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Published: February 8th 2010
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This won't be one of my usual blogs as there is a huge amount of information out there on New York and Boston already so I will just be including the more interesting tales of my trip to the States.
By a miracle I arrived at JFK early, considering the amount of snow that was lying around at the time, numerous airports had been closed - trains had been delayed and increased security measures due to the undie bomber - plus worries about even being let in the country due to the places I have recently visited - all led to a surprise when I walked out of the airport into the freezin' NY sunshine.
I got the air train and subway to my hostel in east village which took about 50 mins and $9 - a bargain.
10 minutes later I was having my first beer in McSorleys the oldest pub in New York conveniently 6 doors down from the hostel. It was there I met my newest chum from Brazil who I chatted to for the rest of the night wandering round the dive bars in East Village.
The next I was up very early
as I was still on UK time so took advantage of that to go to the Empire State building, you have to do this as early as possible to avoid the crowds and I walked straight through to the lifts (had to pay first though:-(. After this I paid a visit to the NY public Library, and the USS Intrepid, an aircraft carrier that is now a museum, replete with Concord.
In the afternoon I had a wander round Harlem, during my time there I only saw 3 other whities and when I mentioned that I had been to Harlem to New Yorkers during the remainder of my trip they looked at me like I was crazy.
On Saturday night I wanted to do the Lower East Side, I found a great web site with info on all the best bars in NY its called New york on tap: http://www.newyorkontap.com/
Another good site is New York Search http://nymag.com/
One huge tip if you are ever going to New York and Look the right side of 50 is to bring some ID, I got turned away from numerous bars for not having ID on me. I know I
look young for my age (I do don't I:-) but surely I don't look younger than 21. Anyway some of the bouncers thought that I didn't and refused to let me in without ID!!!!!
Anyway I managed to get in one bar and it was there I met my new chums Mollie from Iowa and her friend who were writers studying in New York. As it was time to leave the bar I mentioned that I was going to Mehanatas a Bulgarian bar I had heard about and they asked if they could come along.
At the door to the place I had my usual argument with the bouncer about how old I was, but managed to get in - I would be taking my passport out with me from that night on - not very safe though! Once in I got talking to some weird looking guys, one of whom turned out to be the lead singer from the Balkan band that was playing that night. Spent the rest of the night drinking Ukranian beer, dancing with my new chums and drinking toasts with the band - woke up the next morning with a monumental hangover!
Boring but useful details
In New York, East Village stayed at the:
Village Inn Hostel
27 East 7th Street
New York
p. +1 212-228-0828
f. +1 212-629-9613
email: reservations@villageinnhostel.com
The hostel was extremely clean, great breakfast, free tea and coffee all day and very helpful staff.
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Ann Parry
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Wow looks amazing