USA

Sitting in a 7-11 in Stockholm, looking back at my diary- I realise it's been 5 weeks since Botcon finished. On one hand it it's hard to believe it's been that long, since the memories are so fresh- and on the other hand it really does seem like it was a whole world away... which of course it was. Well, half a world

I should preface the coming ramble with a disclaimer- I've been to my fair share of toy fairs, read reports from previous transformers conventions, and seen tv shows about other fandom conventions. To be honest I was expecting a lot of socially retarded geeks. You know the type- like the comic book guy from the simpsons- large, loud, smelly and hopelessly opinionated.
While there were a few choice specimens encountered over the 5 days I spent at Botcon, I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone I met and spoke to over the weekend were really decent, down-to-earth and friendly folk. I kinda feel a bit stupid for thinking I was in the minority as a socially-adjusted obsessive geek :P

So I rolled into Rhode Island off the bus from NYC, sweaty and tired since it was a scorching 30+ degree day in both places. I met up with the two other Australian fans I had made contact with before leaving- Matthew (aka griffin) and Ian (along with his wife Caroline), and griffin lugged his growing piles of shopping bags into our shared hotel room. They'd already taken advantage of being in town early by hitting the local Wal-mart and raiding the shelves before the convention had begun.
And after our tiny NYC hostel, this hotel room felt like a palace

We checked out the centre of town (consisting of a busport, convention centre, giant mall and about 10 hotels) and made friends with a few other fans who were milling around.

The next morning Ian and Caroline were busy with an organised tour and we didn't need to be back for official registration until later in the afternoon, so griffin and I made it our mission to hit up more department stores, as well as stocking up on groceries and finding somewhere to clear our camera memory cards onto CD. We navigated the bus system, walked a few miles, and ended up on a highway with strip malls in the next state (not hard considering the size of RI).

We managed to tick every box on the list of things to do, and I bought a bunch of movie toys (which weren't out on the shelves when I left home) just because of how cheap they were in the US. Loaded up with bags, we got back into the city and hit the convention centre to register. I was also surprised to recognise a few people in line from various US messageboards that I visit all the time for TF (that's TransFormers) info: I hadn't expected it to be so easy to come across people that I've often had conversation with online.

After half an hour in line for registration packs, we lined up again for the opportunity to buy more exclusive mechandise. We dropped off our piles of toys to the hotel, and got ready to head out again, this time for the exclusive preview screening of the TF movie. While it was a week early for the US, it was actually around the same time as the Australian release, so some of you may have even seen it before me. The screening was great- there's nothing better than a bunch of fans watching something that they love, everyone was laughing, cheering and clapping throughout- and it didn't get out of hand, so it was still easy to focus on the movie. Needless to say I loved it- as long as you go in expecting a big funny action movie and don't think about the details too much, you'll have a good time.

The next big event was the Hasbro tour the next morning, which I had been hanging out for as much as the movie. Finally, a chance to see TF HQ, to see the engineering department, to meet the designers, and to hound them with employment questions I chatted to the design team guys a lot, and then some more that afternoon back at the convention. I ended up meeting the TF head honcho and getting his business card to pass on my folio- I'm not really that hopeful, but it will be nice to get some feedback.

The next couple of days were a blur- consisting of wandering around the dealer room (tables upon tables of toys for sale), dropping off stuff at the hotel, eating and drinking with new friends, lining up for autographs, and sitting in on question-and-answer panels with various creative people involved in all aspects of the TF world. Voice actors, designers, comic and computer game artists, the works. I got to see designs and prototypes for the next year's worth of TF toys, get a movie Optimus Prime toy signed by THE voice of Optimus Prime (a very charming and humble man), buy more toys that I hadn't planned on buying, and spend time with some great people.

I barely made it to the busport (posting a 7kg box of stuff back to Oz took a little longer than expected) but stumbled onto the bus to NYC exhausted and satisfied. I'd never been able to justify the expense of Botcon, and made it to this one due to pure synchronicity with our travels- I hope the same thing happens again in a few years time, maybe when they release the TF movie sequel?

Will post again soon with more stories, we've got a lot of countries to make up for!
Been thinking about Perth and all our friends and family very fondlyrecently, so lots of love!

-Liam

Li and I departed Las Vegas with a lot of expectations of what New York city would bring. We had our fair share of California deserts, San Fran hippies, LA traffic, Vegas trash and were ready to see what the other side had to offer.

