Day 1:

I missed the 7:30am bus since I failed to wake up to my alarm. It was a good thing my bus ticket is valid for any departure within the same date so I managed to catch the next bus. The bus stopped over Providence, Rhode Island before continuing to Hyannis, MA. Providence is such a creepy city. Scrupulously clean and underpopulated to even be called a proper city. It looked to me more like one of those fake cities you see on the Universal Studios lot.

The look and feel of Hyannis was nothing new to me. Having visited Martha's Vineyard last year, the town closely resembled the town of Vineyard Haven or Oak Bluffs. As soon as I checked in the hostel, I changed into my swimsuit and headed down to the nearest beach. For dinner, I had an order of fish and chips to go from one of the nearby seafood restaurants and ate by the harbor overlooking the boats.

Hostelling International Hyannis

Fish and chips for dinner

Day 2:

The next day was spent roaming Main St. killing time until I had to take the two hour bus up to Orleans, MA where I will spend one night at the Eastham hostel. The walk from the bus stop to the hostel was torture. It was only a 1 and a half mile walk, to the hostel and I've taken longer walks than that but the fact that I was hauling a duffel bag of clothes with a backpack filled with computer and camera gear was killing me. I collapsed on the kitchen benches as soon as I got there. Half an hour later, I braved the walked back (without my load this time) and rented a bike for a day. I biked to the town proper and bought food for dinner. At this I am gladly thankful for having met Mike and for his being vegan. I am on a strict budget that requires my cash to be stretched until Sunday. I cannot afford to eat out every night and was relieved that my experience with dining with Mike is helping me do just that. For dinner I had an avocado sandwich (ripe avocados spread over a french baguette and topped with salt and pepper) and later had bell pepper sticks and radishes with hummus.


I was fully satisfied and intend to repeat said meal tomorrow night. The following night I should be able to dine properly since I'm meeting up with Louiie's friend Alex who works at a french bistro in Wellfleet, MA.

Friday shall be dedicated to a day trip in Provincetown, MA which is supposed to be a major hub for activities of all sorts.


I went out to Boat Meadow Beach with intentions of staying until sundown since I heard sunsets at the bayside are supposed to be spectacular. Well people failed to mention that beaches at the bay are marshy (at least the one I went to) and there are bugs everywhere. I tried sucking it up and allowed myself to be eaten alive in my swimsuit. Eventually I gave up and left.

This was as close to a sunset as I could get.

I got back to the hostel and took a bath in one of the outdoor showers located at the back. It was a large cubicle and you're surrounded by nothing but trees and silence. Not even a single cricket could be heard. It was one of the best showers of my life. Tomorrow morning I will have one again just to take advantage of the opportunity. I plan on waking up really early (7am) and taking the bike to a 3 mile run to the Great Pond and going for a dip before heading to Truro, MA where I will stay until Sunday.

If the hostel at Truro has wi-fi (the one at Hyannis didn't that's why I had to make a 2-day post today) then you can expect more photos tomorrow. Photos from the trip can be seen on my Facebook as usual. Not my Facebook friend? why the hell not?

Saw Metric live at Prospect Park last night and seeing that it was the first concert I've ever been to (not counting all the shows I've seen my exes and friends play), I absolutely loved it! Emily Haines of Metric was a total rockstar and rocked out on the stage. Watching her move was entertaining enough.

I came from Chinatown for a massage before the concert and forgot to bring my camera so I have no proper photos except for ones taken from my phonecam. Mike took a couple from his camera but decided to simply enjoy the show since we knew photos from the concert taken by other people will be all over the internet anyway. Videos of the concert are already up on youtube if you search for "Metric Prospect Park."



On other news, I am leaving in three days for a week long trip to Cape Cod. With who? Nobody! I've decided to take on a solo adventure up on the cape and wander. Been researching hostels, bus schedules and area maps so I can wander confidently and jump around several towns with ease. I am so excited and apprehensive at the same time. This will be the first trip I've ever taken on my own. I did that one in Boston but I met up will Ella and Andy there so that technically doesn't count. I shall try to document as much of my trip without ruining the whole nomad experience. I've been dying for a break and now it's finally here. Mind you, I'm doing all this while pretty much being close to broke. Everything will be done on a budget, I'll survive the week eating bread if I have to. My body's been prepped for that anyway with me living on a semi-vegan existence since I started hanging out with Mike. Although, I'm not nor will I ever be vegan just to put that out there. This girl loves her bacon and cheese way too much.

I've been MIA from the blog again since 4th of July. Nothing much has been happening. I did see District 9 at Hudson River Park at one of the city's free outdoor movie events. In two weeks, I'll go back and watch Star Trek again. Plus there's that Blues BBQ Sunday that I'm hoping to attend.

Facebook is so evil in a way that I never feel like writing long blog posts about my days anymore since everybody nowadays simply puts little snippets of what they're up to on FB. I have to stop documenting my life in silly one liners. I have to remind myself sometimes that not writing will only make me feel sad in the future when I start getting nostalgic and decide to take a trip down memory lane and come to this blog and find nothing.

