Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Wanderings in New York


We are really tired from a long day in the city and so I am going to save my energy for later and just caption these pictures.  Since we are on an overnight to Europe tomorrow, it will essentially be a 2fer.  We saw a guy get hit by a cab in the city today.

 Home away from home, leaving the Stamford abode

 I think I see a flying buttress back there

Our walk from the subway to meet our Uncle Mark for lunch at his work 
at 55th and Madison

We cut through a building that house a gigantic Spiderman

 Giants, We ate lunch at a cuban spot that was really good

After lunch, we walked towards Central Park and the Apple store.  
All apple fanboys need to make one trip to the Manhattan store
in their lifetime, much like the Hajj, except with less stone throwing.


Photo from inside the Apple Chapel

FAO

 Statue of Lou

 Puppies in FAO Schwarz

 Statue outside Central Park

 Statue and Plaza Hotel, moments before setting off on a carriage ride.  If you look closely, you can see
Kristin negotiating with a carriage rider.  I was initially quite skeptical about a ride in this awful 
weather, but it was fun.

 Our driver, who probably has my red jersey shore sun glasses that I left with him

 An old tree

 View of the city from a carriage 

 See that guy on top of that hill?  Straight breaking it down, dancing like a fool

 Boo, all 5 layers of her

 note the blanket

 NY

 Kristin trying to look natural 

 Frozen pond that Holden Caulfield pondered in Catcher in the Rye.  No ducks.

 Here we are trying to figure out what to do next.  I voted for Moma, Kristin for the WTC construction site, guess who won?

 Looking for a subway 

 WTC site, not incredibly exciting 

 sad little memorial

 We decided to head towards Wall St. and Tiffany and Co.

 Cemetery 

NYSE

 GW on Wall Street

We went inside and they did not even treat us like homeless people!

Where it all goes down

 Front of New York Stock Exchange 

 The Bull

Waiting for the subway home

The Old Lady of the East


We left the house early the morning of January 30.  The cold bit at our noses as we pulled our luggage out of the trunk at the airport, foreshadowing our future travels down the the mercury. We found a security checkpoint with a suspiciously short line.  I slid off my shoes while watching Kristin struggle to unsheathe her laptop.  She realized at that moment that she had taken her previous ease of security checkpoint passage for granted, sans laptop, and cursed me under her breath for suggesting she smuggle that hardware.  We didn't know it yet, but there was no need to hurriedly prep for the security rites.  A man in chef pants snaked through the line, pulling a pallet of frozen atrocities.  Ice dusted chicken fingers, stiff mozzarella sticks, and blocks of cheese.  We were to spend the next 5 minutes watching chicken tenders and the like slowly pass under the xray machines.

Bags were checked, coffee was imbibed, and I dropped into a makeshift airport salon to get some work done on my bangs by a lady called Rhonda.  She asked me where we were heading.  "Egypt? Why you wanna go thur?" she said while staring down her crumpled bag of Lays Original chips that lay discretely on the vanity next to the clippers.  I knew the situation.  Really, you can never eat just one, and here I was getting my hair cut by a woman that very well could be on the brink. Hypothetically, if she had eaten one Lays potato chip, then could she find the strength to focus on the task at hand?   Would her mind simply fiendishly vacillate from hair to chips and back at such a rate that she accidentally stabs me in the eye with her shears?  The suspense cut our engagement short, as I waved her off after a few minutes.  After the trim we traveled to the restrooms and walked by her again on our way back to gate c16.  She was fist deep in the bag, shoveling lays down her throat like a humpback putting back plankton.

It was finally time to board again.  Hard to imagine it has been 5 months since last blasting into the sky.  We shuffled onto our 11am flight to La Guardia, where we would be staying with the Connecticut Chapter of the Delaney Empire.  My godfather, Uncle Mark, met us upon our disembarkation.  He shuttled us to his home in Stamford, where we prepared for a feast at Telluride.

