Hi Everyone,
We spent our last day in NYC mostly sleeping. We didn't have to check out of the hostel until 12noon so we packed the night before and stayed in bed until 11am! Was sooooooooo nice! lol!
We then got up, checked out of the hostel and left our bags downstairs. We headed to the Barking Dog Diner on the corner of 94th Street and 3rd Ave (the corner of the road we were on)! I had a burger, and Rob had some kind of breaded pasta thing with a pot of tomato sauce. Never really understood exactly what that actually was! lol! We stayed having lunch until about 1:45pm and then headed across the road to Duane Reade to get Rob some ibuprofen.
After this we went back to the hostel to go on the internet, I had a good look at Obama's website. At 2:50pm we got our bags and started the journey to JFK airport. This should have been easy but unfortunately due to the Pope's visit the Manhattan transport network was a bit messed up and we didn't actually get to Terminal 7 until 4:30pm. Luckily we had checked in online the night before so we just had to check our bags via the 'fast bag drop' queue. This queue was not in fact 'fast' as it had been advertised! lol! JFK airport in general seemed to be EXTREMELY disorganised. We had to queue for ages at security, which at other airports had been quite quick. By this time it was coming up to 6pm. I talked to my parents and Jenny on the phone for about 20mins then we headed for the gate. Weirdly the 19:30 plane boarded before us (the 19:00 plane!). We didn't really understand this. Also when they boarded us, bearing in mind this was a boeing 747-400 which is a huge double decker plane they just said everyone can board instead of staggering the boarding based on seat numbers! This causes the whole thing to be a lot slower! lol! Don't really know why they were being soooo disorganised!
When we finally got on the plane we didn't take off for about another 40mins because the airport was soooo busy, 40 planes had to take off before us! lol! Anyways, the plane journey was fine. The plane had flown from london with a broken entertainment system (poor people on the london to nyc flight for 7 hours), however they managed to get a technician to fix it so we got 21 channels! Which was absolutely fine! I watched Doctor Who Christmas Special, Dragons Den, Ps I Love You and the Golden Compass. It worries me that 7 hrs doesn't seem that long anymore! lol! It was really weird to hear English accents on the plane, I didn't realise how long it had been since people with English accents were talking around me! So weird! lol!
Anyways, we landed at 7:15am (English time) to a cold and rainy England! We managed to drop 11 degrees from the NYC temperature! So annoying! We queued for AGES at passport control and then grabbed our bags. We finally emerged at Arrivals at 8:20am. I met my parents and Jen(yey!!!) and we sat down and had a coffee and 'breakfast' in Starbucks at Heathrow for a while before we headed back home (via the butchers). Was soooooooooo nice to see them!!!! lol! When we got home I saw fat boy!!!!! He looks soooooooooooo good, hes put on more weight and his fur is looking sooooooooo healthy, plus his chest has properly grown back!!!
I've just spent the day chillaxing, I had a two hour nap before lunch (although I didn't just go to bed when we got in). I've been rotating photos for ages, the final photo count for the whole 2 1/2 months is 6369!!! Owwww yes! lol! Tonight, we're having shepherd's pie tonight soooo I'm soooo excited!
I've had the most AMAZING couple of months! I can't describe how good it has been!!! It was soooooo lovely to go and see family and friends in Australia and New Zealand! I hope that it won't be tooo long until I see you all again! I'm pleased that I managed to do it, even all the 9 (!!!) flights!!! I really want to go and see more stuff, I could of carried on for longer but I am very happy to be home and can't wait to see everyone!!!
I want to thank Rob for putting up with me 24/7 for the last 2 and 1/2 months, for waking me up every morning and for always holding my hand as we took off and landed! I'm very glad I got to share this experience with a pain in the butt like him! lol! I think we mutually pushed each other into doing things we would not have done otherwise (although I never managed to get him to go Zorbing!) and I am therefore very very thankful to him for that! lol! Also I want to thank my parents for always telling me that I would be fine! I got into a routine of needing my rents and Rob to all say you'll be fine and to wear the socks that my nan and gramps got me which have now been dubbed 'the flight socks' that I wore on every flight!
I hope you have enjoyed my EPIC e-mails over the last couple of months! It's going to be weird not writing them everyday!
I can't wait to see everyone and hope you all are well! I'll upload all the pics to flickr this week!
I'M HOME!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Staten Island, Shopping and Lombardi's...
Hi Everyone,
We've had a really good day!
We headed down to Battery Park for 9.30am (when it opened) to get the ferry to Ellis Island/Liberty Island, however when we got there (again, when it opened!) there was already a queue for an 1 and a half. We therefore made a decision to get the Staten Island Ferry instead so we could see the statue of liberty but quicker (and for free!), this was really good!!! We do however feel guilty for not going to Ellis Island (for me... AGAIN!).
After our Staten Island Ferry ride we headed up to Soho so Rob could buy some jeans. We went into Dean and Deluca to get some lunch. I got a ham and brie sandwich and Rob got cajun chicken pasta. They were both really nice. We headed over to the Spring Street playground to eat these which was really nice. After this we ACTUALLY managed to get some jeans! Finally!!! We then went to Bloomie's to get my mum some stuff (she got a free bag!!!).
After this we headed up to the washington square park area to get some stuff in American Apparel for Rob. We wandered through the hub of NYU. I got a voucher for free coffee in starbucks - which we then promptly used, I got really sad in Starbucks cause I realised that the trip was ending... don't know why this happened in Starbucks but there you go! lol! After this we headed up to the Upper West Side to look for Steak Knives for my dad, we tried three places and couldn't find them so had to give up on that one.
After this we headed into Time Square so Rob could go to the trashy souvenir shops. We had a look in Toys 'R' Us and in the MTV store (I really wanted the 'Team Lauren' shirt!!!). After we had had enough of Time Square... Quickly! We headed over to Little Italy again, we decided to have our final dinner meal of the trip (except the 'lovely' plane food) in Lombardi's. Yes, I know this was the second time, but you have nooooo idea how good it is! lol! This was really really lovely!
We then headed (our very full selves) back to the hostel and packed our bags... which took ages! lol!
Tomorrow we are checking out of the hostel around 12 noon and having lunch in a cafe next door. We are headed for the airport around 3ish, our flight is at 7pm!
Sooooo weird!
I hope everyone is fab!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
We've had a really good day!
We headed down to Battery Park for 9.30am (when it opened) to get the ferry to Ellis Island/Liberty Island, however when we got there (again, when it opened!) there was already a queue for an 1 and a half. We therefore made a decision to get the Staten Island Ferry instead so we could see the statue of liberty but quicker (and for free!), this was really good!!! We do however feel guilty for not going to Ellis Island (for me... AGAIN!).
After our Staten Island Ferry ride we headed up to Soho so Rob could buy some jeans. We went into Dean and Deluca to get some lunch. I got a ham and brie sandwich and Rob got cajun chicken pasta. They were both really nice. We headed over to the Spring Street playground to eat these which was really nice. After this we ACTUALLY managed to get some jeans! Finally!!! We then went to Bloomie's to get my mum some stuff (she got a free bag!!!).
After this we headed up to the washington square park area to get some stuff in American Apparel for Rob. We wandered through the hub of NYU. I got a voucher for free coffee in starbucks - which we then promptly used, I got really sad in Starbucks cause I realised that the trip was ending... don't know why this happened in Starbucks but there you go! lol! After this we headed up to the Upper West Side to look for Steak Knives for my dad, we tried three places and couldn't find them so had to give up on that one.
After this we headed into Time Square so Rob could go to the trashy souvenir shops. We had a look in Toys 'R' Us and in the MTV store (I really wanted the 'Team Lauren' shirt!!!). After we had had enough of Time Square... Quickly! We headed over to Little Italy again, we decided to have our final dinner meal of the trip (except the 'lovely' plane food) in Lombardi's. Yes, I know this was the second time, but you have nooooo idea how good it is! lol! This was really really lovely!
We then headed (our very full selves) back to the hostel and packed our bags... which took ages! lol!
Tomorrow we are checking out of the hostel around 12 noon and having lunch in a cafe next door. We are headed for the airport around 3ish, our flight is at 7pm!
Sooooo weird!
I hope everyone is fab!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Guggenheim, Katz's, Financial District, Coney Island and The Met...
Hi Everyone,
Yesterday we headed for the Guggenheim to see the Cai Guo-Qiang exhibit. As usual with the Guggenheim the building is amazing but the exhibit lets it down a bit. The cars in the main atrium were amazing... I really really liked it but the rest of the exhibit I wasn't a fan of.
After the Guggenheim we headed down to the lower east side to go to Katz's! This was soooooo good, I had a salami sandwich and Rob had a knockelwurst (or something like that! lol). It was soooooo good as per usual!
After Katz's we got the bus to the financial district. We were intending to get the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island but Smile being Smile blocked my card cause they thought fraud was going on (even though I told them where i would be), I had to ring them (which will cost loads) for them to apologise loads! Was sooooo annoying! Anyway, we decided it was too late so we headed to have a look at Wall street and the NY stock exchange and then we went along to see Ground Zero cause Rob wanted to see it. They have changed it now, they have viewing decks and a visitor centre.
