Friday, August 31, 2012

New York, New York!

I arrived into a bustling Chinatown, dodging through hoardes of sales people, cars and other tourists, before eventually making it to one of the multitude of subway stations, and heading south to Brooklyn. I made my way through the much grittier streets of Brooklyn, to the home of Alexis and Lauren, an extremely friendly couple I befriended in Montreal.

My first night in New York was completed with the amazing combination of Buffalo Wings, Pepperoni Pizza and mozzarella sticks. For New Yorkers, a standard weekend meal, but for an enthusiastic Australian, chomping down on that thinly sliced, evenly distributed pepperoni pizza was years of pop culture at once, starting from my first viewings of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Franchise in the early 90's.

With so many distinct districts and boroughs in New York, and being the obsessively organised person I am, I systematically opted to look into the Financial District first, at the southern end of Manhattan - but not without walking the Brooklyn Bridge first. An amble down Wall Street and past the stock exchange was more interesting for the amount of expensive suits and 'American Psycho' types than the buildings/street itself. I continued on my culinary escapades as I tucked into a cream cheese bagel and also a pastrami bagel. Once more, New York delivered (metaphorically, in this instance), albeit slightly more pricy than in previous cities.

Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge

Wall Street, New York
Wall Street

The afternoon was spent avoiding the drizzle, as Alexis and I checked out Battery Park and The Sphere (a now heavily damaged sculpture previously situated between the Twin Towers) and Soho, before opting for the drier sights of the Apple Store (an interesting architectural sight in itself - the store is completely underground, with only a glass cube visible from the street), FAO Schwarz (the toy store to end all toy stores) and Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Station, New York
Grand Central Station

My final night in Brooklyn was finished off with some more amazing pizza at a local Brooklyn Italian restaurant (if I knew my diet for the next week would consist of predominately pizza, I probably would have opted for something different) and a Brooklyn Lager, yet another east-coast beverage I'd taken a liking to.

Times Square, New York
Times Square

After accidentally arriving in Times Square the previous day (I thought I'd gotten off a station past it, but lo and behold it was right in the middle of it), and wading through the crowds of people, I went to two New York food landmarks (for me, at least). I started off with a sandwich from Rupert's Deli (of David Letterman fame), before heading up a few blocks to the Original Soup Man, the inspiration behind Seinfeld's famous Soup Nazi character and episode.

Ed Sullivan Theatre
Ed Sullivan Theatre

With Mike and Harry arriving in from Boston with our friend Bryan who had recently joined us from Australia, I headed back to Brooklyn to gather my stuff, said my farewells to Alexis and ventured back into Manhattan, circumnavigating the busy streets with all my bags. We had managed to pick up an apartment in an amazing location just off Times Square through AirBnB, and were making ourselves comfortable very early on in the piece. Tom, Harry's bandmate, arrived  from Australia to join us in the apartment, and with Bryan's birthday the next day, we celebrated into the next morning in a New York Bar which did not appreciate us taking over the jukebox and playing nostalgic songs from early last decade.

Breakfast turned lunch the next morning at Tom's Diner in the upper west side prepared us for a day exploring the more affluent areas of Manhattan.  On our way to Central Park, we walked past the apartment that John Lennon had been shot in front of some 32 years earlier. As we wandered up Madison Avenue through the upper west side, we came to a corner with massive crowds of people, and were quickly ushered away without knowing why. As it turned out, Gossip Girl was being filmed about 30 metres away, and we had started walking into a closed set. After a few papparazzi shots and we were on our way.

Gossip Girl filming, New York
Gossip Girl Filming

The sporting landscape in New York is as grand as the city itself, and I'd been lucky to pick up tickets to a New York Giants vs New York Jets NFL game. A train ride out to Jersey with 1000's of New Yorkers was an experience in itself, as was making our way to our seats in the gigantuan and masssivel impressive Metlife Stadium. The most expensive NFL stadium in the country (and that's saying something), Metlife Stadium opened in 2010, with a construction cost of $1.6 billion and a capacity of over 82,000 and was a sight to behold. If the new Perth stadium comes even close in terms of atmosphere and facilities I'll be extremely happy.

The game itself, while exciting, is only enhanced by the American sporting theatre and spectacle, with  70,000 supporters, music blasting, cheerleaders, announcers, replays and big screens aplenty, all of which combined to be one of the best sporting experiences of my life (and it was only a pre-season game!)

