Tuesday, September 23, 2014

My New York Holiday : Chapter One

Well!  Didn't I have a magnificent holiday!!!


It wasn't smooth sailing to make it to New York however.  My flight from Sydney was delayed for some reason so was late getting into LA, then I wasn't allowed to have an express pass to get through Immigration (and the queue was looooong!) so I made it on to my connecting flight with 10 minutes to spare!

But that wasn't the end of it!  My luggage took a while to come out of the carousel at JFK Airport, and then the car I had booked I was late...


So even though my plane had landed at the airport at 10pm, it was after midnight before I got dropped off at my hotel.

And I was dropped off at the wrong one....

This may have been my fault...  I'm not sure.  But imagine being dropped off at a hotel in the middle of a city you don't know, and you've paid your driver and he's gone, and they tell you you are at the wrong hotel.  I'd been travelling for about 30 hours at this point and I may have briefly considered bursting into tears... but I didn't!  Instead I got the hotel to give me a security guard, and they walked me and my luggage the two blocks to the hotel I should have been at - The Night Hotel.

And this was my room:

I think I need congratulations for having the presence of mind to take a photo of my bed before I laid down and slept on it!

And by crikey that bed was comfortable!!!

And I slept well, and it was a good thing I did because I got right into it the next day!  My first morning in New York was to be spent with my online friend Daffny from A Vintage Nerd, and her family!

We had a picnic in Central Park in front of Belvedere Castle!




With gluten free cupcakes!!!


It was so lovely!  The weather was amazing (especially for someone coming from winter), Daffny's kids loved the presents I gave them, and it was wonderful to talk to Daffny and her husband Andreas IN PERSON!!!

Once we had had our fill, we packed up the picnic and moved into The MET!


Wow, is that place incredible!  Even with three small children in tow which meant I was distracted, I was blown away by the things that they had there!!!  The exhibit I was most impressed by was the Egyptian Exhibit. They had moved a temple block by block and reassembled it in this giant modern glassed room... INCREDIBLE!!!



What I loved most, I think, was the graffiti... see the 1820 carved into the rock there.  People have been graffiti-ing for longer than I ever imagined!

There was even a sphinx that Daffny and I took a selfie with!

A proper sphinx!!!

It had been a big morning for Daffny and her family, so they headed on home... and I headed to a Broadway show!


Yes, I took myself to my favourite play on Broadway - Les Miserables.  I'm not ashamed to say that I sobbed when the music swelled at the start, and I cried like a baby when Jean Valjean died at the end.  What an amazing experience!  I'm so glad I did it!

And that wasn't all for the day.  I also met another online friend, Hannah, after dinner.  We talked and talked and talked until we both realised it was after midnight and she needed to go home and I needed to go to sleep!  We were so distracted that I forgot to take a photo.  Its ok, Hannah will feature again a little later.  I needed a good nights sleep because I had big plans for the next day....


Yes, thats my leg getting tattooed!  I had made an appointment in the months prior to my arrival to get a tattoo from the gorgeous Erica Flannes, who works at Red Rocket Tattoo.  If you like tattoos you should do yourself a favour and check out her Instagram (she posts under @ericaflannes), and if you are in New York, get a tattoo from her.  Her work is amazing.

Now that my tattoo is healed I can show you a really good photo of it.


Yes, I got a magnificent sewing themed tattoo.  That is my scissors and my tape measure, and Erica added the spool of thread and the strawberry pincushion into the mix, and came up with the design.  Isn't it beautiful???  The most common question people have asked me since is 'Did it hurt?' and the answer to that is Yes.  It was 4 hours of agony.  But I didn't die, I was fine the next day, and I have a wonderful permanent reminder of my holiday!

So that is my first two days in New York - I sure crammed a lot in!

Have you been to The MET?  Did you know that people have been grafitti-ing things since forever?  Is Les Miserables your flavourite musical too?  What do you think of my tattoo?

Beccie
xxx

18 comments:

  1. Love the tattoo! We opted for the Museum of Natural History instead of The Met - next time!!

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    1. I wanted to go there girliefrank! But when I had the opportunity I went back to see more of the Met!

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  2. Great fact: The man who did that graffiti later became the head of the New York Historical Society.

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  3. I love Red Rocket Tattoos. I got mine as a walk-in when I visited NYC in May. Your is gorgeous!

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    1. They are brilliant Andrea - not that I have much/any experience in tattoo studios! But they made me (a tattoo newby) feel comfortable and safe, and it was clean and friendly. I couldn't have asked for more.

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  4. As I didn't travel properly since years, reading this somehow is a small substitute for lacking adventures. I would love to see the Met once, as I have a soft spot for all antique things (even far beyond the 1940s…). Must be an incredible experience.

    And I LOVE the tattoo! Never expected you to get one, but now I think it's totally you! :-)

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    1. Doris - you would DIE if you saw the Met! They had this whole wing that was antique furniture from forever ago! And they had whole furnished rooms set up. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!!!

      I've wanted a tattoo for a while, but it took ages to come up with something that was me, and then I needed to get up the courage to defy my husband (who told me I'd need a divorce if I got one). Calling his bluff worked. I'm still happily married, and he loves the tattoo :)

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  5. I LOVE Les Mis - it's the first musical my husband and I saw together, back in 1992. I cry multiple times every time I've seen it. And I love your tattoo! I would like to get a sewing-themed one but for now will be satisfied with my Snoopy and Woodstock one.

    Can't wait to hear about what you did in Portland!

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    1. I'm glad I'm not the only silly emotional one when it comes to Les Mis. I wasn't even the only person crying in the theatre. There was lots of sniffling going on when Jean Valjean died...

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  6. I lived in Egypt before college, so I saw the graffiti on all the stuff there! I was fascinated as well. It looks like it all started when the Europeans got there in larger numbers, in the 1800s. Probably, like now, the locals didn't really care about the stuff since it was "normal" to them! ("Oh yeah, there's a sphinx over there. No big deal, it's by some pyramid-things.")

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    1. thats like me when I walk the dog of a morning... oh yeah, more kangaroos, no big deal.

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  7. fabulous tattoo! :) I saw "Mama Mia" on Broadway and loved every minute of it. Now I want to see all the shows!

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  8. wow that is a lot to do in two days! but sounds like so much fun. when you travel that far though and have such limited time you have to cram everything in, or you might miss something.
    I have never been to the met but, there are caverns in America where soldiers wrote their names on the rocks during the American civil war which was in the 1860s. so I knew they had been doing graffiti since at least then. and probably before.
    when my sister went to NYC she too was dropped off at the wrong hotel! I wonder if that is a common thing. It must have been scary for you, especially when it was so late at night. I am very impressed you took a picture of the bed before collapsing in it especially after all you had been though before you got there. its a long way to the other side of the world.

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    1. Maybe it is a common thing! How weird that it happened to your sister too!

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  9. Sounds like a great holiday so far. That is a marvellous tattoo.

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