Poughkeepsie

Hola from Poughkeepsie!

Bit gutted about the memory card disaster but I’ve had a great few days here which have more than made up for it. Just before the train from Grand Central to here me and stu went to check out the NYC museum of natural history which was nice but nothing we hadn’t really seen before. Got on the train fine and had a pretty easy 2 hour journey up the Hudson River to here where Erin picked us up. We just dumped the gear at the house (Which the company they work for pays for….) and got some supplies from the supermarket. Had some dinner in a local Italian place which was lovely then we came back and had a few beers with their friends.

The next day was really good fun. We got up around 10/11 and went down to the river (the college campus that the house is located on is right on the Hudson river) and played some football with Robin (the guy whose putting us up). After that we went to a local lake called sturgeon pool which the company these guys all intern at has a boathouse and retreat on the banks of so we got to swim in the lake and take a rowing boat out too! They’re all really friendly and robins been a really great help so its been plain sailing so far! Had some pizza later that night that was absolutely huuuuuuuuuge and then went for the all out American experience and went to see the dark knight at…. An outdoor drive in cinema :D

Now at first I wasn’t overly keen on the idea, I wanted to see this film on a massive screen with ear bleeding sound however I wasn’t disappointed. Not only was the screen huge but the sound comes from all the car radio’s (each one of these places has a radio frequency that you tune into to hear the sound) so the sound was excellent! Great film though and a great day. That night we just sat in the house and chilled out which was welcomed!

Today’s been another great day, nice long ly in a comfy bed (I’m sure that wont last long) and went to star bucks across the road for a coffee. I know it seems like we’re spending a lot of money already but everything’s incredibly cheap up here and we, well I, are very under budget. After that we went to the Vanderbilt spring/summer retreat which is a few miles north of hear. The house was absolutely huge with everything pretty much intact. Theres a lot of information about the Vanderbilt family online somewhere so I’ll save the boring details for when I get home.

Anyway, Iains lost his phone and we’re currently trying to source a car dealership (this place is pretty small) or some transport to Boston where we should have more luck. Its looking at the moment like we might have to get the 1hour 45min train back to NYC to get a train to Boston which while cheap is a bit of an inconvenience. If that’s the case then I wont regret coming to Poughkeepsie. Its been the best place so far :)

Later,

Chris.