I guess I should make it clear from the start. We absolutely LOVE New York City. But, before I launch into a full blown love-rant, I'll give you a little run down of what we actually saw and did.

We arrived on a drizzly but sunny afternoon, sharing a shuttle bus with a local New York family and various other visitors. Our path into the city (i think) took us through the borders of the bronx then onto manhattan island, through harlem, uptown, along central park until we reached the east village where our hostel was. It seems silly to say this, but New York immediately looked like New York. Lots of tall brick apartment blocks, the afternoon sun casting long abstract shadows through the iron fire escapes and lighting up the tree lined streets, like green glowing lanterns.....pretty!

Now, our hostel. We had stayed in our fair share of hostels by this point and had some really great experiences. This particular hostel was not one of them. The rooms were tiny, there was no kitchen, it was stinky, old, dirty and the staff were absolutely useless and obviously didn't give a shit. Also, there were rats. It was my pleasure to discover this little fact. As i went to eat my daily banana i noticed the bottom had been bitten into and hollowed out from inside. We didnt keep food in the room again after that. I'm sure many of you have stayed in hostels much worse than this, but when you are staying in a place for 12 days and the humidity is like one billion percent, a bed that doesn't emit a roaring crinkling noise whenever you turnover would have been nice. (The mattresses were made of a similar material to tarpaulin - lovely).

Anyway enough bitching, more loving!

Li and i spent the first couple of days before the others arrived on one of those idiot tour buses. Yes, yes i know - it was the first time we did something so blatantly touristy but it was actually a really good way to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time and get our bearings. We drove around manhattan and did a quick trip through brooklyn (which is to the east of manhattan island). We then marked off places that caught our attention and proceeded to explore on foot and were soon joined by our fellow travellers from California and some new arrivals from Oz - Keegan and Willow.

Basically there was a lot of wide-eyed slack jawed staring, walking, eating, shopping, eating, looking, eating, drooling and coveting all the things we could not take home with us.

Despite our hostel being such a hole, it was very well located and we explored the east village, lower west side and surrounding areas quite a lot. New York is just jam packed with an amazing selection of restaurants, shops, bars, vintage boutiques, cheap cheap quirky eateries, just so much fun stuff i cant list them off. We would start every day off with a bagel from David's Bagels, just around the corner from our hostel. one buck and ten cents for a massive bagel with an array of fillings. I was never game enough to try chopped liver, so i stuck to my cream cheese and chives! We ate at a new place everyday for dinner, every place as fun and affordable as the last. We checked out all the sights and galleries. Usually the touristy things are just stuff you have to get out of the way before you get to the cool stuff, but in New York, ALL the stuff is cool - touristy or not! Its just such a beautiful, cultured and exciting city, parks everywhere, lots of fresh fruit sellers on street corners, the galleries were the best ive been to, places like the empire state building, chrysler building, times square, statue of liberty, brooklyn bridge....they are all such icons it makes you feel like you are walking around in a postcard\movie.

I could go on and on (i think i already have) but basically, New York is heaven for all the things we like. It has an awesome relaxed vibe, in contrast to what i was expecting. Now we just need to find a way to get back there!

I am writing this blog from Norway, and of all the places we have been to so far (besides Iceland) New York is at the top of the list.

Much love to you all my friends. Next installment is Liam's entry from his Transformer convention in Rhode Island (nerd!) and i will tell you all about the wonder that is Iceland.

xs

ps. there are heaps of new photos on the flickr page- we may not have kept up to date with the blog entries, but the photos are there! More to come as we slow down over the next 5 weeks, and expect a whole lot more when we've stopped travelling altogether

Hello everybody!

When I last left you I was getting my bearings in LA, and after reading back over my last post, it seems my opinion of that city has not changed one bit. A bit bright exciting place with a million things to do... if you have endless patience and all the time in the world.
Highlights include: a terrible faux Japanese restaurant that did everything wrong- especially the food. This scarring experience was followed up by one of the best Thai meals Ive ever eaten, at a place right next door to the hostel.
We also had a great night out at a nearby bar- a free gig by California hip-hop maestro Peanut Butter Wolf. After seeing him play a couple of times in Perth, it was great to check him out on his home turf, at a genuinely cool venue.
Also, the quality of light in LA is stunning- you can really understand why it became the world epicentre of film-making...

