Day 11-13: A Weekend in London

Going from New York to London was a longer journey than what it should have been cuz I went via Frankfurt!!! Who does that? Apparently my Dad, me and his colleague! Anyway…it was a long journey so I won’t get into the details. Well, I eventually made it to London, caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, then took a cab to our very nice boutique hotel – Threadneedles Hotel! That is by far my favourite hotel :) The hotel was modern and spacious, one of those hotels that even had an LCD TV in the bathroom! Such luxury! (Yes, the perks of tagging along your parents' business trip!) As I have mentioned in previous emails, London was more like a weekend thing rather than a typical tourist thing. The last time I was in London I was 10 yrs old…so even though it’s a long time ago, I didn’t feel the need to go all out touristy…so I didn’t! It was good to relax for a bit as I realized NY was one big mad rush to try and accomplish everything I wanted to do! It was really nice being in London on a weekend, and it was definitely a good change of scenery for me! Gone were the giant skyscrapers and in were the petite British buildings!

If you don’t want to read my lengthy and somewhat boring recount of my day-by-day experience in London, here’s the short recap in point form.

• London has great food! Definitely try Indian if you come here cuz it’s great!
• Riding up and down the tube is actually a tiring experience…well, if you’re a tourist going one place to another!
• I love the Brittish cabs…they’re so cute
• Try to catch a game of Football if you’re here! I managed to watch Chelsea vs Aston Villa! Great game! Awesome atmosphere!
• Carry an umbrealla everywhere you go in London, you’ll need it!
• The best thing to do when it’s wet, go to a museum! You're guaranteed to remain dry until you step out of the building :P

Day 11:
As I arrived rather late on Day 11, the only activity I managed in London was eating! Charles (my Dad’s colleague) being an ex-Lodoner himself suggested going to Queenway for dinner, whereby we could walk along the mainstreet and see what takes our fancy. So we took the tube down to Queensay and it didn’t take us too long to decide upon eating Indian food! I wouldn’t have thought of that…and it was one of the best dinners I’ve ever had! It was only that night I learnt that London has some of the best Indian food in the world! (I should have known…as Indians have been settling in England since it was part of the English colony from way back! I just didn’t make the connection!) I think the food tasted especially good too since I just survived aircraft food (although it has improved over the years…it does not stand a chance against London’s high culinary standards!), and the spices and the aromatic basmati rice just made it even more delicious!! Mouthwatering food! I think we managed to stuff ourselves with pampadans before the main course arrived…but my lamb curry was so good I didn’t leave anything on my plate! As you might imagine, by the time we made it back to the hotel, we just went to sleep!

Day 12:
It was a rather typical London day – I say that in regards to the rain-sunshine-rain weather we had prior to even stepping out of the hotel! Once the weather settled a bit, we took a stroll to some landmarks such as:

• St. Paul’s Cathedral – I believe it’s one of the only domed churches in London! The grounds surrounding the building were especially lush and green…very peaceful just to stroll around the gardens.

As we were walking around the streets, I noticed the stark contrast of London to New York! In London the buildings are so much shorter…it was a good change from the mighty highrises of Manhattan! Everything just seemed so much more petite and delicate in comparison to NY.

First picture of Daughter & Dad - Our morning stroll around Royal Exchange just near our hotel

Cute squirrel at St. Paul's Cathedral

Walking the streets of London

The arvo was spent at the Chelsea Football Stadium enjoying a good game of football! My dad managed to get us seats from his London brokers, and we were 3 rows from the front! This of course only made my brother, the soccer fanatic ever more jealous that he had to watch it on the internet at home in Sydney, whilst I was only 3 rows away from live action! Hehehe…It was awesome to be doing something typically ‘English’ instead of ‘tourist’. Ok, so I don’t really follow English football too closely, but I still felt the need to go for Chelsea since it was played at their home ground and their colours are blue and white! What’s the significance of blue and white? Just that my house colours in highschool were blue and white! When we actually arrived at the stadium I realized I should have put on my blue top instead of the bright red one I was wearing! Yeah, shows how much I know about football huh?