After this we headed to Newport so I could see where I would be living if I get the internship... we walked around a lot and I couldn't really work out where I would be living. According to the map I would be living in Walgreens... I don't think that was right! lol! The area seemed nice though and the path train goes straight to Greenwich Village which is cool!
After that we headed into Greenwich Village to go to the moondance diner but it appears that this has closed down. Instead we headed for a place called the cupping tea cafe. This was really really nice. I had a caesar salad with grilled chicken that would of feed about 7 people! It was ridiculous! It was the first place we went to that we didn't feel completely stuffed when we left! A very good thing! lol! After that we headed back to the hostel and just hung out.
Today we headed over to Coney Island, we got there about 12pm and had a Nathan's hot dog. We saw the sign that says 'Joey Cheshunt' who won the world hotdog eating competition, he had 66 dogs in 12 minutes! Soooooo scary! We then had a wander down the board walk and went on the beach. It was as per usual, an EXTREMELY odd place! They have closed down the us army recruitment office below the freak show!
After a wander around we headed back to the city to go to the Met. I decided to split up because we wanted to see completely different things. I went to see the Modern Art exhibit, the Tara Donovan, the Photography on Photography, the Pop Art, the Jasper Johns (wasn't impressed), the Gustave Coubet and the Chinese garden. The Met is RIDICULOUSLY HUGE!!! I got lost on several occasions! It was good though. I'm jealous of Rob cause he saw Lily Cole! Soooo annoying! lol! I was also disappointed cause the roof garden doesn't open until May and I really wanted to see that! Sucks!
After the Met we headed back to the hostel for the free pizza party! We've just chilled out from then on, Rob still isn't feeling great!
Tomorrow we are going to actually go to Liberty/Ellis Island and then Rob wants to do some more shopping!
Can't believe its our last full day of the WHOLE TRIP!!! Its sooooo weird!
I hope everyone is good!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Yesterday we headed for the Guggenheim to see the Cai Guo-Qiang exhibit. As usual with the Guggenheim the building is amazing but the exhibit lets it down a bit. The cars in the main atrium were amazing... I really really liked it but the rest of the exhibit I wasn't a fan of.
After the Guggenheim we headed down to the lower east side to go to Katz's! This was soooooo good, I had a salami sandwich and Rob had a knockelwurst (or something like that! lol). It was soooooo good as per usual!
After Katz's we got the bus to the financial district. We were intending to get the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island but Smile being Smile blocked my card cause they thought fraud was going on (even though I told them where i would be), I had to ring them (which will cost loads) for them to apologise loads! Was sooooo annoying! Anyway, we decided it was too late so we headed to have a look at Wall street and the NY stock exchange and then we went along to see Ground Zero cause Rob wanted to see it. They have changed it now, they have viewing decks and a visitor centre.
After this we headed to Newport so I could see where I would be living if I get the internship... we walked around a lot and I couldn't really work out where I would be living. According to the map I would be living in Walgreens... I don't think that was right! lol! The area seemed nice though and the path train goes straight to Greenwich Village which is cool!
After that we headed into Greenwich Village to go to the moondance diner but it appears that this has closed down. Instead we headed for a place called the cupping tea cafe. This was really really nice. I had a caesar salad with grilled chicken that would of feed about 7 people! It was ridiculous! It was the first place we went to that we didn't feel completely stuffed when we left! A very good thing! lol! After that we headed back to the hostel and just hung out.
Today we headed over to Coney Island, we got there about 12pm and had a Nathan's hot dog. We saw the sign that says 'Joey Cheshunt' who won the world hotdog eating competition, he had 66 dogs in 12 minutes! Soooooo scary! We then had a wander down the board walk and went on the beach. It was as per usual, an EXTREMELY odd place! They have closed down the us army recruitment office below the freak show!
After a wander around we headed back to the city to go to the Met. I decided to split up because we wanted to see completely different things. I went to see the Modern Art exhibit, the Tara Donovan, the Photography on Photography, the Pop Art, the Jasper Johns (wasn't impressed), the Gustave Coubet and the Chinese garden. The Met is RIDICULOUSLY HUGE!!! I got lost on several occasions! It was good though. I'm jealous of Rob cause he saw Lily Cole! Soooo annoying! lol! I was also disappointed cause the roof garden doesn't open until May and I really wanted to see that! Sucks!
After the Met we headed back to the hostel for the free pizza party! We've just chilled out from then on, Rob still isn't feeling great!
Tomorrow we are going to actually go to Liberty/Ellis Island and then Rob wants to do some more shopping!
Can't believe its our last full day of the WHOLE TRIP!!! Its sooooo weird!
I hope everyone is good!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Monday, April 14, 2008
Chinatown, Soho, 5th Ave, Little Italy and Lombardi's...
Hi Everyone,
We've had a great day!
Today was shopping day so we headed to Chinatown to begin with. We had a look around the stalls got offered endless 'louis bags' and 'chanel purse', we however managed to resist this! lol! We got what we wanted in Chinatown and then decided to have lunch.
We headed to the Excellent Dumpling House which was most excellent! I finally managed to eat dumplings again!!! They were soooooooo good! We remembered to tip (long story!) as well! We had fried pork dumplings, scallion pancakes and steamed dumplings! They were sooooooo good! I'm glad I managed to break the dumpling barrier!!! lol!
After that we headed to Soho and had a look around loads and loads of shops! We had a look in American Apparel, Lucky Brand Demin, Calvin Klein, Station A, Dean and Deluca, Old Navy and Bloomingdales among many many more!!! I got my makeup done in Bloomingdales at the Benefit counter! Was soooooo good! I didn't have scary eyebrows like last time! lol!
After that we headed over to 5th Avenue cause we wanted to go to Abercrombie and Gap. I had a look at the newish underground Apple store (loved it!). Abercrombie was fun, weird that they have a semi naked man to meet you on the way in! The store was really hot and dark, so not the best shopping environment! Hmmmmmm!!! After Abercrombie and Gap (and H&M) we headed to have a cup of coffee and then we headed back over to Little Italy (via Brooklyn - subway mishap! lol).
We wandered down to Lombardi's and had to wait about 20mins to get a table... BUT IT WAS WELLLLLL WORTH IT!!! Lombardi's was AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!! As per usual! We had half and half, Rob had Meatballs and spinach and I had Meatballs and red onion! It was just as good as always, really really was amazing!!! They've got an underground bit there... they may have had it before but I never noticed it! lol!
After the amazing meal we headed back to the hostel! All in all a fantastic day! Tomorrow is Guggenheim, Ellis and Liberty Island and Katz's!!! Very excited!
I hope everyone is fantastic!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
We've had a great day!
Today was shopping day so we headed to Chinatown to begin with. We had a look around the stalls got offered endless 'louis bags' and 'chanel purse', we however managed to resist this! lol! We got what we wanted in Chinatown and then decided to have lunch.
We headed to the Excellent Dumpling House which was most excellent! I finally managed to eat dumplings again!!! They were soooooooo good! We remembered to tip (long story!) as well! We had fried pork dumplings, scallion pancakes and steamed dumplings! They were sooooooo good! I'm glad I managed to break the dumpling barrier!!! lol!
After that we headed to Soho and had a look around loads and loads of shops! We had a look in American Apparel, Lucky Brand Demin, Calvin Klein, Station A, Dean and Deluca, Old Navy and Bloomingdales among many many more!!! I got my makeup done in Bloomingdales at the Benefit counter! Was soooooo good! I didn't have scary eyebrows like last time! lol!
After that we headed over to 5th Avenue cause we wanted to go to Abercrombie and Gap. I had a look at the newish underground Apple store (loved it!). Abercrombie was fun, weird that they have a semi naked man to meet you on the way in! The store was really hot and dark, so not the best shopping environment! Hmmmmmm!!! After Abercrombie and Gap (and H&M) we headed to have a cup of coffee and then we headed back over to Little Italy (via Brooklyn - subway mishap! lol).
We wandered down to Lombardi's and had to wait about 20mins to get a table... BUT IT WAS WELLLLLL WORTH IT!!! Lombardi's was AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!! As per usual! We had half and half, Rob had Meatballs and spinach and I had Meatballs and red onion! It was just as good as always, really really was amazing!!! They've got an underground bit there... they may have had it before but I never noticed it! lol!
After the amazing meal we headed back to the hostel! All in all a fantastic day! Tomorrow is Guggenheim, Ellis and Liberty Island and Katz's!!! Very excited!
I hope everyone is fantastic!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Brooklyn...
Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is good!
We had a lazy sunday! We got up and headed into Park Slope in Brooklyn to have brunch. After walking in the wrong direction I finally found the place that we wanted to go. This was a cafe I went to with my parents and jen, they do really good brunch for $12.95 that includes unlimited champagne, mimosa or bloody marys!!!
