Bilbao: The Spanish Summer Festival Bumper Issue Extravanganza

Tis the season of the festival, unlike "The Season of the Witch" - Nicholas Cage movie. Terrible! Not that I've seen it or anything. You can just tell. I dont know why people keep going to terrible movies - like Transformers. Its a huge pile of dung, why does it do so well at the box office?

.......Anyway......

Tis the season of the festival, and the amount of festivals offered in the Northern hemisphere are abundant. The quality of them; second to none. Glastonbury was on a few weeks back, and although I was unfortunate enough to miss out on a ticket, I did manage to secure tickets to another festival of slightly less quality. Only slightly.
Bilbao BBK festival - a 4day / 3night festival located at the Northern tip of Spain featuring artists to the likes of Coldplay, Kasabian, Kaiser Cheifs, Black Crowes, Amy Winehouse (although she was so drugged up she had to cancel), Jack Johnson, Chemical Brothers, Blondie, and 30 Seconds to Mars. Phew. Not a bad lineup I thought as I parted with roughly £100 for the tickets (not a bad price either).

Now, I must throw in a quick disclaimer - I did not take my beautiful Pentax 1stDS camera with me through fear of having it nicked. Despite locking a tent all it takes is a sharp knife, or in the case or our tent, a sharp fingernail to gain access. I decided against risking it, and as such the photos were taken on Renee's cheapo camera.

Attempting to get to Spain from London via Germany wasnt ideal but that was the limited run off flights on offer to get to this festival. We arrived in Bilbao very late on Wednesday night and attempted to find our prebooked hostel in the barren streets of Bilbao. It was a mission in itself. We ended up getting a taxi and he drove about 200m down the road before stopping at the hostel. Nice

We awoke early on Thursday, had a quick peek around the old city of Bilbao, and met up with Ryan and Christina, our flatties that had also decided to get amongst the action. The festival was located atop on overlooking hill, which isnt ideal for a campground, or gaining access to it. Upon arrival the whole thing seemed pretty disorganized. "Where do we set up our tents?" we asked some chick who couldn't speak English. We attempted Spanish to a massive fail. She just pointed around the place and we eventually understood that we can pitch our tents absolutely anywhere.
"Here looks good" we decided as the ground seemed relatively flat. Some people obviously weren't as experienced as us, as you noticed tents pitched against hills so steep they were literally fixing them in with climbing pegs.
"Chumps" I said quietly under my breath.

Corey and Bec (our traveling buddies through Belgium) came a little while later with a few other people - Daniel and Simone - and we went about completing the campsite setup. It was a pretty good setup in the end.

The Thursday night was offering a jittery Blondie first up. Who are Blondie, some of you may be asking? They had a string of hits in the late 70's / early 80's including: 'Tide is High', 'Heart of Glass', 'One Way or Another' etc etc. Debbie Harry belted out the hits as if they were from a record but her ancient dance moves left little impression on Corey, who was crying with laughter. Coldplay followed them with a sublime show. Really well done. It was amazing. They played all their hits plus a few new songs as well. They finished up around 2am (oh yeah - this is Spain - all the major acts didnt start till at least midnight) and we went to bed happy. The music didnt stop though and that didnt help with sleeping. The concerts each night didnt finish till 7am, which was tough.













Anyway, that didnt bother us, because 2 hrs sleep later and we were in Coreys van, motoring down route ....umm....... lets say 248, towards Pamplona for, you guessed it, the 'Running of the Bulls.'
We arrived late and Daniel was disappointed that he couldnt get into the running itself. I was hesitant. Have you seen the size of these bulls? They sharpen their horns as well. I could just imagine the headlines. We rushed into the stadium and watched the massacre that ensued. Our best video for your viewing pleasure below.

The rules:
- If you try and ride the bull, you get the shit kicked out of you.
- If you try and touch the bulls horns, you get the shit kicked out of you.
- If you try and taunt the bull, the bull kicks the shit out of you.

