It's very early to have a certain view on the trip in retrospect, I'm still bewildered from being back, but it's a trip that has changed my life, and my view upon life, but then, all great changes in your life do exactly that.
Certain people on the trip have made a bigger impact than others, of the most important I can mention: Mike Gasson, Jimmy, Dave, Sarah, Carl, Miguel, Anne Dorte, Stephen, James, Johno, Karin, Flavio, Julian, Magte, Tono, Antonio, Heather, Lisa, Moni, Bob and the star of the show... Gilbert.

I have also had a lot of help from the homefront: Hanne (mother), Jesper (father), Anne Sophie (sister), Bo (stepfather) and Anette (friend). Especially without the help of these individuals, the trip never would have been or it would have failed while I was underway.

With a disregard to all that I have just written, I would like to extend a thank you, to everyone on this list:

Family, friends and everyone who has been reading the blog!

Uruguay: Those 5 Danes

Colonia Del Sacramento: The Brit and the Aussie

Puerto Madryn: Sarah and Kyle

Rio Gallegos: Timo, Jonah and Fred

Ushuaia: Andreas, Uri, Layden and the 4 Israeli girls

Punta Arenas: Carl, Tamar, Adina, Keenan, Irish couple, Jack, Roman, Mike and the two Aussie's in their 50's.

Puerto Natales: Bill, Kat, Bo, the guy from Punta Arenas, Monty (the cat), Britney, Jenny, German girl, Vicky and Sophia

Torres Del Paine: Urs, John, John, Susan, Katy, Rafael, Natasha, Albert, Nick, Whitney and the two Irish guys.

Calafate: Edward

Chalten: Mike

Futaleufú: Eyal, Rachel, Dave and Eddie

El Bolsón: Lucia

Bariloche: Patrick, Reut, the Israeli twins and Jimmy

Bariloche -> Valdivia: Lindsay

Pucón: Everyone at hostel Etnico, everyone who went up the volcano with me (in particular Yong)

Santiago: The staff at La Chimba hostel and Mike (of El Chalten fame)

Rapa Nui (Easter Island): Miguel, Chen, Kieran, Melissa, Larry, Jimmy (From Bariloche),John, Emma, Brian, John (Montana), Alejandra

Buenos Aires: Eddie (of Futaleufú fame), Anne Dorte, Jon, Karen, Elena, Jane, Becky, Eric, Madoka, James, Steve, Stefan, Darren, Deborah, Chris

Puerto Iguazu: Two German girls, Canadian girl and the two Danish girls

Ciudad Del Este: Dan and Rommi

Santa Cruz -> La Paz: Lorgio

La Paz: Patrick (from Bariloche) and Danny

La Paz -> Cuzco: Florian

Cuzco: Steve and James (from Buenos Aires), Karin, Anna, Heather, Ley, the 3 Norwegian girls, Ingrid, Johno, Maria, Charlotte, Mike Gasson (from El Chalten and Santiago) and the Kiwi girl.

Inca Trail: Flavio, Julian, the porters and the cook, Rob and Dee Ann

La Paz: Nadja, Yasmin, Heather, Uval, Maud, Jonathan, Ivan and Macro

Potosi: Cameron, Monica, Allan, William, Anaïs, Angela and Aaron

Uyuni: Angela (from Potosi), Declan and Judy

Sucre: Andrew, Tamsyn and Trevor

La Paz: Jimmy

Pampas: Jimmuy, Laia and Tono

Jungle: Jimmy, Antonio and Jesus

La Paz: Jimmy, Heather, Roly and Anita

Copacabana: Jimmy

Habana: Lisa, Amasa and Lily

Santiago de Cuba: Lisa (from above)

Comandancia La Plata: Moni

VIlla Santa Domingo -> Camaguey: Shane and Steve

Cuba: All the family's I stayed with, ate with and talked with; you showed me the best side of Cuba.

Washington, D.C.: Hiro, Carlos, Rachel & Eyal (from Futaleufu and Bariloche), Bill Colburn, Jackie, Rick and Rav Shmuel.

New York: Tony, Anne Sophie (my sister), Peter & and his son Tony as well as

Chicago: Bob, Amanda and the people on the Wicker park tour

Boston: Amelia

I'm just gonna leave you with a feeling of my trip, I know with this massive list of people above, it doesn't feel right, and I'm not saying it gives a sense of my entire trip, but you will also notice that few people are mentioned more than once (it won't work if you are reading this in an email, you have to go to the website):

[See post to listen to audio]

So before I leave you... Beyond the sky and the earth, thank you.

21st: I had a wait from 5 in the morning (Dublin time) to 16.50 before my plane would leave for Malaga, so I simply sat around in a comfy leather chair, and read in my book Kite Runner, and sat still daydreaming when I got tired of reading, but the wait was indeed excruciatingly slow, but time didn't stop, the plane came, I boarded and read the in-air shopping magazine for 3 hours, until I landed in Malaga, and this is where it got fun.
I waited at the luggageline until it stopped going round, and then I knew my luggage had been lost, but I trudged on, complained everywhere, until I was told that I could find my luggage in Terminal 2. So I went outside, had a heart hello with my mother and stepfather, went over to get my rucksack, and I was officially home, now I just need to go back to Denmark, before I feel I can call my journey complete.

Postscript:

Apparently I forgot to turn subscription on for my time in America, so here are those posts:

From The D, To The C!
New York Solo
New York Duo
Windswept In Chicago
Boston

I landed around 11.30, my bag came out very fast, and in no time I was on the metro on my way to my hostel. The hostel is fairly central, and very nice, with a great selection of cheap places to eat around. However I had plenty of time left, it was still early-ish (14 or so), by the time I left. So I decided to go to Cambridge to see Harvard and MIT. The universities aren't exactly pretty, Harvard is better looking than MIT, but still awfully bland, a sort of failed federal architectural style. There wasn't the air of education around the places either, however I do know that I am dealing with two of the best universities in the world, I am just relaying my experience.

I was back at the hostel around 17.15, and killed the time until it was 19 o'clock, and a group of people assembled in the lobby, I had signed up for a free comedy show (Celtics played the LA Lakers in the finals of the NBA, so the comedy club must have known that they had to do something drastic), and went along with 9 other people to "The Comedy Connection" for an evening of laughter (or so I thought); the first 3 comedians weren't funny, the jokes were poor; but the final 3 comedians, were brilliant, and I laughed till I cried, and so did most people present.