We bailed on LA a day early feeling mangled- both of us exhausted and with sore throats which quickly evolved into full-blown coughing fits. We quickly made our way to beautiful Palm Springs, a true desert oasis- where we proceeded to sleep, eat, lay by in the pool soaking up sun, and do as little as possible.
We managed to fit in a couple more architecture tours- one a day trip down to San Diego and another day of driving around Palm Springs itself- a haven for Desert Modern houses built in the 50s and 60s. Take a look at the photo set- living in Palm Springs is kind of like living in the Flinstones cartoon, with loads of retro style and palm trees lining every street.

We left Palm Springs much healthier and in higher spirits- the extremely warm weather helped out a lot in that regard. We drove through Joshua Tree National Park and also through the Mojave National Reserve on our way to Las Vegas- both extremely arid yet very beautiful places to visit. What has amazed me about our whirlwind tour of different national parks is how each one really has a unique look, feel and atmosphere to it.
After a couple of wrong turns and a false alarm (where I thought we were WAY off course, but we ended up being on an even better road closer to our destination) we made our way into Las Vegas, once again meeting up with our merry band of travellers who had booked in earlier that day.

Las Vegas is different to what I has in mind. At once much bigger and broader than I had expected, it is also much more disney-fied... Everything is so clean and polished and... constructed... and yet there is less outright sleaze than I had expected. The strip really is like a giant amusement park: where there are always interesting characters wandering the streets, people walk in public drinking beers and giant margaritas at all times of the day and night, and there is always someone trying to sell you overpriced merchandise.
Our first attempt at wandering the strip during the daytime was quickly cut short due to the ridiculous heat- we ended laying by the pool at another hotel until the late afternoon.
A couple of big nights and a lot of neon later, we were again ready to move on to some rest and quiet. We managed to squeeze in a day trip to Death Valley (one of the driest and hottest places on the planet) and also out to Hoover Dam- which surprised me with its beautiful art deco architectural stylings.

We are now staying in Flagstaff near the Grand Canyon, and have spent the day exploring the South Rim. Flagstaff is another lovely small university town, where I would love to spend a week exploring the town and meeting some locals... but we are heading back to Vegas in the morning, and then catching a plane to New York City!
We are in NYC for almost two weeks, and it will be so nice to relax and have a stable home for a while- to be able to explore at a better pace and try to take in every aspect of such a massive city.
Its also just over a week until I head to Rhode Island for the transformers convention... Weve been so busy travelling Ive forgotten to get excited about that bit

Please take some time to check out the photos on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/legham/ I haven't had the chance to put many descriptions yet, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words...

-Liam

On Monday morning we packed up our ever-increasing bags of gear, left our 5 person hostel room (which was beginning to smell quite ripe due to miminal ventilation over 4 days and many different room-mates) and picked up our hire car. Luckily navigating back to our hostel was easy, and I was familiar with the streets we had to take- although I was pleasantly surprised that driving on the right wasn't so difficult after all. Here we are almost a week later and it feels as natural as driving on the left

We headed out of San Francisco over the Golden Gate bridge, stopping to take photos and walk out a short way. Our friends Mel and Fi rode over on bicycles, so we met them at the other side, chauffering our still-recovering resident cripples Caz and Layla to meet them on the other side in beautiful Sausalito. It's amazing how such an idyllic small town place like Sausalito can exist so close to a big dirty urban centre like San Franciso, it was like a little hideaway...

After saying goodbye to our fellow travellers (who were staying on an extra day and driving down the coast) we headed inland to Yosemite. One thing I've really come to appreciate while travelling are recommendations... whether it's food, shopping, or things to see- every place that we've checked out on a personal recommendation has blown us away. Well, it's mainly the food actually- after a day of walking around and building an appetite, there's nothing better than getting enormous servings of extremely tasty local fare at excellent prices. San Fran was almost exclusively a 2-meal-a-day stay, since we'd eat such huge lunches, or save ourselves for huge dinners.

Anyway, our Yosemite accomodation was no exception to the recommendation rule; the beautiful Yosemite Bug hostel located about an hours drive outside the park. Thanks Brie! We took the opportunity to stock up at a local grocery store and make ourselves a massive homecooked meal consisting of 2-inch thick steaks, grilled vegies and a giant salad. Going a week without a homecooked meal really makes you appreciate fresh food We've done really well in terms of food so far, probably eating more fresh vegetables and fruit than I would at home.

