Back to the Winter

The first snow fell the other day, signifying (at least in my mind) that start of a new winter.  Quite why snow coming does this for me, I'm not too sure, as it never actually fell much in the UK to start off winters there.

So far its just a slight smattering of snow, lame snow that only wants to stick to cars and has a distinct oversion to staying on the ground (unless that ground is road works, they put a special coating on their equipment so that they have an excuse to leave everything for the entire winter).  Nothing that has gotten in the way of traversing the city.  Nothing as bad as it was last year when there was a permenant 2 inch thick layer of ice coating 95% of all walking surfaces.

I've heard its going to get just as bad this year.  But that isn't such a big deal, I'm going to buy some boots, problem solved.  What I'm not looking forward to is the chorus of whinge that will be hurled by most other human beings.

I know I've writen about it before, but it still bugs me.  I get that complaining sooths the soul, its cathartic and nice for the most part.  But the constant, endless, incesant whine I don't quite get.  Surely people are just making themselves more misserable with the bitterness?  If you walk around insisting that everything is shite and its going to be for the next 5 months, surely you're going to have a bit of a wanker time of it?  Shouldn't you just enjoy the fact that you can now wear hats (in summertime, one can't look as dashing as this)

Scarfs are all around, big coats etc.  A whole new wardrobe to wear!  Maybe its that people don't understand the basic principles of dressing themselves.  That the more layers of clothing you put on, the less you feel the cold.  It sounds simple enough, but judging by how cold people get when outside, they musn't be able to fathom it.

Plus, when its now, there are christmas markets to be raided.  The first of which was done last night.

Lots of walking around, looking at the (mostly) pap that people are selling, sniffing food that smells like its only fit for a dog (and seeing happy humans scoffing it down like rabbid wolves) and drinking lots of gluhwine (yum).  Last nights treat was a little bratapfel, cooking apple for those not deutchly gifted, most tasty indeed.  Even if it did smell of wet dog (yes, there was quite a dog theme going on in the nose).  And witnessing what passed for a hot chocolate in such surroundings (a bottle of chocolate milk that had been heated in a drab grey barrel).  I did get a nice cup from it though, and I don't even care how chintzy or lame it is.

But, again, its another year where I'll have to live with the fact that I'm one of the few people actually enjoying the cold and snowy fun.


PS. If you're going to put up an English sign, at least learn how to speak good England first.

New York - Day 7 - The Bliss of Hashbrowns and Seat Bedding

The Best of the Breakfasts

As most of you may know, I'm not much of a breakfast person.  I tend to just skip straight into lunch as its usually only 2 to 3 hours after I've awoken.  Yes, I know, metabolism and most important shite of the day I hear you scream, I simply care not for it (although if I start getting up early, I may).

Thats be the grey dog.

It was the final day and I'd spied something that seemed rather tasty the day before in the wonderful Grey Dog, Hash Browns.  Oh yes.  Now we got some approximation of hash browns back in the UK, but they were more like a potato and onion based turd log that you reheated.  I'm talking about real hash browns of the kind that are rarely seen outside the shores of America.

And, as much as I prefer the service here in Berlin, its nice to say "Can I get some bacon with that", and it arrives.  Although why its on another plate is beyond me.

The coffee was quite good too, a 7.5 out of 10 on the NYCS.

More Random Wanderings

I then had around 4 hours until I had to leave for my flight.  What with having seen everywhere I want to in New York and not enough time to see any of the further out places, I went for a wander around the Meat Packing district.

Fun, but by this stage of the journey, I'd had enough walking around streets aimlessly.  So, I thought to myself "Fuck this, its time for Tu-Lu's".

Ah, if only I could drag this gorgeous amazing baking goddess of a woman back to Berlin with me.  I ate two cup cakes and bought some cookies and brownies (slipping them into one's bag for some Berlin munching).

The final visitation was Irving Coffee again, one of the few places where it was comfortable enough to sit down and relax reading a book.  I tried coffee with raspberry syrup this time, it curdled the soya milk again.  After a lengthy chat with the owners, and some experimentation, we discovered its the acid of the syrup that does it, not the heat as I'd thought for the past few months.  Useful knowledge to have.

 It did taste a bit spank though.

So I read about cold fusion for a while, and then left new york.

