New York City: A Fancy Stroke

Today was Natural History Museum day.

We woke up to the news of Margaret Thatcher dying, or rather we woke up to the multitude of jokes about her dying.

We got a subway direct to the museum, which saved my feet a little bit. Got ti jets for the museum and planetarium and started to explore. Our planetarium time was 12: 30.

I had never done a planetarium before, it was pretty awesome. While I like Whoopi, I’m sure they could have found a voice with more gravitas, when talking about the beginnings of the universe and our galaxy.

After the museum, we went to ShakeShack, the food was good, but I’m not sure it was amazing, like everyone says it is.

After, we went through the park – Paula left us to meet someone, then the rest of us went to FAO Schwarz via the Apple Store.

FAO Schwarz seemed to be lacking in interactive stuff. I expected it to be more of a playground for kids and kids at heart, but it was more just a straight up toy shop. Still cool though.

After Schwarz, everyone else went shopping, I opted to go back to the hotel – my feet, by this point, were killing me. Blister. Generally sore muscles. Not a god combination for walking the streets of New York.

After a while of being alone at the hotel, everyone else came back. They had decided to go to Bubba Shrimp for food, then Top of the Rock after.

Bubba Shrimp was pretty cool. Obviously tourist orientated, but that’s what we are, so who cares? After that, we went to Toys R Us, where the Jurassic Park area had no JP toys in it. Makes sense.

We went to the Disney store after, where, after 5 mins, Ryan asked “is this the Disney store?”

What gave it away?

Then. Top of the Rock.

Entry was free with the pass, I had Leads just assumed that the famous picture of the guys on the girder was from the Empire State or Chrysler or something, but turns out it was from the rock.

The views at the top were awesome, definitely glad we opted to do it at night, too. Being able to see the Empire State at night, lit up etc.

Central Park looked weird but cool from the top. You could see all the pathways lit up within the relative darkness.

We have had our photo a lot in this trip, the pictures from Top of the Rock are the only ones we have bought.

Leaving the plaza, we headed back to the hotel.

My feet going back to killing me. Sweet.

New York City: If we’re not number one, who is?!

Today we all woke up pretty early (for us), got dressed and headed out to the Empire State Building. We wanted to get there early-ish to avoid any massive queues, which I’m glad we did, because walking through what would have been the queue area made me think about just how awful it’d be to have to wait in it. Though, if we did wait in the queue, we would have seen all the information/museum boards, which would have been interesting – instead, we walked right by them.

The views from the 86th floor (we didn’t go all the way up, cause it would have cost extra) were impressive. We walked around, taking photos and generally taking in the views for a bit, before heading down, exiting through the gift shop, as is customary at all attractions. 

On the way down, we were looking for the SkyRide, something we had free entry to with the passes. We ended up on the ground floor, before being told it was back up the way. We eventually found it and got on. 

It wasn’t good. But it was so not good, that it was actually kind of good. Kevin Bacon narrated it, so, y’know, there’s that.

After the Empire State, we went to find something to eat. Everyone apart from Hannah, Acloud and I were going to WrestleMania in the afternoon/evening, so we needed to get something quick, together, before they left. 

We settled on the Tick-Tock diner, which was (and I’m sure still is) right next to Penn Station (where they’d be getting their train to Wrestlemania from). At the diner, we, pretty much, all had breakfast foods. Pancakes, etc. It was good. Allan and Acloud ended up sitting alone, cause they could only sit six of us together. It all worked out in the end though.

After, we said our goodbyes and the three of us left in New York headed back to our hotel to get organised, drop off stuff we bought at The Empire State building, all that kind of stuff. Once we’d done that, we all went to the NBC store and booked tickets for the Studio Tour – We had thought to do it the next day, but they couldn’t fit us in, so we ended up booking for Tuesday.

Then Hannah abandoned us. 

Acloud and I walked up to Central Park and explored it a little more than we had the previous time. I’d marked a couple things on the map that I wanted to check out, so we hit them. Hannah was meeting with her friend from Uni, she text to say she was done and we arranged to meet.

We had talked about getting a night-time bus tour of the city, by the time we got to the ticket office, there was a bus due to leave not long after, so we bought the tickets and got on. 

We went upstairs and sat at the back, an old woman came and gave us headphones, it later turned out that she wasn’t just the headphone giver, she was also the tour guide. Her name was Marge – or at least, that’s what Hannah decided her name was.

Marge was obsessed with food, not any particular food, just food in general. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican… She never shut up about food, except to talk about Jay-Z.

