Mission Impossible: the shopping episode

The girl walked under the sign, proclaiming 'Marks and Spencers' in oversized letters. She looked around cautiously but she couldn't detect any followers. Her mission was simple: locate, seize, purchase.

She quickly found her objective and manoeuvred to the fitting rooms. On this occasion, however, she was unsuccessful. Downhearted, she returned the offending item to the rack.

She looked up as a warted middle-aged women enquired where one would find hats and gloves. This was clearly a trap. She replied, denying any knowledge of such products, hoping that would act as enough of a decoy to put the women off her trail.

She knew something was wrong. The women drew herself up to full height and began a verbal barrage: why don't you know, what's wrong you with, don't they train you in this place?

A shocked silence covered the shop, during which the girl replied in muted tones - you do realise I don't work here?

The embarrassment was audible as the women marched out of the store. The girl shared a secret smile with the real retail staff. This would be a day they wouldn't easily forget.

Castles! Just like in the fairy tales

This weekend was a Historic Scotland free weekend at a number of sites around Scotland. These sites normally cost GBP 6 to 10 each so it was quite a good deal and we wanted to make the most of it. We joined Steve and Jo on a train trip to Stirling to visit Stirling Castle. It's smaller than Edinburgh Castle but has also had less recent use (and siege damage), and therefore hasn't been modified quite as much since its construction. The views over Stirling and across to the William Wallace Memorial were great. A highlight was a presentation by a couple of guys in period costume about medieval weaponry, including a demonstration about how difficult it is to hide with a 10 foot pike ("See, ye can't see haem, but ye can see the pike"). The partially restored palace dating from the 16th century was also interesting, and we saw the huge amount of work they are putting into producing tapestries to hang on the walls.

We stopped off at Linlithgow on the way back to see the Palace. It wasn't in such good condition as Stirling Castle, but was even more interesting because there were lots of secret passageways and dark corridors to explore! It also left more room for the imagination to try to envisage what it would have looked like five hundred years ago. The setting was beautiful too, there is even a lake. I felt sorry for the prisoners who were held beneath the guardhouse - the only entrance to their cell was the rubbish chute-like hole in the ceiling through which they were dropped!

On Sunday, even though we were a bit castled-out, we took the opportunity to have a look at Edinburgh Castle for free. We'd previously circumambulated the castle and it looks great from all sides. You can see why it's Scotland's no. 1 tourist attraction. It lived up to our expectations - we missed out a couple of regimental museums, but saw pretty much everything else. We didn't have long enough to appreciate the Scottish Crown Jewels and Stone of Destiny because it was so busy, but the crowds weren't a problem otherwise. Just like the views of the castle from below, the views over the city are superb. Sylvia had suggested that I climb the rock and into the castle but I wasn't so sure. I was impressed to hear that the castle has been taken by a group of soldiers who scaled the north buttress and overcame the defenders, I would not be keen.

Edinburgh

Home, sweet home! Mhairi kindly met us up at the train station so we didn't have to negiotiate an unfamiliar bus system to get to the flat, but that hasn't stopped us from having a run-in with the public transport system already. There is more than one company running bus routes around Edinburgh and apparently it DOES matter which one you jump on...

Anyway, the flat. Mhairi's place is really nice and located fairly centrally. It is close to the important things (2 pubs, dairy/newsagent, bakery, fish and chip shop) and within easy walking distance of a supermarket and the city centre. It's even on lots of good bus routes. Here's a photo out the lounge window.

We both have favourable first impressions of Edinburgh. It's very scenic, with good views of the imposing Edinburgh Castle from the centre of town. Terraced houses, old chimneys, cobbled streets and lots of pubs! We've seen the inside of a few already.

On Saturday night we went to Jo and Steve's place for dinner. Mmm, haggis! It's the second time we've had it and it was just as yummy this time (if you can't stand the thought of all
that offal, try vegie haggis as it's also delicious). They put together a great spread. We also began our education on different whiskies, something Jo and Steve seem to have learnt a lot about in ten short months.