After dining at Telluride on calamari, empanadas, scallops, and amish chicken wrapped in prosciutto, Kristin, my cousin Mike, and I hit the train station.  Armed with tickets to grand central, gloves, scarves, and a 12 pack of Sam Adams Noble Pils, we boarded the 8:47 to New York.  The 45 minute commute from Stamford to the city is a precursor to a night out, and people generally bring beverages and discuss plans en route.  I was told that it is easier to meet girls on the train than in a bar. When we board, an ambassador of the strange immediately greets us.  This guy oozed randomosity from his tongue, hardly pausing between bizarre questions or statements.  We could tell by the general vibe of shoulder shrugs and eye rolls in the railcar, that our fellow passengers had been ordealing under his tenure of remarks for some time.  He asks Kristin,  “Hey have you guys ever heard of South by Southwest?”  “It is like the Disneyland of music.”  "What about oberammergau" "They do the passion play there."  With that, his dart to Michael, "Hey man, what did you major in?"  Mike firmly states, "Economics..." To which, our new friend replies, "No way man, do you know how we can fix the economy?"  And the questions would continue.  We were asked where we got our news, if we used postcards, our feelings about Nebraska, matt groening, etc.  I sat there unscathed in the shadow of his blind spot.  The situation felt like a cross between modern general stream of consciousness and an elaborate marketing survey.  The gentlemen across the row from us were on their way to a Jersey Shore party, and one of them was sporting a headband.  The maniac asked if the headband had an effect on phrenology and then asked where they were heading.  The headbanned youth replies, "An 80s tennis party, I am going as John McEnroe." The response:  "Awsome!  Have you ever played virtual boy?"  This type of thing goes on for 45 minutes.  I will present herewith the highlights of this feral human.  Born in the midwest, he was banned from drinking alcohol by the U.S. government.  Government officials visited his hospital room after a considerably dangerous bender and made him sign away his drinking rights.  Later in the madness, he is arrested for disturbing the peace when he arrives at his mother's Homeowners Association Meeting wielding a samurai sword and refusing to put out his cigarette.  Below is a picture of the madman and Kristin.

When we finally arrive in New York, we check into our Times Square hotel and then head towards the Comedy Cellar.  The Comedy Cellar is a famous comedy club in Greenwich Village where several famous comedians got their start.  It is an old school dingy underground place with low lighting and a vintage feel.  You can really feel the history in the air.  Comedians like Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, and Chris Rock show up occasionally unannounced to try out new material, and most of the guests we saw were recognizable from tv and movies.  We met up with my good friend, Dan, his fiance Lisa, and Magoo at a bar above the cellar before heading down for the 11:00 show.  The show was amazing, and my favorite guy was James Smith, a comedian who appears on Flight of the Conchords.  Dave Attell also performed and was hilarious.  I realized mid-show that I had lost my scarf, but since it happened during a segment in which the comedian was discussing the femininity of scarves, it hardly bothered me as much as it should have.   Seriously, if you are ever in New York, and want to have some laughs, definitely check out the comedy cellar.  After the show, we hit a bar on the Upper East Side and then retired to our hotel.

The weather in NYC was maybe in the single digits.  I had never been so cold in my entire life.

The next morning, we walked with Mike to Grand Central, and then took a stroll up 5th Avenue.  We stopped and took some pictures, ate a few slices at one of the 50 restaurants call "Ray's," and finally gave up when our legs went numb from the cold.  We sat in Grand Central huddled for warmth and sipped on some piping hot chocolate out of a styrofoam cup while we waited for our train back to Stamford.  Tonight, my aunt Anjum cooked us an immense feast and I am about to crash.

 Moments before Departure from Dallas

 Grand Central

 Lady Reading

 Bar above Comedy Cellar

Taking a cab to the upper east side
 Bright Night

A night scene

 Grabbing a snack at 3am
 

Yum

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Curse of the Bird

Upon arrival home from our most recent trip, I had to seek out medical attention for a number of maladies.  For one, I had difficulty breathing deeply.  Secondly, it seemed as though a flock of microscopic geese with sharp acid coated wings had taken up a migratory route that included most of my upper body.  In the last 4 weeks, I have been diagnosed with Pneumonia, Pleurisy, an ear infection, and a strange digestive disorder that leaves me contorting across the couch, eating no fewer than 5 Activia yogurts per day.  Unfortunately, spokeswoman Jamie Lee Curtis is never far enough from the forefront of my mind, and their jingle seems to loop in my head perpetually.

My kitchen table looks like a meth lab crime scene, with an impressive assortment of pill bottles, syrups, antidotes, inhalers, and nasal sprays.  My newest ailment?  I cannot hear out of my right ear, and I have no idea why.  At this point, the newer maladies become mere footnotes and nuisances.  Since I cannot exercise due to these poor damaged lungs, I am resigned to 2 or 3 walks around the block per day as a feasible and manageable workout regimen.  Such a decline in my active lifestyle paired with little to no retreat in my customary Herve Mons Pave du Nord (cheese) consumption, means that the weight will come.  Thank god I am engaged.  Sorry Kristin.  At least, I have yet to lose my mind, not entirely anyways.

