6th January 2009 - NYC to Dallas

6.1.09

 

Today was the most boring and uneventful day. Rise and shine, shower, grab bag, breakfast, walk to bus stop. Miss the first one because the stuid $2 a ride buses don't accept notes. Ummm. Get on the next one, bus straight to airport. Get on flight. A few hours later land in Atlanta. Get on next flight, a few hours later land in Dallas. Find shuttle bus to take me to train station. Carparks in Dallas airport are a very long distance apart. Two shuttle buses and to the train station. Buy ticket, wait, wait. Train comes, train drops me at stop. I find hostel. Check in. Meet the others staying there. Go over road to find some food for dinner and something to drink. Advised this is a dry zone. "A what the?" I ask. Yep, bible belt, a dry zone. Nothing to drink but fizzy drink. Decide to go to Dallas city sights tomorrow with the two girls from Holland. We all talk some more, guy from somewhere I can't remember, but living in Brazil, Brian, made peanut butter biscuits. That was the excitement for the night. Hostel too far out from Dallas centre to go far before getting bearings by day, and trains only run every hour until 11pm. Highlight of the day as a whole was the sight of the sun and the KNOWING it was warm. It was dusk when I got off plane, but was definitely setting things up well for warmth the next few days.

5th January 2009

5.1.2009

 

Took myself off this morning to have my nails tidied at one of the many beauty salons within a small radius. Hannah had had a late night last night so she wasn't up and moving, but once she was ready and I was ready, we hopped on the subway straight down to lower Manhattan. Very different to the upper and mid town areas. Not just in people and general feeling, but even in the architecture. So very different. After finding the Titanic Memorial (a very small and rather pathetic lighthouse) we were ready to take on the Brooklyn Bridge. Rugged up well, prepared for cold wind over it - and over we went. It was fantastic! Not anywhere near as cold, long or boring as it could have been. Suprised halfway across to discover that to our right was that funny statue everyone goes to see, that I was not fussed to see or not see. (Statue of Liberty if you're wondering what I'm talking about!) Suitably impressed by the view from the bridge in all directions, not beautiful in the sense of the absolute beauty, but beautiful in that it was a view of something iconic, from something iconic, and to realise that I personally was HERE/THERE - it was just a real wow, omg, it's amazing - moment. I'm sure you know what I'm rambling about there!! After we made it over we looked at the Brooklyn map and thought that Brooklyn Heights would be a suitable destination. The historic area, it was indeed. Instantly we were in Brooklyn I felt a sense of peace and calm that one definitely doesn't feel in Manhattan, and I commented to Hannah that I liked it here. It wasn't too long before she admitted it was growing on her as well - very different to Manhattan, but not bad. We had lunch, which was yuck. Terrible. I had a turkey burger, which wasn't too bad, although the patty was made out of turkey mince, and I'd expected it would be a slice of turkey breast or the like. Hannah had an open turkey sandwich, which turned out to be bread with chunks of (leftover) turkey (from Christmas???) and drenched in gravy. It was disgusting. Not to mention the service when we first walked in this place. We sat down, we'd been told to sit whereever and we were snapped at to move elsewhere. Then we struggled to get service, then we got this terrible food and were not asked at all how it was - funny that! So we were not particularly nice when we tipped. We don't care that you're meant to tip regardless, we tipped, but used our pennies, and paid little attention to what they added to. Not much, that's for sure. Not just were we drastically overcharged for shit food, but we'd received the worst service. Not holding it against Brooklyn though. Just that restaurant. Once we'd seen a bit more of Brooklyn Heights, jumped on the subway back to Manhattan. Once in Times Square, hopped off and up to Letterman to collect our tickets. Were in such a damned long queue to collect them. Were given a number and told to WAIT. Were given a revving up then sent on our way, to return 45 minutes later. While we were collecting our tickets we were asked by the guy if we were prepared to take our hats off inside, of course we said yes, they're beanies to keep our heads warm. The girls in front of us were asked the same question. One flipped. She demanded to know why. She couldn't understand why. We'd decided to kill time we'd go to Grand Central Station as we wanted to see it, but after the revving up and delay, I suggested we just go for the $5 cosmopolitans that were advertised up the road. Far better way to get us in the laughing mood for the show. Had a few, and next to the bar was a little table with "red hat" - the lady who couldn't understand why she had to take her hat off. The hat matched her lipstick, but that really was it. It didn't match anything else, at all! It didn't even make her look good, so we couldn't understand her distress. Once back at Letterman, I took my hat off because the one  was wearing gives me lines below my hairline, so I wanted them to uncrease sooner rather than later, not that I thought we would get caught on camera, but just in case. Red hat still had her hat on. The queue snaked in, we sitted down. She still had her hat on. The theatre filled, the staff seated people. She still had her hat on. Hannah and I were starting to get really frustrated at her obnoxious behaviour, and were contemplating calling someone to have them make her hat off, just to spite her by this point, when someone did ask her to take it off. Yay for him! I've not seen such stupid insistence about the most pathetic thing before!!! The show was ok, the special guest was Keifer Sutherland, which was pretty cool. He had some pretty funny stories to tell. All in all, it was a good experience and a fantastic day. Once back at the hostel, it was time to do some washing and pack for departure. Have to also mention, had an apple pie from McDonalds. Interesting that theirs are different to ours in Australia, yet the apple pie I had in Slovakia last year was the same as ours, not America's! mwahahha. Oh yes, ours are better!