As we were driving through Brooklyn, she noted “Hip-hop fans may want to take a look to the right now, that building is the high school that Jay-Z attended. I’m not sure if he graduated, but…”

Acloud missed out on all of Marge’s little gems, as he’d taken out his headphones. When Marge wasn’t talking, she was breathing. Loudly. Down the mic. Sounding like something from the Ring. 

I miss Marge.

After the tour, we decided we’d just grab a McDonald’s. We had thought about getting a pizza delivered to the hotel, but in the end, we were tired and just wanted food. Now. We stopped by Walgreen’s, then McDonald’s and went back to the room. 

We lay and watched TV for a bit, before kicking Acloud out of our room, back to his and getting into bed. 

I have vague recollections of Paula and Stuart coming into the room, but don’t remember them getting into bed or anything.

[this blog was written nearly a month after the events, due to it having disappeared the first time round]

New York City: Shine Bright Like a Fucking Highlighter

Today I lay in bed while everyone else got ready around me, they were all going to some car show which I had zero interest in.

Once they left, I got up, took a shower and attempted to skype my mum. She wasn’t on skype though, so ended up texting her a bit.

When I was finally ready, I left the hotel and ventured down Fifth Avenue, until I reached Madison Square Park, where I sat for a bit, taking some photos. I then crossed the street and took some photos of the Flatiron building.

Stuart had talked about a mural of a GTA5 poster on the side of a building, I looked at my map and it was only two blocks over from where I was (and south), so I decided to go that way.

It wasn’t nearly as big as I thought it was, but I took a picture anyway and carried on. Walking through the west village. I stopped at another park, where a guy was playing piano. Also while there, I swear I heard a fire engine go “nee-naw nee-naw”.

I continued walking, eventually ending up in Battery Park City. There, I saw a weird, out-of-place mound, with a path leading up it, covered in heather and stuff. Confused, I walked around, looking for an entry. There were quotes on the wall, but nothing to say what it was.

There was an entry point at the back, I went inside and saw a box of leaflets. ‘Irish Famine Memorial’. I walked up the meandering path and saw, for the first time, the Statue of Liberty.

I walked down the esplanade a bit before taking a seat looking out over the Hudson. From there, I heard snippets of conversations, from runners going past.

One guy announced, to his running friend, that he and his girlfriend had got engaged. His mate seemed genuinely pleased.

Another running pair had one guy telling the other that “A famine is where there’s no food and everyone dies.” – while true, I fear for a world where people who look to be in their thirties don’t already know that.

It was, I thought, getting close to the time I was due to meet everyone, so I went to see if I could find a starbucks to get wifi, to see of they had WhatsApp’d me. While on the look out, I passed the Ground Zero memorial site. The queue was huge, we had planned on doing it, but I really didn’t think it’d happen.

I found wifi, then also got a text from Hannah. They were pretty much done, but would still be another 30mins or so.

I went up some steps for what I thought was just an overpass, but it turned out to be an entrance into One World Financial Center. In there, I found a starbucks, got myself a drink and a egg sandwich and sat down. There, I ended up in a skype phonecall with Debbie.

After a while, I headed back out onto the esplanade, where I walked south. I sat down and got Mother text from Hannah. They were on their way, where was I?

Things got a bit confusing, but I found them all in the end and we walked up to the WTC memorial again. The queue was a lot smaller the it had been, but it was still huge. We decided to just hit up the museum.

At the museum though, they asked if we wanted passes for the memorial – it’s free, but they have passes for crowd control. We said yes and did the museum (hello nosebleed) and then went back across the road for the actual memorial.

It’s a really nice area, I just hope that once everything is built, they open it up properly. Even reading the names of the dead, it was still really hard to link the park with two fountains to everything that happened on 9/11.

From there, we went to Wall Street, then got a subway back to the hotel for a bit, before going to Hooter for food, we had lost Acloud to a sore head„ so it was just the seven of us.

After Hooter, we walked down a few blocks and saw Jurassic Park in IMAX 3D. Worth every one of the twenty dollars.

Tired, but happy, we walked back to the hotel for the night..

New York City: 25 – 30 Burbs

After the long day yesterday, we all decided to sleep as long as our bodies let us, opting not to set alarms.

We all woke up around 9:30am, with 2202 (we are 2206) going to the deli and choosing not to ignore our WhatsApp pleas for food.

We had a plan to meet Dee and Ray at Shake Shack for lunch, but when they got there, it was packed. We, instead, made our way to Planet Hollywood. The place was pretty quiet, so we got sat and served pretty immediately. Dee and Ray left, as they had to do some stuff before heading to JFK.

