I will fill you in on what has happened up until now (roughly - I forgot to note down a few things so me and C have just been jogging our memories).
So last post I mentioned we were planning to take a boat ride to see the Statue of Liberty. Well we stuck to this plan and on Thursday the 8th of July we made our way down to the docks where C said he had taken a boat ride from the last time he was in NYC. We paid a reasonable price for a 75 minute boat ride down the river (or up depending on the time - fun fact from the boat ride, the direction of the current changes!) to the Statue and back.
- Some old tart -We were entertained by David, the rather over-enthusiastic tour guide who's gimmicky jokes were probably more in tune for the younger and extremely older patrons. I found him quite funny - read into that what you will. After the boat tour we made our way downtown to see the World Trade Centre site. Last year when I was in NYC it was still just a building site with nothing much there, but now there are at least 10-15 floors of two of the new towers they are building and it doesn't seem quite as morbid a place. The signs of the 9/11 tragedy are still there to see though and I took a picture of some of the memorials. Another fun fact from the boat ride, David told us that a campaign company who were against the building of the new towers have just won the rights to the office space inside them.... in his words "You really can't write this stuff". Technically I can, I just did. Garry, 1 - David, 0. After Ground Zero we made our way to Chinatown. It was very Chinese. All the street signs were also in Chinese and it was very weird being in Beijing, yet still in Manhattan. We decided it was too hot to carry on so stopped off for some refreshments in a typical Chinese food chain, Subway. (I'd like to point out here a fact that I had forgotten to mention before, It was RIDICULOUSLY hot in NYC when we were there and the day we arrived was apparently the hottest in Manhattan for 9 years, 103°F). OK, so that evening we planned to hit the NYC bar scene and we changed into our smartest clothing to impress: Shirt, Jeans and Trainers. We made our way back to Heartland Brewery for dinner where I had a "Voyage of Beer" - 6 samples of the Brewery's nicest beers. They were incredible. C had a pint of one and hated it, gutted. After that we made our way to the Irish Bar we found on the first night with a plan to head on to some of the bars the bar maid had given us. This is where my mighty fail occurred. I had one and a half beers before hitting rock bottom. I was too tired to continue so we had to head back to the Hostel. FAIL. I blame the jet lag and endless walking around NYC. We spent the evening in the hostel with the Frenchies in our dorm who were about as friendly as a punch in the testicles.
The next day, 9th July, we were woken early by the bloody Rifle Droppers chatting very loudly with no consideration for the lazy British who were sleeping. They eventually left and I managed to sleep another 2 hours. Me and C made our way to Evolution, a shop in Soho that I had been introduced to last year by JR. It is full of ancient fossils and more modern animal specimens to purchase. I bought one or two items that will be revealed on my return. We then made our way to Broadway between Canal St and Union Sq (supposedly a good place for shopping). We bought a few things (some new shorts for me - a week with lots of sweating had taken its toll on my 2 pairs I brought with me). When we got to Union Sq we chilled out on the grass in the sun and rested our legs. In the last week I have walked further than I have in my entire life. FACT. Whilst chilling C noticed a guy holding his baby in one arm and texting with the other hand and pointed out the need to support a baby's head. There was far more attention being made to the phone than the baby, whose head looked like it was falling off.
- Father of the year, 2010 -On our way back to the hostel we were waiting with a woman of... shall we say "ethnical difference"... with her 3 kids, one of which announced to the platform that she needed to pee. The woman took her out of the push chair and appeared to be holding her, but no. The next thing was notice is a pool of urine seeping across the platform. Ahhh, gotta love NYC! We finally got back to the hostel and chilled out briefly with 2 English girls who had arrived the night before. We decided to take an early night and C headed off to bed in preperation for his drive to DC the next day. I stayed up a little longer chatting but wasn't far behind.
