kennylee

For a week I have been in New York City. I havent written anything here during these days because i really wanna spend as much time as I can on really experience New York instead of sitting in all day writing about. Now I have the time 'cause I'm sitting in a van on my second part of my world tour.

But lets start at the beginning, the first part.

Monday February 25th 2008

"Start spreading the news,
im leaving today,
iI want to be a part of it,
New York New York"

Departing

I left Skurup in the morning. I left around 9 and my mum was standing in her bathrobe, sobbing and whimpering. There was a whole lot of hugging going on aswell. My stepdad was there aswell, giving his best wishes. I was a bit tired becuase during the whole weekend there has been a few farewell parties going on. Eventhough i don't drink it still takes hard on you.

I went to the trainstation to meet my grandmother and my aunt. It's a kind of tradition that my grandmother comes with me to the airport to greet me off. My aunt Laila came with as moralsupport.
At the check-in counter it took some time for me to check in because i didnt know i had to bring the adress to where i was gonna live while in New York. Apperently they insist to know where my first stay is. I had to take out my computer to check my msn history to where Sissi told me she lived.
At Kastrup i started to record my videoblog entries aswell.
You can see all the videoblogs in the end of this entry. I made a few. Some of them might be a bit boring but still, its a videoblog. There will be more.
After saying my goodbyes, and after my grandmother gave me a great kiss on my cheek with here very read lipstick, I met my mums cousin, Semine, who works at Boss there. I might have disturbed her at here work a bit but it was fun meeting here and saying goodbye to her aswell. I had to change plane in Rekyavik. I was so beautiful flying over the mountains and all the snow. They really have a nice light and air there. It was kind of peaceful. Its was a great stop before the long trip to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
The JFK was really big and it took an hour and a half, standing in line for them to check my passport and ask me what my reasong for visting USA was. They also took my fingerprints and a facepicture. So now im in the American system incase i will go all crazy.

New York

New York is a great place. I really liked it and i could live there for a while i think. But all i had was a week there. I think i managed to fit in a lot during these days. Alot of them were typicall touristsightseeings, but what can I say? I acctually am a tourist. And i took ALOT of pictures. I can't upload them all here but I'll put on a few here and also a few in a album later.

I stayed at a friends place. Sissi has an appartment in Chelsea on 14th street, the west side. She's there while she's doing her internship at the UN. I slept on here couch and that wasn't too bad acctually. I wasnt there to sleep the days away anyway.
I spent all my days walking all around Manhattan and experience as much as possible. I had terrible shoes for walking so my knees got a bit damaged. At the end they hurt so bad i just wanted anything els on my feet so i bought a pair of sneakers. Theye were a bit to expencive but i didnt care at that moment. I just wanted something else. And so far they have been working quit good for me.
I also met a friend from my Japantrip there. Jessica lives in New Jersey and works in New York, at the university as a lab-rat =o). We had dinner at Olive Gardens and that was great. Its right in Times Square and we acctually got a windowtable. That is really hard to get there but i guees we were lucky. They had really good food and its was so much fun to meet Jessica again.

I wanna send a BIG THANX to her and Sissi. They both helped me alot to make my stay there cheaper and so much more fun than if i would have gone there by myself. Thanx guys.

When I was walking down Broadway all by myself the first day there, I heard a girl at a crossing shouting, "FREE TICKETS TO THE DAVID LETTERMANSHOW!". I was curious about it so I went up to her and asked her what she meant with free tickets. She lifted one eyebrow and says, "ehh, they are for free?".
Haha, I started laughing and excused myself and said that in sweden we are often skeptical when they say something is for free. But she ensured me it really was for free. All i had to do was to answer a question about Paul Shafer and the tickets were mine. I answered that he played the keyboard and I won the tickets. So the night after that i went to see the Late Night Show with David Letterman. It was quit okay acctually. Nothing spectacular but qiute fun. Nathalie Portman was there and she was so beautiful. Much smaller than you think acctually. I know thats a common comment when people meet celebrities but she's really tiny.
When i stood in line to enter the show i met some irish girls that was really fun to talk to. I offered them some danish candy from Bonbon. They tried the salty ones and had really weird faces on when they tasted it. Especially when they came in to the center of the candy. Thats where the powdered salt is and they seemed horrified. So i guess its mosly Scandinavians that eat salty candy.

More coming soon....

Trek America

So now im off on the second part of my trip. The cross country with Trek America. This is the trip:

Day 1 Tuesday 4th March Seacaucaus, New Jersey - Washington D.c

Day 2 Wednesday 5th March Washington D.C.

