Boston. Day 1

Having gone to bed at about 4.30am Kat and I didn't get up till about 11, I wish our bodies/ brains would hurry up and adjust, I'm sick of wanting to be awake from midday till 5am, it's 5.12 as I write this..

We spent most of day 1, wandering through the streets of Boston, we didn't really have a plan except to procure a sim card for ourselves. We googled the address of the phone shop and started walking. In the US there is AT&T and T-Mobile, telstra and Optus if you like, so we first found AT&T, their prepaid plan was super expensive and then you had to add SMS, data and phone calls, were not sure what the $50 credit actually went to if you had to add on all the functions.. Anyway we went searching for a t-mobile instead, we found a Radio Shack, and thought we would try there, the sales guy was really. helpful and so honest, "they are both shit, get tmobile, and get an international calling card" why thank you radio shack man...

When we landed in Boston and left the airport it was raining pretty hard but it was such a lovely day today, probably got to maybe 28• with a pleasant breeze which was nice. We ended up abandoning our search for tmobile in favor of some food, we ended up with Japanese, we all got bento boxes and they were pretty damn good! back to the search for the phone shop, we walked for another 45 mins or so up and down different streets, anyway we found it eventually and got ourselves sim cards.

It was good to again feel connected to the world. We had a bit of a look around the shops, didn't end up buying anything, then returned to the hotel, where Kat and I ended up in the sports bar watching baseball and having a drink. Kat got a stella, it was 23oz which works out to be nearly a litre, I got a 'litre a cola' then a cocktail, called a jolly roger. Let's be honest I ordered it because I liked the name, it was so freaking sweet but that aside not too bad, it had apple schnapps, Bacardi, lime and cranberry juice.

We sat here for quite a while trying to work out the next few days, with not all that much success, and retired for dinner about 9.30.
We went to the 'cheesecake factory' for dinner, it's ok they do more than just cheesecake, I had caramel chicken which was really nice, and in true American style, enough food for 3 people at least. Kat willingly made the mistake of ordeing something that had huge in the name. She got a burrito as long as her arm. We all took home doggie bags. We didn't finish dinner till nearly midnight or so.

Since dinner we have again been looking at options for getting to canada, we planned on getting the train, but it will be about $400each return, though flying would have cost us $1700, that is nearly the cost of our flight to the US from aus! Hiring a car is our other option, I have an international licence but the idea of actually driving scares the shit out of me. And I'm assuming petrol will cost us a fortune. To be determined at a later date.

It's now 5.39am, I'm wide awake and getting hungry, which is crazy considering the amount f food I had for dinner though it is about dinner time in aus... Stupid body.

Tomorrow we are going to go to the Salem which museum, should be interesting, also do some shopping and just chill.
Going to try to sleep now...

Dallas, Texas.... Boston, Massachusetts

So iv never been paged for a flight, until now... Our flight from Syd was delayed so they told us we would be boarding at 2pm for a 2.30pm flight, so we decided to go and get some food, we got yum cha that was ridiculously expensive, and the woman who served us was an absolute mole.. Anyway we thought we still had half an hour to get back then heard our name over the loud speaker, as a final boarding call! We ran our asses down and obviously made the flight. Walking down to our seats I had a guy stare me down, make eye contact, look at his watch then shake his head.. After us there was like another 10 people so that guy can go jump.

Flight was pretty uneventful (for 16 hours) I watched a few movies, a couple of docks and some stand up comedy, tried to get some sleep, but there was no chance of that, I just sat there with my eyes closed for a while.. Kat and I took some photos of people sleeping.. :-)

Just on our descent into Dallas, and I have just put my shoes back on, OMG my feet are so fat and painful. we are almost an hour late, so it's going to be a mad rush to make our next flight. We have to get off the plane, get our bags, go through customs, re-check our bags, and find our way back to the terminal for our next flight, going to be tough with about an hour 15 to do it.

It has just ticked over 2pm local time, it's about 5am at home, my body is so confused!

Hello customs..

So we missed our flight thanks to an hour flight delay, customs and security checks. Were told we had to get ourselves re booked on a flight our options were one of us could go tonight and then the other 2 tomorrow or all of us tomorrow, which we did and were told we would receive hotel vouchers because of the delay. We went straight to the hotel ( like we were told) they looked at us like we were idiots when we expected a room.. So we were told to go back to the airport to get vouchers, we left our bags so we didn't have to lug them around..

Back at the checkin desk to get vouchers, and she tells us there is a flight in 50 mins that she can fit us on! But that we would need to check our bags in the next 10 mins. So we left our carry on bags with angela at the checkin counter and Kat and I amazing raced that shit, we ran to the hotel, only to find out there is 2 Hyatt's at the airport, and we had run to the wrong one. Airport bus to right one, grab our bags back on the bus and back to the checkin., just made it!

We then ran to the terminal, then the flight was delayed about 45 mins.. Not happy. Finally got on the flight about 6.30pm, we were all in separate seats, I got stuck on the window next to a seriously annoying couple. Longest 4 hour flight ever.

Finally made it to Boston at about 11pm local time, grabbed our bags, found a PowerPoint and sat on the floor with the laptop trying to find a hotel. We planned on doing it in Dallas but because of the delays etc we didn't have time. We called about 6 different hotels, struggled to find anything, in the end we went out front and grabbed an airport shuttle to a hotel, turns out there is some massive conference on in Boston, this week.. Finally got a room at a really nice place, though it's costing us $250 per night + tax which makes it almost $300 per night.. Over budget but at least we have a bed...

There is a 24 hour supermarket across the road so we grabbed some supplies and ended up in bed about 4am local time.

And so it begins again...

Leaving Melbourne, ended up sitting on the tarmac for close to an hour after we were supposed to leave, which is annoying, it's now going to be super tight making our next flight, good thing is that it's a connection with the same airline, so they will hold it for us, most of the people on the current flight will be continuing with us to Dallas.

Kat and zia are trying to get a few zzzz's before the long haul flight to Dallas. She is gonna kill me for this haha. This is all for now, need to save battery life so I have a phone when we finally arrive..