Tea in the Whitehouse..

There was SO much to do in Washington..

I'll give you the highlights:

Saw the capitol building, the whitehouse, sat in the Senate and House galleries, met the actual Kermit the Frog, saw Dorothy's red shoes, saw (probably not) Obama in a motorcade, saw a giant elephant, the star spangled banner, the hope diamond, climbed through an air duct, saw Jaw's actual teeth, learnt how to be international spies, ran through the reflecting pool like the girl from forrest gump.. (tried.. Rach wouldnt let me)

Fantastic city. Apart from the hostel. It seemed we were sharing with crazy people, a lady in her 50s who seemed to talk to 'God' a lot about the bad thing she did that made her leave Baltimore.. And an elderly lady who we came to the conclusion was a witch. Unfortunately she overheard our conclusion and shuffled threateningly towards us at 2am on her way to the bathroom.

We're now cursed.

Amtrak was sufficiently better than the hostel and ten hours later brought us sunshine in Charleston!

Go Ravens!!

Leaving Buffalo standing on an empty street at an empty station with creepy circus music playing eerily to mask the silence, Philadelphia could not have been more welcoming!

After spending all night next to some canadian violinist who insisted on taking up a seat and a half on the megabus, I wasn't overly cheery when we arrived. But we stuggled through the sights of the Liberty Bell, Independance hall and getting free Shredded money from the Fedral bank! A decidedly laidback, friendly city made all the better with sunshine. The visit was topped off with a trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary, well worth a trip, amazing building!

A cheeky hour on a bus took us to Baltimore. Yes I did sing the song when I woke up and got caught in the process.. awkward! The only way to describe the city is the word 'gritty'. Hard to explain but not a place I'd wander round late at night. Big square buildings but somehow spread out. A place for a few beverages by the water front in the summer, not for a winters afternoon in January! I want to live there purely because I want to be a true Ravens fan!

Adopted Identity for the Superbowl?

I think so.

Canada is VERY cold.

After my last update the weather closed in, the snow came in full force and we ended up getting stranded in New York for an extra night! No 14 hour bus journey, instead a cheap flight a day later. Who could complain?!

Landed in Toronto to a very 'intimate' hostel. By 'intimate' I mean I could stroke the person in the next bed's face without really having to stretch... only downside was snoring and coughing, meaning not much sleep was had but I accepted a compromise of free waffles for breakfast every morning.

The city was friendly and inviting but SO cold trudging about in the snow. Particularly as our main entertainment was watching people ice skate.. better than you've been framed.

Met some crazy people, decided on taking their advice on our last morning to attend a bluegrass brunch. Unlimited food and a live band for $14 dollars. Amazing. If any of you find yourselves in Toronto go to the Dakota Tavern. Don't even hesitate!

Snipey found herself occupied by a new sport of 'cross country skiing'.. basically involved sliding along the pavement much to the guy behind's disgust.. comedy gold!

Niagara Falls was the venue of choice for New Years Eve, the falls themselves were amazing, it was a shame to find 'Blackpool' had moved in next to them. Tacky cannot even begin to describe it. Again SO cold. So cold my hair froze! Great atmosphere on the night surrounded by 65,000 people and what could go wrong with a bit of Nelly Furtado..

Currently in Buffalo killing time before our next move. Painfully cold here.. it's proved to be a ghost town!

Despite all, I can now say I've eaten Buffalo wings in Buffalo however Buffalo's don't actually have wings... who knew?!!

New York, New York...

I've been singing THAT song all week..
After a few interesting incidents at security at the airport. Snipey got taken aside and searched.. obviously looking like a terrorist that afternoon. Me on the other hand, got basically accused of being a stripper at passport control.. I suppose claiming I 'do anything' whilst working in a bar didn't really help the situation..

Well what can I say about New York.. I don't know where to start! We've done so much: 5th Avenue, Rockefella centre and top of the rock, 9/11, Park Avenue, Christmas Markets, Grand Central, Wall Street, Staten Island, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn bridge, China Town, Greenwich village, New york city library, Central park and the Zoo.