For the record so we don't have to hunt for this place again, this cafe is called Sottovoce and its on the corner of 7th Ave and 4th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I had eggs benedict and Rob had omelette! We both had lots of champagne as well! I still cannot believe this only cost us 6.50 pounds each!!! Bargain! IT WAS SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!
After that we headed along 7th Avenue having a look into lots of shops, picking up bits and bobs (prezzies) as we went along!!! We got a cup of coffee in a place called Ozzie's and headed to have a wander around Prospect Park. If I remember correctly Prospect Park was designed by the designers who designed (sorry! lol) Central Park, however they had learnt from any mistakes they felt they had made in Central Park so Prospect Park is reported to be better. It was really cold (and we weren't really dressed for cold weather) so we had a wander around but not a huge one. The park seemed less 'designed' and less segmented than central park. I liked it a lot. It felt like more of a retreat than Central Park, less stylized and more relaxed! The meadow takes up more of the park so I suppose it feels more integrated. I liked it alot.
After this we headed back to Ozzie's for some tea, this was really nice and we made a few lists of things we need to get done before we come home! Only 4 full days to go! We thought about going to a place called 'The Farm on Adderley' a restaurant in Newkirk but I couldn't remember if this was expensive or not so we decided to go and have a drink in St Mark's Place (back in Manhattan) and then work out dinner from there.
After our drink and a look around St Mark's Place (including a comic book store) we went over to Soho/Greenwich Village (it was right on the border) to a place called Arthor's. This place is up with Lombardi's as the rough guide's best pizza 'pies' in the city. I have to say... it does NOT beat Lombardi's. The pizza was good but Lombardi's has a better sauce and base, also the place in general was really really dark. It was however very nice that they played live jazz while you eat. But even the jazz does not push this restaurant into Lombardi's league! lol!
All in all a really lovely day. Tomorrow we are hitting Chinatown, Soho and Little Italy! I'm very excited! We've decided to break through the dumpling barrier and go to the excellent dumpling house at lunch time. I think this has to be done in order to allow me to eat dumplings again! lol! I'll report on our day tomorrow... although we are going to Lombardi's tomorrow so I maybe too full to type! lol!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
I hope everyone is good!
We had a lazy sunday! We got up and headed into Park Slope in Brooklyn to have brunch. After walking in the wrong direction I finally found the place that we wanted to go. This was a cafe I went to with my parents and jen, they do really good brunch for $12.95 that includes unlimited champagne, mimosa or bloody marys!!!
For the record so we don't have to hunt for this place again, this cafe is called Sottovoce and its on the corner of 7th Ave and 4th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I had eggs benedict and Rob had omelette! We both had lots of champagne as well! I still cannot believe this only cost us 6.50 pounds each!!! Bargain! IT WAS SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!
After that we headed along 7th Avenue having a look into lots of shops, picking up bits and bobs (prezzies) as we went along!!! We got a cup of coffee in a place called Ozzie's and headed to have a wander around Prospect Park. If I remember correctly Prospect Park was designed by the designers who designed (sorry! lol) Central Park, however they had learnt from any mistakes they felt they had made in Central Park so Prospect Park is reported to be better. It was really cold (and we weren't really dressed for cold weather) so we had a wander around but not a huge one. The park seemed less 'designed' and less segmented than central park. I liked it a lot. It felt like more of a retreat than Central Park, less stylized and more relaxed! The meadow takes up more of the park so I suppose it feels more integrated. I liked it alot.
After this we headed back to Ozzie's for some tea, this was really nice and we made a few lists of things we need to get done before we come home! Only 4 full days to go! We thought about going to a place called 'The Farm on Adderley' a restaurant in Newkirk but I couldn't remember if this was expensive or not so we decided to go and have a drink in St Mark's Place (back in Manhattan) and then work out dinner from there.
After our drink and a look around St Mark's Place (including a comic book store) we went over to Soho/Greenwich Village (it was right on the border) to a place called Arthor's. This place is up with Lombardi's as the rough guide's best pizza 'pies' in the city. I have to say... it does NOT beat Lombardi's. The pizza was good but Lombardi's has a better sauce and base, also the place in general was really really dark. It was however very nice that they played live jazz while you eat. But even the jazz does not push this restaurant into Lombardi's league! lol!
All in all a really lovely day. Tomorrow we are hitting Chinatown, Soho and Little Italy! I'm very excited! We've decided to break through the dumpling barrier and go to the excellent dumpling house at lunch time. I think this has to be done in order to allow me to eat dumplings again! lol! I'll report on our day tomorrow... although we are going to Lombardi's tomorrow so I maybe too full to type! lol!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Saturday, April 12, 2008
West Side Day...
Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is well!
Rob wasn't very well yesterday so we didn't do anything, we went out in the evening to grab take out pizza but thats all we managed.
Today he is feeling alot better so we decided to do our 'West side' day which is quite slow pace.
We headed to Columbus Circle and got the bus up the West side to Zabars (my favourite deli in NYC). We got picnic stuff; cheese, salami, bread, chicken etc. We then wandered into Central park and had a picnic. This was really nice... I love the squirrels!!! lol!
After our picnic we headed down to have a quick walk around central park towards strawberry fields. We exited the park at the Dakota building and got the subway up to Cathedral parkway.
This is up at the top of central park and is where St John the Divine Cathedral is and Columbia University. We had a look in the childrens sculpture garden and then went into the Cathedral. This is reported as the largest cathedral in the world, however some say it is just the largest in North America. I think the differing opinion comes from what you define as a cathedral. The cathedral is in fact very large but you cannot get the effect of this due to most of it being partitioned off because of the fire in 2001. I thought this might have been completed by now but it hadn't been. I think the cathedral really represents the culture in America of the bigger is better approach, therefore it tends to lack any ornate elegance. Rob's believes that the cathedral is just a reflection of it being a 20th century cathedral rather than a renaissance church.
Hmmmmm possibly a bit of both.
After that we walked around Columbia university, they have some kind of fundraising festival on. The university is notably smaller than Berkeley or Yale but is very attractive.
After this we went to a cafe called the pastry company (where I had been before with my Parents and Jen) to have some tea. Then we headed to Miss Mama's Spoonbread company which is a southern soul food restaurant. This was really really good! I had pork cops and rob had 'smothered chicken'. As in anywhere in America the portions were HUGE!!! lol! The meal was FANTASTIC THOUGH!!!
We got the bus back to our hostel after that and are just watching tv. Tomorrow we are going to go and have brunch in Brooklyn!!! I went out to find wine a minute ago and went to two shops, they both looked at me very oddly when I requested wine and I have ended up with beer.
I hope everyone is good (especially Sho!!!)!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
I hope everyone is well!
Rob wasn't very well yesterday so we didn't do anything, we went out in the evening to grab take out pizza but thats all we managed.
Today he is feeling alot better so we decided to do our 'West side' day which is quite slow pace.
We headed to Columbus Circle and got the bus up the West side to Zabars (my favourite deli in NYC). We got picnic stuff; cheese, salami, bread, chicken etc. We then wandered into Central park and had a picnic. This was really nice... I love the squirrels!!! lol!
After our picnic we headed down to have a quick walk around central park towards strawberry fields. We exited the park at the Dakota building and got the subway up to Cathedral parkway.
This is up at the top of central park and is where St John the Divine Cathedral is and Columbia University. We had a look in the childrens sculpture garden and then went into the Cathedral. This is reported as the largest cathedral in the world, however some say it is just the largest in North America. I think the differing opinion comes from what you define as a cathedral. The cathedral is in fact very large but you cannot get the effect of this due to most of it being partitioned off because of the fire in 2001. I thought this might have been completed by now but it hadn't been. I think the cathedral really represents the culture in America of the bigger is better approach, therefore it tends to lack any ornate elegance. Rob's believes that the cathedral is just a reflection of it being a 20th century cathedral rather than a renaissance church.
Hmmmmm possibly a bit of both.
After that we walked around Columbia university, they have some kind of fundraising festival on. The university is notably smaller than Berkeley or Yale but is very attractive.
After this we went to a cafe called the pastry company (where I had been before with my Parents and Jen) to have some tea. Then we headed to Miss Mama's Spoonbread company which is a southern soul food restaurant. This was really really good! I had pork cops and rob had 'smothered chicken'. As in anywhere in America the portions were HUGE!!! lol! The meal was FANTASTIC THOUGH!!!
We got the bus back to our hostel after that and are just watching tv. Tomorrow we are going to go and have brunch in Brooklyn!!! I went out to find wine a minute ago and went to two shops, they both looked at me very oddly when I requested wine and I have ended up with beer.
I hope everyone is good (especially Sho!!!)!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Friday, April 11, 2008
Painted Ladies, SF Moma, Coit Tower, Alcatraz, Flying to New York, Jerry Seinfeld, Empire State, Greenwich Village and Simon Pegg etc...
Hi Everyone,
We've had a very fun filled few days (I couldn't track down an internet cafe - sorry guys!!!).
The last day in San Francisco we spent running around the city trying to see the last few things that we wanted to see! lol!
