September 2010

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Fairytale in New York – 02

September 28, 2010 in New York New York | 2 comments

Our third day in NYC was cloudy but we braved the gloom and headed to Central Park which is as incredible as everyone says. Forget any oh-its-like-Hyde-Park-in-London preconceptions, this park is VAST. And it has so many fun things to stumble across around every corner.

   

We went on a carousel, had a belini at the boathouse, took a rowboat out onto the lake (and got stuck more than once trying to explore illegal narrow streams!) we saw plenty of amazing musicians, photography lessons, art exhibitions and a dog-training school with every type of dog in a group from a baby chihuahua to a St Bernards (can you spot them?). It really is a sanctuary but with sky scrapers still towering around every corner.

That night I met a colleague for dinner and after feeling all smug and like I understood the subway; I hadn’t grasped the difference between local (stop every stop) and express (miss stops out) and ended up unable to get to the subway I needed for the restaraunt. In the end I had to RUN from 34th Street to 18th Street in wedges (that’s 16 big blocks) and was 30minutes late to meet her. What a faux pas. Luckily she was very patient and as soon as I realised she was Americas biggest Blur fan we quickly got over any cultural differences. We ate at an amazing mexican – Rosa Mexicano where they come and make the worlds best guacamole in front of you in a bowl as big as your head. The margaritas weren’t half bad either.

The next day it was all aboard the Greyhound for a 5 hour drive to Pittsfield where I was going to my beautiful friends Mel & Scotts wedding out in the mountains.

  

The greyhound wasn’t as bad as everyone makes out; it smelt like pickles but had free wifi. It was also amazing to see so much of America out of the window. I saw pumpkin patches, huge ‘Amytiville’ style houses, proper motels oh and a shop that simply had a sign saying Beer & TV Repairs. Ummm…

  

  

The wedding was incredible from start to finish. The night before as everyone congregated out at Buck Steep (manor hotel out in the middle of nowhere… supposedly haunted and I can definitely see why!) we had a bonfire under the perfect stars. Everyone chatted and snuggled for warmth and there was ghost stories and guitar playing and lots of junk food and local ale! It was like being on adult summer camp and one of the highlights of my trip. The funniest part was when a girl offered my beau a cookie and told his they had wheat in them. Halfway through his second he turned to me and asked why did I need to know they had wheat in them… are lots of americans wheat sensitive or something? And I quickly helped him realise what exactly was in them, something more herbal than wheat altogether… !

The wedding day was gloriously sunny with clear blue skies and was a very romantic affair with beautiful vows, stunning bridal party, sparklers and lots of fun late into the night.

We headed back to NYC the next day and had a cheeky Shake Shack on route. If you are ever in New York you have to eat here! It’s like a very very upmarket MaccyDs. The most amazing burgers, crinkly fries AND phenomenal milkshakes including peanut butter and oreo flavours. They also played DeathCabForCutie the whole time we ate, which you wouldn’t get in any UK fast food joint…

     

Then we snuck up onto the roof terrace of the Hudson Hotel (and I don’t do lifts, so reckon the 16 flights of stairs definitely cancelled out the burger face!) where we watched the sun set over the river and I took some of my favourite photgraphs of New York.

More soon; including falling in love with Williamsburg, the top celeb spots of my life and discovering what the Elvis sandwich is…. and eating one.

Don’t forget to enter & hype the NYC Giveaway. Only 5 days left!

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Fairytale In New York – 01

September 24, 2010 in New York New York | 2 comments

So the trip got off to a slightly bumpy start. London Transport decided to hold a tube strike on the day of our flight! I never go on holiday, so typical that they select that day of all other 364.  I had to charm my mamanger to sneak out before the walk-out began at 3pm, which meant we were at Heathrow eager and checked in four hours early.

And then our flight was delayed. And THEN, I bumped into my first ever boyfriend in the departure lounge (my life IS the Truman Show, I mean what are the chances? Plus I was wearing a scruffy flight outfit of hoodie and scraped back ponytail. Alas!) And finally, we board the plane and then are sat on the runway in the pouring rain for nearly 2 hours, because some families from a transfer flight from Mumbai who had boarded had started getting sick. One by one puking children were excorted from the aircraft and it was definitely starting to feel like Dawn Of The Dead and that our plane was facing some sort of zombie infestation!

After all that drama, I watched a tiny bit of Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and then slept for the rest of the flight. I woke up just in time to gape open mouthed and nose pressed to the glass at the grid system as we landed. Because of the delay we arrived into NYC at about 3am and were hot, smelly and oh so excited as we got our first of many Yellow Cabs (so cheap! with TV in the back!) to our friends house. 

