McPlassmann Honeymoon

Well I'm writing this entry from a dinky little internet terminal in JFK airport. The airport itself is HUGE (I think 8 terminals from memory) but we are in terminal 1, and isn't very big by far. I thought it would be a lot bigger than this, so this internet access is the best its going to get!

We're waiting for the Lufty flight to Frankfurt atm - we have a possibility of being upgraded to Business class by Hesters Lufty rep through work, so fingers crossed, but I won't be holding my breath We've got about 5hrs to kill because we had to try and beat the peak hour rush getting out of the city, so yeah it's a bit boring. Nothing like Singapore Changi - not many shops to look around and stuff.

Despite that, I don't think I've ever done more shopping than in NY. Hester is a MANIAC. You know that song - I'll remind you - "She's a MANIAC in New York, and she's shopping like she's never shopped before"...

Hester had so many other stores she wanted to finished, she needed to draw on Ali's list creating experience and write a "stores to visit" list on Thursday!

Items purchased? Try three bags, tops, skirts, two pairs of shoes...! We even got through Lufty luggage checkin without having to pay excess, woohoo!

We scored a "Coach" brand bag from this dodgy asian lady on Canal St - looks like a virtually perfect knockoff to me. Canal St is crazy.

We were planning on getting the ferry to Ellis Island this morning, but it was raining quite a bit, and the wait in line was 45mins (standing in the rain) so I convinced Hester that probably wasn't such a good idea. A bit disappointing, the Immigration Museum looked interesting in the brochure, but you can only do so much in 2 full days I guess.

We did the Sex and the City tour yesterday which was very good - Hester loved it of course. The tour guide was great, genuinely a fan and very knowledgable and funny. She's a stand-up comic locally which isn't surprising.

I have a few random thoughts on NY that have been bouncing around in my head the last few days, so here they are:

- New Yorkers seem to have this uncanny ability to predict when to cross the street at traffic lights. They all as a group move off the curb even before the walk sign lights up... It's amazing, maybe evolution at work! I bet all the tourists can be picked by those diligently waiting at the crossings hoping not to get hit by a crazy taxi driver, while the locals are yelling at the taxi drivers, while dodging them all at the same time...

- New Yorkers can be amazingly rude and so random acts of kindness really surprise you.

- Century 21 is the MADDEST department store I've ever seen. I walked through a few levels trying to find Hester, when I stumbled on the womens shoes area and they are like VULTURES. Women and shoes, I tell you.

- Rubbish bags just appear on the side of the street and disappear just as randomly - dont they have bins here?

- I watched one woman failingly try to hail a taxi cab - I think there is a black art involved. I felt sorry for the poor old lady - I hope she caught one in the end.

We caught the subway from Midtown to the airport which worked out quite well in the mind and saved us a packet of money.

My 20mins is almost up so must go and bore my time away instead. Till next time!

Oh btw... Go Brumbies! - I don't think we'll make the finals anyway Stupid Chiefs!

Craig and Hester

So we're now blogging this from midtown NY, just across from the Empire State building and Macy's. NY has been awesome so far, we have another full day here and then half a day before we fly out to Germany.

The traffic here is madness - I don't know how the taxi drivers manage to cope with it, but our trip from La Guardia airport was interesting to say the least.

Time Square is amazing. It is commercialism at its very best and most spectacular - even at night it is so bright, my camera doesn't even take blurry photos! We wandered past a few places looking for a nice restaurant when Hester pointed out a place called "Hawaiian Tropic Zone" saying that looks nice inside - as we walk past the entrance I suddenly see FIVE "modestly" dressed ladies (in bikinis) waiting in the entrance. Apparently they are the "table concierge" according to our travel guide. Welcome to NY Craigo!

We're really enjoying the atmosphere, the city is a real bustling metropolis and it's sorta nice to see ppl who live and work here going about their every day lives in a place that I think is a little larger than life.

We went up to the top of Empire State building earlier today which was a great view of the city, and we've shopped a fair bit for the rest of the day - Hester has a bag full of clothes from H&M. I got a photo in front of Trump Tower - the lobby is ridiculous - marble everywhere.

Tomorrow we're doing a Sex and the City tour starting from Central Park so we're looking forward to that and we'll go and checkout Macy's and lower Manhattan/Financial district and get a ferry to Staten Island.

Till next time!

Craig and Hesti

Well, here we are in San Francisco - the city of the Golden Gate bridge, gay pride, victorian architecture, Full House and as Hester keeps reminding me, Charmed.

The city is interesting, both beautiful and a bit dirty - I guess all large cities these days have elements like that. Our first day we visited the Wharf and checked out the Golden Gate Bridge which was a good view over the bay. We managed to go in the wrong direction on the bus but we sorted that out easy enough - we got off and went back the way we came

The cable cars are very cool, the city is incredibly steep in parts - there is a street called the "World's crookedest street" that is just zig zags and looking down from above it is crazy that they even decided to build on it.

The cable cars were designed like trams but without an overhead power - instead there is literally a cable lying beneath the tracks that *pulls* the carriage up the hills. Back when they were built in the late 1900s, the horses couldn't get up the hills with a carriage - so the design is quite simple but ingenius.

Today we went to the civic centre and did some shopping - beating off beggars at every street corner we walked on. They seem to be everywhere, but particularly the neighbourhood we wandered along today, it was a dirtier end of town. Up around where our hotel is at Union Square is the arts area so it's very nice and the wander down to the shopping, cable cars and Macy's etc is pretty pleasant. It was a bit of a shock to wander through the dodgier end of town this morning, we saw a side of SF we hadn't seen up until now.

The Victorian architecture despite having being destroyed to a large extent in the 1908 earthquake and fires, still looks great in the downtown area and gives the city a nice character.

Unfortunately we didn't realise we had to book about 2-weeks ahead to get on the Alcatraz tour, so we missed out on doing that, which I was quite disappointed about.

We're off to Vancouver tomorrow morning, and from what we've seen on the news today, to SNOW! Perhaps the weather will fine up a bit over the week we're there...

That's all for now, till next time!
Craig and Hester