We started by getting a bus to the Painted Ladies. The painted ladies themselves did not prove to be a very interesting sight but it was worth the trip to see Alamo Square and the views of the city. Alamo square was very cute and the city views were fabulous (although we were to encounter better views later in the day up Coit Tower).
From there we headed back down to Montgomery to go to the San Franciscan Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA). It didn't open until 11am so we grabbed a coffee from the Metreon centre and eat it while watching people doing Tai Chi (and with me having a rant about the fact America should spend less on defense and more on a national health care scheme!).
The SF MOMA is housed is a really beautiful, if a little odd, building. The lobby and staircase are made from black granite and the ceiling is white. There are also two huge psychodelic pictures either side of the central staircase. We started by seeing the Lee Friedlander exhibit, which I was really really impressed by. Hes an American photographer who over the past 40 or so years has taken pictures documenting American society. I really liked the Mount Rushmore photo. After that we had a look around the rest of the exhibits. The gallery spaces reminded me of Tate Modern. I was not amazingly impressed with the galleries permanent collection, I felt the artists pieces they had on show were not their best pieces (if that makes sense!). The gallery was really nice though and I'm really pleased we saw the Lee Friedlander exhibit.
After that we headed up the hill to Coit Tower. We got the escalator to the top of the tower itself. This was really cool, it had fantastic views over the city and bay, well worth doing if you visit San Fran. The gardens and houses around it are really cute too!
From there we headed down to Pier 33 to go on our Alcatraz 'Night tour', this tour left at 4.40pm and came back at 7.30pm or 8.15pm so it was more of a late afternoon tour! lol! We were a bit early so we had a coffee while we waited. We boarded the boat and took a bit of a cruise around the bay on the way to ALLLLCCCCAATTTTTRRRRAAZZZZZZ. When we arrived a guide walked us up the hill to the prison telling us about a success story of Alcatraz and a failure story of Alcatraz. The success story went on the foster 96 children!!! Apparently he just turned up on the tour one day and when a guide jokingly asked if anyone in the group had been in the prison he kept putting his hand up, they checked it out and he had! Alcatraz is the prison prisoners go to if they have tried to escape from other prisons, this meant that it had a mix of offenders, some may have been serving time for petty offenses, some were murderers etc.
We walked into the prison and they gave us audio tapes to listen too, these were actually really really good and led you around the prison. They were narrated by old prisoners and guards from Alcatraz. They would explain certain escape attempts and also different events in Alcatrazs' history. We took the tour and then spent sometime outside watching the sun go down. 'The Rock' is actually a really really pretty spot!!! We then got the boat back to the City as the sun was setting across the bay! Was lovely!!!
From there we headed to Burgermeister, which was well nice. Award winning burgers made from Niman Beef.
The following morning we got the airport door to door service bus back to San Fran airport. We had a bit of confusion while checking in cause they made us check in at the self-service desk, when I tried to check in it wouldn't let me. Then a women came over and just checked in our bags and walked off and didn't check me in. Another guy helped, it turned out that my itinery had Rob's reference number on it. The original women told me I had been moved to another flight! I was soooo scared! But it was fine, it all worked out. We went through security and I had a chat with my parents and Granny while eating some lunch. We got the plane at 1.30pm. The flight was fine, a bit turbulancy but fine. A film called Waterdragon was on, which was effectively some kind of Lochness monster film. Rob ignored it and hated it until the little kid said to the waterdragon "You're the best friend I ever had" now he thinks its awesome and cute. Hmmmmmm! Lol! The flight was 5 and a half hours long (only an hour and a half less than the flight back to the UK!). We arrived at 10pm (time difference!!!). We saw the NYC skyline as we arrived! Was sooooo pretty!
We got off the plane and headed to the subway station, Rob still thinks he saw Kofi Annan at the subway station, he definately did not unless Kofi Annan has started working for the MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority). Rob thinks he may have decided to work for the MTA as a more slow paced job after the UN!!! lol! We got the subway to our hostel which is in the Upper East Side. Its called the wanderers inn, its really cute!!! Its in a brownstone building! Also we thought we would be in an 8 dorm and were in a 4 dorm so thats awesome! Although the women on the desk was a bit rude and then added 80 dollars of taxes to our bill!!! I'm going to check this with hostelworld who we booked though!!! Anyways, after we had checked in we grabbed a slice of pizza and then headed to bed after that!
Yesterday we got up (a little later than expected... my sedatives always make me need a long sleep the next day!!!) and we walk the 4 blocks to fifth avenue. We got the bus down to the Empire State Building. The subway would have been quicker but I thought the bus was good so Rob could see a bit of the city! Plus, on the way down I SAW JERRY SEINFELD!!! He was standing on the back of a paramount pictures lorry outside the Met!!! It was sooooo cool! Such a cool spot, their filming something in a building across the road from the Met... have to find out what that is!!!
After all that excitement we headed up the Empire State, this was really cool, although it was a bit of a misty day! I don't like how the Empire State just funnel you around different rooms as well!!! From there we headed to Greenwich Village to go to a cafe called Grey Dog for lunch. This was a really cool place, I really liked it! It had a really nice atmosphere and served really nice food at a very reasonable price... definately recommend that one! After that we walked down Bleeker to go to Magnolia Bakery, Rob started elbowing me really really hard I was like WHAT? I looked up and walking down the road right past us was SIMON PEGG!!! Wearing some really really nice glasses! He blantantly saw we were staring at him cause my mouth dropped wide open!!! HES SOOOOOOO FIT!!! Such a cool spot, Rob just stopped and looked around and stared at him and couldn't say anything except what sounded like 'ohurrr' for the next minute!!! lol!
We then went to Magonlia bakery and had AMAZING cakes... as per usual!!! lol! We sat in the square and eat those. From there we headed over to see the Tiles for America 9/11 memorial. Then we headed into Brooklyn. We wandered around Brooklyn heights and had a coffee, then we went into the second hand book store that when my dad went in the man behind the counter said "Is this your first day here? Can I just take this opportunity to apologise for our president" lol! We got 5 books for $3.49!!! I got two about Bush... one by Maureen Dowd which is very interesting!!!
From there we walked down the Brooklyn Prom and then over the Brooklyn bridge!!! We headed into the square by the courthouse where they filmed the new Bravia advert! After that we headed back into Greenwich Village and went to Corner Bistro! This was really cool, but not as good as last time! After that we headed to a place called Peculiar Pub, which was really cool and sells more than 500 beers!!! lol!
Today we got up and headed to Central Park around lunchtime (Rob did laundry in the morning). We grabbed some picnic stuff and sat and had a picnic! Such nice weather today, the evening was 16 degrees and it was hotter during the day!
From there we headed to the Whitney where we saw the Bienntial exhibition, I have to say I've always liked the Whitney's exhibits but I was not impressed by this one. There were some nice pieces but apparently this exhibition has been known to be a bit hit and miss!
After the Whitney we headed over to grab some dinner, we walked staight past Zelda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch on the way!!! lol! We headed to Comfort Diner, which I really like! Rob eat the epic piece of chocolate cake, which when I was there last time I asked for a small piece of and the guy laughed at me! lol! He finished it off! I thought he was going to through up but he managed it and proclaimed that throwing up was cheating! lol!
After that HUGE meal we walked to Grand Central Station, which is sooooo cool! Rob was very impressed! He proclaimed that it was "More palacial than Buckingham Palace" (Lis!!! lol). Then he took it back and said that might be a little silly! lol!
We then got the subway to the Rockefeller centre, we wanted to do this so that Rob could see the city from above by day (Empire State) and above by night (Rockefeller Centre). I actually prefer the Rockefeller centre because it has nicer displays and more space at the top, unlike the Empire State where you get push around weird rooms that they try to sell you more and more stuff in! lol! We watched a couple of short films about the centre and then went up to the 'Top of the Rocks'. The view was stunning, it looks sooooooo lovely at night!!! We spent about an hour up there and then headed back to the hostel!
The plan for today was to go to Coney Island and then to the New York Public Library and the UN building, then to St Mark's Place for dinner but unfortunately, Rob isn't feeling very well so hes in bed! We'll have to see what we end up getting up to today! Luckly I have my Bushworld book, which I AM LOVING reading!
I hope everyone is well!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
We've had a very fun filled few days (I couldn't track down an internet cafe - sorry guys!!!).
The last day in San Francisco we spent running around the city trying to see the last few things that we wanted to see! lol!
We started by getting a bus to the Painted Ladies. The painted ladies themselves did not prove to be a very interesting sight but it was worth the trip to see Alamo Square and the views of the city. Alamo square was very cute and the city views were fabulous (although we were to encounter better views later in the day up Coit Tower).
From there we headed back down to Montgomery to go to the San Franciscan Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA). It didn't open until 11am so we grabbed a coffee from the Metreon centre and eat it while watching people doing Tai Chi (and with me having a rant about the fact America should spend less on defense and more on a national health care scheme!).