New York Giants vs New York Jets

New York Giants vs New York Jets
Metlife Stadium

The amazing sporting spectacle continued the next day as I made my way to Yankee Stadium to watch Major League Baseball's and possibly America's biggest sporting rivalry - the New York Yankees vs the Boston Red Sox. Pre-game I opted to make my way to the outfield stand to mix amongst a few hundred other fans trying to catch a home-run hit struck by the batters in their warmup. With the warm up all but complete, and the crowd dispersing, one of the Red Sox batsmen timed one sweetly and it rose before coming down directly towards me. Despite the ball flying through the air and being the only one without a glove, I reached up and stuck one hand up in the air to try and snaffle a catch, only for the ball to brush against my fingers and be pouched upon by fans who lept over seats and dived along the concrete to get their mitts on it, literally.

New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox @ Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium

A trip across to Staten Island on ferry gave us a perfect opportunity to see the Statue of Liberty for free, as opposed to paying for the tourist trap ferrys. Some more New York decadence in the abundantly gold covered Trump Tower Foyer and Barney's gave an insight as to how the other half live an work, as I was cautious to not bump anything or spill my drinks on any of the $900 sweaters,  $175 t-shirts or $50 pairs of socks.

Statue of Liberty, New York
Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry

In keeping with the trips theme of  visiting movie locations for only the most critically renowned films in history, I went to the The Plaza Hotel, where no other than Kevin McAllister stayed in Home Alone 2. My Macaulay Culkin experience was further enriched by another amble into Central Park where I tracked down the bridge from one of the movies most popular closing scenes ('Kevin, you spent $967 on room service?!').

Central Park (Scene from Home Alone)
Central Park

With an (Australian immigrant) Englishman amongst our ranks (Bryan), Tom's curry fanaticism and my penchant for spicy food and eating challenges, it was only natural we'd head to the Brick Lane Curry House in East Village, home of reputedly the hottest curry in the world, knowl as Phaal. Made with ghost chillis, upon completion by an individual, the recieves a certificate, a free beer, and enters the 'Phaal of Fame'. With a reputation for being an extremely painful eating experience, and none of us willing to risk having our dinner inedible, we opted to split the Phaal between the the three of us.

After Bryan and Tom took a single mouthful of the deathly concoction, I was incredibly nervous before taking my first bite, so the inital beads of sweat down my forehead may very well have been due to nerves. As I took my first bite, I was slightly disappointed at the amount of heat generated by the world's hottest curry. I took my second and third mouthfuls, and then it hit me. Like a furnace, the temperature started to rapidly rise inside my mouth, as the agonising burning continued out to my lips, in my throat and even into my inner ear.

Thinking that the pain couldn't get any worse (it did), I managed to finish off the rest of the Phaal, as we headed off to a comedy club, a slightly last-minute planned night out. As my stomach started to eat itself, we sat and endured some horrendous comedy, which in hindsight was no great surprise considering it was one of the only places in Manhattan that wasn't sold out. I'm unsure if the pains that I endured well into the early morning, including putting me in periods of lying in the foetal position were caused as a result of the curry, or the pain inducing, awful, awful comedy.


The World Trade Centre sight, and the adjacent St Paul's Chapel combined for an extremely sobering experience. With an overwhelming sense of sadness, I walked through the chapel, which during the attacks, provided a safe haven for rest, sleep, and solace for rescue workers. As I made me way through the chapel, it was made a more intense and stirring experience as grown men surrounding me  were reduced to tears. As I read through letters written by school children to firefighters, and past tables full of missing person posters made up by friends and family of those that worked in the towers, the reality of the attacks hit me like a tonne of bricks. Being in the church, and seeing everything up so close made it that much more real, and something so much more than a news story from the other side of the world. It was a very emotionally heavy experience.

Freedom Tower, New York
Freedom Tower

Madison Square Garden was underwhelming from the outside, though my time to look around was limited as I made my way back up to Midtown to enter in the lottery for Book of Mormon. The Broadway hit show is booked out until February, but in order to allow every day citizens to attend, every day they have a lottery that anyone can enter in order to win won one of 20 or so tickets fr the show. With several hundred entrants each night, chances of winning are slim, so when Bryan's name was drawn out, we were extremely stoked and happy for him, yet our eyes instantly all met each other as we tried to work out how we would decide who'd go as Bryan's +1. With Tom and myself much less inclined to want to go, we opted to sit out, and it was left to a sudden death battle to decide who out of Mike and Harry would go.