4th January 2009

4.1.2009

 

We've seen a Broadway play (and I've seen a Broadway musical) but time to check out seeing an absolute blockbuster Broadway musical. The Lion King. First stop on the way out for the day was the ticket booth and the theatre. The ticket booth didn't have any tickets for it, and i don't think I'd seen them at other times either, so we walked to the theatre to see what their offerings were. I'm leaving Tuesday so today being Sunday was my last chance to see something, anything, but particularly this. The only option at the theatre was the expensive tickets at the front. Worth itwe decided. Paid our money and off we went to kill some time until 2pm. More shopping - or more of looking shopping than shopping shopping. Had mexican for lunch then I spotted the police booth, so asked there about reporting my coat stolen - not possible there, but given directions to the cop shop I'd need to go to. Still had time to kill - why is it that when you don't want time to fly it does, but when you do, it won't!?!?!? As we were walking down the street we saw the Letterman theatre and the sign advertising tickets available, so we decided to put our names down. Couldn't hurt, and they're free. Had to be interviewed by the production team before we could hand the form in, what a totally weird experience. Returned to the Minksoff Theatre in time for the most amazing show. The Lion King. It was simply tremendous. Anyone that has seen it would understand. To see it on Broadway, brilliant. So big and full of character and life. Special effects, costumes, wow, what a show. Following the show it was time for a very different experience. The police station. Went to the station I'd been told to go to. Was asked by the cop why I hadn't reported it before now. Ummm, I've been on holidays and busy, and been returning to the shop to see if it had been returned. He was not nice. Lady cop was then not exceptionally nice to me - she asked the address of the restaurantI'd been at, I told her, she told me it wasn't the address because I hadn't given her the street number. I told her all I knew was what I'd told her, and that all the cops I'd spoken to before now knew where I'd been and hadn't sent me on my way. Eventually she gave me the form to fill in and once I'd done that, she must've realised I was just a tourist from overseas, because she visibly softened and started being nice and helpful. I was impressed with the speed in which my need to fill in the bloody form was filled and I was on my way much earlier than I thought I would be. Hannah had dinner half ready by the time I returned - beetroot, cabbage, chicken, zucchini, capsicum. A good proper meal we'd both said we'd needed. The South African guys from Friday night wanted to go for a drink after they finished watching the Sunday night movie in the theatre room, it was their last night in NYC, but the movie just went and went and went, and I was starting to get really weary and in need of more antihistamines and drugs to slow this cold that just won't budge, so I was soon dead to the world. Too late for me, this damned illness. Note to self, and anyone reading this. Ensure you're over any cold well before you leave home so that it doesn't return when you hit cold weather!!!!!

