I think this has got to be my favourite place so far!!
We had a little bit of a shakey start to the day just before we arrived. It was kind of funny really, just the other day Aimee and I had been discussing what you would do if your car broke down on the motorway. And well let's just say we found out! Luckily the bus driver got it going again after about 10 minutes, reassuring us with the line 'with Megabus it's not just a ride, it's an adventure' in that amazingly awesome voice.
Once we arrived at our hotel (where we have a double bed EACH) I slept for a while since I got barely a wink on the bus. And in response to Aimee, I only snored because I have a cold... However I managed to do this throughout the majority of the nice weather and by the time we left to go into town there was a thunder and lightening storm just over head with hail stones that were so big I thought they were gonna smash car windows. No exaggeration!
The downtown area near the uni is SO nice. I could totally live here. We had tea at a place called Tomatohead and had the best pizza I have ever tasted. Garlic, chicken, cheese and tomato all together in one delicious meal, my mouth is watering just at the thought. I also had a red velvet cupcake for dessert, with my best description for it being 'better than normal cake', so I'd defo recommend.
After dinner we wandered around all the cute little independent businesses, luckily without my purse otherwise I'd be SO skint. I think we might be heading back tomorrow though, I'm going to have to exercise some self control. I got rather excited too because a guy was sitting in the street playing. 'Push' by Matchbox Twenty, a band I adore but aren't really bery big in England. So I made Aimee hang around with me to listen :D
Also, I love how friendly Americans are. The hotel owner has given us loads of advice about where to go in the area and offered us a lift into town if the buses aren't running, the bus driver was really helpful and all the shop assistants ha¿e been dead chatty. I do not know why more people don't visit here.
Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Travellers Aid = Lifesaver
Things haven't exactly gone to plan today... On arriving at the train station we got into a taxi, but when we gave in the address of our hotel the driver told us that our hotel wasn't actually in Philadelphia but a different city and that the zip code wasn't right. So we went into the train station and asked for help from a really lovely, very camp man from Travllers Aid who told us the same thing and rang hostelbookers for us, who told us they didn't actually have a reservation under our names and that the hotel was a THIRTY FIIVE MINUTE drive away. This lovely man then went crazy at the hostel booker people because they said they couldn't help us...
Luckily the lovely man referred us to this cheap hotel that's in a better location and cheaper than the one we'd orginally booked. Grear right? Well... The hotel is errr interesting. I wouldn't use the words clean, safe, secure, nice or not-dodgey to describe it, let's put it that way. In fact if you wanna see some photos Aimee will be uploading some pictures in a few minutes if you wanna check it out! www.aimee-goes-abroad.blogspot.co.uk :)
We've decided to escape for the evening and spend as little time there as possible. It's not all bad though! We're in the gay area and everything is REALLY nice (except the hotel) and we're currently calming down in a cute little cafe called 'Cafe 12', in which I would highly recommend the mango smoothy.
I hope things are going a little better for Rach and Rach, who we said our goodbyes to in NY and should be making their way to the airport around now. Fingers crossed!!
Luckily the lovely man referred us to this cheap hotel that's in a better location and cheaper than the one we'd orginally booked. Grear right? Well... The hotel is errr interesting. I wouldn't use the words clean, safe, secure, nice or not-dodgey to describe it, let's put it that way. In fact if you wanna see some photos Aimee will be uploading some pictures in a few minutes if you wanna check it out! www.aimee-goes-abroad.blogspot.co.uk :)
We've decided to escape for the evening and spend as little time there as possible. It's not all bad though! We're in the gay area and everything is REALLY nice (except the hotel) and we're currently calming down in a cute little cafe called 'Cafe 12', in which I would highly recommend the mango smoothy.
I hope things are going a little better for Rach and Rach, who we said our goodbyes to in NY and should be making their way to the airport around now. Fingers crossed!!
Monday, 26 March 2012
'I have a spill on my pants, a fluffy top and no money. Life is good' - Rach Storey
I tell you what, if we continue to walk this much throughout the rest of our travels I am going to have calves of STEEL. Honestly, looking at a map it is amazing to see how much of the city we've actually covered on foot. I do think it's the best way to travel though, we have stumble across so many things we didn't plan to just by walking around - things we definitely would have missed had we taken the bus or the subway.
However saying that we did cheat a little yesterday by taking the sub down to the Statue of Liberty. But to be fair, that would have taken up far too many hours and we slept in a little too late anyway :P
First we had to go through airport style security checks and I had to get searched because I set the security alarms off... After taking off all items of jewellery, excess layers and anything else I could think of, it turned out that the problem was... the underwire of my bra. Great.
