New York

 New York has been much more challenging proof I am not really a traveller.. I cannot really say why as nothing untoward has happened here it just feels overwhelmingly busy at times, the hostel is not as nice . Like in Thailand the huge buildings weigh me down, yet I loved it when I came here over 40 years ago. Then I did most of the things I wanted to do and should do in Manhattan including going to Ellis Island, the Empire State Building, Radio City waking up on Long Island .. guest of woman on plane and guest in a brownstone guest of man met on train. It was an adventure.. now at times it has been an assault on the senses. Is that old age or just having less energy. 

But there has been lots they has been good about it and today I did exactly what I wanted to do.. visit the High Line where there was an exhibition on climate change and Chelsea market. With the help of staff I got a metro ticket and back to the hostel in the evening and some great bonuses...the gardens along the Hudson, Washington square. The 9/11 memorial and even part of the Smithsonian on the indigenous population. I wanted to buy up almost everything in the Museum shop but was feeling so rough I only rushed around but good precursor to what I hope to see I Washington 

I am sorry not to have done anything other than pass thru the key outer edges or get to Harlem which I am very close to here but reaching energy limits and for the next few days will be travelling with friends. No word from the one person I very very very vaguely knew of, which is a shame, but glad to have revisited.  And still having problems uploading stuff onto this site. 

Words music and highs and rain rain and more rain

 A friend suggested that if I had the oomph I could visit Concord and see the home of Luisa May Alcott. I didn't booked in case I had a bad night but it was very quiet I went to sleep about 8 woke at 12 slept again but was up and out in time to catch the 8:30 train to Concord, At first I couldn't work out where to buy a ticket to get onto the platform but the woman at the gate was able to oblige.   The journey was fine, but when I tried to get off the guard threw out her arm and ushered me back - no one could leave till she had lowered the steps.   That encounter got me talking to the other woman getting off the train.. a former teacher Meagan from Huston was kind enough to shout me a coffee before we did the tour of the museum. Concord is beautiful full of really old houses Emerson lived there, Thoreau ,Hawthorn and of course the Allcotts. The house is in many ways as they left it  Louisa May had been a nurse before writing Little Women based on her experiences and her family.  But her dad was also a famous philosopher and her sister May Amy in the books was a really good artist who studied in Europe so a great and informative visit. I didn't want to leave as Boston interesting though it is is harder 

Today it rained and rained here so I planned to head up to Harvard and the museums there but got waylaid and landed up Bunker Hill and in the naval dockyards before catching the ferry back to.the Long Wharf. From.there I gravitated back to Boston Common where two sound stages were blaring out hip hop on one and rock in the other but virtually no one was listening as they were clustered round the booths selling dope. I swear I am half high it was so strong. It was still going strong as I strode out across the common to dip into the Black History Trail. Coming back to the hostel though more music was playing all from the 60s and 70s and part of the hostels Peace Day celebrations..! Meanwhile the news from Lebanon Sudan Ukraine gets ever worse.  

Tomorrow I head to New York. 

Boston

 The holiday nerves were super active till I safely and very easily arrived here last night and I was assaulted by a range of mostly nasty smells, loud penetrating shouts and nice meeters and greeters who helped direct me to the youth hostel. I had just run out of maps and inspiration when there suddenly was the hostel. Determined to make the most of my first evening I headed to Boston common and the houses of the Back Bay but was denied access to the river and a site of MIT by the busy roads.

Today though things have gone mostly very well. Having checked where the bus goes from I walked down to the Boston tea party museum which wasn't even open I was up so early and through to the Long Wharf where I was disappointed to discover there are no boats to Salem on account of the weather. So I drifted off to the Fanheuill Market for coffee and to read my book but then stumbled on a national park ranger who was about to take a group out for a free walk and talk in the old town. He was brilliant. I now know so much more.about the complex make up of the people involved with the revolution on both sides and indeed sometimes switching sides and how a group of male Bostonians those who were free men over 21 propertied and therefore.with the right to vote in local community  groups began to discuss wanting more from the British but eventually rebelling.  If only I could remember it all. Some of the Boston buildings are wonderful but the dark brick and sometimes.the scale of some.of the buildings feels a bit ominous. I wouldn't want to bring up kids or dogs here not enough green space so far or air. But from the air I was surprised how green it looked and of course lovely to be by rivers and sea. So a complex and interesting place.