Valhalla Island

I’m sitting in the middle of Central Park. On a bench shared with other young people reading newspapers. I’m reading this week’s Onion. There’s a clean, duck filled lake in front of us and I can hear a waterfall. It’s about time I wrote about my stay in Virginia.

The United States is much greener than Australia. There’s way more trees, more grass, it’s thicker, shadier. I took the bus from Port Authority in Manhattan to Washington DC.

Like the rest of my trip, I was lucky to meet a lovely girl on the bus that was heading to a place very close to where I was going to end up. We shared a cab from the bus station to the Metro, the DC area subway, we bought tickets, changed trains and she got off just two stations before me. It worked out well.

The Metro is public transport perfection.

Compared to the New York subway which is still so confusing to me that I’d rather just walk, the Metro is even better. It’s clean, it’s quiet, it’s fast, it regular, it’s easy to tell which train goes where, correct platforms are easy to find, there’s lots of comfortable seats, the conductors speak clearly, signs are useful and easy to find. Every public transport system everywhere could learn from the Metro — it’s an absolute joy to ride.

The purpose of going to Virginia was to meet Brad and Joey. Brad was generous enough to let me stay at his house for three nights. His house is nice, it’s in a beautiful area, he has great roommates and he’s a great guy. My stay at Brad’s couldn’t have been better.

It was there that I saw my first high definition television. There’s no words to describe how good HD sport looks. I also tried Taco Bell, that was delicious. On my last night I met Brad’s hilarious sister and witnessed Mario Kart genius.

On my second full day I caught the train down to meet up with Joey in Richmond. He showed me around Richmond, we went to the zoo and had lunch at Arby’s. Oh man, my roast beef sandwich at Arby’s was amazing.

I wish I took more photographs at Brad’s because it was a lovely area. I love the style of the houses too. Many people have some wild number plates in Virginia. Seven characters of your choice is only $30 on top of the usual price. You’d pay thousands for that in Australia.

In Richmond I visited a Walmart for the first time. I can’t describe how big it was. I found something amazing in Walmart. Dickies shorts for $15. Here’s a table:

Yes, it’s crazy. I bought a pair of pants even though it’s too hot to wear them and I can barely fit them in my bag.

After missing two buses on my way back to New York. I’m back now and staying at a backpackers for the first time. With any luck I’ll get a chance to write about New York again tomorrow. I’ve found the best place in the world.