23 August 2014

I thought I might regale you with my latest insights gained from travel to the northern hemisphere, specifically to western New York.

We have again left winter and moved to warmer climes, however let me say at the beginning, this is not central Queensland or western NSW; there are no road trains, the country is lush and green and there is a town or village every few miles, no emus, kangaroos or cockatoos.

The Flight:

• Life is all about the upgrade.  I probably wouldn’t pay for business class but to get an upgrade using frequent flyer points is the best.  Sleeping flat in your own bed in your Qantas pjs at 36,000 feet is a great way to travel.  However, a note for the eager traveller, don’t be fooled into accepting the cognac with dessert, it doesn’t work on a long flight.
• Getting off the plane first means you scream through Immigration and Customs.  Moving quickly through these gates always adds to your travelling experience.  Of course seeing your bags at the carousal is always an opportunity to give out a sigh of relief – they made it.
• Thirty hours from door to door is always a tough ask but it can be done as long as you have that hotel room booked at the end and it’s not far from the airport.  Drugs also help at this stage.

Arriving:

• As I mentioned before, summer in western New York is green, lush, expansive lawns, beautiful trees and forests of maple, oak, spruce and others, and flowing streams and rivers.  You couldn’t get a bushfire going no matter how much fuel you used.   It’s such a change from an Australian summer.  Winter in western New York is a different proposition, its bitter cold with icy roads and frozen landscapes and that is a different travelling experience.

Supermarkets and Shopping:

• Automatic bottle and can return machines are a great advance on recycling.  You turn up at your supermarket with all your cans and bottles feed them into their respective machines and get 5 cents (a nickel) for each.  You take your slip to the cashier and get the credit applied to your groceries.  We had to wait for the guy in front who had a shopping trolley full of Budweiser cans!
• Shopping trolleys over here are immensely more controllable than Australian shopping trolleys.  The rear wheels on US trolley are fixed and the front swivel –they are so easy to mange.  Coles and Woolworths get them in your stores!
• If anyone offers you wine from the Finger lake Region of NY, I suggest you politely answer you don’t drink.  If you enjoy sweet then maybe you might enjoy this wine.  However let me say as diplomatically as possible Finger Lake wine is an acquired taste – one that I haven’t acquired.
• USA beer has made amazing leap in quality over the past 20 years.  The number of craft beers available at the supermarket is inspiring and a bit overwhelming.   They even produce specific beer for the season; winter spring, summer and fall beers.

Family Events:

• When having a family barbeque / reunion and four sisters get into conversation do not try to keep track of the four or five conversations that will be going at one time; do not try to break in to the conversation, you won’t be able to keep up; just nod wisely when asked for your contribution.  When all six siblings and their cousins get together and start to talk about high school days and gossip from 40-50 years ago then find a quiet corner and enjoy your beer.

Driving:

• The roads here are of a consistently high standard, unlike our much beloved Sutton Road for readers from the Wamboin locale.  Pot holes are extremely rare and the road surface consistently smooth.  The builders of roads in Australia take note. Maybe they need such good roads for the snow ploughs to work in winter.
• Whilst I have over many years developed the skills and awareness to drive on the ‘other‘ side of the road roundabouts freak me out.  It’s something about driving anti-clock wise that’s just wrong.  Turning right on red I get but roundabouts nah.
• The roads are never too busy and no one is in too much of a hurry – that’s western New York not the big cities.

Technology:

• Everybody now seems reliant on their GPS.  No local knowledge seems to apply or past experience in how to get somewhere.  No one uses a map.  The choice of a restaurant similarly relies on one’s use of technology to Google reviews and recommendations.
• When asking the hotel receptionist for directions to the nearest shopping mall where one can buy a SIM for your phone the offer is I can Goggle that for you.  Doesn’t anyone just know how to get there!

Town and Villages

• The architecture of the small towns and villages is always a delight.  The street scapes green and lush with tall trees and soft shadows.  The gardens well kept and houses well maintained.  The newer houses tend to blend with the old and it’s more difficult to state with any confidence the decade in which a house was built.

That’s it for the moment.  Next week it’s the UK and back to driving on the ‘right’ side of the road.