The Queen and I

After arising at 3:15am in NY, it was nice to be picked up at the airport by Chris and Mette (Sylvia's rellies) and whisked away to a comfortable bed.

The next day we had set an ambitious 9am meeting with Andrew Macklan at the Stockwell station, where we were introduced to the comforts of the London Underground. They had padded seats and heaps of space - we were impressed.


We saw the sights - Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Picadilly Circus and whole heap of streets off the Monopoly board. Mark took a long time getting the flowers just right in the photo of Buckingham Palace. I'm sure the Queen would have been impressed.

We had lunch at a wonderful little Japanese restaurant in Chinatown, but the real food highlight of the day was FREE Ben & Jerry's ice-cream. We wore hats to celebrate.

We thought the day couldn't get any better, but our guide Andrew took us to Covent Garden and the New Zealand shop. That wasn't the highlight: it was when Mark said "hello Mike Carrigan". Yes, we bumped into Mark's ex-flatmate from New Zealand in the middle of London. We all went for beer to celebrate.

Chris and Mette cooked us a wonderful meal and plied us with whiskey and wine. The food continued the next day with a Italian lunch with Mike and Heather before jumping on a train to our final destination: Edinburgh.

The Big Apple

By the time our vagabond shoes had found their way from Chinatown to the appropriate subway station, our little town blues had well and truly melted away. Manhattan (let alone the rest of New York) is a very big place! We were struck immediately by the busyness, vibrancy, and the sheer size of it all. We made our way to our hostel near Central Park - like everything else, it was big. It claims to be the biggest hostel in the world and I wasn't going to argue that point.

We woke up in the city that never sleeps and spent the day exploring Central Park and upper-middle Manhattan. The NYers were certainly out in force, running, biking and walking their dogs. The size of the park (big, of course) means that different areas are able to have their own character, but the overall effect is of an area where people can feel closer to nature while being surrounded at a distance by tall buildings on all sides - quite interesting!

Further downtown, the library was a beautiful building and has been recently restored, the intricate patterns and paintings on the ceilings were particularly noteworthy. Not only did they have some interesting exhibitions inside, but they let us sign up for a libary card and use their computers for free.

People complain that NYers are unfriendly and that it's not a nice place. Some have even said they would sooner spit in your face than say hello to you. Of course it is never going to have the character of a town or small city, but I should start spreading the news that our experiences were positive. People do not say hello to you in the street or make unnecessary eye contact in the subway (the same as any other large city) but they were quick with a smile or to talk once some sort of contact was made.

The next day we explored Lower Manhattan. We got on the subway near the back of the train, but part-way through our journey I noticed that in order to get off at our station we needed to be in one of the first five cars! At each of the next few stations we would burst out of the car as soon as the train had stopped and run forward one or two cars before the doors closed again! It was quite funny because we weren't the only ones doing it. We took a boat ride past the Statue of Liberty, walked along Wall St and checked out the site of the World Trade Center, past City Hall, over the Brooklyn Bridge and finally arrived at the Empire State Building. Here followed a 2 1/2 hour wait so we got quite sore feet. It was a cool experience, and I'd say it's worth $US 16 OR a 2 1/2 hour wait, but not both.

The next day was torrential rain and high winds (I'm not exaggerating - hundreds of flights from NY were cancelled but fortunately not ours) so we avoided being outside as much as possible. We did manage to make it to the Museum of Sex but I won't explicitly describe the exhibits here ;-) We also celebrated our last night in the US with a dinner out. We picked the closest restaurant to our hostel due to the foul weather but it turned out to be a good choice. Yummy food and a mariacha band!
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.

Boston Buns?

It may surprise you to hear that we didn't find any Boston buns in Boston. But we found lots of other cool stuff.

