New York, New York

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Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today. Yes, we're off to that big traveller destination in the sky also known as home time. It's been a while coming but we knew that eventually real life was going to kick us in the b-hind. Not to worry, we'll just start planning our next holiday now.

As for New York, it's been another few chilled out days seeing a few sights, doing a little shopping and trying my hardest to get to 200 beers. All good fun.

On Monday we actually managed to get off Manhatten for the first time so far. We were out and about early heading to Coney Island. Famous for several things, the place is a little like a run down Blackpool if that is possible. Once home to the most famous New York gang of all time - The Warriors. These guys were mean (even if they were fictional - check out the film). The other reason for going to Coney Island...

Nathan's. The home of New York hotdogs. Well, hotdog eating. This is the location for a very special event on a very special day. On Independance Day (my birthday) every year it is the annual hot dog eating championships - see how many you can eat in 12 minutes. Now, until the late 90's the sport was in it's infancy with the record being in the early 20's. Along came a wee slip of a lad (smaller in fact than Beany, my little brother). His name was Kobayashi (not from the Usual Suspects) and he was from Japan. He doubled the record to an incredible 50 hotdogs in 12 minutes and for 6 years he was unbeatable. Until this year. Along came a giant among men - Joey Chestnut (good name) who set a new record this year at an incredible 66 hotdogs in 12 minutes. I would struggle to match that in 12 days. Astonishing. Anyway, you can understand why I had to make a pilgramage here.

And the hotdogs are fantastic.

After a good feed we went and saw the amusement rides where the previous day a girl had been thrown off and injured. We still had a quick go.

From there we headed out to Brighton Beach. The heart of Russia. For some reason this is where they all live. Most of the shops have Russian writing and we didn't understand what a lot of them were selling. There were loads of little old ladies and men sat in their little chairs enjoying some sunshine and a game of chess. It looked a lot like Eastern europe. So we grabbed a Russian beer and relaxed to watch the world go by.

After the excitement of getting off Manhatten we got back on and went to see a little homecoming. Bourne. Cracking film and we were watching New York with keen interest as Bourne took out a guy in a street we have walked down, etc, etc. Once again the American audience were very vocal. Also, very patriotic. Bourne got several rounds of applause and I was waiting and waiting for a Yee-Haa but it never came. For our evening we wandered back to our local O'Connells for a drink or two and some baseball.

Next up was some serious sightseeing. A whole day dedicated to it. And boy was it a struggle. In a mammoth 14 hour sightseeing expedition we managed to fit two things in. Queues, ladies and gentlemen. Lots of them. And long ones. Plus security checks. All adds up to a lot of time spent sweating in the heat.

We were down at the pier for 11 to check on our Statue of Liberty tickets. We were booked to go up at 1.45pm and picked up our tickets. We had a little time to kill so got some caricatures of us done. We think that either the guy was blind or looking at a different couple as the picture doesn't really resemble us. You'll have to let us know what you think.

At 11.45 we started queuing for our ferry. At 12.20 we reached our ferry (via a long, long line and some strict airport style security controls). Ferry took 10 minutes and we were over on Liberty Island. Great place. The statue is much bigger than I thought it would be and we sat and had our salad picnic looking out at the hazy skyline. Really relaxing. We then wandered the base of the statue taking photos and reading lots of facts about Lady Liberty before we were scheduled to go up.

At 1.40 we wandered over and started queuing again. It took about 45 minutes and another even more strict security post before we got in. Very cool inside with replica face and feet that are huge, lots of history and exhibits before you're able to wander up as far as the top of the pedestel (can't get up into the statue any more). Really nice views up there so we chilled out a little before wandering to join another queue to get back to Manhatten. Another long, hot queue. Finally got back about 4.30. Time for a relaxing drink...

We hung out for a bit in the after-work area off Wall Street. We felt very cosmopolitan sipping lager with all the pinstriped brokers. Reminds me that I need to get myself a job unfortunately. After a drink there we wandered in the general direction of Chinatown for tea. Unfortunately we chose the wrong place and the food was fairly poor. Everything was simply deep fried. Towards the end of it we were longing for our nice takeaways back home where you know exactly what you're going to get.