After the show all of us headed back to the hostel, and I fell in conversation with Amelia from Austin (Texas), and we ended up watching Fawlty Towers together, until late in the night. She had to get up early, as she had to go to an introductory course, she would soon start studying here in Boston, and it was late anyway, so I just went to bed and slept.

18th:

I got up very late, but as always, eventually got around. I spent the entire day walking along the Freedom Trail, entering all the museums (free one's anyway), and lingering at many of the beautiful sights. I didn't do a lot of different things, but I learned a lot about Boston history; Boston Common, State House, Park St Church, Granary Burying Ground, King's Chapel, Old South Meeting House (Boston Tea Party), Boston Massacre, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Hill Burying Ground are just among the things I saw on my trip around the city. Near the North Square I had a most amazing sandwich, not just the best sandwich, but an amazing Cuban sandwich at that.

In the evening I stayed in at the hostel, watched a movie and didn't do much; for dinner I had a sandwich from the nextdoor place, very tasty indeed.

19th:

I started by eating breakfast at the hostel (this was the only day I had been up early enough to eat breakfast), and then walked to Fenway Park, home of the red sox, and waited 40 minutes for the next tour to start. The tour was really good, and I suddenly got a crash course in baseball, and now know slightly more. The tour took quite a long time, so afterwards I signed up for a sneak preview of Wanted, and walked around Copley (a part of Boston) and tried to get to the observation deck of the Prudential Tower (tallest building in Boston), but couldn't as it had been rented for a private arrangement.

When i came back to the hostel, it was time to go to the cinema, so at the cinema I bought some popcorn, and watched a movie, which is one of my favourite movies ever, that movie really rocked my world, it had everything. A lot of people will undoubtedly draw comparisons to The Matrix, but disregard that, this movie is completely separate, and if anything, the only comparison is the blue collared guy hating his life; and The Matrix didn't exactly pioneer that idea.

Not much else happened, I went back to the hostel and ate some dinner, did nothing for a couple of hours and went to bed.

20th:

Last day, oh what to do? At 11 o'clock I checked up, stored my rucksack in a locker; and went out to see the view from the skydeck, the Prudential Tower isn't the tallest building in Boston anymore, but has the highest observation deck, and having the tallest building in the view is amazing, it is like a giant mirror. The ticket to the top of the Prudential Tower was 10 dollars, whereas both Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center charge 20 dollars, a nice change. The tour also included a free audiotour (but unfortunately it was quite boring), but the view was fantastic, better than the Chicago view and more stunning than the New York view.

After the tower I went to the Boston Apple Store, the largest Apple store in the world, and it really is enormous, 3 times the size of the flagstore on 5th avenue, 3 big levels. Both the most of the rest of the day, not much was accomplished; the Lonely Planet didn't have many suggestions, other than those I didn't have time for, so I sat around at the hostel, read in my book, and did random stuff to pass the time.

Eventually it was time, and when I was about to leave an English girl was headed to the airport as well, so we went there together, I never learned her name, but she was from Brighton Beach. Check-in was easy, and even though I bought my tickets separately, they checked me in all the way. After not much of a wait, I boarded the plane and left the States.

13th:

Time to do something, but first I had to move hostel, the first hostel I stayed in was wonderful, but they didn't have any free beds for the 13th when I booked, so for this one night I had to go somewhere else. I got my rucksack stores at the hostel, and took a train some 30 minutes north. Once there I checked in, and went back out to see the city. I down south of Chicago to see the Museum of Science and Industry. There are no metro lines nearby (Chicago both has a Metro and a Metra system, just to keep it confusing), so I took a train to 51st street and walked about 2 miles (3 km) east, first through a neighbourhood with boarded windows, dead parks (dead vegetation) and split by a motorway. I got to a big park, walked through it, and stepped out in a completely different world.

On the other side was the University of Chicago, along with a big campus made out of old classical buildings for the rest of the walk, where I sat down and had a sandwich in a Greek restaurant, and then went on to the museum. The museum is quite nice, but has a few incredibly outdated exhibits (such as the one on Internet, and those involving technology), but the exhibit featuring the actual U-505, a Nazi submarine captured in 1944, was amazing. There is a tour inside the submarine, but when I arrived, the last tickets had already been sold out, to my immense grief. I had though instead paid 5 dollars to try a navy flight simulator, the box you sat inside, moved according to how you flew, so I completely disregarded the mission I was supposed to carry out, and just did barrelrolls, loops and messed about, but hanging upside down, being tossed from side to side etc. is incredible fun.

After the museum, the metro station was of course far away, so instead of going back to the one I came from, I decided to go to one further away, so that I could see parts of Chicago I hadn't seen before, instead of going through what I had already seen. Unfortunately for me it started to rain; so I sat down in a busstop and waited it out. Eventually it stopped and I proceeded to the metro station, where a peculiar sight met me. A huge white guy, trained to the point where his arms might just burst from the size of his muscles, sat down on a chair and pulled out his pink iPod mini...

Back at the hostel, I bought some food to make for dinner, and stayed there the rest of the evening, mostly talking to an Irish guy.

14th:
It was a clear blue day, so I hoped the view from the Sears tower would be superb. So I bought a discount ticket from the hostel reception (4 USD off) and went there, with my prepaid ticket, I got to zoom past all the queue's, waiting lines for the information movie and skip the queue to the elevator, and since it was a Saturday, the place was packed with people, so I probably saved over an hour. Once I got up, I was met by a crowd of Amish like people, everyone dressed in those 16th-17th century American farmer clothes, looking down on us (because the rest of them weren't as pure as them in their faith, or in my case, had no faith at all); only one thing bothers me. If they are so pure and righteous because they live by the old ways as they believe good intended, what are they doing in an architectural marvel, that not only used to be the worlds highest building, but still is the western hemisphere's highest building and the worlds tallest man-made structure (due to the antenna's), looking over a beautiful city from the 103rd floor... Doesn't that go against their beliefs?

