So, I flew back to Auckland and then back to Christchurch, losing a day because of the time difference. I think Air New Zealand is actually a quite superior airline, the staff are excellent, they serve familiar drinks (L&P!), with familiar accents, and they are helpful to a fault. I think the back-of-seat entertainment system that Air New Zealand has is also one of the best I have come across and they are planning to upgrade it to a touch screen system at the end of the year. Kudos!

I had a little bit of a cold, which sucked, but I had been away long enough and it was good to get back. Just a few final bits and pieces to note. When leaving the plane from San Francisco, I met Ashley (an old university buddy), randomly. How small is this place? Oh, and it is freezing here! Though the early morning flight down to Christchurch was really quite beautiful, watching the sun come up and the beautiful pink light on the Southern Alps.

I suppose I should end this long journal (probably the longest I have ever written by an order of magnitude) with a few comments and words of wisdom. As Angela told me before I left, the point of travelling is experience. If you travel aimlessly, you may or may not find what you are looking for. My purposes in this trip were several - to break some of my preconceptions about myself and the world, to see something new, and to get some perspective on life outside of being a student in New Zealand. I also wanted time to clarify and mull over some of the decisions I will have to make in my life, while I don’t think it has helped with some decisions, it has made my course of action clearer and made me more confident in a number of ways. It has also allowed me to accept some of my actions over the past year for what they were and what I am.

As cryptic as that sounds, it made sense to me. So if you have actually read all this and got to the end, more fool you. Hopefully, you got something out of it. I think that it as been a useful experience writing this, even if I did get a little behind in the second half of the trip.

A few stats…

Days: 72

Forms of Transport: Ferry, Catamaran, Car, Cable Car, Funicular, Gondola, Train, Tram, Subway, Walking, Cycling, Plane, Elevator, High Speed Elevator, Bus.

Total Flying Time: ~58hrs

Nights - Plane: 3, Hotel: 7, Friends & Relatives: 22, Train: 4, Hostels: 35 (71 Total)

Countries (12 - 5 New): Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France, England, USA.

Photos: 1700+

Videos: 102

Total Spent: That is for me to know and for you not to

I have decided to present all of my time in San Francisco in one post, for two reasons. Firstly, I’m just a little lazy and the thought of trying to remember everything I did for each of ten days scares me. Secondly, for some of those days, as I was nearing the end of the trip, I really didn’t do all that much! I will divide it up into sections, the largest being about my adventures within the city itself.

Hostel

I stayed in a rather awesome hostel in down-town San Francisco. It was well priced for the location and about 7 blocks from Market Street. Apparently it has one enough awards to be classed the best hostel in San Francisco. (USA Hostels, 711 Post Street). The hostel provides an excellent kitchen for guests to use and also provides breakfast every morning - in the form of cook-your-own American style pancakes. Rather delicious, but possibly not what you want every morning for ten days. The beds were squeaky to even lie down on, but on the whole rather good. Most nights the hostel staff organised some sort of event, a karaoke night, movie nights in there small cinema, in house parties, trips to local bars (one of which had a Tuesday night special of $2 a drink). It had a really cool atmosphere.

One interesting story of note was being rudely awakened at 2:30am by shouting outside of my room. There was much swearing, talking of calling the police, passports, paedophilia, “You’ve fucked me, I’ll be ruined for ever”, banging, screaming, and a sound rather similar to someone bang their head against a wall. I’m still not exactly sure what happened, but I heard from someone the next day who had been down in the foyer at the same time, that five cop cars had shown up and an individual and his bag had been dragged out into a cop car. Hmmm.

San Francisco

Most of the time I spent out and about in San Francisco I spent walking. I’m not sure if I would really describe it as a walker’s city, but it sure is interesting. For those who don’t know San Francisco, it is a city at the end of a peninsula pointing north. Because of its location, it has a specific micro climate that keeps the city cool in summer and not too chilly in winter. To the east of the city is a massive inlet known commonly as the bay. All of the cities and suburbs that surround it make up the Bay Area - original, huh?

The centre of the city is fairly spread out, though arguably the diagonally running Market Street forms the centre of town. I spent a good amount of time walking around the area. The quiet and desolate financial district with massive skyscrapers that is just like all the others world wide, the city hall surrounded by the roughest neighbourhood in town. San Francisco has a serious problem with homeless people - more than 80,000 of them in the city alone.

Neighbourhoods in New Zealand tend to merge into each other and the only really abrupt changes one notices are between residential, commercial and industrial areas. Because of basically everyone lives in apartments and in a city this large the industrial areas are rather rarer inside the city limits, these distinctions don’t really exist. However, the difference between neighbourhoods is extensive, possibly more than anywhere I have been in the West before (In the East there are huge contrasts, but it is usually the poor on the street and the rich above). One can walk a block here and transition from a high class mall into an area rife with homeless wandering the streets. Maybe it isn’t more prevalent - but instead, one’s expectations are higher.

Interestingly, in the middle of the homeless district is the Orpheum Theatre, which was probably in a wealthy part of town at one point. Now it stands alone showing top class Broadway shows. The current season of Wicked has been running for about a year and is pretty stunning. The singing of the leads was amazing (though, I think that they may have been having sound issues as some of the diaglogue and chorus numbers were a bit hard to hear clearly). The plot and music was spectacular. This is a full on musical, with a decent orchestra and an amazingly well choreographed stage. The props and costumes were pseudo-steampunk! Drools! A huge smoke breathing dragon over looked the stage, with orchestrated scene changes on a fully lit stage that were excellently done. The lighting itself was amazing and combined with lots of cool flying effects was amazing! But yeah, if you don’t know it the storyline itself is really cool, lots of interesting interlocking themes all relating back to the Wizard of Oz itself.