After tea we popped into the Heartland Brewery for a drink while we waited for complete darkness so we could go up the Empire State Building. After 3 or 4 more queues and some more airport like security we were up. 86 floors high, surveying our kingdom. To the south was lower Manhatten and the financial district. East was Brooklyn and Queens, West was over the water to Newark and North was more skyscrapers heading up towards Central Park. Beautiful at night. Unfortunately the photos don't do it enough justice but I'm sure you can all imagine it. And then it was home time.

Our last full day in New York was another hot and sweaty one. There had been some kind of storm overnight that I completely slept through the city and even a tornado in Brooklyn. All kinds of chaos was being reported on the news with subways flooded and cars floating down the street. Somehow we didn't see any of it.

Our only plans for the day were a little more shopping, ticking off a few last sights and inching the beer count towards 200. Not too difficult a plan. In the morning we saw Trump Tower, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central station and landed up at Bloomingdales for Mrs Deane. Some of the women out there will understand Bloomingdales and everyone's obcession with little brown bags. Well, Mrs Deane was after a brown bag. So we went and got one of those. It was lost on me.

After lunch it was time for a last bit of shopping and a wander through Union Square aiming for Little Italy for tea. Managed a couple of stops for refreshments along the way that were very tasty.

Little Italy should really be called Very Little Italy. It is slowly being swallowed up by Chinatown and seems now, to consist of only one street. Luckily we found a very nice place for tea and the final evening meal of the condemned travellers. And after a wander back towards the subway we only had time for a few drinks in our room before hitting the sack.

Just so you know, we saw the most enormous giant of a man on the subway. The biggest individual I have ever seen. He was slouching but I reckoned he was about 6"10 and probably weighing in around the 30 or 40 stone mark. I didn't realise giants existed and Mrs Deane could not keep a straight face looking at this guy stood next to me. It made it more comical that this guy got on the train at the same time as a 5"4 small dude. Anyway, just thought I would share that with you.

That's it from us. I'd just like to say that if I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere. It's up to you - New York, New York.

The Deanes

P.S. It looks very likely that the winner of the song titles competition is going to be Fish. As the only entrant it looks likely that he will be taking the prize fund. And a fine prize fund it is. Fish put in a very detailed entry with only a couple minor errors. He even added some songs that weren't used as blog titles.

P.P.S. Second place goes to our most loyal reader and commenter. She deserves a mention for not actually realising that all blog titles are songs. Take a bow Sazzle Nairn. Even our Mothers have got the link between Land Down Under, Red Red Wine and I should be So Lucky so you should feel proud of yourself

P.P.P.S. It is with a very heavy heart that I'm informing you that it appears my career as a travel writer may not happen. I have had no follow up from early interest from a major magazine. So I can let you all know that the magazine was actually a womans mag from Australia - That's Life! who were interested in a Big Stuff article. Some things are obviously not meant to be. I'll stick to accountancy and making lists of beers.

Beer 189: Samual Adams Cherry Wheat, USA, Bottle, 5.35%, 8.0, the fruit flavours work very well. Mrs Deane concurs

Beer 190: Baltika 3, Russia, Bottle, 4.8%, 7.5, go to Russia, drink Russian beer. It will be good

Beer 191: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, USA, Draught, 5.6%, 7.5, Good stuff this

Beer 192: Widmar Hefeweizen, USA, Draught, 4.9%, 8.0, didn't realise it was a Yank beer but apparantley made in Oregan. Made very well too

Beer 193: Heartland Brewery Cornhusker Lager, USA, Draught, 4.75%, 5.0, very funny aftertaste

Beer 194: Heartland Brewery Harvest Wheat, USA, Draught, 4.5%, 7.0, a bit better

Beer 195: Heartland Brewery Indiana Pale Ale, USA, Draught, 6.5%, 8.0, Right on the button.

Beer 196: Heartland Brewery Farmer John's Oatmeal Stout, USA, Draught, 6.0%, 8.0, Mmmm tasty

Beer 197: Heartland Brewery Empire Beer, USA, Draught, 5.5%, 8.0, didn't think I would rate it highly but it turned out great - crisp, a little fruity and very drinkable

Beer 198: Bluepoint Toasted Lager, USA, Draught, 5.3%, 7.5, Another nice summer lager

Beer 199: Stone Ruination IPA, USA, Bottle, 7.7%, 8.0, a big hit of flavour

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Comments

[Sara]

woo-hoo, i actually one something! x