So, Saturday 10th July, we were due to leave Lafayette Intl Hostel and head on to Washington. (Sidenote, I had noticed neither has brought nail clippers so I foraged some scissors from the hostel... OWLS!) The day before I had asked the hostel about the car that was blocking us in on the drive at the hostel and they had assured as that the owners would be leaving before us. I know where you think this is leading and we were expecting the exact same thing. However, that morning the car was indeed gone, but the gate key opening the locked gate over our drives was not in the designated "gate key" pot. The sign said that at 10am the office would be open but 10am came and went, as did 10:30am. We were getting more and more pissed off as expected. We did the only thing natural and ransacked the office for keys. We found a drawer of about 50 and tried them all, but to no avail. Eventually C took a closer look at the gate and noticed the hinges weren't quite secure. An attempted lift and the hinges came off and we opened the gate rotating it on the lock. WINNERS! The rest of the day was spent in traffic on the way to Washington DC and C had to handle our first driving in the rain, mwuhahaha. That afternoon we went into DC on the metro. I found the metro driver to be very like Ollie Williams (for the Family Guy fans:
"Tell us about the metro line we're on Ollie"
"THIS' THE RED LINE!!!"
"Thanks Ollie, what's the next stop?"
"TAKOMA!!!!!!!"
Aaaaaaanywho, we managed to see all of the main landmarks by nightfall. We started with a view of the Capitol Building, then walked to the Washington Monument and down to the Lincoln Memorial.
- Washington Monument with the Capitol Building in the distance, viewed from the walk to the Lincoln Memorial -We then went over to the White House for a gander. We noticed lots of people taking "clever" pictures where they appeared to be holding the monument... so 2009! We suggested some more... "creative" pictures what with the phallic nature of the monument, but figured it wouldn't go down so well. C and I also admired the statues on the roof that were perfectly still. I insisted that I wanted to take a picture of the White House at night so we went on a search for a place to eat. We eventually came across a Sports Tavern and decided this would be the venue for the World Cup Final the next day. We had our food then made our way back to the White House. It was only then that we noticed that the "Statues" on the roof had gone. Turned out they were snipers.
- The White House -Once we had the night pictures we went back to the hostel and chilled out. We met our new friends L and R briefly, but didn't chat much as we were too tired. I attempted to e-mail LS from my phone, but during the process a HUGE bug (hand gesture necessary) flew into my face and landed next to me. Naturally I reacted the only way appropriate... I freaked out like a little girl. Nice.
Onto the 11th. We head into DC again with our new friend R. We attempted to check out an old theatre that R suggested would be interesting, but the tickets were sold out and the next ones clashed with the World Cup Final. We made our way to the Sports Tavern and got some seats. R decided to go back for the 1pm ticket to the theatre so we saved his seat. R came back 30 mins to kick off and the rest of the afternoon was spent drinking and watching Espana winning the World Cup. The bar maid that served us rather liked our British accents, especially when we said "cheers". Naturally we said "Cheers" for the rest of the night... to everything. A few free beers later and we made our way home rather tipsy. When we got back L (from Korea) asked if we wanted to go out for Korean food for dinner. We went to some dodgy place down the street that was closed, but L managed to work his charm and got us some food. A few minutes later and my mouth was burning, but it was goooooooood. C hated it (he doesn't like spice). We got back and chilled out for the evening. R left at 4am to head to Costa Rica.
On Monday 12th July (today as of writing this), me and C woke up and agreed with L that we'd meed him for drinks in the afternoon. We went into DC again and looked around the Natural History Museum. I made a huge fail and didn't take my DSLR camera out with me, one of the best times to take pictures!! After the natural history museum we went back to the hostel and waited for L. L didn't turn up so we went back into DC for lunch. We went back to our favourite Sports Tavern, but the bar maid who gave us free beer for our accents had gone. Bad times. Whilst in the bar the weather report of storms made its promise and the heavens opened. Supposedly we should get used to this. We finished our beers and then made our way back to the hostel where we met our new dorm-mate 'C from Leeds'. 'C from Leeds' was up for a night out, but unfortunately arrived a day too late as we had to be up at 4am to drive to Miami.
This is literally as far as we are as of typing this. We are planning to spend the evening with a Chinese Take-away/Take-out (British/American) and drinking a few more beers with L in the hostel. Tomorrow we are due to drive 17 hours 40 mins to Miami... JOY!
Sorry this seems very quick and to-the-point but I have only had this brief time to add to the blog. I hope you are all well and I will hopefully update again in Miami (if the hostel breaks the trend of having more than 1 PC per 30 guests!!)
See you all soon hopefully!
Garry
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