In addition to spending time in the centre of the city, I spent several days walking to the far reaches of the city. It forms a rough square about seven miles to a side. One day I headed north to the water front, through San Francisco’s famous Chinatown, I then spent several hours walking past various piers, forts, beaches, wetlands. This included walking past one of the famous homes of aviation - Crissy Field. I was quite amazed with the variation of native flora and fauna - strawberries growing in the sand, a mole peeping its head out, nasturtiums covering the banks, and even a humming bird flitting around.

By the time I got to the Golden Gate Bridge, that afternoon, the fog and low cloud had cleared and the bridge shone in the afternoon sun. It was a pleasant, if a tad long stroll across it. It is not surprisingly the most photographed bridge in the world, it presents a stunning form visible from miles around. Technically there is a foot path on either side of the bridge, one for walkers and the other for bikes (though for some strange reason, in the weekend the allocated sides reverse). In practice, tourists don’t read the signs so everything gets jammed up together. I walked across, sat around in the sun, and then back, catching a bus back into town. One final interesting feature is that on each side of the bridge are five evenly spaced telephones for an on-call counselling service to try to dissuade the large numbers of people who attempt to jump of the bridge and kill themselves every year.

Another day I headed around the city in the opposite direction, my first port of call was the Golden Gate Park (which is not really close to the bridge at all). I spent a pleasant couple of hours strolling through it, not visiting the museums, attending the small but pretty Japanese gardens, being in the botanic garden and realising I am in a section of New Zealand natives, and watching lots of cute squirrels. I occupied my mind designing a variation of Fluxx, which I believe has the potential to be quite amusing.

I then headed up the coast, along sandy beaches and rocky outcrops, past old bathing pools left to ruin and new coastal suburbs. The track here was actually quite a fun walk and there were very pretty scenes looking out to the Pacific Ocean. I had always assumed that the environment portrayed in the GTA series was somewhat fictional or at best a cliché; however, occasionally you see a scene that could be perfectly mirrored in the game and you are forced to re-evaluate - this happened many times today.

By the time I got to the Golden Gate Bridge, this time from the other side, I wasn’t as tired as expected and decided to walk back to the hostel. I ploughed onwards, through the Presidio district (old Army base), down Lombard street to the world’s most curvy street, and back across the hills to town. San Francisco can’t be said to be flat!

Food Missions

I get whole section to talk about food! Woot! Well, food in San Francisco is probably what one would call varied. They have lots of good stuff going. Basically, today’s America has a love affair with five things when it comes to food. They might surprise you, but they might not. Salads, fast food, organics, bagels, and coffee.

Bagels are pretty much as common as sliced bread here, they are a standard way to eat stuff. Rather than toast for breakfast, bagels are pretty common. Fast food chains serve bagels just so they don’t miss out on the trade. The most ubiquitous bagel of them all is a New York style bagel, that is with cream cheese - or as they would say in New York - with a schmear. Bagels come in the standard types - plain, poppy, seasame, cherry, etc etc. One slightly strange term is the ‘Everything bagel’, which just has mixed seeds, though sometimes over zealous bakers decide that adding garlic or onion is a good idea… If you like you’re bagel sweet or don’t really feel like that onion taste, it’s just not good.

Fast food, well it is as common as you might imagine, though it is probably not significantly more prevalent than NZ. However, there is definitely a superior selection of different chain stores. At least in the type of society I associate with in New Zealand, going to a fast food restaurant just isn’t really the done thing if one wants dinner. You can actually feel the vibe in the US. Dinner - right fast food is fine. Though, one has to say something for fast food in the US - they do burgers and they are good. Basically everywhere also does vegetarian burgers!

Coffee is a strong part of the city psyche in the USA. One drinks coffee. Don’t argue, just do it. There is a Starbucks on a surprising number of corners, and where there isn’t a Starbucks, there is another coffee chain advertising that it is superior simply because it is not Starbucks. Coffee here tends to be slightly average compared to the coffee one finds in NZ in terms of quality - but you can certainly find boutique places if you care to look.

Salads are a catch phrase for something that is good for you in the US. One can find them everywhere - even in malls. I wish that was the case in NZ. I visited a Westfield mall in the centre of San Fran and one of the stands in the downstairs food court was a steak bar, but 90% of what they sold was actually salads. Meat is optional, top your salad with onion strings, salads served in fried tortilla bowls (awesome!). The portions are huge, they are cheap, and while dressed it is not totally excessive. In New York, salad bars are everywhere, just select what you want and they mix it from scratch.

Almost finally - organics. If you want to sell anything in the US, just label it organic and it will do fine! The choice of organic products is huge and it has reached the main stream. The Whole Foods supermarket I talked about in one of my New York posts is not isolated - this is a main stream chain across the US with hundreds of stores. I indulged at one of their buffets in San Francisco and took a few bits and pieces back to the hostel to cook with. The quality and selection is excellent, and the price is actually pretty reasonable.

While they don’t fit into my list above there are a few other things to mention. Firstly, supermarkets. One can’t find real supermarkets inside a US city - apart from Whole Foods and they are not hugely common. The closest one comes is Walgreens. Except, these are technically pharmacies (apparently because pharmacies can sell food but supermarkets cant sell drugs), about a quarter of the shop is actually food. IF you manage to find something actually fresh in a Walgreens you are doing well. I do not exagerate - there is NO fresh produce section - NO fruit, NO vegetables. Given this one must drive outside the city or shop at small dairies that are fairly common. They tend to sell most things, though only a few are any good (the one at the top of Nob Hill is the best I found in San Fran). Alcohol is cheap - a necessary bonus!

