ROAD TRIP!! My friend, Dave, who I met while backpacking three years ago lives in New Jersey and he said he would pick me up from Newark (North NJ) and we'd head to his holiday house in Avalon way at the bottom of NJ. A short train ride later, I was in Newark station waiting for my ride. And it was dirty. Not only that, there were hobos everywhere and I actually felt a bit unsafe just sitting in one spot so I constantly walked around. I guess it was my own fault for getting there half an hour early. Upside though was that the station had a strong police presence so that put me at ease slightly.
Dave finally showed up and we were on our way, zooming down the Parkway which runs from the very top to the very bottom of New Jersey. As we cruised along, I noticed just how fast everyone was going and just how close they were all following behind each other. To myself, I though this was just an accident waiting to happen. And sure enough it did. Up ahead, we noticed that a mass of red brake lights were appearing so we started to slow down. I guess the car in the lane to the left to us didn't notice because he was still speeding along before he slammed on his brakes and swerved into our lane. Dave's quick reaction allowed us to swerve to avoid him colliding into us, but in doing so, we swerved slightly into the lane on our right and a passing car clipped my door and mirror. Luckily that was the only damage. Had we swerved further and at more of an angle, we would have been T-boned and that would have been the end of my US trip. Thankfully, no injuries were sustained. The douchebag who swerved into our lane sped off and we were left to deal with the mess. As we pulled over and exchanged details, I got out of the car to cool down (it was over 40⁰C and Dave's car had no air con). While I waited, I noticed seven other collisions or near collisions. People here were just not paying attention to the road!! The smell of burnt rubber on the road from all the screeching tires was overpowering. I was glad to finally be on our way, but I felt so bad for Dave, since none of this would have happened had I taken a bus down instead.
Putting the drama behind us, we continued on, on our way to tick off the first thing on my list of things to do in New Jersey. Following dodgy GPS directions, jug handle turns, weird signs and bad traffic, we eventually found it. White Castle. As the Asian of the duo, I was relegated the role of Harold while my white buddy got the role of Kumar. The thing that hit me as I was eating the burgers was just how small they were. Granted, they're slider burgers but still, I just wasn't used to burgers being that small and getting four burgers in a "small" meal. Nevertheless they tasted good (not sure I'd trek across the country for them like Harold and Kumar did though) and our stomachs were lined and ready for drinking.
Once we pulled up to Dave's awesome house which had its own pier, I knew it was gonna be such a relaxing few days for me. We spent the next few hours just chilling out on his dock with a few beers catching up on what had happened in our lives since Europe. Once we got to reminiscing about our European adventures, we realised that we had actually only spent a few hours together on a Berlin pubcrawl and then a few more hours in Prague chilling in a pub. It's amazing to think that we've stayed in contact and remained such good friends even though we're separated by oceans and were only actually face-to-face for less than say 12 hours.
Dinner that night was the healthiest meal I had had in my whole time in US. It was so good to get away from all the grease and artery-clogging meals I had been eating in the past few weeks and eat some healthy grilled chicken breast with grilled veggies. Of course, the health benefits may have been washed down with "several" beers. After dinner, it was back out to the dock to stare up at the night sky. Where Dave lived (or where his holiday house was) was out of the city; more like a sleepy seaside town. It was great to not have the light pollution and be able to just lay back and admire the stars. I also introduced him to the term "mozzies", as I rattled off some expletive-filled rants about being eaten alive. But even as I scratched my skin off, I found myself thinking, I'm so lucky to be here. This is why you make friends while you travel. You can't buy these experiences.
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Day 16
I was sleeping in the master bedroom upstairs which faced the rising sun. As the dawn glow hit my face at 5am, I had the option to turn away and try and get back to sleep (after only just getting to bed three hours ago), or head outside and watch the sun rise. Thinking "why not?", I headed out to the dock and watched as the purple sky slowly turned to orange. Beautiful. What added to the beauty of this scene was just how still the water was, reflecting everything perfectly. It was definitely worth waking up for. And with that done, I went back to sleep.
After getting a few more solid hour of sleep, it was time to get up for a full day of relaxing ahead. Breakfast was down the road at this little restaurant on the marina, which served up an excellent omelette with toat that smiled at me. Yep. A smiley face had been imprinted into it. After that, Dave needed to go sort out his passenger door mirror so I suggested I laze on the beach while he did that. He felt bad for deserting me for a few hours but I assured him that as an Aussie, I was fine being on the beach alone. And sure enough I was. With my mp3, a kindle, towel, sunscreen and a gallon of water, I was beach ready. Oh and I also had a "beach tag". Apparently in NJ, you need to pay to be on the beach. I used one of Dave's tags which entitled him access to the beach for the whole year. I was curious as to how strictly enforced this was, and sure enough, as I came down onto the beach, there was a person checking tags as you came onto the sand. Kinda weird concept having to pay to go to the beach, but whatever.
