Sunday, 10 August 2008
new york pics
So this is the sign I saw outside the baron the first night that I went for a walk
in NYC....nice!
...Time Square
Thursday, 7 August 2008
a few pics from NYC - more to come
my friend in NYC - Francesco from Italy
Roy Hargrove Big Band Concert in Central Park
Roy Hargrove Big Band Concert in Central Park
Really lovely evening of people watching and big band jazz.
Monday, 4 August 2008
NYC - Peru
Nightmare! I hate travelling and all other people!
I was up for over 24 hours trying to get to my bed in Lima. I had to speak Spanish all day or Spanonsense is probably more accurate. I honestly hated the whole day and wanted very much to fly to heathrow instead, but I didn´t so yey me!
I arrived here in Lima at about 2.30 and I am staying in the most extraordinary hostel. It´s in an old building, which has the feel of walking into a church, heavy stone everywhere and grandeur of old. I asked wearily at the reception desk if they had any rooms for one..."si" he said "yours is this...with bathroom". That perked me up. Not only that but I have a double bed! Result!
Lima has many stray dogs and people who want you to buy things off them. Is that what they call culture shock?
I went for a wlak around the city today. It was warm-ish and I had on kneee length trousers and a light jumper and flip-flops. I stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the locals in their jeans, coats and scarves. Quickly nipped into nearest shop and bought me a pair of jeans. Best purchase I ever made..it stopped the people staring!
I made it to Peru and I can´t bloody believe it!
I was up for over 24 hours trying to get to my bed in Lima. I had to speak Spanish all day or Spanonsense is probably more accurate. I honestly hated the whole day and wanted very much to fly to heathrow instead, but I didn´t so yey me!
I arrived here in Lima at about 2.30 and I am staying in the most extraordinary hostel. It´s in an old building, which has the feel of walking into a church, heavy stone everywhere and grandeur of old. I asked wearily at the reception desk if they had any rooms for one..."si" he said "yours is this...with bathroom". That perked me up. Not only that but I have a double bed! Result!
Lima has many stray dogs and people who want you to buy things off them. Is that what they call culture shock?
I went for a wlak around the city today. It was warm-ish and I had on kneee length trousers and a light jumper and flip-flops. I stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the locals in their jeans, coats and scarves. Quickly nipped into nearest shop and bought me a pair of jeans. Best purchase I ever made..it stopped the people staring!
I made it to Peru and I can´t bloody believe it!
New York
On my first full day in the big apple I went to time square. It would be an intersting experimant to put Mr Gareth Stangroom in the middle of time square and see if he exploded or melted. It was crazy and not very pleasant. I think the word is probably incredible, It is full of impact, but I couldn´t help thinking "but why?" and also "how do I get out of here?"
To compensate I went to central park, which is beautiful. I took some pictures of the Jackie O resevoir and a busker playing the sax and the city skyline framing an expanse of sunlit green, but it is so immense that its hard to capture it on camera.
It was incredbly hot....a sticky, heavy kind of heat that makes you move very slowly so the park was a lovely place to be.
I did a lot of walking. Partly because I like wandering through places to experience them, but also because the subway is a tourists nightmare...it takes a few days to really get your head around it...it makes the london undergrounds look like childsplay. There is a distinct lack of signs, destinations, any useful information anywhere....I think I got it by the time I was leaving which is usually the way.
I made a few friends at the hostel. Angie from Oz, Juliette from Paris and Francesco from Italy. Francesco and I went for a wander round Chelsea (saw the hotel where many famous writiers and musicians have stayed and where Nancy wotserface was killed) and then on the Greenwich Village. It´s gorgeous there and really laid back. We had sushi, real sushi, my first time. I liked it and it was perfect for the weather.
I tried to go to the Moma in the afternoon, but I waited till it was free and then suprsingly about half a million people also had the same idea. The queue went all the way down the blockand was about 4 deep. I didn´t wasn it that much. So I decided I would not waste the afternoon, I´d get the subway downtown (how cool is that?) and go to south ferry where you can look over at liberty island. After some complicated map reading I got to the right subway station and got the number 1 line all the way down to the tip of Manhattan....and then the train didn´t stop and took me all the way back again. It was one subway frustration after another for the rest of the afternoon till I made it back to the hostel about 2 hours later after not seeing or doing anything!
