Day 13: From Massachusset through Connecticut to...New York!

Today we arrived in New York around 1pm.  The drive to NYC was okay, just some traffic while we were getting closer to downtown. I was really excited to finally see The City, and I also immediately texted my friends who live here. I really hope I'll manage to meet them :)

My crew and I drove straight to the hotel we booked in Queens, parked the car, set our stuff and got ready to exploit our first day in the Big Apple!

,

Statue of Libery - NYC

We took the subway to the Statute of Liberty, but OBVIOUSLY we arrived when it was too late. We couldn't visit it, but we managed to take some good shots anyways ;)
It was really emotional to see it from a close point of view, it was not a movie anymore.

After that we randomly visited the downtown, and we ended up in the Financial Distric...haha, Wall Street! There were so many people, it was difficult to move around...but yes, really enjoyable!

It got dark very soon, and the lights started creating that famous magical atmosphere...:)
We went to eat a "recommended" pizza (thanks to Jamie and Ace apparently...!?) and..yes, it was okay.

After that I heard from my best friend, Ka-Wing, who was having dinner with his friends near the Brooklyin Bridge. I really wanted to see him, so Jenny came with me to meet him. And (finally) we left the guys alone. Hahah.

Ka-Wing and I !

Got to the Uno Chicago Grill, I was really excited! I coulnd't wait to see him! And..he actually surprised me because he was waiting for me hidden somewhere! So nice to seeing him again, from Edinburgh to New York after 7 months!




So tired right now, getting ready to continue exploring this huge city tomorrow!



C.

Day 12: Boston!

...After another crazy night - as usual we slept for about five hours - we woke up at 10.30, as a rule.
Half an hours to get ready and leave the hotel, what a challenge.

After leaving that creepy place, we drove to our first stop: Harvard Univeristy!
The campus was really nice, I bet it's one of the most highly rated universities in the world!
There was snow everywhere and the red brick bulidings stood out.

Afterwards, we visited the USS Constitution Museum, in Charlestown. Really interactive environment, so it's useless to say that our "boys" had a great time hahha!

Around 4pm we were kind of starving, so we went to a place that was described on the Internet as a restraurant "with a great view but with crap food". And yes, the food was ok, but the view was really great!
Dowtown Boston, sitting in a restaurant on a pier.Sooo good!

After that we drove through downtown and got to the hotel (crappy as usual, haha).

We are all so excited now though, because tomorrow it'll be a great day: LONG DRIVE TO NEW YORK CITY! Yesss!
(And I'm personally even more excited since I'm going to meet my bestfriend, it was May the last time that I saw him!).
..Can't really wait for tomorrow!

C.

Day 11: From Canada through New York to Massachusset!

Ok, this was probably the most adventurous day so far.

We left the hotel in Toronto, this morning, around 11am. We drove through New York state, and we visited the amazing Niagara's Falls.
The scenery was amazing, even if it was incredibly cold.
We took some pictures there, and then we drove to the border. No problems, the guard checked our visas and documents and we came back to the US.

Since then, we drove til Massachusset. The  first plan was to sleep in the car , but at half way we realized it was really cold, WAY TOO COLD for sleeping in the car. So we called a random cheap hotel for a last.minute resevation. After an hour on the phone, Ace got the confirmation.

GPS set with the hotel address, and we were (again) ready to go.
The check-in was til 2.30am, and we got here exactly at 2.17. Right. Ace and I went in to check-in. The old receptionist looked nice at first. Really nice. So nice that reminded me of sooo many horror movies O_O Old-fashion glasses, sweet smile and pleasing voice. Too perfect, definitely.
She gave us the keys and we went upstairs to check the room. Cool, at that moment we should have let the others in. So we went back in the lobby. AND SH*T, she was still thereee...smiling at us, like saying "yes, get your stuff and go to bed".....and the point was, the front door could have been opened only from inside. Not even with the key: The front door was in HER HANDS O_O And guess what? NO BACK DOOR =_=

Realized that, we thought "Ok, we're f*cked up"...We got some stuff from the car, and as two professional actors we went back smiling and blinking like Bambi. We were going up to the stairs, she looked at us and she said "Sweet dreams....." CREEPY. It sounded COMPLETELY CREEPY O_O

Once upstairs, panic again. Jenny, Jamie and Tom were still in the car, outside, freezing. After half an hour we went downstairs again, pretending to get some other things from the car..at first she wasn't there..but then..when we were about to tell them to come in...TA TAAAAN: She was back.