Basically, you're screwed.

It was amazing though. Cost all of 6 Euro to get in and watch an hours worth of glorious carnage. What other sporting event on earth is that good of a deal? None I tell ya. None.



We hooned back to Bilbao, getting stopped by the cops on the way who questioned 8 people in a van with no seatbelts. They let it slide.

We got back, and Renee and I checked out the Guggenheim museum - basically the building that put Bilbao on the map. It is a dramatic statement but one that hasnt been maintained properly. Bits of silver electrical tap looked like it was holding steel sections together, the skylight glass was unclean and the internal plasterboard lining was cracking due to the curves. Still, Im glad I've seen it.







The Friday night hosted Kasabian, and Kaiser Chiefs, among others. Kasabian were amazing. Absolutely incredible. Kaiser Chiefs sounded good too, but they were on super late and I was starting to get crook so I called it early.
The mojitos and beers didnt help either.

The Saturday had us on the road again, to the beachside city of San Sebastian. It was awesome - a few white pointers out there.....
Ahhh, what am I saying? Every second chick had their boobs out.
Corey later summarised;
"San Sebastian is the kind of place that I bet chicks go down to the beach during their lunch break just to get their tits out"
The truth has never been stated so elegantly.
We had authentic tapas at a restaurant in the old town and I went for a swim in the ocean, which was refreshing after being away from it for nearly 2 years. When I got home a day and a half later, I finally had a shower and found all this rancid seaweed in my jocks. Rough times.

We got back to the city late and discovered the line to get back up to the concert grounds was longer than the line we had at Wimbledon (refer previous blog post - not joking). Some hasty decision making saw us catch an unknown bus that only 100 people knew about. How do I know 100 people knew about it? They were all on the bus with us. It was tight! - one of the greatest understatements in history. The driver was an absolute champion. There got to a point where there were so many people on the bus that it would move and a few had to get out. Ha.

We made it back in time to see Jack Johnson - who was actually really good. Then watched a bit of the Black Crowes before deciding that staying up till 4am was just too much to see out the Chemical Brothers. It took 12 hours for us to get back home on the Sunday, which was not ideal once again.

All up, the trip was incredible; action packed and bottled into 4 days of extreme drinking, partying, driving, exploring, and mingling. We all got around 8 -10 hours sleep in total for the four days, and didnt really have showers at all. The only food we really ate either came in a chip packet, or was saturated in cooking oil from a nearby cafe. A detox is on the cards.

So there it is. I hope you enjoyed the new setout. If you guys did like all the photos and videos, then let me know and I will look to do more of it in the future.
Parents come in a couple of weeks, have a Morocco trip booked in three weeks time, and Paris Returns in 4 weeks. Phew - time for a much needed rest.

Summer, summer, summertime

I was going to wait a couple more weeks before updating this, but have been so busy that wont be able to fit it all into the next posting, I fear.

So, where to begin. Well, we all thought summer was over but it has reared its happy head and started pounding the pavements with intense UV rays. Had to get the ol' sunblock out the other day. Absolutely unheard of!!!

What have I been doing with all this glorious weather, you may ask. Lean closer and I will tell you.......



Spending cash.

That's what I have been doing.

When I paid off my student loan a good few months ago now, I thought 'right, now I can do some proper saving; get a little nest egg; save for a house etc'. That pipe dream has been decimated with the prospects on offer to the UK dweller in summer.

A few Saturdays ago, a small crew of around 50 of us descended on the Ascot races like a swarm of locusts. After we were done eating the crops, we decided to hit the drinks and make a few bets in the hopes we would win BIG!!!.
The weather had other plans by showering us with hail for a solid hour. The little umbrella was dog tired at the end of it. Though the sun came out and everyone cheered.
The Queen came hooning by in her horse and carriage and we all waved at her. Shes a nice old lady.
Then for the horses. Everyone was in good spirits. Its at events like this when you realise how small the world is, when your mates know the mates of some of your other mates. Mate, it was crazy.
"Pom!" I shouted and beckoned. Over he strolls. "Gidday Jono." some random bloke sitting near me says. "ROB" shouts Jono, and off he goes to have a discussion with him, leaving me friendless and lonely. For a few seconds at least.

