NEW YORK TO MEXICO
One Uber, three planes and a taxi later....
So I safely arrived in Puerto Escondido: one Uber, three planes and a taxi later. Starting at 4am was never a good idea, and by the time I arrived in Peurto I was well over it. You know why? Well, here's the kicker. I had no space in my luggage for a change of clothes. Gotta tell ya, brown suede Prada boots that are perfect for October in New York have no place on the Mexican Pacific Coast.
So many highlights, but I gotta say, the American woman who looked like someone had vomited peroxide, leopard print and gold trinkets all over her who pushed me out of the way whilst barging onto the plane took the cake. And probably the burgers too. Maybe Viva Aerobus should look into having designated seats rather than a free for all?
Other things I learned today.
- United Airlines has a 23kg luggage allowance, unlike every other airline I have ever flown on which have 25kg
- United will not let you sit in an Emergency Exit seat, even if the plane is empty because they cost more. Even if the plane is empty.
- United Airlines charges you for food, and they only take cards. Bad luck if you are from Europe where the transaction will cost you more than the sandwich.
- There is no feeling like putting on a bikini and jumping in the pool after 6 weeks in New York.
NEW YORK: I REALLY DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE
I was reluctant to leave New York, but in the end had little choice.
My initial intention was to try and stay in New York for three months, but getting a job had proven hard to come by, and to stay an extra month would take all my savings, meaning that I was looking at the option of forfeiting Mexico all together. And god I was needing some sunshine.
I was looking tired and run down, plus the job I got was not offering me enough hours. I spent valuable time deliberating, but in the end I realised that I would have to concede defeat and come back next year. In the end it turned out to be a recon mission, but I still think that six weeks is sufficient time.
NEW JERSEY: AN AMERICAN FOOTBALL GAME
An authentic American experience: a college football game.
So I went to a football (not soccer, the American kind) game. In Jersey. Granted, it was not on my list of things to do, but when the opportunity arose I thought, "Why not"?
So here is how it went down.
I got up at the crack of dawn (like 0730) to get a train from Penn Street over to Jersey. It was freezing cold and raining, but I thought to myself, "How bad can it be?, it is only 180 minutes, I'll be fine". I could not have been more wrong.
First there is the tail gating ( I was only a spectator of this on what seemed like a 5km walk from the car to the stadium), which is basically having a bbq out of the boot of your big, gas guzzling car. Then when you are sufficiently pissed (there is no alcohol served at college games) you head inside.
Technically the game is supposed to last for 48 minutes, with four quarters of twelve minutes. What I was not aware of that with the stops and starts each quarter goes lasts somewhere in the vicinity of an hour. It feels as though the clock is going backwards. Whilst my American friends were getting involved, I was cold. It was raining and windy up in the stands, and of course when I sat down I forgot to dry the seat, resulting in a wet ass. Or "fanny" as the Americans call it: as I was given a blanket they said, "here, this is for your fanny". I giggled like a Japanese School girl, and was going to ask why I would need a blanket for my vagina (which is what fanny is in the UK and Australia). But instead I just said, "thank you".
Apparently it is a game full of intricate tactics, but from where I was sitting it looked like a whole lot of motorcycle riders running around in circles looking for their bikes, so I was a smidgen relieved when half-time came and everyone else had also had enough and wanted to leave (not because of the weather, but because Rutgers was losing so badly). Before we did we went to get something to eat, and surprise surprise it was fast food, with cheese on everything. It was wonderful. I tried the "tater-tots", which are deep fried potatoes with cheese, and stuff, and then some more cheese, and then some more stuff, with a cheese topping.
To round off the day (or to put the cheese on the tater-tots) we went to a mall. A real American Mall. Just like they have in "Sweet Valley High". I could imagine the teenage girls creaming (I was going to say screaming but the unfortunate typo seems more apt) and rioting for "One Direction". It was a such a cross section of holiday consumption (Christmas, New Year and Thanksgiving) that my head started to spin, and I was ready to go back to Manhattan.