She asked me "Can I help you?" with a suspicious way.
"Oh, no thanks, I'm...I'm done!", and she replied "Is someone else coming inside?You left the door open...".
"Oh, yes, my boyfriend (£$%&/!!!?????) is coming now...yes..."
"Okay..."

... O_O

Got back to the room, texted Ace to come back IMMEDIATELY cos the old creepy thing was still there.
He came back after a while, but he had a plan. The famous  PLAN B!!!! Jeez, the thing was getting exciting.

He said there was another front door, not to far  from the main one. We would have accessed it throught the dining room, and let them in from there. The key point was: do it quickly, and quietly.

SO, we texted them to get ready. Ace and I cheked the effectiveness of the plan, and it looked like it could have worked. We went downstairs and entered from the "only-staff" door. It was really dark and we could hardly see where we were going. Ace unlocked the dining room door and got to the one on the street. He quickly opened it, as they were already there ready to get in.
(In the meantime i was being the spy from the dining room door...yeah, what a spy: I was like "omg omg I'm gonna die!").

They got in and in some ways we managed to come to the room. So now we are here, 4am, ready to sleep for maybe..5hours...? Haha, yeah...NICE.
The story ends with a quote by Ace though: After everyone was inside the room he looked at me, terrified, and he said "Oh shit O_O I didn't lock the dining room door again!".

So, yeah, we'll see what's gonna happen tomorrow! Creepy woman wahhhhh!!!
Plan for tomorrow: Visiting downtown Boston and Harvard University!

C.

Day 10: Toronto!

After a totally sleepless night, we woke up around 10am. Wrecked. My only wish was to go to the hotel we booked for the following night, take a shower and go to bed. But no, the day was about to start and we headed to downtown.

Going to the CN Tower

Our goal was to go and see the CN Tower from a closer point of view. ( http://www.cntower.ca/ ). It was amazingly high. Quite impressive structure. Ace decided to go to the top, whereas us three hung around the city for a wee while.


We saw the train station and explored the "underground city": miles and miles of undoor streets, probably created to handle the very cold weather. Outside it was really windy and cold, despite the nice day.

At the end, we concluded our day in downtown, eating something in a warm place.

Toronto was really nice, and for the first time I breathed the Canadian atmosphere. I hope I'll manage to visit it again, as well as other places in Canada. People's attitute looked so different.. And I'm always curious to get to know a new culture.

Plan for tomorrow: Niagara's Falls and Boston!

C.

Day 9: From Chicago through Detroit to...Canada!

Im sorry if yesterday I didn't manage to update the blog, but I'll explain why later. Be ready -.-"

So, in the morning of the 26th we left Chicago, ready to explore Eminem's hometown: Detroit.
Well, we got there around 1pm and it was literally FREEZING.
Ace was so excited that he decided to stay in the car and take a nap while Jamie, Jenny and I would have visited the city.

Detroit, close to the Casino

Well, what to say: Now I understand all Eminem's frustrations O_O I mean..Detroit was acutally really sad to my eyes. And I don't think it was only just because of my mood. I found it very gray and...hopeless? Arrghh...I don't want to be too mean, but it's surely not a place where I'd like to grow up my kids. There was something nice, some good looking buildings and a massive Casino, but not so much more.

After the downtown, we (quickly - because we were scared!) drove to 8 Mile, just to be able to say we've been there. And yes, it was kind of creepy. As everybody was feeling like being in a movie, we were expecting to be suddenly shot. Haha o_O


It was evening already when we started driving to Toronto. We crossed the border around 6pm and we arrived in downtown around 10pm. Useless to say that it was super freezing, but the thousand lights impressed me so much. I immediately had very good idea of the city.

Best picture EVER
Tom and Jenny

BUT here we are, explaining why we didn't have the Internet last night: We slept in the car, in front of a shabby McDonalds. Yes, AwEsOmE =_=" Actually, after a while we realized that we weren't comfortable to sleep right in front of the fastfood, so we moved. In the middle of the parking. Black bin bags on the windows, seats arranged in some ways, and..goodnight. Yes, sort of. It was definitely a pain!

C.

Day 8: Christmas in Chicago

Sooo...today was Christmas:)
It was kind of weird spending it far from home, especially this year. I really wish I was at home, since there has been a difficult situation over the last two months. I was not at the top of my mood, but I tried to enjoy the day anyways.

We got to downtown around 12pm, ready to attend a Christmas service..and of course, since we are the most organized people in the world, we arrived exactly when it ended. And that was the last one. Good.