Anyway, I placed a few decisive bets. I won £5.20 on a race!!! "You little bewtay" I yelled, clutching my ticket so hard veins in my fist flared up.
Doesn't matter how much I lost. It was all in the name of fun. Maybe I lost £50.
By the end of the day, most people were right-offs. Especially the chicks. Most of them were unconscious. Ha.
So we all went back to Putney and I ended up in Camden (the other side of London) for the rest of the night. We were miles out. I decided to catch the standard 2 night buses to get home. On the second night bus, as I was passing in and out of consciousness, the bus started braking erratically. The driver started laying on the horn as well. Proper. People then started gasping, some chick screamed. Then I heard a few more screams following by an almighty thud.
"What the hell just happened?" I asked this wide-eyed bloke next to me.
"I think we just killed someone" he replied.
"What! Really!" I was amazed. Girls in the front seats were turning away, crying into their boyfriends arms.
'I gotta see this' I thought, rather shocked at my lack of human emotion. It must be all those horror movies.
I craned my neck so bad I think I strained a muscle. "Is it that bloke in the white T-shirt?" I ask the guy next to me once more. He just nodded, looking at me strangely.
"But he is getting up" I say "That cant be him". Now the guy next to me starts looking. "What the hell?" he says.
This dude that has just been smoked by the bus stands up, dusts himself off, and starts briskly walking away, just prior to getting into a full blown sprint. The driver and everyone around him were dumbfounded, as if they were looking at a zombie (they probably were). They all stood around looking at each other for, what seemed like in my mind altered state, an e-t-e-r-n-i-t-y.
"Come on" I pleaded, impatiently, "The guy is feeling better than I am".
After a half hour of mucking around, convinced that this dude would be OK, the driver finally started to crank the bus into gear and take me home. 'Good' I thought. I searched the papers the following few days for some kind of story but to no avail.
I spent the Sunday nursing a hangover, glad that that was all I had to handle. Wonder whatever happened to that guy. I am pretty sure he is a mutant.

Last weekend was huge. Quite possibly one of the biggest weekends I have ever had. Off. All. Time.
(Apart from Sevens Weekends - those things are huge)
It started with myself buying a few beers on the Friday night and deciding to drink them all. That was a bad idea. At 6:30 the next morning Renee karate kicked me out of bed.
"Hiyah" she says, hand also arcing in chopping motion.
"What the hell" I blubber, shocked, and hungover.
"We are going to go line up at Wimbledon" she exclaimed. "Come on"
"Owwwwwww mannnnnn" I cried out, like I used to as a teenager.

We got into the line at 7:30am, and already it filled the whole of Wimbledon Park. 'This was a serious line', I thought ' I better make a mental note of how big this line actually is, so I can compare queue sizes in the future'. Its a thing I do.
We got our queue card. 'Great', I thought ' we are only 8472 in the line'
Editor note: That is not exaggerated. That was actual place number in queue.
So we waited it out, chatting to a few people around us to wile the time away.



8
Hours
Passed

And we got in! Yay.

At the time of entry (3:30pm to be precise) the clouds opened wide and good ol' sunlight streamed in. We ate strawberries and cream (apparently its tradition) and watched a few of the matches played in the outer courts. Near the end of the day, we chilled on Henman Hill and watched the Djokovic / Baghdatis game before calling it a day. I was sunburnt but in high spirits because I paid £10 on a Wimbledon tennis ball. What a deal!







On the Sunday, we went out to............. hmmm should I say it.............. OK I will............. The Glee Stage show. Dont be haters. I don't care what anyone says about the show. It was awesome. It had all the original actors from the show in it and everything. Man, they are talented.









