Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Lets Go Mets! Lets Go Mets!


First up... apologies for the lack of posts on here. Since we joined the Trek America group its been really difficult to find any internet access...camp sites all have wi-fi but no computers...!

Baseball is the obsession of the Americans and its easy to see why. On our last night in New York we went to watch the New York Mets play a game against the Washington Internationals... It was INCREDIBLE! We had to catch the subway into Queens and as the train got closer to the stadium it got busier and busier - It makes the London underground seem roomy!

The stadium was very cool (despite it being known as one of the worst in the league...!) It all looked brand new, clean and accomodated all the fans easily. The crowd was really buzzing despite its completely eclectic mix of fans. We we sandwiched inbetween 2 old gals, a family and some 'typical' fans - it was cool, and nice to see everyone there to have a good time and show their support. So far everything in America has been much flashier than in the Uk and it was the same with their sport. They gave away t-shirts in the intervals, had dance competitions between the fans, played music with the words on big screens... Its easy to see why millions of people would go watch the sport every week! The only let down were the hot dogs; they were made of beef and tasted like shit, but they were served out of tin boxes carried on peoples heads...what can you expect really?!

We finished off our night with a trip to time square to see all the lights on our last night... sad times! good bye New York and hello to the rest of America!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Sore feet and crazy New Yorkers

Hi!

So we did go out on Saturday, found a few bars on 6th Avenue. One we found was $15 to get in but had a 'happy hour' from 10-11 where the drinks were all $1 (normally 7!). So we took advantage of that and propped up the bar for a solid hour so we wouldnt have to pay for any drinks. Somehow I ended up VERY drunk and steve was not too bad at all. I blame the tequila, I can't drink tequila......

So anyway, come 5am we got home. The subway ride was fine. I know people say you shouldnt ride the subway at night but we had learnt the most direct route over the last few days and it was actually still quite busy. We didnt come across any mentals.

On Sunday morning we were woken up by a loud Aussie guy in our dorm. Nice bloke, but doesnt know any room sharing etiquette. When he is up thats it, lights on. Full volume chats. So with a pounding head we got up and out for about 11 am.

Our first stop Monday was central park which is actually awesome! We got to the north west corner which is close to our hostel and walked the entire length down. Its something like 50 blocks (HUGE!) but it was a great place to visit. There are so many people on bikes and running around. Lots of parks as well for kids. We found a nice spot on the grass to lay down and rest our hungover legs. I think we both fell asleep for a bit.

Once we had gotten to the end of the park we made our way to the Empire State building. Visibility was good and the views were really cool. We spent more time q-ing to get up (and down!) but it was definitely worth it. Once we got back home at around 8pm we had planned to go watch some MTV in the TV room in the hostel but we both fell asleep at around 8.30am and didnt wake up till this morn (except for being woken up at around 11pm by the bloody ozzie guy again!). Asshole.

Today we have been to the Statue of Liberty which was good, nice boat ride out to see it. Its actually way way smaller that I expected it to be (about 10 stories high). But still cool to look round. We also went to the 9/11 site and saw ground zero. Difficult to see cos they have put up walls around it but we snuck into the local Burger King and had a look outside the window and you can pretty much see it all. Its a huge wreck area. Kind of makes you realise how crazy it must have been when it all happened.

The downside of the trip so far has been crazy american people! They really do live up to the stereotype most of the time. Most workers in new york are really rude. Wont look at you when they talk and are really short (tempered, not midgets). I had a bad encounter with one in Starbucks today. I went into the bathroom to use the toilet and I must have been in there for around 1-2 minutes. Just done when someone started banging on the door. I expected it to be steve saying weve got to go or something but it was this really angry woman. "You finished yet" in her angry new york accent. So I said yeah ok, and sat down. A few minutes later she came out and shouted across - "Hey you, you know that being a man you gotta lift the toilet seat up to pee right! That was disgusting you pee'd all over the toilet seat". So I explained that it was like that when I got in there and yes I did lift the seat up but that it was still dirty. I couldnt believe how rude she was. We also saw a guy looking really ill and sweaty along what I think was Madison Avenue. He was screaming into his phone about how he was a heroin addict and that he was gonna go kill himself. Crazy stuff. He looked really out of it, so we followed him for a while to see if he would go through with it (only joking!).