While the ability to cook one’s own food is a little lacking if one doesn’t know where to look, the choice of places to eat is pretty good. Let me just mention a few - there are excellent Thai restaurants all over San Francisco that can produce a Pad Thai superior to anything in New Zealand. There are a few places around that do self-serve frozen yoghurt. Often they don’t have a huge number of flavours, but what makes it cool is they have a buffet of things like fruit, berries, chocolate bits, nuts, and other exciting confectionery to sprinkle; they are pay-by-weight. Finally, I should mention a terrific Indian buffet restaurant originally named ‘Naan and Curry’. For about US$14 including tax, one can stuff oneself on delicious Indian curries. The price might not seem extremely cheap, but choice here is key - one doesn’t often get to try 10+ curries and the trimmings in one meal. Yum.

4th July Celebrations

On the Saturday, 3rd of July, I headed west to the Fillmore St Jazz Festival which ran throughout the weekend. Basically they fill up the entire street with food stalls, market stands, and stages of live Jazz music. It was bustling and packed. For the most part, it was near impossible to find a place to sit. There were four main stages and a number of smaller street side performance areas. Bands would start playing fairly frequently. I saw at least six different acts, mainly local, but all of pretty high calibre. The was a couple of Jazz Quartets, an easy listening Jazz band, a big band, and even a band called Native Elements which played something closer to R&B and Island music, than Jazz, but they were probably the highlight.

I have to say, Jazz has never inspired me that much, and while the culture is pretty cool, I just don’t get that much out of the music. This is probably why I have never been that attracted to Swing, and the same probably also applies to a lesser extent to Salsa. But, this was pretty cool. Native Elements gathered a rather large crowd and produced great music and a terrific atmosphere. Everyone was up dancing, even the old guys at the back.

The type of food on offer here was quite interesting, it was a fairly eclectic mix - battered zucchini, garlic fries, beer on tap, bubble tea, various things bbq’d, tacos, gyros and fish ‘n chips. It was an excellent place for people watching, with an interesting mix of different races relaxing rather than busy going about there work, as such I took some rather cool photos. All in all it was a very amusing day.

The next day, the 4th of July itself, I had a fairly laid back day. In the evening, I walked over the hills to join the rest of San Francisco around and along the coast from Pier 39. As a tall white guy, I was dragged in to help some black street performers, I chilled out to a rather excellent cover band playing classic American rock. As the evening progressed, everyone made their way to the water front. I actually got a position fairly near the end of the pier by arriving an hour before. By 9:30 the place was packed, the barges were out in the bay, small boats had gathered in the bay, the light house on Alcatraz was sending a beam of light glancing around the dark bay.

After the Saulsalito fireworks had finished on the other side of the bay, we slowly got underway. Two barges presented identical displays to the coastline, and we were almost directly between them. The displays were fairly impressive, though marred a little through low cloud. One could hardly see the large fireworks at all they achieved was to illuminate the clouds. But, very pretty. Twenty minutes later it was all over, I found myself along with half a million others making my way out of the area. The streets were packed and this continued all the way along the north coast of the peninsula. I really do feel sorry for those who were trying to drive anywhere. By 10:30, I was back at the hostel.

North - Marin County

Today (6th July) I ventured north of the city. My plan was to visit Muir Woods and use public transport to get there and back as tours to the area are rather pricey (one is looking at around about US$80). So after grabbing a few pancakes at the hostel, I headed down to the Civic Centre (about seven blocks away) and grabbed the bus to Marin City. I chatted to a local Bay Area girl who was heading north to see some friends. She was in the middle of a degree in Native American Studies and Local Governance and Policy. She told me about the wide variations (in wealth, culture heritage, and customs) of suburbs in the Bay Area and the vast differentiation between them. As I had myself noticed, one can walk just a block here and be in a completely different neighbourhood. This is even more extreme than the New York boroughs where neighbourhoods just merge into each other.

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and headed north on the 101 Freeway. Marin City, when we reached it, is basically one of those wide open malls, surrounded by housing estates. For those in Christchurch, think Tower Junction. From here I planned to catch the 66 bus direct to Muir Woods. Well, that was the plan. As I looked around the sparse neighbourhood, I found the bus stop for the 66 bus, along with a big sign - only running on weekends and holidays. Unlike the last 3 days, this no longer applied. I thought that I couldn’t have read the timetable totally wrong, so I thought I would wander over to the Park ‘n’ Ride, just down the road and see if the bus still went from there and just avoided Marin City.

I could either go along the Freeway, which didn’t seem to have any footpaths, or head up the hill. While the hill presented nice views, an insight into a fairly wealthy California suburb, and even deer grazing on the slope below, the road didn’t continue down into the next valley. I ended up bush wacking down an over grown trail, startling a deer, and wandering along a road to the Park ‘n’ Ride. This particular piece of road was obviously frequented by trucks for two reasons - a) they were passing all the time, and b) the wild fennel on the edge of the narrow road was covered in diesel residue which disgustingly got all over my clothes.

I made it to the Park ‘n’ Ride, only to discover that bus 66 really wasn’t running and the West Marin Stagecoach, which stopped only a few miles off target, had been by 10 minutes before and wasn’t due for another 3 hours. Yay! So, not knowing exactly where bus stops where, the speed on the road, the distance to Muir woods, I constructed a worst case senario and a cut off time to start returning and started walking. It seemed like a good idea at the time! So I wandered along Route 1, at this point a narrow winding road that continued up through suburbia and up into the hills. Lots of traffic and no room to walk made the journey a little hairy. This was compounded with heavy San Francisco fog that descended as I got higher. Drivers looked at me with a look of disbelief as they passed. Eventually, there was a sign - only 3 miles to go! I left the ecaluptyus forest and came out onto the tussock highlands (yeah, it was quite a climb). And then after following the ridgeline, taking cool photos, the road plunged through more hairpins down into the valley.

A few hours after starting, I found myself at Muir Woods. This is a protected area of coastal redwood forest. Very beautiful, full of tourists, big wide flat boardwalks. I paid US$5 to get in, though I later discovered I could have just walked in if I had had a map and known where the trails were. I walked up the valley, admiring the views, and then took a steep zigzag track out of the forest. Acending from redwoods to mountain conifers to tussock, reaching the top and finding the bus station just in time to catch the stage coach back to Marin City. Phew.