That finished around 4pm so we hauled ass into the underground and glided through to Hyde Park where we had another concert booked to see. This was the final day of Hard Rock Calling; a 5 day relaxed festival within Hyde Park. On the Sunday they had a few bands playing to the likes of Train, Barenaked Ladies, Mike & the Mechanics, Adam Ant, Stevie Nicks, and Rod Stewart. Stewart headlined. He was awesome, though he didnt sing 'Rhythm of my Heart' and I was gutted.







So that about wraps it up. We have a Spanish festival in a weeks time. Bands like Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, Chemical Brothers, Blondie, Black Crowes, Jack Johnson, Kaiser Cheifs and Kasabian will be there. Will tell you all about it.....

Meeting Belgians and Luxembourgians, in a van

Before I get into our latest road trip, a little catchup on things since the last post.

I had waited a long year for it, but it came around quickly enough......
What is this that I am referring to, you ask?
Roger Waters "The Wall" LIVE, thats what!
It was epicly epic in all epic ways possible.
Epic. The show was a sellout and 'remastered' as a copy of the original live show Pink Floyd performed some thirty years ago. They built a giant wall on stage, each brick with its own high definition projector beaming propaganda onto it. The things they can do with technology nowadays is mindblowing! Seriously. There were moments when it looked like the wall was collapsing in on itself in some kind of vortex type blackhole, only for us to realize that the wall was still there and it was the use of the projectors and some seriously powerful computers combining to do the job visually. An amazing concert, and well worth the wait. Roger can still rock out like the best of them. Voice was pitch perfect.

Checked out Brick Lane for a curry a few Fridays ago. Brick lane is the hagglers choice for Indian cuisine. We sorted out a curry, starters, naan bread, poppadoms, and 2 beers each for a tenner, all of which went down a treat. Mental note however: I am not ordering Vindaloo again. My toilet will thank me.

Renee and I celebrated our two year anniversary at a nice little Greek restaurant, famous for offering more food than any one man can eat. I was close to 'death by stomach failure', when my hosts informed me I had yet another main course to follow. I tried to groan a refusal, but I think they mistook my worried eyes and trembling lips as some sort of kiwi laughter and made the chef work quicker to get the food out.
We rolled home after. Lucky our house was downhill from the restaurant.

.................

When we realized we had yet another long weekend fast approaching, Renee and I took proactive steps to try and plan a quick getaway. You have to take advantage of these situations when they present themselves. The unfortunate thing was that everyone else had the same idea and trips abroad were becoming a scarce, or very expensive, experience. We were two seconds away from booking a pricey trip to Krakow, when fortune called, in the form of Corey. You see, Corey had just brought this new red campervan (akin to Postman Pats wheels) and he wanted to test the waters. A cheeky trip to Belgium would clear the pipes, and it was snap decision to change plans instantly.

With minimal planning, we drove an hour to Dover, jumped on a ferry for an hour, drove another hour into Belgium and decided to sleep in the van for the night. The team consisted of Corey, Bec, Ironmonger (also known as James), Renee and yours truly; a formidable unit.
The first nights sleep in the van was relatively tolerable, apart from the fact I had James' feet in my nostrils all night. We awoke early, fearful that some coppers will come tapping on our window and, after taking a quick leak, we rejoined the motorway and headed some 30 mins to our first stop, Ghent.



It was good.

Ordered pancakes there and I was foolish enough to ask for Bacon and Banana on mine..... I dont think they have bacon in Belgium. We strolled the streets, took some snaps and finished things up with a canal boat tour. Lovely.







We were locked in to stay a night in Bruges, so we headed that way and checked the place out. It was crammed with tourists which kind of made it lose that quaint vibe that was evident between all the flying bullets in the movie "In Bruges". We just holed up at a bar and slammed down pint after pint of Hoegarden and Leffe. Good stuff.

