I'm Shipping Up To Boston - Day Thirteen - Thursday 16 February

My recollection of the last day of our East Coast USA trip might be a little hazy as it has now been three months since then! Tempus fugit...

The first business of the day was the usual pre-check-out stuff: get ready, finish packing, compulsively check for any belongings left behind (more so the Yorkshireman than me) and check the heck out. Then it was back into the Cambridgeside Galleria one last time for one last everything bagel with cream cheese and a coffee for breakfast. I'd miss this little routine! Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of places in Belfast where you can grab a bagel and a latté on your way to work, but you certainly pay more for the "novelty" of it here. It cost me less in dollars each morning in the USA than it would here in pounds!

Suitably fuelled for some serious suitcase hauling, we made our way back to our old friend, Lechmere station, and waited for a green train into Boston. It took quite a while so I was starting to panic that we'd be late for the 10.30am date we'd set with the nice man at the water taxi office who had offered to hold our cases for us. A transfer over to the blue line later and we had soon arrived at the Aquarium stop and hauled ass to Rowes Wharf, as quickly as our three overloaded cases and two backpacks would allow.

Thankfully there was indeed someone there and he was happy to take our cases off our hands. We were instructed just to call a taxi from the yellow callbox down on the wharf when we were ready to go and that the captain would retrieve our bags for us when he came to pick us up. Fair enough! So, on with our day...

I can still remember all the things we got up to that day but, to be honest, I don't really remember what order they happened in! However here are some highlights:

I bought a really cute pair of preppy pumps at TJ Maxx, which the Yorkshireman ruled "not fugly" after careful consideration. Combined with the $16.99 price tag, I took that as sign enough I should treat my feet and skipped off to the cash register. I also saw an amazing collection of Le Creuset cookware which was about a quarter of the price it is here in the UK, even in TK Maxx, but even if I'd had room in my suitcase (which I didn't), I wasn't confident in my chances of getting it home in one piece (slim to none), so I waved it sadly goodbye and left it on the shelf. Maybe next time.

After our good impression the day before, we decided to revisit Quincy Market for lunch.



The Yorkshireman had decided he wanted to try some clam chowder (local delicacy and all that) before he left Boston so we called by Boston Chowda. I opted for the lobster bisque. Both were good and the market was interesting place to eat and people-watch, especially when we actually found a seat somewhere (no mean feat, I assure you!).



We called into a CVS pharmacy somewhere along the line to stock up on snacks for the plane and some souvenir "candy" for colleagues. I procured a bag of white chocolate Hershey's Bliss for myself and tucked them away for later enjoyment on the plane when they would inevitably serve dessert and snacks containing real chocolate, which I can't eat (stupid food intolerances...). I was right and I greatly appreciated my own forethought!

Perhaps the main attraction of the day was when we headed out to the Samuel Adams Brewery for a brewery tour. Prior to coming to Boston, my only experience of Sam Adams had been the fake commercial from Family Guy, which claimed Sam Adams was the perfect way to get the taste of "weed and hooker spit" out of your mouth, so I was intrigued if nothing else!

The Brewery is actually in a residential area called Stony Brook, with a pretty little park and tiny children's playground opposite the station and lots of clapboard houses and churches, exactly like you see in movies about small-town America.



As we'd only been to the main urban areas of the cities we'd visited so far, it was an interesting change of pace for us, although I imagine the residents are pretty fed up of seeing random tourists wander past their front porches, only to stumble back a little the worse for wear a few hours later!

We arrived just on time for one of the brewery tours, which are free, although we gave donations as requested.



It was actually a brilliant tour! It was very interactive, which I loved. They don't just tell you about the brewing process - they pass around handfuls of hops and the like to smell, touch and taste as they explain what part each of the ingredients plays. Then they show you all the different equipment they use before finally taking you through to the pièce de résistance, the tasting room! Here you sit on benches at long tables while they explain how to taste a beer properly (seemingly not as complicated as wine tasting and there's no spitting involved!), then they pass out small tasting glasses and jugs of various beers to sample.

I'd read a tip online beforehand to sit at the back, because there's often some beer left in the jug after everyone has poured themselves a glass, so you can often get an extra glass or two if you're at the end of the queue. Because you should obviously believe everything you read on the Interwebz (duh!) we did just that. It was actually a great tip and we did indeed get some extra - yay!



