints and tips of things to do in SF and so set about ticking them off by exploring the Downtown area. I soon got board of this an decided to take a stroll back to my hostel. I had been warned that the Mission District was a bit dodgy, but I found it absolutely fine. I particularly enjoyed the small book shops and thrift stores along the parallel Valencia Street not to mention the great little bars along that route.

I realised my first evening in that the (then world champion) San Francisco Giants were playing a home series against the Arizona Diamondbacks that week. I managed to snap up a ticket for the next day...

I found a great little bar/cafe that night (Revolution Cafe between Mission St & Bartlett St), which was up there in my top drinking spots of the entire trip, it had nice beer and some great live music. Then again I think I probably just liked it because they played the whole of Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake shortly after I walked in but hey....

I spent the next few daytimes exploring the amazing districts of SF such as The Lower Haights, Chinatown, North Beach and also some of the obvious tourist areas such as Fishermans Wharf, where I went on a great boat ride around the bay.

So that second evening was my first trip to a real 'Ball game'! I have to admit I was underwhelmed, people didn't seem to arrive until well into the 3rd innings and left well before the end (SF lost). As such I found it was somewhat lacking in atmosphere. Anyway heres a pic:

I was feeling a little city jaded by this point so I booked up a trip to Yosemite National Park for a few days, but I still had time to visit the secluded Japanese Tea Gardens and take a trek through Lincoln Park to catch some (misty) views of the Golden Gate Bridge. I also managed to catch a couple of great gigs just in case you we're missing my drinking exploits!

The trip camping and walking in Yosemite was bliss and although not much to talk about here's a couple of pictures:

Heading back to SF, I had only allowed myself about 8 hours for sleeping before my flight across to NOLA and my penultimate stop on the trip, but what a stop it was! Then thats another story.....

Los Angeles

Last stop on my trip was 4 weeks in the United States. Starting off with a week in Los Angeles.

I found Los Angeles and indeed America as a whole a strange place. I was expecting it to be far more like home than it actually was! That said I still enjoyed my time here.

I booked myself into a hostel on Hollywood Boulevard itself thinking it would be super glam... Turned out it was a shithole so I moved to a slightly less shit one ten doors down.

After a day of viewing the obvious sights in Hollywood I decided I wanted to head out a bit and see more of LA. This is where I hit a major snag. It is actually impossible to see LA without a car. With this, admittedly major, handicap I set out to view the metropolis.

First up was the "old" town in the Downtown district. (I'm sure I've lived in older houses but I'll let that go....) Although this is primarily the business district, some of the original Spanish settlement buildings still exist and so I spent a pleasant day wandering around this area.

I managed to totally baffle locals by travelling everywhere by bus which no body in LA does! Next stop was the slightly more bohemian area of West Hollywood. I mainly spent my time here hanging around in record shops. No change there then. I also managed to visit the Le Brea Tar pits and the LA county museum of art. Both were highlights of LA particularly the LACMA which had a fantastic exhibition on the artwork of Tim Burton.

The evenings in LA I spent drinking in bars around the Hollywood area, a notable highlight of which (for me anyway) was actually "singing" on Hollywood Bvd in a bar with Karaoke. One thing I really found when our in bar in America was how friendly the people were. Definitely noticeable from my experience in other big cities. I did manage one big night out on Sunset Strip including watching loads of great music in both The House of Blues and the famous Viper Room, formally owned by Johnny Depp and the place where River Phoenix died in 1993.

My longest trip from my base in Hollywood was down to Long Beach where I headed down to see the Queen Mary. Sadly the highlight of this trip was finding an English shop on board that sold Frys Orange Creams...

My last day in LA I made a brief trip to have a look around Beverly Hills (dull) and a look around UCLA (which puts British University's into shame). I finished my stay by going to see the last Harry Potter film in the Chinese Theatre, which where they hold The Oscars...

I have to admit I found a week in LA more than enough time and sort of wished I'd headed on earlier. Maybe it would have been different if the LA Galaxy had been playing at home!

Next stop after a greyhound bus ride.... San Francisco!!

Acapulco

My original plan for Mexico had been to get out of Mexico City and to spend a week in Puerto Escondido. The bus was booked and paid for only for me to arrive at the bus station to find a landslide had cancelled all buses... Afte a quick re planning (and couple of beers) I decided to opt for a trip to Acapulco instead.

My first impression of Acapulco was of a faded British seaside town such as Blackpool. It definitely lacked glamour... That said I checked into my hostel and hit the beach for my first swim in the see of my entire travels!!!! Later that evening I tried out a few of the beachside bars. None of which particularly covered themselves in glory. Most bring theme bars catering to the limited number of package holidaymakers.

So far I could see why no body advises a stop in Acapulco while in Mexico....
I decided at this point to revise my plans for the week. Somebody recommended a cheep beachside hotel in a tiny fishing village called Pie De La Cuesta about 20 kilometres along the coast.

Pie De La Cuesta was everything I could have hoped for. The hotel backed onto the beach, the village had one bar that was happy to put the football on for me and the little beachside restaurants all sold amazing fresh grilled fish. The only downside was that the Pacific was too dangerous to swim in at this point with very strong currents. Not that it stopped some of the crazy surfers I saw.

Although I spent much of my few days here sprawled in a hammock I day make the effort to do a bit of exploring.
Pie De La Cuesta is at one end of a spit of land between the pacific ocean and a freshwater a lake called Coyuca, so I took the opportunity to go on a boat trip around the lake stopping off on one of the islands for a swim.

Back at the hotel I pretty much spent the next two days chilling out, a very welcome break.

Back in Acapulco itself I booked into a different hotel in the old part of town in view of the famous cliff jumpers.

Next up (bar a quick couple of days back in Mexico City described in my previous post) was Los Angeles and my final country the good ol US of A