The next morning we traveled to Antwerp trying to buy diamonds. Its famous for them, you know. It was a really nice town also. Belgium has a lot of nice towns, we concluded. Spent a morning there accompanied by some Belgian waffles before heading to Luxembourg via a stop in Brussels. We spent all of half an hour in Brussels - traffic jam packed.








Luxembourg is a seperate country, and although it is right next to Belgium, the change of scenery was entirely evident. We stayed at a small place called Lultzhausen; small in the sense that it was literally only a hostel, a few houses and a church out there. It was amazing, situated right on a mirror lake, with large pine forests adorning the surrounding countryside. We had opportunity to go kayakking, mountain biking and basketball. I went up against James on the bball and got dealt. Like trying to face LeBron.











Our return back to the ferry in France was always going to be tight, but it wasnt until we had 40km to go and 45 mins to get on the boat that we realized we were going to struggle. Thinking ahead, we called and changed our reservation to the hour later. Thinking we had significant time on our hands, we stopped off in the shithole that is Calais and had a feed. Little did we realize that we were required to go through a hefty customs line to get permission back into the UK.
Our boat was leaving at 7:50pm
We were still standing in line at 7:46pm, having not even got our boarding tickets.

Shit.

The customs officer was trying to be difficult with us but realized the magnitude of the situation and stamped through our passports. We hauled ass into the big red van and accelerated like a formula one car to the ticket booth.
"Hurry, hurry, we only have a couple of minutes to get on the boat!!!!" we pleaded.
"Hmmm hmmmm hmmm, there are 5 of you?" the ticket dude said in an almost bored voice.

7:49pm - Got tickets.
7:49:20pm - Passed some old ditty trying to find car gate. We were traveling close to the speed of light at this stage
7:49:45pm - Find our gate.
7:50pm - Fly onto the boat Dukes of Hazzard style.

It was tight. Incredibly tight.
We all needed a beer to calm our nerves.

So thats that. A busy summer coming up. We have the Royal Ascot races in a few weeks, the Glee live stage show, Wimbledon (camping out for tickets), and then 5 days at an international festival in Spain, all within the next month.
Going to be poor and busy............

Getting Corny in Cornwall

Been crazy times these last few weeks since my birthday. Went out to the countryside and shot up some of my mates with paintballs a few weekends ago. Great fun, but not when you have to start shelling out for extra paintballs. That's the hidden costs right there!!!

For the Easter weekend, Renee and I had a lazy one, pretty much having our flat all to ourselves. Went into the city on the Sunday to do some tourist stuff - Renee has a bucket list she wants to get through before we eventually depart. Got to the London dungeons, and saw the line was down the street, around the corner, through the Thames and up Spook Hill, so we decided to forego that idea. Everyone was here for some big wedding apparently.

Instead, we checked out a few lesser known places. Buckingham Palace. You heard of it? I certainly hadn't been there before, but I ticked that box. Got off at monument tube stop and discovered there was actually a monument outside it. It wasn't just a clever name. We hauled ourselves up the 311 stepped spiral staircase and took in the views of greater London. A recommended tourist attraction to do if you happen to be into climbing stairs.



Went to Thorpe Park on the Monday. It is a theme park overrun with Chavs. Has some great rides though, like the Saw rollercoaster (yes - based on the movies) and the Stealth. We dominated them all. It was funny seeing Renee as she got into the stealth. Here is a ride that flings for 210 ft in the air as you accelerate from 0 -85 mph (around 140kph) in 2.3 seconds. She was before me in the line and it was all smiles until that initial burst of speed has her eyes widen instantly and her head pinned to the back of the chair. Fantastic. They had a basketball shooting comp there and all these gumbi's were paying 4 quid to get in and shoot as many 3 pointers as they could in 45 seconds. These guys were all show; bouncing balls through the legs, practicing fadeaways, but when it actually came to shooting - God help them. I expressed my interest and paid 2 pound after talking the guy down in price and hit four 3 pointers, bagging a large NY Knicks teddy bear for Renee. He is called 'Mello.