3rd January 2009

3.1.2009

 

Saturday morning in New York City. What does one who lives here do? We really were not sure but decided brunch would probably be an apt activity. Didn't need to start too early thanks to Hannah's having gone to "the party" last night, so it was very late brunch for sure by the time we rocked up to some very "Chelsea" Chelsea restaurant. Laughed at the waitstaff and how different they looked to those at home, dressed in whatever they liked, and in such a "Chelsea" fashion. Delicious breakfast, and a good start to Saturday. Restaurant was called "Elmos". lol. From there we braved the waterfront park - braved it because the closer we edged to water, so much colder the wind became. While walking down, an ambulance had a car crash into it, and the ambulance lost it's front. Was kind of funny. Went past the Chelsea Hotel -  (Dylan Thomas drank there). A man walking past noticed our cameras around our necks and wrists and offered to take our photo under the sign. Hannah hesitated, quite obvious a hesitation, but I said ok. I asked her about it once he'd gone - she thought it was odd a stranger would offer to take a photo and had thought he wanted to steal our cameras. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. Oops. I'm so not a suspicious person in that sort of situation. Back from the waterfront park (which was not exceptionally exciting) we walked through the main streets that make up the gallery district. Into a few galleries. Some were quite marvellous. After we'd had our cultural fix in Chelsea, we hotfooted it back to Times Square to check out tickets for "All My Sons" the play John Lithgow, Diane Wiest, Katie Holmes were starring in. I knew I wanted to see it, but Hannah hadn't heard of it. Once she saw it and read a little, she was convinced. We were too early for 'student rush' so we killed a little bit of time until 5pm. Into a few shops, then in typical New York City fashion, time had passed superbly fast, so we were in the Student Rush queue. Made it to the front, got our tickets. $25 each. Absolute bargain. One seat in row B and another in row G. Had 2.5 hours to pass til we'd need to be thinking about sitting down so back to the hostel, made some dinner, got changed, returned. Oh my friggin god, that show was friggin fantastic. Full of drama, it had an ending that I surely didn't see coming. A gunshot was in there, which was not just a gun shot but a total shock. Absolutely amazing show. We did one act each in each seat, to be fair, and the seats were both different perspective but equally good. The row B seat gave us both a total star struck moment or two, which we were surprised to find we both had had, when we discussed it after. That we were only 2 metres from the stage, and these amazing and well known actors were so damned close to us, we were overcome with "wow". We both said we felt like our mums...! lol (sorry Mum, but it's true, you'd have been having kittens at being so close!) Could see the skinniness of Katie Holmes without magazine photoshopping. So bloody skinny. Finished up the evening with some cake from Junior's Bakery next door. They claim to be the best cheesecake makers in NYC, or more to the point, New York Times Magazine says they are - we don't doubt them there. Strawberry Pie Cake we both chose. It was simply divine.

January 2nd 2008

2.1.2009

 