The SF MOMA is housed is a really beautiful, if a little odd, building. The lobby and staircase are made from black granite and the ceiling is white. There are also two huge psychodelic pictures either side of the central staircase. We started by seeing the Lee Friedlander exhibit, which I was really really impressed by. Hes an American photographer who over the past 40 or so years has taken pictures documenting American society. I really liked the Mount Rushmore photo. After that we had a look around the rest of the exhibits. The gallery spaces reminded me of Tate Modern. I was not amazingly impressed with the galleries permanent collection, I felt the artists pieces they had on show were not their best pieces (if that makes sense!). The gallery was really nice though and I'm really pleased we saw the Lee Friedlander exhibit.
After that we headed up the hill to Coit Tower. We got the escalator to the top of the tower itself. This was really cool, it had fantastic views over the city and bay, well worth doing if you visit San Fran. The gardens and houses around it are really cute too!
From there we headed down to Pier 33 to go on our Alcatraz 'Night tour', this tour left at 4.40pm and came back at 7.30pm or 8.15pm so it was more of a late afternoon tour! lol! We were a bit early so we had a coffee while we waited. We boarded the boat and took a bit of a cruise around the bay on the way to ALLLLCCCCAATTTTTRRRRAAZZZZZZ. When we arrived a guide walked us up the hill to the prison telling us about a success story of Alcatraz and a failure story of Alcatraz. The success story went on the foster 96 children!!! Apparently he just turned up on the tour one day and when a guide jokingly asked if anyone in the group had been in the prison he kept putting his hand up, they checked it out and he had! Alcatraz is the prison prisoners go to if they have tried to escape from other prisons, this meant that it had a mix of offenders, some may have been serving time for petty offenses, some were murderers etc.
We walked into the prison and they gave us audio tapes to listen too, these were actually really really good and led you around the prison. They were narrated by old prisoners and guards from Alcatraz. They would explain certain escape attempts and also different events in Alcatrazs' history. We took the tour and then spent sometime outside watching the sun go down. 'The Rock' is actually a really really pretty spot!!! We then got the boat back to the City as the sun was setting across the bay! Was lovely!!!
From there we headed to Burgermeister, which was well nice. Award winning burgers made from Niman Beef.
The following morning we got the airport door to door service bus back to San Fran airport. We had a bit of confusion while checking in cause they made us check in at the self-service desk, when I tried to check in it wouldn't let me. Then a women came over and just checked in our bags and walked off and didn't check me in. Another guy helped, it turned out that my itinery had Rob's reference number on it. The original women told me I had been moved to another flight! I was soooo scared! But it was fine, it all worked out. We went through security and I had a chat with my parents and Granny while eating some lunch. We got the plane at 1.30pm. The flight was fine, a bit turbulancy but fine. A film called Waterdragon was on, which was effectively some kind of Lochness monster film. Rob ignored it and hated it until the little kid said to the waterdragon "You're the best friend I ever had" now he thinks its awesome and cute. Hmmmmmm! Lol! The flight was 5 and a half hours long (only an hour and a half less than the flight back to the UK!). We arrived at 10pm (time difference!!!). We saw the NYC skyline as we arrived! Was sooooo pretty!
We got off the plane and headed to the subway station, Rob still thinks he saw Kofi Annan at the subway station, he definately did not unless Kofi Annan has started working for the MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority). Rob thinks he may have decided to work for the MTA as a more slow paced job after the UN!!! lol! We got the subway to our hostel which is in the Upper East Side. Its called the wanderers inn, its really cute!!! Its in a brownstone building! Also we thought we would be in an 8 dorm and were in a 4 dorm so thats awesome! Although the women on the desk was a bit rude and then added 80 dollars of taxes to our bill!!! I'm going to check this with hostelworld who we booked though!!! Anyways, after we had checked in we grabbed a slice of pizza and then headed to bed after that!
Yesterday we got up (a little later than expected... my sedatives always make me need a long sleep the next day!!!) and we walk the 4 blocks to fifth avenue. We got the bus down to the Empire State Building. The subway would have been quicker but I thought the bus was good so Rob could see a bit of the city! Plus, on the way down I SAW JERRY SEINFELD!!! He was standing on the back of a paramount pictures lorry outside the Met!!! It was sooooo cool! Such a cool spot, their filming something in a building across the road from the Met... have to find out what that is!!!
After all that excitement we headed up the Empire State, this was really cool, although it was a bit of a misty day! I don't like how the Empire State just funnel you around different rooms as well!!! From there we headed to Greenwich Village to go to a cafe called Grey Dog for lunch. This was a really cool place, I really liked it! It had a really nice atmosphere and served really nice food at a very reasonable price... definately recommend that one! After that we walked down Bleeker to go to Magnolia Bakery, Rob started elbowing me really really hard I was like WHAT? I looked up and walking down the road right past us was SIMON PEGG!!! Wearing some really really nice glasses! He blantantly saw we were staring at him cause my mouth dropped wide open!!! HES SOOOOOOO FIT!!! Such a cool spot, Rob just stopped and looked around and stared at him and couldn't say anything except what sounded like 'ohurrr' for the next minute!!! lol!
We then went to Magonlia bakery and had AMAZING cakes... as per usual!!! lol! We sat in the square and eat those. From there we headed over to see the Tiles for America 9/11 memorial. Then we headed into Brooklyn. We wandered around Brooklyn heights and had a coffee, then we went into the second hand book store that when my dad went in the man behind the counter said "Is this your first day here? Can I just take this opportunity to apologise for our president" lol! We got 5 books for $3.49!!! I got two about Bush... one by Maureen Dowd which is very interesting!!!
From there we walked down the Brooklyn Prom and then over the Brooklyn bridge!!! We headed into the square by the courthouse where they filmed the new Bravia advert! After that we headed back into Greenwich Village and went to Corner Bistro! This was really cool, but not as good as last time! After that we headed to a place called Peculiar Pub, which was really cool and sells more than 500 beers!!! lol!
Today we got up and headed to Central Park around lunchtime (Rob did laundry in the morning). We grabbed some picnic stuff and sat and had a picnic! Such nice weather today, the evening was 16 degrees and it was hotter during the day!
From there we headed to the Whitney where we saw the Bienntial exhibition, I have to say I've always liked the Whitney's exhibits but I was not impressed by this one. There were some nice pieces but apparently this exhibition has been known to be a bit hit and miss!
After the Whitney we headed over to grab some dinner, we walked staight past Zelda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch on the way!!! lol! We headed to Comfort Diner, which I really like! Rob eat the epic piece of chocolate cake, which when I was there last time I asked for a small piece of and the guy laughed at me! lol! He finished it off! I thought he was going to through up but he managed it and proclaimed that throwing up was cheating! lol!
After that HUGE meal we walked to Grand Central Station, which is sooooo cool! Rob was very impressed! He proclaimed that it was "More palacial than Buckingham Palace" (Lis!!! lol). Then he took it back and said that might be a little silly! lol!
We then got the subway to the Rockefeller centre, we wanted to do this so that Rob could see the city from above by day (Empire State) and above by night (Rockefeller Centre). I actually prefer the Rockefeller centre because it has nicer displays and more space at the top, unlike the Empire State where you get push around weird rooms that they try to sell you more and more stuff in! lol! We watched a couple of short films about the centre and then went up to the 'Top of the Rocks'. The view was stunning, it looks sooooooo lovely at night!!! We spent about an hour up there and then headed back to the hostel!
The plan for today was to go to Coney Island and then to the New York Public Library and the UN building, then to St Mark's Place for dinner but unfortunately, Rob isn't feeling very well so hes in bed! We'll have to see what we end up getting up to today! Luckly I have my Bushworld book, which I AM LOVING reading!
I hope everyone is well!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Castro, Mission Dolores and Yosemite...
Hi Everyone,
I hope you guys are all good!
It was two weeks yesterday until we get home... its really really weird!!!
Yesterday we went to check out Castro. We headed up through China town and then got a cable car to Polk and Bush (to finally upload my pictures!!!), from there we walked through Civic Square and got the BART train to Castro.
We were going to go somewhere else but I really really don´t like the area at the bottom of Van Ness. Isn´t very nice!!! lol!
When we got to Castro, which is a well nice area, we headed up Noe Street towards Noe Hill to a place called Jumpin´ Java´s. This place was really cute. All the coffee shops have WiFi so everyone just seems to sit on laptops. 1) This annoys me cause of the lack of internet cafes!!! lol! 2) It seems to mean that the cafes loose any atmosphere because NOONE talks to each other, they just sit and surf the internet. Its kind of a really weird culture. It seems like friends don´t go for a coffee they just go to sit and surf the internet while sitting next to each other. Odd! lol!
After that we wandered around castro and walked down to Mission Dolores. This is a really lovely building. You can see it from Market and it seems to fit in really well with the neighborhoods that surround it.
After that we did a bit of a loop and ended up at the other end of Castro where we went to a bar called Mix. This was a really cool place, although we couldn´t work out why the garden was soooo cold. The sun is really warm but the wind is really cold and it channels its way down the San Franciscan streets, the bar was sheltered from the wind so we really couldn´t work it out! lol! We had a round there which was really cheap (3.50 pounds for a wine and beer!).