Even on a cold and windy day, getting the ferry over to Liberty Island and seeing the Statue of Liberty up close was indeed a fantastic experience. It's one of those things that you always see in films or on T.V. but it doesn't really dawn on you that it actually exists. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but pretty amazing all the same.
Another thing I love about New York is how friendly the police people are. Not to say that they aren't friendly in England, I don't really know any members of the police force, I have just needed their help and noticed their presence more over here. HOWEVER they are a little rubbish at giving directions. We got so lost on the way to pick up our tickets for the 9/11 Memorial, with different policemen sending us all over the Downtown area, until EVENTUALLY a member of the Memorial staff pointed us in the right direction.
The Memorial really is beautiful. Two large square waterfalls with a 30ft drop into a pool, with the names of all the victims incribed around the outside. Family members and friends helped to decide where each name shoul be placed, in relation to where they worked or who they had close relationships to. Such a simple touch but it definitely helped to make it a perfect way to remember those who were lost. Of course looking at the names and contemplating such a tradgey gives you all sorts of mixed emotions; anger, sadness, empathy. How could someone do this and think that it as the right thing to do? But I suppose that's something I'll never understand. I'm just glad that the governement have provided such a meaningful place for the families and friends of the victims to go and mourn.
By the time we left the 9/11 Memorial we had already done a fair amount of walking, so Aimee and I had to pretty much DRAG Rach and Rach to Wall Street. This was also due to the fact that they have no idea what it is or why I would just want to visit a boring street full of boring business buildings. So as you can imagine we didn't stay to long and unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the Occupy protestors *sadface*, but at least I can say I went there!
Before heading back to the hotel we made a pit stop at Wendy's for our tea. I have to say, I do prefer McDonald's, but you canNOT beat Wendy's BBQ sauce. I may or may not have stolen some to take with me :P
Last night we were so tired we just chilled in our hotel room. To be honest I probably should have blogged about all this then but once I was upstairs I really couldn't be bothered coming back down to use the computers :P I'll blog about today in a seperate post, so that this one doesn't look TOO daunting, considering it is pretty long already.
(Oh, and for those of you who are wondering who the teddy is, he is called Tim and was my eaving present from the crew at Fat Face! He will be accompanying me throughout my travels.)
However saying that we did cheat a little yesterday by taking the sub down to the Statue of Liberty. But to be fair, that would have taken up far too many hours and we slept in a little too late anyway :P
First we had to go through airport style security checks and I had to get searched because I set the security alarms off... After taking off all items of jewellery, excess layers and anything else I could think of, it turned out that the problem was... the underwire of my bra. Great.
Even on a cold and windy day, getting the ferry over to Liberty Island and seeing the Statue of Liberty up close was indeed a fantastic experience. It's one of those things that you always see in films or on T.V. but it doesn't really dawn on you that it actually exists. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but pretty amazing all the same.
Another thing I love about New York is how friendly the police people are. Not to say that they aren't friendly in England, I don't really know any members of the police force, I have just needed their help and noticed their presence more over here. HOWEVER they are a little rubbish at giving directions. We got so lost on the way to pick up our tickets for the 9/11 Memorial, with different policemen sending us all over the Downtown area, until EVENTUALLY a member of the Memorial staff pointed us in the right direction.
The Memorial really is beautiful. Two large square waterfalls with a 30ft drop into a pool, with the names of all the victims incribed around the outside. Family members and friends helped to decide where each name shoul be placed, in relation to where they worked or who they had close relationships to. Such a simple touch but it definitely helped to make it a perfect way to remember those who were lost. Of course looking at the names and contemplating such a tradgey gives you all sorts of mixed emotions; anger, sadness, empathy. How could someone do this and think that it as the right thing to do? But I suppose that's something I'll never understand. I'm just glad that the governement have provided such a meaningful place for the families and friends of the victims to go and mourn.
By the time we left the 9/11 Memorial we had already done a fair amount of walking, so Aimee and I had to pretty much DRAG Rach and Rach to Wall Street. This was also due to the fact that they have no idea what it is or why I would just want to visit a boring street full of boring business buildings. So as you can imagine we didn't stay to long and unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the Occupy protestors *sadface*, but at least I can say I went there!
Before heading back to the hotel we made a pit stop at Wendy's for our tea. I have to say, I do prefer McDonald's, but you canNOT beat Wendy's BBQ sauce. I may or may not have stolen some to take with me :P
Last night we were so tired we just chilled in our hotel room. To be honest I probably should have blogged about all this then but once I was upstairs I really couldn't be bothered coming back down to use the computers :P I'll blog about today in a seperate post, so that this one doesn't look TOO daunting, considering it is pretty long already.
(Oh, and for those of you who are wondering who the teddy is, he is called Tim and was my eaving present from the crew at Fat Face! He will be accompanying me throughout my travels.)
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