I can safely tell you all that Alex, Melvin, Gloria and Marty probably are still in Madagascar however the Penguins have returned to a VERY fishy enclosure and a very sorry looking polar bear!

I can also tell you that there are cats in America and the Streets aren't paved with cheese, but seeing the statue of liberty gave me an excuse to sing the song to a very confused Snipe.

New York does what it says on the tin. Amazing city, has weird contrasts from calm to busy. Steam does come out the grates and all the buildings are very big!

Impressive christmas day views from Top of the Rock, pancakes and a trip to the oriental side of New York rounded off a spectacular start to the trip.

14 hour bus journey to Canada? YES PLEASE!

See you on the other side and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All out in the open

Finally handed my notice in at work so can actually start to get excited! The majority of people know now, a select few knew before and it was starting to get hard to keep a lid on it. It's been a hard 6 months but can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.. about time!

I don't know whether to be excited or absolutely terrified, one minute I'm on top of the world, the next I don't know what the hell I am doing. I'm going with no expectations of the trip and treating it as the unknown.. which, lets face it, it is.

Leaving Yorkshire on the 17th December and flying from Heathrow on the 19th December.. New York for Christmas!

As I'm writing this it's 22 days to go and the thought of that scares the hell out of me!! I should probably take this moment to apologise to the friends that have been around me for the last few months, I can't think about/have no chat about anything else. There is a couple of you, who will know who you are when you read this, who have taken full force of my complaining and for that I'm sorry. Presents from America will follow shortly. (Needless to say I couldn't have even attempted this without Mummy and Daddy Robinson)
But it has to be said that in this preparation has proved a lot to me about the friends I have and I couldn't have gone through this last 6 months without them. That said there are exceptions.

I'm not sure how I'm going to cope a world where 'Have you got a membership card?' and 'Can I get you anything else at all?' mean absolutely bugger all.. but I've heard that after a few 'lemonades' I'll be a natural.

So on the premise that there is 17days of laughing at the same joke day in day out and being pitied because I work in crappy customer service jobs..

Time for work..

Visa

Ive been refraining from writing another post as it became suddenly uncertain as to whether or not I would actually be able to go on this trip due to visa problems. The visa process should essentially be fairly straight forward, however after a drunken incident at Uni, I ended up with a written warning from the police for giving someone my driving license. Trivial yes but it has caused considerable problems!

While I was thinking about the trip, I approached the police in regard to the warning affecting my trip to which I got the reply that it wouldn't and that I wouldn't have to declare it. So I then went on to phone the Embassy to book an appointment for getting my visa. We are unable to use the standard ESTA visa as that only lasts for 90 days to this forced us to apply for the B2 visa, hence having to go to London to visit the Embassy for an interview. One of the first questions asked before I booked my appointment was "have you ever had any arrests, convictions or cautions?" to which I replied no and paid the money ($160 non refundable) and thought nothing more of it.

After thinking about it all, the guilt mounted up so much that I phoned back to declare the warning that was given and I was so relieved that I did as It was then announced that my appointment would have to be cancelled and I would have to send off for a Police certificate (costing another £89) which would then be considered by the embassy as to whether or not I could have an appointment. The time it took to turn this over was probably about a week, possibly the longest week of my life!! The embassy took a day to consider it and offered me an appointment thankfully, the wait can be up to 5 working days.

The day before setting off to London for my appointment, I filled out the rest of the forms for the visa, all which consisted of where will I stay, how can I fund it and am I a terrorist, etc. Luckily my travelling partner had already been for their appointment and was able to fill me in on what the process was like. My advice to anyone would be to take a book, expect about a four hour wait and do not take any electrical goods with you at all, this includes key fobs and headphones!! If you do you will be sent up to a pharmacy called Gould's Pharmacy about a 2 minute walk from the Embassy which charges a fortune to store your stuff!