The only strange part of the experience was the very intense and very southern American Air Force guy who sat opposite us in the tasting room and kept showing us photos of him with his plane and of the place about 3 feet away from his bed where an IED had exploded and nearly killed him. Awesome. All Americans, regardless of their political, religious or personal leanings, seem to be all about the "soldiers are superheroes" thing, so I think he was maybe expecting us to be a little more vocal with how amazing and brave we thought he was, but alas the poor man had picked the wrong crowd. Don't get me wrong, I'm greatly appreciative of those who "fight for our freedom" and all that - some of my own family and friends have been/are in the army and have been sent to terrifying places (strange to think that not so long ago Northern Ireland would have been considered one of them!) - but I must admit I find it hard to reconcile my gratitude with my innate pacifist beliefs so I often get stumped for what to say in those situations. Other than the occasional "gosh" and "that must have been scary", I didn't really contribute much to the conversation. Sorry Air Force guy.

The best beer of the day was the Double Pumpkin Ale, a variation on one of Sam Adams' seasonal ales. I could have gotten very drunk indeed on that one but sadly their gift shop was a bit more expensive than the tour, so I left with only a memory of a taste that haunts my dreams. On the plus side they let us take the tasting glasses home. Time to test that confidence in getting breakables back home in one piece! In the meantime we'd settle for getting them back to Rowes Wharf.

Luckily we did just that, found the yellow callbox on the wharf and called for a water taxi. The captain (who I'd imagined to be some kind of Captain Birdeye type) was actually a capable young man who happily helped us retrieve our bags and get us all onboard. I have to say, water taxi is definitely the coolest way I've ever travelled to the airport. It was quick, easy, relatively cheap and our captain encouraged us to stand up and have a look at the views of Boston as we went. It was an experience to remember.



As our captain waved us off and started ushering newly landed passengers onboard, we set about finding our way via the free airport bus to the right terminal. Again this was pretty straight-forward and we got there and checked in with no problems. This check-in was actually pretty fun because we were travelling Premium Economy baby yeah! We're usually cattle class passengers all the way but there was a seat sale on when we booked our flights and we were offered an upgrade for something like £30 each (it's usually hundreds of pounds). As the Yorkshireman is over 6' tall and I'm nearly 5' 10" myself, we considered it worthwhile for the extra legroom alone! As it turned out, with the unexpected addition of our extra bag, it was just as well we did.

We're always compulsively early when it comes to flights, much preferring to wait around at the airport for a while than risk missing check-in (clearly we've watched too many episodes of Airline), so our first stop was to find somewhere to relax. We found a strange bar and ordered two pints of blueberry beer. Given our newly-acquired experience of brewing techniques, I had imagined this would have been some kind of beer brewed with blueberries, to give it a hint of that flavour. But no, it was a pint of beer with actual blueberries floating in it! How weird!



If I ever start my own brewery I am so totally developing a chocolate stout that comes with chunks of Yorkie floating in it and a Flake as a stirring stick. Despite our drink/snack, we soon found ourselves at a bit of a loose end again and getting peckish. We found a restaurant close to our departure gate which sold Sam Adams and burgers. Sold! Both were delicious and it certainly filled a gap in our never-ending wait to board.

Eventually they called forward both Premium Economy passengers and those who needed extra time to board. With my crutch in hand I deemed myself eligible for both categories and on we went. I have to say I didn't really enjoy Premium Economy as much as I thought I would, although that was more to do with the woman in front of me who put her seat fully back at the first opportunity and then refused to sit up again the whole flight, even for meals, which made it an interesting experience for me, with the foot of space I had in front of me to work with (hint: my forearms alone are longer than one foot; see also previous note about tallness and legroom!).

In economy class the cabin crew would have had none of that nonsense and would have told her to sit up right away, but clearly in the land of Premium Economy such things are verboten. Presumably that's because it's full of arrogant people who can't quite afford First Class but yet feel entitled to do whatever the hell they like because they're paying more dammit, so it's probably not worth the hassle to even try and argue with them. Whatever. I'm clearly an economy class girl at heart, although if anyone wanted to buy me first class seats to New York any time soon, I wouldn't turn them down... Anyone..?

