The Passenger

Hello, I'm sorry I haven't written for so long but I've been very busy!
I'll pick up from last time, on Friday 18th February we set off on our road trip. We had 2 cars because there was 7 of us, I was in a Chevrolet Impala which was a pretty big car. The first day we drove to Buffalo which is about 4 hours west of Albany. The temperature reached 15°c while we were on the way there which was lovely surprise. Some of my friends went to see a NHL (ice hockey) game but I wasn't really interested and it cost over $60. The rest of us went to a small restaurant to eat and it was really nice, afterwards we met up with everyone else in a bar and played a few games of table hockey, which was like table football but only with hockey!
Early on Saturday morning we left to head to Niagara Falls, which was only 25 minutes away, but as we got there, the weather turned and there was awful fog and heavy snow. The border crossing was really easy and only took about two minutes then we drove down into the town. We got out of the car but the view was really bad, you could barely make out the waterfalls even though they were only about 100 metres away. We decided that we would come back on either Sunday or Monday in the hope that we would have a better chance of seeing the waterfalls. We then drove 90 minutes north to Toronto, around the western side of Lake Ontario. We checked in but had a problem as we'd accidentally only booked two single beds in the room when there was four of us, so we had to pay extra to get a camp bed in our room. Later that afternoon, the weather was really nice so we decided to head to the CN Tower, Toronto's most famous landmark and one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The views were amazing and at one point we were 1400 feet in the air. We went to a bar for dinner then went to bed because we were really tired.
The next morning we decided to head back to Niagara Falls because the weather forecast was a lot better. When we finally got there, the sun was out and the sky was blue which meant that the views were absolutely incredible. There was a mist in the air which was the spray from the waterfalls so you got absolutely soaked and my friend's hair actually froze! We took lots of photos and went for lunch then drove back to Toronto. We'd aimed to go shopping when we got back but it was late Sunday afternoon and all the shops were closing so we just went for dinner then to a bar. On Monday morning we set off and got back to Albany around 8 hours later.
For the next few days, a group of us went to stay at my friend Jonathan's house in Saratoga Springs, which is about 40 minutes north of Albany. Some people went skiing everyday but I just stayed at the house with a couple of others because I've never skied before so we just had some lazy days. We got back home on Thursday night then on Friday we went to the cinema to see Unknown with Liam Neeson which was a pretty average popcorn movie but entertaining nonetheless. We went to New York on Saturday for Emma's 21st birthday. We went to a club called Home Sweet Home which was really good and more like the clubs that I'm used to from home. It was a really good night and I wasn't as sick as last time I went out in New York.
Last Wednesday, I went to see a speech that Bill Clinton gave at our university. He talked about lots of different things but mainly about how we need to use our initiative to make the world a better place. Apparently he was paid $200,000 by the university to speak which he donated to his charitable foundation. His speech was inspirational but I'm not sure if it was worth that much money but I suppose if it inspires people to do better, it was worth it.
On Thursday I headed back down to New York as my friend Natalie from Nottingham was coming to visit me for 10 nights. My plan was to meet her at the airport at about 8.30pm but when I was on the bus I checked the internet and saw that her flight had been cancelled! We couldn't really contact with each other because she couldn't receive texts or calls from me so the only way was for her to use payphones whenever she came across them or to text me, but as I said I couldn't reply. Eventually she arrived at JFK at 11.30 the next morning and I was there to meet her. We went back to the hotel then had lunch and went to Central Park, Fifth Avenue and to the top of the Rockefeller Center. We decided that we would go to see a show on Broadway and settled on Chicago as we wanted to see one where we knew most of the songs. The show was a bit odd because they had the orchestra on the stage with the cast performing around them but it was still really good.
The next day we went to the south of Manhattan and went on the Staten Island Ferry so we could see the Statue of Liberty without having to pay, and the view was just as good as the one you get from paying for a special ferry. Afterwards we walked around and saw the Stock Exchange, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Seaport and Chinatown. In the evening we went for an Indian at a restaurant near the hotel which was really nice then just had a walk near the hotel because we were really tired. We got the bus back to Albany at Sunday lunchtime and didn't do much else on Sunday. On Monday we went to the mall and I had classes all day on Tuesday so we didn't get up to much. Last night we went to The Cheesecake Factory which was amazing but I felt sick afterwards. When we'd finished there we went to look in a few shops and I bought some fancy dress for St. Patrick's Day.
We're heading back to New York on Saturday morning because Natalie is flying back on Sunday morning. Then next Thursday is my 21st birthday which is very exciting! I'll update the blog after my birthday but at the moment my plans are to have a night out in Albany on my birthday then go to Boston for the weekend because I really like it there. Bye for now!!!