In the evening Angie and Juliette, now staing in an appartment in Chelsea came to pick me up so we could check out the nuyorican poets cafe. I heard they had latin jazz jams on sometimes so we set off with Francesco in search of new things. My expert navigation skills (which only kick in outside of the UK) got us there, but it was $10 entrance and it was a poetry slam. I would´ve enjoyed it I think, but the expressions on my companions faces told another story so we went and bought beer and went back to their new appartment instead. I sat chatting to Angie which was a delight and then when Francesco had fallen asleep in the corner I thought it was probably time we made our way back to the hostel. We waited ages for a train and he kept pointing out all the wildlife in the station (largly rats and cockroaches) until I had to ask him to stop.
The next day was my last full day in NYC. I spent alot of the morning packing and preparing for my journey because the shuttle bus was coming to pick me up at 3.30 the following morning. In the afternoon I met Francesco at the Gugenheim. What an incredible building, it just makes you want to keep looking at it....and touch it. Inside I´ve never seen such a wonderful interior to a gallery before. Form follows function at its most beautiful. Unfortunately the main exhibition space was closed...so all the famous ones were locked away, but the exhibition that we saw was great in places and interesting the rest of the time.
Then we went to Central Park for a free concert...Roy Hargreaves and his big band. It was great...nice weather, great atmosphere and BIG, BIG music. I loved the jazz and Francesco loved the big band numbers and then it all ended prematurly in a full-on thunderstorm. We got very soggy running back to the hostel, but it did allow me to introduce Francesco to the joys of a good cup of tea after such occasions.....just doing my bit for international relations.
I would love to go back to New York, there´s so much to see and so much to eat! I hope I go back there....and then I can be the one who knows how to use the subway!
To compensate I went to central park, which is beautiful. I took some pictures of the Jackie O resevoir and a busker playing the sax and the city skyline framing an expanse of sunlit green, but it is so immense that its hard to capture it on camera.
It was incredbly hot....a sticky, heavy kind of heat that makes you move very slowly so the park was a lovely place to be.
I did a lot of walking. Partly because I like wandering through places to experience them, but also because the subway is a tourists nightmare...it takes a few days to really get your head around it...it makes the london undergrounds look like childsplay. There is a distinct lack of signs, destinations, any useful information anywhere....I think I got it by the time I was leaving which is usually the way.
I made a few friends at the hostel. Angie from Oz, Juliette from Paris and Francesco from Italy. Francesco and I went for a wander round Chelsea (saw the hotel where many famous writiers and musicians have stayed and where Nancy wotserface was killed) and then on the Greenwich Village. It´s gorgeous there and really laid back. We had sushi, real sushi, my first time. I liked it and it was perfect for the weather.
I tried to go to the Moma in the afternoon, but I waited till it was free and then suprsingly about half a million people also had the same idea. The queue went all the way down the blockand was about 4 deep. I didn´t wasn it that much. So I decided I would not waste the afternoon, I´d get the subway downtown (how cool is that?) and go to south ferry where you can look over at liberty island. After some complicated map reading I got to the right subway station and got the number 1 line all the way down to the tip of Manhattan....and then the train didn´t stop and took me all the way back again. It was one subway frustration after another for the rest of the afternoon till I made it back to the hostel about 2 hours later after not seeing or doing anything!
In the evening Angie and Juliette, now staing in an appartment in Chelsea came to pick me up so we could check out the nuyorican poets cafe. I heard they had latin jazz jams on sometimes so we set off with Francesco in search of new things. My expert navigation skills (which only kick in outside of the UK) got us there, but it was $10 entrance and it was a poetry slam. I would´ve enjoyed it I think, but the expressions on my companions faces told another story so we went and bought beer and went back to their new appartment instead. I sat chatting to Angie which was a delight and then when Francesco had fallen asleep in the corner I thought it was probably time we made our way back to the hostel. We waited ages for a train and he kept pointing out all the wildlife in the station (largly rats and cockroaches) until I had to ask him to stop.