The game was awesome…1 goal was scored by Chelsea in the first 3 minutes! It happened so quickly as I was still settling into my seat! The crowd was obviously ecstatic! Just when you thought Chelsea had control of the game, Aston Villa scored the equalizer just before half time!! Much to the dismay of the crowd…and it was frustrating to watch Chelsea to lose so many close shots for the remaining game! Still, a 1-1 result was better than a loss…and from my spectator perspective anyway. There was plenty of action to sustain my interest!

At the football!

Dinner was spent at Covent Gardens – I had another awesome meal!! Saw so many stretch limo’s that night too…does that happen regularly in London?!?! I’ve seriously never seen so many stretch limo’s in one night! Again I stuffed myself with so much food I just wanted to go and sleep after dinner. (hmm...I think the glass of red wine I had also made me particularly sleepy!) We actually had dinner with my dad's colleague's Charles' sister - so she took us for a stroll around Covent Gardnes - definitely a cool vibe and atmosphere there! However, getting a cab home was not so cool...waited for quite a while before getting one.

Day 13
I woke up relatively early to meet up with my uni friend Peggy whom I haven’t seen in 2.5 yrs!! She's decided to pursue Law instead of Accounting (not a bad call!) hence she is now in London doing further study. As we haven't seen each other for so long, it was agreed a few weeks ago that I'd blank out one day to spend with her. So, what better way to spend a weekend than going up and down the tube :P Our plan wasn't very coherent or organised (actually, just really adhoc!) so we ended up on the tube most of the time! Going from one stop to another, getting off, walking for ages, transferring to another line etc etc. That was totally fine by me as all I really wanted to do was catch up with her, and since I’ve been deprived of serious talking to people I know on this trip so far, I couldn’t shut up! She too also asked when did I get so talkative!

Rach in London - Westminster & River Thames in the background!

We intended to do touristy stuff – so we started of at Westminster taking photos of the building, walked to Millenium Eye and decided the queue was too ridiculously long to bother going up a giant ferris wheel; we walked up and down the River Thames before deciding our legs were tired and it was time to eat! Off we went on the tube to Covent Garden (yes, again!) for Belgium food! Yeah, more talking...

Me and the Eye - can you tell it was a windy day with heavy clouds? :P

Next stop – Brittish Museum! Free admission plus rainy day prompted that decision. I don’t think we even covered half the museum…but the parts we did cover were fascinating - Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mesotopia, Assyria etc. Once again I realized my history knowledge is pathetic – not only do I need to read up on Ancient Greece and Rome, I’ve decided Middle Eastern History is equally fascinating! It’s just a question of where to start? So much I don’t know and want to know! I guess it’s an extra-curricular activity I can take up once I return to Sydney! I think we spent more time at the museum shop looking at various souvenir gifts and books than viewing the exhibits!

Inside the Brittish Museum

We visited Piccadilly Square – but by the time we got there the shops were closing…so we window browsed! Probably a good thing considering how everything is so much more expensive in pounds! Our stomachs were once again empty (catching the tube is actually really tiring cuz ur walking around so much transferring to different lines!), so we went to Chinatown for dinner. I’ve just realized that with every city I’ve been to so far I’ve visited Chinatown! Anyway, we spent half an hour or so looking for a Japanese restaurant that she couldn’t locate! So we settled for another Japanese restaurant that was obviously run by Chinese as they were speaking to us in Cantonese! Still, the food was decent so no one was complaining!

Although the day itself was not packed with touristy stuff, it was definitely a great way to spend a weekend in London! I'm glad I've had a mix of things to do on this trip so far! Yes I do miss home a lot...but I still love travelling too!

Something I’m getting very used to on this trip is packing my bag every 2 nights! And I tend to spend a lot of time repacking! Oh well, I’ll learn hopefully towards the end of the trip what is the best way to pack!

Next Update: Madrid in 1.5 days!