After that we just had a mosy around the shops and I brought my gossip magazines. We went and hung out in a place called Orphan Andy´s. This was a cute American diner. We just read and had a bite to eat.
After that we got the tram down market and had a wander around the mall. Some salesman tried to sell me straighteners by straightening only one side of my head, needless to say I then had to walk around looking very odd! lol!
We got back to the hostel around 10 and just chilled out.
This morning we got up at 5.30am OW YES I DID SAY 5.30AM!!!! So early! A bus picked us up at 6.40am!!! It took us about 4 hours to get to Yosemite National Park... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite
We passed the most ridiculous amount of SUVs, I really have never seen sooooo many people driving SUVs before. They all drive on these amazingly preserved highways as well... there is literally NO GOOD REASON FOR THEM TO OWN THEM AT ALL. We also went past a huge wind far which was really pretty (but won´t offset the SUVs!).
Yosemite is a HUGE national park in California. It is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. Rob actually went as far as to say that it was prettier than Milford Sound!!! It is full of the biggest trees I´ve ever seen in my entire life and huge waterfalls, huge rocks etc.
We saw El Capitan, The half dome, the cathedral, Bridavell falls and soooooo much more. I don´t really even know how to describe it! Its totally immense!!! lol! I have pictures, I think we might just have to go with that!
We headed out of the park around 3.30pm and got back here at around 8pm!
We are now gonna get take out pizza! Tomorrow we are going to Coit Tower, the painted ladies and we have booked a night tour of ALCATRAZ!!! Which I´m very excited about! Last full day in San Fran tomorrow! Can´t believe it its gone soooooo quickly!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
I hope you guys are all good!
It was two weeks yesterday until we get home... its really really weird!!!
Yesterday we went to check out Castro. We headed up through China town and then got a cable car to Polk and Bush (to finally upload my pictures!!!), from there we walked through Civic Square and got the BART train to Castro.
We were going to go somewhere else but I really really don´t like the area at the bottom of Van Ness. Isn´t very nice!!! lol!
When we got to Castro, which is a well nice area, we headed up Noe Street towards Noe Hill to a place called Jumpin´ Java´s. This place was really cute. All the coffee shops have WiFi so everyone just seems to sit on laptops. 1) This annoys me cause of the lack of internet cafes!!! lol! 2) It seems to mean that the cafes loose any atmosphere because NOONE talks to each other, they just sit and surf the internet. Its kind of a really weird culture. It seems like friends don´t go for a coffee they just go to sit and surf the internet while sitting next to each other. Odd! lol!
After that we wandered around castro and walked down to Mission Dolores. This is a really lovely building. You can see it from Market and it seems to fit in really well with the neighborhoods that surround it.
After that we did a bit of a loop and ended up at the other end of Castro where we went to a bar called Mix. This was a really cool place, although we couldn´t work out why the garden was soooo cold. The sun is really warm but the wind is really cold and it channels its way down the San Franciscan streets, the bar was sheltered from the wind so we really couldn´t work it out! lol! We had a round there which was really cheap (3.50 pounds for a wine and beer!).
After that we just had a mosy around the shops and I brought my gossip magazines. We went and hung out in a place called Orphan Andy´s. This was a cute American diner. We just read and had a bite to eat.
After that we got the tram down market and had a wander around the mall. Some salesman tried to sell me straighteners by straightening only one side of my head, needless to say I then had to walk around looking very odd! lol!
We got back to the hostel around 10 and just chilled out.
This morning we got up at 5.30am OW YES I DID SAY 5.30AM!!!! So early! A bus picked us up at 6.40am!!! It took us about 4 hours to get to Yosemite National Park... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite
We passed the most ridiculous amount of SUVs, I really have never seen sooooo many people driving SUVs before. They all drive on these amazingly preserved highways as well... there is literally NO GOOD REASON FOR THEM TO OWN THEM AT ALL. We also went past a huge wind far which was really pretty (but won´t offset the SUVs!).
Yosemite is a HUGE national park in California. It is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. Rob actually went as far as to say that it was prettier than Milford Sound!!! It is full of the biggest trees I´ve ever seen in my entire life and huge waterfalls, huge rocks etc.
We saw El Capitan, The half dome, the cathedral, Bridavell falls and soooooo much more. I don´t really even know how to describe it! Its totally immense!!! lol! I have pictures, I think we might just have to go with that!
We headed out of the park around 3.30pm and got back here at around 8pm!
We are now gonna get take out pizza! Tomorrow we are going to Coit Tower, the painted ladies and we have booked a night tour of ALCATRAZ!!! Which I´m very excited about! Last full day in San Fran tomorrow! Can´t believe it its gone soooooo quickly!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Friday, April 4, 2008
Berkeley...
Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all really well!
We headed to Berkeley today on the Bart train, this took about 15mins
(after I got up late - Rob would like me to inform everyone! lol). When we
got to Berkeley we headed straight for Cafe Milano (recommended by my
sister - she spent the summer in Berkeley doing a summer course last
year!). I had a coffee and read the New York Times. Rob had a foccacia
turkey sandwich and a lemonade! The cafe was sooooo nice. Except possibly
the crying couple next to us (we think they may have been breaking up).
The cafe has an amazing beamed ceiling and a roof that opens up. It made
me want to go back to Uni! lol!
After that we headed to have a look around the student store, I love
American universities cause they really do have their name on every
possible type of merchandise you can think of! Really EVERYTHING you can
think of!
We had a wander through Sather Gate and were asked to vote for someone for
some kind of student union post, they had loads of political protests
going on etc. We walked up past Bacon hall to the Sather Tower and went up
that! The view from the top was fantastic, you get a complete view over
the campus, the weather was fantastic and the sky was really clear so that
was really cool (if not a tad chilly!). Its actually a students job to
push the buttons in the elevator! Such a cool job! lol!
After that we wandered down to the university library (Doe library) and
had a look around that! The morrison reading room looked AMAZING!!! It was
newer than the UL at Cam but still very impressive. I didn´t realise the
undergrown stacks were an addition.
From there we wandered down past the free speech movement cafe. We read
the newspapers that they print up really big everyday from several
countries. We read the Guardian!!! Was soooo nice to see it! lol! Love the
naomi campbell T5 incident! lol!
From there we wandered down past the Living Sciences buildings and through
the trees and out onto the road that leads onto the Bart station. The
campus was filled with beautiful blossom trees, it was sooooooo pretty!
Very very green! People were just sunbathing and playing frizbee!
I grabbed a burrito at the place on the street then we headed back through
the otherside of Campus so we could go and see Jen´s accommodation. We
ended up walking past the music buildings and came out right by Cafe
Strada. We walked past a really nice fountain... very nice sculpture in
it! We grabbed a drink there and then went to find Jen´s accommodation! It
was sooooo nice (from the outside - didn´t get to go inside!), the unit
was really really nice. Would be nice to sit in the centre and do some
work there!
From there we headed back up to Bancroft and had a look in American
Apparel, Rob and I disagreed on whether a top was for a man or woman! lol!
We then headed into the collegiate shop (another one) and had a look
around, Then to urban outfitters! Which always seems to place itself next
to college campuses in the US... there was one next to Yale as well! lol!
Owww we also had a look in the avant-card card shop, which was soooo cute!
It had a bumper sticker for American´s that said ´I love my country... but
I think we should start seeing other people´ - LOVED THAT!!!!!!
After that we headed back down to try and find an internet cafe! We
literally have not seen one internet cafe in San Francisco AT ALL. There
are WIFi zones EVERYWHERE but no internet cafes at all... I don´t
understand this we are right next to SILLICON VALLEY!!!! We have computers
in the hostel (obviously otherwise you wouldn´t be getting this e-mail!
lol!) but the PC is in a box locked up. I have run out of room on my
camera and desperately need to upload my photos!!! I found an internet
point but the software meant I only had access to the internet and not the
´my computer´ facility!!!
Anyways, I was really really impressed with Berkeley, it was a really
really nice campus! Would be a really nice place to study!
Jen- I couldn´t find the drink you were talking about... can we get it in
San Fran???
After that we got the Bart train back to the city. We headed for an
Italian restaurant at Columbus and Union called L´Osteria. We shared sweet
red peppers with garlic and parsley. For main I had a ham and artichoke
pizza and Rob had bolognese. The pizza was good but it didn´t beat
Tomosso´s!!! For dessert we had bittersweet chocolate mousse, which was
lovely! We also had procecco... this never fails to remind me of Noah!!!
lol!
We´ve now headed back to the hostel! Tomorrow is internet cafe day (I
think I´ve found one) and more importantly ALCATRAZ!!! Or as Eddie puts it
AAAAALLLLLCCCCAAATTTRRRAZZZZZ! lol! Love it!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
I hope you are all really well!