Afterwards, we decided to go and visit the popular Willis Tower, a global icon that stands tall on the Chicago skyline. The view was breathtaking and we took quite a lot of pictures. Read something more about it: http://www.willistower.com/

After that, we decided to find a warm place to stay in, since it was really freezing outside. After 30 minutes arguing about where to go - as usual - we decided to anticipate our reservation at the restaurant to drink something before the meal. The atmosphere was really tense. Then we started talking about my hate towards alcohol and things got funny again.

We had a super amazing Christmas dinner - apart from Tom, poor thing, he paid 30 bucks for a small slice of fish..haha - and Jenny and I gave them awesome gifts. Yes. Awesome.
Around 6 we left the city, heading back to the hotel.

Chicago is a really amazing city, full of attractions, shops, entertainment, nice landscapes. Also Lake Michigan looks very beautiful during winter, the atmosphere is magical. If you will ever visit it during cold months though, be sure you'll be properly dressed. It was freezing cold!

The plan for tomorrow is to get to Detroit in the early afternoon, quick city tour - Detroit is known to be one of the scariest and most dangerous places in the US, yeah O_O - and then drive to Toronto, Canada!
Hopefully the weather won't be too bad...

C.

Day 7: Christmas Shopping in Chicago!

Today was the shopping day in Chicago, so we wisely decided that we would have split in two groups: Boys and Girls. And THANK GOD, that was a blessing! 
Finally some refreshing time spent with just Jenny, after so many sick hours spent with the others....hahah! (Today Jamie made me also realize why I will never have kids: Jeez, stop him pleeeeaseeee! =_=)
SO Jenny and I walked for about five hours around the city, exploring some shops and talking so much. That was really cool, so good to have a nice and deep girls talk :)

After so many hours walking - under a thick snow - we decided to meet up with the guys again.....WORST DECISION EVER =_=

"Hey guys, where are you?"
"Rizt Carlton Hotel, 12th floor, come here"
"Okay, we are a bit lost but we'll get there"

...


AFTER half an hour walking under the snow, Jenny and I finally got to that damn hotel (after asking where to go to about 20 different random people - everytime that they looked at us they were like "No, I don't have money to give you! -.-), we took the elevator til the 12th floor and we...FOUND NOBODY. Apart from a bunch of people super dressed up..yeah, it was nice O_O Jenny and I looked like lost homelesses there O_O
"Guys, where the hell are you?"
NO ANSWER.

...

The "kind-of-PMS-phase" begun.
"We're not there anymore"
...and we freaked out haha!

So, really pissed, we went to the closest warm and free place. And there, we waited about an hour for them.
NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

...By the way, the day ended up really well - after sending them to hell haha - and we all enjoyed a healty Burger King before getting back home.

Tomorrow I'll get up early to talk with my family back in Italy, and then we'll enjoy the city for the last day:)
Oh, I forgot...Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everybody from Chicago!:)

C.

Day 6: It's Chicago, baby!

Christmas in Chicago...this is just PERFECT!
This morning my crew and I drove to downtown Chicago around 12pm. We've been stuck in the traffic for 30 minutes, but fortunately Ace and I have been entertained by Jenny, Tom and Jamie: They sang Christmas songs for all 30 minutes...NIIIICE....(O_O). Christmas atmosphere can actually kill. Haha.

When we finally got there, we immediately realized how amazing the city was!

Our first stop was at the Millennium Park to see the The Bean, known also as Cloud Gate Sculpture. I REALLY liked it, for the sculpture itself, but also beacause of the surrounding. Simply amazing!

After that we moved to Navy Pier, where we ate something and enjoyed the Christmas atmpsphere.
When we got out of it, it was already dark..and it was magical. I loved seeing all those lights! Chicago by night is reeeaaaally romantic!!


We then decided to visit The Art Institute of Chicago (finally Tom did something useful, he found out that it'd have been free for today...haha ;)) and that was soo good!
I saw so many famous paintings, and most of them were part of my previous studies. It was pretty emotional, and I looked like a hyper-over-excited chipmunck! :P
Van Gogh, Degas, Chagall, Monet, Picasso, Gauguin, Seurat....ahhhh!!!AWESOME!


Afterwards we went back on the street, looking for another goal. The choices pissed Ace off: An amazing McDonalds 10 blocks away (by Tom), or randomly exploring the city (by Jamie) - Jenny and I were too busy looking at them arguing..haha..pure entertainment!


We ended up to do both proposals though! The McDonalds was GREEEEEAT (...)- even if we moved to the Hards Rock Cafè and to Rainforest Cafè before actually going back to the McDonalds...haha poor Tom, he was really pissed! :P (Quote of the day: Jamie"It's still three weeks and a half left..." Me: "oh, right...no, wait...isn't it two and a half!?" Jamie: "No, it's three..." Ace: "God help us!!!"....hahahah!!)