Day 3 Thursday 6th March Washington D.C. - Bristol

Day 4 Friday 7th March Bristol, Virginia - Nashville, Tenessee

Day 5 Saturday 8th March Nashville, Tenessee - Memphis, Tenessee

Day 6 Sunday 9th March Memphis, Tenesse - New Orleans, Louisiana

Day 7 Monday 10th March New Orleans, Louisiana

Day 8 Tuesday 11th March New Orleans, Louisiana - Lake Charles, Louisiana

Day 9 Wednesday 12th March Lake Charles, Louisiana - San Antonia, Texas

Day 10 Thursday 13th March San Antonia, Texas - Big Bend Nationalpark, Texas

Day 11 Friday 14th March Big Bend Nationalpark, Texas

Day 12 Saturday 15th March Big Bend Nationalpark, Texas - Las Cruzes, New Mexico

Day 13 Sunday 16th March Las Cruzes, New Mexico - Benson, Arizona

Day 14 Monday 17th March Benson, Arizona - Sonoran Desert, Arizona

Day 15 Tuesday 18th March Sonoran Desert, Arizona - Mounument Valley, Utah

Day 16 Wednesday 19th March Mounument Valley, Utah - Grand Canyon, Arizona

Day 17 Thursday 20th March Grand Canyon Nationalpark, Arizona

Day 18 Friday 21th March Grand Canyon Nationalpark, Arizona - Las Vegas, Nevada

Day 19 Saturday 22th March Las Vegas Nevada

Day 20 Sunday 23th March Las Vegas Nevada - Death Valley, California

Day 21 Monday 24th March Death Valley, California - Los Angeles, California

Day 1 Tuesday 4th March Seacaucaus, New Jersey - Washington D.c

We all met at a hotel in Seacaucaus, New Jersey. I had to take a train and a taxi to reach it from Manhattan. I was the first one to get there so i just sat down and waited. The first one i met was a funny weird english guy who hadnt had breakfast yet. His name is Tobias. Next one was Sarah the German. We have all together 8 different countries. Here's the passengerlist:

Kenny Lee, 24y, Sweden/Denmark

Tobias, 23y, UK

Sarah, 20y, Germany

Christian, 39y, Germany

Justin, 32y, Australia

Monique, 27y, Australia

Yuna, 21y, Japan

Tomoyo, 25y, Japan

Steve, 35y, Australia

Anna, 24y, Sweden

Te-su, 28y, Korea

Charlie, 19y, UK

Priyanca, ??y, India

Rob, 27y, USA (the tourguide)

Thats all of us. A cool group acctually. Everyone is so different from the other so we get along together quite well. Some are weirder then the other, im included in that bunch.
We introduced ourselves and filled in some papers. It didnt take long before Tobias and I started to joke with Sarah and thats problably what broke the ice for the three of us. She has a really big sleepingbag if you compare it to ours. We thought that the big bag of hers looked kind of funny and wondered if she had a big tent in there. The three of us sat together all the way in the back. Its wasnt comfortable at all to sit back there. No legroom and the saftybelts sat to low. Sarah got warm and tried to get out of her sweater but there was too little space left to do that so she got stuck halfway out. That was another good icebreaker.
We came to the Capitol of The US that day. We got in to our rooms and I was sharing it together with Steve, Christian and Charlie. After unpacking we went out to see the White House. It was a bit smaller then i thought. Also here we took our first groupphoto infront of the gates. Because it was suppose to rain and thunder that same evening we split up to do what ever we felt like and to meet later for dinner out in a Thairestaurant. The water we drank there wasnt at all that good. You could really taste the clorine in the water. The americans cant taste it because the are used to it but i got a kind of stomachache.

Sunday March 9th

We left Memphis quit early because we had a long ride in front of us. We had to remember to turn our watches ahead one hour because of daylightsaving time. Me and Tobias shared room and came home rather late so you can guess how tired we were in the morning. And also SOMEONE forgot to change the settings on his telephone so we wokr up an hour early. But we fell asleep again. But we maganed the whole daylightsaving thing better then others. Yuna and