After a first day brunch, where I learnt how to order US-style – “2 eggs over-easy with a side of grits” … what?! We headed to Coney Island; as it was a beautiful day and it turned out we were staying just 6 stops on the subway away.

Coney Island is definitely New Yorks answer to Blackpool. We saw some real sights there including an elderly woman dancing to a boombox playing Like A Virgin! We played Shoot The Freak where you had to fire at a freak with a paintball gun (the freak actually turned out to be a surly Mexican teenage boy wearing a hockey mask so not too freaky really) and I tried my first (and last) Corn Dog. Ew! It’s like a frankfurter in a doughnut. It’s weird.

  

  

That night I learnt to play beer pong with some serious American movie sports jock boys, sang karaoke (including Empire State Of Mind which did bring a little holiday tear to my eye!) and ended up drinking Whiskey and eating cheesecake on a porch in Brooklyn at 3am.

The next day we brushed off the cobwebs with a ride on the ferry to see Liberty. She was looking lovely.

More soon… & don’t forget to enter and hype up my NYC competition here!

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Transport is Trendy

September 4, 2010 in Day Tripping | 3 comments

As I mentioned, a few weeks ago the magic three daytrippers lost one point of our triangle of fun times. Ali has moved to Goteborg, Sweden and therefore any future day tripping will mostly likely take place… er there! So that will be fun. I hope I see a bear or a wolf (from a distance).

Anyway inbetween packing up her wordly possesions and learning how to say JAG er ny här bli trevlig till jag behaga (er, meant to be I’m new here please be nice to me; but upon closer inspection of my really terrible swedish means I’m fresh here be nice to self which might not encourage new friends!) we managed to squeeze in one last London based day trip.

First stop was the London Transport Museum. Now you might read that and think snoooooze, but this place is seriously amazing. Transport is trendy! As a Londoner you clock up on average seven hours a week at least hurtling around deep underground on the tube (and that’s if you have a sweet 30 minute commute like me) so how can you not be slightly curious by how this monsterous network of tunnels and trains came to exist. It’s not just the invention, you can learn all about transport used during the war, revolutions and trends in travel. And if engineering and industry is not your thing, then you can pretty much see every poster, map design and artwork used since 1800 and they are absolutely amazing. I think my favourite are Adrian Allisons work from the 1930s with posters like this. There is an incredible online database of artists and artwork here if you aren’t near Covent Garden for a visit in person.

That’s the museum, what I haven’t mentioned are the two best bits of any museum… the gift shop and the cafe of course! And London Transport Museum has top examples of both. The cafe is a tranquil retreat in the middle of bustling weekend central London, as it never seems overly busy.

The seats are upholstered in traditional London Underground fabric (the kind that really prickles your bum if you have a summer dress on, let me tell you) and has a really quaint little menu – including smoothies themed around the various tube lines. I think we all tried to stick stubbornly to our respective tube lines that we live on! And I very much enjoyed a District line limey apple affair. Where else in London can you buy marmite on crumpets either? It was the perfect afternoon snack to accompany Alis present giving ceremony!

The gift shop is a dangerous place as you could easily end up with more transport related items than you could physically fit in any home. From giant poster prints, to tube map covered crockery, to an entire sofa covered in the traditional tube seat ’moquette’ – again in your preferred line (East London line for me. Orange and Brown tetric cubes!) And it was in this shop that we discovered the joy of naughty bus! The best childrens book in the history of the world. I instantly added it to my amazon wishlist which is slowly starting to consist of more childrens books than anything else. Oops. (Burglar Bill, Each Peach Pear Plum & The Bad-Tempered Ladybird are all on there too!)

My tube geekery is definitely on the up and I stumbled across this amazing blog Going Underground to add to my reader, which features the serious stuff (strikes, maintenace, grr!) but also lovely anectodes and sightings on the tube as well as events and things to look out for.

We then headed just a quick walk around the corner to Hope & Greenwood. I think Ali might miss this place more than me or Craig! We will have to definitely post her H&G goody bags to keep her spirits up.

They are definitely the original and the best old fashioned sweet stockist, and the entire shop is an experience in itself. The smells, the bunting, the tasters and the jar after jar of beautiful sweets. I absolutely adore all the packaging and tiny details that they put into making everything as authentic as possible.

Do not fear, Craig and I will continue our day trips and adventures so I have things to report back on, but it will be with a slightly heavy heart (and sore fingers and thumbs from texting Ali constantly while we do it!). She has left us in care of her KITE! So that is top of the list for an autumn antic once I’m back from holidaying.

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