And so it ends, as it began

I felt the need to write a concluding post on the old blog though whoever was reading it will most likely definitely not read it after I have returned from the journey it was supposed to chronicle. I hvae come nack to the homeland now and my wanderlust has been sated for the moment. Real life has recommenced unfortunately but new things await me and I no longer have to make sure I "have space" for an object I wish to possess. This is probably going to be a bit like a museum piece now but I think I'll leave it up in case I forget where I was for the last 4 months. Maybe I should write things like this more often :).

That's it, go home.

New York, New York!

I haven't posted since we got here unfortunately because now I think I've forgotten a lot of the nice things I'd noticed. We're staying in a really lovely part of Harlem in a house where if you put a penny on the ground it rolls rather quickly towards the wall. In all seriousness though it's really lovely, relatively inexpensive (New York accommodation is *very* expensive last minute), quiet and with lots of natural light which I love. There's computer in each room too which is very handy for the laptopless traveller. The pic on the frontpage is of the room I'm in right now. It's lovely. It is called MichaelNY . I could even learn English here if I wanted, how useful :). So we've done some touristy things, walked around Central Park in which Padraig got some good pics for his steps series, went to the MoMA which is really interesting and I think one of the best modern art museums I've been to, tried to get to South Ferry to get the Staten Island ferry to see old Lady Liberty but were thwarted, went to a huge M&Ms shop with every kind of merchandise imaginable, saw some sealions do tricks at the aquarium, went on the boardwalk at Coney Island, had numerous pints in various Irish pubs, saw the Rockefeller centre ice rink covered in tables and marquees, peered at the city from the Empire State Building, went on the Subway at 3 a.m and didn't get mugged, had some lovely icecream in Madison square park, saw the giant Piano in FAO Schwarz and the suicidal Lego people in the nearby lego diorama of New York, ate some beautiful Carribbean, Japanese, French and Chinese food and pizza within days, went to Chinatown, hung out in the Dominican community in Spanish Harlem (well with our Irish friends and their new roommate from L.A), drank some mate and sake with the lads, got peanutbutter M&Ms, saw Carmina Burana at Carnegie Hall, cheap food, cheap drink. Fantastic. So there ends my little summary of the past few days. This could be the last post I make in the blog. I hope not, I'm sure I'm missing something. In short I really like New York, you can truly do anything here at any time of day. Maybe I should live here too :). Til next time! I'm gonna put up some new pics too.

Somewhere in the atmosphere above Northern Argentina

This post is from a programme originally broadcast on the ninth of this month.

We are experiencing rather serious turbulence and some passangers behind me are giving me an earache giving out to people standing up who probably need to go to the toilet -the turbulence is going to last an hour, it's understandable some of us may need to void our bladders - the captain said it was ok. Maybe it's just the tone I dislike, anyway she was pissing me off. Really I was pissed off already because of all the questions we had to go through at Buenos Aires airport and the bag checks that and the fact that the entry form to the U.S makes you sign something which waives your right to appeal deportation for any reason that the immigration officer things is reasonable. Why not just put up mile high metal fences if you don't want people coming into your country. Ah I'm probably being a little harsh but ever since we got mugged on Friday I've been a little on edge and annoyed. Foe those of you who haven't heard we were walking along in a park in , Tigre, a town famed for its peace and tranquility and frequented by old people from Buenos Aires when we were set upon by a bunch of little shits who managed to wrest my bag from me and knock over my brother. Every time some little bastards do something like this (i,e when they stole the wheels off the bike and then stole the bike - twice, broke into my house etc.) I become closer to condoning vigilante justice despite myself. Really I was most pissed off when we were waiting at the police station just about to give the statement when I realised (for a reason unknown still to me and giving me status as one of the most stupid people who has ever lived) the keys to our apartment in Buenos Aires (one hour away by a train that departs every ten minutes or so from Tigre) was in the bag that was stolen. I tried to appeal to the policeman to send someone to the apartment to keep it safe for the few minutes we'd be making the statement but he got a bit pissy and said something like, they won't go there because they know they'll be arrested. Understandable, most likely true but absolutely useless to someone who has a possibility of having all their most important possessions stolen. Anyway we asked to come back the next day and beat a hasty retreat. On returning the next day, as we were told, I was told the policeman wasn't there and that I should come back the day after.So I wasted another 3 hours of my time and became unsure if he would be there the next day even though I was told he would be. He was there the next day but wouldn't talk to us for quite a while some of whihc was spent talking to another of his colleagues and having a laugh. Rage stirred within me. In the end I got the statement I needed for the insurance but it was all rather stressful. The last while in Buenos Aires has been a bit nerve wracking between crazy taxi drivers being assholes and the mugging. Argentina has been a cruel mistress indeed but things could've been much much worse.
Jesus was unfortunately overlooked due to time wasting trying to get police statement. We hadn't actually gotten to see anything in Tigre before we got mugged either so that was a washout too and we decided not to go to Boca because it has a bad reputation for petty theft and we were feeling a bit paranoid. What we did do though was eat dulce de leche pancakes so full of butterscotch it came out the ends in huge lumps! Eat jamaican food and have large tubs of icecream delivered to our door late at night, go to a massive international art fair with an installation featuring an arcade game machine and a portrait of Jesus kissing Superman, go to one of the largest street markets I've ever seen and go to a necropolis filled with very bueatiful burial monuments and one Evita. I found Buenos Aires a very inspiring place and I hope it'll give me good ideas for the portfolio for the design course I hope to do in September.
Now, though it is goodbye to South America as we go further and further north,up to New York and back to long evenings and summertime, warmth and sunshine. I can't say I'm not looking forward to it though there are a lot of things left to do in South America, Machu Picchu, Nazca Lines, Galapagos islnads to name but a few. I hope very much I'll have the chance to do these things in the future but Ireland beckons me back once more and I couldn't say I was anything if not a homebird at heart so I welcome its damp, gren embrace :) We're off to visit a friend (my oldest friend actually at a good 19 years) and I can't wait. It'll be good to bitch about things and relate our marvellous adventures too. This ends chapter one of my round the world travel. I'm not really sure where I should go next, Asia (including Russia, or Afirca. I wish I could put a poll on this. Please post comments, your opinion is important to us! :p. Ciao muchachos, back to the anglophone world I go. Adios.