Universities

Columbia - main square

We visited a few universities whilst in New York, there is Columbia, which I never realised was actually in New York. And we also went to Princeton, not technically in New York, but New Jersey. So ticked off another state, that must be seven by now. Columbia is an amazing university, it's a completely different style to the universities I am used to. The ones in Australia are characterised by massive amounts of space, and the ones in the UK have their age. Whereas Columbia was tightly packed, with these winding passageways between different buildings, crossing roads and surrounded by an impassable fence. You were kind of trapped on the campus, since all the gates were shut, perhaps it wasn't term time or something.

Now that's a library - Columbia University

Of course it's the Philosophy department

The buildings were amazing, par for the course I guess in New York. It definitely felt like a rich campus, but then at $65,000/year I guess that's to be expected. It's kind of weird, because the campus is almost in Harlem, but none of the people who live in Harlem go to this university. We only went to Columbia because we were taking a look at this massive church around the corner, the Cathedral of St John the Divine. Along the wall outside this church had a photography exhibition of poverty in America. So to see all that and then walk almost around the corner to Columbia was a bit of a juxtaposition.

We also went out to Princeton for a night, we weren't planning on spending the night, but then it was just so peaceful there, we thought why not. It was a really pleasant break from New York.

This is another insane campus, it's definitely levels above Columbia. What makes Princeton feel even more crazy, is the journey to get there. There is a train from Penn Station in New York, now that is a depressing train station. You come out of the pee-scented metro, into what really feels like a prison. The ceiling is really low, it's super dark, there's just hordes of homeless people wandering around. And the journey through New Jersey is another level of dystopian future. Imagine massive factories, industrial wasteland, polluted streams and lakes, massive parking lots full of cars, and you are probably still picturing something nicer than what New Jersey actually is. The next stop on from Princeton is Trenton, which is in the top ten of murder cities in America. So yeah, it's a nice train ride.

But then you get off at Princeton, and there is a little tiny train that takes you all the way into the campus. It's only 5 minutes, and the train will wait for everyone getting off the one from New York. Princeton university actually got the train station moved 200 metres so they could build a new arts centre, now that is power.

Don't even know what this department is - but that's an awesome door topper

Princeton is a lovely little town, totally a bubble, it's completely different from everything around it. It's got this little village square surrounded by cute little shops, it's got nice restaurants, it's really clean. And oh so quiet. A couple of illustrations as to how rich this place is, they have these alumni weeks, where the different years try to out-compete with how much money they donate. One year built a lake once, and not just a little lake, but a massive rowing lake. It's so they could be like Cambridge I think. They have an art gallery on campus, free entry, and it's full of Turner's and Monet's, Warhol. It's crazy, and there's hardly anyone in there, for such great art. And it's all been donated by various alumni. It really is a different place. I can't even imagine what it's like to go to undergraduate there.

The Peak District

Looking along the great ridge

We haven't been to the peak district in an awfully long time. It was one of the first national parks we visited when arriving in the UK, and it was probably time to return. Last time we tried for a walk around Edale, which ended early when I upended myself into a freezing stream. That wasn't going to happen this time.

I was keen to do some good walks here, it was too early for the Lake district, so I was hoping the Peaks delivered. This time we were firmly in the dark peak district, the region around Kinder Scout, we had done a bit in the white peaks, which is more rolling hills and farmland, so I was hoping it was going to be a bit wilder. It certainly didn't disappoint, I had my first slightly nervous moments in England during this weekend.

Weird sinkholes in the dark peaks

Looking across to Kinder Scout

I had forgotten how easy it is to get to the peaks from London, a 2 hour train trip on Friday, up to Manchester, then an hours drive to get to Edale, the heart of the peaks. We started the weekend with a nice easy ridge walk. This has to be a classic peak district walk, it's along the great ridge, over Mam Tor, with a view over Kinder Scout rising up on the other side of Edale. This is a really easy walk too, with easy exit points, and a great path the whole way. Definitely one of the first to do I think. You can always extend and make a loop if you want as well, there are so many paths and ways around that you could walk for as long as you like really.

A great view at any angle

Looking towards Back Tor

There was still a surprising amount of snow around. I was thinking since we were much further south, that most of it would have melted. But even walking we still had hail storms to contend with, luckily the stones weren't too big. This walk had a lot of people that looked completely unprepared, I'm talking jeans and no rain gear. There were even people in t-shirts, and it was freezing. They sure breed them tough up north.

I took an awful lot of photos, but the view was pretty stunning. Kinder Scout was covered in snow, and there kept being these breaks in the wind.

Kinder Scout - covered in snow

Last one of this view

The Buildings of New York

St Patrick's Cathedral

If there is one thing New York really has over every other city, it's awesome buildings. I always feel like I'm in a Batman movie when I'm there. The architecture is just so great, with this weird fascist undertone. We went up the Rockefeller centre, which is right in midtown, and has a great view over the Empire State building. That is definitely worth a trip, and it's so set up for tourists that it's a total breeze getting up there. Though you do have to sit through a cheesy photo shoot before they let you get into the elevator.

