Snowing in New York... now I can leave for DC

Waking up in the Chelsea this morning, I looked out the window to see a sight I had hoped for... snow in New York. And it came on the last morning... win! I jumped out of bed and climbed out the window to the balcony to frolic. It looked awesome, bikes chained to street signs now covered like icing on cake, people shoveling the sidewalk, cars and canopies topped with inches of white, deciduous skeletal's now frosted and pretty. New York for me now, was as complete as it needed to be for me to say that I have achieved everything I needed to there. I could easily have stayed another week, or even a month, or more.

It was bittersweet though, as I was having to say goodbye to a few of my favorite things; the Chelsea Papaya (favorite chili dogs)...

... the steam up out of the sewers...

... and of course, The Hotel Chelsea.

But nevertheless, it was time to go. DC had to come and NewYork had to be left behind. But I'll be back one day... one day.

We caught and uneventful four hour bus to DC at 11:00am and rolled over to our new hostel. The Capital View. It's close to all the monuments and museums and it's very clean. They make you take off your shoes at the front door. Um... Ok. We met a German dude named Lukas as we were heading out for a beer. He tagged along with us and we went to an Irish pub down the road and then to a Chinese restaurant where they make their own noodles n shit. The food was pretty good and cheap. We moved off to another pub where I finally drank a VORTEX beer... a Millers Light. It has a spiral inner neck, that makes the beer spin like a vortex as you scull it. I had a few. We played pool. We went back, ready for a huge day tomorrow. Lukas added me on facebook and said I could crash on his couch in Germany when i head over there in April/May. Another win!

Location:Washington DC

Burn the Checklist in NYC Pt1

We woke up at 9:00am but chilled out till 11:00am before heading out to catch the sites south of our hotel. First was breakfast-lunch at a random place near Union Square. Day two and we now felt like we were starting to master the subway system and everything seemed to go our way all day. We cruised down till we got to Bowling Green (wharf to Liberty Island) to see the Statue of Liberty. At first we were just going to look and take photos from Manhattan Island, because we'd been told there is always an epic wait for the ferry but when we got there we noticed the line was really small. So we bought access tickets for $13 each and headed on down to the terminal. You have to take off your jacket, shoes, belts and hats/beanies and put all things into a tub from your pockets, along with your bag to go through X-ray and you have to walk through a metal detector before they will let you onto the boat. We had great views on the boat looking back towards Manhattan but the ride over was so epically cold! The temp. today was around zero degrees centigrade and the wind chill was mega! I haven't felt cold like this before. NZ winter skiing was child's play. Later this evening the temp. got to minus six degrees C. With so much wind it cut through all layers, skin, muscle, fat, organs and bones. My nipples are still like fucking diamond cutters.

From Manhattan.

Cold ass bitches.

View back towards Manhattan from the ferry.

When you're this cold, you don't care that you look like a douche, you just want to get warm and hold that beanie down to prevent it from blowing off in the epic cold windstorm.

The Lady.

I can see up her nose.

This is how cold it is.

The bay is pretty dirty.

From here we caught the ferry to Lady Ellis Island to check out the Immigration History Museum, which was rad but I won't bore you with the details. It wasn't really anything worth writing home about but really cool to visit and interesting.

Registry Room, Immigration Center/Museum.

From here we checked out Ground Zero, the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street and Times Square.

A sculpture that was damaged during the 9/11 attack and now resides by the ferry terminal at Bowling Green.

Cheesy Amish Men!

Huge plaque at Ground Zero.

Brooklyn Bridge.

More Cheese!

Trump Building @ Wall Street.

New York Stock Exchange.

George Washington Memorial @ Federal Hall, where he took the oath as first president.

Steam out of the sewer.

Times Square.

Minus Six Degrees C. @ Times Square.

On our way back from dinner... Amazing!

Morty's mate was in town, staying in a studio apt. next to Times Square, so we met up with him for dinner and brews at a place called 123. It's called that cause burgers cost $1, shots cost $2 and beers cost $3. The burgers are small sliders about two bites big and the beers are full mugs off a variety of taps. This place was awesome and continuing with our good luck timing, we got a table almost immediately which is damn rare. We had 6 burgers each and shared a plate of waffle fries and chicken wings, plus a few beers for only $23 each! Then we split to buy 40's and drink in the studio and play cards.

