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With just over a week to go until I board the plane to New York JFK and start my trip, I thought I'd give a slight prologue to what I have planned for this travelling experience, and my thoughts and feelings as I get closer to my departure. Today I had a lovely bank holiday off (one of very few days off I've had this summer, due to wanting to earn as much money as possible to sustain me for the next three months), and decided to go for a walk to a particular favourite spot on the moors; even though it was raining I felt I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air. As I was standing and looking over Manaton (the tiny village in Devon that I call home), I felt so blessed and overwhelmed at the thought that most people would find this area so mesmerisingly beautiful, would travel miles to see it, and I'm about to do the same thing all over North America, I can feel this sense of content over and over again and at this moment in time, it's all in front of me; anything is possible....
This is only about the third or fourth time I've even felt properly excited about this trip over the past few months - the expenses and the planning have been so stressful that I haven't been able to immerse myself properly in just feeling good about what I'm going to do, so I felt really grateful that I could feel this way, even though a gale force wind was about to make me topple of the rock I was standing on, and I was getting increasingly soaked; with Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' playing in my ears, I felt so happy and full of anticipation!
On September 4th I'll be boarding my flight from London Heathrow, flying to New York, and spending roughly a week in the city. My parents (beautiful people that they are) bought me a ticket to see Stomp on Broadway for my birthday, and I am beyond excited! Next up, I thought I'd see a bit of the east coast. I've always wanted to see Niagara Falls and have heard that it's worth seeing this on the Canadian side, so a trip to Toronto might be on the cards. My friend Xiao also has friends in Montreal and, having been there once before, considerably younger, I thought it was beautiful and would love to go back again. Boston was another choice of mine, but I also recently found out that one of my favourite bands Bon Iver are playing in Providence RI, only about an hour away from Boston, and I don't think I could miss out on such an amazing opportunity!
All of this should roughly take me about a month, when I'll be starting on an STA travel tour through North America. For 23 days I'll be with other travellers, seeing big cities such as Philadelphia and New Orleans, but also camping in National Parks such as Yosemite and Monument Valley! We get food, travel and selected tours included, and this is something I couldn't have planned better - after booking the Greyhound Discovery Pass for two months (a bus company in the USA), I was sure I wouldn't get to see any of the more remote areas of natural beauty, as these buses usually only stop in big cities. And now I can look forward to watching the sun go down on the Grand Canyon, and I'll probably cry with happiness....
After finishing this tour in late October in San Francisco, I'll officially be on the west coast. The hub spots I want to see here are slightly more spaced out, so I thought I'd take a plane up to Portland and see Seattle as well up in the Pacific Northwest. My friend Xiao who I met travelling last year lives in Vancouver, and not seeing her for over a year has made me so anxious to see her part of the world, as she's already seen mine! After this, another plane back to San Francisco and down to L.A., where I want to spend a good week and a half. Some big names on Youtube that I've come to admire and idolise live in this beautiful part of the world, where it seems that so many options are available to you, so I can't wait for this bit. On the day of Thanksgiving I may be able to slip a quick bit of turkey in before I have to be heading home to the UK again.
I wanted to make this blog so that I could share all of this with my family and friends, but also so that I could look back on this and feel a sense of pride and nostalgia at this immense journey I'm about to take; a real hard-copy of my achievements. I really hope to update this blog as much as possible, and so I hope you enjoy the tales of my adventures, and that it will inspire you to do the same!
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