With Harry winning out on the traditional coin toss, Mike and myself headed up the Rockefeller Center just before sunset, allowing us to have full 360 degree views of New York both at day, and during the night. The views were spectacular, and we were treated to a glowing sunset that was cast over the city, whilst also giving us an idea of the scale of the city and how much ground we had covered in the last week or so.

Rockefeller Center, New York
Rockefeller Centre

New York from the top of the Rockefeller Center

New York from the top of the Rockefeller Center
Views from the Top of the Rockefeller

To finish off our time in New York, Mike and myself picked up some (rather disappointing) lunch from Mendy's the next morning.The disappointment of one of my final meals in New York was softened later in the afternoon as Mike, at the last minute, once more entered the Book of Mormon lottery, on the way to buying tickets to another Broadway Show. With an amazing amount of luck, he managed to have his name drawn. Later that night the two of us would be front centre row for the 9 time Tony Award winning show; the perfect way to end an amazing week.

Michael Farnell Photography

Some (most) of you may not be aware, but Mike, one of my travelling companions, is an amazing photographer. Having only picked up a DSLR camera for the first time myself a few months ago, Mike has been instrumental in helping me improve my photography.

I thought it would be a complete injustice for some of Mike's amazing photos to not be shared, so with his permission I have posted a few of my favourite photos of his below.

Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island

Seattle
Mt Si, Seattle

Seattle
Mt Si, Seattle

Rockies
Canadian Rockies

Lake Louise
Lake Louise

Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park

New York City
New York City

New York City
New York City

Las Vegas
Las Vegas

Seattle
Mt Si, Seattle

Montreal
Notre Dame Cathedral, Montreal

New York City
New York City

Minneapolis
Minneapolis

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Bawwwwstin, Massachusetts

After an extremely lengthy trip from Quebec, back to Montreal, and on to Boston (in the one day) I was looking forward to checking into my hostel, getting in a soft comfortable bed, and going to sleep. It didn't work out exactly as planned, as I arrived at my hostel which seemed to be at the exact opposite end of the city to that in which I had arrived. It was 11pm, and I opened the door to my room (which resembled a cold, drab hospital), I was greeted by a wave of hot humidity, and glanced down to see someone else in the room right in front of the door had decided to sleep completely naked. Not the welcome anyone wants. After spending the next half hour trying to organise my belongings and get ready for a shower with only the light of my mobile phone as to not disturb everyone else, I managed to hop into the dingy showers and eventually get into bed.

My first 12 hours in Boston had not been great, and the stifling humid heat and lack of research on my behalf led to me sitting back and watching the hustle and bustle of Downtown Boston whisk past me as I enjoyed a cold Dr Pepper in Boston Common. After starting to walk along a historical trail of buildings known as the Freedom Trail.... I decided I was much more interesting in taking in some of Boston's other attractions.

I headed down to the home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park and, after picking up one of my iced-coffee replacement frappucinos (iced coffee here is literally just cold coffee... and ice cubes), my stay in Boston was looking on the up. I heard from Paul, my Boston couchsurfing house, which was an amazing relief, as I dreaded staying at the hell-pit I had checked out of earlier in the morning after a heat interrupted sleep.

Fenway Park
Fenway Park

Fenway Park
Fenway Park

Prior to heading to Pete's I ventured to a distinctly suburban and less glamorous area of Boston, Jamaica Plains in order to check out a small-time punk-hardcore show I'd read about online. The show itself was extremely small, in a tiny suburban bar, but given Boston's reputation for a strong, iconic music scene, I was only more encouraged. When I arrived, I found the show was running late, but that gave me a bit of time to look around the surrounding suburb, and walk the grounds of 'English High School', a lower socioeconomic public school that had obviously seen better days. It's claim to faim, if you will, is that it is America's oldest public high school.

English High School
English High School

English High School
English High School

Returning to the show, paying the $5 cover and enjoying some of Boston's best (Samuel Adam's Summer Ale), with the sweet sounds of what the uninformed may see as angry young men making a lot of loud noise resulted in my disappointing start to the day ending up considerably better. After getting to know Pete and his housemates, we headed  out, and a few drinks and several hours later and we left the nearby pub with a sense of satisfaction after winning the karaoke vote for the night (and be we, I mean, they), and also extremely impressed at the efforts of a large black man called Jamal (complete with dollar sign bling) for pulling off a great rendition of the Backstreet Boys' Everybody (Backstreet's back tonight).