Afterwards, we went to a cosy Irish pub where Ace and Jenny got something to eat. I really like that place, it reminded me of home. Aww, Edinburgh! I miss you!


...Finally, around 11.30pm we went back to the car, ready to go back to the hotel :)


Tomorrow: Christmas shopping in Chicago! YESSS!!!


C.

Day 5: From Missouri to Illinois

Sooo this morning we woke up in Missouri, in our amazing two-stars room! After 30 minutes argument about whether to take our baggage out from the window or from the door (kill me now!), we went back on the road, ready to discover St. Louis.

After about an our, we got there. On the way to the city I noticed so many nice neighborhood, tiny and cosy houses that made me realize that that was exactly the stereotype that I had stuck on my head about houses in the US. Yeah, probably I watched "Home Alone" way too many times hah!
As soon as we  get off from the car - dazed as usual due to the music during the drive ;) - the freezing cold started eating us! Damn! That was....AHHH! O_O I really think I'll invest some money in a pair of glowes. Soon!


Our first stop would have been the Gateway Arch, icon of St. Louis City. That was HUGE! We went to the top - so this means that we survived to the claustrophobic experience of the 5-seats elevator! - til 650 feet!
We could see the whole city and that was pretty nice!

Back to the groundfloor, we visited the museum and afterwards we left the building.
Next stop: Budwiser manufacturing! It was really nice to see it, it looks like a theme park inside. Such a shame I don't like beer though! :P

As our last stop in St.Louis. we visited Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( http://cahokiamounds.org/ ) - which was Ace's great idea. Yeah -.-" Hhaha it was great, the only pain was the really annoying cold!

After that, we finally headed to Illinois. And guess what...? We are now in Chicago! Yes baby, Chicago!
Roll on the 6th day!

C.

Day 4: From Nebraska to Kansas and Missouri

 After leaving an amazing house and a great family found thanks to Couchsurfing.com (Jamie, the host, prepared pancakes for us this morning..niceee!), we went back on the road.

It took us about three hours and a half to get to Kansas City, and fortunately we found a really good weather.

The scenery was totally different from the one we passed through South Dakota and Nebraska: No more white mountains, no more snow, but more open fields and signs celebrating Jesus.
I knew the Mid-West was really religious, and today I had that confirmation :)




Arrived in Kansas City, we parked the car close to downtown (it was the first time for us to see such a weird and old-fashioned parking meter, so we decided to analyze it....but someone saw us from the offices next to the parking and started yelling "I call the police...I CALL THE POLICE!!!...O_O fair enough, welcome to KS! Haha!).




 

We ate something, walked around the city for about four hours, we saw huge skyscrapers, nice fountains and creepy tunnels...like movies ;)

After a nice afternoon, we went back on the car ready to get to St.Louis.
And here we are, Dear Missouri :)
Tomorrow morning we're going to visit the city and in the afternoon we'll drive to Illinois, ready to visit for four days one of the most amazing cities in the US: Chicago!

C.

Day 3: South Dakota and Nebraska

I’m happy to say that the night spent in the hotel in Rapid City refreshed all of us.
Nothing to do with the sleepless night between the 1st and the 2nd day!
So, we left the hotel around 9am and we headed to Mount Rushmore

The ride was not really long and fortunately there was not even too much snow, despite the night before it was snowing pretty hard. We’ve also been lucky because the weather was really nice!
We arrived to the site and…we saw it! Ah, it was very emotional seeing it in person! It’s HUGE! The four “stoned” American presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were looking at us 

After visiting the museum and talking with a lovely American-Irish-Scottish guard who kindly explained to us –for 30 minutes =_= - everything about the national parks in the United States. Yeaaah.
After that, we started a long drive to Omaha, Nebraska. 11 hours drive also today! During our journey we also went through the Badlands, South Dakota. The scenery was great, shame it was really brief though. It looked like a moony landscape! Before getting to Nebraska we crossed the Iowa border too !
Traveling along so many different states is great for the simple reason that you can discover the main differences among them simply watching outside your window  The feeling is awesome 
We are now in Omaha, capital of Nebraska. We found a place to sleep thanks to CouchSurfing.com (check it out, it’s a website to find free places to sleep for a couple of nights or something like that ;)) and the atmosphere here is really nice.
In the meantime, we are planning our day for tomorrow: We’ll visit Kansas City (Kansas), and we’ll get to St. Louis (Missouri) in the evening.
…it’s getting more and more exciting!

C.

