(Photos:Rochester(2), Chicago(2) and New Haven(4))
It has been a busy couple of months and a combination of hectic travel and extreme laziness has meant I have not kept you all up to date with our travels. Well, I
am here now and
ready to regail you with exciting tales ranging from the various sizes of hotel rooms across the continent to the most effecient airport security in the business. Please don't disappear, I was only joking. Well mostly joking anyway. I have visited a total of 15 different cities in 11 seperate states over the last two months, spending an average of 1.4 days in each place (mathematicians do not despair, I am not including Chapel Hill in this little calculation, where we have spent the majority of the last month) and has meant I have not had the time to explore and research each place. This unfortunatley means that I will not be able to give you my usual in-depth, analytical and wholly accurate view of cities spread out amongst the states of this fine Union. It will however provide me with the oportunity to give a completely inadequate, prejudiced, lightweight, and possibly offensive opinion of the places we have visited, as I am never one to let sheer ignorance get in the way of all that I have to say.
Our first stop was Hartford, Connecticut: a city founded by Samuel Stone and Thomas Hooker, who named the town after Stone's birthplace: Hertford, England. Clearly they had poor memories, were illiterate or the person who made the first sign was guilty of a severe typo when they replaced the 'e' with an 'a'. This was, however, a mere trifle and only partially ruined my visit to Connecticut. The other two things that completely ruined my visit were the weather (which was very grey and very torrential) and the absolutely ridiculous hire car I had been forced to rent because it was the only thing available. Enterprise, in their deeply flawed wisdom, had decided that an armoured military vehicle, painted in white and adorned with chrome, would be the perfect thing for me to spend my day in. To add to my misery it appeard that the previous user had taken all of the suspension out of my H3 (some variation of a Hummer) and replaced it with rubble. So as I bounced uncomfortably along the highway in the most ostentatious of cars, trying to keep my head below the steering wheel so that I might not be recognised by anyone (yes, I know the chance of that happening in a random State is next to nil, but I wasn't willing to take the risk) I tried to think of anyone I knew who owned one of these wretched things. After about ten minutes I could only come up with Governor Schwarzenegger as a current owner. The vehicle was so bad that I wondered what Jeremy Clarkson would say about it if he were reviewing it on Top Gear, then I wondered what it would be like if Arnie' himself were a Top Gear presenter, and the ensuing impressions were enough for me to entertain myself all the way to New Haven. New Haven is a 50 minute drive (or bounce) from Hartford and is quite lovely. There is a real sense of character and history there, which is often absent from other American towns and cities, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to take pictures of the coast and another lighthouse. It is also the home of Yale University.
The next stops on our interview trail were Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, Rochester, Denver, Albuquerque and then Worcester, MA.
As I said before, I didn't spend enough time in any of these places to do them justice, but here goes anyway:
Chicago: Over-rated urban jungle with bad drivers, rude people, bad service and awful pizza. Bloody cold too.
Detroit: The most miserable and depressing place I have been to since I had the misfortune of driving through Luton.
Phoenix: I have already said everything there is to say about Phoenix. Love it.
Rochester: Not the most glamourous city and not the friendliest either, but its familiarity did make me appreciate it more this time.
Denver: Stunning scenery, polite and welcoming people and the worst drivers I have encountered so far.
Albuquerque: Bizarre mixture of buildings from Westerns and dramatic snow covered mountains in the background. Very quirky, is Albuquerque.
Worcester: Pronounced 'Wuh-ster' and not 'Wor-chest-er'. Take note simpletons. Pretty place and quite nice. Probably wouldn't go back though.
And so concludes my analysis. I thank you.
