From 36,000ft....

As we write this we are currently flying over Virginia on an AirTran internal flight to Boston, which amazingly has onboard wi-fi!

WE ARE ******! There are various different factors that have contributed to this..

1) Lack of sleep in hostel due to a) Sharing a dorm with the Romanian world record holding snorer. b) Sharing a dorm with a Jackie Chan lookalike, who also wrestles people in his sleep and reenacts martial arts manoeuvres whilst flinging himself out of the top bunk at 5 in the morning, before stumbling around in pure confusion. c) Sharing a dorm with people who have no regard for bunk etiquette, and steal your bunk so that when you come home at 3 in the morning some gork is lying in your precious rest space and you have to relocate.
2) Stuarts attempt to break dance on a deep sea fishing trip resulting in knee injuries which now hamper walking ability - our only affordable mode of transport.
3) Travelling for one month non-stop at 100 miles an hour with no time off.

We are beginning to realise this may, possibly, be unsustainable, but whenever we decide to have a break something else exciting to do comes up... and we do it! This is physically (particularly for disabled stu) and financially crippling.

Bring on Boston!!

Exhausting Miami!

Just a quick addition to the post on St Pete, We saw dolphins swimming just off the coast and I managed to swim out pretty close, they were jumping out the water all around the beach. We also saw Stingrays jumping out of the water at the end of the peir where Stu was fishing, very impressive. On arrival at Miami, we decided to head out in the eve, but drank mainly in the hostel as prices were crippling, I paid 12 dollars for a round, then had to tip! We also worried about fitting in everything we want to do here, so we booked an everglades tour for the morning after. This was also the same day we had booked tickets for a baseball game in the eve. It turns out that a hangover, getting to, around, back from the everglades then to and back from the baseball stadium (which was literally miles from the hostel) may have been too much, when we caught the last bus back (if we'd missed it we would have been in some serious number 2) we were exhausted on about every imaginable level. But what a day!!! An airboat ride in the everglades should be on to do lists, we saw lots of wildlife including some very mean looking alligators. We also saw an alligater wrestling show, where crazy man showed us lots of other animals up close. REALLY UP CLOSE. We thought it would be good to sit in the front row. I immediately regretted this decision when he poked a scorpion under my nose. I was literally passing bricks, not a fan of scorpions from a distance!
The baseball game was great, we managed to seat hop again and tried various locations throughout the stadium, buying a cheap ticket then sneaking around is a way forward. Unfortunately The Florida Marlins (our adopted team) lost by one run, which the other team (New York Mets) got at the top of the ninth (6-5 final score). Very annoying. There was a big fat american sitting infront of us at one point who was hiliarious, we did lots of hand slappiong and whooping together at anything remotely celebrateable. Once again we were amazed at the scale of the occasion, the americans are just big sports fans!
Were off to the beach now after some lunch. There are many beautiful people in Miami!

Fishing in Tampa Bay

With a spare day in St Petersburg, I decided to embark on a fishing adventure. With $12 dollars for rental and bait i spent the day fishing off St Petersburg pier in the blistering heat! The morning proved to be very productive catching 8 fish (both red and mutton snapper pictured left) up to about 8 inches in length (10 would have made them dinner...) after some lunch i went in search of something bigger and hooked in to an enourmous Jack Cravalie (easily over 50 pounds!) after watching it swim past and dropping my shrimp on its head! unfortunatly my tackle wasnt quite up to the task and I was connected for about 4 seconds....but wat a 4 seconds! Saw loads of other fish being caught by locals who had the right tackle. no doubt about it, Florida fishing is second to none.....even better than Chi Lakes! bring on the Keys.....

Bulls, Tuna and Jelly fish

USF absolutely destroyed south Charleston university!! Good job we decided to be full on USF supporters. We had full body paint in the form of the USF Bulls kit (see photo), nibbled on the free student pizza and then once again managed to find seats about four or five price ranges up from ours, this time in about row four on the 50 yard line. Prob best seats in the house, but then that’s what were beginning to expect now… Now in St Petersburg where it is just as hot, around 90 to 95 degrees F. Apart from when it rains, and boy does it rain then! Its proper tropical storm stuff with epic lightning, as soon as there is one drop of rain you find cover, cause it then spanks it down!! Its real nice though, white sands, clear waters, big marinas. Went round downtown yesterday, had a beach day today, where stu managed to pick up a jelly fish sting - really wanted to piss on him, but apparently it only needed hot water (thanks all the people in the beach bars who didn’t have a clue what to do!! Thankfully one lad did in the end). We also had some local seafood in Crabby Bills, a yellow fin tuna steak for me (I had to have a lesson on how to eat it - soy sauce, wasabi and ginger apparently, very nice indeed!!). Stu tried the mahi mahi (or something like that). Don’t think we have properly mentioned our mascot, Claude the penguin, who joined us in Nashville. He now features in quite a few photos, some of which have a ‘where’s cluade’ (think where’s wally) theme, keep a eye on the uploaded photos for examples. In the above photo claude has joined us in one of our favourite locations - a greyhound station.