Day 2: Wyoming and South Dakota

So, continuing with the description of Day 1: It was around midnight and we were randomly driving around Jackson's Hole (you can imagine the irony around that....haha), coping with a strong snowstorm, everything IN THE DARK. Yeah, because we love adventures. Yeah.

We kept going til the early morning, when we stopped. Somewhere. In The Middle of Nowhere. Jenny, Ace and I were asleep when Jamie and Tom woke us up - Ace kept sleeping though.
"We have a problem" they said. Seriosuly, it's awesome waking up with those words-.-" "We are stuck in the snow, you have to push the car". COOL, LET'S DO IT!

Their great idea implied four people pushing the car from behind, with Ace inside - SLEEPING.
So what happened....? We managed to move it!!! You may think "Oh well, perfect!". And yes, it'd have been perfect if only the car wouldn't have left by itself to end up hitting the STOP sign - totally killing it! O_O

And yes, Ace woke up saying "AHHHH WHAT THE FUCKKKK AHHHH NOOO". Sooo sad we don't have the video about that. It was LEGEN-DARY!

After two minutes spent wondering whether the insurance would have covered that - of course yes right??haha O_O - we started laughing like never before. Ace went to the driver seat and we all worked to take the car off from that mess!


Back on the road, we started heading to South Dakota. Well, it took many extra hours because we took the wrong way too many times hehe. Yeah. We're great.
We really enjoyed the lanscapes though: Wyoming surprised us all so much, it seemed "to be in another planet" (Jenny and Ace).

Many different kinds of rocks, trees, frozen lakes and rivers, the Devil's Tower ..Simply beautiful.

But the adventure is not ended, NOT AT ALL! Because a killed STOP sign was NOT enough!!
Again while everybody - but Jamie and Tom - was asleep, we have been woken up by laughs. "What's wrong...?" and we noticed that the car had inclinated...we looked around...and: The level of the normal road was clearly higher than we were. What happened was: Jamie skipped a gas station for the 12th time in one day, so - under Tom's suggestion - he decided to go back turning the car in 3 FEET OF SNOW.

...

Yes, the picture shows exactly the situation-.-"
After three or four cars asking if we needed help, a police car arrived too. AHHH. Exciting. And Creepy o_O They asked us what happened and after about an hour the rescue service finally took us out from that mess. That was INTENSE!

Back on the road - second time in one day, second day of a ONE MONTH TRIP - we all "needed to meditate" (Tom). But seriously: That was AMAZINGLY HILARIOUS!

Thank God everything was fine, but really...We had a blast!



...Already sooooooo tired, let's roll on the 3rd day!!!

 C.

Day 1: from California through Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming.

Wow, it's going to be a challenge to keep track of our Crazy American Road Trip! 5 states in 36 hours, 1600 miles! Okay okay, calm down.. I'll start from the beginning:

After leaving 2 hours late (we didn't realized how many things we needed til we saw how packed the car was -.-), we finally managed to get the rhythm of the trip. And for "we" I mean myself, Ace - our "low cost insurance guarantee" - cos he's the oldest, haha! - Jamie, Jenny and Tom.

So our first stop would have in been Reno, Nevada. Right after Sacramento though, not too far from Lake Taohe, we ran into a snowstorm. NICE O_O That was the proof that in northern California the snow exists, oh yes! So Jamie and Tom set the snow chains and slowly we left the snow behind us.


We reached Reno at about 2pm and we visited the famous Eldorado Casino. Sooo unreal! It was massive, full of slot machines and smily dealers at the tables, fancy dressed people and cool shops. SPEND MONEY PEOPLE, SPEND MONEY!! Even Tom invested a dollar..Useless to say it was not a good investment haha!



After getting back to the car, we decided to change our first plan: Instead of going to Salt Lake City, we opted to head to Wyoming in order to see the popular Yellowstone National Park, even if it'd have taken more hours.

AFTER maaaany hours spend driving through Nevada and Idaho we got to Yellowstone Park, Wyoming: SNOW EVERYWHERE O_O Tom wisely proposed to find a McDonalds car park, saying that we'd have had "food and restrooms". Right. To get to that DAMN McDonalds though, we went through a super frozen road, where the car was basically deciding what to do by itself. SCARY THING!!! But our amazing Tom managed the situation really well, and we safely arrived to our destination.
As soon as we stopped the car - I'm quoting Tom - "And now I'm gonna get a fucking burger!!!", we discussed on what to do next: Sleeping or keep going...?
Jamie seemed convinced: He wanted to leave right after.

So YEAHHH, the trip continued without any "sleeping hour"...kill me now! My eyes was burning due to my tiredness! It was already midnight, therefore...ROLL ON THE SECOND DAY!!!

C.