Buffalo, New York
21 August 2007
Angry Dave and I arrived in Buffalo on what I think was a Tuesday night. Angry Dave had booked a hostel on Main Street and I had decided to just wing it and hope for the best. It worked for me in Europe, but unfortunately things are different in America. We were worried that we'd made a terrible mistake trying to find the hostel, as Main street was deserted. I'd never seen a more dying town. Even Garema Place in Canberra on a Sunday evening in winter has more action. After telling me that there was no room, the guy working in the hostel told me of some rooms he knew of above a pub a couple of blocks away. I left Angry Dave to check in, and I went over to check it out. It was the worse hotel I'd ever seen. Cats were roaming the corridors, and the man managing the pub told me he normally doesn't let it out for one night, it's normally for homeless people and druggies. I checked out what he said was the best room he had. As I went to unlock the door, it swung open, and I was greeted by a bare floor and a cupboard. There was no bed, and no lock on the door. I was done. I thanked the guy for his time and checked in at a cheap hotel a few more blocks away. Angry Dave and I went to where apparently the action happens in Buffalo on a Tuesday night. There wasn't much going on, except for one very awesome thing: $5 pitchers of beer. We'd been paying four times that much in New York City, here it was the same price as a pint but we got a whole pitcher. Needless to say, we got drunk. We also had Buffalo Wings - this was the town that invented them after all. The next day we were hung over, but were resolved to visit Niagara Falls, only an hour bus ride away. It was definitely worth it. We jumped on the Maid of the Mist, a tug-boat which took people right into the middle of the falls. We got absolutely saturated, but were very refreshed. Niagara Falls were very impressive. Angry Dave and I then decided to walk to Canada for lunch. The Canadian side of the Falls was much better than the US side. It was like a mini-Atlantic City, but with Canadians. Angry Dave was very impressed with Canada, and happy with the new stamp in his passport.
Early the next morning, after I couldn't sleep, I decided to leave Angry Dave; he had booked a flight to Boston, and I walked down to the Bus Station. After checking the next bus departure time, I was on my way to Cleveland, Ohio.
Cleveland, Ohio
23 August 2007
Cleveland doesn't have any hostels, and so again I booked into a cheap motel. Cleveland was similar to Buffalo, it seems this whole area has a slowing economy, but it had one big advantage, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I checked it out, listened to some Hendrix and the Doors, and then ticked it off the list. It was time to get drunk in another town, this time by myself. I found a bar which was actually pretty good, with $2 beers and made some friends pretty quickly. Unfortunately, my thongs had been slowly breaking, and occasionally break when I walked, causing me to trip and then stop and fix them. This happened around 3am in the bar in front of the bouncer. He assumed I was hammered and kicked me out. Disaster. Oh well, time to go home.
I hired a rental car the next day, as I had to get to Boston in about 3 days time, and it was too expensive to fly. The Hertz rental woman was struck by my aussie accent and taste for adventure, and upgraded my car to a Mazda M6 - it was a nice ride. As an aside, I ended up returning the car late in Boston, and my aussie accent saved me again, this time the extra day rental charge.
I decided to drive to Rochester. I had no maps, and no idea what was there, except I'd heard it was a university town. I had a vague idea where it was, and figured I'd wing it, if worse came to worse, I'd sleep in the car. On the way, I wanted to check out Amish country. After stopping a couple of times for directions, I ended up having lunch at an Amish restaurant. I ordered an Amish 'favourite', Noodles on Mash Potato. It tasted exactly like it sounds, and moved on, a little disappointed. Most Amish it appears have embraced the 21st century, and drive around in big Ford Pick-Ups, parked in their garage next to their buggy. They still dress traditionally, and make the best pretzels in America.
Rochester, New York
24 August 2007
I arrived in Rochester about 9pm, with no real struggles, except having to have a nap on the side of the highway for about half an hour. I drove around the town looking for an area that looked like it had some bars. Eventually I found a likely place, parked the car somewhere that looked safe but would be quiet enough if I needed to sleep. I'd been in the car all day, and was in desperate need for a shower and a beer. Unfortunately the shower was going to have to wait.
Within 10 minutes of arriving at the bar and ordering another bargain priced pitcher, I was offered a place to crash by some locals. I'd also been roped into playing a game of 'cricket'. Cricket in the US is a darts game, which scores a little like bowling. It took me all night to work out the subtleties, and just aimed for what my teammate told me. I hadn't played darts for a few years, but I didn't let my country down. The guys I was playing darts with were having a clam bake the next day, and I scored myself an invite. I also managed to get another offer of a place to crash - it was only a couch, but much better than sleeping in the backseat of the rental car.
The next day I made my way out to the suburbs of Rochester. The area is quite nice, big houses in quiet neighbourhoods. A clam bake is the Maine version of a barbie, but with clams and beer pong. Beer pong is massive over here, and I think I'm an addict. The Americans need to harden up though, and put more than just a couple of sips into each cup.
I had planned to drive to Boston that night, but the clam bake was good fun, and I was told that I was more than welcome to crash. I took them up on their offer, planning to set off at 5am to get to Boston in time to return the car. I woke at 8 - I hadn't had much sleep the last few days, and returned the car about 4 hours late. But as we know, it ended happily.
Boston, Massachusetts
26 August 2007
After I'd had my luck with returning the car, I was looking forward to Boston. It seemed my run of luck had turned good. How wrong I was. I arrived in Downtown Boston and spent the next two hours walking around from hostel to hostel trying to find a spare bed. Eventually I ended up just out of downtown at a place that used to be a hostel. They put me onto another place, and for the price of a hotel room, I had a shit bed in a crowded hostel.
It didn't really matter about the bed, as I only got a few hours sleep in it. That night, while eating a late night slice of pizza with a co-hosteller, I met Moroccan royalty. He took us to some classy hotel lounges and got us some after hours drinks. He was pretty classy, and was known by all the hotel managers. He'd invited us to a party the following night, but we never made it, as we were too tired, and just played some lazy pool. I met back up with Angry Dave that day, and he crashed at the hostel too. We decided at that point that while the hostel scene is good, a hotel room for the same price is much better, and we'll just make friends the old fashion way - by getting drunk and talking in an aussie accent. Boston as a city was quite nice. Very similar architecture to Brooklyn in the nice suburbs, but dripping with American history and Irish bars in downtown. But two days was enough. We went to the famous Cheers bar, got bad service and expensive beers. Boston - tick. It was time to go to Portland, Maine to meet back up with Hawkins and buy a car.
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