The view was gorgeous none the less, unlike Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, the viewpoint is encased in glass, there is no open air view, as the winds are ferocious certain times of the year at street level in Chicago (known as The Windy City), so imagine at 1500 feet up (some 450 meters). As I had hoped it was also a very clear day, so supposedly we could see up to 50 miles away (80 km), that is what they told us at least. Down on the ground floor again, I walked along the waterway of the Loop (the centre of Chicago), until I came to Michigan avenue, one of the worlds biggest retail streets known as the "Magnificent Mile", where I fell to the pleasure of entertainment and watched Kung Fu Panda, a funny and amusing movie, although I do think Jack Black was rather miss-cast.

After the movie I walked to the Navy Pier, and what a disgusting place that is; I'm sure it used to be charming, but it is just a long line of junk food and screaming kids, I didn't walk far before I turned around and walked back to the hostel along the shore. Once I got back to the hostel it was already fairly late, so I decided to check my emails and then cook dinner, but while I was checking my emails I fell in conversation with the person next to me, an American named Bob. And before I knew it, it was 2 in the morning, I hadn't eaten yet and I was just too tired to anything but go to bed. But I had great fun talking to Bob, and I believe it was both ways.

15th:

Cultural time, after waking up just in time to catch breakfast (as per usual), I headed towards the Chicago Institute of Art, supposedly one of the finest of its kinds. Entrance was modestly priced for the states (12 here, as opposed to 20 or more most places), and the museum good. There was a truly amazing photographic exhibition alongside other things, and the permanent collection. Unfortunately much of the museum was closed off due to renovations, including the American art from 1900 to 1950, which I had really been looking forward to see. For some reason I was very exhausted, I had had plenty of sleep (7 hours) and a hearty breakfast, so I really didn't understand. However I soldiered on, and very much enjoyed the section with sculptures and different objects from the ancient Greece, Italy and Egypt.

The amount of museum closed was enormous, it wasn't half, but somewhere around 30%, including the parts that I wanted to see most, but such is life.
When I left the museum, I was feeling rather peckish (bananas, cornflakes and toasted bread won't last forever), so I went to a place called the bakery corner, bought a scramble-egg, bacon, ham and cheese sandwich (sounds like it was designed for me), which I brought back to the hostel and happily devoured while I watched The Golden Compass. At the beginning of my trip, I had listened through the 3 books in the series on my iPod. The biggest problem with audiobooks is that you have to pay full attention, you can't have it running in the background; lucky for me, there were plenty of busrides for me, so I have a clear memory of the books. Now the movie takes a great book, cuts away 60-70% of it, changes the order in which occurrences take place, dumbs down the story, flattens the characters and cuts of the last couple of chapters, giving it an indecisive end. That it still manages to be a good and entertaining movie, just tells something about the quality of the book...

While I had been waiting for my sandwich to be made, a woman with her boyfriend and I assume brother, had left the place. She had been rolling a baby stroller, but what I discovered was that there was no baby in it, she was rolling around her dog, and I almost cringed in pain, at seeing just how pathetic people get. That dog is more suited for walking, than she will ever be; in fact dogs that never walk fall ill far more easily than humans who never move. People generally have to wear shoes to walk around outdoors, whereas dogs are extremely comfortable with their paws, it just shows a sign that dogs are far more suited for the outdoor world; it's like those women who carry around their dogs in their handbags, why?

I cooked dinner and met some really cool Irish guys (all Irish guys seem to be), followed by yet another cinema visit, where I watched The Incredible Hulk, quite a good movie, with great acting, and I just can't help to think about how happy Liv Tyler must be that she doesn't look like her father. When the movie was done I went back to my hostel and went to sleep.

16th:

At 10.30 a lot of people assembled (10 or so) at the information desk, where an intern from the hostel, Amanda, picked us up and took us for a tour around Wicker Park, a really beautiful part of Chicago where High Fidelity was recorded, so after seeing all the beautiful buildings, learning about the history etc. we saw some of the places from High Fidelity and went for lunch, where I had salmon Benedict, what an amazing idea for lunch!

When I got back from Wicker Park (when the other went back, I stayed around with 2 Irish guys), I took a short break and then went to the Shedd Aquarium, since the previous day, that museum along with two others had been free, and I felt very fortunate that I didn't have to pay for that gargantuan disappointment. However afterwards I went to the Addler Planetarium, which was a museum about the moonlanding, very good and interesting (and another free place). But most importantly, it offered the greatest view over Chicago's skyline. When I was done with all this, it was quite late, so I went back to the hostel for an early night, I had to get up early next morning for my flight to Boston.

17th:

ALERT! ALERT!
I woke up 45 minutes late, rushed out of the hotel and had to buy a kitkat chunky so that I would have change for the metro. I made it to the airport, and barely made the check-in in time, but made it. I went through the normal procedure of entering an airport (including removing your shoes) and boarded the plane, off to the Irish capital (Boston).

After much trouble, going the wrong places and annoying people who might know where I should go (JFK is a navigational nightmare), I found the right arrival location, and after 5 small minutes the passengers started arriving. It took quite a while, but eventually Anne Sophie (my sister) walked out and a happy scene broke out. That put behind us, we sat down and each ate half of our Cuban sandwich and set off back to the hostel.

The ride is quite far, JFK is in the outer region of Queens and Harlem is quite far norh on Manhattan, it took nearly two hours to get back, where we checked in (I hadn't checked in earlier, as I didn't have enough money on me), dumped our stuff and caught the first train back into town. The first time you see Times Square is always the best, even though you have seen it plenty of times in movies and pictures, it is remarkable, even when having grown up in a western country with all the goods of capitalism, it is stunning... Piccadilly Circus can't prepare you for it.

Before going back to sleep, we visited some of the biggest stores there. The M&M worldstore where 22 different colours can be bought alongside any imaginable souvenir. The Virgin mega-megastore and numerous other places. Dinner was easily sorted; I ate a pizza slice, and my sister (henceforth known as AS) wasn't hungry. Not only is a Cuban sandwich very heavy, her flight was the first direct flight from Malaga to New York, so it was a celebratory flight with lots and lots of food (and champagne).

