Departure for the USA
Trip Start
Aug 19, 2011
1
2
8
Trip End
Oct 26, 2011
What I did
Arrived in NJ
Newark, New Jersey
Friday, August 19, 2011
I arrived at Newark airport seven hours later to be greeted by a very grumpy border cop. I crossed the red line too soon and interrupted his brownie eating session. As a result he sent me back behind that red line in passport control for a good few minutes. I got a bit of a grilling from him; why are you here? Why for so long? Can you prove your length of stay? He asked me to prove this with an itinery and luckily I had printed this from the website. Finally outside I hit a blissful thirty degree heat and took this picture while I was waiting for my bus to the Hilton. I won’t spend any time in New York before the trek starts but I plan to take a tour when the trek ends.
Once at the hotel I meet Rosie, my room mate. She’s not on the same trek as me so it’s a bit weird as I know I will only speak to her for one night. Later as the heat turns to a window crushing thunder storm I head to meet Aidan, one of my fellow trekkers, a few doors down to say hi.
Downstairs at 8 the bar is full of my fellow trekkers. I recognize a few of them from our facebook group already so the nerves seem to melt away as I head over and introduce myself. Noone recognized me which is the pitfalls of only putting ‘nice’ pics on facebook and turning up looking like a bag of chips. I could have made more effort with my appearance but I’d only headed down for one drink and I figured they better get use to seeing me without make up. Guiness in the bar is extortionate at $8 a small bottle and they expect a tip even though I collection it from the bar myself. This may take some getting used to!
