Tales of New Hampshire

Hello to my blog and hello to you readers, as abundant or scarce as you may be...

Recently (this past weekend) I meandered up to New Hampshire to visit my good friend Gus. I had a blast and it was so awesome and I went through hell and back on my bus rides to and fro. 

I wanted to share some of my photos from this trip but I couldn't get myself to post on instagram about it. The permanence of a regular post was not appealing and the collage of a story post was not meant for these photos. Thus I return to this blog to post about my travels in true travel blog fashion. 

Let's go chronologically shall we?

I arrived in the evening times and after eating dinner, Gus took me for a walk around the "town." I was freaking out. Genuinely never have I ever been so shocked by my surroundings. Nothing seemed correct. The emptyness and stillness of small town New England is terrifying. And why are there so many American flags?

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The next day I hung out with Gus and his two friends Hannah and Etta. We were gonna go to a yard sale but that was a bust so we ended up going to Wendy's (my first time getting food at Wendy's, it was alright). Then we went to Walmart (another culture shock) and I spread my zines all throughout the store. On the way back to our respective abodes the group decided to drive through Weirs Beach so I could witness the tail end of motorcycle week, one of the biggest motorcycle events in the world apparently. Again, I was freaking out. So many of the same people. So many skull motifs, so many beards. 

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The same day! Gus took me kayaking!!! It was so awesome and so beautiful I was so happy. The sights (trees and mountains and water and sun and clouds), the sounds (water and our echoes and nearby target practice gunshots), all of it was so wonderful. I can't wait to go kayaking in Greece, Agia Irene here I come!

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Sunday, my last day. Did many things.

Went to a gift shop that doubles as a museum. Coooooooool

Chipmunk! Running on the fence!

Went to a diner. 

Afterwards...

Went to Funspot, the "Largest Arcade in the World" according to Guinness World Records. It "features one of the largest collections of early-1970s to late-2000s games in the world." Thank you Wikipedia. Gus and I played Mortal Kombat and it was so fun even after my strategy of button mashing (a la Rigby) stopped being as effective. I loved playing the racing games, frogger kicked my ass tho. 

Gus on the stairs, hi Gus!

But alas, the fun eventually had to end. 

We returned back to his house, I said my goodbyes to his dog, Lyra (who I call Lyra baby), and to the rest of his family as well duhhh. I left some zines there too, I spread my gospel all around central New Hampshire. 

This is the final photo I took in NH. Gus's dad working in the garden, how green, how wonderful!

Then

Gus drove me back down to Boston where I got on my bus. Here is a photo I took from the car of some Boston buildings. 

And you would think my journey would be smooth sailing from there, but you would think wrong. So wrong. 

I get on the 7:30pm bus, Google maps doesn't show traffic, seems like we are gonna get there in 4 hours, score! We drive and drive and drive and we are in Connecticut when we pull into a gas station. Weird because on my way to Boston we did not make a pit stop... People get off and they get on again but the bus isn't starting. We wait and wait and wait and people start getting worried. I'm sitting in the middle of the bus so I can't hear what people are asking the bus driver about. Eventually I find out there's something wrong with the bus's battery and it'll be another 30 mins, then 45 mins, then an hour. A group gets out of the bus with their stuff and is waiting outside, phone in hand, Uber app open. As it becomes clear to everyone this bus isn't going anywhere, we divide ourselves into 4 person groups and order Ubers (or in my case, lyfts). I was with 3 other twenty-somethings and we decided to ride to Times Sq so we could take our respective trains. Our driver, Andreii (very Russian) eventually picks us up and he is speeding down this highway, we are gonna get there 10 minutes earlier than predicted. Minor tragedy strikes, he makes a wrong turn getting on the GW, +10 minutes. Bigger tragedy strikes, as we are going down Riverside Drive we are suddenly surrounded by cars stopped and going backwards down this one side ramp, there was an accident or something and the road was blocked off. His waze wasn't updated and kept telling us to go down Riverside Dr but we eventually just went all the way down Manhattan through regular streets. We got to Times Sq at 2am... We were supposed to get there 11:45pm. I finally get home at 2:30am (thank you to my kind, worried mother who picked me up). 

I left Gus's house at 3pm... I was on the road for 11.5 hours... τι ταλαιπωρία! Such hassle, such hardship, I have never endured whilst travelling. Actually that's a lie, getting stuck in Serbia was pretty bad, but hey at least I didn't have to pay extra for accommodations. I don't think I'm getting a refund for that $23 bus ticket...

Here is a photo from the gas station. 

My journey TO New Hampshire was a whole 'nother ordeal. 

The bus was at 11:30am, I left my house early so I could get there 11:08am. However, the MTA decided to fuck with me and make the N/W so unbelievably delayed that I got there 11:27am. If I had gotten there 4 minutes later the bus woulda left without me. Also, when I got on the bus, the woman sitting in the seat next to mine (I reserved it online) had her stuff all over my seat. I'm all like hey sorry this is my seat and she starts moving her stuff but tragedy strikes and her coffee spills ON MY SEAT. I clean up as much as I can but it had soaked into the seat. So for the whole trip I had to sit on a slightly wet seat AND to top it all off the 4hr 15min trip ended up being 6 hours cuz of the traffic going into Boston (fuck you world cup) AAAAANDDD I didn't bring a charger so I had to ration my phone battery, meaning I couldn't listen to music, so for 2 full hours I looked out the window and wrote down the name of every place on every road sign we passed by (granted, I could've read my book but I was beyond bored and wasn't feeling it). 

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In summary...

I had horrible luck with the buses, I got super freaked out and experienced many culture shocks (it was the whitest place I've ever been), witnessed so much beauty and greenery and water and mountains and hills and beauty, met some good people, had a great time with my friend, and overall had a superb trip to the home state of Connie Converse. 

To end, I give you this:

Straight from the aisles of NH Walmart, bisexual woke af miami pre-workout powder...

That's all folks!