6th of June:

AS insisted on an early morning, "I don't want to waste time" she says... And then she walks at a pace that reminds me of a 112 year old crippled person hooked up to a life support system trying to run a marathon... THAT slow. But we took a metro back to Times Square, and I did something I hadn't succumbed to so far on my trip, something so low it had never even entered my mind... We bought tickets to a doubledecker city tour, ought a combo package, and took a downtown tour, with a hilarious guide, who was very articulate on took us on an amazing tour through the districts. Everything from Nolita and Little Italy (where Bobby Milk or by his better known name Robert De Niro grew up) to The Fashion District (where AS was bouncing in her seat) and the UN building. Along the way we also saw a scene from a movie being shot, where Sandra Bullock was out acting (or the closest she can come) alongside some other actor, known to Americans, but not outside.

After the tour we (AS) went shopping and I trudged along, into shops with all kinds of clothing (and some without), until I saw a cinema, where the two of us dropped in to see Zohan, a thoroughly enjoyable movie, although really overgeared and unrealistic, although that is the point.

We then took the Train to the South Ferry hoping to see the Statue of Liberty, but the last one sails at 16, and that time had long since passed, so we started walking back up north towards Manhattan and stopped at a bakery, where I had a genuine cinnamon roll (kanel snegl), which was very high quality, and wouldn't be a bad find in Denmark. We then continued on and I got to show Wall Street and ground zero to AS.

It had by this time gotten really late, and we decided to go a place recommended to me on Cuba, a place called "Frank's" on second avenue between 5th and 6th street, however the queue was horribly long (friday night). So instead we walked to the place I had eaten dinner the night I went to the Bell X1 concert, where I had a fabulous pizza cabonara (tomato sauce, cheese, bacon and egg) and AS enjoyed a simple salad (she wasn't hungry apparently).

On the way there we came past a video game store, selling just about everything from the first video game console ever, to the latest stuff. A giant collection of NES, SNES, PSX, PS2 and Dreamcast games (of old consoles), Commodores, different gameboys with games, Atari's etc.
It was a wonderful place, I would really wish there was something like that in Denmark.

7th of June:

First thing we wanted to do was go see MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), so we first dropped by fifth avenue (it's very close) and looked in some of the different stores, including a giant really cool looking Apple store, with as many people working there, as there were customers. It was followed by a visit to an Abercrombie & Fitch store, where at the front entrance there was a topless (male) model you could have pictures taken with, and every where inside the shop were other fully clothed models that kept saying "welcome".

AS went to see MoMA (I saw the reception) while I walked around the surrounding area looking at upscale New York, as well as same not so nice parts, had a quick stroll into Central Park, and then in no time the 2 hours were up (we had agreed to meet up again after 2 hours). AS is an art buff, but even she was a bit disappointed with MoMA, apparently she had hoped to see more Roy Lichtenstein.

Following up, we headed to the South Ferry again to try and go to the Statue of Liberty, only to discover that the combo bus-tour/boat ticket we had bought didn't cover this boat, but another one that we wouldn't be able to reach in time. So we decided to go and do the uptown tour to Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Harlem and generally anything north of 49th street. Getting off the subway walking the last part, we saw a police officer with a small bird on his shoulder, and I was about to ask if I could take a picture of it, when he himself suddenly discovered it and tried to get rid of it, using his hat to knock it off. All he succeded in was getting the bird into the hat, causing come confusion until finally it flew away.

We boarded the uptown bus tour, andit was just as good as the downtown tour; the guide was very kind and informative, and somehow had a passion for what he was doing. We saw the worlds largest cathedral, got sprayed from a firepost (someone had taken the cap off, and sprayed the bus), the building where John Lennon got shot and Yoko Ono lives today and the many hills of Manhattan.

Done with the tour, the same old question arose "now what?". So we grabbed a metro to Brooklyn Heights, grabbed a bit of lunch and an ice cream, saw the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, walked around in DUMBO, saw the tube to London, walked to the nearby parks and sat down watching some picture taking of a happy newly married couple. On the way back we saw the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge, which in this late day light was far more beautiful then when I had walked across it. Needless to say, I took a lot of pictures once again.

Back at our hostel, neither of us felt hungry for dinner, so both of us went to bed without.

8th of June:

This morning we went straight to South Ferry first thing, bought our tickets and joining the fast moving queue, and in not time we were sailing out towards the Statue of Liberty... It is quite small, far smaller than you imagined, although more or less everybody is disappointed with the size of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. It is beautiful none the less, and truly is a sight to behold, not just because of the skill in making it, but also what it stands for, and what is has stood for for so long, for all the immigrants coming to America. However we decided not to land on the island or Ellis Island, there isn't much to see and we didn't feel like it, so we just took a circuit and came back to Manhattan.

Ate breakfast/lunch and took the train up to Central park, trailing around there for quite a while before coming upon the Puerto Rico national day celebration, the second biggest parade in New York (surpassed by the Gay Pride parade). Never in my entire life have I seen so many people dressed up as "hood gangsters" or in tshirts proclaiming love towards Puerto Rico, and blocking up all of Fifth Avenue for an entire day (one of the biggest streets in New York) is by far overdoing it, nice for the Puerto Ricans, but a hassle for everyone else.

Having rounded round that, we took a train to the Museum of Natural History (the one from A Night At The Museum with Ben Stiller), and started out by watching a movie called "Cosmic Collisions" in IMAX format voiced by Robert Redford, it was informative but mostly just darn beautiful, showing huge collisions between Earth and a smaller planet (creating the moon), the Milky Way and the Androma galaxy crashing together and so on, and so forth.

Outside the cinema, AS and I walked around the museum till it closed at 17.45 (two hours later), and saw a life size model of a blue whale (needless to say it is FREAKING huge), endangered animals that have been stuffed and confiscated (such as a stuffed animal), a collection of giant worms, spiders and other huge disgusting animals and a lifesize model of a jellybox fish (worlds most poisonous being) amongst tons and tons of animals. I then huried up to the fourth floor to the dinosaur skeletons, their collection is enormous (I know the real ones aren't on display) and so were the dinosaurs, animals that big always intrigue me (likewise for the blue whale). Coming from a country where the most dangerous animal is a chicken (salmonella), seeing animals larger then a fox (or deer in protected areas) is very unusual, so jumping from cute fuzzy creatures to a giant carnivore like a T-rex or an even bigger Broncosaurus is mindnumbing. The museum also has a very good conservation department, outlining the effects of environmental destruction and what gone be done to help the planet, it houses a big exhibition on how the planet was created, from the beginning of the sun, to the formation of earth's rocks, the mountains, seas and current state of government; what interested me the most was the part of an extremely old ice core drilled up on Greenland.

