katiesfootprints: July 2011

Thursday 28 July 2011

America at a glance

So in a nutshell here is our trip across America: I thought I would wrap it up for you since I now seem to be living in the real world...

States visited(in order of appearance): California, Nevada, Washington, British Columbia (Canada), Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Quebec (Canada), Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey.

States seen from a far: Vermont and Alaska.

States set foot on but not actually spent any time in but am going to claim as having visited: Arizona, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia

Pizza count: unsure as too many slices had whilst mildly intoxicated.

Burger count: the ratio of burger to day ratio decreased as we left California – home of In and Out burger.

Overall, too much pizza and too many burgers to count on my hands and feet. Surprisingly though:

Kilo’s lost: 2. Boom! But that may be due to:

Kilometer’s walked: At a conservative guess I would average 20 per day.

Famous people seen: Grant Bowler of Outrageous Fortune fame… Aimee and Scotty also saw Hunter from Shortland Street – so we are really glad we travelled to the land of the rich and famous and saw NZ celebs. We also saw Jay Leno and Steven Tyler but it doesn’t really count when you go to his show!

Quotes: anything from Trent from Punchey, The Castle and Scary Movie 2 - After 10days in London Aimee has finally located this movie (we have been searching for it since San Francisco).

“Girl you love life. I love your zest for life.” – this little gem has been borrowed from a friend of a friend of Scotty and Aimee’s on facebook and has proven very flexible in its use.

“Gas. Brake. Honk” – thanks Homer: describes all American’s attitudes towards driving.

“Dollar dollar bill y’all” – I think this comes from a song? And is about all we ever seemed to have in our wallets – in great wads.

“Coz it’s your dog” – those familiar with the movie Road Trip should get this and it basically means “oh I got it! ”

And I am personally going to introduce “caaj yog” (casual jog) into mainstream vocabulary (even though I hate it when words are shortened!).

Worst hostel: Sorry D.C but Washington International Student Center does not get our vote. Thanks go to Steve for helping sort it all out in the end but yick. However, this could have been beaten by Big Apple Hostel in New York but we didn’t get the chance to stay there – after booking this hostel months before we left as we were staying over 4^th July weekend, I got an email two weeks prior to our arrival that said our reservation had been cancelled because the city had shut them down – awesome.

Best hostel: Green tortoise in San Francisco, great social hub, and even in spite of the banshee on our final night I would definitely recommend this for anyone heading to San Fran. India House in New Orleans, again great social hub and it had a pool – that’s what we like in 40 degree weather – street car right outside the door that takes 10mins to get to Bourbon St. And La Maison du Patriote in Montreal gets a mention too because it was just so damn cute.

So that was it, our journey was over. Many friends made, many laughs had, many drinks consumed, many cuisines sampled and many thousands of miles travelled. No fights, no flights or rides missed, nothing stolen, no money left and sadly no more America – for now…

Friday 22 July 2011

Ice Ice Iceland

It’s been two weeks since we were here, but we were onto Iceland after New York for a quick stop over before hitting the real world in London. Here in Reykjavic, Iceland we enjoyed luxuries such as toilets flushing normally, no inch big gaps down the side of every toilet door hinge and I even managed to walk around the entire city without a single person asking me for money. There were no crazy’s preaching to themselves and/or the world about the end being nigh or whatever either – bonus.