Unfortunately for us, the one day we had in Yosemite was miserable, against all weather forecasts. Our intended drive to the very top of the mountain was interrupted by the clouds clinging to the peak- driving became near impossible. We went back down into the valley and settled for some short walks. The next day as we were leaving the hostel, the sun was shining and the sky was clear

The next couple of days were a blur of driving and delirium- Sonia had managed to get sick again, and spent a few hours in Santa Cruz holed up in the hostel with a fever while I wandered the town in search of ginger and lemon to cook up some sore-throat remedy.
Santa Cruz had a great laid-back vibe, and another brilliant hostel. Hostelling International is truly a great organisation, and all the hostels have a very welcoming and homely atmosphere.
The next day we drove Highway 1 down Big Sur and for the first time i felt really homesick for the landscape of Australia. The winding coastal drives reminded me so much of the southwest and the natural beauty of Oz.
After 4-5 hours of winding roads, the effect of the constant turning and change of speed was having an affect on both of our stomachs, heads and temperaments. Luckily the highway eventually levelled out into a coastal plain, making the drive into San Luis Obispo much more bearable.

SLO was another area small town, and we rocked up just in time for the weekly Farmers Market, which turns the main street into a street party with market fresh fruit and veg, live local bands, tasty local food stalls and lots of fun things to look at. Since we were both feeling quite retched by this stage, we cooked up some more ginger tea for the next days' drive and had an early night.
We set off at 6am the next morning for the trip into Los Angeles- we were told that the trip could blow out to 4-5 hours, and we had to meet our friends at lunchtime for an architectural tour of LA by another friend's mother who lives in the area. We made great time, and the edge-of-seat freeway driving I'd heard about turned out to be true, but we managed to scrape through.

LA definitely has a lot of character, but in many ways it's an urban nightmare. It's jut so spread out over such a massive area, and traffic is horrendous. It's like what I imagine Perth could slowly turn into if they just keep building low-density housing and more freeways, pushing everything out further and further. We did a great architectural tour; visiting the Eames case study house, Eames office and Edgemar arts centre in Venice, then onto the Getty Centre- taking in a drive down Sunset strip through Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the way. But to spent almost 4 hours driving to get to all these places wore me out to a point of sleep-deprived exhaustion, especially when so much of it was spent stuck in freeway traffic and trying desperately to stay behind our guiding car when other drivers (mainly in the car by themselves chatting away on cellphones) insisted on cutting in.

We crashed early while the other girls headed out for the night, and managed to sleep through the loud music and all-night shenanigans happening at this hip hostel in Hollywood.

I'm struggling to upload photos at the moment- the computers alternate between being CD-less and USB-less- but will try and get some more up ASAP.

Have been thinking of you all fondly! Lots of love.
-Liam

So many things accomplished, so little time to type it all out!

After our marathon flight across 3 continents we arrived in Vancouver and piled into the hire van as planned. I was surprised at the lack of jet lag, but we did well to eat and sleep at the right times, and we had plenty of opportunity for daytime naps over the weekend.

Sasquatch was quite amazing- the photos on flickr show what a stunning setting the venue was. Saw some great music, watched some crazy characters, ate dodgy american festival food and drank nice american beer.
Was great to have a practice run at a US road trip and sort of get my head around the driving-on-the-right thing, since I'll be doing most of the driving over the next few weeks.

Once we were back in Van we tried to figure out just what to do in the very limited time we had left. We settled for one day checking out beautiful Lynn Canyon on the outskirts of the city and downtown Vancouver itself. We had a great dinner at the Foundation where Conor worked while he was living here, and spent the next day exploring Main St shops and roaming the classy neighborhood of Mount Pleasant with it's big beautiful 3-story wooden houses. Our last night in town turned into a snowball of people saying goodbye to our Vancouver-Perth friends, and we managed to catch up with Luan, Gemma and Brendan Tapley all in one night!

We got 3 hours sleep, jumped on a plane which was delayed, made a really tight transfer only to find out our luggage was not so fortunate. After hanging around for a couple of hours as SF airport our bags turned up and we made the train ride into the city to meet our other friends who had arrived at the hostel some hours earlier.

We've just spent the day roaming western SF on foot, checking out lots of great design and clothing stores, and some galleries and cafes to boot. SF is not as beautiful as Vancouver, and seems to lack that *something*... that character.

Lots more stories to come, we start our road trip on Monday and will hopefully have a bit more downtime to connect

-Liam