When we left the Museum of Natural History we left for a slow trip to Piola the mastery pizzeria, where this time AS was up for a full pizza. I had the same Pizza Carbonara and AS had a pizza with rucola salad, mozzarella and tomatoes. Having eaten our most wondrous dinner (AS most of the time gaping at the TV behind me, an idea common in South America, the buzz draws you) we went for one of those "must" experiences in NY, a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. And although it is most common to do in daylight, we went up there in the dark, and had a gorgeous view. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning, without a tripod it is near impossible to capture, but what it meant was rain, and that we had to go inside until the bad weather had passed, and so we did. It was quite a while before we were let out again, but still the views were stunning, New York is always lit and it looks gorgeously so.

By the time we got out it was quite late (had to wait inside for 30 minutes, and sitting down wasn't allowed), but our plan had always been to go back to our hostel in Harlem and get a good nights sleep.
The pizzeria is Italian owned and most of the people who work there (waiters, chefs, all of them) are in fact Italian, so the European Championship in Football was a big deal, and they handed out scorecards so people  could keep track and everything. Being a pizzeria AS thought, that it was the European Championship in Pizza, and was keen to know how it worked. Looking around the room she saw football shirts for nearly all countries in the cup (Sweden missing) and must have assumed that they were for the chefs...
On the way back on the train, 3 people were sleeping (strangers to each other) leaning up against each other, two of them woke up, and the woman in the middle found a strangers head on her shoulder, and tried for quite some time to wake him up, as she was uncomfortable with it. In the end another man present grabbed his arm, and shook him awake.

9th of June:

At first we went to the Rockefeller Center and went to "The Top Of The Rock", as their observation deck is called, and the daylight view is stunning, but in a different way from the night view. But having the Empire State Building in the dayview, was very nice, and I was glad that we had done it in this way.

Afterwards we went to the New York Academy of Medicine, said to held a part of the first batch of penecilin made, George Washington's dentures and a pair of leper clappers (used by lepers to alarm a village of their arrival), but upon arriving we were told that why the place did indeed posses those, they are not on display, and can only be seen by appointment, if doing relevant research.

So we went down to Fifth Avenue and the SE (South East) corner of Central Park, where while AS did some Abercrombie & Fitch shopping (don't know if she entered other shops), I sat in Apple's flagship store and watched Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone 3G live. I also entered a huge toystore next to it, where they had a wealth of collectors items and other cool items related to Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings and other similarly themed movies (fantasy movies generally).

When AS came back we went to 14th street, where the great regal cinema is, we each bought a ticket, I a ticket to Iron Man at 7:10 and AS a ticket for What Happens in Vegas at 7:40. All of this was more than 2 hours away, so we sat down for some lunch, and afterwards I read in my book and wrote postcards while AS went shopping in Forever 21 (at the table next to me was a man who farted VERY loudly quite frequently, for a long long time). About 30 minutes before my movie was set to begin AS returned, we walked to a pharmacy for some movie sweets (outrageous price inside the cinema) and on the way back (she would go do some more shopping) I came past a teddy bear 'Domo Kun", which I bought without a moments hesitation. I met another person doing the same, who was seeing the same movie as me at the same time, so we talked all the way to the cinema, and during the commercials. The movie itself is a masterpiece of a superhero movie, it is wonderful, I really like all these movies I am watching.

When I went outside I only roamed for about 5 minutes before AS's movie was done and she came out, she had also really enjoyed her movie. None of us were hungry, so we want back to the hostel without dinner and slept.

10th of June:

AS was determined to do some shopping, we took a train to Macy's department store, but believe it or not, they didn't have what she wanted, so we walked to Times Square where AS did some shopping and I bought a pair of Levi's jeans (505). We also went into the giant Virgin store there and browsed a bit about. We ended up walking a very long way to a Ralph Lauren store, where AS wanted to buy a polo shirt for our mother.

We then wanted to go to the Bodies exhibition, took a train there, ate lunch and decided not to see the Exhibition, it might have been a lot, but fairly priced is not one of them. So instead we walked to Brooklyn, ate a wonderful ice cream, looked into the London tube and found a park, where we spent 2 hours doing nothing much, just lying down on the grass relaxing. About 10 meters from us, was a guy doing some sort of crazy Yoga (or something), moving into what I thought would be impossible postures.

For dinner we took the metro to Second Avenue and walked up to between 5th and 6th street, where we found Frank's, a place that had been recommended to me in Cuba by an American, and I dare say, that was one astonishingly good ravioli, there wasn't a lot of it (rather the opposite), but it tasted oh so yummy.
It was rather late when we were done, and none of us had packed, this was the last full day in NYC, so we headed home.

11th of June:

What happens when you are for once, not in a hurry to get out the door and seize the day? We stayed for quite some time at the hostel, but eventually checked out and left our bags there, and then headed for the glorious Central Park. We walked around for a very long time (even with a map, getting lost is a given), but eventually came upon our goal in the park, Strawberry Fields Memorial to John Lennon. It is a part of the park, but at the very memorial itself is a mosaic in the ground, a round circle with the word "IMAGINE" in the middle. Like the previous day in the park, we stayed for a while, relaxing on the grass, and watching Japanese people photograph every square-inch of the area.

One thing I had regretted not doing, was trying a Grimaldi's pizza, supposedly the best pizza in New York, both by word of mouth, and by the number of awards they have won. We took a train, and this time, there was no queue (last time we had tired, it had been horribly long) and we got seated straight away. The pizza was excellent, although not the best pizza I have ever had (oh sweet Puerto Natales), the place was fantastic though, "I'm gonna make you a pizza you can't refuse" poster, the Italian red/white tablecloths, the coal fired pizza oven, everything was just so authentic.

Afterwards we took a train to Union Square, where AS bought me a pair of Converse as a thank you for paying for her ticket to NY, and then we went back to the hostel, relaxed for half an hour or so, grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. First AS checked in in terminal 1, and then followed me to terminal 6, an entire terminal exclusive to JetBlue, quite stylish. But whereas AS's check-in had been extremely fast, mine took ages. It came through though of course, and we said goodbye to each other, although we would see each other again in 10 days.

