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Published: January 1st 2007
Times Square like a Black Hole
You cannot see it, only its effects. This was taken on top of the Empire State Building just after Sunset on our final night.Boston, Massachusetts
The wheels of our Airtran plane hit the concrete runway in Boston on Sunday 3rd December. We had a few days to fill before meeting up with Rachel who goes to Boston University.
Our first night was spent at Boston Backpackers, in the North East area of Boston. After spending an hour or so locked outside the hostel, kind George (the manager) finally let us in to his residence. George was keen on his rules (represented by the many signs restricting us in every way), yet was not blessed with the power to articulate them. George only grunted and grumbled.
After a good few weeks in rural America we were keen to go out and see the city by night. Luckily, live music was brought to us - our hostel doubled up as a live music bar! I tried a pint of local beer - Samuel Adams. Despite leaving aromas of woody oaks and offering a wide spectrum of malt flavours, it didn't match a brew of Courage poured by Skinny D at the Cambridge Arms.
Meanwhile Samwise could be found appreciating the live Classic Rock band that was on show. Covers of Bon
Jovi and ACDC are evidently the way to the blonde ones heart...
Our stay at Boston Backpackers came to an abrupt end the following morning. We had to grab our stuff and go when the hostel
apparently received a 25 person booking, taking it from empty to full. We had just enough time to grab our box of cereal and bottle of milk before leaving fuming George to undoubtedly rant at some more innocent travelers.
Whereas we may recommend places along the course of our travels, Boston Backpackers gets the Bristol2Bombay stamp of
disapproval .
That morning we felt the icy hand of squalor creep down our backs. Stood just below the "no loitering sign" in Dunkin Donuts, we could be found spooning our cereal and milk from used coffee cups. Any remains of pride were extinguished when a homeless man, who had not seen a razor for years, walked in and ordered a medium coffee. We had opted for smalls to cut costs.
From this state we made our way to Harvard University, the scholarly centre for the rich and intelligent of America. It is worth a look around- Harvard square particularly
- but the campus lacked the impressive architecture of Universities in the UK.
In Boston library I continued my record of attracting odd-bods. "If only they were attractive American girls” I thought to myself as I was cornered yet again. A local Boston man asked me if I played video games. I don't really. But for some reason i said I did and this resulted in ten minutes of trying to keep up with the random choice of subjects this man chose to talk to me about: Video games (of course); this mans childhood and Winston Churchill’s accent (apparently its American not English). Sam and Alec looked on, stony eyed and silent - worried for me.
We spent that night strolling along Newbury Street, a 3 mile stretch of expensive shops. Just a few doors down from the
Versace Cafe we found Trident bookshop and cafe. We spent a good 3 hours making our smoothies last as long as possible whilst sifting through lonely planets and Russian novels. After a few attempts to move us on the waitress Filipa realised that we were not for budging. Instead she gave us free Ice cream (much appreciated) and
let us know about Fung Wah, which is a really cheap Chinese coach running from Boston to New York.
It was great to stop and relax, with no pressure to move on anywhere or 'go see some sights'. We really picked up on the Boston vibe in that bookshop - European and Intellectual.
Our other days in Boston were mainly spent seeking out free entertainment. In America this usually means walking outside. The
Freedom Trail is a walking tour of Boston which explains the cities varied history. The Boston Tea party and Charlestown - we've seen and heard about it all.
Otherwise our lovely tour guide (and relative) Rachel showed us the hotspots in the city, such as the massive Boston Common which was a bit like Central Park in New York. Boston is deservedly known as the "walking city".
A blog in America is not complete without a funny anecdote about food. The setting was Chinatown. We walked up the stairs into what looked like a big dining hall full of Chinese people speaking distant languages and reading Chinese newspapers. It felt like Beijing not Boston. We were relieved to get away from
Christmas in the US
We met up with Rachel on Friday. That night she took us along to a christmas fancy dress party so we felt we had to get into the spirit of things. The brown facepaint was very authentic looking, yet did look a bit odd when the antlers and nose were lost later on in the night MacDonald’s, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Chipotle- all the chains that had dominated our eating habits in America.
After twenty minute, and two jugs of Chai, we felt we were ready to order. One of around twenty waitresses pushed her trolley up, and I asked for "beef noodle". Nice and safe. When it said
noodle on the menu I thought it was a dodgy translation for noodles. Instead I received just one noodle. A giant, greasy, shimmering, sausage like noodle filled with beefy smelling paste (see photo).
Even after 5 minutes of
uhhing and ewwwing Sam, always one to follow the crowd, ordered the prawn version of my delightful dish. I had little sympathy a few minutes later.
Samwise - "Uhhh this is gross man". Please leave tips or suggestions on how Sam and Alec are going to survive in China!!??
New York City
Sat in Subway restaurant, Broadway and 96th, we gazed up at the green wallpaper mapping New York. Brooklyn Bridge; Grand Central station; Times square - many afternoons of our adolescence have been spent staring at the same designs on the walls of Subway, Whiteladies Road, Bristol.
In those dreamy days the misty romance of Manhattan seemed far away. Yet my Italian BMT with all the salad, Honey Mustard, Southwest and Sweet Onion sauce tasted oddly similar now that we had arrived in the big apple.
New York was different to our other stops in the states, since we didn't really know anyone and we weren't staying with any relations. Lonely Planet stepped in nicely to fill the void of local knowledge, as we followed its suggested tour of Lower Manhattan. It was late on a Sunday afternoon and the sun's rays streaked through the gaps in the skyscrapers. The pre-sunset light cut through the shadows of the eighty storey buildings. We walked the streets for hours in this eerie ambiance. These were our first impressions of New York City by day.