Thursday March 13th

Right now we are all sitting in the car again. Its really hot in here and we are out in the middle of nowhere. We are still in Teaxas though. This is the longest drive on the Trek. Its 700km long. Rob calls this "Love the Van-day". Fortunatly I got a good seat on the second row next to the window. I have Yuna next to me and Tobias and Sarah infront of me.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. Not to much going on. We had a long drive and came to San Antonio around half past 4. We put our stuff up really quick at the camping site and the off to the Alamo. When we got there it was really warm and the information we got from Rob about the Alamo was a bit confusing. We just walked aroung the Alamo for a while and then we met up with Rob again. He gave us maps and gave us recommendations about what more to do in San Antonio. We followed the very nice and manmade riverwalk and ended up in the mall where we walked around until it was time to met again. It was really hot outside so a big mall with air conditioning wasnt all that bad actually. I found a big cool cowboyhat i liked, but as usual i couldnt buy because i have to save money for the rest of the trip. Im saving as hard as i can. In the mall there was also a Hooters. Thats the restaurant with big breasted girls in tight shirt as waitresses. It was kind of weird to pass by there. You really didnt know where to look. Im not sure how I feel about that exploitation of womens bodyparts in restaurants either. I wonder if they get tipped by the size of their breasts.

I hung around the most of the day together with Yuna and that was quite funny. She was first very thirsty and said that many times and then after getting a Diet Coke she start saying she was hungry. I just laughed. It was her groups turn to make the dinner. We had stirred rice. The rice was good but a bit burned in the bottom of the pot. And of course unfortunally it was my turn to do the dishes together with Monique and Christian. Priyanca was also suppose to help but we couldnt find her. According to Yuna, who is sitting next to me right now reading every word i write, the rice was suppose to be burned in the bottom. "Special-rice", she says. Yeah right, and she is suppose to be japanese? Dont think so, she has been in the USA to long.
We had some fun at the cabins also. I continued to do my chesspieces while they where making dinner. After that i tried to get my computer to work with the Wifi but it didnt work so this is another day without talking to my family. We took a walk and took some more picures. According to Tobias and Sarah this day wasnt my gratest. So im gonna be a nice boy today. No more sarcastic jokes and no more making fun of them.
When we came back to the cabin Te-su was allready sleeping and snoring really loud. Tobias couldnt sleep so he came out to talk to us again. When we tried to get to bed later he was still snoring and it became louder. Its a weird kind of snore. Funny though, Tobias was giggling alot at it. I fell asleep good but he had som troubles. He's probably gonna sleep a bit in the van today.
This morning was like all other mornings, shower, breakfast and then off in the van again.

Saturday March 15th

Now we are sitting in the car again for yet another long drive. Not as long as the last one but still about 9hour of drive. All the others in car are watching simpsons on Robs computer.
We are driving thru Texas and its really really warm. I fell asleep before and drooling all over my arm. Im glad nobody saw me, or took a picture.
So we have now been in Big Bend National Park for to days and I LOVED it. To quote Tobias, "I never wanna go back to a city again". It was sure a bit desert and dry and warm but what an experience. The hike we did to a point called The Window was the greatest. It took a couple of hours but it really was beautiful scenary. The end point, The Window, was a crack in the mountain with a big steep and you could se really far.
The evening we arrived at the campsite it was miy groups turn to make dinner. We are all divided into three groups and Rob seperated those who allready go together alot, wich means that me, Tobias and Sarah got divided. Doesnt matter that much but was a funny fact that others in the group probably think we have our own little gang. But at least we're not antisocial towards others. The menu of the evening was beef stroganoff. My idea of course. =o)
I think it went very well.

Qutes of the day!

Wanna a bagel?

Oh, you are not wearing your bikini, i didnt notice that.

IIIIOOOOOOHHHHHH (donkey)

--------------- Below ths line comes the updated stuff from the USA trip --------------------

Monday 17th March

Last night was soooooo cold. We camped at a KOA campsite again. In tents, on gravel. Luckely we had sleepingmats. Of course Tobias was even more lucky to get his hands on two sleepingmats. Bastardo, as Marcello would have said.
It was my groups turn to make dinner again. We had to stand outside in a kitchen they had there. We made "KorvKenny". My one sausagemix with mashed potatoes(with garlic in it), and a greek salad. It was so cold, we could actually see our breath. I thought it would be much warmer down here in the south west but BOY, was I wrong! It can actually be really really hot during daytime but at night its horrible. Monique told me she had talked to the owners about maybe if they had a blanket she could borrow. Instead she got to hire an extra sleepingbag of them. It only cost 2$. I immediately went there and asked if i could do the same. I was lucky to ask after Monique because they only had 3 of them. Not only did it help me keep warm but it also made the ground feel less hard and gravellike. I acctually slept quite well that night, even if the cirmustances were as they were. While we were making dinner, the rest of the group waited the public laundryroom. It was the only place open that was a bit warmer then the outside.
After dinner i wanted to get a shower to warm up. I was in the hot shower for really long. But just before the shower I went on a walk with Tobias to review the day we had. It was really dark and we started go outside the campsite. While walking and talking in the total darkness, i could see something moving towards us from our far right. It started running towards us and started barking, we saw two pair of eyes glowing in the dark and we turned and walked back faster and faster as these vicious creachers ran closer towards us. It scared the shit out of us and we ran sooooo fast back into the campsite. Apparently there was a fence but we couldnt see it in the dark so i was pretty sure i was gonna get bitten. In stressful situations like that your mind goes really fast and I had my whole defence tactics ready in my mind. We laughed so hard about that. It was scary. Haha.

