Left heathrow bound for Miami. No hassle with flight - landed an hour early even! But then Utter Punishment raised its pretty little head as I queued for immigration with an old lad from Peru behind me. Well, behind me in theory. He insisted on queueing under my armpit! Every time someone was called at top of queue, he'd shove forward imbibing me with fresh aroma of unwashed Inca. Eventually I snapped and asked him how his actions were speeding us up? We still had to wait until everyone in front of us got called before our turn. Rattled at this onslaught he had no answer. So I then demanded that he gave me espacio. Space was duly provided. I got called to the counter at long last, had been in the slowest queue OBVIOUSLY! Ah but there was a problem, sadly I'd missed the American airlines desk near immigration and hadn't filled out some f-ing form or other. KRYSTE! back to get the form. Grumpily filled it out before returning to queue again. Only bright spot was the old lad from Peru had also forgotten this form and had to re-queue too. Anyway, was eventually left into the US of A and walked outside Miami airport to be greeted by torrential rain. Wonderful. Got a pair of buses and reached the hostel. Hostel was nice, clean. Tried to snooze but no joy - so went for a walk to see what was happening. Walked around the beach - talent off the scale obviously. Then went for dinner and a couple of pints at a nearby hostel, resisted temptation of nightclub, then bed.
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| View of South Beach from hostel roof |
Up around ten next day and after a horrible breakfast in some Dominican place, went to the beach! I hate the beach but reckoned I had to give it a shot. This is Miami like! Was there for about fifteen mins when I realised that my lack of sunscreen in the midday sun added to my pasty Paddy skin may be a bit of an error! So walked to a pharmacy to buy some. On the way, I realised that my flip flops were killing me. I'd already burnt my foot! Ow ow ow! Got the sunscreen then back to the beach for afternoon, v enjoyable day on my sunlounger and under my umbrella! Later on I met up with Carolyn, a friend from my hostel in Perth in 2003, we went to the oldest pub in Miami, only 98 yrs old! Like Chelsea, Miami ain't got no history!
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| Oldest pub in Miami - Tobacco Road |
Next day was mighty, hired a bike and cycled to bottom of key biscayne - about 15 miles each way. Was so paranoid about dehydrating and getting sunburnt that it took me over 3.5 hours to get there! Stopped at every single petrol station and got water and put on more factor 30 ie about every 15 to 20 mins! It worked, didn't get dehydrated or burnt in the slightest. Biked as far as the lighthouse at end of biscayne.
Pretty underwhelming though! Stupid lighthouse! Biked back and on the Lincoln road shopping street, filming was taking place for Burn Notice, some shite cop show that's on FX I think. Hung around for ages waiting to see what would happen. Eventually bored of that and on the way back to the hostel, discovered that NFL season was starting in 90 mins! Fantastic! Met young lads from my hotel room and we all went to finnegan's oirish pub to be sure to be sure. Horrible steak, but buckets of beer took the edge off. Good night.
Next day went back to the beach with Ben an English lad from the hostel for about 4.5 hours. Brilliant under my sunlounger and umbrella again! Turns out the beach can be fun if you don't have to sit on stupid sand or get burned by the stupid sun! Left around 4.30 and went to an Argentinian restaurant that had a special promotion running. $22 for 3 courses when main usually $30. delicious food. Sadly the Malbec was too delicious and I polished off a bottle of wine in about 45 mins. Pretty demented at that stage!
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| Excellent steak! |
In the airport bar met these two yank lads who know each other for years and go to different cities every so often looking for sex from local ladies. Vegas last yr was massive apparently. As was Orlando. As was Fort Lauderdale. This wkend was Miami's turn to get hit! Steve the doctor (divorced) was complaining that he had to work through lunch to get away. No sympathy from Chris, he'd had to go through hoops to get away from the wife for his sex wkend!
On to the plane. Nightmare. Small plane - same size as a ryanair plane. Flight full. Fine for 60 min hops to Ireland, not so comfortable for the 7 hr punishment flight which lay ahead!
I had my aisle seat and the two beside me (who didnt know each other) started arguing about him not turning off his mobile for the flight. Could've cut the tension with a knife. Great - this'll be a great flight!
Landed in La Paz next morning - altitude hit me straight away, almost collapsed in the usual punishment queue for immigration but got through eventually. Best thing was watching the special section for Yanks where they pay $135 for their visas. Evo Morales el Bolivian presidente hates Uncle Sam so tries to wind them up as much as possible! Every other country's citizens get in free. Result: Bolivia is gloriously Yank-free! Taxi driver was waiting for me with a little sign with my name (I'm v important like) and he delivered me right to the hostel. Checked in and met a lad from Dublin who'd just spent 50 hours on buses. Put my whinging about my 7 hour flight in perspective! Sat through 85 mins of everton v man united, foregone conclusion with united up 1-3. I left only to find out that Everton scored twice in injury time to pull out a 3-3 draw. Kryste! Went for a walk around La Paz and had to sleep for 3 hours in the afternoon when I came back due to altitude. Suffering big time. Had a bite to eat in the hostel, couple of pints.
Overall I'm tired but in great form. Bring it on!
