20050430 Flying NY to LA

Flying over the USA now, can see the lights of the cities below. Am 2 hours behind schedule, and itll be extremely tight making my connecting flight to fiji. There was a 20 plane tailback to taxi onto the runway and that set us back about 45 minutes. Still I feel so happy right now, cruising over the states, watching movies, listening to music and meeting people without a worry about anything.

20050428 Leaving NY

Sitting on the floor of JFK right now, waiting for another flight to LA, meant to be already in the air 30 minutes. Went to the Woodbury Commons retail place today, took an hour to get there and $37, has every designer you can think of, but the stock is just not wide enough. For me it’s no good cos it’s all catered to the average guy (wide and/or short people), so got nothing, apart from a pair of sunglasses.
My flight to LA was scheduled for 6pm, it’s 1.20pm me leaving the park, giving me a little under 3 hours to get back into the city to the hotel, pick up my bag, catch 2 subways and a train and check-in at the airport. Somehow got there for 4.30pm, was 5pm checking-in but no problem. Got through the security, hung about until the boarding que shortened, got to the ticket checker girlie, and goes you gotta get another security check, cos there’s an S symbol on my ticket, morons. It’s now 5.50pm, headed back down and got one of those ridiculously rigorous checks you hear about, had some problem explaining what the bag of protein powder was, had to remove shoes and everything. Finally they let me go and I run to the gate but alas the gates closed and she’s asking me why the check took so long. So now she’s set me up for the 7pm so I gotta just wait, but I don’t mind so much cos I’m still enjoying this part of the journey as well. I’m in NY!

20050427 New York City

Made my way over to times square this morning, tis mindblowing, so many people, so many lights. Met a New Yorker Jeff who had been here 31 years, really cool guy, gave me a plan for the rest of the day which I needed. Went down to lower manhatten, cruised round city hall, broadway and wall st., Donald Trumps building on wall st. sucks, it’s freakin tiny compared to everything else there. The weather by now was perfect sunny and warm,. Went on the staten island ferry, out and back, got some cool shots of the statue of liberty and lower manhatten skyline. Had food overlooking Brooklyn bridge and then headed back up to the empire state building to get a look at new york by night.

2005.04.27 New York, New York Gallery

20050426 Hello NY

This morning, said the goodbyes to the family, didn’t seem to effect them too much, obviously didn’t make too much of an impression over the years. Flights are really comfortable, just barely enough legroom which is lucky I suppose. Some lady managed to spill coffee all over my pants (by accident), seemed like something out of a movie or something, but just not hot enough and me too tired to spark a conversation from it. Arrived in NY JFK at 1.30pm, got a subway into the city, thought I picked the black only car at first cos everyone started to run to get other cars instead when it stopped. Was checked in n everything by 3.30. Spent the remainder of the day walking 5th avenue and Madison avenue in search of some supplies for my trip (unsuccessfully) until I started to collapse from a total of 4 hours sleep in 36 hours.

2005.04.26 London - NY, 5th Avenue Gallery

20050426 Goodbye Ireland

Today I departed on my world tour which I somehow managed to get all sorted in a week and a half, seemed like everything was happening just perfectly to make sure I took this journey. I’ll be travelling through NY, Fiji, Australasia, South East Asia, China and Russia covering over 28,000 miles by air and what I can guess is a lot by land over the next 12 months. The map below shows the route, the red line showing my route by air and the green line my route by land.
Last Saturday we had a party in my house in meath to mark my departure, I didn’t really plan anything for it and just let it work itself out. I ended up having a great time, n won’t forget it for quite some time and I think everyone else didn’t have too bad a time either. Lots of food was had, and lots of beer, a cigar, a few people got a bit wet (one in particular) and the musical conflict raged on. I’ll be looking for the results of this beer drinking contest on james birthday (and no water allowed cillian (busted)). Who knows I night miss ya.

20050423 Departure Party Bloomsbury Gallery

keep watching

i'll have in the next few days, info on my round the world trip which i will commence in a few weeks, the reason this website was setup