From here, I wandered down the shore line, full of marinas and rough boat yards to the township of Sausalito. Which had a slightly Nelson-esque feel about it, but without being nearly so awesome. Another few kilometres later, I got to the ferry terminal and caught the ferry back to San Francisco. I found a seat at the front of the boat and listened in to a tour guide describing some of the history of the Bay Area, and especially that of Alcatraz as we passed close by. Very interesting. The bay was quite still and grey, which is apparently uncommon.

South - San Jose

On the recommendation of several friends who grew up around San Francisco, I decided to head south to an attraction in San Jose (remember - Spanish pronunciation: ho-zay). My plan was to take the Caltrain, a regular service between San Francisco and San Jose and everywhere in between (on the 7th of July). Unfortunately, I misjudged how long it would take to walk across town to the Caltrain station. I made it just in time to watch the train start moving and leave the platform behind. In my defence, if my watch had the same time as they did, I would have made it - just. So I had to wait around for an hour.

This time I made it to the train with plenty of time. It was an interesting two story train, featuring that American diner look with far too much ridged chrome. Inside, the top story featured a single row on each side of the carriage, in a mezzanine configuration that looked down on the seats below. It seemed a little odd. An hour and a half later, after whizzing through famous Bay Area suburbs we made it to San Jose. The centre of Silicon Valley. On the way we passed Palo Alto and Mountain View, think Xerox PARC (invention of laptop, modern UI, etc) and the Googleplex (Google Headquarters). I had hoped to visit some of these places and the nearby Computing Museum. Unfortunately, they are either not open for visitors, or in the case of the latter, closed for refurbishment.

Anyhow, I got to San Jose and noticed the change in climate - San Jose falls outside of San Francisco’s micro-climate. The temperature here is not tempered by the sea breezes and was scorching hot. Eventually, I found the appropriate bus stop and caught the bus through the suburbs (I’m pretty sure that all of San Jose is just suburbs, everywhere!). My destination was the Winchester Mystery House. I’m not sure if it was worth an entire day trip, but the journey was interesting and the story behind the house is pretty cool - even if a lot of it is in the telling. I will do my best to relate the story of this strange place.

Mrs. Winchester, a recent widow, moved to San Jose in the late 19th C. For some reason she spent the next 38 years renovating and expanding the 8 room farmhouse she moved into. By renovating, I mean every day - until the day she died. By the time she passed away the 8 rooms had become 160. In the process over 600 rooms had been created and most subsequently changed. The entire house was built without blueprints (except one unsigned consent for one of the three elevators) and designed by Mrs. Winchester, who had no experience in this area. It features interesting features like doors that open to nothing on the second floor, sideways banisters, doors that can’t open and never did, windows in the floor, cupboards that couldn’t hold a cup, and a low riser staircase that has seven corners and 44 stairs to go up a single floor.

It features quirky features as ways to spy on the household servants, an in built gas lighting system, an electronic servant call feature that specified the particular number of room the call came from, pneumatic elevators, some absolutely stunning stained glass windows, a carriage hall where the carriage could be driven into the house for her to disembark, a furnace that was only lit 3 times, a room with 4 fireplaces and 3 furnace vents, and an entire wing that was closed after the 1912 earthquake never to be reopened until after her death. Apparently the house used to have a seven story tower, but that collapsed in 1912 as well.

And why would someone build such a structure. Well several theories exist, but the evidence that exists suggests that Mrs. Winchester believed that she was haunted. Her family (in law) had made there fortune selling weapons (in particular the Winchester Rifle was a famous weapon in the ‘Colonisation of the West’). All of the people the weapons had killed were out to exact their revenge on the family - starting with her husband and son, before she moved to San Jose. A psychic told her that in order to appease the spirits she had to provide them with somewhere to live and continue building it. So she did.

She may well have been a little batshit crazy, but she seems to have been a fairly astute business woman. She managed the construction on the house, expanded the family business, and had a large set of orchards that provided tinned and dried fruit across the country. Many of the technological innovations in the house, while in some cases impractical, often ingenious, she invented herself. A massive machine for drying fruit fills one of the outhouses. A quite surreal place.

I spent a few hours here before making my way back to San Francisco. I had planned to jump off and wander around Mountain View for a while, unfortunately it was getting rather late so I didn’t get a chance.

The convention, having finished, left me exhausted and with a box of boardgames and other bits and bobs to cart home. I managed a few more hours of sleep than my usual 6 or 7 and headed off to the airport. I retraced my steps to the hostel - plane, bus, and 3 subways, well, actually 4 because I mucked up, with an extra box. Fun!

I spent the late afternoon in town. Unfortunately it was a little to late to go visiting museums, so I wandered around the shops and grabbed some more Maoz falafel for dinner. After this I headed back to the hostel and tried (quite unsuccessfully) to get an early nights sleep.

I was up at 3am, heading for JFK. I was organised and so realised a shuttle bus was scheduled for the current section of subway, I even knew where it stopped. I waited there for 15 minutes before exploring and discovering the subway was actually running. Weird. So, 2 subway trips later, I boarded the Air Train as the first light appeared on the horizon and sped towards Terminal 7. After doing all of the customary airport things, I grabbed some breakfast and watched the sun come up.

The flight to San Francisco was 6hrs, crossing 3 time zones. There were some awesome views of the Rockies, farmland, and in some places huge swathes of pivot irrigators (though less than I would have expected). I caught the BART (Bay Area Regional Transport) from the airport into town. With box in hand, I climbed the hill to my hostel. San Francisco is not what one could call flat!

I spent the rest of the day exploring the central city, but that is a story for the next post.

Origins is the second largest convention (after Gencon) in the US dedicated to role playing and table-top gaming. Every year for the last thirty-five, up to fifteen thousand individuals (geeks and other insundry), have gathered for five days of fun filled gaming related events. This convention is set in Columbus, Ohio, the largest city in the state with about a million inhabitants.

