New York investigated

I brought coca leaves through custums, by accident. I wonder what they would’ve done if they had found it.

The flight with Air Canada wasn’t worth much bragging, but Jet Airways India was way better. – I genuinly prefer Asian and Indian companies for service. I met some nice people along the way and got to see the Toronto city – skyline at sunrise, so it wasn’t awful.
Arriving in New York, I also met some nice people that showed me the way, and one woman accompanied me. Unfortunatly, they all sent me to the wrong Penn Station, as there are two, and it took a while for me to find Nicolas’ place in Upper West Manhattan. It was a beautiful apartment with a river view, and I was beyond happy with it and my very nice host. Thank you so much for everything!

We went for american pancakes(picture) with free refill coffee. Coming back to fantastic food and coffee was a delight, though I was made uncomfortable with the calorie information. I needed to remind myself that it is necessary for the large amount of overweight people there, but I feel the whole fitness pressure which excists so much more obviously in New York, is just making it all worse.
In South America they eat tons of calories, don’t excercise much, but you hardly see anyone overweight. Because? They don’t push themselves to the limit so that they in the end feel like failures and have to eat the worst they can find just to underline the fact that they’re losers. They don’t belong on the winner side. Its a great tragedy, really.
The division between superfit and sucessful winners and the fat and ugly losers is screaming at you, if you look. Tourists are mostly blinded by the buildings, fashion and the places that have been in movies.
I am not a tourist, I am a traveller, and I have been outside the western society for a while, so my perspective is different and noticing. My eyes are now trained to notice, my head to analyze and my feet to walk, so I don’t think most people could have accompanied me on my cultural exploration of Manhattan. I was only going to chill out and see it, not really that interested in seing a culture that I expected to be familiar.
I early found that the culture couldn’t be more foreign. Its a bit hard to classify as it is the most diversely cultured city of them all, which was made me want to bury beneath the surfacing layer, which people normally only see on a trip that short. It was tough, but I felt that I was getting somewhere. At times I was disgusted by the western culture and felt at home with the latinos. At times I was mainly fascinated.

In bohemian areas like Soho, I felt more at ease and enjoying the lovely restaurants around Bleeker street. One day I bicycled around, as I was fed up with walking. Another day I jogged in the beautiful spring Central Park, which was filled with pink and white flowers and people jogging. On the weekends, its unfortunately packed.
I was enjoying how I could analyze people from how they dressed and the way they ran, just imagening their lives, daily day problems and expectations of life. I noticed how the walkers walked the same way, but the joggers all ran in opposite direction of me, even though I don’t think there is something set for that. It felt right. We are running in the opposite direction.

I did the touristy things like going on the Staten Island ferry, to rest my legs, because it was free and I went; man, the Statue of Liberty is tiny!
It was fun to see Times Square and all the tourists in daylight and at night. I can’t help it. I enjoy watching tourists, and I even photograph them, pretending to take a photo of what they are.
I found an amazing shop called Mystery Boutique, where I bought a lot of clothes. I did buy a fair bit of things while I was there.
I saw a bit of Brooklyn and walked the Brooklyn bridge. I pretty much walked all over Manhattan, though.

One of the days, I met Sam, my friend from Bolivia and Argentina, who took me to the most famous Dim Sum restaurant in town, and it was delicious!! Dim Sum is a chinese tapas concept where the waitresses push around carts of dishes where you pick what you’d like. – Perfect for me.
I was always exhausted at the end of the day, hanging out with Nicolas after his long day at work. Going to this city and exploring it by yourself isn’t what I’d recommend to just anyone. I regretted it sometimes, but I knew I’d be glad for it later on. It lead me to understand much more. Not many people explore New York in this manner.

I couldn’t resist when I saw a big sign saying ”Scientology”, right next to Times Square, and I entered, pretending that I was a potential new member. They sat me down to watch some introductory videos, and I thought; Damn, what if this video contains hypnosis? These people are insane.
I didn’t have time to make it to what their beliefs of creation were, which was what I really wanted to see, because they were closing. But a really nice girl who answered some questions about the scientology rumors, and let me try their stress-ometer, gave me two videos about Scientology which I can’t wait to watch. I also got a personality test cross off thingy, which contained some interesting questions which I reflected around while having a famous New York cheesecake(they’re unfortunately baked). Think my aunt Solveig should start her own cheesecake shop and kick them all out of business!