On the train ride home (with lots of drunk people heading out for a Saturday night) i could not help but wonder if those men ever found their motorbikes.
NEW YORK: HALLOWEEN
For Halloween I ended up staying inside, as it was just so overwhelming!
Even though my writing course was finished, I had decided that I should stay for Halloween, just so I could see it.
But by the time it came, I was so exhausted from the overwhelming place that is New York that I ended up locking myself inside and eating Chinese food. Not only because the crowds did not gel well with me but it was bitterly bitterly cold.
I also got to see a huge amount of people is costume on the subway ride there, and it was pretty damn scary. I am not sure whilst people waited until the day before to get there costumes: eve though there is an abundance of shops selling just that, there were people lined up down the block.
NEW YORK: GETTING YOUR NAILS DONE
One of my top 10 favorite things about New York... If not number 1.
There is such an abundance of nail bars, at about $25 a time, that women have no excuse for letting their upkeep lapse.
I would say that there are nearly as many nail bars as Starbucks. And you can pretty much walk in and get your tootsies done at any time. You even get to choose your colour. And the best thing is that it lasts!!
NEW YORK: TOO MUCH CHOICE
Just your regular newsagent on the corner.
So I was walking home one night, and I felt that a magazine for my subway ride to Brooklyn was in order. So I just went into a magazine shop on the corner, and my god, the collection.
I asked the gentleman behind the counter if he had the biggest selection of magazines in Manhattan, and he shook his head. I said, "How about for the space" and low and behold he had a plaque celebrating just that.
I was overwhelmed, and just picked up a gossip magazine, with the intention of coming back. But I never did, because as per usual I got distracted.
BROOKLYN: LONDON KAYE
This is some street art that I found on the way home. Located under the turnpike it would change on occasion, and every day when I walked back from playing pinball I would check.
Her pieces totally blend in with the surroundings: traffic overhead, scurrying rats, and this.
Always made my day.
http://www.londonkaye.com/
MANHATTAN: EDUARDO KOBRA
One of my favourite pieces of street art.
This picture was also taken on The High Line and it blew me away. So I looked into it, and the work was done by Eduardo Kobra.
All of his work is so colourful and happy, and blends in with the surroundings, in this case complementing them.
MANHATTAN: THE HIGH LINE
An afternoon walk on the High Line
The Highline is a nice walk between The Meatpacking District and West 34th street. It is a beautiful stroll that gives you a unique perspective on the city.
The day I went the cold weather was setting in and the days significantly shorter. As I was near the water, the sun went behind the clouds and I got this shot.
I would strongly recommend it for anyone visiting.
https://www.thehighline.org/
NEW YORK: BLEEKER STREET
An afternoon of window shopping.
Bleeker Street is full of cute shops. The photo is this one is Dyptique. It is really not fun for someone on a strict budget.
However, I did manage to find some perfume, costing $200, then I went home, looked it up on line, and managed to find it for $80. I guess that is an indication of how much the prices are marked up because of the cost of renting real estate.
NEW YORK: ALICE RUSSELL GIG
So having watched "Magic Mike" one too many times, I was slightly addicted to Alice Russell. When I googled her, low and behold, she was playing a gig the next day at La Poisson Rouge on Bleeker Street.
What an amazing voice, and a venue with really great sound.
I started to chatting to some elderly gentleman who had lived in Switzerland for eleven years, and they ended up taking me to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. It was a fun and delicious night, and suddenly New York was not so lonely!!
NEW YORK: FIRE ESCAPES
The fire escapes on the outside of buildings are quite unique.
From what I hear, the city planning was not that well planned, and all the buildings are too close together making life difficult.
But they are part of New York, and you become quite attached. As if there was not enough to see on ground level, when you look up there is always something to see. And how many movies and TV shows have scenes from the fire escape?
This one was taken in the afternoon sweet spot, meaning that the reflection of the sky was in all the windows.
NEW YORK: MOST IRRESPONSIBLE DRINKING DEMOGRAPHIC
This is the warning that is compulsory in all bars.