We headed to Berkeley today on the Bart train, this took about 15mins
(after I got up late - Rob would like me to inform everyone! lol). When we
got to Berkeley we headed straight for Cafe Milano (recommended by my
sister - she spent the summer in Berkeley doing a summer course last
year!). I had a coffee and read the New York Times. Rob had a foccacia
turkey sandwich and a lemonade! The cafe was sooooo nice. Except possibly
the crying couple next to us (we think they may have been breaking up).
The cafe has an amazing beamed ceiling and a roof that opens up. It made
me want to go back to Uni! lol!
After that we headed to have a look around the student store, I love
American universities cause they really do have their name on every
possible type of merchandise you can think of! Really EVERYTHING you can
think of!
We had a wander through Sather Gate and were asked to vote for someone for
some kind of student union post, they had loads of political protests
going on etc. We walked up past Bacon hall to the Sather Tower and went up
that! The view from the top was fantastic, you get a complete view over
the campus, the weather was fantastic and the sky was really clear so that
was really cool (if not a tad chilly!). Its actually a students job to
push the buttons in the elevator! Such a cool job! lol!
After that we wandered down to the university library (Doe library) and
had a look around that! The morrison reading room looked AMAZING!!! It was
newer than the UL at Cam but still very impressive. I didn´t realise the
undergrown stacks were an addition.
From there we wandered down past the free speech movement cafe. We read
the newspapers that they print up really big everyday from several
countries. We read the Guardian!!! Was soooo nice to see it! lol! Love the
naomi campbell T5 incident! lol!
From there we wandered down past the Living Sciences buildings and through
the trees and out onto the road that leads onto the Bart station. The
campus was filled with beautiful blossom trees, it was sooooooo pretty!
Very very green! People were just sunbathing and playing frizbee!
I grabbed a burrito at the place on the street then we headed back through
the otherside of Campus so we could go and see Jen´s accommodation. We
ended up walking past the music buildings and came out right by Cafe
Strada. We walked past a really nice fountain... very nice sculpture in
it! We grabbed a drink there and then went to find Jen´s accommodation! It
was sooooo nice (from the outside - didn´t get to go inside!), the unit
was really really nice. Would be nice to sit in the centre and do some
work there!
From there we headed back up to Bancroft and had a look in American
Apparel, Rob and I disagreed on whether a top was for a man or woman! lol!
We then headed into the collegiate shop (another one) and had a look
around, Then to urban outfitters! Which always seems to place itself next
to college campuses in the US... there was one next to Yale as well! lol!
Owww we also had a look in the avant-card card shop, which was soooo cute!
It had a bumper sticker for American´s that said ´I love my country... but
I think we should start seeing other people´ - LOVED THAT!!!!!!
After that we headed back down to try and find an internet cafe! We
literally have not seen one internet cafe in San Francisco AT ALL. There
are WIFi zones EVERYWHERE but no internet cafes at all... I don´t
understand this we are right next to SILLICON VALLEY!!!! We have computers
in the hostel (obviously otherwise you wouldn´t be getting this e-mail!
lol!) but the PC is in a box locked up. I have run out of room on my
camera and desperately need to upload my photos!!! I found an internet
point but the software meant I only had access to the internet and not the
´my computer´ facility!!!
Anyways, I was really really impressed with Berkeley, it was a really
really nice campus! Would be a really nice place to study!
Jen- I couldn´t find the drink you were talking about... can we get it in
San Fran???
After that we got the Bart train back to the city. We headed for an
Italian restaurant at Columbus and Union called L´Osteria. We shared sweet
red peppers with garlic and parsley. For main I had a ham and artichoke
pizza and Rob had bolognese. The pizza was good but it didn´t beat
Tomosso´s!!! For dessert we had bittersweet chocolate mousse, which was
lovely! We also had procecco... this never fails to remind me of Noah!!!
lol!
We´ve now headed back to the hostel! Tomorrow is internet cafe day (I
think I´ve found one) and more importantly ALCATRAZ!!! Or as Eddie puts it
AAAAALLLLLCCCCAAATTTRRRAZZZZZ! lol! Love it!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Leaving Monterey and Tomasso´s...
Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is really well!
Last night in Monterey (mon-a-raaaaayyyyyyy) we headed to a restaurant on
Cannery Row. All I can say about this is when we walked in all I could
think was that my parents would hang their heads in shame if they saw me
eating in a place like that! It was not great, gimmiky and a waste of
money. However afterwards we headed to a bar called Sly McFlys which was
really cute. It had a live jazz jamming session going on, it was a really
cute place! I liked it a lot. After that we just headed back to the olde
hostel, which was a really nice hostel. Very impressed with HI Monterey!
This morning Rob got up at 6.30am and went for a walk to a place called
Lovers point, he said it was a little underwhelming but he liked that all
the joggers and dog walkers said good morning to each other! lol! I got up
at 8.30am, had a shower and surfed the internet. At 9.15am I made American
Pancakes for breakie for me and Rob! They came out really really well and
were really cute!!! lol!
After breakie we headed back down into Cannery Row and had a walk on the
beach and a look at some shops. We brought a newspaper and walked down the
Monterey recreation trail. It was a really really lovely walk. We stopped
at another beach and read the newspaper and then headed along further to
the marina and saw about 50 SEALS just lounging around in the water and on
the rocks. It was SOOOOOOO COOOL, they looked sooooo cute. They were just
chillaxing! They reminded me of Baz soooooo much! lol!
After that we headed to fishermans wharf and had a look around the place!
It was a bit touristy but not too bad. We headed into the historic bit of
Monterey, although this confused me cause they named it the historic bit
but as far as I could tell it was newer than the Cannery Row area! lol!
Weird! We stopped off for Tacos (that werent anywhere near as good as La
Taqueras)! We then went to a coffee shop. Rob had a big brownie and I had
a coffee. I rang my parents to say hello as well! That was really nice!!!
After that we got a bus (that made both Rob and I feel sick!) to San Jose,
a train to Emeryville and then a bus to San Francisco. We headed back to
the hostel, via old navy. Rob has officially worked out exactly what you
can do to wind me up and when he is in a funny mood he deliberately tries
to do it! lol! Not a good thing for him to have completely mastered! lol!
He gets soooo much fun out of it as well! lol! :-)!
We checked into our hostel (back at the green tortoise) and then dumped
our stuff and headed literally across the road to a Italian restaurant
called Tomasso. This was soooo cute. It has a green door and no windows
and you go downstairs when you get in. Rob and I shared a Chicken and
Artichoke pizza, this was ABSOLUTELY amazing!!! I never thought to put
artichokes on a pizza but it was sooooooo good on it! I also had a
caprese! It made me laugh cause the enthusiastic bus driver from the day
before was like, owwww do you like Artichokes and we were obviously like
yer defo! She was like, well you should soooo go and get some deep fried
artichokes (artichokes are grown around here btw), we were like ummmm ok.
But obviously didnt cause they were deep fried! The pizza ones were not
obviously, they were sooooo good! Best pizza Ive had in AGES!!!! Perfectly
cooked, Id recommend this place to anyone. Plus it cost up 10 pounds each
for the pizza, salad, wine etc!
Weve now headed back to the hostel! Tomorrow is ACTUALLY going to be
Berkeley day!!! Cant wait, Iḿ so excited!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
I hope everyone is really well!
Last night in Monterey (mon-a-raaaaayyyyyyy) we headed to a restaurant on
Cannery Row. All I can say about this is when we walked in all I could
think was that my parents would hang their heads in shame if they saw me
eating in a place like that! It was not great, gimmiky and a waste of
money. However afterwards we headed to a bar called Sly McFlys which was
really cute. It had a live jazz jamming session going on, it was a really
cute place! I liked it a lot. After that we just headed back to the olde
hostel, which was a really nice hostel. Very impressed with HI Monterey!
This morning Rob got up at 6.30am and went for a walk to a place called
Lovers point, he said it was a little underwhelming but he liked that all
the joggers and dog walkers said good morning to each other! lol! I got up
at 8.30am, had a shower and surfed the internet. At 9.15am I made American
Pancakes for breakie for me and Rob! They came out really really well and
were really cute!!! lol!
After breakie we headed back down into Cannery Row and had a walk on the
beach and a look at some shops. We brought a newspaper and walked down the
Monterey recreation trail. It was a really really lovely walk. We stopped
at another beach and read the newspaper and then headed along further to
the marina and saw about 50 SEALS just lounging around in the water and on
the rocks. It was SOOOOOOO COOOL, they looked sooooo cute. They were just
chillaxing! They reminded me of Baz soooooo much! lol!
After that we headed to fishermans wharf and had a look around the place!
It was a bit touristy but not too bad. We headed into the historic bit of
Monterey, although this confused me cause they named it the historic bit
but as far as I could tell it was newer than the Cannery Row area! lol!
Weird! We stopped off for Tacos (that werent anywhere near as good as La
Taqueras)! We then went to a coffee shop. Rob had a big brownie and I had
a coffee. I rang my parents to say hello as well! That was really nice!!!