P.S. New photos uploaded! Have a click on the slideshow.

Game Day....Woo!

After two heavy beer, country music and penguin stealing filled nights in a rainy Nashville with our new friends from around the world we embanked on our 2nd overnight greyhound to arrive in Tampa, Florida 21 hours, 3 buses, and one hell of a traffic jam after leaving Nashville! Arriving in Tampa the first thing of note....boy its HOT no clouds here, just lots of UV rays. just relaxing in our cool hostel with a few nice home comforts, leather sofa, tv, jacuzzi etc before heading out to the Raymond James staduim tonight (home of the Tampa Bay Bucceneers) to watch the University of South Florida vs University of Southern Charlston college football game, hopefuly with some 'Tailgateing' before hand! Off to St Petersburg tomorrow for a few days in a very sketchy motel at only $20 a night for the room! wish us luck.........

Nashyville

Spent the last couple of eves with beers in the hot tub in asheville, serrenaded by a arkansas gem miner, a wandering richard gear look a like (seriously, even after the ben stiller comment) and a hippie with an epic beard on guitars before sampling local bars, which have great atmospheres. We've now hit Nashville, tennesse, where apparently the only climatic condition availiable is heavy rain. Due to these inclement conditions Nashville is due to be renamed in the next half hour to Lashville. The 30 cans of premium american lager in our dorm should be ample political leverage for this alteration. We will post again once the second hangover has cleared. Incindenty, we checked out the bars earier and they are ******* awesome. Choo Choo...

p.s. Never use a porch swing with unsecured maple iced cinemen cakes in the vicinity.

P.P.S, we have found that larry the lashtop (named for security reasons so we can discuss his presence) has a mighty wireless, enough say to connect to the holiday inn wireless while down the road in Taco bell, where 79c buys you a spanking soft Taco!!

Asheville

If you have never been to Asheville, North Carolina (and chances are you probabily havent), get over here asap. Its a awesome, relaxed, progressive (for the South) town with amazing people and the views are incredible! biked up to and along the blue ridge parkway today in the mountains and and then lunch by a big lake before having a swim in it (carefully watching out 4 snakes)! then a nice cycle back to pick up some beers for tonight in our HOT TUB! best hostel we have stayed at so far. more chilled out day tomorrow we think as we may be a bit saddle sore! here till tuesday when we head to Nashville, Tennessee. Also regarding steve's post, we met a Ben Stiller 'look-a-like' not the actual 1! Steve is cooking to best check on his progress so I dont get poisoned.....

P.s all our photos are up now so check them out

Recent Happenings

In our last night in DC we went out with Ben Stiller to a free jazz night where we comsumed wine, bread and humous and socialised and pretended we were far more cultured than we are, all for the grand sum of $0. We then walked through a very dodgy neighbourhood to catch the overnight greyhound and consequently made a pact never to do so again in the dark whilst carrying all our worldly belongings! The greyhound was indeed long, and complete with massive argument between big black mammas over their own mammas, or something like that. Entertaining, but we stayed out of it. Managed to catch some sleep before arriving here in asheville today, took a cab from the bus terminal and got the most stereotypical southern lad ever, who gave us a very southern flavoured low down on the way. lad. Hostel is grand, really homely and laidback, this time we do have the full on porch with swining seat!! Asheville looks immense, we are now in real america it seems, sightseeing over, culture soaking beginning, Tree covered mountains all around, gonna borrow some bikes from the hostel tomorrow and head to the hills (and maybe meet a bear).

P.S. Local american qoutes of the day:
Fat lad at bus stop: 'Isn't it right that Canada is part of europe right?'
Steve: 'Er... Yeah... Something like that...'

Taxi driver: 'Those little scooters are like fat girls, there realy fun to ride, but you don't wanna be seen by your mates on one.'
Stu and Steve: Uncontainable laughter.

Budget??

Apologies for the flurry of blogs today but we felt it was neccessary to inform followers that today we made a rather rash expenditure. In fact, I am operating the product acuired as the result of this in order to make this post. We are now the pround owners of a netbook (mini laptop) which we figure will save us copious amounts of time and hassle with the annoying money eating internet access machines. It may even pay for itself... possibly. You can now expect regular photos uploads also. YAY!! See the new photo of the moment and select photos in our gallery (click on the slideshow). The full plethra of photos will gradally appear on facebook, the ones below are our faves.