Boston

Boston

After checking out one of the states oldest public schools the previous day, it was only fitting I'd check out one of America's oldest private institutions, the iconic Harvard University. Whilst the campus itself was nice, but not mind blowing, the history of the place was slightly awe inspiring given the alumni of the place. And then, of course, there were the sporting fields. Whilst not traditionally a football college, Harvard Field seats a lazy 30,000 people.

Harvard Field

Harvard University

The cultural and history packed north end provided me with a massive insight into history of Boston and its immigrants (and in turn, the USA as a whole), as I explored places including the Italian district, the pier and Bunker Hill (the 297 step monument was closed when I got there, thus giving me no choice but to pass on the hike up to the top). A night spent watching and learning the finer points of NFL (which would come in very handy later) with some dodgy Asian food finished off a long and fulfilling day in Boston.

North End, Boston
North End, Boston

Boston Pier
Boston Pier

Ironically, the words 'dodgy' and 'Asian' would follow me into the next day as I took a bus ride on an incredibly budget, yet popular, bus from Chinatown in Boston, to Chinatown New York. Despite reading reviews online of hair-raising drives, I had no such issues and safely arrived in the hustle and bustle of New York City, home for the next nine days.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Tres Bien, Quebec, Tres Bien!

If Montreal was like being in another country, well, Quebec City was like being in another continent. From the moment Benoit, my couchsurfing host picked me up and we ventured to the local markets where everyone conversed fully in French, to arriving at his home to find out I was the only one who didn't speak french (thankully most of them also spoke English), it was quite obvious I'd need to adjust quite quickly. 'Bonjour, parlet vous francais?' (Good morning, do you speak English?) and 'Moi Francais parlet pa beacoup' (Which I was informed is a very rough, yet endearing 'Me French speak not well'), became my most used phrases during my time three days in Quebec City.

With his expansive and extremely handy local knowledge, Benoit took a group of those staying at his house (a combination of Belgian, Portugese and French) to a show that he refused to give away any information on, other than to say we'd like it. As we arrived and circumnavigated the crowds to find a pristine viewing position, the show began, and before long we realised it was none other than a show put on by Cirque Du Soleil. I'd never managed to see a Cirque Du Soleil show in Perth, but it was quite easy to see why the shows are so highly rated as the performers completed have to be seen to believed acrobat feats.

Cirque Du Soleil

Cirque Du Soleil
Cirque Du Soleil

After heading down to the waterfront to watch a fireworks competition heat (they actually exist), myself and three Belgian guys also staying with Benoit headed off in search of some decent Belgian beer, in what turned out to be a masterclass for me on everything beer related. I guess beer really is religion over there.

Quebec City


I was up early the next day, especially so given the education I had been undertaking the night prior, and  heading into downtown Quebec. My day of exploring on foot took me through Haute-Ville (upper town), Basse-Ville (lower town), and Vieux Quebec (old-town). At times, especially in the older areas of the city, I'd completely forget that I was still in North America and not in Europe. Highlights included the spectacular Chateu Fontenac, Dufferin Terrace, and Place-Royale. A ferry ride across the the Saint Lawrence river provided panaromic views of the old-town and city walls, with the Chateau perched prominently atop.

Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec City

Haute-Ville

Quebec City

Dufferin Terrace
Chateu Fontenac to the left on Dufferin Terrace

Palace Royale
Palace Royale

Citadelle of Quebec

Quebec City

Quebec City

Haute-Ville

Quebec City

Quebec City

An annoyingly wet day the next day included a visit to Montmerancy Falls, the highest falls in Quebec, and 30 metres higher than Niagara Falls. It was prior to a visit to the falls, though, that I ventured to the Grand Theatre of Quebec to attend a performance put on by the Orchestre symphonique de Québec (Quebec Symphony Orchestra) in conjunction with Opera Singer Jessye Norman, after receiving complimentary tickets from a friend I made in Montreal.

Whilst not a massive opera fan, I couldn't help but be impressed by Ms Norman's performance, and found myself getting goosebumps as she belted out 'Amazing Grace', and even 'You Will Never Walk Alone'. I was equally, if not more impressed, by the Orchestra alone performing a stunning rendition of the ET Themesong. The crowd at the event must have been as equally impressed as I as they engaged in what may or may not have been a world record attempt for the longest standing applause.

Orchestre symphonique de Québec

I headed back to Montreal the next day thanks to  lift from Benoit, and headed onward to none other than Boston Massachussets, and the first stop in my last stretch of the States, as I head down the east coast.