TRAVELLING FROM ATLANTIC CITY TO MIAMI

Today we travelled from Atlantic City to Miami. Well, almost, we are still on the plane! We had to get a taxi from our hotel into the bus terminal in the city so that we could get the greyhound bus back into NYC and get a flight from JFK. There were no taxi companies in AC that had a wagon or a minibus (we now have 5 suitcases thanks to all the great shopping) so we ended up having to call 2 cabs. It appeared that the cab company wasn’t even able to get 2 cabs organised so one turned up and a toyota tarago looking van turned up behind with a guy in normal clothes, his wife in the front seat and his 3 year old son in the backseat playing with a batman toy!! That was our second cab, I think he just called a mate for a favour. However he was a really nice guy and his wife was “Fine” (that’s how black women describe themselves) and I got to talk to a 3 year old about Batman so it was okay. Safe to say that we had an interesting array of taxi drivers in AC!

We are flying American Airlines and got to do a kerbside check in. You know how the taxi drops you off at the outside of the terminal at a normal airport? There are people from the airline waiting right there to check you in so we gave them our luggage, passports and they gave us tickets and in we went. Then we got to experience the paranoia of the american airport systems. To go through security you have to take off your shoes, jackets, wallet, metal items and remove laptops. Plus they want to check your ticket and ID before you go through. It’s a real pain! JB got frisked because he looks mexican. I think they just wanted to touch his shaven legs.

We arrive in Miami in about an hour and it it going to be 8:50 pm and 27 degrees so it looks like good weather again. It rained briefly in AC this morning and last night there was a major hailstorm in NYC that we just missed.

SO if any of you are going to the USA at all, NYC is a must see. It is very fast paced and there is sooo much to see but I wouldn’t recommend any more than a few days there. There is just so much traffic and you are always battling past people on the street because it’s so crowded, but Time Square at night is incredible. Imagine being there on New Years Eve. WOW. AC was brilliant for the shopping. And it’s all kinds of shopping, clothes, shoes, bags, perfume, jewellery, homewares….everything. I think the prices of most things are about 30 to 40 percent of what we pay back home and the conversion is almost dollar for dollar at the moment so great value. In AC there is a ghetto area just a few minutes walk from the casinos and shopping so you have to be a bit careful as the sun goes down, it’s amazing how there can be so much wealth right next to so much crime and poverty. And you have to eat at Tony’s Baltimore Grill just outside the Tropicana hotel.

Contrary to popular belief in Aus, the people here have been very friendly and happy to help you out, especially once they hear your accent. They ask a lot of questions about Aus and seem to genuinely want to talk to you. We have had many people approach us just to say hi and that was before they even know we were foreigners. It seems that people providing services are a little short sometimes, like people at information booths at train stations but I guess they just get a lot of people come through and get bored of answering the same questions. Overall I would say we have had a great experience so far and can’t wait for MIAMI!

By Adam <END TRANSMISSION>