I arrived at Madison Square Garden, got off the bus, grabbed my bag and got lost. On my trip I have been many places, Buenos Aires has 13 million people and is insane; but nothing is as confusing as New York, their subway was set up to harass first time tourists, I wrestled my way around it and found the right place, bought a ticket (2 USD whether you go 1 stop or spend 12 hours just going around) and set off for 96th street. My hostel wasn't hard to locate, I had just forgotten how damn heavy my rucksack was to walk lengths with.

After I had checked in I got sent to my room... On the sixth floor...
I toughened up and dragged myself all the way, got familiar with the place, my room had a private terrace with a view, but on the other side was a much bigger one, the common room was outdoors, with a fair view.

I took the metro (subway, but henceforth referred to as the metro) back into town, 34th street, found some food and found myself on Times Square, the image that is the very essence of Times Square. In reality it is tourists stumbling over each other, and people yelling out their services, musicals, city tours, comedy shows etc.
Especially the comedy show I would like to mention, they kept asking me if I liked to laugh, so I finally stopped and talked with one of the guys. I only asked one question "where is the stand-up comedian from?" and got "The United States" back. It is (for me) a commonly known fact that American stand-up comedians (except for Robin Williams) are utterly useless, and nowhere near funny.

So in the evening when people were coming back from town, and a few had been to the show, and this is their general feedback: "We had to pay 20 USD to get in, and once inside we were told that we had to buy at least two drinks, adding another minimum 20 USD on top. And then the comedian was rubbish, he didn't even make us giggle".

For dinner I ate at one of NY's many famous pizza restaurants, where everyone from Nicolas Cage to Bill Cosby had been, which was fairly good (have had better) and went back to sleep.

4th of June:

On the 4th of June 2008, Bell X1 would play the last concert in their worldtour following their latest album release, and having known this since late April, I had long since purchased my ticket, I went to pick it up from Will Call, but after going a long way out of my way, and waiting around for them to open at 12, I was told that I couldn't buy it before the doors opened at 20. So I went back and took the train to Brooklyn Heights, and walked around for hours, absolutely worshipping the place, Brooklyn Heights is by my standards one of the most livable places in the world, it is quiet, gorgeous but still near somewhere where everything (EVERYTHING) can be gotten. And to the west end of it is the Brooklyn Heights Promenade offering a breathtaking view over Manhattan and in the distance, the statue of Liberty.

I walked to a place nearby called DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) a small sliver of land between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. There I found the best ice cream since Jauja in Argentina (El Bolson and Bariloche), and a huge tube... The tube functioned as a webcam to Tower Bridge in London. You looked down the tube, and looked out in London. And the same effect went the other way, so that you could see the people on the other side, with just a few seconds delay. And being nothing but a giant baby, I immediately started dancing in the worst Travolta disco moves (as well as some suggestive moves), and it was immediately returned from London, with dance moves just as horrible, and before long about 5 people on each side were dancing horribly with a delay of 4-5 seconds... It had been a long time since I had last laughed that hard (in fact, it wasn't longer ago than when I left Jimmy).

After quite a while, I walked on and explored more of Brooklyn and found some wonderful parks, before I decided to walk back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in the process. The bridge is meant to be walked and bicycled across as well as driven across, and the views over the East River are fantastic just like the view over the Manhattan skyline, Brooklyn and the wonderful bridge itself, it is one of those rare moments where you almost take more pictures then you thought possible, there is always something new, new colours, new angles, everything.

I landed on Manhattan and walked to Ground Zero, much unlike what I had imagined. The entire thing is boarded up, except for a small fence you can see through (from a distance), and although I knew they were planning a new tower to build there, I had no idea that they had already begun, it is still a whole in the ground (they have 7 towers to build, and only the first (and lowest) is complete, and it won't be till 2012). There is an overpass to the other side of the road, with a glass window, but that has an even bigger safety distance.

I continued to Wall Street, saw the Stock Exchange (which is now closed to tourists due to security concerns) and the general area, where up to $44.000.000.000 changes hands every day. It was by this time getting late, so I headed back to my hostel to recharge, and then went out to attend my Bell X1 show.

I took the train, had some good dinner, and then went to stand in line, picked up my tickets and entered the floor. It took quite a long time to fill up the room, so I signed an environmental petition, bought a Bell X1 tshirt, and talked for a long time with an Oxfam volunteer named Bob. Eventually the first warm-up band went on (two in total), 3 women. The first played piano, the second played cello and the third kept going between an electrical guitar, acoustic guitar, tambourine and one of those shaky things you rub a stick against. After that came a long break followed by the second warm-up band, a woman with a wonderful voice accompanied by her guitar and a man on a piano. Eventually Bell X1 came on, and played quite a lot of songs, all of them amazing, this band is fantastic, and the lead singer is like a child up on the stage. Running and jumping all around, pouring all his emotions into what he is doing (like singing), and he would also sometimes grab an extra set of drumsticks from the drummer, and start playing on a set of drums. In the end they all got very emotional, and started thanking everyone who had been touring with them (their last concert) and announced that they were going out to get wasted (they're Irish).

I met a guy called Peter Jensen (Danish parents, but he was born and raised on Long Island) and his son Tony (I think). We started talking due to the girl in front of me. If I at any given time looked behind me, I would see 20 people trying not to laugh, and I had looked at myself in a mirror, I would see myself trying not to laugh. During the two warm-up groups, nobody was dancing, just standing still. And during Bell X1 some people were moving a bit, but nothing special. This girl was all over the floor, while the rest of us were fairly cramped, she had two or three square metres of space, as none wanted to go near her. She was jumped, running and moving all over her space, shouting, whooing, flailing her arms lake a madman, when she wasn't clapping out of tact with the music (to say that she was moving with the music, would be an outright lie). At one point she kept jumping into me, and smashing her hair in my face when she decided to do horizontal headbanging (no, really). So I asked her to behave, and try not to ram into other people, she of course was gravely offended (as anyone with an IQ between a doorknob and a morning slipper usually is) and said that it was perfectly alright to dance. I told her that as long as she wasn't a nuisance to other people it was alright. Somehow that managed her to shut up, and exchange places with one of her friends, and then she continued flailing.

There isn't much else to say, the concert ended after midnight, so I simply went to the metro to catch my ride back to the hostel for some peaceful sleep.

