Four internet-free days

Sunday 24^th – Wednesday 27^th February 2013

So, it's been a while! I hope you are well – we have a lot of catching up to do!

I will miss things out, purely for your sanity (and my terrible memory), but here is a very brief overview of my first four days here in the Big Apple.

Me, terrified, at (nearly the top of) the Empire State Building!

Sunday was a totally manic day – we decided to go and explore the local area, our main objectives being to buy New York City Passes and to see Times Square. As it turned out, we achieved both of these things and more, all before 2pm (when we went back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep!) Due to some disastrous map-reading on my part (which is impressive considering NYC is built in straight lines), we completely bypassed Times Square and found ourselves at the south end of Central Park, having visited the Empire State Building, NY Public Library, the Chrysler Building AND Grand Central Station en route. Once we'd fought our way through the hordes of horse-drawn carriages and pigeons, we found a map and realised what we thought was Broadway was actually 6^th Avenue. Luckily we were close enough that we could walk back to the hotel along the right road, so we managed to visit Times Square before going to Macy's (that was particularly traumatic – whoever decided disco music, fluorescent lights and make-up counters was a good idea is just mean) for giant pizza and sugar-cinnamon bagels. After all the excitement, what we needed most was a trip up the Empire State building – I was traumatised enough, so the thought of being 86 storeys above ground level didn't faze me at all! I think in total today we walked about 8 miles, so I was glad to get back to the hotel for a lie down!

Me & Lady Liberty- my ears were cold

On Monday, we were hoping to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty but these have been closed since Hurricane Sandy hit at the end of 2012, so instead we took a 2 hour cruise around the south of Manhattan, passing the Statue of Liberty, the Financial District, and turning at the UN Headquarters. I managed to position myself right at the front of the boat, so had the best view (which was awesome apart from the fact it was FREEZING!) After we'd warmed up with lunch at Subway, we went to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for a couple of hours. The art was great, but my favourite thing about MoMa was the Security Guards – they all seem to have a really wicked sense of humour – hiding behind installations and jumping out at each other, high-fiving small children and generally having fun! We walked home down 5^th Avenue and saw all the shops and a true representation of what NYC is like at rush hour!

LOOK!  NEW YORK!!

Tuesday, we had decided, would be a lazy day with a well-deserved lie-in. So of course I woke up at 4am. I gave up trying to sleep by 6am so instead enjoyed a couple of hours sitting in the hotel lobby working on a presentation I will be giving next week. After breakfast, we walked to Central Park where we visited the John Lennon memorial (Strawberry Fields) and then carried on to the American Museum of Natural History. We went to the planetarium and then wandered round the very random collection of installations – we liked the dinosaurs best. We left mid-afternoon to walk back through Central Park to the Rockefeller Center. Since I went up the Empire State Building, I didn't really have an excuse not to visit Top of the Rock, so after a Starbucks, we took the lift up 70-something storeys to the outdoor viewing platform. The views were incredible, and it was nice to be able to see Central Park as well as the Empire State Building. We walked up to the very top, which had even more amazing views but I didn't like because the fences were only waist-height. After some faffing around in the shop at the top, we walked back out onto the viewing platform to find that the sun was setting, so we hung around to see the lights of NYC – AMAZING!!

The lights of NYC

Alice In Wonderland - Central Park

Wednesday was the day I discovered my waterproof jacket is not waterproof. This was the day we walked 60 blocks to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), so I spent half of the day dripping everywhere. The Met is HUGE – I am pretty sure no-one has ever actually seen the whole thing in one day. We spent about 1.5 hours in one section before realising a) we were hungry, b) the cafeteria was on the other side of the museum, and c) we'd only done one corner of one (of three) levels. While we were having lunch, we planned our strategy and decided the best approach would be to just visit the sculpture, weapons and Egyptian exhibitions. Even that took the best part of 5 hours, so we were glad when we left that it had stopped raining and we could walk home via the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park.

So, a very brief overview of four very manic few days in New York City.

Tomorrow – a taxi ride, a new hotel, meeting some wonderful people and the real reason I am in the Big Apple!

Rx

Planes and Trains and Automobiles

Saturday 23^rd February 2013

So I finally finished packing. At 2am. After an eventful and hectic few weeks, I finally collapsed into my bed knowing that there was nothing left to do but sleep.

Until 5am, when I was rudely awakened by my alarm clock. I don't know why I do it, but whenever I travel I think it's a great idea to get the first flight of the day. For some reason, I always forget that a 9am flight means leaving our flat at 6am, to get to the airport, to check in and then spend an hour or so wandering around the shops just to keep myself awake long enough to board the plane.

We arrived at Edinburgh Airport at 7am, which (we thought) would give us just enough time to check in, drop our rucksacks at the oddly-shaped-luggage desk, get through security and go to Boots to buy the last few things I'd forgotten to pack, before boarding our flight at 8.15.