Hannah and I had decided on New Year's Eve that we could do some stuff together for the next few days, rather than separately, which worked well for me. She had a fabulous book and map and I was happy to go along with anything she wanted to do, seeing as I hadn't done too much touristy stuff to date. Morning started at a reasonable hour, and we walked downtown through Central Park and via the Dakota building, which she hadn't seen. The Dakota Building being where John Lennon lived and was killed. Once we made it to Columbus Circle and had a cup of tea and coffee, went in search of my coat. I was heartbroken to have confirmed the non-appearance and unlikely reappearance of my coat. How sad. I insisted that we get a train further downtown as the cold was killing me by this point, and of course, I was coatless!! Caught a train down to the Union Square area and had lunch, then wandered through the markets in the direction of Washington Park and on to Bleeker Street. That was the most of Hannah's must see list for that area, so it was my turn for a must see! I had read about the Old St Patrick's Cathedral and thought that would be nice to see, so we rounded a few corners, and there it appeared. It's yard WAS a graveyard, which was pretty horrid, lucky for us it was locked away behind a gate and high wall. The cathedral itself was quite beautiful, albeit small. No wonder they had to build a new one. Discovered a plaque referring to the "Know Nothing Movement" so we were fascinated as to what that could be - to later look up. Onwards we trudged, ok, we didn't trudge, we were having a nice day and it was fun, so definitely no trudging, but onwards we moved through to Little Italy and Chinatown - Chinatown encroaching on Little Italy as the Italian immigrants are not so new (as a general group) and are moving up to better areas. So funny that you can walk through so many different suburbs in such a short distance - Soho, Noho, Nolita, West Village, etc etc. Our final stop before we had to be back to the hostel for an evening trip to The Met was an outlet store called Daffys. I found a substitute coat in there. It's stuffed with duck down!!! It really is like wearing a doona! Am very grateful it doesn't LOOK as though I'm wearing a doona!!! Once back to the hostel, a few minutes to spare to get organised before heading off to see The Met. Well, that itself was an experience. It's a museum that only suggests an entry fee - of $20, but at any time you can pay what you like. Friday night is 'free' night, in that they definitely don't expect payment. By the time we got there we had grouped up with a few others in the tour, from South Africa. I paid my entry fee first, handed over $1 and the lady asked how many it was for, 1 I answered, before thinking, derrrrrrrrrrr Alycia, you could've said 5! So the next 4 only paid 25 cents each, by handing over $1 also. Tour was good, easy to break off and see what we wanted. Had been told to keep close to the guide so we could see and hear, so I made sure I did when I wanted to. I'm not polite on holidays anymore. The funniest moment though was when I'd separated a bit from the group but then returned to it just to hear the guide asking (should point out here that the group was not the hostel group only, it contained others) what the look on the lady's face suggested about her - everyone was answering with deep answers - whimsical, pensive, aloof etc etc... She was pushing for more and more words to better describe it as I walked over, took one look and said, "she looks like a slut", "Oh finally!" she exclaimed. "This is the second person to give me that answer in all the tours I've conducted. You're spot on! Are you an art student??" I just laughed!!!! It was so easy to see the look in this lady's eyes - the lady in the painting I mean! That was my proud, clever moment! HA !! Whatever!!! Returned to hostel and most of the hostel was off to "the party".... Free and vip entry to the first nightclub in NYC. I was still dying and keen to try some other medication I'd found to get rid of this bloody cold, so I took that and went to bed!

Happy New Year!

1.1.2009

 

Whoops, typed 1.1.2008 - going back a year!!! After hopping in to bed at 7am, woke at 11am. Texted Brad (who also lost his coat last night) no appearance of coats last night before they went home. Fingers crossed when I give the pub a call a bit later it will have surfaced. Sat around feeling very lazy then went in search of some lunch, some stuff for dinner, some proper drugs to dry my sinuses out, hopefully anyway! Found the new year's day movie marathon in the theatre room, so found a spare couch and settled in. Later that afternoon/early evening, Hannah found me, then were joined by Laura and Bec. Had some dinner with them, we'd all bought pasta and sauce stuff, so mixed it together, then it was time to send them off into the big wide yonder. They were on the 9.30 bus to Toronto. Ick. Glad it was them and not I, not something I could be doing tonight after last night!

NYE in NYC

31.12.2008

 

New Year's Eve...

 

Day started pretty bloody early as I had booked on the 8am bus from Boston. Up at 5.30, which wasn't so bad seeing as I'd been waking at 5.30 most mornings anyway, just a quick open the eyes wakeup and return to sleep, but still! Bus left early as all booked were on board. Half an hour early. Remember that - because we hit a slight delay. A snow storm. I think it was about half an hour out of Boston. It was coming down thick and fast. Cars were in all sorts of shape all over the road, a lot of them in twisted and mangled shape! The driver we had was obviously new to driving buses or driving to New York or driving in the snow, because she was pretty nervous and shaky the entire trip. We edged along incredibly slowly and arrived at 1.50 - Our scheduled arrival time was 12.20 - so given that we left half an hour early, two hours longer all up! I couldn't check in to the hostel once I was here, had to wait for check in time because "room isn't ready" - I only wanted to stick my bag in the locker! So I waited around and easily killed time, checked in then it was time to layer up.