Seat Bed

Although, I did arrive at the airport way way way too early.  Getting on the plane though, I saw that it was pretty empty and tried to snag myself 4 seats to myself.  Unfortunately, 2 girls turned up and kicked me out of them (schiese!).  But, I caught the airplane woman (I believe they're called Air Crew now) and mentioned it to her.  She then called me over as soon as the doors were shut to give me 3 seats to myself.

 To my right.

To my left.

Awesomeness abounds.  Well, apart from the meal that is.  It was a little lacking.

There was some flying.

Then some sleeping on my makeshift bed.

No comments:

New York - Day 6 - Giving in to the Inner Tourist

Wanksville

It was my last full day in New York and I could fight my inner wank tourist no more (thats a tourist that is wank, not a tourist of all things wank related).  I had to go and visit the main tourist sights.

The first, Rockerfeller.

The ice rink I've seen in a gazillion films.  Was kind of underwhelming, as real life often is when compaired to its hollywoodised counterpart.

 I did quite like the building though.

 And to be honest, I wouldn't of gone there if it wasn't for watching 30 Rock and seeing this thing all the time.

The next 3 images sum up around 45 minutes of my life I won't get back.

 Picture representation of 'America' in its worst (and yes, I know, Timmy Ho Ho's isn't really American)

 Indeed.

The Centre of Wanksville.

Basically, I walked through and got out of there as fast as was humanly possible.  I had THE Empire State building to go and see!! WOW!! Can't Wait!!!

I got there, and this is all I could see.

That could be ANY building.  It is indeed much shitter up close.  This appears to be a building that is best viewed from a distance.  I couldn't even go inside as there were 4 guys stood near the doorway with M4A1's trying to look mean.

Next was the last of my Ghostbusters locations.  The New York Public Library!!!  Alas, it was covered with scafolding so all I could do was go "oooo, thats the lion from the film" and take a picture.  Then walk on.

The worst part of MidTown done, I got out of there.  Quickly.  Can you guess what I went to do?

Afternoon Coffee and Angry Squirrel

Next on my list was Stumptown Coffee Roasters, just around the corner.  So off I went, got there, walked in and found a counter and lots of people in a queue.  This was bad for two reasons, one, I don't want to queue, and two, I don't want to stand and drink coffee.  I guess its a New York thing, but most places were setup more for walking in, grabbing coffee and drinking it, like a moronic person, walking down the street.  "My Life is far too busy to not walk and drink".

So, I went to leave.  Which is when I saw Toby Maguire stood in the doorway of the coffee shop making strange wooping noises to a twat wearing a twat hat.  Well, least he's pretty famous.

Birch Coffee on the other hand, was a much nicer place.  And they made me this, the best cup of coffee I had in the whole trip.  A 10 out of 10 on the NYCS.

Yum indeed.

Food was required, and as most coffee shops don't do anything Gluten Free (or so I assumed), I went off to try another recommendation.  Shake Shack.

Yum (even if the fries were a bit pap and they had no mayonnaise)

Although this squirrel had issue with me eating all of my burger and fries.  The little guy got up on the table, climbed into my empty box and eyeballed me after discovering it was empty.  Most unimpressed.

Then, to the last sight seeing of the day, fortunately next door to the burger place.

Again, "oh", picture, then walk on.

Found this building after a brief walk, it reminded me of Berlin and I got homesick.  So, I had some coffee (this was hours later btw, I didn't just walk from one coffee place to the next, even if that would be a good idea)

This time Irving Coffee.  I decided to try something a little different, what with them having strawberry and raspberry syrup on the menu.  Coffee + Strawberry syrup was had.  It was.... Ok.

But, look at this photo below.  What are these little brown patties of joy?

Gluten Free Cookies, sold in a normal regular (awesome) cafe.  Bliss.

Bored Meanderings

Wandered around the city some more, having now run out of interesting stuff to do that didn't involve eating or drinking and saw this guy crossing the street.

 Yep, its spock, just walking around like he's a regular guy, wearing a green hoodie.

After a while, I got bored and was stuck waiting for my belly to get hungry again, so I went to Grey Dog.  But, just look at these people, quiff boy on the far right has to be the worst.

And had a TEA, yep, already had far too much caffeine for one day.

 Then, it was Pizza time.  Back to my favourite Gluten Free Restaurant (and the only one I've ever been).

 I decided to try something different, and it wasn't quite as good.  I like my meat crispy.

 A late night drink of Cider at my favourite (ish) bar.