The next day was my last full day in NYC. I spent alot of the morning packing and preparing for my journey because the shuttle bus was coming to pick me up at 3.30 the following morning. In the afternoon I met Francesco at the Gugenheim. What an incredible building, it just makes you want to keep looking at it....and touch it. Inside I´ve never seen such a wonderful interior to a gallery before. Form follows function at its most beautiful. Unfortunately the main exhibition space was closed...so all the famous ones were locked away, but the exhibition that we saw was great in places and interesting the rest of the time.
Then we went to Central Park for a free concert...Roy Hargreaves and his big band. It was great...nice weather, great atmosphere and BIG, BIG music. I loved the jazz and Francesco loved the big band numbers and then it all ended prematurly in a full-on thunderstorm. We got very soggy running back to the hostel, but it did allow me to introduce Francesco to the joys of a good cup of tea after such occasions.....just doing my bit for international relations.
I would love to go back to New York, there´s so much to see and so much to eat! I hope I go back there....and then I can be the one who knows how to use the subway!
New York - day one
I´m having some trouble uploading my photos so I´ll just have to make do with text for now...
Leaving London Heathrow to fly to New York was difficult for me (and for anyone around me)and I am very grateful to my lovely freind Claire for putting me on the plane despite my kicking and screaming.
I finally got to my hostel in New York after some help and hinderence from a sweet couple from Conneticut. I thought my hostel (called Chelsea Centre East) was in Chelsea, but no, it was in the lower east side. That´s not as bad as harlem but it´s not greenwich village either. My hostel didn´t even have a sign, it was above a korean bakery and after some time wondering where the hell it was I saw a buzzer with a little pen scribbled note saying Chelsea Centre. I got up there and it was totally empty. The German proprieter was very....German so didn´t exactly put me at my ease as put me in an empty room with no windows and say "can you pay now please".
I was not a happy bunny and there may have been a tearful phonecall to poor Mr Kandekore at this point.
Later more people came and it didn´t seem so cold anymore. In fact it was a nice place and clean too.
I went out for a wander on my first night and walked past a bar on the next block which had a sign outside saying "white trash wednesdays". "Brilliant" I thought, I´ve come half way round the world to encounter mulitculuralism and an eclectic mixture of tastes, sights and sounds and I get NYs equivalent of the limelight!
There was something to be said for staying a bit off the tourist trail though, I did feel like I had a sense of more day-to-day life there and also MONSTER sandwiches from the local deli....insert Homer Simpson sound for yummy here.
Leaving London Heathrow to fly to New York was difficult for me (and for anyone around me)and I am very grateful to my lovely freind Claire for putting me on the plane despite my kicking and screaming.
I finally got to my hostel in New York after some help and hinderence from a sweet couple from Conneticut. I thought my hostel (called Chelsea Centre East) was in Chelsea, but no, it was in the lower east side. That´s not as bad as harlem but it´s not greenwich village either. My hostel didn´t even have a sign, it was above a korean bakery and after some time wondering where the hell it was I saw a buzzer with a little pen scribbled note saying Chelsea Centre. I got up there and it was totally empty. The German proprieter was very....German so didn´t exactly put me at my ease as put me in an empty room with no windows and say "can you pay now please".
I was not a happy bunny and there may have been a tearful phonecall to poor Mr Kandekore at this point.
Later more people came and it didn´t seem so cold anymore. In fact it was a nice place and clean too.
I went out for a wander on my first night and walked past a bar on the next block which had a sign outside saying "white trash wednesdays". "Brilliant" I thought, I´ve come half way round the world to encounter mulitculuralism and an eclectic mixture of tastes, sights and sounds and I get NYs equivalent of the limelight!
There was something to be said for staying a bit off the tourist trail though, I did feel like I had a sense of more day-to-day life there and also MONSTER sandwiches from the local deli....insert Homer Simpson sound for yummy here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)