After lunch, we stopped by the gift shop then went to collect our city passes, before going to see the Harry Potter exhibit – it closes on the 7th.

It was a similar thing to the Titanic exhibit from Philly, but it had extra touches, like a sorting hat sequence at the start conducted by a wizard member of staff – handy that they have one, really.

After Potter, we walked up to central park, sitting for a bit before walking around some of it. It was super warm.

We left central park onto 5th Ave, stopping in by the Apple Store on the way back to the hotel, getting back at around 7:30,we sat for a while, then headed and got some snacks before coming back and watching TV.

Nice day.

New York City: Philadelphia edition

“Philadelphia fucking loves a sculpture”

We woke up at 5:30,got ready and headed to Port Authority bus station, for a bus going to Philadelphia.

It marked the first time I’d been on a bus in the US, and surprisingly, it was a pleasant journey. The two hours flew past in no time.

Once in Philadelphia, we made our way along Market Street until City Hall, where we saw ‘The Rocky Steps’ – poor art museum gets no love.

We got some pictures and video there before heading to ‘Sabrina’s’ for breakfast/lunch or, if you want to get all fancy, brunch.

We were joined at Sabrina’s by Dustin, a guy Paula knew. He ate with us and ended up paying the entire bill for us. Something he definitely didn’t have to do at all. Needless to say he seemed like a really nice guy.

After food, Dustin took Paula, on the back of his motorbike, away to see Roger another of her friends while we went to the Franklin Institute, and interactive museum, which, while mostly aimed at kids proved to be a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, while at the institute, I died.

They had a Titanic exhibition, before you enter they gave everyone a boarding card with details of a passenger – name, age, class, reason for travel, etc.

It was a pretty cool idea, once in, we all started talking about who we were. Hannah was a six year old girl, Acloud was Solomon Guggenheim.

As you walked around they showed artifacts from the ship and mock ups of the rooms on board.

They had a replica of the staircase and another of a large hallway which, whether intended or not, all made us feel slightly un-easy.

The exhibit ended with a section which documented the sinking. First iceberg sightings, attempts to get away from it, the realisation that the ship was doomed.

Then, on the far wall, was a list of all the passengers. The ones who made it and the ones who didn’t.

It was weird how attached to the person on your card you became, seeing I didn’t make it genuinely made me sad. My guy had a son though, and he did make it. So that’s something…

Paula got a taxi back to the institute to meet us, then we went to the train station to get tickets for the journey back to New York.

We then walked to Jim’s Steaks, which took us back the entire length of Market Street, then down through the historical district, which was really pretty.

After Jim’s we talked about going elsewhere, but tired and grumpy, we went to starbucks, for a drink and some comfort, before finally talking a taxi back to 30th Street station.

“What was that talk about trifle?”

New York City: You Soccer Good?

Woke up a few times last night, noticed Paula was awake too. Eventually, Tain sent a WhatsApp, revealing that we were all awake.

We put the TV on, ending up on NBC’s today show. Having seen it loads before, seen all the people outside the window, etc. It was really weird seeing it, having actually walked past that window just a few hours before and knowing that all that was happening just down the street.

Once everyone was ready, we headed to the subway (via at&t) and got a metrocard, after some difficulties for Acloud and Allan we ventured down to the platform and made our way to the Bronx Zoo.

We had talked about how long it’d take, we knew it was a big zoo, but even taking that into account, we figured we’d be done by 3 at the latest. On the subway, we were treated to a crazy guy, full of conspiracy theories.

“Why did the Japanese stop at Pearl Harbour? They wouldn’t! They would have carried on across the USA, bombing the lot – It was an inside job.”

We got there about 11ish and didn’t leave until around 4:30 – the zoo closed at 5.

It was a really nice zoo, all the animals seemed happy enough, with the possible exception of the of the polar bear… Maybe the giraffe that was licking the wall, but I’m choosing to believe that it was sending some secret messages, he was being super sly about, reeall cool.

We had planned to go to a Game of Thrones exhibit after the zoo, but we were crazy tired, so ended up back at the hotel, lazing around a bit. After some organising for tomorrow and Friday we headed to the bus station, then Hard Rock.

Tonight marks the second time we’ve shown up to a restaurant – a group of 8 people – and been given a table pretty much right away. How?

We all started fading toward the end of the meal and so headed back to the hotel after. Early morning tomorrow.

New York City: “I can’t wait to see your pad get prodded”

Showed up to Aberdeen airport at around 5:30am, meeting up with everyone else, ready to start the adventure.