For a free view of the Statue of Liberty by water we took the Staten Island Ferry which leaves from the South Port subway station. Although we weren't close enough to get
that photo, it was great to take a step (not literally) back from the fury of Manhattan. It gives you perspective into how big these buildings really are. The
The New York City Subway
Complete with New Yorker clad in Black drawback of the Staten Island Ferry is that it arrives in Staten Island. From our very short impressions the place has little to offer apart from the Wu Tang Clan. I nearly got into a bit of trouble as i pushed into a woman on the way out from the ferry (by accident). "EXCUSE THE HELL YOU" she yelled. We all kept our eyes fixed on the
sidewalk until we were safely back on our ferry to Manhattan were everything was safe.
We also enjoyed our visit to the UN building, where we technically left the country for 4 or 5 hours. The United Nations is independent territory - it has its own police force, stamps- the lot. Apparently they don't like penknives in UN-land, as I had mine taken away on the way in.
The guided tour was well worth the $12 or so. We had a beautiful Venezuelan Woman for a tour guide whose knowledge on the current affairs of the UN, and of broader issues such as Global Warming and Land Mines was staggering. She explained that the UN is about much more than the Security Council (which is there to settle conflicts),
but more about Economic and Environmental global policy. Our guide also told us about a new campaign in 2007 which urges everyone to plant a tree to combat Global Warming. She finished the tour by urging us all "to be part of the UN. Without your belief the UN would crumble". These are all things Sam found interesting. For Alec and me, we were content at looking at all the reeeaaallly big rooms.
We also enjoyed the Rockefeller Centre which is giant entertainment complex in the middle of the city. In the centre is a beautiful ice skating rink with raised sides so that people can look down. It was magical when we first found this spot, the famous 80 ft Christmas tree (it took five miles of bulbs to light it), standing over the rink with Christmas music playing. We all cringed when the ice was cleared and Shaggy's hit "Angel" began to play. A man got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend in front of hundreds of people. Very cheesy and very American. It was cold that night and so we savoured the Christmas atmosphere as we know it. We were all aware that
we would be in 30 degree heat on Christmas day.
We packed so much into our week in New York. To begin with we made the mistake of manically dotting around the city trying to see all the "sites". Towards the end we realised far more fun could be had staying still and soaking up the vibe of each neighborhood.
For example we sat in an Italian Cafe for a few hours, watching the trendy people of Greenwich Village pass by. We were amazed that this cafe was open all hours, Tagliatelle with Parmesan 24/7! Actually this meal caused a few disputes when it came to splitting the bill. We all thought we had paid more than our share of the bill. We walked in silence for a few minutes, not wanting to cause an argument. Before long, though, the floodgates opened and we spent the entire hour and a half subway journey home trying to decide who owed who a dollar. Despite sounding petty, we have decided to call up all debts and to tell each other about any differences straightaway- we figured it’s easier that way. It's just embarrassing when this happens in public places.
New York is definitely a City of a number of neighborhoods. We really like the fact that we could dot around the place, eating Chicken Chow Mien in Chinatown one minute, and then walking with the investment bankers to work in Wall Street the next.
We would recommend our hostel in New York a lot more than the one in Boston. The Continental Hostel, West 95th Street, is clean and cheap ($21 a night in central Manhattan). The best part is the basement downstairs which has sofas (we miss those), pool, table football and ping pong. Just watch out when booking through the internet as they try to charge your deposit two times, and add numerous taxes onto the cost.
We spent our last day in New York separately. Sam had the idea of meeting on top of the Empire State Building for sunset - "like in the movies". In the movies they don't show the two hour queues however, so we managed to miss each other, instead enjoying the impressive views alone. We met up later at a tiny 40-seat Theatre. I think there were just about the same amount of people acting in the play that
Wall Street
Trump Tower was just a few metres away. You could literally see the money dripping off these buildings - Gold everywhere you looked. we saw as there were watching it. The play was an obscure comedy - the entire plot was an argument that 5 people have over the order that they should stand in a line! It was a quirky and memorable way to finish our time in New York however. We left NYC content that we had discovered the city which was imprinted on the walls of our Subway Restaurant in Bristol...
We spent a few nights in LA on our way to Fiji, choosing to stay in a cheap hostel not far from the infamous neighborhood of Compton. There was little to do and we had to take hour long bus journeys to see anything. We were all under whelmed by Hollywood, maybe we had just fallen in love with New York. The main event here was the shaving of the heads. Samwise valued his golden locks too much so opted out, I opted for a complete skinhead (sorry mum), whilst Alec went for a Mohican.
In LA we also did research into the coup in Fiji. Although it is a big political event there seems to be little impact to everyday life so we decided to go
The Void left by the attacks 5 Years ago
We visited Ground Zero and were surprised to find busy streets encircling it; shopping malls around and even a Metro station in the huge canyon. There were few photos or memorials, but those we saw were very moving. ahead as planned, avoiding Suva - the capital.
We have finished our first leg of our journey. America is our first country and our first continent. We met some great people and shared some great times.
Onwards.... to Fiji!
Jona
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edd
non-member comment
Happy new year to you all, my friends! I have to say, reading this is easing the hangover (except for that noodle thing, which lookd gross!!) and i'm loving the blog. You've made me even more excited about going to NY in 16 days!! I'm also glad to hear that still every dollar of debt is still shifted to the next man. Looking forward to getting the lo-down on fiji too, take it easy fellas peace, Edrin PS jona, you still owe me 10 francs from table footbal in alpe d'huez..