Times Square w/ Morty, Matt & Jimmy.

Drunk and on the way home, Morty and I had to get Rees' from our new favorite pharmacy. They have a self service checkout and while I was paying, I was boxed in by Morty, when he let go of a giant, highly audible fart. I had to wait for my change so I couldn't move and the machine was taking forever. He counted aloud "1, 2, 3..." and then bolted out the door and glared at me through the window like an arsonist, rubbing his hands together with glee, while watching the damage that ensued. I thought I was safe but then it hit me, like a rotten watermelon smashing into my face! I couldn't breath but I was now laughing hysterically, delirious from a good gassing. When I got outside I was wheezing from the laughter and Morty looked like he was going to wet his pants. People from all sides of the street were now looking and staring at us as we tried to make our way down and around the corner towards our hotel. This tomfoolery continued back at the hotel when I got in front of him in the lift and belted one out as soon as the doors slammed shut. Bam mother fucker! In a tight and confined space bitch!

Location:W 23rd St,New York,United States

Road to Chelsea Cont.

After sitting in the park (Madison) by the Flatiron building, I ventured back to the hotel to see if my room would be ready. It was about 2:00pm so I was prepared for a negative answer, which was the case. I would have to wait. I was so tired by this stage, being up for about 28hrs and this would turn into 31hrs before I would finally get some much needed sleep. To fill the time before the room became available, I went for yet another walk. Seeing some cool streets. Chelsea really is an interesting suburb, full of rad things to see.

Returning to the Chelsea, I found my room available so I made my way up to find a rad little space that will be home in NYC till Monday 21st or so.

I had to send Morty some info on how to get here from JFK and check facebook, emails etc, so I didn't get my head down on a pillow till close to 5:00pm after failing to get in contact with Morty by skype phone, as he should have landed by now and I had expected him to be on a train, making his way to the hotel. At around 7:00pm I snapped awake suddenly, realizing that Morty was still not here! 3hrs late, I was worried and could still not get in contact by phone. With this fear of unknowing, a double pronged attack with the revenge of my $2.50 chili dog began to wreak havoc on my nerves. But alas, "knock knock", my door barked. Morty had arrived. Caught in the peak hour rush, it took him 3hrs to get here by shuttle... phone on silent, oblivious to my worry.

I needed more sleep, so Morty waited patiently while I got another 2hrs in before we trekked out for dinner. We were both pretty knackered so walk around town, up to Madison square garden and back, stopping for Subway and a wick visit to a 24hr pharmacy for a six-pack and supplies, made up the remainder of our evening before settling in the hotel for some brews and facebook.

It's now 10:00am Saturday morning and we're heading out again... tourist time!

Location:W 23rd St,New York,United States

Road to Chelsea

"It's 10:45am in New York City, I'm sitting in the lobby of the (in)famous Hotel Chelsea giving my bones a rest from a long and tiresome twenty-something hours. I haven't slept since yesterday, 8:30am LA time & I think I am responsible for destroying some poor girl's nostrils, as she was held captive by a series of circumstances that led to me having to fly with a less than desirable level of good hygiene."

Let's start with yesterday, 8:30am in LA. Morty and I woke up early to catch the Metro to Hollywood. To do this, we can get a ride from the hostel to the train line and back for free; very helpful as it's in a sketchy neighborhood. To get to Hollywood we had to catch three different train lines. The first, closest to our hostel, we are the two odd whites boys, getting stared at. The second line gets a lot more multicultural with the third being very clean and respectable, giving us hope that there is more to LA than gangsta hoods and strip malls freckled with windows covered in steel bars.

Hollywood, for the record, is awesome. We got comfy pretty quick. Strolling down the street, looking at the stars on the walk of fame and soaking up the atmosphere.

I got a little too excited by happening across Zoltar!