New York
In every bar (not sure whether it is New York or America wide) must have this warning. Really? Pregnant women are the ones that need to be reminded? They are the ones who need to be told of the dangers of drinking?
I have no problem whatsoever with warning signs, but am curious as to why it is deemed the most dangerous group. I am told that it is because of the danger to the unborn baby, but where I live anyone who is diagnosed with pregnancy immediately lays off the booze sessions.
From what I have seen, pregnant woman immediately take the weight of the world on their shoulders. Everyone they encounter in daily life has an opinion on what they should or shouldn't be eating and drinking and how they should be behaving. Ascertaining what is good and bad for them whilst they are pregnant is a veritable mine field, and if anything does go wrong they burden themselves with a lifetime of guilt. Even if nothing does go wrong, they ponder how they could have done it better. I think (perhaps maybe it is a European thing) that a woman knows what is best for her, and that is she thinks it is to have an occasional glass of wine, then so be it.
BROOKLYN: AT FIRST I WAS DISAPPOINTED
My first encounter with Brooklyn was not what I expected.... But maybe I should have?
New York, USA
As I ascended the subway stairs at the Bedford Avenue stop on the L Train otherwise known as the "Hipster Express", I was expecting all of my senses to be commandeered. I wanted to see people that looked like they had stolen their parents clothing, to smell the edginess, taste the disdain, hear the word "fundamentally" used to start each sentence, and I kinda wanted to touch the facial hair (just a little bit).
But nothing. Just a square with people rushing about. Brooklyn was just like Manhattan, and not the good part.
So I assumed what I saw was a red herring, and that what I was seeking was never going to be that easy to find. So I stopped to ask a passerby, who possibly thought I was a beggar on crack as I was so friendly, and asked where I could find a bookshop. Surely that would be a natural habitat for hipsters? They must also be believers that actually going to a bookshop and picking up and smelling the books was so much more authentic than ordering online?
I found myself in Strand Bookshop, with a selection like I had never seen before. But it was not overtly hipster; in fact, the facial hair I saw was a smidgen half assed, almost as though it was grown by students incapable of cultivating substantial whiskers. So I purchased a book and on my way out asked the man behind the counter where he would suggest I go for a coffee and to do some work on my computer. He suggested a place around the corner.
More students, but still no hipsters. I ordered a coffee, and it was just a coffee: not a latte, no cinnamon, no internet access, and get this, it was part of a chain store. Not Starbucks, but close. The very foundation I thought that Williamsburg was built upon was crumbling before me.
But as I looked at the address on the cover of my new purchase I realised I had spent the past two hours in Union Square, which being right around the corner from NYU (when I had seen the NYU signs earlier I just assumed that there was a campus in Brooklyn, even though it had never been mentioned on "2 Broke Girls") explained the lack of facial hair. Alas, it was too late in the day to head to the real Brooklyn, so I waited until the next day.
This time I checked I was in the right place before I left the train, but there was no need. I could sense it as the warm dirty air of the subway blasted me in the face as it now had that tang of aforementioned edginess.
This time my ascent of the stairs in Bedford Avenue was just what I had hoped for. Hipsters were everywhere. Aesthetically, all the men resided on a spectrum between Rick Moranis and Clark Kent, but both sexes channeled a Hippie / Yuppie hybrid with an Emo heritage. .
For many of these people, the office is a trendy cafe where they work remotely, critiquing and disparaging the rest of the world online, which is where I am writing this from right now. They drink cocktails out of jars, but not just normal cocktails, "craft" cocktails. Actually everything is "craft" and "organic". Especially the beer. Craft, organic beer. If something is not labelled as "craft" then clearly the creator is not taking it seriously and is setting themselves up for a world of pain and cyber ridicule.
People go slower in Williamsburg – still a cracking pace but paling in comparison to Manhattan – and everything is described as intense. Even the sandwiches. I literally heard someone say, "This sandwich is so intense". I cried #hipstertears of joy as I opened my Mac Book Air and started writing about it.
At first I was disappointed with Brooklyn, but that was because I was in the wrong place.