I had lots and lots of fun in the sun+sand with my Long Island beach ladies, Kelly and Sham. Took the Long Island Rail Road and zipped over to LI to hang with the girls and head over to Jones Beach. We were equipped with a case of beer, a cooler filled with ice, sunblock and NO snacks (crap). We laid out on the sun and drank ourselves silly. We took turns watching our stuff while two of us went out to the water. It has been a full year since I've dipped in the ocean (or ANY large body of water, anyway. Including a pool). I was so excited that I freaked out when I dipped my feet excitedly into the water and found it to be absolutely freezing. It was close to 100 degrees (fahrenheit) today in New York so I assumed the water would be warmed up. I didn't care, I'm beach deprived and freezing ocean water will not stop me from enjoying a dip this summer. It was funny looking around me while I was in there. Everyone around me had their arms around themselves and their teeth were chattering and jaws were shivering. None of these people cared. We all just wanted to splash around the ocean on a hot summer day!



And what did these girls do after the beach when the sun started to set? We headed straight to KFC drive thru and ordered a bucket of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw!!! I have NOT had KFC since I left Manila! That's over two years ago! I was so happy! After eating we took a shower and the rest of us who don't live on Long Island proceeded to take the loooooooong trip back home.

Rewinding back to yesterday, I had another spontaneous day (added to today, "spontaneous" would seem like the theme of my weekend. I haven't had this much fun in a period of a few days in a long time. Come to think of it, a lot of the stuff I did in the last couple of days were things I haven't done in a while.

Yesterday I met up with Benny and Magnus (couchsurfer from Denmark) for brunch at Flatbush Farm.
I went back home, gave Taco a bath, watched Star Wards Revenge of the Sith on cable, then dressed up and went to Rann's for 4th of July festivities. The supposed small gathering became a bit of a gathering as one by one people came over, including Mike and Caitlin whom I invited to join us. We watched the fireworks display on the Hudson River from Rann and Oli's balcony. What happened next was probably one of the funnest things I've done in New York. When the fireworks was over, the crowds by the pier began to disperse and walk back east to the main roads towards the subway. Hundreds were walking right by the apartment so Mike, Caitlin and I decided to put out a concert for everybody walking outside. We stood on the balcony and with Mike on guitar, me on percussion and Caitlin blowing bubbles in the air, we sang this song in full force.

About 150 people stopped and stood staring up at us sing. I have never played bongos or any instrument infront of a crowd that large ever. My short stint as a drummer in high school does not count since nobody came to watch us play. Some of the people on the street clapped their hands and sang along and some took their cameras out and started taking videos and photos of us.

IT WAS BLOODY AWESOME!

Will have to do a proper one after describing the photos and elaborating on my day but for now here's a quick one...

Took the the bike out to brooklyn flea market with Benny and had awesome mexican corn on the cob and margherita pizza.

Went back home where I found Mike and he asked if I wanted to go with him to Guitar Center. The man tried to teach me guitar but I think we all know the ship has sailed on me trying to be in some way, musically oriented. We hopped on a train and headed up to the Guggenheim Museum where they were having "pay what you wish admission" Saturdays from 5-7pm. Normally admission is about $20 so we took advantage of only having to pay $1 for admission.

We headed down to whole foods after that, picked up some grub and laid on the grass at Union Square park chowing down on bread and stuff until the sun came down.

When we got home to the apartment, we were so tired we passed out and I ended up having to travel back to Ana's apartment where I was supposed to walk Taco at midnight but I ended up getting back at 2am.

Photos from today can be viewed on fezbuk but only friends can see it right now. I've stopped uploading stuff to my public multiply site because I've been having problems with their uploader and it's putting me off. For now FB friends can view it then the rest of you (why aren't we FB friends anyway?) will have to sit tight until I load some of them here for you to see.

I've gone to Cheryl's for brunch, took Taco on his morning walk and gone produce shopping at the farmers market and am sitting on the couch watching Independence Day on ABCFamily while munching on frozen grapes...all before 12 noon.

I have GOT to move into this neighborhood. I was excited to shop the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza today since I could go nuts on shopping without having to worry about hauling all my goods home since Ana's apartment is just a couple blocks away. I scored beefsteak tomatoes, fresh basil, cilantro, fresh picked blueberries and cherries and a loaf of olive ciabatta bread. I've been so into late night homemade salsa lately. They're just so damn good and so much better for you than those canned crap you get at the grocery store. Plus ever since I discovered the fabulousness of frozen grapes, I'm trying to figure out what else I can freeze.

I can already foresee what life would be like if I had my very own place and I was equipped with all the amenities available to me here. I would probably never leave the house. Hahaha! That's why it's so much better to live in a house with other people and not own a TV (we don't have one at the apartment) plus not having an AC in the common areas gives you a reason to get out of the house and do something else aside from sitting on the couch.

My movie's done. Time to flip the channel.