Our first task (again) was to master the local subway system (the 'T') and get to our hostel. The next day we did the Boston Freedom Trail, learning all about personalities such as Paul Revere and John Adams, and the American Revolution (at least those bits of it pertaining to Boston). I got to check out the oldest commissioned warship in the world (the USS Constitution, of wood and canvas) and walk all over and through a WWII destroyer.

We also got to go to the movie 'Hot Fuzz' for free! I would highly recommend it to those of you who have a sense of humour.

The next day we checked out the Boston Science Museum. We got our days wrong, since the previous day had been cold and windy and our "inside day" was going to be sunny and warm(er), so spent some time outside in the sunshine looking over the water from the Adams Dam into Back Bay before we went in. Good thing we did, too, because the Museum occupied the rest of the day! It was really interesting but we were both pretty museum-ed out after that.

We found the cheapest bus to New York, the Fung Wa (?) bus, which goes directly to Chinatown instead of to any sort of bus depot but it seemed to do the job. The ticket people were funny, calling us over to buy tickets and hustling us onto the bus, it felt more like a Bangkok tourist scam than a commercial transport operation.

Amherst, NH

After Bre finished coaching her softball team on Friday night, we piled into her car for the drive to the family home in Amherst, New Hampshire. They live on the outskirts of the town by a small artificial lake - apparently it's great skating in winter and nice paddling in summer, but we were in an in-between season. It was still good to run around each morning though (at about -7 deg C according to the thermometer, quite bracing in t-shirt and shorts).

The town is small, but spread-out in a way that these New England towns seem to be, with the odd house scattered here and there amongst the trees. There were some weatherboard houses, and some built of brick, but mostly they were clad in some kind of wooden slat which seems to be quite common in this part of the world. And every second or third house had an American flag so there was no chance we'd forget where we were (though we did get lost).

Bre took us out on a drive on Saturday to Kennebunkport, Maine, a place where her grandmother used to have a house. It was a pretty town, with lots of old colonial style houses, including one owned by George Bush (Senior) which we cruised past. We had a chilly picnic down by the sea.


On Easter Sunday we joined in the family festivities - these mostly involved helping to eat the delicious food provided by Bre's mum, Jan, and helping Bre's four year-old nephew on his easter egg hunt around the front lawn :-)

We'll put some photos up when we can, so check back the last couple of posts in a few days and we should have updated them with piccies!

Winter wonderland

We arrived at Bre's house in the middle of a snowstorm. We met three deer walking down the road towards us at one point. No moose, though.

Bre's house is located in northern New Hampshire, at the edge of 1st Conneticut Lake, or more accurately, in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town (20 mins drive) is Pittsburg, population 1,000. After all the big cities we've been through, it was wonderful to be surrounded by trees again. Especially when they are all covered in snow and icicles.

We woke up at 7am to hear that the unheard of had happened - a foot of snow had fallen so Bre's school was cancelled for the day (the snow isn't unusual, but they never cancel school). So, we had a local guide! She took us up to the Balsams ski resort and snow-shoeing just past Dixville Notch up to a frozen waterfall. Mark and I looked a bit clumsy on our tennis-racket snowshoes but it was fantastic fun!

We spent the rest of the day preparing dinner (4-course!) and watching movies.

School was on the next day (Easter Friday, no holidays over here though!) and Bre had organised for us to come into 6 classes and talk about New Zealand. It was great fun - they asked some really good questions (and some pretty funny ones) and we got to go have lunch in the cafetaria (the cool kids wanted us to sit with them but we were at the teachers table).

Border Crossing

It was a dark and snowy night. Two lonely figures stood at the bus station. This was Sherbrooke - the end of the line. Would their driver show up at the rendezvous? The crowd quickly thinned, unfamiliar faces departing to who knew where.

At the end of the platform stood a broad in a full length black coat, lined in pink, drawn up tightly against the cold wind but still showing some pink bits. This was the woman they'd come to meet.