5th of June:

I had met some really nice people in my hostel, especially Tony from Australia. He was a very nice fellow who had been staying in the States for 3,5 months and was now headed back on this day. I packed up my rucksack as well, but unlike him I didn't go to the airport, I went to Harlem. Harlem is today a very nice place, the former mayor of New York (Guilliani or something) started a massive project to clean up Harlem some 10 years ago and it has really paid off. I stayed on 146th street and Bradhurst, a very nice place with a Swedish speaking receptionist.

After having checked in I went out for a huge walking tour of Harlem. Harlem isn't pretty, but it is full of history, from Malcolm X to Martin Luther King, everything in between and a lot of things away to either side, such as the famous Apollo Theatre. Harlem is also a very believing area, with many churches, and my first ever encounter with one of those Christian sects that live by old ways, the men and women dressed as American settlers were several hundred years ago.

When I came back to my hostel I bought two Cuban sandwiches (without pickles before you ask) and boarded a train with the intention of going to JFK airport.

I had arrived a day early (I don't know why I didn't set my booking to start a day earlier), so I had to change room and checkout time was 11, and check-in time, 14. So I checked out at 10.30 and sat around waiting until 14, when I checked in. I could have left my bag and walked around DC, but $4 for a few hours of storage, was more than I was willing to sacrifice, and I had to upload my Cuba pictures anyway, although the internet connection is so slow, that I never even finished Habana.

When I had finally checked out, I was so hungry my stomach felt like it was turning inside out. I found a sandwich cafe called Cosi, and had the most delicious sandwiches, it might be much more expensive than South America, but for this kind of increase in quality, I can live with it. I spent the next many hours, just walking around in Washington DC, in the general area of my hostel, stopping west just before I could see the White House (saving that one) and east at the end of Chinatown.

Around 17:45 I left my hostel and took the metro to White Flint, where after waiting for 30 minutes (I was 30 minutes early), a girl named Jackie picked me up. Jackie is a friend of Rachel, a girl I met in Futaleufu in Chile and later in Bariloche, who invited me to come to her fathers birthday. They drove me to the party, a surprise party, which excited me as I had never attended one before. It was outdoors on the sixth floor (top floor), with a good view and a great many people. After about 30 minutes of waiting, talking with Jackie, Rachel's mother and grandmother, David (Rachel's father who turned 50) arrived, together with Rachel and Eyal (her boyfriend who was also there in Chile and Argentina), it was very nice to meet them again, the food was good, and a very talented musician named Rav Shmuel (David and his family is Jewish, nearly everyone present was Jewish and Rav Shmuel is in fact, besides a rock musician, also a rabbi).

As the birthday party ended, everyone was given a surprise bag, with an anti stress toy, a small towel and a Rav Shmuel CD (shortly before I had asked for his name, so that I could try to buy his CD); I was then given a ride back to the metro station (in a hybrid car, no less), and took the train back to my hostel. It was fairly late, so I went straight to bed, and quickly fell asleep.

30th of May:

Major sightseeing day, I skipped out on breakfast (2 dollars for some bread rolls?) and went out walking, first crossing into the NE neighbourhood to see a bit of that part of the city (not nice), and then walked down south to the Capital building, walking along Pennsylvania avenue (where I ate some lunch) to see the White House which is closed for for non US citizens (and they have to apply to their senator or congressman 3 months in advance, in groups of 10 or more), Washington Monument (which had run out of tickets, so I couldn't go up close, but I think it is meant to be seen from afar, and it is beautiful), the WWII memorial (where apparently WWII didn't begin till USA joined in 1941), the Reflecting pool, the Lincoln Memorial, Korea Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and all that stuff in that general area.

Everything in that neighbourhood of Washington D.C. (known as The Mall), feels very sterile, is very very grand (architecture) and more imposing than inviting, but I imagine that's what you want in a city, designed to be the capital. Of all my sights on this day, the Lincoln Memorial was by far my favourite, it also included a free tour, which was very informative and good (the guide even pointed out a misspelling in the second presidential inauguration speech, which had been filled out later), but the place in itself, is more beautiful. Outside the memorial on one of the marble slabs, it says "I Have A Dream" followed by "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." and a date "August 28th, 1963", the slab is located on the site where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the famous speech. Two great men, remembered in one place.

Back at the hostel, I had signed up for jazz tour, where we were about 10 or 11 people that left with a volunteer, who took us to a free jazz concert in a nearby park. The park was absolutely stuffed and the band had a habit of playing for 5 minutes and then taking a 20 minute break, so after about an hour or so, we all left and most of us went to Chinatown for dinner.
Afterwards I followed up on one of my great desires, I went to see Indiana Jones IV. I won't reveal anything, just tell you not to get your expectations up too high.

After I had left the capital much earlier in the day, I saw a woman crash on a Segway, I thought that was supposed to be impossible? I also later learned (from my trusty Lonely Planet) that the Chinese restaurant I had eaten at, was the place where the murder on Lincoln had been planned (although, I doubt it was a Chinese restaurant back then).

31st of May:

I had been told that Adams Morgan was a by far more beautiful part of DC, so I spent the day walking there, walking around and walking back. The first time it started raining heavily, I dived into a pizza restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet for their jumbo slices, which took up 2 plates, and did a lot of sticking over the edge, it was easily the size of a normal pizza, but I liked that it was just a big slice. Second time I was on my way to Massachusetts avenue, where Embassy Row is; the street where most embassies are. I never found a Scandinavian embassy, but it was interesting anyway, aside from the fact that I was completely drenched. Had I found a Scandinavian embassy I wouldn't have gone near it, just looked from afar. I am not going to go home early, as technically the land on which an embassy is located, belongs to that country.

Instead of spending the last part of the day trudging around, I went back to the hostel, and tried to dry my things, and just had a relaxing evening, with some not very kebab like kebab food for dinner, from the deli across the street.