Day 6-9: NYC

Overall, NYC was fantastic! I really enjoyed my time there :) It's such a pity I was only there for 3.5 days. An even greater pity that my original flight from Montreal to NYC was cancelled! (Therefore cutting down already limited time in NYC) That was quite a drama - Firstly, I found it really difficult to sleep the night before (so I got in total about 2 hours sleep!) Secondly, I had to get to the airport at 6:45am! With only 2 hours of sleep! Thirdly, when I was waiting in the departure lounge, they made the announcement 15 mins before boarding that our flight was cancelled due to 'mechanical problems'!! So much for getting no sleep n getting there so early for nothing!! So it was another 4 hour wait for the next flight to NYC - LaGuardia. I will now think twice before using Air Canada to fly anywhere!

Day 1 - NYC
By the time I finally made it to NYC it was about 4pm...I saved myself some money by catching a bus to Grand Central Terminal for US$12! Not sure how much a cab would have been...but definitely more than that! Luckily my hotel was located right opposite Grand Central Terminal, so I only had to drag my luggage across the road!

It was exciting for me to finally be IN NYC as I've been dreaming about this day since I was 16 yrs old!! All the movies and the TV shows I have watched over the many years...it was finally going to make sense! As the plane was landing at LaGuardia...I could see all the high rise buildings, the Brooklyn bridge etc and that 4 hour wait I had to endure was all but forgotten! My first impressions of NYC - Manhattan - it's HUGE! I mean I have seen skyscrapers in my life before (Hong Kong, Shanghai) but nothing in comparison to this place! When you look up, all you see are tall buildings everywhere. My neck was getting sore from just looking up at the buildings! You could definitely sense that one had arrived in one big mega huge city! (And Yes, I could tell the difference in air quality too!)

Since I arrived so late, I didn't manage to achieve much on Day 1 in NYC. I met up with my Dad and his colleague, and upon the recommendation of the bartender at the hotel, we caught a cab to Greenwich for some excellent Thai food!!! Everyone mentions cab rides in NYC - and YES it’s true that it’s quite an experience especially during peak hour!! My gosh the traffic in NYC is just bad! Horrific! That's why all the rich people in Manhattan don't own or drive cars - they have drivers to drive them around. The traffic in NYC is truly bad enough to give you a headache. I really give credit to those cab drivers that manage to do it as a living!! (I suppose they get used to it?!?!) Greenwich was an excellent spot for dinner - if anyone goes to NYC in the future, I'd definitely recommend this thai place called "Lemongrass"...the ambience and setting of the place was hip and trendy...catering to the younger NYU crowd which meant the food was very reasonably priced! I had a Thai Green Chicken curry and I was so full I couldn't even finish my dinner!

Day 2 - NYC
I decided with my limited time here that a double-decker hop on/hop off tour was the way to go! So I purchased my tickets to do the Uptown & Downtown & Night loop. I started with the Downtown loop which began at the busy and tourist filled "Times Square" and ventured down to various places such as the Garment District, SoHo, Greenwich, Financial District and saw the various landmarks (NYSE, Wall St, Macy's, Cast Iron district in SoH0, City Hall, Ground Zero, UN Building etc) - basically I hung around Lower Manhattan for most of the day! The tour guide I had in the morning was an old but passionate bloke that has lived in NYC for over 40+ yrs! He gave a running commentary of all the various sights that we spotted. I made a stop at Battery Park to catch a ferry to see the "Statue of Liberty". I was lucky to have such good weather. It was a perfect blue sky sunny day...so I thought I may as well see the Manhattan skyline from afar and spend some time on the Hudson River! Again, I was at a tourist filled place but you definitely cannot miss the Statute of Liberty if you're going to visit NYC! It was an amazing sight for sure...from both afar and even up close! I spent some time at the park reading my NY Lonely Planet guide...taking lots of pictures of the NYC skyline plus the statue itself and just taking a nice stroll around the park. I eventually made it back to Manhattan...walked around the financial district and the East River side Seaport...before hopping on the bus again to get back to Midtown.

Empire State Building - Art Deco Architecture (I went there the next day at night)

A monument the people of NY started in rememberance of Sept 11th

Pic of Cast-Iron Buildings at SoHo - aka Cast-Iron District

Manhattan Municipal Building - an example of Renaissance Revival Architecture

Miss Statue of Liberty!

View of Manhattan from Statue of Liberty

ME & Manhattan!!
(one of the few pics where I'm actually in it!)

