Euro-Vision 2012: Paris and the UK

I've long held a grudge against Paris for serving up some less than fun experiences on a previous trip. But, being the adoring girlfriend that I am, I swallowed my grudge and booked a return trip so Timon could get some French culture. We arrived in the evening and checked into the fancy hotel recommended by my parents that boasts the world's tiniest elevator (not officially). Despite my efforts to approach the city with a fresh perspective I was floored by a rather brutal headcold and spent the first day in bed. Nevertheless, I cannot deny how stunning Paris is and how totally rad the Eiffel Tower is. The area around the hotel was dotted with beautiful buildings and cute bistros and it all felt very...French. I ate french onion soup, a croque monsieur and red wine and we visited the Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge and the Louvre (from the outside - we weren't THAT keen).

After a couple of days of this we voyaged back to the airport and flew our way to London then trained to Sheffield. We arrived at 9pm and went straight to the pub (after dropping our bags off at Freyja's Simon's house). What ensued was sloppy drunkeness and a late-night binge of Gregg's pastries and pizza. I was pretty unimpressed that what I thought was friendly small talk with a stranger resulted in him insinuating I was a fatty AND THEN another dude teased me for having red hair. But I made it out alive.

The next morning we took a quick train to Chesterfield for a roast dinner at Frannie's. I can't tell you how much I've missed roast lamb and how awesome Frannie's yorkshire puddings are - you'll need to try them for yourself. Drool. Timon spent the afternoon cuddling with Marlo the cat who refused to even look at me. We trundled back to Sheffield and onto Tabitha's house for an evening of burgers, TV and baby Cally. Over the next week we went back and forth between Sheffield and London, between Simon and Tabitha's house and were shown extreme hospitality by all. There was excellent food, excellent company and the discovery of the rather weird Limmy's Show. In London we stayed in a hotel in the east, ignoring the standard tourist traps in favour of a mega Westfield mall and a birthday party Italian feast. We explored Freyja's university and dorm and drank a wealth of cider and beer. We attended a roller derby bout and manned the baked goods stall, selling cupcakes and treats to the crowd. Our trip to the airport was horrendous as we stupidly booked the overnight megabus which was packed to the brim and insanely uncomfortable. For 3 hours.

We arrived back in New York after hours and hours of traveling and approximately 2 hours of sleep (at best). Instead of being welcomed back with open arms as I'd hoped, I got stuck at customs with a woman who had no clue what my visa entailed or what a barista was who proceeded to make me cry with her total ineptitude. We spent an hour trying to get a legitimate entry and after 3 different customs agents we were finally let through. Only 1 and a half hours on the subway, a 3 minute walk and 5 flights of stairs and we were home sweet home.

Euro-vision 2012: Denmark and Berlin

For some crazy reason Timon and I decided we had enough money and were sick enough of New York to spend a month in Europe. There were a couple of really good excuses - Ida was celebrating her 30th birthday in Copenhagen and Timon's friend Tom was available for a boys trip to Amsterdam. But really, were we mad?

On the 7th Jan I saw my family off as they went on their way back to Australia. I cleaned the apartment for the impending arrival of our sub-letters (some lovely Ballarat ladies Anna and Tiffany - small world right?) and squeezed 3 weeks worth of clothes into my hand luggage. The lonely trip to the airport was made even worse by the ever frustrating subway diversions but I made it and boarded my Icelandair flight to CPH (via Reykjavik). Ida's brother Jakob collected me from the airport and we went directly to the party which was being held in the middle of the city. It was awesome to see Ida and her friends and family again and to enjoy some tasty Danish cuisine. After a good 36 hours of awakeness I crashed into bed and didn't rise until 2pm the next day. We had some cosy dinners, saw The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and had a delicious meal at Pastis with Ida's parents over the next couple of days. I even walked my way to the kindergarten where Ida works and spent an hour scaring tiny Danish children who thought I was speaking an alien language.

Unbeknown to me Ida had planned and booked a mid-week trip to Berlin which luckily coincided with the arrival of Tom and Timon. We flew out of CPH late one night and spent a few hours failing terribly at German public transport. We spent our time relaxing, drinking cheap wine, eating massive schnitzels and enjoying the winter sun. One day Ida and I ventured out to the old Olympic Stadium but missed the final tour of the day by 10 minutes. We went to the top of the TV Tower and watched the sunset, went on a tour of an aboveground bunker that's now a private art gallery and climbed to the top of the Reichstag on a miserably rainy day. We met up with Hannah and Jack (from IMAX) who were living in Berlin and went bowling and cocktail drinking.

Timon, Ida and I flew back to CPH and spent a couple of days eating frikadels and shopping for shoes. OH, I forgot to mention that I rode a bike, in the bikiest city in the world, in the rain. I hope you're impressed.

New York Mann-style Part 2

On the 1st January the fam went off and did their own thing while Timon and I planned for his departure to Amsterdam the next day. From what I've heard they visited Lady Gaga land at Bloomingdales and the Guggenheim.

I said a teary goodbye to Timon at the airport on the 2nd after a disappointingly rubbish lunch at Lansky's. Everyone else visited the General's Tomb in Riverside Park.

On the 3rd we braved Siberian winds and went to the 9/11 Memorial Site at Ground Zero. The sun was shining but the air was like ice, not to mention the freezing off-spray from the water features. The Memorial Site is beautiful and poignant but slightly tarnished by the souvenir shop that sells 9/11 hoodies. Later that afternoon we rode the Roosevelt Island cable car (you know the one like from the Spiderman movie) and took the island's 25cent bus for a tour. I tell you, it is weird and cultish on that island. Very Wickerman.