Once I got in through the security, which I was pleasantly surprised by as the security guards were happy to have a joke and a laugh at me on my way through which helped the nerves slightly. I was then given a number and asked to take a seat in what can only be likened to an airport lounge and after about 40 minutes I was called to get my fingerprints taken and documents checked. After a few questions, I discovered to my horror that I hadn't declared my little incident with the police in the second forms and started to panic! The lady however was extremely nice and gave me the opportunity to go to the nearest Internet cafe and amend the form. She gave me a map and directions to Gould's Pharmacy, who charged me or should I say robbed me of £6 for half an hour of Internet. I managed to get the forms changed and on my return to the Embassy was let straight back in and continued with my first appointment where my fingerprints were re-taken and I was then instructed to sit down and wait for my next interview.

I felt like I was going to be sick at this point with nerves as I didn't want to appear like I was hiding something by not declaring the warning on the second forms. Luckily, after about 20 minutes I got chatting to someone next to me who was able to take my mind off things and after another 3hour wait I was then called up for my next appointment.

I approached the window, the interviewer asked if I was Fiona, Princess Fiona like Shrek.. I was unsure how to respond so settled with a nervous laugh. I was only asked a few questions, where was I going, How long for, and How can I fund such a long time. After a few minutes of discussion, I was then told my visa was approved. (If he hadn't approved it, the whole Shrek comment would have been extremely offensive...)

After the whole stressful few weeks it took to get this sorted, the only advice I have is: do not make drunken mistakes and if this is too hard to follow, make sure you declare everything in the first place.

Everything comes back to bite you in the end.

Route..

I've been finding it hard to decide on what to write about next, I have so many thoughts and worries going round in my head that its hard to get them all down in a logical manor. So one of the easiest things that should be discussed is the route. We are going for a total of 22 weeks and have decided on a rough route although some things are going to remain vague and can be decided on when we are on the road.

Our adventure will start in New York for Christmas then onto Toronto between Christmas and New year, we debated heading to Boston but on further research it appears that there is not a lot there and accomodation is fairly expensive.

We will be at Niagra Falls for New Years eve, there is a huge concert that goes on which is free and this year we have just discovered that one of the performances will be by Simple Plan which is very exciting as we actually know some of the music!!

We will then move down to Philidephila, Baltimore,Washington and spend a few weeks down the coast line to Florida where we intend to spend a bit of time before heading to New Orleans in February for Mardi Gras!

Being in New Orleans at the start of February also allows us to soak up some of the Superbowl atmosphere before Mardi Gras begins. After Mardi Gras we will then head into Texas, there is a Rodeo in Houston that we want to experience as well as a trip into San Antonio and spend some time travelling through the smaller, more rural parts of Texas.
Then to head to the Deep South as it will be warmer by then, and as both myself and my travelling partner share a love of Jazz music it seems to be a crucial part of the trip for us both! Places that are a must visit include Jackson, Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis and Atlanta.

Next the intention is to head up to Chicago and Minneapolis in which my travelling partner is keen to see the Biggest Mall in America, not top of my list to see but will be an experience nonetheless!!

There is then confusion as to which way we go, our initial decision was to follow Route 66 from Oklahoma to Kingman then head up to Vegas, Denver and Salt Lake City then experience a bit of Yellowstone before hitting Seattle. However our plans have been thrown by the price of car hire between Oklahoma and Kingman. We are slowly coming to the verdict that we will have to cut Route 66 from this part of the trip and do it from the other direction as car hire proves to be considerably cheaper from California.

So from Minneapolis head to Denver, then Salt Lake City head towards Seattle through Yellowstone and head down the coastline towards California to Sacramento and San Fransico. When we hit California, hire a car/campervan and head along Route 66 for a week or so then back to California for Vegas and LA to end what will probably be one of the best trips of my life!!

You can all probably tell that our route is all a bit hazy at the minute but to go with a concrete timeline of places to go to at a certain time is not the trip I want. In saying that however, we will be booking key points before we go to make sure we don't get caught up in certain parts and realise the trip has gone before we've done half the things we want to do.

Thinking through all this and coming to the end with the flight home from LA makes me feel incredibly sad that the adventure already has a definite end.

All in all, 6 months. 22 weeks. 180 days. However you say it, it never seems like long enough!