New York City, USA

Perhaps this entry would better be titled "A Tale Of Two Cities" - one French, one English, with little bits of Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Greek, German, Polish, Irish and Japanese thrown in for good measure.

My initial impressions of Montréal were largely borne out during my time there, although I did have to modify them somewhat. When I arrived I'd planned to speak as much French as possible, but as it turned out it's a cosmopolitan city where everyone speaks English (unlike Québec City, which is entirely francophone) so I succumbed to laziness and for the most part didn't attempt too much French speaking. A rather bizarre situation exists whereby the French-speaking Québec province has managed to make the whole of Canada officially bilingual, so even 3000 miles away in Vancouver many official signs are written in French as well as English. Not satisfied with this rather cushy situation, the people of Québec have for several decades tried to separate from Canada entirely and become a distinct country, or an autonomous region, or the 51st state of the USA, or part of France, or the EU - depending on who you listen to. They've had two referenda on the question, and both have failed (albeit by 0.1% the second time) due to the fact that none of the politicians will say what they'll do if the vote is a success.

Right, politics lesson over! As a city, Montréal has seen better days - it's heyday was the late 60s when it hosted a World Expo followed by the Olympic Games (amusing anecdote: the Olympic Stadium was used for the Games in '76 but was finished in 1990!) and a lot of its architecture dates from that era. It has a Metro network - of sorts - a smattering of skyscrapers - of sorts - and some nice parks... no, really! The name of the city comes from Mount Royal, named by a British explorer (hurrah) who came across the place first of all. Montréal is an island in the middle of the gigantic St Lawrence River, so the "Montain" is a not earth-shattering 233m high.

My stay in the "Auberge de Jeunesse" (I knew A-Level French would come in handy) was, for a change, very enjoyable due to almost all the people I was sharing a room with being interesting. There was Pascal the French internship student, David from Perthshire, Neil from Portsmuff, Koji the Japanese tour guide (favourite band: the "Roaring Stones") and the guy who was variously titled Mohammed or Osama who spent all his time listening to Arabic music extremely loudly on his Walkman, asleep or in the bathroom (and sometimes all three). He also felt no embarassment in fulfilling his Muslim duty and praying 5 times a day in the room - out loud. Occasionally he would stop his music and fall asleep, but at the slightest noise (such as Neil coming in at 4am) - *click* - and the sounds of the Koran would once more pervade the room. Once I woke him up at 1am with a very unsubtle "please turn that off - we can all hear you", and he did thankfully. Various discussions were held in which words like "chloroform", "strangulation" and "headphones" were mentioned.

I hope I didn't paint a negative picture of Montréal - it's a lovely place (the Americans call it "Paris without the jet lag") but I was excited to get to New York City, my final destination. The train ride down was just as slow, but thankfully just as scenic, and the delay at the border was not quite as long going into the USA. (I wondered which four countries I should put down in the spaces on the customs card.) After pulling in at Penn(sylvania) Station at 8pm I headed uptown to the HI hostel conveniently located at 103rd Street. For the princely sum of $33 a night I obtained bed and (here's the novel part) breakfast! Some of you are thinking that $33 wouldn't buy breakfast in New York, let alone a bed, but that's the beauty of youth hostels, the McDonalds of the accommodation industry: they're cheap, everywhere and identical!

New York, as you'd expect, has been (to coin a phrase) a blast! Having only 2 and a half days to see a city like this has led to some mad escapades such as walking almost the length of Manhattan (12 miles as the crow flies) on Day One, and visiting all five boroughs on Day Two in as little time as possible. Having briefly gone up to the Bronx where I found naught but a large empty park, a few apartment blocks and - of all things - a golf course, I got back on the 1 which I took to 168th St, where I transferred to a C (express) to Nassau and Broadway, at which juncture I boarded a 5 train to Bowling Green, then the Staten Island ferry to Staten Island, then the Staten Island Railroad for three stops, then the S53 bus across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to 86th Street in Brooklyn, then about four subways to get to Queens without going back to Manhattan! I'm pooped, but I've seen most of the obvious things there are to see in New York, and of course one thing that you can no longer see, due to it not being there.

This afternoon, I plan to stop off at Brighton Beach and Coney Island on the way to the airport, to dip my toes in my fourth ocean in four months. Other than that, I'm packed and ready to go home! I shall write something more conclusive upon my return after I have captioned and uploaded to the Internet 1800 photos, slept an appropriate number of hours and greeted friends and family. Until then, dear readers, farewell! You've been a great audience.