Manhattan again...Did I mention I love this city? hehe
The weather really was that fantastic!

A pic from my quick stroll around Central Park

One cannot miss a Broadway show if you're in NYC!! So earlier in the day I bought 2 tickets to Phantom of the Opera. There are TKTS booths you can go to for discounted tickets, but I didn't bother going there so bought my tickets from the Concierge at the hotel, just to be on the safe side. I actually wanted Jersey Boys...but it’s like the hottest ticket in town at the moment even the hotel can't get them! Phantom may have been an ‘old’ show, but it’s AMAZING! Stunning! I was so mesmirised by it that I wanted to see another show the next night! (But I didn't, due to time constraints!) It's incredible what can be performed live on stage! It’s certainly better than anything I’ve seen on stage in Sydney (although, I’ve never watched a musical in my life…only opera & theatre…so I didn’t have any benchmark to compare it with) And yes I'm a sucker for the score of the phantom music...there IS a reason why it’s the longest running show on Broadway!

Day 3 - NYC
I did the Uptown loop of my hop on/hop off tour. This route traveled up to Hell's Kitchen, Upper West Side, around Central Park, Harlem, Upper East side...This time I had a younger tour guide compared to the day before and he was one energetic, passionate Democratic New Yorker that made a lot of Bush jokes (which of course made the tour that bit more interesting!) He pointed out various good eateries around the area (which I have now all but forgotten!) and of course gave a pretty good running commentary around the area. He did point out the original Soup Nazi kitchen from Seinfeld, but the bus moved too quickly for me to take a quick snap! I think Harlem is one area I will definitely explore more in depth in the future! A lot of America's Jazz Greats commenced their career in Harlem - Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington just to name a few! We drove past the famous Apollo theatre where many of the greats first started out! I love the history of jazz music so next time I must explore more of Harlem! (And I may as well make a side trip to Chicago & New Orleans if I'm going on my Hisotry of Jazz tour too :P)

I guess the highlight for me during Day 2 was my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Met as its known. OMG I love that place! I actually spent 4 hours at the Met! And that wasn't even enough! I felt like I only browsed quickly through the collections instead of looking at it in depth. The Met building itself is amazing, and I just love how the New Yorkers have such an appreciation for building public places. Everything is grand and big! (It is New York…they have big ego’s!) The collection is superb! I've been to the Louvre before (that was 8 yrs ago!) but I think this beats the Louvre. There was everything from Ancient Roman & Greek art works on display, to Chinese paintings, porcelein & calligraphy! By far the most crowded part of the Museum of the “Cezanne to Picasso” exhibition. My camera was actually running low on memory/battery at that point so I purchased the book...I guess that's another 2 extra kilo's I have to carry around for the remainder of my trip! Well worth it I think! I am sooo glad I made an effort to visit the Met! Definitely the highlight!

The Met

Being stuck in Traffic in Manhattan!

As I was by myself (again!) in a big city…I decided to take the Nightloop of the NYC tour…just cuz I had nothing better to do in a big city and I may as well make use of my hop on/hop off tour (although I was getting a bit sick of it :P) I didn’t last very far on the tour…and I made a stop at the Empire State Building and figured I may as well make a stop at this landmark and see NYC at night! I don’t really know why everyone makes a big deal about this building…but if you consider the history of the building – the fact that it was built during the Great Depression and was the tallest building in the world for many yrs – you come to appreciate it! And the architecture of the building is unique and instantly recognizable! So I took a trip up to the 82nd floor (I think) and like all the other tourists around me – gazed in awe of this Great City’s Lights! It’s only from above that you realize the magnitude of the size of NYC. I spent a good 20 minutes up there before the wind was getting to me!!

View from the double decker bus on the "Night Loop"...oh yes it's Times Square...where the ball falls every yr on NYE

Times Square

View of Manhattan from the Empire State Building! See the long avenues?

Another pic from Empire State Building - I really needed a tripod to take a good shot!

