The Legacy of Albuquerque

After an action-packed and constantly eventful four and a half months away, it was time to return to the UK. Somehow, the entire load of stuff I had transported out with me made it back into my bags and the car crash suffered two days previously was not severe enough to prevent me from flying. Before bidding farewell to New Mexico, I took one last bus ride into town to peruse the tourist shops and admire Albuquerque's Old Town.

San Felipe de Neri Church in Old Town Albuquerque

The morning of my flight was a beautiful one and I enjoyed the Southwestern sun with temperatures back to a bearable level and the adobe buildings revealing their best hues. As I sat on a bench in the centre of the Old Town, I contemplated the wild adventure that was now reaching its conclusion. There still remained so many things that I had not seen or had not done. And yet, I realised that that would always be the case, that I could not do everything and instead reflected on the amazing and fantastic journey that had started in the Heathrow departure lounge back in August. I am adamant that this long stay in New Mexico will be enormously beneficial in the long run. I gained much in the classroom that will affect the remainder of my degree in the UK, but I also made a host of friends in the USA and around the world that will set me up superbly for future travels, and the life skills I gained will, I hope, prove invaluable as I move forward in life.

A UNM Lobo

Ducks exploring the frozen surface of the campus pond

Hokona Hall, my accommodation at UNM, with the snowy Sandia mountains providing the backdrop

The Hokona Hall courtyard

The buildings of UNM and Johnson Field - even in winter the skies are a powerful blue shade

For the time being though, I took it all in and enjoyed a last wander around the UNM campus, reminding myself of all the happy memories that had been created there. It really was a wrench to leave but at the same time, I was greatly looking forward to returning home and getting back to the British way of life! The flight towards Denver afforded me a last look at the majestic Sandia mountains and the impressive sprawl of Albuquerque. I saw the alien formations of Tent Rocks and the snow-capped peaks of northern New Mexico, which I had conquered in September, skied down in December and in whose shadow I had endured the darkest hour of the trip following the car crash. At Denver, there was a final glorious sunset before all faded to black as I journeyed on to Virginia.

A last view of the sprawling city of Albuquerque, with the mountains and plains beyond

Winter Wonderland - the snowy Rockies in Colorado

A colourful rainbow of light - my final sunset, over Denver

My friend Jonathan's parents kindly allowed me to stay for my final night and the following day, it was onwards across the Atlantic; I arrived at Heathrow early on a Tuesday morning. Immediately after arriving I took the Underground up to north west London to visit my friend Joe, my other good friend from primary school (along with Jonathan). It seemed fitting not only to catch up with Joe having recently reignited my friendship with Jonathan, but also because a day spent in the capital was exactly what I needed after such a long period away! To see Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and the Shard brought it home to me that I was back. I no longer sounded foreign, the coins in my wallet had value again, drizzle ran down my cheeks and then I realised that it was all over and normality had resumed.

The River Thames and London Eye welcoming me back to the UK!

Wintry London - such a marked contrast from Albuquerque!

In the days, weeks, months, years to come, the memories will begin to fade but I will keep the library of photographs I took, the pamphlets and brochures from all the places I visited, the t-shirts, the magnets and of course, the Mexican condoms. This blog will, I hope, help me to consolidate my memories of the fantastic experience that has just finished.

Finally, one other thing will continue to remind me of Albuquerque and that is the magnificent series Breaking Bad. It was nigh on impossible to write about New Mexico for four months and not reference this TV show, so I had to fit it in somewhere. Before going to UNM, I had heard the name but had no idea of the content or the popularity of Breaking Bad. Telling the story of Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who starts 'cooking' crystal meth to provide for his family following his cancer diagnosis, Breaking Bad is a gritty and realistic drama filmed and set almost entirely in Albuquerque. I succeeded in watching the complete series from beginning to end during my stay in New Mexico and found it utterly gripping and compelling viewing with the added bonus of regularly seeing a location in Albuquerque to which I had been.

Walter White's house in Albuquerque

From now on, I will be able to stick on an episode of this show whenever the withdrawal symptoms start to kick in. Rated by some as the greatest TV show ever, Breaking Bad has revitalised tourism to New Mexico. Perhaps there are a few negative depictions of the Land of Enchantment, particularly in the criminal underworld, but as far as I am concerned, the more people that are encouraged and enabled to go and see Albuquerque and go and see New Mexico, the better!