Friday 21st March

We just spent two nights at the Grand Canyon in a nice Best Western Hotel. It was really nice to have an actual bed after spending a few nights in tents.

Friday 28th march

Yesterday was a pretty bad day. I went to the Greyhound bussstation a few days ago and I asked them about the schedule to go to San Fransisco. I said thanx and that I will think about what time I wanted to take the bus. I also asked if i have to buy the tickets beforehand but the said that i just had to arrive half an hour before.
So yesterday I decided to take the late bus over night, it was about to leave around half past 11 at night. I took my big heavy bag and left the hostel. When i came outside hollywood boulevard, where my hostel was, was closed of by the police. I figured it was because of a movie premiere or something at the chinese theater. So i head towards the busstation where i waited for the bus. The station was closed so I had to wait outside with some other backpackers. All the other guys i asked had already bought there tickets so i was the only one without. it worried me a bit so i asked a busdriver that just passed to drop some people off and he said that i could leave a deposit like my passport or something like that and then pay at the next opened station. It was a relief to hear that. A big shame that my busdriver didnt have the same opinion. He was really rude and didnt even let me ask him how it wokred out. The american Greyhound buses are old fashioned and really needs to update to our modern times and also all follow the same rules.
So there i was, homeless in LA. The city of angeles is a scary place in the middle of the night for a lonely homeless traveller from safe little comfortable Skurup. I guesses the best thing was to go all the way back to my hostel and beg the nightportier to let me stay one more night. As i walked back, i remembered how some of the guys on the Trek tour warned about walking around LA looking like a backpacker. My bag was so heavy that i would fall over if the some one just sneezed on me. And that warning they gave was about doing it during the day and now it was night it must have been even more dangerous.
The nightmanager was nice enough to let me stay one more night. I asked him about the police that was still outside and he said that there had been a big gangfight and someone got stabbed. This was yet anotherthing that scared the shits out if me. The same night as i was out walking with my backpack. Scary. But i feel tougher now. Macho even. I survived beeing homeless in L.A. with gangfights and everything. Even if i just was homeless for an hour or two. Haha.

Later that day...

Im finally on the Greyhound bus to San Francisco. It smells like garlic in here because the man next to is eating a sandwich. After the incident yesterday i am really glad i got on this. I acctually wanted to take one of the early ones this morning but i was just to tired. The first thing i did this morning when i woke up was to check availability on hostels in San Francisco. Its hard to find one last minute like this but i found onethat wasnt to expensive. About $23 per night. Its not $18 like the one on Hollywood Blvd in L.A. but its not that bad. I booked imediatly and felt really good about actually finding one that wasnt $44. I saved the reservation details on my computer. I just checked it and I must have been tired when i booked it because i have done it for the wrong dates. Today is the 28th and i booked 2nights from the 29th. Wich means that when I arrive 7.15 this evening i will not have any accomondation. I have no idea what to do but i guess i have to sort it out when i get there. I'm acctually not that worried. I bet some of my family panics when they read this and also because of what happened outside our hostel yesterday. But don't worry Laila, at least i just ate and i brought a sandwich on the bus. *laughing*

I hope and think it will be easier to update and do the blog ow when i have left the trek america tour. When I was on the Trek i didnt want to waste my time sitting at the computer all the time when i instead could hang out with new friends. I really wish some of the could come with me on the rest of my trip because we had so much fun and would have been great to bring someone with me to Fiji, because I really don't know what to do there. I should problably book a hostel soon aswell. Or maybe buy a tent.

All together I can say that i liked L.A. a bit. If you dont count the weird scary people at night and the terrible public transportation. Its so much longer and bigger than you think.