We arrived early in the morning on Wednesday and waited around for our bus to take us to the famous Blue Lagoon. The most amazing outdoor mineral spa greeted us when we arrived and our exhausted bodies melted into the salted water for a few hours. We tried the mineral face masks, the sauna (yes I managed to hit my head on the low ceiling as I walked out in a daze), and I don’t know about the others but I fell asleep floating in the hot water a fair few times. We headed into the city for a quick look around and a meal then back to our hostel for a bit of a rest. I decided to go for a walk that evening and spent a couple of hours wandering around the quaint city of Reykjavic. Iceland is only populated by 320,000 people so their capital is tiny, more like a sleepy village. In the 24 hour sunlight it was hard to fall asleep but I managed to crawl into bed at about 1am and sleep for a few hours before getting up early and seeing more of the city in the morning and doing a spot of shopping (I will head back to Iceland one day when I am super rich for a weekend of shopping and partying – Icelanders know how to dress and drink amazingly well apparently). In the afternoon I had booked myself on the Golden Circle tour that visited such places as the Pingveller Lake that has amazing diving and is so clear that you can see all the way to the bottom (140m). Divers often get the same feeling as being afraid of heights when diving because of this and freak out – I want to try. Next was Logberg where the priminister’s speaking post (or something more important than that that escapes me right now) was. A quick look at a giant water fall and a geyser and then another crater type thing and I was back to Reykjavic for the evening. Iceland is a very baron rocky country, very young geologically but is slowly sinking back into the ocean (photos below) – or the air, depending on the level of volcanic activity (they have over 3000 earthquakes a year also).

So, very early the next morning we set off to the airport in search of the UK, it was 430am and we had to wear our sunglasses on the drive, but we were excited about the next part of our adventure. Summary to follow! xx

Blue Lagoon

Reminded me of Dannevirke - you know, the Vikings and all..

So I was walking through the city and you would hear this massive noise and I would look up in search of what it was and then all of a sudden out of the clouds a plane would fly through and it was literally right above me because the domestic airport is pretty much in the middle of Reykjavic.

Main Street Reykjavic. Sleepy sleepy.

The church on the top of the hill.

View down to the harbour from the Bell Tower in the church. Note to self: 12pm is not an ideal time to climb a bell tower of a church.

First Speakers Post

Waterfall

Geysir

430am and we are off to the airport (it was sunny but still cold! 18degrees the day before was unheard of, 14degrees is average summer temp)

We made it - Heathrow Terminal 1,2,3 tube stop, London!

Monday 11 July 2011

New York - concrete jungle where dreams are made of!

So the last stop in the US was upon us and there were mixed feelings, sad that our trip was coming to a rapid end but so excited to be in NYC. We hiked it to our Hotel (half a block from Times Square) and immediately headed out to start checking out the city. We had plans to meet up with friends from Boston Steve, Mark and Johannes and go to a Yankees Game later on that evening so we thought a stroll around our new neighbourhood in the sunshine was in order. We headed to Bryant Square to lounge about and let the “we are in New York” feeling set in, I learned that this is where NY Fashion Week is held each year (Bryant Park that is, not NY, I’m not completely stupid). The NY Library sits at one end of this square so it was only natural to head there next. We casually found ourselves in a sweet museum type exhibition in the Lobby hosting such things as Picasso, a Beethoven Symphony and Washington’s Final Address draft. Had a look around the rest of the building and continued on up 5^th Ave to the Flatiron Building. Yankees vs. Milwaukee game was soon upon us and we headed to the Bronx for our first taste of Baseball. Entertainment galore at the end of each innings, none of us made it on the big screen, guts. Yankees won 5-2, finally we were supporting the right team after the Canucks failed to deliver. We headed to a bar on the Upper East Side to meet up with a friend of a friend – best way to meet people!

Woke up with an entire list of things to tick off the next day and not knowing where to start thought we would head downtown. Our first taste of harsh efficient subway systems was met when the doors slammed shut and Scotty was left on the platform, eeek – we finally located him at City Hall. Then it was a casual stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge to lap up the Downtown skyline and East River before I headed to the Rockefeller Centre. I met up with Johannes and we headed up to the Top of the Rock to take in 360 degree views of Manhattan and the rest of the city. We headed down to SoHo where we went our separate ways; I met up with Kata, a fellow Kiwi who is living the dream in New York. She showed me around SoHo, NoLIta and Chinatown, took me to an Aussie café where they serve Weetbix for brekky and then introduced me to the amazing culinary delights of De Palos. Divine! I headed over to Greenwich Village to a must see for me – the Friends building! Met back up with the others and got ready for a night out in town.