We all checked in our bags, I was one of the last to do so and because I have a rucksack type, as opposed to a proper suitcase I was told to go and put it through a special door. I did so and joined the rest of the gang.

“Why’d you have to go over there?”

Paula had assumed I was checking in my boom mic.

I had joked previously about a boom mic, why she thought that was all I’d need, I’m not sure.

Security was fine, and we were on the plane in no time, ready to hit Heathrow and on to New York!

But no. Once in Heathrow we had a three hour layover -which we expected. What we didn’t expect was the two and a half hour wait for the plane to be ready after a technical issue…

Instead of arriving in JFK at just after 2pm, we ended up getting to the hotel at 7pm. The shuttle driver ended up being pretty cool.

He had to do something to redeem the company though, after they made us wait far too long – he took what was essentially the long way around to get to the hotel from the airport.

Driving us over the Queensboro Bridge, and through Times Square.

The hotel is nicer than we thought it would be. I became Mr. Mackie briefly.

After getting unpacked, we headed back out to Times Square and then for something to eat at TGI fridays, walking home via Rockefeller Plaza.

Now just chillin’, watching tv, planning out tomorrow…ish.

Paris: Au revoir!

July 4th, 2011

The alarm went off at 5am. By 6:30 we were at Joinville-Le-Pont RER for the last time.

We got to Charles De Gaulle in good time, and so we sat for a bit before saying our goodbyes.

From Charles De Gaulle, I went to La Défense, to see the Grande Arche and ended up sitting there for a while utilizing a WiFi hotspot I found. The whole défense area is pretty nice, if you can see it through all the suits. On the train to La Défense, I was the only one in the carriage not suited up, by the end – instead I was wearing my “spoiler” t-shirt and while nobody said anything (in either English or French) I could feel their eyes trying to read the shirt as I stood there.

After, I headed to porte maillot, to find out the times of the bus and also buy a ticket. The metro stop is a lot bigger than I remember, but last time I was there, it was packed out with frustrated italians.

Once I had my ticket, I went to Musée De L’Armée, which was only €7. It was pretty cool and most importantly, killed a few hours… Oh, and while there, I managed to get myself another bloody nosebleed. I ended up wandering around half the 1900’s with a blood soaked tissue.

Paris, you have not been kind to my nose.

After that, I hung around the carousell de Louvre and used its many free WiFi locations, killing time until I got the bus.

I headed back to Porte Maillot at around seven, and got a bus out to Beauvais at around half past, getting me to the airport for around 8:20pm. All straight forward, so far.

I decided, once I arrived to take the opportunity to change my tshirt. I had a clean one in my bag and I felt kind of sweaty, so I figured it was a good decision. I went to the toilets and did that and started making my way to the security line.

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On the way, I felt something, it felt like my nose was running – but given what happened earlier, and what happened on Saturday night, I kind of knew better. I reached up and sure enough, more blood.

I made my way back to the toilets to grab some tissue, and got it seemingly under control. At least, enough to make my way through security – still holding a tissue to my nose. It wasn’t until after I was through the metal detector that one of the french security people asked if I was OK.

Well, that was the jist of what he asked. First he asked if I spoke French, to which I told him no. Then he asked the woman behind me in line if she spoke french, she did. Did she speak English? Barely. But she was able to translate enough to ask me if I wanted someone to have a look at my nose. A first-aider. I was given a seat and the guy went off to look for the first aider and soon enough, he came along and took me into his first aid room.

He was also French and had limited English. So he went off to find someone to be a translater for him, coming  back with a woman from the airport.

I was asked if I wanted to go to hospital, but if I did that, I knew I’d miss my plane. So, I said I’d rather just get home. Which they were understanding of. However, when the nose bleed still hadn’t stopped properly after over half an hour, they started to get more concerned. Suggesting that I may not really have an option but to go to hospital.

If the bleed didn’t stop, I wouldn’t be able to fly, because, if anything, the pressure in the cabin would only make it worse.

While none of that is a good thing, it’s only made worse by the fact that the next flight I could get on wasn’t the next morning, it wasn’t even the next night. It would have been two days later.

I asked them for a cut-off time, a time by which, if my nose hadn’t stopped bleeding, I would have to stay and hoped that it would stop bleeding.

The first aider guy was on the phone to the hospital, essentially getting an ambulance when he asked me to take the gauze away from my nose, to see if the situation had improved. I went into the little toilet, and took it off over the sink. And…  Nothing. There was a little bit of blood, but it wasn’t soaked. I shouted out, “Wait!”… and wandered out of the bathroom, almost confused. He looked at the lack of blood on the gauze strip and canceled the ambulance.