 

The next morning Lucy and I took the long journey to Brooklyn's GreenWood cemetery which boasts a history of being the second most popular tourist attraction after Niagara Falls. A long time ago that is. We rode around on a trolley tour and saw some cool old graves and tombs. Mum, Dad and Lauren went on the Harlem Gospel Choir Tour and ended up on stage singing some tunes for the congregation. Only in America. Their tour finished at BB Kings bar in Times Square where they had so much fun and good food that we went back for dinner. After a side mission to the Waldorf Astoria to check out their lobby. We ate delicious food and heard some cray soul singing from Miss Georgia Brown, a terrifyingly obese woman who could sing like a diva and who shook her tatas like there was no tomorrow.

On the 5th Lauren and Dad went to an icehockey game at Madison Square Garden while Mum, Lucy and I went to 14th Street for Vanessa's Dumplings. We cruised a few shops and met up with the others around 9.30pm for a trip to Little Italy. I'm not sure if Lauren was disappointed by the Frank Sinatra Bar (it sounded fancier than it was) but it was ladies 1/2 price drinks night and there were some drunk mafia types and we had many, many, many laughs.

We wanted to go ice skating in Central Park on the 6th...or so we thought. Once we arrived it turned out that nobody reeeeeally wanted to break their leg or look like an idiot so we ditched that idea and went to Central Park Zoo. There were some really ace penguins, a sad polar bear and some super fun performing seals. On the last night before we all left the country we went out for Lucy's Birthday Dinner. There's a little place inside the Empire Hotel (from Gossip Girl) called Ed's Chowder House (I think) and we had a spectacular seafoody dinner in celebration of the last two weeks and of Lucy getting older.

I think that's about it. Thanks to Lauren for her immaculate photo diary that helped me remember everything we did.

New York Mann-style Part 1

Being a family of highly organised, highly motivated travelers with a thirst for adventure and the unknown, we did an absolute mammoth of things in New York. I was amazed how many things we did that I'd never done before - I thought I'd exhausted the city's tourist traps. As most of the people who read this blog are actually the people who were on the trip I'll mostly summarise the events below.

Note - Lauren was the most avid photo taker so check out her facebook for the pics!

The day after arrival we went on Julia's famous city tour, taking in your typical Manhattan sites of note. We walked down Broadway from 105th to 59th taking special note of the shops I like, the supermarket I use and Lincoln Center. The girls eyed off the new Century 21 shop but I hurried them on. We reached the bottom corner of Central Park and spent some time cruising the Christmas Market at Columbus Circle. We then walked across the bottom of the park and went inside The Plaza Hotel for a squiz. We walked down Fifth Avenue for a bit and stopped for lunch in a cafe. I showed everyone Greenacre Park (from behind the massive gate) and then we walked down Lexington Ave to the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station. We then went down to Union Square for a chill (I took Lucy to Petco to meet Redford, our most recent cat who was back in the shelter) and then walked through Chelsea to visit Timon on his last day of work at Kava.

On the 23rd we went on the UN tour with Steph and spent some time perusing the New York Public Library. We had lunch at the Moonstruck Diner (keeping in tradition) and waited until dark to go to Times Square. I loved my Dad's face as he gazed up at the craziness of it all, walking through the huge crowd with his face upturned. The girls had booked us into the revolving restaurant in the middle of Times Square for a fancy dinner so we made our way there and spent the evening eating incredible food and taking in different angles of the city. After dinner we walked to Rockefeller Plaza to check out the infamous tree and hang out with another zillion or so people.

On the 24th we revisited the Christmas Market, went shopping for food and built the gingerbread house.

The 25th was Christmas!

On the 26th we visited the Empire State Building (Lucy went shopping and Timon was too scared) which involved a good 2 hour wait but mercifully inside with groovy jazz band entertainment. We walked down to the Flatiron Building and subway'd to Greenwich Village and the High Line park for sunset.

Lucy, Lauren, Timon and I went to Avenue Q on the 27th while Mum and Dad went to the Million Dollar Quarter.

We ventured into Brooklyn on the 28th, via the Brooklyn Bridge. We randomly discovered some old mansions that Dad wanted to see and finished up at the Fashion Institute to see an exhibit of some fashionista's wardrobe. Mum and Lauren snuck off to Bloomingdales and Lucy went off with Steph for a best friends adventure.

On the 29th we suffered greatly at the hands of Mother Nature and endured an epic 2 hour wait in -degrees cold for the Statue of Liberty Island ferry. Lauren had to run off and buy extra socks, Lucy was crippled by the cold and we drank foul foodcart coffee to keep warm. The Statue was glorious though and made the whole thing worth it. Ellis Island was a complete waste of time.

The 30th saw us freezing again, this time at Yankee Stadium for the Pinstripe Bowl college football. We had great seats and the game was mostly interesting but the star was the varsity marching band. It was like in the movies but real! We had dinner that night at Freda's Caribbean which was delish.

On New Years Eve I spent half the day trying to book us into a family-style Italian restaurant. I finally had success at a place called Daniela's, right near Times Square. We were all squished on a tiny table and enjoyed plenty of wine and a great set menu (and some hilariously goofy waiters). We negotiated the crowds and found a spot on Broadway and 51st from where we could see the jumbovision screen of the NYE action. Lady Gaga performed for all of about 5 minutes but our spirits were high nonetheless. After the countdown and kisses we walked over to Johnny Utah's to ride the bull only to be turned away by the $40 cover charge! There were fireworks over Central Park and we made it home A-OK.