It was an interesting time to be in New York, as Osama Bin Laden was killed at the time, and I could go to Ground zero, where they were building monuments and a new World Trade Center, which is to be the tallest building in NY. It was also packed with news reporters and people reliving their grief or carrying big flags of celebration.

So that was my five days in New York. – A city which was surprisingly beautiful in its architecture. After SA, it wasn’t that crowded to me, as people work all day. I’d never live there and I’d never spend a long time if I had a choice, but I will go back one day to see how its changed.

Going to Norway after New York was a relief, as its far less superficial and cozy. – Even Oslo. Especially now that the weather is much warmer and sunny. All of the parks are full of people, I have friends to see and beachvolleyball to play. Its not all bad!

I also sold Tornado for 2700usd.

Last days in BA.. In South America!

I moved in with Marcela, walked a lot around, thinking and trying to let go. I spent some time with friends, tried my first tango lesson at The Catedral de tango(20pesos for a class, and it doesnt matter at all if you dont bring a partner. It was great fun and not that hard, at all! (the very first lessons arent)
One thing I discovered that you could do is rent bicycles for free, if you bring a passport photo. The rentals are located by parque Las Heras.
Javier celebrated his birthday one of the nights, and the last night, I visited my australien friends from Cusco and La Paz: Michael and Jack. It was great to see them again. I went to a couchsurfing party after that, and that was it! I got on the bus to the airport in the morning, and said my goodbyes... I will miss South America so much..

I´ll miss the Argentinian culture of being laid back, confident, drinking mate, eating crossaints, steak, pasta, dulce de leche, alfajores and ice cream, without hardly any fat people. How its done, beats me. Even though I would never choose it, I will miss the way they eat dinner at 11 pm, start work at 10pm and on weekends, party till 7 am. Its just so different. Their political situation is however so unstable that they are not even sure of their own financial progress. Unlike Brazil, where the economy is growing, many believe that their growth is mainly an illusion created by inflation. I wish them all the best. I cant wait to go back and see the rest of Argentina!

So my blog will be edited, but not really updated anymore. My adventure chasing in South America is over, for now. I will write a little about my five day stopover in New York, as the return in always relevant and effected by the trip itself. Also because I need to...

Camping in Tigre

My friend Edje got sick, so he didnt come with me to Tigre. Zarena, a charming british girl, (or I have to say woman as she surprisingly enough is 34 years old), accompanied me instead. Tigre was packed of people and quite nice. The scenery around is like nowhere else in the world. Like BA needed to score more points.. its a summer-heaven of boats on the riverbends, sweet houses, flowers, hammocks, a few fake beaches. Boats carrying around groceries and supply, go forth and back, so you wave it in from the dock if you want something. Other shops and restaurants are also found along the river. The easter traffic made us have to wait two hours for the public transport boats to bring us back. In Europe that would`ve been outrageous, but all of the ones passing were full, and one could only wait, patiently. I'm sure it was more than two hours. At least its better than the small towns that can wait for days for petrol or rain to stop.

Unfortunatly, most of the couchsurfers had left, so we were only 15, but some of them, especially one guy, were Hillarious! A few of them were foreigners living in BA, but most were locals, and I stayed with one of the girls for a few days, afterwards. We made a big, I mean big, bbq. - Fantastic. Then we danced like idiots in the outdoor disco, with all the typical SA hits, beneath the stars. Its not often you experience such genuin fun, especially not when you`re the only sober one in the party.
I woke up to a bright, yellow sunrise and just smiled. I read in the sun, hung out with the guys, bathed in the river and later on we went to my new hosts place to cook.

After shopping, I had to take a nap on a park bench. An urugayan guy woke me up and asked me if I'd like to share some coffee. We sat and talked for like ten minutes before I excused myself and he kissed me goodbye. - Not joking about that. He really Kissed me goodbye! I had to proclaim that it was rather odd as we were strangers, and he just said that well, he didn't have time when I was leaving so soon.
That is just an example of guys' confidence here in this country. I was definatly not in Scandinavia!