Anyway, I think tonight we are gonna go back down to 6th Avenue and visit a comedy club. Only $10 and you get two drinks free apparently so should be pretty good. Tomorrow we are thinking about going to see the Brooklyn bridge and we have tickets to go see a baseball game as well. Probably need to get an early night as well cos we need to get to New Jersey early on Wednesday to meet the Tour Bus for our Trek America trip.

Will try to post again soon, and hopefully have some time to upload some photos.

Take it easy, speak soon.

Ady

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Ady's 2nd post, Saturday 6th Sept

Hi everyone hope you are well!

So I thought I should start to post more on here since I haven't really been making any effort!

We got up early today (around 7.30 / 8am) and went and got breakfast - closest thing was a McDs (surprisingly).....2 sausage and egg mcmuffins for $3! Cant complain.

Then we went for a bit of sightseeing - saw Times Square which was different to how I imagined. It was awesome with all the big advertising billboards and stuff but there were lots of stalls and markets around selling all kinds of tat (think blackbushe market for those in basingstoke). Next we bought tickets to the Empire State building but didnt actually go up today as the visibility was terrible. So we will use those another day.

We found an AGM cinema near times square and saw a film called mirrors (a bit crappy but steve did almost pass a brick during one of the jumpy bits haha). They dont serve salsa or chillis with the nachos here tho so was well disappointed! They only do cheese.

Its been really really hot/humid here all day, the underground was seriously hot when we travelled downtown. We found out from a woman in starbucks that the humidity was down to Tropical Storm hannah which apparently is around the east coast of the US right now. She warned they were expecting a storm from about 4pm. Lo and behold at 4pm it starts to absolutely hammer down. So we got caught in a downpour, its still going now.

Got back to the dorm to find 2 girls asleep in there - Im sure they are guests and not the random homeless but still its a bit strange to be asleep at around 5.45pm. So we couldnt put the lights on and get ready etc. Bugger. So we got a giant slice of pizza from an italian next door and now we are here in the internet cafe at the hostel.

Tonight we are hoping to go out to a club or something in downtown manhatten. Steve is just looking up some places right now.

I will leave it at that now but will post again soon.

Hope you all had a good day!

Ady

we're here... its hot, and the showers are crap

We touched down in New York at 4pm got straight through customs (except a slight disagreement between Ady and them due to 'travelling' not being an appropriate answer to why are you visiting the United States) and then made our way to the the subway confident we were going to probably end up somewhere where we shouldn't... but we didn't!

90 minutes later we arrived at our lovely looking hostel ready to make ourselves at home in the beautiful looking rooms we had expected... unfortunately the guys who put together the Broadway hotel and hostel website must have mistaken it with somewhere COMPLETELY different. Although its not bad... its certainly not good (Pictures soon - see below for fake!). Holes in the flooring, wires sticking out of the wall... a sort of post-war Iraq chic would be a pretty good description. Also... the showers... they look crap and they're cold...happy days! On the upside it has air conditioning..!

We met a lovely lass from Brisbane called Marta, stowed our stuff and went out in search of some food. The only place we could choose was a proper American diner which served up some beautiful burgers and ice cold beer... perfect!


Went to bed pretty early due to it being about 2am back in England but we're up today (Saturday) and ready for a day of sight seeing! A quick tip for people staying in hostels... Prepare your next days stuff before you go to bed cos its a right git trying to get everything sorted while people are trying to sleep the next day!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

(not really) ready to go

Just about ready to go now (Friday Morning). It really has come around far too quickly!

I've spent the last couple of weeks seeing friends, spending time with family and trying to tie up any loose ends(Don't forget to let your banks and credit card providers know that you're going away!).

Goodbye (more to come here)...

guys1

Uni guys...

guys2

Birmingham guys...

guys4

Family... erm ..guys....

I'll miss you all very (VERY) much :o(