1st of June:

I thought I would walk around to a lot of museums, and see a lot. Instead I walked into the Newseum as my first museum, and stuck around all day long, till closing time, which is the closing time for all museums in DC (17 o'clock). It is a museum about "news", freedom of expression, ad he costs they come at, displayed by a memorial wall to American journalists who had died doing their job, artifacts from famous journalists who died in the field (or gotten injured). It also had a huge wall with all the Pulitzer winning pictures in chronological order, and the history behind them, often very tragic. There was a very cool 3D movie, which recreated famous histories of journalism such as Nellie Bly (although no Watergate). A section dedicated to 9/11 with frontpages from many newspapers from around the globe, videos about people who survived and died, and part of the radiotower from the north WTC tower.

On the jollier side, there was a big interactive part of the museum, with big touchscreens that quizzed you on your knowledge about journalism and freedom rights, there was an introduction to the TV world in a real TV studio, where later in the day I was in the audience watching an interview with a local celebrity, Arch Campbell a movie reviewer. There was a big exhibit with radio and TV broadcasts of the most famous even the 20th century, and a section on the future of journalism, focused heavily on the use of Inter, blogging and Youtube. There was an historic exhibit with a big part of the Berlin wall, a Soviet watchtower (from near the wall) and the sign saying "You are leaving the American sector" in 4 different languages from checkpoint Charlie.

When I left around 17 o'clock I still hadn't eaten anything and was really hungry. I walked by a place called Potbelly, it was a sandwicheria and the sandwiches were absolutely world class, I had two on account of hungry I was, and was somewhere near the best sandwiches I have ever had.

The rest of the day was without much excitement, just hung around the hostel, not doing much.

2nd of June:

I started out by going to the National Zoo, where I saw Panda's for the first time ever, and then a lot of other animals, including the ever cool Komodo Dragon. The zoo is very good, with a very large range of animals, and a lot of conservation programs. It has something called a "ThinkTank" where you read a lot of different signs, see illustrations etc. meant to question the definition of animals, whether or not they are intelligent etc. it was well done, except for one place where it was supposed to say "Take The Red Bag" in about 50 different languages, although all the Scandinavian languages had misspellings.

When I left I went to the Library of Congress and got a tour, it is big, marble, marble, marble with a beautiful main reading hall. There isn't much to tell about either place (Zoo or Library of Congress), one place has a lot of animals, and the other has a lot of books. I had never seen Panda's before, but I had indeed seen a Gutenberg bible before.

Later in the day I did nothing but eat more sandwiches at Potbelly and finish my book "White Oleander" by Janet Fitch (I think). It is a very graphic, but very serious book; it is very good, but not for the faint of heart.

3rd of June:

I had set my watch to wake me up at 8 in the morning, but I woke up by myself at 6.30, and just took everything in my slow pace, until I finally set out, and walked to the corner of 8th street and H street, from where my bus to New York, New York (so good they named it twice) would be leaving. I had good time and I knew I wouldn't be in NY before 13 or 14 o'clock, and I was hungry, but not much was open. So for my healthy and nutritious breakfast I ate a flatbread ham and cheese and six doughnuts (only open place was Dunkin' Donuts).

The bus came, I boarded and we set sail (almost) towards New York. On the bus I started reading the next book, one I had purchased (since I am now in an English speaking country, there aren't really any book exchanges at the hostels (there is one, but it only has horrible books, with fainting women on the covers), so I had bought "A Walk In The Woods" by one of my favourite authors, Bill Bryson.

I arrived at the international airport of Habana around 1:30 in the morning, and was asked to pay 50 CUC instead of 40, as the airport is 25 km outside the city, I didn't like this new concept, and refused to pay anymore than 45 CUC. Inside the airport the security is incredibly tight, and I felt good about going to sleep lying own on a bench, with my bag underneath. It took some time to fall asleep, and my sleep wasn't comfortable. But my flight wasn't till 11:20, so any way of passing time was a bonus, and I was nodding off anyway.

When I woke up again, it was 7:30, and I felt like watching a movie. So out my music/video player bought in La Paz was pulled, and the Bucket List watched. It is a wonderful movie, that I like most of the movies I watch would recommend, but this movie especially is worth watching, I consider it a small life confirming masterpiece with a good if unrealistic ending. I check in, and with absolutely no money left and an airport tax of 25 CUC to pay, I exchanged my 50 USD into CUC, which came out at 40 instead of the 46.3, that it should officially, but the USD dollar suffers from an extra fine in comparison with other currencies.

Whenever I go through the metal detector, I always make a small celebratory dance when I don't beep, it always makes the security personnel smile, even laugh, and that makes me feel a lot better. This time they called me "Jackie Chan", so I pulled off some extra wannabe kung fu moves, to more amusement.

I bought a sandwich and sat down to write in my diary, but fell in conversation with some Aussie's not from Melbourne (I don't believe it), but instead from Adelaide. But it didn't take long before I had to board the flight, and had the 3 seats on my side to myself.

I arrived in Montego Bay airport (not Kingston, other end of the country) in Jamaica, it is a very nice and shiny airport, but the waiting was substantial (5 hours) so I bought a book called White Oleander, the selection was very small, it looked like the best and the main characters have Swedish names... Wasn't a hard choice.

On the flight to Baltimore (BWI) I sat next to a friendly lady named Jacqueline, that I spoke with on most of the trip. Having something to do while waiting is always nice, and when nice conversation comes along... Even better.

I arrived in the US, and immigration went perfect, my luggage took quite a while, and then things just went to hell ("I would rather reign in hell, than serve in heaven" from White Oleander, although I'm pretty sure it is from somewhere else). As I had been to Cuba (wasn't gonna start lying), they decided to toss my entire bag, and initially wanted to keep everything I had purchased in Cuba, my wooden toycar of a 1957 Chevy, my Fidel Castro hat and my wooden (empty) Cohiba box. But a supervisor came along, and told them that as I am not a US citizen, I can freely go to and from Cuba, and I can bring Cuban items with me, as long as they won't be used in Cuba, and as all those items are coming with me to Denmark, there is no problem.

As I had been detained for quite some time while they searched my bag, I had missed the last bus to the metro station. A taxi driver told me that it runs till 2 in the night, and so he took me there for a staggering 40 dollars (28 miles or 45 km). Once I made it there, he drove off, and I discovered that the last train leaves at 23:30 on weekdays, the 2 in the night train is during the weekend. So I took a second taxi all the way to my hostel for 30 USD, where I checked in and was hit with an extra fine for checking during the night (WHAT?). Annoyed and exhausted I went to sleep, cursing the pathetic customs procedure.