June 22nd: leaving Europe, going to New York, trying to get to hostel...

I woke up early for once and got breakfast at the hostel. I had some coco pops and toast. I talked with the guy from Spain for a while more. It was really cool to meet someone who has some different sorts of ideas to others. He liked how I climbed the tree in just my underwear the other week. Some other people thought that was strange. He has run continuously in mountain areas for something like 70 or 90km. I think that is very cool.

I got my stuff packed up and somehow got my suitcase down to 20kg for the plane. My backpack was also under 10kg. This is amazing. I think I probably had almost 50kg a few days ago.

I was a bit later leaving than I had wanted to be. I had bought a train ticket from London Bridge that was leaving at 10:27. But, while getting to London Bridge on the tube, I got off one station too early because I was too rushed to have checked and realised that the Northern Line breaks into two directions at one point. So I got off at the station where I could catch the broken off section that I didn't want to be on. So I caught the Northern Line north, then got off, and then caught it south again on a train that was going on the section I wanted to go on, to get to London Bridge station.

I got there, but I was past 10:27. So I just had to buy a new ticket. It was only 7 pounds. Oh well. So then I went to the platform where I was supposed to catch the train. The screens all said that the next train was to Brighton via Gatwick Airport. The train was a few minutes late though. I'm fairly sure the screens didn't say that any other trains would be arriving. Then a train arrived and I guessed that it should be the Brighton train. On the front it said something like 'utbridge' which I thought might have meant something about London Bridge as some kind of abbreviation. I got on the train without thinking about it to much. After the train started moving, a voice was naming the places where the train would be stopping. It didn't sound familiar at all. I realised then that I'd got on the wrong train! A ticket inspector came. I explained my dilemma to her, and she was understanding about it and didn't mind that I didn't have a valid ticket for that train. I got off at the next station. It looked like about 5 other people were doing the same thing. I got a train back to London Bridge, and then to Gatwick Airport. I didn't panick too much and I saw some more countryside than I would have otherwise seen. I will miss this country. It is very beautiful.

Taken from the wrong train just before I realised it was the wrong train. Someone should tell me to get off.

This is not Gatwick Airport.

The line at check-in was only about 3 people long so checking in took about 2 minutes. It was good. It all went fine.

While waiting to board, it was strange to see the Iron Maiden plane outside. It turned out that we flew in this plane all the way to New York. I wasn't really sure if this is the actual plane or if it just has some stickers. But according to google, it's the actual plane. Bruce leased it to Iceland Express. I don't think Bruce flew it that day though. Inside it just looked like a plane...

  The flight to Iceland was fine. I read a little bit.

Iceland.

The flight to New York was also fine. After the flight to Australia I think any flight is fine. There was some delay in taking off due to paperwork. The lady across the aisle was getting really angry and talking to the flight attendants in a really rude way. She was ridiculous. She also was eating something like raw beef mince. She was from Iceland. I read 30% of Oliver Twist.

We got to New York. I was a little bit worried if I would be let in because I forgot to print out how much money I have, and according to the internet, they sometimes like to know that kind of thing in exchange for letting you visit. But the guy just asked how long I was staying and then let me in. I'd also applied online for the visa waiver program, for people who are staying for less than 90 days. He didn't mention it, but maybe it came up after he scanned my passport. So I got into the country.

Waiting on the train platform for a train into Penn Station New York. It's very humid, and does not seem like Europe at all. It feels bizarrely like the USA.

I got into Penn Station (on the way, a lady on the train was staring at me without pause for about 5 minutes. The stare was one where the eyeballs are almost popping out. Very very strange. I avoided her gaze...). Then I had to find a way to get to my hostel. I should have looked this up earlier but I was lazy earlier. The information place was closed at this time. It was about 22:30. I wandered around the station for a while being very very confused. I couldn't really find any maps that told me anything useful. Then I saw that there was free wifi. I used google transit search to find some directions.

I followed half of the directions and then I couldn't really find the 6th avenue station. I had been awake for about 21 hours at this point and carrying around 30kg of luggage so I wasn't very practical in my thinking. I wandered around for a while more. A guy told me that I should change to the other side of the tracks for some reason. At one point I had to get through the turnstyle with my big suitcase, which wouldn't work. So I had to ask the guy in the office to let me through the other section. He was being very vague and expecting I knew what he meant, and I didn't, and then he was being really rude. I was very tired so I took it lightly, but it was a great reminder that I am in New York. I was at the street level at one point and asked some people for some ideas on where 6th avenue station is. They were a group of 5 or so gay people, hitting each other on the bum, and fitting a whole lot of stereotypes. They offered some friendly advice. Then I went down to a train stop and a girl saw me looking really confused. At that point I was feeling like I might possibly never make it because the google directions weren't working well at all and I'd been awake a very long time. But she was very helpful and was apparently going the same way as me. She rode the whole way with me and got off at the same stop and then showed me the road that my hostel is on. It was very nice. She loves New York and imports artist supplies from South America. I walked up the street to my hostel. I found it. It was about 00:30. I had somewhere to sleep (I was starting to doubt if this would arrive). I had a shower because it had been incredibly humid and sweaty. Then I went to bed. It was great.