"The name's Adams, Breanna Adams". Quick handshakes and hellos, wary eyes watching in case the other had been followed. Weeks of planning had led to this place, this moment. All their hopes were riding on her.

It was still snowing, but the roads were clear, and their driver conveyed the easy confidence of someone who had driven these roads many times before. The drive passed largely in silence. They had each made attempts at conversation, but tiredness and anxiety, coupled with the gathering darkness outside, led them to quickly return to their own thoughts. Serious matters weren't discussed - the work had been done, plans laid, and there really wasn't much more to say.

They stopped at the border post. This was it. A bear-like man sat inside, seemingly asleep at his desk. A second man rose, stepped outside, and approached the car. "Where're you folks headed?"

"Pittsburg, New Hampshire".

"Where're you coming from?", he asked.

"I live in Pittsburg, and they've just come from Sherbrooke, but they're from Noo Zealand", said the driver.

"I'm British", the other woman corrected, her voice betraying her nervousness.

The man couldn't help but notice the border guard's pistol was just about in his face as he stood by the car. If things started to go wrong, he could just about...

"Passports please". They handed them over in silence, and the guard left to examine them. He soon returned to the car, his face betraying no emotion.

"Anything to declare?", he asked. This was it, the moment of truth.

"No, nothing", the woman in the back replied, a little too quickly. The guard showed a bit more interest.

"Well maybe some fruit...apples, bananas, mandarins?", added the man. Act innocent and keep cool, he told himself.

"I'm gonna have to see those mandarins".

"Will they be a problem?", asked the woman in the back, knowing full well the serious implications of the citrus fruit in the shopping bag that the guard now held.

"Yeah, maybe," said the guard, his poker face hiding his excitement at this find. This could get him a promotion.

They waited nervously in the car as the guard examined the mandarins. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he waved them on - he was letting them go, minus the mandarins. They wasted no time in continuing on into the United States, where the snow had been more heavy and more care was required on the road. Once across the border, the three relaxed. There was no rush now that their mission had been accomplished, and so easily at that. The guard had fallen for the bait and had taken the sacrificial mandarins - not even noticing the other mandarins in the lunch bag.

The man enjoyed the warmth from the car's heater and allowed himself a smile. While others would continue the mission, their part in the operation was complete, and he looked forward to savouring the sweet, citrusy taste of victory.

Bonjour Montrèal!

We've spent 3 days in Montreal, depite the somewhat dismal weather (I think it has been below 10 degrees the whole time). We are staying with the coolest family (two brothers and a sister) from Benin (the west coast of Africa for the non-geographically minded).

They've cooked us meals, given us wine, spoilt us and got us thoroughly addicted to 24 (the programme). We stayed up until 2am this morning watching the last 4 episodes of the series.

As for Montreal itself, it is a pity we did't practise our French before we came! Pretty much everyone is bilingual but the signs aren't of course...

We have been to the 'underground city', Mont Royal (we saw a fox in the wild!) and the biodome(where we saw the World's largest rodent - see left).

We've also become extremely proficient at catching buses and the underground. Luckily it's all very efficient so there's not too much trauma involved.

Ottawa

After a five hour Greyhound bus ride from Toronto we arrived in Ottawa. The backpackers we are staying in is small and funky. The rooms all have continents painted on the doors - we're staying in "Australia" but the flies haven't bothered us so far. The hostel also has a huge, slow ginger cat. Sylvia thinks all the cats here are big and slow - I'm inclined to agree, and I wonder if they need to be to survive the winter?

It is a bit chilly here but not too cold to go running in t-shirt and shorts (and get funny looks from the locals). There is still heaps of ice on the Ottawa and Rideau rivers in places though. This picture is looking across the Ottawa River towards the Houses of Parliament.

I've also included a photo of a friend Sylvia made in Niagara Falls. His name is Sergeant Murray Moose.