New York

Left Sydney at 9:35am and had a 14 hour flight to L.A. with a kid in the seat behind me who delighted in nothing more than rhythmically and repeatedly kicking my chair. He wouldn't stop even when I leaned over and peered at him - just looked me in the eyes and kept kicking. Only wat I got him to stop was by leaning over and looking at his mother who would then tell him to stop. Met two Aussie girls on the plane from Palm Beach who were heading to L.A. - told them to be careful trying to get into bars and clubs underage - but they were gonna try anyway.
Flight from L.A. to NY seemed like it took longer than it did. I was so fucking tired. Eventually we landed and I got out looking for a coach into Manhattan. As I walk out of the airport a woman approaches and says, "Coach to Manhattan?" so I say yes and follow her and the 4 other young tourists she has trailing her. Turns out there were 4 friends from a small town in Austria of 2000 people. This would be one hell of a change for them, especially considering Austria is only 8 million people. So we get to the car. We were all expecting some kind of big white bus - how wrong we were as we walked over to reveal a black limo. $19 to Manhattan in a limo - hell that's cheaper than a cab or a real coach. We pile in the back, making jokes about whether or not we're being kidnapped when the limo has to fill up on gas. As we're trying to leave the gas lot, the limo becomes jammed between the gas pumps and a parks car, meaning the back wheel has to go over a large concrete bump before we can drive off. This was our best plan, so that's what we did. When I got out and tipped her a buck - "Only a dollar?!" she said, "Come on, I'm a poor student!" - I still just couldn't tell her about the HUGE scratches on the side of her car caused by it scratching against the guard rails while we were stuck back at the gas station. I walked the 6 blocks in the heat with my bags to reach the glory of the Holiday Inn and took a shower. I made plans to meet Yolanda whenever she could arrive but I feel asleep and only after knocking and ringing my room could she wake me and we went out. We had a corn beef and pickle sandwich with a Snapple (grape) and walked in Central Park catching fireflies before I went back to the hotel and slept like a log. All in all, a good first day in New York.