This year, I had the pleasure of attending the convention for all five days. It was the first convention I have ever been to and I had a lot of fun. Good friends of mine, Jan & Rose, had gone last year and had a great time, so I was encouraged enough to go. By the time I got round to booking (three months out), the only accommodation I could get was expensive, though I managed to get a room just across the road.

We don’t really have convention centres like this in New Zealand, well certainly not in Christchurch. For those who know the convention centre next to the town hall, that entire venue could fit into one of the four main halls in the complex. In addition there are a variety of 20 - 30 smaller rooms within the complex. Pretty much all of these were in use during Origins.

One of the main halls for an exhibitor’s hall which held a wide variety of stalls selling everything from new and used board games from large and indie game designers, dice manufactures, various role playing game sellers, people selling miniatures and terrain, steam punk gear, gaming accessories like gaming mats and assorted odd and ends. Many of the larger board game companies also used the room as a demo venue for their games.

The next two rooms were for collectable card games and miniatures respectively. I barely went into these rooms except for a quick look around. The final room was the board gaming room. Row upon row of tables fitting probably a couple of thousand people at any one time graced the area. By the weekend, towards the end of the convention, the room was actually getting pretty full!

There are a few other areas I will cover later, but I think I should take the time to mention registration and ribbons. One registers and pays the entrance fee to the convention and then to participate in games one either has to have generic tokens that allow you to enter any game or a ribbon giving you free entrance to a particular area. These are usually a good deal if you intend on spending any decent amount of time in an area.

So for instance, half of the board gaming room was set aside for those with Board Room ribbons. The local board gaming group, CABS, brought in huge lockers of games which could be borrowed and played whenever you liked and there were always people looking to play. In addition, Rio Grande Games provided all of those with the ribbon with free games, plus free lunch and dinner (all week!) at the cafeteria in the room. Free food is always an attraction and this room became very popular very fast! The food wasn’t the most exciting thing, but burgers, hot dogs, fries, and even the occasional salad could be had.

I had a few other Ribbons, one was the Mayfair Room, which, set aside from the main board room, provided access to play game produced by Mayfair Games. They also had a ribbon quest where one could collect Catan-named resources (Ore, Wood, Sheep, Grain, Brick, Cloth, Paper, Coin) by playing games to gain discounts and freebies from the Mayfair store. A little childish, but a rather fun and addictive way of attracting players to Mayfair games.

I probably spent most of my time playing Looney Lab games at the Big Experiment, having procured one of the same named ribbons. Looney Labs is probably most well know for the Icehouse games system in which different sizes/colours of pyramids are used to play a whole range of interesting games. Their other products are various types of card games based on Fluxx and Chrononauts. If you don’t know them, look them up, they are pretty awesome. In addition to free plays, both of these two rooms had giant versions of their games - Mayfair had Domaine, Settlers and Pompeii. Looney Labs had giant pyramids for various Icehouse games and some of them were cute and fluffy.

There is one other thing worth mentioning about Looney Labs, the guy who created the games, Andy Looney, is around and everyday he participates in a long standing event - Andy vs. Everybody. He plays against ten or more people at once in a selection of the games I mentioned above. Its lots of fun and has a great atmosphere.

I still haven’t mentioned the art show (amazing fantasy artworks, many created during the show), the vast catalogue of LARPs and RPGs that one can sign up for, war-gaming, train games, battle pods for playing battle mechs… The list goes on. I spent my evenings playing Werewolf, also organised by Looney Labs. These sessions would run from 10pm until some ungodly hour of the morning. I usually stayed until about 2 or 3am. After about midnight, the kids were dismissed and the games got more intense, dodgy, and more serious until people started falling asleep.

For those who play Werewolf, we played a very regimented standard draw, with 15 players, from which there are two werewolves and one seer. Voting was regimented, people vote for one person at a time, one hand up and one pointing. This mix looks like it tends to favour the villagers more than the werewolves, but it is much closer than you might think. I had a couple of fantastic games where it came right down to the wire, from both sides. I seemed to win rather too frequently, I think my strange accent hid my usual tells. In my favourite game, I got the seer card and managed to communicate who the werewolves were to a safe villager on the other side of the circle. It was most excellent.

So yeah, I spent most of my time playing board games (Pompeii, Tikal, Small World, Fresco, Zombie Fluxx, Uber Chrononauts, Back to the Future Chrononauts, Treehouse, Illegitimate, Domaine, Volcano, That’s My Fish and various others) and werewolf. The city of Columbus itself is not amazingly enthralling, though only a block from the convention centre is the North Market, which has rather decent gourmet food, including some of the best ice cream I have ever eaten in my life with flavours like goat’s cheese and cherry, and wild berries and lavender. There is also an annual music festival just down the road that is held over the same time that Origins is, a fun way to spend an evening

So all in all, I had a great time at Origins and maybe I will get to come back another year!

Today, I got all my stuff together, caught three subways and then a bus to La Guardia. Then, check in, more security than an international flight, and we were on our way! I sat around and waited for a few hours for our flight which was notoriously badly signed. Eventually we got a bus out to the small plane on the tarmac and after much more waiting, headed off to Columbus, Ohio. My reason to head to this slightly weird destination is that the Origins Game Fair is held here every year, but you will have to read later posts to find out more.

Columbus is not exactly what one would call the most interesting place in the world. It has a population of 1 million and probably the same number of cars. The central city is dead apart from a Walgreens (pharmacy/supermarket). So, after trying to catch a shuttle into the city, I realised that these don’t actually exist unless you pre-book them. So I caught a taxi instead. As most of the hotels were booked up by the time I booked (3 months ago), my hotel was was right next to the convention centre and right next to the edge of my budget. I grabbed dinner (vege burger and fries) in the hotel restaurant (actually one of the better restaurants in the area) and looked forward to tomorrow.