 With some final, end of the day sight seeing.

 Meh.

 Oooo, I've seen that on 24!!

 And aliens trying to abduct me.

I did see my first cockroach of the trip though, freaking huge thing.

New York - Day 5 - Large Sandwich n Brooklyn

No Soup for You!

Thankfully, the last 3 days of my trip were spent in a new hostel, one which didn't have that prison feel to it.  One downside was its location in the upper west side, but this did give me the opportunity to visit the area (for all of an hour).  Most importantly to visit this location.

The 'Seinfeld Restaurant' (exterior shots).  Wow!!  Now, don't get me wrong, again, it was good to see the place.  But theres something about these locations, where the only connection it has to the show is some camera guy once stood nearby and took some video of it.  The cast were never inside of it.  This picture is about all its worth.  So, another stand there for 30 seconds, go "huh", take a picture, and walk on.

The rest of the area was allright, nothing too interesting, although why they had to have such security for a church is beyond me.

 It was ok inside though (even if being in such a place leaves a bad taste in my mouth, plus makes me want to shout out things like "Sweaty Hairy Balls" as loud as possible.  I may have religion activated tourettes).

Although, why must they have signs everywhere telling you what you can't do.  Obsessive over control.

And why do you need a 4x4 for a taxi?

Plus, there were one or two million of these signs ontop of the taxis.  I didn't think stripclubs needed that much advertising.

I realised I was getting irritated with my surroundings and escaped the area.

Irrational Sandwich

Afterwards, sat on the train, I realised I was a little peckish and in need of brown liquid refreshment.  Time for a new Gluten Free treat, a 'Sandwich', in the most American meaning of the word possible.  Downtown I went.

Plopped myself into a seat at the back of the restaurant .

And had this thing flung at me.

They called it 'Coffee'.  Although it turned out to just be a close approximation.  Like you'd explained the concept of coffee to a simpleton and this is what they came out with after much experimentation.  NYCS 1 out of 10.

It did its job though and soon (after a long time studying all the gluten free options on the menu), this monstrosity arrived.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have a Gluten Free sandwich.  But I mean, look up the word variation in the dictionary (and the phrase "really overdoing it like a fucktard" too), theres a good inch of meat, bread, inch of meat, tomatoes, lettuce.  Why not mix everything together?  Meat, tomato, meat, lettuce, repeat.  Its not that complicated.

Saying all that, it didn't stop me scoffing it all down, even if the bread was a bit crap.  They did plonk another couple of things down infront of me too, these were apparently additions to the sandwich meal.

Noms.

Afterwards I went for some cash and found this.

Who uses Windows for a cash machine, seriously?

Brooklyn

A walk across the brooklyn bridge was on my list of things to do.  So I did it.

 Walk, Walk, Walk. Look.

 Walk, Walk, Sit.

 Job Done.

Afternoon coffee was this lovely invention, a 9 out of 10 on the NYCS.

 The MPL you can see written on the side of the cup stands for fucking Maple Syrup.  Oh yes.

All thanks to the Gorilla.

An most pleasant afternoon of wandering the streets of Brooklyn was then had.

 "Brown Stones", seems to me that'd be like calling houses in the UK "Oblong Bricks".

A sit down in the park followed whilst some guy dragged a little girl around.  All mostly uneventful.  Really.  I know its just pictures here and not much text bu I lay on the grass and looked around, what more do you want me to say?

A little visit was had to one of the flea markets.

Which was held inside of an old bank.  Everyone was treating this like it was a perfectly normal thing, like walking into a room through this door to buy nick naks and bits of tat is an everyday occurrence (which I guess it is to them, well, every week).

The food court was a little haphazard.  But it did have the nice feeling of being one of the last few remaining humans, hiding out in a bunker from the nuclear fallout, eating out of bins with moody lighting (and FLEA written on them, which I like to believe had nothing to do with where it was but more what was in it).

 So yes, 'getting the fuck out of there' was done, and eating was later done here.

 Along with maybe a little drinky too.

 A late evening walk to the brooklyn pier, sit down, take in the atmosphere.

 Then wandered off and a giant spaceship came in over head.

The last event of the night was to go and see 55 Central Park West.  Yes, another Ghostbusters set!!!  Look, its the church that stay puft stood on!!!  (and yes, this counts as much better than the seinfeld place, because this was fecking Ghostbusters!)

I then collapsed in bed.  Bliss.