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Published: June 23rd 2010
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So after 6 memorable months in South America we flew into JFK,
New York City. We decided to head to NY after hearing Judy, Steve and Meaghan (Jay's parents and sister) were going to be there for 5 nights. We arrived late in the evening and went straight to our hotel in Times Square. A steaming hot shower, king size bed and 50" plasma (a little bit of luxury), heaven after 6 months of hostels in Sth America.
Can't really tell you too much you would not already know about NYC. It truely is a concrete jungle, massive, busy and very impressive. With only 5 days we hit the subways and tour buses to get around the city and see some sights. Normally we wouldn't do the tour bus thing but given the size of the city and the perfect weather we had it was a great way to get around and cover most of the sights and neighbourhoods.
A few highlights from our trip to NYC
- 'The lights will astound you' at Times Square at night. Bright lights and adverts everywhere, it's like you are in a living womens magazine.
- Ground Zero memorial. Very sobering and
quite emotional experience, well worth a visit for a bit of reflection. Here you can see detailed experiences of the event and plans for redevelopment of the huge site.
- Statue of Liberty. See photo
- Skyscrapers and Shopping. This is NYC.
- Manhattan skyline. Very impressive sight from over the Brooklyn Bridge.
- Brooklyn. We spent a day wandering the streets here and really enjoyed it. Cool cafes and coffe shops and lovely old streets lined with iconic old Brownstone houses we have all seen in the movies.
- Sex in the City. After a few nights wandering around looking for a cool bar to drink in, Nicole found a bar that could have been used in Sex in the City. A rooftop bar on the 21st floor of a building on 5th Ave. Amazing views of the city at night, almost made up for the extortionist prices of drinks. $10 USD for a beer and $50 USD for a bottle of house wine. The girls asked our waitress if the wine was Australian. "Yes it is actually, my grandmother is from Australia. Would you like to see it " she said. "No its ok we'll have a bottle
though." Jay replied. Next thing she is back with the bottle. Nicole had a look at the bottle and almost wet herself. Check out the photo. We laughed and laughed. We ended up having a great night, it got quite cold up there and they even gave us matching 'snuggies' to keep warm.
We had a great time in NYC and would have loved more time to explore the city properly. You need a lot more than 5 days that's for sure. It was great to catch up with Judy, Steve and Meaghan again. We love you and thank you very much.
Next stop
London. Just a quick 6hr flight from NYC and 1.5hrs on the Tube and we were Highgate, North London. Nicole's old mate from Australia, Boyle and his girlfriend Mandy were lovely to put us up in their apartment for our time in London.
It's not a trip to London without seeing some of the more famous attractions so we headed off and saw, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, Big Ben and Houses of Parliment, London Eye, The Tate Gallery and Tower Bridge amonst others. We
even saw the toilet block where George Michael got busted, in Hampstead Heath (a beautiful park with old woods and swimming ponds). Ha
We also made to some of London's famous markets. Covent Garden, Borough (although it was closed we had a good coffee) and Camden markets.
One day we caught up with an old workmate of Nicole's, Helen and her partner David. We had a great lunch by the Thames and walked the Southbank. Quite a nice walk even though London decided to turn on its finest summer weather for us!! We had a great time and gave Nicole the opportunity to catch up on some news from home.
Boyle and Mandy took us to a couple of nice old English pubs too, 'The Barrow' and 'The Spaniard'. Great old buildings with beautiful beer gardens, plenty of pints and great pub food. Pubs here are done properly, they are everywhere and have been around for so long thats its not surprise that life seems it revolves around them.
So after a week in London we had arranged to visit a friend of ours, Matt Pell, who we initially met in La Paz, Bolivia, then a
NYC - Australian Wine.. haha
ESTRELLA, new spelling of Australia.. number of subsequent times in Sth America. Matt lives in
Brighton... Hove actually, so a quick 1.5hr train ride and we were greeted by Matt at the station. It was a Friday night, England were playing Algeria and Matt had invited some friends over to watch the game that they were expected to win. The true Ozzie came out in jay at one point in the game when Jay accidently blurted out in great dissappointment "Ohhhh" when Algeria missed a scoring opportunity. Needless to say the result was pretty disappointing for the English. That didn't stop us however from having a great night, discovering Tuaca (Italian liqueur flavored with vanilla and citrus) shots, a brighton favourite.
The next day we woke feeling pretty average. Matt suggested a proper English fry up and we headed for an old school English cafe for a full English breakfast YUM. We headed home, showered and headed down to the pub to watch Australia versus Ghana. After the game we headed back to Matt's for a BBQ. We caught up with Kate, Emma and Siobhan who we also met in Bolivia and consumed jug after jug of Pimms naturally another big late night followed.
With one day left in Brighton we headed down to the waterfront. It is lined with bars, shops and artesans selling their wares. A great spot to hang out. The beach is something else though... Pebbles. We were told we must do the touristy Brighton Pier. A theme park styled Pier with games, rides and bars. Plenty of fun for everybody. We had a few games of Dolphin racing and Matt won us a stuffed toy Tucan thing. Kate joined us a we then headed on a pub crawl around Brighton and introduced us to the wonderful world of Cider. mmmm Cider. Followed by the national dish, Fish and Chips, we were stuffed and hit the sack.
We have had a great time in England and would like to thank Boyle and Mandy in London and Matt in Hove actually. The hospitality they showed us has made our trip to England a wonderful time, we appreciate it so much.
It was then back to London for a couple of nights before heading off on our next adventure...
Stay tuned
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