Today was my last proper day in New York. My first port of call was technically not part of the USA. The United Nations headquarters have been based in NY since its inception, however the piece of land they occupy is technically independent of the USA. The flags of the world hang still, lined up in front of a New York avenue, like a huge firing squad at rest. I joined the queue for tourist entry. After a fairly long wait and posing in front of the famous ‘Knotted Gun’ sculpture, we were led through airport-style security and finally inside. I tagged myself onto the end of a tour.

We were shown some of the various gifts to the UN by various countries, told about the renovation in the area (most of the buildings are currently closed), looked at the UN Millennium Goals, and the UN’s work towards disarmament, disaster relief, peacekeeping, and feeding those in poverty. We also got to take a look at the General Assembly, which was in session (well, a small session). New Zealand was present, kudos to the representative! It is a pretty impressive venue!

After exploring the gift shop, sending a couple of UN postcards, and looking at the exhibits on nuclear issues, and different areas around the world where the UN have peacekeepers, I headed back out into the New York heat. The weather here has constantly been 30C+ and pretty humid. A little too warm in my books!

I headed across Manhattan to the New York Public Library. This vast edifice, surprisingly devoid of books, was rather cool to wander about. The public reading room was particularly impressive. Ninety percent of the visitors were beavering away on laptops using the free Wifi, in the cool air-conditioned room. The room is vast and hundreds of people sit in row after row. The high ceiling is ornately decorated with vast frescoes and on the walls, shelves of reference texts are topped with tall windows. I sat for a while and took in the ambience.

From here, I headed south to a very different venue. The Museum of Sex. This was actually really fascinating. It wasn’t actually dodgy at all, well at least in terms of venue. However, your mileage may vary when it comes to content. The first floor was dedicated to depictions of sex - the changing video footage as video pornography became mainstream. The second floor was dedicated to sexual acts, fetishes, and other media. They looked into why people have certain fetishes/desires and the relationship between different sexual activities. They also had a cool display of anime, sex dolls, and BDSM equipment. All very interesting.

The next exhibition was on condoms, their history, cultural position in society, and the technology used to manufacture and test them. It was particularly interesting to look how condoms were promoted by various armies for controlling the spread of various STDs. The final exhibition was on animal sexuality, looking at the sexual activities of various species - whether they kept monogamous relationships, the amount of sexual activity, sexual dimorphism, and the level of same-sex relations. I thought the museum was very interesting; it was also interesting to watch the people who came to visit. I was one of very few who came alone. Most were couples or small groups of friends. People’s body language slowly changed through the exhibits. To start with, most were very closed and embarrassed; however, people gradually became more open as the went through the exhibitions.

After this, I headed back to the hostel and got everything packed up for leaving tomorrow.

Today, I grabbed an iced coffee (for mental fortitude) and headed to the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and most extensive museums/art galleries in the world. It has vast collections on everything from Henry VIIIs armour to illustrated scenes from the Ramayana. On entering, my laptop was physically inspected, my bag was searched, I acquired an audio guide, and delved in. I had been interested in visiting since I saw the Thomas Crown Affair many years ago (which, while set in the Met was not actually filmed there).

They say, for good reason, that one should plan to visit only a few specific parts of the museum. I think I managed to cover fairly large areas. The Egyptian area was my first port of call. I think this is probably my favourite area of the museum and is just incredibly extensive. They have a massive conservatory that was built specifically to house a temple donated by Egypt (for US help during the construction of the Aswan Dam). But, the most interesting finds are actually a set of models from an un-looted tomb of an overseer. They are still complete, in their original colours and do not show their age. They display scenes from Egyptian life - a butcher, a granary, fishing/hunting boats, and ceremonial barges.

From here, I briefly spent time in the Medieval and Byzantine sections. I then explored the armoury, with a very impressive collection of both Eastern and Western arms from Samurai kit, to a brace of pistols inlaid with mother of pearl. After a quick lunch, I quickly explored the absolutely vast classical section - Roman and Greek, before heading upstairs.

A special Picasso exhibition (I actually really liked his early works, but I still can’t quite get my head around his complete change in style in 1912. The late 347 series is also fantastic.), drawings, Flemish and French masters, a weird bamboo exhibition on the roof, an exhibition on the changing styles of New York fashion, oriental art (including Indian and Japanese), middle eastern art (though most of this was under renovation).

My final destination for the day was the Impressionists and Modern Art collection. In my search for something I actually like and can relate to, I found to my surprise a number of works I could actually get. I particularly liked a number by Renoir, Monet, Springtime (Pierre Auguste Cot), and even some futurist works - one by Gino Severini in particular.

By this time it was late afternoon and I was museumed out. I headed out and caught the subway south. I grabbed some cheap tickets to see the Blue Man Group (I’m a student, right?). It was a really amazing show. It was a great example of turning a performance into an experience (cue UCanDance Fuego discussion). Drumming with paint on the drums to create a rainbow of jumping colours, incredibly comedic eating scenes, audience participation, the use of trick camera footage, a rave scene with masses of toilet paper glowing under UV lighting, really interesting instruments, and lots of humour. It was most excellent.

For a slightly sour end to the day, I decided to visit the Empire State Building (ESB). It was around 10pm, and there were still pretty decent crowds. Visiting during the day would absolutely suck. Now, this is what pissed me off - it was effectively a tourist trap. US$20 to get a ticket. Another US$22 if you want to see the related IMAX show. In addition, they force you to get your photo taken, then charge US$16 for a single copy. They have removed maps from the top, so if you want one, it costs another US$8. So after queueing multiple times, we got up to the 81st floor, to avoid queuing again, I took the stairs to the 86th. Yes, the view was fantastic, even if it was rather crowded. Then I went off to find the lift to the 110th floor, only to find that this would cost another US$15. On the way down one is made to walk through the gift shop to get out. I felt lucky I still had a wallet when I escaped. Oh, and the staff are obnoxious and rude. Don’t get me wrong, there is a good reason why it became this touristy, the view is absolutely stunning!!