We also went across the Brooklyn bridge, this is another must-do on the tourist list. It is a great view back to the city, but they don't tell you that the speeding cars are only a metre or so away, and since everyone else has the same idea, it is completely packed. I wonder if you lived in New York, whether you would ever use this bridge to commute as a cyclist, it looks like an exercise in frustration. We didn't go all the way along, it is surprisingly long, but you can get to halfway pretty easily. The construction is pretty cool, with the big pillars and suspension wires.

View from Brooklyn bridge

Inside Grand Central

You also can't miss central station, this is another great building, it was actually surprisingly empty for the main train station. There is a lot of room to wander around and at night, it really does look good. We did a lot of wandering around New York in the evenings, I was getting a bit smashed at work whilst I was there, so we didn't have a lot of time during the week. But just wandering around for 40 minutes or so after work was a really nice way to destress.

I was surprised the Chrysler building wasn't open for visits, it has to be my favourite building, and has got to be super iconic. You could take a look in the lobby, which was different from what I expected, but that was it. There were no trips to the top or anything like that. I think I was expecting chrome and maybe a soaring atrium, instead it was super low ceilinged with this dark red marble everywhere. It made it feel a bit claustrophic inside, which is not the feeling I get from the outside.

The unexpected lobby of the Chrysler

The 70s stylings in the UN

We also got along to the UN, this was a bit of an adventure to get inside. First you have to go across the road to get visitor badges, they take a photocopy of your id before you get the badge. But the guards doing it are super nice, very friendly and joking, which I wasn't expecting. I was thinking this was going to be high security, very suspicious, and if you weren't the "right" nationality they would give you the third degree.  I suppose that isn't really the feeling the UN is going for, so they must really train these guards well, to do their job without slipping into the authoritarian role that happens to so many of them.

The UN wasn't sitting, so there were no flags flying, and it was actually really quiet. I'm not sure what it's like when all the delegates are hanging around. It must be pandemonium. It's a very 70's building, what with the decor inside, there wasn't a lot to see inside. There was some exhibition around what the UN is doing around sustainable farming and the like, but that was kind of it.

Unusual statue

There are a bunch of cool churches in New York as well, mainly full of homeless people, I guess it's somewhere free, out of the weather. The main St Patrick's Cathedral was quite impressive, but I actually preferred the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, weird name I know. It's close to Columbia University, and is massive. But it's got this different vibe to it as well. There was this super weird statue in the gardens next to it, and some unusual art exhibition going on inside at the same time. It felt like this church was trying hard to remain relevant to the community. It's not often that there are weird bird statues on the altar, it was almost pagan.

Pagan altar

Appalachian Trail

Wildflowers in the Smokys

We visited a new state when we were in the US, North Carolina. It was my first truly southern state (Arizona didn't feel as south as this one). Not sure I'll be back, there were still confederacy flags flying, not sure I can handle that. We were there for the Great Smoky mountains. Staying in Asheville, which was actually a much nicer town than I thought it would be. Apparently it is the beer capital of the US, though perhaps they were the only entrant. But there were something like 15 breweries actually in the city centre with maybe another 40 in the surrounding area. Which is a lot of breweries. It definitely had quite a hippy, youthful vibe. Not the decaying town that I imagined it would be. The reason we went to the Smokys is that they are apparently the most visited of all the US national parks. I was really surprised at that, but it gets the most visitors by far, more than the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone. So it was kind of like, well we have to go there.

The trees starting to blossom

We went incredibly early in the season, though it was still lovely and warm. It just meant that the trees weren't completely covered in leaves yet. We were there for 7 days, which was such a great time to be out in the wild for. And this was actually pretty remote, we saw other people on maybe 3 of those days. We shared the campsite for one night. It was pretty amazing. And given there were no pit toilets anywhere, I was pretty glad to not be sharing. Only downside was that we didn't see any bears. We did see 2 deer twice, I think they were the same deer hoping for us to give them scraps. The campsites every night were amazing, on the banks of rushing creeks. It was such a change from New York, and I think I slept so much better in the bush than I ever did in the 4 weeks in New York.

We got some views

I was also surprised at how unmaintained the trails were, I was used to trails being as close to footpaths as you could get whilst still being in the bush. The US national park trails were normally clear of obstacles and fairly smooth. Well the Smokys certainly blew that assumption out of the water. The first day we had to walk along a river, so crossing inlets, and jumping from slippery rock to slippery rock. Then when we weren't bouncing around like that, we were having to dodge massive fallen trees. Some of them were huge, with no way over or under. The first day probably had the worst trail conditions, what with the river navigation and the fallen trees. The first day is always the hardest anyway, since your packs are the heaviest and you are getting re-conditioned to the walking.

