Bloggin at the airport AND the train. Ooooh.

So here I am, bloggin at the airport again. There’s no internet access here so I’m gonna have to CTRL + C/ CTRL +V this thing when I’m done.

I’m sitting at gate A11 at Newark airport waiting for my flight to Montreal and subsequently my flight back to Toronto. I’ve had real shitty internet access at the hostel that I moved to after posting the post below. The first hostel we were in was pretty much a hole. The room smelled of something that none of us could quite put our finger on; the beds squeaked; the mattresses were generally uncomfortable and the bathrooms left a lot to be desired. There was though, good internet access and a slightly better location than our next hostel and an elevator. I suppose the compromise here was a good internet connection, location and elevator for a more safe/ secure non-smelling room with still, pretty average showers.

The second hostel we stayed in was pretty much in the middle of Harlem which to be honest, wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Apparently it’s an ‘up and coming’ area of NYC and you can kinda see that happening. Granted, you still probably wouldn’t walk around there at night unless you didn’t have a choice. You also kinda have to stick to the main streets. But besides that, it’s pretty cool. The food is really good too. Deli’s are pretty much awesome. Think of a dairy crossed with a deli in the supermarket which also makes excellent sandwiches. Excellent. Mostly.

Also, I’m not sure where I left off on my last post so I’m just gonna start with the Staten Island ferry. (This is what happens without the internet) (I love you internet). So forgive me if I cover some stuff again. Also, all the days seem to roll into one so I can’t really distinguish which bit comes where... Thank god for my over 500 photos from this trip.

OK, so as I probably may have mentioned, Christmas was pretty uneventful, I got a bar of Grenadian chocolate (which I still haven’t eaten yet) and supposedly some money in my bank account (which, as of yesterday, I still haven’t received... ). We all went to an Italian restaurant for dinner (which I’m pretty sure I mentioned already....) I think I also mentioned the Guggenheim and MoMA (mostly because I distinctly remember writing ‘the goog’ in my last post for some reason. If not, then, I dunno, I guess that word just stuck in my mind.) Just in case I didn’t though, both MoMA and the Goog were pretty cool. I’m pretty gutted that I missed going to the Van Gogh exhibition for free though. Long story.

Right, lets skip forward a bit shall we? (fast forward noises) And here we are, a few days ago on the Staten Island ferry. It’s free and apparently not a lot of people know about it. I don’t think there’s a lot to see on Staten Island, it’s pretty much a residential area. But as a wise man once said: ‘the most important part of a journey is not the destination but what happens in between’ (or something to that effect. This would have been much better if I had googled this quote (he he, goog). Once again, I apologise for my lack of internet access). Anyway, the point is that the Staten Island ferry goes right past the Statue of Liberty. And it’s free. Being as poor as I am, free things/ things that cost very little money come top of the list when deciding what to do. Hence why we didn’t go see a Broadway show, plus we didn’t have a lot of time to do it... There’s a ferry which takes you right to the Statue and to Ellis Island too but of course, that costs money. Money which I don’t have.

Ah, yes, I remember now. This is the day where one of my friends was meant to be on a plane to India the night before but went to the wrong airport. We spent the day on the Staten Island ferry and were lucky enough to make it to Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. We also visited the Seinfeld diner (which is actually called Tom’s Restaurant) which was pretty cool. Obviously in the show it’s only the facade that’s shown but it’s still pretty cool. The food isn’t too shabby either. It was super busy too. We were pretty lucky though, that the diner was only about 3 blocks up from our first hostel.

A trip to New York probably isn’t complete without seeing Ground Zero. Right now it’s under construction so there’s not really much to see but there’s like, a visitors centre/ museum across the street which is pretty much designed to make people cry. The whole sentiment of the exhibit is designed to be very emotional, very patriotic and very well, pro-America. Children’s paintings – ‘not just NY’s finest, but the world’s finest’; missing persons posters; sappy movies with interviews with people; random things found in the rubble. It does the job though, I suppose. It made me almost want to cry. Just being so close to something so big. There’s just a big empty space where you think there should be something but there isn’t. Just a big patch of blue sky. Visiting the museum is a must but it really brings you down. It kinda ruins the rest of your day. You get kinda depressed and don’t want to do stuff. Luckily though, when we were there it was getting dark anyways, so we just went off to find a bar somewhere.

Let’s skip forward to New Years Eve. Being in NYC for New Years you can’t not go to Times Square right? Apparently though, the whole Times Square thing is for tourists only. Apparently New Yorker’s go t Central Park instead which would have been cool too. But I think it’s true. None of the people we talked to were from New York. Pretty much anywhere BUT NYC. This New Years Eve also was the coldest on record in NYC history which is pretty cool. It didn’t really feel that cold though because all the people were huddled together. But as soon as it hit like, 12.10am on the 1st pretty much everyone had left the area and you could definitely feel the -10 degree winds then.

The actual ball drop itself to be honest, was kinda lame. The ball is super tiny and the ‘fireworks’ weren’t spectacular at all. The event has a lot of potential which isn’t being taken advantage of which I find surprising – I mean, NYC is one of the cultural powerhouses of the US but it can’t put together a decent New Years show. It could just be so much better. I mean, for people who are pretty far away from the ‘action’ there’s not much going on. I mean like, Lionel Ritchie was performing and apparently the Clinton’s were there but no one where we were gave a shit. I dunno, it’s not really what I expected to be honest.
So that was round 1 of my trip to NYC. Flying home was pretty uneventful, except for when I fell down the stairs at the hostel and twisted my ankle and when my bag didn’t arrive at Montreal airport (cos apparently when you arrive at Montreal airport you need to pick up your bag and go through customs again to recheck your bag on your next flight. So, I waited for my bag for like, close to 2 hours which made me miss my flight which meant I had to book another flight to Toronto. Luckily for me the flights were hourly so I didn’t arrive too much later than I was meant to. I was kinda scared that my bag wouldn’t turn up and I’d have to postpone or even cancel my East Coast trip (on which I am writing the rest of this post) ( It was there waiting at Toronto airport for me and thank god for that!) It was also my last night in Toronto last night. It was pretty uneventful, a few drinks at Mick E Fynn’s (well, just the one for me) and one final night staying at the Primrose.

I’m now sitting on a train bound for Montreal. Nothing much to report really. I’m just sittin, writin’ shit. Bloggin on a train. Being kinda anti-social listening to my ipod but trains aren’t really set up for that kinda thing anyway. Plus, the lady next to me doesn’t seem very interesting. It’s kinda weird travelling on my own again but I don’t really mind it. I was meant to be travelling with someone originally but plans change and I’m cool with that. So yeah, everything seems to be running on time as far as I know, and I should be in Quebec City late this afternoon. Cool.