New York Public Library - I walked passed it almost everyday...I just loved the grandeur style of the building - Beaux-Arts Architecture

Day 4 – NYC
After checking out from the Hotel I was in search for breakfast other than my standard Latte & Bagel from Starbucks (it had been my staple breakfast for the last 2 days!)…but the alternate path I took (up whatever avenue or street) had remarkably less food to choose from. I eventually found myself at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 59th Street (I started out at 42nd Street!) – Bloomingdales! I figured since I’m in NYC…I may as well visit one of their most well known department stores even though I don’t have the capacity to spend any money there! Unfortunately for all you girls there dying to find out how it was…I think I was in and out of Bloomingdales in less than 30-45 mins. I went up and down the escalators…nothing was quite affordable for me! (Duh!) And I really wasn’t interested in carrying around bags of stuff! So I browsed…I loved the BCBG & Marc Jacobs stuff but a dress for US$300+ was not something I was willing to spend! Although they were all gorgeous! If I could fit a big winter coat in my bag…I probably would have bought one…cuz we don’t get much of a good selection in Sydney! There were some discounts on…but really not enough to entice me to buy stuff!

The only thing I bought was a basketball jersey for my brother from the NBA store. I hope I got the right one as I had no idea…just recited what was on my piece of paper to the sales assistant! Oh yeah and a couple of cheapo stuff from GAP (from the night before). Other than that…NOTHING!

By lunch I made my way to the Rockefeller Center. I didn’t go up “The Rock” as I figured I’ve seen NYC from the Empire State. I bought lunch there (a great big piece of pizza for less than $US4!) and sat around the area where they usually put the Ice Skating ring each winter. It was again a lovely day to be eating outside! Upon deciding what else to do on my last day in NYC, I walked across the road and saw “Dean & Deluca”!!! Yay…that was something on my “list of things to see” but forgot about it once I got here! Why Dean & Deluca? Cuz “Felicity” used to work there (for anyone that used to watch the show…you will know what I’m talking about!) I decided I HAD to eat inside…so bought myself a cheesecake & an iced mocha latte :) It was a damn good cheesecake!

Rockefeller Centre - Atlas Statue (above)

Dean & Deluca - Does anyone remember Felicity? Well, I had the best cheesecake there too!

Unfortunately the over indulgence on food and walking around the place caused a slight headache. What to do? I really wanted to go see SoHo & Greenwich again but figured a short walk up 53rd Street to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) may be better than taking a subway! I’m so glad I went to MoMA…I may turn into a museum freak after this trip, but I don’t regret going to MoMA at all! It was another fantastic place! Not as gigantic as the Met…I was there for another 2 hrs plus! More Monet’s, Picasso’s, Cezanne’s, Matisse…even Warhol! I was particularly excited when I saw the Design & Architecture exhibition. Again, great pieces of landmark furniture items from the 20th Century – the Barcelona Chair…(and other stuff I recognized but don’t remember its name!) Marc Newson stuff, Frank Lloyd Wright architectural sketches! Yep so my headache eventually left! The MoMA building itself is also fabulous! It’s right in the heart of the city and it even has a courtyard inside for people to spend time in the outdoors…I guess to contemplate?! There was a small water fountain (modern style of course) and if you gaze up you can see the surrounding high rises! (Hey its NYC) I guess I do regret not being able to visit the Guggenheim but I must leave something for my next trip hey?

Centrepiece at the MoMA

Andy Warhol - Campbell's Soup Cans (MoMA)

Claude Monet - Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Ponds

(The Painting was so big i couldn't fit it onto 1 screen!)

One of my favourites from MoMA - it was unreal to see so many of my favourite 20th Century design pieces all at one place!

So in a not so brief way – that was my time in NYC! I thoroughly enjoyed it once I got used to the bad traffic and high rises everywhere! The city is definitely easy to get around and I didn’t experience any of that “New York” attitude you commonly hear. Whenever I asked people questions they were always helpful…maybe I didn’t really meet ‘real New Yorkers’? It’s a diverse and colourful city. You will meet virtually anyone from all corners of the earth in this city…they’re either tourists or people trying to make a living in the Big Apple! The city literally does not sleep…there’s always activity and people and cars no matter what time of the day! I really wish I could write more...but I think this is enought writing for one session!

Next update: London!!