I strutted out of the bball area and said 'and what?' to the stunned chavs. Ha ha

Check out the website for the themepark. The Saw coaster was prbably the best based on its 100 inverted degree drop. Oh yeah

Last weekend was another long weekend, thanks to the Royal wedding. We had already decided to head to Cornwall for that weekend, so I had to let the Royals know that I wasn't going to attend. Will took it like a man, but Kate was fairly cut up. Poor girl. I mean the world to her apparently.

So Cornwall was good. Hired a car and drove down with Pom and Bridget. Due to the wedding we were pretty much forced to stay in the rather touristy town of Newquay, which wasn't bad at all. They had sandy beaches, and lucky for us, I brought my frisbee. We had fish and chips on the beach and flung that plastic disc around for a few hours upon arrival. It was a 7 hour journey down there so pretty much took up our whole Friday.





On the Saturday, we drove out to the Eden Project - a huge series of biomes which house rainforest's and Mediterranean vegetation. Crazy scale and really well presented. The rainforest biome was incredibly humid and I last a gallon of sweat getting to the very top of the thing.
We drove around a few small villages after that. Alot of the villages are these quaint fishing types, so it was a great change.







The Sunday was crap weather but we still managed to get down to St Ives, and check that small village out. Afterwards we drove to the Southernmost tip of the UK - fittingly called Lands End. It was a tourist trap to say the least. The only way there is by car, and when you got there they had set up a one way route so you almost had no other choice but to pay 4 pound and drive on through to the carpark. Sneaky.





We stopped for lunch in Penzance before deciding the weather was too horrid and we headed back to Newquay for snakebites at the local Walkabout. A great weekend away and hard to get back to the office.

Happy Birthday to me

Ahhhh, tis my birthday today, and like on all good birthdays, I can actually have a brief minute to myself.

Shit been busy.

Hmm, what has happened since the last post. Well, I paid off my student loan! Thats a start. So glad to get that rabid monkey off my back. What a mission it is to get rid of them too. Made me wonder what the purpose of it all was. Of course, without my university degree, I potentially would not have the same outlook on life as I do now, which may or may not be a good thing.

To celebrate this farewell to thy loan, Renee took me out to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant for a spot of dinner and cocktails. It took us 2 hours to get out there and 2 hours to get back but was really worth it. We both had crayfish for entrees, followed by traditional dishes made to perfected recipes. I had a macaroni cheese, of all things, and it was so good, I felt randy afterwards.
Randy was the waiter.

Its not easy, you know; literal humour.

A few weekends back we attended a VIP night at a new restaurant / pub opening hosted by my now good friend Kev. Kev was the trusty steed that put us up for a month on our first arrival to London, and since then our relationship has blossomed. I wink at him every now and then and he blushes.
It was a superb steak dinner, way better than the typical crap you get in the supermarket; that stuff they try to pass off as sirloin.

I attended the annual Oxford vs Cambridge boat race last weekend. It was 6 hours or pre drinking before 10 seconds of cheering as the boats went past. Than back to drinking. Oxford won. Good work boys. Tally ho.

Not really much planned coming up. May hire a car on the Royal wedding long weekend and trip down to Cornwall. Because, really, who wants to be around London when thats on........

Taking a bite out of the Big Apple

"Wow. look at all the lights" we said in unison as the cab dropped us off at our hotel.
"This is nothing, you should see around the corner" the cabbie quipped, and then asked for a tip.

It was midnight in New York as we arrived, after extended delays at JFK, and it was essentially 6 o'clock in the morning to us as we were experiencing the time delay between UK and the US.
"I think I've got a second wind coming on" I stated, not referring to a gastric movement but more an energy terminology. Pom agreed. We all hauled ass down to the corner where this hint of something more was waiting patiently just around it.

It was a surreal moment as we stepped foot into Times Square and looked around. The lights, the people, the excitement all added together into this concentrated dosage of awesomeness. I instantly regretted leaving my camera in the hotel room.



