Boston New York

A guy takes off from Dollymount strand they have parraschutes which the use to surf at incredable speeds in the sea.

The car is an Edsel, enough said.

Well "Home sweet home and the fire out" As my poor old used to say.
Seems like no time at all since I broke my timing belt ,missing my holiday bonus.
Fortunately the Toyota Avensis engine in my car 2l Petrol in non obstructive, so I did not have to take the head off or get a new engine.

My first time in America,Boston is a great city, not vast good infrastructure metro and overpasses and the place works well.
The buildings fit in well together and old and new sit side by side.
Victorian redbrick houses are splendid on tree lined avenues.You enter the house from a flight of stairs from street level and standing in the hall there 2 floors below you and 3 above. The houses were really dry not like over here where damp would be a constant battle. We stayed in a "Brownstone"building but that did not work out so well, details later.

The"Big Dig" which is their traffic fiasco taking years to finish way over budget and not finished yet.Chunks of concrete falling down and killing people.

Bostonians are well dressed and well educated with Harvard and the MIT turning out lawyers and engineers by the minute.
The emigrants who went to the states got their children well educated and fought for the rights of the people who were coming on behind them. If the system is unjust you have to change the system from within,where you have real power. Not fight it from the Outside where you cannot change it or even undrestand how it works.
2nd and 3rd generation Chinese and Irish were the most confadent I saw, you could see by the way they held themselves that the work done by their parents to send them through the school system had installed a high work ethic into them.
There were a fair share of homeless and nutters going round, sad to see such wealth and poverty. But thats the World.

After a few days we went to New York for 3 nights and 4 days. Stayed at the Wellington hotel right up beside Carnegie Hall. Functional and clean.

David my son ran up a bill of more than $860 talking to his girlfriend in Dublin. "You hang up first" "No you hang up first"

New York is fantastic and I feel a lot safer walking the streets there than here.
The people are friendlier though they are always in the fast lane.
Cop with a tow truck opened a big jeep with his "Slim Jim" in 4 seconds flat they tow away more than 1,000 cars a day. The hum Vee and Ram jeeps take you breath away, with their looks and the heat they leave behind them at the lights.

Empire state was great had a contact and jumped the line! Got great photos, beautiful art deco detail. The workmanship and finish is to die for. Don't eat in the deli across the road, thats where I got food poisoning ! Wish I could tell you the exact name, but we all know meat lying out in trays for hours is a sure way to kill people.

I really thought I was going to die and by 4.30 I got up and dressed and found a 24 hour deli which sold everything. A Korean man had great sympathy for me and sold me Alka Seltzer.After a few hours it worked.
On the way back over to the Hotel I was met by a New Yorker who was a real pet lover.
"Honey would you like to come over to my place to play with my Kitties?"I just waved and then she said, "We could have loads of fun if you brought me back to Ireland"
Sharp girl, cause I never spoke a word and I am sure she was loads of fun too.
The night security porter at the hotel was a big guy. The only time I saw an animal as big he had a ring through his nose and a chain dragging from it. (Agricultural bull show) Any bouncers or bodyguards I met were polite rather than hostile and aggressive attitude that you find here in Dublin.

The journey to and from New York was by train Amtrak The cheapest way to go is by the
Chinese buses which are like a secret service for students and migrants.

The landscape of New England and the scenery changing was like being in a movie. Small towns shops without shutters. Boats at many houses, wooden houses hundreds of them. Like being in the Great Gatsby at times, expected to see Robert Redford walk in and tell me it was time to go down to the back of the train now. Then we saw the landscape of Manhattan in the distance with its steel and glass towers creating canyons in these canyon beds nations of the world move to make dreams come true.

Over in the harbor lady Liberty lifts her lamp of hope.
"Give me your tired and your poor
The huddled masses of you teeming shore"

Its one hell of a town.

Do the 3 hour boat trip around Manhattan it gives you a great overview of the whole place.Our guide was witty and I have photos of Irving Berlins house or was It Hammersteins place, maybe they lived together.

Photos and more to follow. My computer memory is full up with gaming things and I have a lot to do. Oh yes I was on Radio Free Eireann in New York
http://www.wbai.org/
I was on the 18 th June at the end of the show