After that we got a bus (that made both Rob and I feel sick!) to San Jose,
a train to Emeryville and then a bus to San Francisco. We headed back to
the hostel, via old navy. Rob has officially worked out exactly what you
can do to wind me up and when he is in a funny mood he deliberately tries
to do it! lol! Not a good thing for him to have completely mastered! lol!
He gets soooo much fun out of it as well! lol! :-)!
We checked into our hostel (back at the green tortoise) and then dumped
our stuff and headed literally across the road to a Italian restaurant
called Tomasso. This was soooo cute. It has a green door and no windows
and you go downstairs when you get in. Rob and I shared a Chicken and
Artichoke pizza, this was ABSOLUTELY amazing!!! I never thought to put
artichokes on a pizza but it was sooooooo good on it! I also had a
caprese! It made me laugh cause the enthusiastic bus driver from the day
before was like, owwww do you like Artichokes and we were obviously like
yer defo! She was like, well you should soooo go and get some deep fried
artichokes (artichokes are grown around here btw), we were like ummmm ok.
But obviously didnt cause they were deep fried! The pizza ones were not
obviously, they were sooooo good! Best pizza Ive had in AGES!!!! Perfectly
cooked, Id recommend this place to anyone. Plus it cost up 10 pounds each
for the pizza, salad, wine etc!
Weve now headed back to the hostel! Tomorrow is ACTUALLY going to be
Berkeley day!!! Cant wait, Iḿ so excited!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
Golden Gate Bridge, Transport Disasters, Mon-er-raaaaaay...
Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is well!
We had a bit of a transit nightmare day yesterday. We seem to be having
problems with public transport in cities of late, finally made me realise
actually how good london transport is!!! However busy it gets!
Rob headed down to the ferry building to get our tickets for our trip down
the coast today earlier in the morning, when he got there at half ten
there was a sign saying 'out for lunch'! He ended up walking half way
around the city and back and ended up back at the Amtrak office at the
ferry building where he actually got our tickets.
This meant that he was late meeting me at the golden gate bridge look out
point, this was good cause as per usual I was late as well! lol! The
golden gate bridge is sooooooo amazing! I think its the most stunning
bridge I've ever seen! Its sooooo cool! Our original plan was to walk over
the bridge and catch a bus on the otherside to Berkeley. However this
didn't really work out...
We walked across the bridge which was ABSOLUTELY amazing!!! Fantastic
views of Alcatraz and of San Fran city. The city doesn't look as steep
from a far as it is when you're climbing some of those bad ass hills! lol!
Although they haven't been soooo bad! We strolled across the bridge really
calmly and took lots of photos (of course). Did you know that the bridge
was intended to be painted grey, the red colour was a base coat, the San
Franciscans loved it soooo much they kept it red. It takes a ridiculous
amount of paint to keep it looking like that every year! At the otherside
we realised that we couldn't get a bus to Berkeley and cause it was
getting quite late and neither of us had eaten anything we decided to
postpone the trip and do it on a full day properly when we got back from
the coast!
We wandered back over the bridge and headed for a diner, however this
ended up being closed and in a really weird area. We'd taken two buses to
get there and ended up then just getting on a BART train (underground
train) in the wrong direction and had to get off and go back in the other
direction to get back to Montgomery! Sooooo annoying! When we got back to
Montgomery we ended up going and grabbing something to eat and then
decided to go to the cinema.
We wandered back down to market through china town. Unfortunately we
didn't realise that there really wasn't much on at all and ended up
watching Vantage Point. Basically Dennis Quaid drives a mazda really
really fast around Spain and Forrest Whitakker has a camera that really
refuses to break at all! It wasn't the worst film ever but they did the
classic american film thing of not explaining anything but just having a
random arab criminal cell! Was quite weird!
Today we got up at 6am and after putting our bags in lockers at the hostel
we headed down to the ferry building to catch a bus to Oakland where we
caught a really comfy train (with loads of leg room) called the starlight
coast train to Salinas, where a bus (with a very enthusiastic driver)
drove us into Monterey, which is pronounced Mon-a-rraaaayyyyyyy. It makes
you want to jump into the Simpsons monarail song! lol! She took us on a
mini tour of Monterey.
Monterey is where John Steinbeck lived for years and off course it has
'Cannery Row'! I find this is AMAZINGLY exciting cause I love Steinbeck!
After lunch we went to the Monterey aquarium, it has a fantastic
reputation. Also it was really raining outside - whats with the
californian weather??? lol! The aquarium was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!! Best
aquarium I've ever been too! We saw penguins, beautiful jelly fish (evil
creatures! lol), sea otter (they were sooooo cute) and every type of sea
coral and urchines and fish! It really really was a fantastic aquarium,
was fantastic for kids, there were lots of things to do! Owwww we saw
hammerhead sharks and great whites and tortoises etc!
After that I donded my awesome emergency poncho, cause it was bucketing it
down and Rob looked really embarrassed as we wandered around town. We
headed to a diner called Archer's Diner where Rob had an Oreo milkshake
and I had coffee! We read the foolish news, which was really quite good!
After that we headed to check into our hostel which is really really cute!
I like it, we're about to headed out for dinner and to have some Monterey
wine! lol!
Tomorrow we're gonna make pancakes for breakfast in the hostel and go and
explore more of Monterey, in the afternoon we're heading back to San Fran!
Happy April Fool's Day for yesterday!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
I hope everyone is well!
We had a bit of a transit nightmare day yesterday. We seem to be having
problems with public transport in cities of late, finally made me realise
actually how good london transport is!!! However busy it gets!
Rob headed down to the ferry building to get our tickets for our trip down
the coast today earlier in the morning, when he got there at half ten
there was a sign saying 'out for lunch'! He ended up walking half way
around the city and back and ended up back at the Amtrak office at the
ferry building where he actually got our tickets.
This meant that he was late meeting me at the golden gate bridge look out
point, this was good cause as per usual I was late as well! lol! The
golden gate bridge is sooooooo amazing! I think its the most stunning
bridge I've ever seen! Its sooooo cool! Our original plan was to walk over
the bridge and catch a bus on the otherside to Berkeley. However this
didn't really work out...
We walked across the bridge which was ABSOLUTELY amazing!!! Fantastic
views of Alcatraz and of San Fran city. The city doesn't look as steep
from a far as it is when you're climbing some of those bad ass hills! lol!
Although they haven't been soooo bad! We strolled across the bridge really
calmly and took lots of photos (of course). Did you know that the bridge
was intended to be painted grey, the red colour was a base coat, the San
Franciscans loved it soooo much they kept it red. It takes a ridiculous
amount of paint to keep it looking like that every year! At the otherside
we realised that we couldn't get a bus to Berkeley and cause it was
getting quite late and neither of us had eaten anything we decided to
postpone the trip and do it on a full day properly when we got back from
the coast!
We wandered back over the bridge and headed for a diner, however this
ended up being closed and in a really weird area. We'd taken two buses to
get there and ended up then just getting on a BART train (underground
train) in the wrong direction and had to get off and go back in the other
direction to get back to Montgomery! Sooooo annoying! When we got back to
Montgomery we ended up going and grabbing something to eat and then
decided to go to the cinema.
We wandered back down to market through china town. Unfortunately we
didn't realise that there really wasn't much on at all and ended up
watching Vantage Point. Basically Dennis Quaid drives a mazda really
really fast around Spain and Forrest Whitakker has a camera that really
refuses to break at all! It wasn't the worst film ever but they did the
classic american film thing of not explaining anything but just having a
random arab criminal cell! Was quite weird!
Today we got up at 6am and after putting our bags in lockers at the hostel
we headed down to the ferry building to catch a bus to Oakland where we
caught a really comfy train (with loads of leg room) called the starlight
coast train to Salinas, where a bus (with a very enthusiastic driver)
drove us into Monterey, which is pronounced Mon-a-rraaaayyyyyyy. It makes
you want to jump into the Simpsons monarail song! lol! She took us on a
mini tour of Monterey.
Monterey is where John Steinbeck lived for years and off course it has
'Cannery Row'! I find this is AMAZINGLY exciting cause I love Steinbeck!
After lunch we went to the Monterey aquarium, it has a fantastic
reputation. Also it was really raining outside - whats with the
californian weather??? lol! The aquarium was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!! Best
aquarium I've ever been too! We saw penguins, beautiful jelly fish (evil
creatures! lol), sea otter (they were sooooo cute) and every type of sea
coral and urchines and fish! It really really was a fantastic aquarium,
was fantastic for kids, there were lots of things to do! Owwww we saw
hammerhead sharks and great whites and tortoises etc!
After that I donded my awesome emergency poncho, cause it was bucketing it
down and Rob looked really embarrassed as we wandered around town. We
headed to a diner called Archer's Diner where Rob had an Oreo milkshake
and I had coffee! We read the foolish news, which was really quite good!
After that we headed to check into our hostel which is really really cute!
I like it, we're about to headed out for dinner and to have some Monterey
wine! lol!
Tomorrow we're gonna make pancakes for breakfast in the hostel and go and
explore more of Monterey, in the afternoon we're heading back to San Fran!
Happy April Fool's Day for yesterday!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
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