Set myself up on a nice little spot, and after an hour or so of reading, I was out. Only woke up when I felt someone prodding me and realised that it was Dave. Turns out I had been lying there for about five hours. Sufficiently tan/burnt, I went into the water to cool off. Now I'm not particularly confident/comfortable in the ocean but I still usually go out to neck height. Not here. You're not allowed. As soon as I ventured past waist height, I was whistled at and called back in. Oddest thing ever. Guess that's why there are so few drownings here. No one is allowed to go far enough to drown.
After my lazy morning/afternoon, we went to have lunch at a little seafood shack on a pier, which had such fresh clams (they call them "steamers") and oysters. And I also learnt how to shuck an oyster! Took some getting used to, and I stabbed myself in the hand a few times, but I eventually got the hang of it, and by the end, I was shucking like a pro. Seafood lunch done, we did some sightseeing around the other beaches and wharves, before heading back to the house for some beers on the dock again. We were joined by Jimmy, one of Dave's friends from his summer job at a pizza parlour. The hilarious thing was that he came expecting a white Australian, and was genuinely confused when he realised I was Asian. Even moreso because I had my back to him at first so he only saw black hair and thought he might have been at the wrong house. But all good.
After a few more beers out on the dock (also had some home-brewed beers), we headed to the local pub for some fun. Turns out that Jimmy's sister was a bartender there so we scored a few free drinks (she was "testing" new alcoholic combinations). She also loved my accent and like Jimmy, was intrigued and mesmerised by the Asian with the Aussie accent. I ended up agreeing to say things for her in my saucy accent to her delight which may or may not have scored me more free drinks and which may or may not have been recorded. At this point in the night, we were all well and truly hammered. But you know, the night was still young. We stumbled across the street to the pizza parlour where Dave and Jimmy worked and hung out in the kitchen, where once again, my accent drew a crowd of interested people. Result: free pizza. Shame I couldn't remember eating it; the only reason I knew I had a pizza was because A) I had a photo of me eating it and B) I threw it up the next morning. I don't actually remember walking (re: stumbling) home. The end of the night was such a drunken blur but so much fun. This night would go down as the best night of my US trip. I felt like a college kid out with his frat bros. Got to live the life of a frat boy for a night. Shame about the next morning though haha.
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Day 17
So after getting back to the house everything was pretty much a blur. I vaguely remember running downstairs to throw up, and clean myself off. Forgot to mention that since the house was slightly affected by the storm, the only room in the house with running water was the downstairs bathroom. That was fun traversing the stairs while off my face. In the morning after countless trips to the bathroom, I woke up in the living room in only my underwear and a gallon of water next to me. Clearly even in my drunk state, I had enough common sense to look after myself haha (I later clarified whether Dave had helped me; he was passed out in bed and had no idea of my adventures). Both feeling worse for wear, we got to talking and realised that three years ago in Berlin, we partied harder and drank more and were fine the next morning. Last time, I even got on a five hour train ride straight after getting up This time, as we both sat motionless in the living room, we both knew that we were "too damn old for this shit anymore".
Honestly not much happened that day. Most of the morning was taken up by recovery. The original plan was for me to meet up with my uncle and aunt in Philadelphia but after numerous unsuccessful times trying to get through, it was easier to just go back to NYC. I spent most of the afternoon chilling at Dave's parents' place before he drove me to the bus station for my bus back into Manhattan. Uneventful. Good thing the bus had Wi-Fi though. I had gone through the past few days with very limited access. It made me realise just how dependent I had become upon technology. As soon as I connected, a mass of emails came flooding through, one of which said "Congrats on getting a interview, we've tried calling you several times and left multiple voicemails, why aren't you calling us back?!". I may have reworded the email slightly, but you get the gist. Turns out in the midst of all my job applications, I had completely forgotten about this one and thought I was finished with everything before I left on this holiday (mainly because it went from written application to final interview). Fired off an email explaining the situation and hoped for the best.
Got back to NYC around 7pm, had a quick dinner, and reflected on my past few days in New Jersey. I understand why it gets made fun of, mainly for Newark, but I loved Avalon, the little sleepy holiday town I was in. It was the most relaxing few days of my trip where I didn't feel like I had to be a tourist and tick off these things to see (maybe cos there wasn't really much to see haha). Plus I got to hang out with Dave, which means we've now met up in three countries - next country shall be Australia when he finally has the time and money after becoming a successful dentist. Anyways, rest of the night was spent vegging out in front of the TV. Relaxing and doing nothing really takes it out of you.
HBL signing out of NewYork City, New York, USA.
Up next: And that concludes my USA trip...
Previously: The city where dreams supposedly come true...
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