He let me sign the refusal of assistance form – I say let me, because he had talked about it earlier and asked me if I’d be happy to sign it, when I had said I’d rather go home than go to the hospital, when it was looking like I had a choice, but I didn’t see it again, until after I’d produced a blood-free gauze strip.

In the midst of all this, he took my heartbeat, which was apparently at over 120bpm. Which, considering I hadn’t been running around or anything, is very high. I suggested that it was probably, in part at least, something to do with the fact that I was being told I might not get home and would be stuck in France for another two days.

His English wasn’t that good though, so I don’t think he understood.

Anyway, after all that, he let me go back through to my gate, accompanying me through security – To which one of the security guys remarked “look who’s back!” – I’m guessing he’d radioed through to them about me possibly not making the flight. He left me saying that if it started to bleed again, even a little bit, that I had to find him again.

Thankfully, it didn’t (and hasn’t).

All the staff I interacted with at Beauvais with regards to the all the blood I was leaking were really nice though, the translater for the first aider kept reiterating that they weren’t trying to keep me, that it was for my own good. Blood loss is never a good thing.

I got back to Glasgow late (the plane was late in taking off from Beauvais) and my mum drove me home – She was already half way to the airport (a 4 hour journey) when I was told I might not be getting back to Scotland. I ended up sleeping in the car on the way home, which is something I never usually do, but I was exhausted, then I went to bed pretty much as soon as I got home.

Where I still am just now.

Still blood free.

Paris: Mona Lisa’s Smile

July 3rd, 2011

I woke up, happy to see that I wasn’t in a pool of blood, and waited for Emily to finish getting ready before getting ready myself. Once in the bathroom, I looked in the mirror, decided my hair was fine and threw on my clothes.

The plan for today was to go to Notre Dame, the Louvre, get some pictures at the Moulin Rouge and Sacré Coeur, then go to Père Lachaise cemetery before hitting the Eiffel tower.

A packed day, sure…

We got to Notre Dame, and joined the line to go inside. There was a service going on, and I always find it kind of were that they allow people to go around taking photos and filming when that’s happening. It’s also jarring to see little shops at the side of the church.

We then left with the aim of joining the queue to go up the towers. The queue stretched the length of the cathedral and eventually, we decided against it.

We then walked across the river and visited Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop, which was pretty cool. Emily played some piano before we left.

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From there we headed to Saint Michel metro, stopping briefly to take pictures of the fountain, before going to The Louvre.

We made our way to the pyramid, only to be met with a queue that stretched from the pyramid entrance, through an arch, into the other courtyard, through another arch, and put onto rue de Rivoli. There was no way we were joining it, so I went onto my phone to see if there was another entrance.

A couple minutes later, we had found it. Through the shopping mall.

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Once we found they entrance to that, we strolled into the museum, no line, nothing. Ending up under the pyramid like everyone in the massive queue above us.

It was a free day at they museum (hence the massive queue), so we just made our way to the Mona Lisa (obv), grabbing a drink and a snack en route.

After seeing Lisa, we continued down the Grand Gallery. Then went to find the food court for the food and free WiFi.

After food, we went to check out the Egyptian stuff, seeing the medieval part of the Louvre too.

My memory card became full mid-egypt, 4gb/845 pictures. I swapped it out with my video camera card, as I’ve barely taken anything on that the entire trip.

We exited the Louvre through the pyramid. The queue was still going on as far as they eye could see, and we headed for the big red windmill.

The metro was crazy crowded, so after some photos of the mill, we walked down to Sacré Coeur.

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It was busy, but not too bad. The string guys did try and force their stringy ways on me, (or Emily) which was a nice change.

We then tried to go to Père Lachaise, but we arrived just as it closed. Who knew cemeteries closed?

We walked until we found a metro, which ended up being Voltaire and got off at Trocadero, where we sat for a while.

We left at around 8, and walked along they river toward a metro stop. Getting the metro to étoile and then to joinville le pont. Emily was hungry, so we went in search of somewhere that would serve food.

There were several restaurants on they street we walked down, none of them open. Which was useful. Eventually we found a vietnamese place or something and she got some takeaway.

Back at the hotel, I put the tv on and we watched Finding Nemo in French, followed by what it turned out a CSI marathon – also in french.

Needing to be up at 5am, it was perhaps silly of us to stay up talking about the inside and outs of tv and film…

Oh well.