Trip Stats:

2 Countries visited (USA & Mexico)

3 Time zones visited (Eastern, Mountain, Pacific)

4 Sports watched (Baseball, Football, American Football, Basketball)

6 Nights slept in car

8 States visited (VA, CO, NM, UT, AZ, CA, TX, NV + District of Columbia)

33 Miles walked climbing mountains

90 Minutes spent queueing for immigration at Dulles Airport

131 Days spent in the USA

4,016 Metres of elevation change (from Wheeler Peak, NM to Monterey Beach, CA)

4,440 Photographs taken

6,220 Miles travelled by road

Map showing the geographical area I visited (each US county I entered is shaded white)
- there is still much more of the country to explore!

10 Things I Like About the USA (no order):

• Widespread friendliness and hospitality
• Enormously contrasting natural landscapes, including true wilderness areas
• Fantastic sunsets over the desert
• Excellent hiking opportunities
• The fact that wild animals have not all been killed (the UK has eliminated bears and wolves and is working on badgers, whereas in the USA I saw wild sheep, coyotes, deer, marmots, chipmunks, birds of prey and numerous other creatures)
• Food (hundreds of fast food places, thousands of flavours of foods available, complimentary drink refills)
• Cheapness of most products (imported Cadbury's Dairy Milk is almost the same price as in the UK, whilst many other goods cost the same number of dollars as they do pounds)
• Love of sport (great to see sport treated so passionately, although it's a shame there aren't more 'proper' sports like football (soccer) or rugby being played)
• Amusing misunderstanding of geography (this is a positive because it provided me with laughs aplenty - 'Your accent's Australian, right?', 'You're British? I thought you said you were from the UK?')
• WiFi almost everywhere (in city centres, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, service stations etc.)

And 10 Areas In Which the USA Could Be Improved (no order):

• Government shutdowns and their consequences for planning visits to national parks
• Respect for, or lack of, anyone attempting to visit the country (hidden visa fees, huge immigration queues, general rudeness of border control staff)
• Understanding of 24-hour time or metric measurements (Liberia and Myanmar/Burma are the only other wholly imperial countries)
• Treatment of pedestrians and facilities for urban walking (or maybe that's just New Mexico), coupled with poor public transport (cars are very often the only viable option for moving around)
• Roadways (the grid system confused me because everything looksed the same, and intersections seemed far more dangerous than roundabouts, even before I had an accident at one)
• Recycling facilities (the UK is not as hot on this as Germany or Benelux but it is still far more advanced than the USA with regard to sustainability as far as I've experienced)
• Use of the English language - the language is confusing, illogical and over-complicated as it is, but the British method is just inherently better! (words inappropriate to their definition, like 'football' or 'biscuit', are particularly irritating)
• Inclusion of tax in prices to avoid confusion (accentuated by the fact that the largest commonly-used coin is the quarter, worth a puny 15p)
• Toning-down of the obsessive (and often wholly unnecessary) patriotism
• Poverty and deprivation in large cities like Albuquerque, Washington DC, San Francisco and Las Vegas - the wealth gap appears to be much bigger than in the UK

10 Things I Learned:

• You can take the Briton out of the UK, but it's impossible to remove the Britishness from the Brit! Being 4,900 miles away from home reinforced my national identity, and as much as I loved my time in the US, I am very glad I am British and not American
• New Mexico's history is every bit as vibrant as I thought it would be
• The Southwest in general is inherently beautiful
• The Grand Canyon is a must-see, and my failure to get there necessitates a return trip - I would never have imagined that snow in Arizona would prevent travelling there
• New Mexico is a blue state but there are still plenty of Republican supporters and it's important not to aggravate them by criticising the USA's terrible lack of gun control laws
• Be observant and cautious in all places so as to avoid assault and mugging (especially in San Francisco)
• Many people in New Mexico don't speak English. Accidentally saying 'S'il vous plaît' instead of 'Por favor' does not count as speaking Spanish
• Most Americans have no idea that England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom are three different entities
• Many Americans have no idea that New Mexico is not Mexico
• Breaking Bad is amazing