Today I started off a little late and headed to the Upper East Side. As I had forsaken breakfast and it was getting on for lunch time, I found a fantastic little cafe called Le Pain Quotidien. The atmosphere was great, with a whole mix of society tucking into healthy fare. I had a bowl of gazpacho and then an open sandwich. The sandwiches were really rather cool, they loaded up slivers of bread with avocado, peppers, cress, and all manner of good things and then provided lemon wedges and a tahini dressing; it almost required a knife and fork. The presentation was exquisite, well arranged on a wooden board. Yeah, it was just a great dining experience.

After that, I made my way towards Central Park. My destination for this morning was the famous Guggenheim museum of modern art. The building is in the shape of a spiral, and one walks round and upwards for an exhibition displayed in a very linear fashion. The building has an amazing ambience and is very interesting in itself. The exhibition on while I was there was called Haunted that ‘explored’ contemporary photography. Some of the exhibits actually provided a really interesting analysis of temporal issues - how we change through time. The main theme of the exhibition was how photography could be used to hide and twist perspectives, as well as to reveal.

From here, I caught the subway back south, getting off at Grand Central Terminal. In New York’s heyday, this was the central train station, now it serves the subway and commuter lines. Its is ornate building, hidden under and between skyscrapers. The central hall is quite something and always crowded. It is an excellent spot for people watching. Underneath are the platforms and food court.

As the day slowly drew to a close, I wandered south through the city, stopping off to glance into the lobby of the Chrysler building, and passing the abode of Andy Warhol (completely accidentally). Eventually I returned to Union Square and had dinner at a Maoz Falafel restaurant. The last time I went travelling, I found them in Amsterdam and Barcelona, and they were most excellent! The basic idea is that they are a franchise chain, where they will provide you with a half full pita, with proper falafel and aubergine. Then, you can fill it to your hearts content from a salad bar, containing everything from salsa to coleslaw, beetroot, spiced carrot salad, tabbouleh, olives, and various other bits and pieces. In addition, they do fantastic Belgium chips, in a cone. It is absolutely delicious! After this, I headed back to the hostel.

I tried to introduce a savory element to breakfast this morning with the addition of some Vegemite has had procured in London, but it was still not very satisfying - I think I will have to avoid it from now on for my own health. I headed into town and caught the 4 line north to 110th st, at the top end of Central Park. I wandered through the park for a couple of hours (this place is huge!), stopping occasionally to read my book. The park, despite its location (or maybe because of it), has the best bird watching of anywhere in the Tri-State area (read: for a large distance around). There are apparently over 200 species that inhabit the park, though I was only about to spot about ten.

The park is divided into water features (lakes, streams, ponds), forest, grassland, hills, rock features, roads (runners/cyclists/maintained vehicles only), sports grounds, the Met (Metropolitian Museum of Art), a few restaurants, and some other random features. After a few hours, I was only half way down, having wandered around looping paths and followed squirrels with my camera.

I found some lunch at classic American diner in the Upper West Side, a few blocks from the park, with plush leather benches and chrome tables. I had a vege-burger and sweet potato fries, with black cherry cola. It was actually quite good, though the burger kept falling apart. From here I made my way to the American Natural History Museum. I was drawn to this classic institution particularly for its planetarium, which while the show was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, was not that amazing - more designed for school kids. Some of the other exhibits in this huge museum proved a better find - dioramas of different natural environments, changes in the seasons, soil types, and farming methods were actually really interesting and informative (though, what is it with Americans and dioramas?).

They also had a fairly impressive dinosaur exhibit and exhibit of asteroids (featuring the largest in the world in a museum - a 31 tonne iron behemoth). But, what most struck me was the geological exhibits (Jen, did you visit here? Was it part of your inspiration?). Easily the best exhibit of minerals and stone formation I have seen anywhere with absolutely every thing one can imagine and many things one can’t - covering emitted spectrum, luminescence, radioactivity, hardness, ductility, industrial uses. The specimens were beautiful - massive walls of crystals in every shade imaginable. While the science was intended, in most cases, to be understood by school children, they didn’t pander to the majority of Americans who couldn’t tell you what a fossil was, the gallery on evolution even had a little section succinctly explaining the difference between science and religion - though I was a little sceptical of one scientist who claimed to have ratified his belief in science with a creator, without any proof.

From here I wandered further through Central Park then down through the skyscraper clad Midtown, through the advertising and show central that is Times Square, taking photos of the sunset down each street, walking past Madison Square Gardens and other landmarks, watching baseball on the big screen at Union Square Park, and finally returning to Union Square at some late hour of the night and home to bed. It was awesome to catch sight of the illuminated skyscrapers brightening the city around them, taxis jamming the traffic, and ambulances blazing red and white through the night. I walked over 150 blocks today - it seems to be the easiest unit of measurement here.

I had forced myself to go to bed not to early as yesterday had been a literally long day. But, I still managed to wake up fairly early. I ventured downstairs to discover exactly what breakfast was to be provided. Now, I can’t say that this is actually representative of the US or even New York, but I was a little shocked, especially having spent a month in Europe. Apart from apples and bananas, breakfast consisted of white bread (containing high fructose corn syrup) softer than any in New Zealand, this could be liberally spread with peanut butter (containing high fructose corn syrup), two different types of jelly (containing high fructose corn syrup), and whipped margarine. I saw all combinations of these in use.

In addition, breakfast cereals were provided. There were six or seven varieties with names like Marshmallow Crunch (containing high fructose corn syrup), Blueberry breakfast muffin (containing high fructose corn syrup), and various other synthetically coloured delights. Plus there were pancakes and waffles (from a packet and containing high fructose corn syrup), with syrup (containing lots of high fructose corn syrup). So when I tell you that this meal was sweet with absolutely no body, you get my drift. I decided to try it anyway. I tucked in, but two hours later I was hungry - to substance what-so-ever!