Busch Light.....

Hello my people, I am writing to inform you that me and steve this morning have aquired our first proper American hangover (not that much different to a UK 1) but boy it hurts! went out in the Uni area of DC last night with loads of people from our hostel and after bundling 7 people into the back of a 4 seater taxi we got 2 know each other well enough for some good old fashioned drinking games and copius pitchers of 'Busch Light' all of which is leading today to be undertaken at a slightly slower pace than normal!

DC

Howdy folks. we went to the international spy museum yeasterday and got some of those silly disguise glasses, which we are now wearing at every given oppourtunity, hilarious. Still trying to get a photo in them at a bag check! Went to capital building and saw the house of representatives and the senate in session then went to a free performance in the kennedy centre... which was pants. Some brazilian martial arts thing mixed with music and dancing (i know... we thoiught it sounded good too!). There was a fat guy who was monumentally funny though. White house and copious amount of monuments today followed by a free pasta night in the hostel and a forray into washington university campass, hopefully for some cheap beer. Somewhere beer is not so cheap is the ESPN sportszone, but when you have 13 different screens of sport in front of you you cant really complain!
Quick blog follower quiz: What will be the total amount of times we get our bag searched in DC? Answers on a postcard to stuandstevesworldtour, wish you were here, but were having a great time anyway, Wasghington DC. H3110.
S+S

The Philly Marathon

here comes a 3.18min blog! philly hostel amazing alought 6 mile walk 2 town and back meaning we walking around a marathon in 2 days! the rocky steps were done and were awesome!!! In DC now till fridays seeing the sights and living it up. will uploads pics soon. stay tuned...

P.s PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE BELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Philly Cheese Steak

Two thumbs up!!

Philly!

We've left NYC! Undertaken the first greyhound journey, which was lovely. It was only 2 hours, but we fancy we can hack longer journeys (which is handy seeing as we have too!) A bit of overnight sleeping action will also save us a nights accomodation. It's worth mentioning on the budget front that the price of accomodation has shocked us, so to retort we are living of $5 a day for food... surprisingly well! Also worth mentioning is how easy it is to wash clothes. You simply go for a shower still wearing them!! We've just arrived at our philly hostel. We had to take a bus through one of the dodgyest neighboorhoods I have ever seen but thankfully it was a loopy route and we've ended up in a palace in the middle of Fairmount park. Seriously, it's like an old stately home with pianos and paintings, a harp, creaky floorboards and a uber cool porch on the front where we have just been sitting and hatching master plans for the next month. All it needs is a rocking chair out there. The walk into town from here is about 6 miles, all through the park and by the river, we're going to do it tomos morning.

Lady Luck and the US Open

Tickets for the main stadium at the US open: $50
7 Day Metrocard: $27
Hotdog or pretzel outside: $2
Arriving to find out that the day session is running late, so wandering around and 'acquiring' 2 US Open tennis balls, then realising we can get into the 2nd biggest stadium, getting front row seats to see Djokovic thrash Ball and getting said tennis balls signed by our main man Novak, then finding out that even though the day session overran, evening session matches are played to conclusion so we actually got more tennis, watching Sharapova from up in the gods and then the start of the Roddick match before going for a 'wander' and meeting two suited lads who are leaving and give us their $400 dollar front row club box seats from where we see the almighty Roddick serve up close and get free cookies and chocolate cake from the hospitality included in 'our' ticket in a packed stadium atmosphere of americans under floodlights cheering on their hero till about 12.15 at night: PRICELESS!!!!!!!!

NYC

Sitting in New york central public library!
The empire state building is awesome! Although everything looks like sim city!
Incidently, BA were also awesome, free newspaper, 2 meals, complimentary drinks etc... Beats Ryanair! Hit central park, UN HQ, madison square, Grand central etc. Today is statue liberty, brooklyn, financial district (ground zero) and roddick in the US open!! Jet lag is not awesome. Nor is Stus snoring, though justice was served when he was rudely awoken by antics involving a (large) girl in the next bed in our all male dorm!! (thankfully I slept through everything, like in newquay, eh tys??!)

WERE HERE!

Hey guys and girls,

Me and Ray Mears arrived in NYC yesterday eve without a hitch. I won the bag contest (only 9.5kg compared to Ray's 11Kg). Hostel fairly good considering we are in the mean streets of Harlem! Off for a tourist day today then the US Open tonight at Flushing Meadows. Love it x