I went giddy and had to get a tourist shot... then again with The Doors
... and the Hollywood sign.
We found a bar (Maui and Sons) with free WiFi and stopped for some beers and shit, while we figured out what to do.
We decided to get real touristy and go on a Hollywood tour in and open roof minivan.
The dude hocking this shit on the street called out to us we walked down the street "hey, you guys want to go on a Hollywood tour? I'll do it for you cheaper cause you're Jewish!". We were laughing our asses off cause we had just passed a cheap suit store where you could buy a suit for $66 and we were considering getting them so we could reenact that photo Jeremy found of those two Jewish guys who look just like us.

Anyway he gave us the tour for only $20 (instead of $35). This proved to be a good idea, cause we got to go up Mulholland drive for the best view of Hollywood.

But not before having some lunch at an awesome hotdog joint for my first authentic chilli dog and fries.

After the tour we went to Hooters for dinner. Our hostess certainly "filled" the job description and the food was pretty good (sliders and buffalo shrimp).

Then it was time to go back to our hostel to await my departure for NY. This meant an hour and a half train travel back towards the lower socioeconomic cesspool at night, playing the role of the jumpy, nervous and prejudice, glow in the dark target. It was all cool and we decided it would be a good idea to ring the hostel and arrange a pickup a few stations out. The idea being that the van would be there when we got in, so we didn't have to hang around for too long and get shivved. This didn't work out too well, as the shuttle was out dropping people off here and there and we would have to wait. The funniest part about this time, waiting in the dark, was when a scary ass black dude that had been hovering around, walked right up to us and slipped his hand toward his breast pocket under his jacket, with eyes penetrating our pretty white skulls... we froze in anticipation... what's he doing? Will we get warning? Will he just shoot and take our wallets? Am I going to be able to just give him the planted $2-$3 from my pocket, whilst keeping my wallet and cash safe from his mugging ass? Should I just push Morty into him and run in the opposite direction? Was that what Morty was thinking? No... he was just getting his wallet out to pay for the bus that was driving up behind us, as we were frozen in petrification and unable to hear. LA Noobs.

Anyways, back at the hostel, we had some beers with some other peeps, one Aussie chick and a couple from Finland. All cool cats and nice to chat to, but it was now time for me to grab the shuttle to LAX for my 11:30pm (LA) to 7:45am (NY) JFK flight. My thoughts when booking this was "no problem, I'll just sleep on the flight. As it turns out, not so. The Plane was so damn hot, I couldn't Breathe and I had foolishly forgotten to shower before the flight (as I was preoccupied by beers and foreign company) and I was crammed into a window seat next to a couple of girls. They were sleeping and I couldn't get to the bathroom to freshen up. By the time the flight got in, I had not slept a wink, I had listened to every Tool album and sweated my ass off in clothes I had been wearing all day in Hollywood and I fucking stunk! I hate bad hygiene and here I was, being "that guy!". That poor girl next to me, she must have gone home telling of being stuck on a flight, for 5hrs next to a stinker. I feel for her. As for me, well I used a wet wipe in the JFK bathrooms to clean up and changed my shirt before battling with the NYC subway system to try and find my way to Chelsea.

I got an airtrain link to a place called Howard Beach and then caught the A line to 14th street. I could have caught a local to 23rd (where the Hotel Chelsea resides) but I decided to hoof it, 18kg pack on back! I got to the Chelsea to find out that they had screwed up our reservation and put us in a one bed room. Being the weekend of their "President's day" public holiday, bookings were full up. So I negotiated a better placement (street side, by the Hotel Chelsea sign) and had a fold out cot brought up. I also scored cheaper rates, so we're cool with it. Morty wasn't set to fly in until 4:00pm so I had the day in NYC to myself but the check in time wasn't until 3:00pm, so I couldn't catch a nap or shower or anything. I was able to chill in the lobby and use the WiFi and I started this entry but I got bored and went wandering after checking in my bags with reception.

Just strolling around I bought a $2.50 chilli dog and made my way down 23rd until I found a cool park. I watched squirrels darting around gathering nuts, burying them and playing with each other. They're freaking cool! I chilled on a park bench for a while people watching, only to look across the street and see the Flatiron building... "holy shit!". How's my luck? I wanted to see this building and I just happened to stumble across it. Awesome!

TBC...

Location:W23rd & 8th, New York City.