Stockings, two pairs of thin socks, one pair of thick socks, long johns, tracky dacks, normal pants. Singlet, thermal, two long sleeved tops, cashmere jacket, fleece jacket, brown windproof jacket, black coat. Two scarves, two beanies, gloves. I was set! Other than my face, I was so toasty warm!

Laura, Bec and the stray from their dorm Hannah, and I headed off then in the direction of Times Square. Once there, made our way down 43rd to a pub Bec had an entry voucher for. We were so glad we went there - we had such an awesome time. Jugs were $5 so we were all beer drinkers for the night. Met so many different people, had so many conversations or attempts at. There was the lovely couple Kevin and Tracey. She was simply hilarious. Turned out she has her own one person comedy show. Yep, could see that! A few Aussies working in Europe for Top Deck Tours - 2 of them tour guides and 2 of them in the office. Wonderful people. Two young guys from New Jersey - Michael "the writer" and Derek the "pinky swear poofter"... Honestly, Derek extended his pinky finger to Bec I think it was to pinky swear something. I thought it was friggin hilarious, but brilliant!!!! Chris from an apartment over the road. Nick the Dick. This moron walked around all night with a guitar case in arms. No idea who he was for real, or where he fitted in the bigger picture, but he was such a massive dick! Got to the point at the end of the night I was almost spinning circles on the spot to avoid him! At 11.30 we decided it was time to make our way somewhat towards Times Square. Ha! Took us 20 minutes to walk just 2 blocks. Not because of the people on the street, but because we'd drunk too much and our group of four had grown to about ten and we kept losing people! Made it to 43rd and 8th. 43rd and 7th is where the ball is dropped. So no see! Saw confetti fall. That was our NYE in Times Square! As Laura said later - I was alone at midnight - we'd all become separated in the crowds when we reached them, so we were all with strangers. And in a crowd of that size, you could well be the only person on the street. Except for the moron behind me who asked how he was meant to see the ball if he couldn't get further through. "Ummmm, try arriving earlier..." Back to the pub for more drinks and more of the same. Spent a few more hours there before deciding it was our time to battle our way home. So, coats on. Except for me. Mine was gone. Along wtih my gloves. WTF. My new coat, the one I bought in Paris, after setting my trip up in such a wy that I could buy it there. How someone can take a coat that isn't their own is really beyond me! Whether by accident or not. Lowlife scum. Anyway, once we were in a position to consider leaving, we headed out into the cold to find a way home. Taxi would be the obvious choice, in NYC, but to our quick realisation, there is one night when it is impossible to get one~!!! Yep! So, we ended up asking a limo driver how much for a ride home, he told us $60. We just laughed. Tried for a taxi a bit more, then gave up and returned to the limo. Hopped in, he was such a funny driver. We realised that the limo was clearly in use. We asked who it belonged to - "some rich bastard" he said. He told us not to touch anything as it would get him fired, then moved us swiftly 60 blocks back to our hostel. As we hopped out, he gave us his card, in case we might need his services in the future?? Turned out the next day that Hannah had grabbed a jacket off the seat thinking it was one of ours and had to ring him to come back to get the jacket which was NOT ours! Poor guy! He was so convinced he was going to get the sack. I wasn't quite ready for bed, so gave Mum and Dad a call to wish them happy new year, then stumbled across some festivities in a hallway. Sat down and joined in. Next thing we knew it was 7am and the hostel staff noticed the bottle of vodka that should not have been noticed and we were issued an ultimatum - tip it out or go to the cold to drink it. To bed I scurried~ Far too cold outside! Outside the rest went, simulated tipping it out, then returned it in to a room they wouldn't be found in! That was NYE iin NYC. A fantastic night, very very memorable! Spent with a great group of people and events that were a once in a lifetime!!!!!