Navigating the river rocks

It was particularly bad for one of the group's participants, the trip we had chosen was the hardest you could do, averaging 13kms a day, with a bit of up and down. And this quite old guy had signed up to do it. He really struggled that first day, just couldn't keep his balance on the rocks, and really went down quite hard. Coming into camp we were averaging something like half a mile per hour, which was pretty slow. The guide had to pull the pin on him, another guide had to trek in 8 miles to pick him up early the next morning and walk out with him. I was really wondering what were going to do if he was insistent on staying. We would have had to take all his stuff as well really, since there was no way he could have done the walk and still carried what he was meant to. I've never seen that before on these walks, generally people know what they can do, he had an impressive level of confidence to think that he could do it. I wish I had that level of confidence, the ability to just go out there and think you can do something which you are so unprepared for. The guide had also probably not packed enough food, so it was a bit of a blessing that this dude had to abandon the walk. It would have been a bit of a hungry 7 days if he had kept coming.

Our path was on the other side of this

More flowers

We had another young lady with us too, who I don't think had ever really done these long walks before. I think she actually suffered a lot more than she let on, it seemed her achilles started to really hurt. I've been there, I've had ITB problems on walks, and it really sucks, these weird tendon pains. You don't really know if you are doing more damage, and each step is just painful. She was probably worried that the guide would ask her to leave if she let on too much. But then I also think that youth really helps in these situations, there's nothing like youth for not needing to train and still being able to keep up. She was quite impressive, never having really camped before, and her first introduction is a 7 day hiking trip, with no toilets. I'm not sure that I would have carried on camping if that was my first introduction to the outdoors. But she seemed to really love it, and had already planned her next trip to Utah (that is definitely going to be one of my next parks).

Visiting the park when we did was, I think, a really good time to go, the trees weren't yet covered in leaves, they were just starting to come through on the last half of the walk. It was kind of cool to be out there at that time, you could watch the leaves budding on the trees. The first day there was no hint of leaves, and yet on the last day, all the trees were starting to show some green, and even red. I think if you went in summer if would be quite a different experience, for a start you wouldn't actually be able to see anything. The forest is really thick, and the trees all having leaves would be quite claustrophobic, you really wouldn't get any views. It would also be unbelievably hot. It was already quite warm when we did it, and that was barely spring. Summer must be unbearable. I think autumn would be another good time to visit, the autumn leaves would be spectacular in this park, and it would be a bit cooler. I think either early spring or autumn are the peak times to visit this place. We had all these little wildflowers out, which added something as well. I don't think you would get them at a different time.

It felt pretty wild

I was also kind of hopeful for bears, since they should have been waking up around this time, and with cubs to feed too. But no such luck. They were a bit more blase about the bears here, I guess because they were only black bears, no grizzlies. We had someone from Montana hiking with us, they have grizzlies there, and he was always a bit more nervous around the campsites. The sites were quite different from Glacier, where you had the food storage, cooking and eating areas that were completely separate, and a long way from where you camped. Whereas here, whilst you still didn't have food in your tents, it wasn't like you were a long way from the cooking area when you slept. I think if you grew up with grizzlies that sort of behaviour would make you a bit nervous.

Dave chilling at a campsite

The Appalachian trail goes through this national park, we didn't end up walking any of the trail, partly because of the achilles problem. There were two choices on the last day, 3000ft up and down, or a flatish walk along the lake. And I don't think the achilles would have survived that sort of elevation change. I can't say I was too disappointed, it would have been a freaking tough last day. We ended up finishing around lunchtime, and totally demolishing the food available.

But even so there was still quite some food left. And we were sitting in the car park, with the food just out on a table, and we were obviously all walkers. I can't say I have ever been too keen to do any of these super long-distance walks. I like a bit of variety in my life. But after seeing the walkers we did, I am even less keen. They were like starving dogs. They would see the food from afar, and come over to ask some pointless question, just so they could get closer to the food. They weren't even looking at us, they were totally focused on the food. Then once we had answered and they were walking on, their eyes remained on the food. It was quite freaky to watch. Dinner time must be a very strange experience on the trail, everyone keeping track of everyone else's food.

A lovely bridge - still maintained in parts

The guide we had was pretty good, still pretty new to the guiding thing. But very upbeat, and super good at lighting fires. He used to be a firefighter, I'm not sure if that automatically means you will know how to light fires, but I was super impressed. There was only one night we didn't have a fire, the first one. The rest of the nights had a fire every time. Even the night where it rained for 2 hours once we had put up the tents, he managed to get a fire going then. He told us exactly which tree to gather from, and I was all like, well I'm only going to get a little bit, because there's no way anyone could get this burning, it was pretty sodden, and yet he did, we had this great fire.