We found a convenient bar nearby and bought drinks, balking at the $3 change we got back from a crisp $20 (per 2 drinks that is!). Thats what you pay for convenience. The NBA All Star weekend was on so we perched on the bar and watched that till our eyelids drooped.
The team was myself and Renee along with Pom and Bridget



For our first morning, we took a stroll through a huge park, located in the center of the city; right in the middle. I called it - 'The Park in the Center of the City' - an apt name.
I dont know what the locals call it.
The wind was freezing. I had to put a hood on over my beanie, with sunglasses on and my scarf over my mouth. People seemed threatened by my guise.
The park had a museum in it, an ice skating rink, a zoo, and a lake bigger than New Zealand.
Squirrels jumped out at you.
Apparently the racoons have rabies there.







We strolled, ran and played. I did a jump kick for a Renee photo shoot and split my jeans, in two separate locations at the same time, thus is my power. Renee would say that the crotch area was already worn through due to my constant bottom coughs, but I beg to differ. After the 'Park in the Center of the City' we attacked the Apple Store so Pom and I could make changes to our fantasy Cricket team (this became a regular occurrence) and we munched some lunch at a Macca's - which was a huge meal and .......... OK. Not great, just OK.
That arvo we went up the Rockefeller Centre to catch the Birdseye views of the city. Sweet view too. B-b-b-b-b-baller!




Sunday night it snowed and Renee was amazed. Everyone else seemed miserable.
On the Monday, amidst snow, we decided to head South through Manhattan. We hiked past the Flatiron building, past numerous shops all offering amazing sales, and down to Crif Dogs - a hotdog joint which served incredible hot dogs. We got a bacon wrapped hotdog with sour cream and avocado, and Tatter Tots. Pom put some in his pocket, and I said,
"Pom give me some tatter tots"
"No, get your own"
.... and I mashed his jeans pocket.

Haha. Just kidding.











We took the DODGY subway to Wall Street. I simply cannot emphasize that 'Dodgy' word enough - it was 'stare at your feet' stuff for the whole journey. Wall Street was aight and the nearby Ground Zero (location of those big towers that fell) was cool too. Nice to see what is going on for the memorial.

Tuesday was Guggenheim museum day. It is an incredible building. The artwork in it was great too - alot of Kandinsky, Picasso, Chagall etc. We had been recommended a burger bar to check out around that area, and we found it, hidden behind curtains in a Mariott Hotel. Random spot - it seemed to be one of those 'word of mouth' kind of places, and it seemed like a lot of people had been secretly blabbing
"The first rule of hidden burger bar is: you dont talk about hidden burger bar"
The burger was great.









Alot of shopping later and we retired to the hotel, sinking some beers in the process.

Wednesday, we were meant to get to the Statue of Liberty but the line just to get on the boat was 2 hours long. There was also the line to get tickets. We got tickets for early on the Thursday and skipped off to the Chelsea Highline.
The Chelsea highline is an old above ground and above road railway track that has been redeveloped into the pedestrian walkway, equipped with flowers, seating and artwork, all located about 10m in the air. It was a sweet little journey, even if it was a short one.







This dude in the streets of Times Square tried hawking comedy tickets to us, giving us this spiel about how awesome the night is.
So, we brought them.

Thursday morning - our tickets to the statue finally gained us access to the island and we piled onto an overcrowded boat along with the rest of Harlem, and checked the big lady out. Quite an impressive effort, I must say. We walked through the pedestal of it and jumped off around lunchtime so we could run over the Brooklyn bridge and into the heart of Brooklyn itself.
We didnt stay there too long.






The comedy night, that we had already brought tickets for came around, and we headed to the Upper East side to watch it. The comedy club was well known and had previously spawned the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Adam Sandler among a lot more others. It was a crack up. We had a special guest drop by - Judah Friedlander, who stars in hit TV series: 30 Rock. He was awesome
"Its raining outside guys" he said. Everyone moaned "Im sorry, its because I just karate kicked a cloud" he followed up
Brilliant.