Unsure of how we felt about a boat crossing the next morning we headed to the Staten Island Ferry anyway. We lapped up the views as we passed by the Statue of Liberty in all her glory and immediately returned to Manhattan. Tried to get a photo of the Charging Bull in the Financial District, unfortunately every other tourist in sight had the same idea. Wandered around Wall Street and the World Trade Center Memorial site (under construction) before heading back to De Palos for more amazing Mozzarella, Tomato, Salami, French Stick and Ricotta Breadcrumb Rolls! We took our little picnic feast all the way up to Central Park and picked our pozzy in Sheep Meadow to devour it. Got entertained by all manner of sports and then got more than we bargained for when the lesbian couple beside us (and a couple of hundred others) decided to have a screaming match. Decided to burn lunch off by walking to the Plaza Hotel (Home Alone 2, we think?) and then up Fifth Ave to see the likes of Tiffany’s and the Trump tower. I even discovered an RM Williams shop in Manhattan and got very excited only for it to be shut! Typical. A chocolate milk shake from Shake Shack was dinner for me, yum yum yum.

After not having been for a while, and it being one of the must do’s for us, Scotty and I woke up early for a run through Central Park, amazing views – shame about the heat (or is that the fitness levels?). Starving by the time we returned we headed to Harlem for lunch at the infamous Sylvia’s. After this the huge discount store Century 21 was calling us so we made a beeline for Downtown again. Too much in that place for me, I didn’t know where to start, so I decided to go for a nosey to the Irish Hunger Memorial (with corned beef in my belly from lunch, it has some kind of relevance from the movie P.S I love you). I got lost in the gorgeous day and continued to walk down the Hudson River and back to Battery Park. Met back up with Aimee and Scotty and we all headed over to Brooklyn to scope the place out. Back home and out to town again, in Meatpacking (great name!)!

Arriving home late wasn’t the best idea but I got up early to go and catch up with Marian who I haven’t seen in about 7 years! Spent the day on board the cruise ship being shown around, reminiscing and all you can buffet. Left with plans to catch up properly some time in the very near future – on board a cruise ship of course! Swung by Macy’s, the largest one – and retail store - in the world, for a spot of shopping. We tried to find Broadway show tickets but everything was well and truly sold out. Did a spot of Daniel Radcliffe spotting but couldn’t be bothered waiting around, figured we’ll see him next week in London at the HP7 premiere (have since found out that’s been and gone). Scotty and Aimee headed out for dinner (I’m still full on buffet at this stage) so I went down to check out Union Square and East Village and went for a stroll down St Marks Place. It was here in Union Square that I located a 2 storey whole foods, thought I should probably honour it the newly traditioned way so I found the mother ship and bought a salad (I’d been walking for an hour by now so figured I was allowed, plus I was running out of days left in America).

Aimee and I set off early and hit Grand Central Station, Chrysler Building and UN Headquarters. Being 4^th of July everything was dead so we decided to go to Empire State Building, that area was pumping though and they upped their prices for it, $52 to go up the Empire State anyone? No thanks, I’ve been to the Top of the Rock, Cheers. We headed to Olive Garden for all you can eat salad and soup, (yummo) and then down to Times Square to get scammed by bitchface into going to a salon - for a whole bunch of beauty therapy treatments - that she promised was open today (4^th of July), unlikely. Her hair was disgusting, should have been a dead giveaway. So I’ve passed that voucher on to a friend hopefully she gets some use out of it!! Down to Central Park for a run – how patriotic – well at least everyone else was. I decided to get the sub right to the top of the park to run the whole way through it, I’m pretty sure the whole of the Bronx was there with their portable bbq’s and boom boxes as I ran through their picnics. Awesome. That night we headed down to the Hudson at TriBeCa to watch the fireworks before heading back to St Marks Place to celebrate being independent.

Our last day in America was sadly upon us. Two months has gone so fast but we’ve done so much and are pretty much broke. We woke up early, checked out and then hit the Met. Spent a few hours there, Scotty and Aimee went to see MoMA and I strolled down 3^rd Ave and then went to Chelsea. Scoped out the Chelsea Markets, grabbed some local seafood for lunch then went and sat on the High Line in the sweltering heat to eat it. A quick stroll back up 8^th in time to meet the other two to depart the States. Bye America!!!!

Scotty, Aimee, Me and Johannes at the Yankees.