It was delightful.

Reasons that this city is awesome:

• Trams in the city center are free
• Great coffee culture
• Lots of different types of folks
• There’s a Daiso here (kind of Japanese dollar store)
• Pub food is awesome
• Have I mentioned the coffee?
• Many museums are free
• So much more

The walking tour was great today; I learned a lot about Melbourne. The jail where Ned Kelly was hanged is now a nice courtyard where you can buy pesto sandwiches and boutique chocolates lol. Progress.

There’s the river Yarra and a waterfront promenade with tons of shops and restaurants.

So much to see in town, and an easy day trip to the beach is a train ride away.

I love it already!

And it was a bitch getting here! Such a long travel day.

The hostel I’m in has free pancakes in the morning! Cool! Hot water, peanut butter, coffee…life is sweet.

Today I’ll take a free waking tour and get a long walk in.

Stay cool, friends!

Here in New York, it’s clear and cold. It makes for some great walking around weather.

I had a loooooong walk downtown to the Federal Hall on Wall street. I was perplexed by the many photographers on Broadway until I realized that fashion week is coming up soon. It got worse and worse with the sidewalk blocking. Sooooo…. I’m pleased to announce my upcoming exhibit entitled “Mary’s puffy blue coat”. It consists of all the shots I ruined by deliberately walking in front of all the photographers in my way. Goddamn it felt good.

Anyhoo, after that ridiculousness, the Federal Hall was lovely. Took a terrible tour of the building and learned some more about America’s early days.

After a sit-down and pit-stop at the grossest Starbucks ever, I just wandered around downtown window shopping and listening to podcasts about the city.

I demolished a bag of popcorn for dinner and got ready to go home in the morning.

As always, the city’s been great. Loud and confusing, full of strange and wonderful people…I love it.

I’m only a little waterlogged, and drying out quickly now that I’m back at my hostel.

I had a nice sleep-in until 8, then took the subway down to the top of Manhattan. There’s a free walking tour now, and it’s just like the ones in Europe. Tip-based and great. The guide is an American, and it was interesting to hear his presentation aimed at foreign visitors. I learned a lot about New York too.

After a sit-down, I went to the museum of American Indians. It’s free so you know I loved that. Gotta be honest…not crazy about it.

I hadn’t spent any time at the Grand Central Market since they fixed it up, so I swung by to get a treat. Lots of incredible gourmet food.

I had some time to kill after that and found a quiet place at the library to sit and Netflix a movie. Nice to have a place away from my hostel to be warm and dry.

Today’s main event was an opera at Lincoln Center, L’Elisir d’Amore. I’d never heard of it but the ticket counter guy said it was worth a gamble at 35 bucks (very comfortable seat in the nosebleed section). I liked it a lot. The character of the doctor was well performed.

Now my to-do’s are checked off and no plans loom for tomorrow. I’m guessing some coffee, some walking, and some pizza-eating will be involved.

Good night everybody