On the Friday, it was pouring down and we were all dead on our feet. We got to MOMA and saw some Warhols, Van Goghs, Pollocks and more Picasso's and Monets. Shopping ensued not long after. Clothes were so cheap. I brought myself a few pairs of jeans, some dress pants, a jersey and a Calvin Klein overcoat (not to name drop).

We hit the town on the last night (for the fifth and final time) and got relatively tipsy. John Leguizamo was signing autographs and we pushed Renee towards him to get a photo
"Get a photo of the chick in red. THE CHICK IN RED!" Pom yelled.
"Damn, thats a big Australian" John said and went back to take the photo.

It was an incredible trip and definitely a place I would like to go back to. Not too much on the adventure horizon now, and this is mainly due to the impending summer and future plans for more adventures. Remember to check out all my photos by clicking on the United States tab to the right of the screen here. Some good shots in there, hidden away.
Stay tuned.

Waitangi Day

Yes, I do feel the pain for not being in Wellington to celebrate the sevens, which has become a mainstay of Waitangi Day in New Zealand.
But I had the next best thing...

London rocked the casbah for Waitangi day. My little sis was over for the celebrations, having just finished a small trip through Europe, and we set about throwing together costumes in haste. Ideas were flung around the lounge room in a blur, focusing on what would create a great NZ day costume. Finally, after hours of turmoil, we settled on a quote from one of the finest NZ films ever made.

"Just cook the man some eggs" was scribbled on the back of a cheap white T-shirt with 2 fried eggs painted over the nipples at the front. Little sis had the reply to the quote on the back of hers, for good measure.
It was a rushed job but it came through in the end.

To nurse all the homesick kiwis on their national day, an informal pub crawl is organised that runs along the same path as the circle line of the London underground. Things kicked off in Notting Hill at 11am and we were met by a sea of kiwis doing beer funnels in the street.
"Great eggs" they yelled out.
The day just got messier. Some bloke was walking around with a 2m length of downpipe still attached to a rainwater head, using that as his own beer funnel. Toilets were of a scarcity. I really felt for the girls when I saw the lines they were in at the various McDonalds and KFC's scattered through the city. Guys could just skip into the toilets with ease.
Ahhhhhh, the life of a guy.

The pub crawl didn't exactly involve pubs. everyone just drank on the streets and stopped at various places. The main goal was to get to the Houses of Parliament by 4pm for a massive Haka. We made it just in time and witnessed masses of kiwis, getting rowdy and drinking beers. This dude I work with led the bloody thing, though he didn't know what he was doing.
He woke up a few hours later in a paddock in Surrey.
Haha. I am not kidding.

A huge rugby game ensued outside one of the Westminster Cathedral. Like the pub crawl, it wasn't really a rugby game - more a game of smashing people. Rugby balls and body parts were flying everywhere. Escaping the carnage, we stumbled on over to a local Antipodean bar and saw the line out of it was massive so decided the next best thing to do would be to jump on the tube and head out of the city, into the sticks, and attempt another bar.

It was here that I got absolutely smashed.
But, it was OK. everyone else was too.
We danced away to poor renditions of "Weather with you"

After having a close call with the bouncers, we all decided to head off home. a cab was hailed and all the girls I was with piled in. There was no room left for little ol' me, so, like a pure hero, I said to the driver "get them home safely", tapped the back of the car and I proudly strode off into the night.

"Where the hell am I" I instantly thought. I got worried.
Really worried.
"I bet people get stabbed out here"

"Blair, Blair" my sister came running up, obviously ditching the cab. "No, you cant leave. You're my brother, and we cant leave". It was very 1940's movie themed.

"Im not getting into a cab until I get a pie then"

So I got a pie and we headed home.

Sunday, I spewed in the shower, wishing life would just end as I pushed the mushed peas through the little plughole, and finally, after serious grunting, I plucked up a little energy to do some research for New York.
A week and a half away.......