It all went smoothly (we'll ignore the fact that my rucksack was 1kg over the weight allowance – told you I'm bad at packing!), until we arrived at our gate. We sat down, exhausted by the rush of the previous couple of hours but knowing that in just a few minutes we'd be able to settle into our seats on the plane. Half an hour later, we were still sitting there. Just after 9am, when we should have been taxi-ing down the runway, we were still waiting. A short while later, an announcement came over the tannoy that our flight was delayed due to a “small technical fault”. Now, the last time I was given that reason for a delayed flight, five fire engines followed the plane down the runway as we came in to land. Excuse me for not being particularly filled with confidence at this point.

Two hours later, we finally boarded the plane. The technical fault – a leaking toilet.

Our flight was relatively uneventful – I think the highlight was probably the hilarity (caused by a mixture of over-exhaustion and being 35,000ft above sea level) that ensued whilst trying to work out the difference between the grapes that came with my meal (labelled vegan) and those which came with my boyfriend's meal (labelled Hindu. Ironic considering his meal was beef).

We landed at Newark Liberty International Airport at about 1.30pm and an hour later, after queueing in the hottest arrivals hall I have ever experienced, we passed through immigration to find our rucksacks sitting in the middle of the baggage reclaim hall being watched by two very lovely American security guards. I'm not sure how, considering we were among the first people off the plane, but we were the last people from our flight to come through immigration and the security guys were bored of watching our bags travelling on their own around the carousels. Phew!

From the airport, we took a train to New York's Penn Station. The train (which we had to wait an hour for – more waiting!) was a double decker train, and of course we decided the top deck was a good place to sit with our 70litre rucksacks. Note to self- the stairs on those trains are not wide enough for me, my rucksack and my hand luggage! 

On the train from the airport looking exhausted.  The label is a luggage label which got stuck in my hair somewhere between Edinburgh and Newark.  It stayed there until bedtime!

Most of the journey is through the industrial flatlands of New Jersey, until you enter a tunnel and all of a sudden you are at Madison Square Gardens – this took both of us by surprise! I'm not sure we were quite ready to arrive in New York, so when we walked out of the train station after 16 hours of travelling, we both just stood and stared like small children in an old fashioned sweet shop!

New York is SO TALL!

We giggled like school children all the way to our hotel, Hotel Wolcott, where we finally managed to collapse – we have arrived!

We wanted to try and stay awake for as long as we could to stave of the inevitable jetlag, so went out to try and find somewhere to eat. Just one block from our hotel there is a deli. Those of you in Edinburgh – imagine a cross between Peckhams and the Mosque kitchen. It's an amazing mixture of all sorts of fancy snacks, biscuits, crisps, wine and beer around the outside, with international food service counters in the middle!

Long story short - I was asleep by 7.30pm!

New York, New York

First off, let me just get this out of my system:

Thank you!

Packing

Something you should know about me - I really dislike packing.

I try to be organised.  I always have a list.  I do lots of research into wherever I'm visiting; I know what the weather will be like, I know where I can get food (having weird dietary requirements is a total pain!), I know how the transport system works, I know what currency I need and what the time difference will be...  So in theory, packing should be easy.  

But it's not.  This is what my bedroom floor looks like just now:

To pack...

You might say that looks quite organised, but it's been like that for the last 3 days.  And my rucksack isn't that big.   

Getting to this point has been pretty stressful.  Last week, one week before we travel, our washing machine decided to stop working.  We spent two days staring at it, surrounded by piles of clothes, willing it to start working.  Eventually, we realised that it's not going to fix itself and had to resign ourselves to the fact we were going to have to hand wash 2 weeks worth of clothes in the bath.  Fortunately, my lovely friend Angela and her working washing machine saved the day and have spent the last three days surrounded by my dirty laundry.  It's a good job we know each other well.

In 2010, I was involved in a Girlguiding UK GOLD (Guiding Overseas Linked with Development) project in Guyana, South America.  The rest of the team realised pretty quickly that I am really bad at packing.  I took just about everything except the kitchen sink (it wouldn't fit in my rucksack).  My personal favourite random and unnecessary item was the giant chalk.  To this day, I have no idea why I decided giant chalk was a good idea, but still I took some.  After three weeks of being ridiculed for taking giant chalk, I was determined to find a use for it...

Giant Chalk Challenge!

We made a giant board game to teach people about environmental issues!  So the giant chalk DID come in handy... 

Ok, I promise I won't take giant chalk to the UN.  But what *do* I take for two weeks in New York?  How do I fit it all into one rucksack?

Answers on a postcard please...

And yes, I do realise that in the time spent writing this post I could have packed my bag AND had a cup of tea.  That's how much I hate packing!

Rosyx

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

I've never written a blog before.  The closest I've got was writing a diary when I was 14.  That lasted a week, until I lost my diary-writing pencil and gave up.

Clearly I have issues with commitment.

In a few days time, I will be heading to New York (more info will follow) so I thought this would be a good time to challenge myself and to try writing (again!).

I'm sure there's more I can tell you about myself, but I can't think what, so instead here is a picture.  This pretty much tells you everything:

This is me - on my way to Guyana, South America in 2010

Rosy x