So after this decidedly sweet yet ultimately unfulfilling experience, I made my way towards town on the subway. Perhaps at this point I should provide a brief interlude for those who aren’t terribly familiar with New York. So, the city is made up of several large regions, the centre of the city is the island of Manhattan, to its east is Brooklyn, and north east of Brooklyn is Queens. Additionally, north of Manhattan is the Bronx and to the south is Staten Island, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The original city was in the south of Manhattan, an area now know as Downtown. Apart from this area, Manhattan is laid out in an numbered grid pattern. Avenues run the length of the elongated island, and these are intersected by streets. Just to confuse one, some of the numbered avenues/streets have names, some don’t.

Manhattan, and the other districts, are divided into boroughs. I will mention a few… Downtown is at the bottom, above this is Tribeca, Chinatown, and Little Italy. Above this is the Village, and the Lower East and West Sides. Above this is Midtown. Then we come to Central Park. This is bordered by the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side respectively, and then a raft more suburbs to the end of the island.

So, most people get around this sprawling megalopolis by subway. It doesn’t have as many distinct lines as London or Paris, but lines branch and split. Each distinct route is given a letter or number to designate it and there are lots of them! These routes may be local or express on different areas of the track and stop at different stations. Stations may or may not allow you to transfer to other lines. You get the picture, it’s complicated. The actual subway cars are usually about one and a half times the length of one in London, though on some routes, some of the time, the trains are shorter.  Another difference from London is that the trains are air conditioned. But the stations aren’t. So in summer, like it is now, the stations can get stiflingly hot.

So after that interlude, I didn’t head directly into Manhattan, but, after a few changes, I got off near the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, on the Brooklyn side. I wandered down to the waterfront my first look at the classic skyline, and then proceeded across the Brooklyn bridge into Downtown. The mighty arched stone towers of the bridge sport large American flags flapping in the breeze. Out to the south, I can see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, and in the North, I can pick out the Empire State and Chrysler buildings.

When I get off the bridge, I find myself beside the town hall and make my way south down Broadway. I admire the massive buildings and get to Trinity church in the centre of Downtown, here I hang a left into Wall Street. Apart from the obvious deluge of banks, the NYSE is the central point of the street. These days, the street is a limited traffic zone - metal bollards protect the street from incursion. If you want to drive through you have to pass through a police inspection. Only one car at a time may pass, and this is enforced using two sections of the road that are designed to rotate, when open traffic may pass, when closed bollards stop traffic flow. I really haven’t been in a city quite like this before where I find myself looking up all the time at the rather fascinating skyscrapers. Maybe that is why my neck currently feels rather stiff…

From here, I wandered around Downtown, passing the South Street Seaport, and then across the peninsula to the World Trade Centre site, with two buildings slowly growing from the rubble… Only one is destined to be a skyscraper and at almost 600m tall it will dwarf all other buildings in Manhattan. They were going to build three others, but it seems that everyone has a budget.

From here, I visited the Skyscraper Museum and then wandered through Battery Park at the far south of the island. I was amused at the vast queues waiting for tours to and around the Statue of Liberty that depart from here. I decided that this was firstly, a little pricey, and secondly, I couldn’t be bothered waiting, so I caught the free Staten Island Ferry that passes closes by. A much less touristy experience!

After this I spent the next few hours making my way up north, through Downtown, Tribeca, Chinatown, Little Italy, and finally to the Village, the cities university district. I found a nice little cafe and had a very late lunch - a wrap with raspberry lemonade (real raspberries!). From here I kept exploring north until I came to Union Square on 14th st. Two random things caught my eye - firstly there are parking areas here, some with vertical car lifts to fit more in. Many buildings feature underground parking areas, but there are next to no actual buildings dedicated to parking. And parking here is a premium, you’re looking at a minimum of $12 per hour, though if your lucky you might manage $35 for a 24hr slot. Secondly, the football/soccer world cup is a big deal here - almost as big as Britain. People ask you about your team in the street and the city goes quiet over major games. This afternoon Mexico and France were playing. Mexico won and there was a sense of jubilation in the air.

Union Square is one of the coolest places on earth. Its one of those places I would choose to spend my time. About two thousand people at any one time crowd into a two block area, the actual square is a wooded area with paths, benches, and grass to sit on. Live music can be found here now and then. It hasn’t quite been taken over by the yuppie crowd, families, old men and families as well as a lot of young people are around. It is an excellent place for people watching and the atmosphere is most excellent. It is situated equidistant from Downtown and Central Park, and surrounded at less than a block distance from a major subway hub, an organic supermarket, a 14 screen cinema, a book shop advertising 18 miles of bookshelves (The Strand), Maoz falafel, and much more besides.

I headed to the organic supermarket, Whole Foods, which had a huge pay-by-weight buffet, it seemed a popular choice for locals and many would nibble at the buffet before paying, but the staff turn a blind eye. This buffet was quite something… Let me provide a bit of a list: 3 different types of greens, detox salads, bean salads, quinoa and other grains, roast nuts (pecan, walnuts, seeds etc), artichokes, chopped salad vege of all types, pasta salad, other made up salads, various cheeses (feta, parmesan etc), vegan ravioli, black beans, plantains, tacos, chicken, indian curries, roast tempeh, pilaf, risotto, samosas, naan, roast veges of various types… I think you get the idea. I sat in the park and watched the sun go down and the park suddenly became all the more magical as fireflies danced above the grass in the dusk, sparking all over the place. So after my fill of people watching, I headed to the cinema to watch the A-Team before heading home to bed. The film was excellent and unlike most cinema audiences, this one was not afraid to show their appreciation.