So how did this streak of illness come about?  I have numerous theories on the matter, as I should, seeing that an entire month has lapsed for me to ruminate on the subject.  While scanning my Cairo photographs, I came across one of a bird standing on a sand dune.  Immediately, the moment replayed in my mind, as if on vintage Super 8.  Our guide, Essam, to me, "Oh...you should not have photographed that bird, Egyptians find them to be incredibly bad luck."  I remember thinking about deleting the picture right then and there, but thought about how ridiculous that seemed, and moved on.  That night, I contracted some sort of food poisoning after dining at Laredo Tex Mex, a pathetic themed Cairo eatery.  A friend of mine told me that American Indians used to believe that each time they were photographed, it took a piece of their soul away.  Perhaps, he theorized, that I now carried the tortured soul of this bird I photographed around with me.

Do I believe this bird has something to do with my illness(es)?  No, but it is worth noting that I hastily deleted every picture of this bird from my SD memory, notebook, desktop, external hard drive, online picasa gallery, and online flickr gallery.  Just in case, I told myself, just in case.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

The travels of Justin and Kristin, An Index

Venice 2010  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )
Rome 2010  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )
Cairo 2010  ( 1 )  ( 2
Dahab 2010  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )
Florence 2010  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )
Pisa 2010  ( 1 )
New York 2010  ( 1 )  ( 2


Montana 2009  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )  ( 4 )  ( 5 )
Borneo 2009  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )
Bali 2009  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )  ( 4 )  ( 5 )  ( 6 )  ( 7 )
Phi Phi Islands 2009  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )
Phuket 2009  ( 1 )  ( 2 )
Hong Kong 2009  ( 1 )  ( 2 )  ( 3 )  ( 4 )  ( 5 )




Sunday, February 21, 2010

Home

We made it home safely after a very long travel day that included wind sprints through JFK, suspicious lasagna dishes, juggled (and dropped) slices of pie, and one final Ciao.  Was Italy a great place to visit?  Yes.  Are we aching to go back?  Not really.

We have a different taste palette regarding travel, and with our palette comes a slight bias towards the road less traveled.  Italy is a travel heavyweight.  Most people that visit Europe will, at one point or another, include Italy on their itinerary.  What this creates is a destination that is so accommodating to tourists that it borders on culturally inauthentic, especially if you stay within the tourist comfort zone.  Rome and Venice feel suspiciously like theme parks, while Florence seems to shine on its own terms.  I could imagine that a Florence and Tuscany trip in the early Fall could provide a near religious experience.  I would suggest at least a week and a half, just as the summer tourist season is coming to a close, in Florence and the surrounding Tuscan area.  My suggestion would be 4 nights in Florence, a few in a Tuscan farmhouse, and than maybe a few in Siena, San Gimignano, or Lucca.   If I ever return to Italy, that would be how.

Egypt both wowed and disappointed.  Dahab is on my shortlist for coolest places that I have ever been, while Cairo only impressed upon me a desire not to return too soon.  To be fair, Cairo is an acceptable travel destination, but only for a short duration.  I feel that Luxor and Dahab are probably the best places to visit in Egypt, and I am almost positive that if I saw the entire country; I would still feel the same way. Dahab is especially intriguing because it is a great base of operations to explore both Jordan and Israel.  A great 2 week trip could include southern Egypt (Nile, Luxor), Dahab (Mt. Sinai, day trips to Petra in Jordan and Jerusalem), and then a couple nights in Cairo on the way home to see the Pyramids.

As we get our travel agency off of the ground in the coming months, I am going to use this web page as a vehicle to discuss travel tips and ideas, while slowly separating our content into two categories, narrative and informational.  Whenever I sit down to write the blog after a long day in whatever destination, I am almost overcome with ideas.  I do not know if I should be writing about: what we did, how we did it, or how you should do it.  This creates a maelstrom in my head, and most of the copy that is input to the computer is choppy, rushed, and sadly half baked.  I am fine with our narratives carrying these traits, but as we evolve, I would like to think that we are making ourselves and our readers better with digestible information.   

We both appreciate all of you that followed the website for this trip.  While the numbers did not approach those of our summer trip to Asia, I felt that the source material was also possibly not as interesting.  It is probably no mistake that our readership spiked while in Dahab, a fairly unknown location outside of the circle of the well traveled.  I think people like to read about things that are new to them.  Seriously, what can I say about Rome?  Most people already have a well polished expectation of a place like that, and it is almost redundant to read (or write) about such a place.

This is why I am extremely excited to announce our next trip.  The itinerary is in its final stages, though we are still wrestling with exacting the order.  There will be four of us this time, and we have all purchased our big tickets passing over the Pacific already.  I will give more details later, but will say that it includes Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar-Burma, Sulawesi, Bali, Flores, Malaysia, Bangkok, and more Cambodia.  We leave June 1.