Weirdo reclining lady aside, it was a quick and easy flight back to the UK. Having watched so much Daily Show and Colbert Report of late, I was in a political mood and I decided to watch that movie with Ryan Gosling and George Clooney in it... hang on a tick... The Ides of March, that's the one! Yeah, the descripion sounds better than the film actually was, plus there was a disappointing lack of his Clooneyness in it for my liking. Woe.

So then I watched the first episode of Boss with Kelsey Grammer, which was disturbing on so many levels (OMG the ear!) but I think I would actually series link it if I caught it starting from scratch on TV sometime because the plot intrigues me. It seemed like a dark version of The West Wing.

By the end of that lot I was in the mood for some Glee or The Simpsons to lighten me up a bit, but alas it was time to land instead. That said, at least I didn't watch the same movie as the Yorkshireman, The Skin I Live In - he described it to me and I've read about it on IMDB but my only reaction remains, WTF dude?!

Suitably depressed we landed in London Heathrow and made our way to immigration. Because of my crutch, a lovely lady ushered us to the front of the queue (I could have kissed her), so we were back on home soil with no muss and no fuss. We retrieved our luggage and made our weary way through the mazes of moving walkways to the central bus station. No straight-forward connection from Heathrow to Belfast for us, oh no. Our first flight of preference sold out before we got the chance to book it, whilst the price of our second went up by about 1000% in the week before we booked. The only feasible alternative was a National Express coach to Gatwick and a return flight to Belfast from there.

The Yorkshireman napped on the coach ride, while I caught up on Twitter and Facebook and marvelled at how much faster 3G is in the south of England compared to Belfast. At Gatwick we checked in quickly and easily and then found somewhere to settle our weary bodies until it was time to board. Thankfully Gatwick has recently been renovated and they have lots of weird and wonderful seating configurations for tired travellers to utilise while they wait. The most awesome, squishy-looking ones were all taken but we soon found some strange recliner style seats and pounced (well, stumbled and fell more than anything).

Eventually our gate was announced and before we knew it we'd boarded, dozed through the short flight across the Irish Sea, and landed in Belfast City Airport, where mother dearest was kindly waiting to take us home. When we arrived, sister dearest and not-so-little brother (well, probably sister dearest really) had made us a good old fashioned cup of tea to welcome our return. We thought it only right to return the favour with gifts.

Out of the suitcase came the hard-won red Converse and utterly baraginous Hollister hoody, the impossible-to-find Take 5 bars and unnecessary tourist box of Hersheys, the t-shirts from the Macy's One Day Sale and JC Penney, the long-deliberated-over hardback book (which, of course, mother dearest already had), as well as her requested Butterfingers bars (in various sizes) and cornbread muffin mix.

It was like reliving our trip one souvenir at a time. Maybe it was just because I was jet-lagged, but it was actually a wee bit emotional. I was glad to be home, with my own bed and pillow upstairs waiting for me, and I loved playing Stateside Santa Claus with my family, but I was already missing the now-familiar streets of New York, the excitement of exploring somewhere like Boston for the first time, or that giant suite at the Helix in Washington DC. Also I really wanted to show my family all these things first-hand, so they would really know why it all made me so giddy. Yes, the travel bug had bitten me hard and even as I lay down in bed and my mind lost its fight to stay awake, I was already working out where I wanted to go next. Then I closed my eyes and allowed my imagination to float off, along the East River, across Boston Harbour and on into dreamland.

I'm Shipping Up To Boston - Day Twelve - Wednesday 15 February

Wednesday soon arrived: our only full day in Boston and indeed our last full day of our holiday. Already! There was to be no free breakfast at the Royal Sonesta (or even so much as a complimentary cup of coffee - major points lost there!) so we ventured across the road to CambridgeSide Galleria again and into old faithful, Starbucks. I had my "usual" stateside breakfast (a bagel with cream cheese and a skinny white chocolate mocha), the only difference being that the sign in this Starbucks was advertising "New York style bagels" rather than just, well, bagels. Bless. Just as yummy though!

Suitably fuelled for a busy day ahead, we made our way back to the now-very-familiar Lechmere Station and the green line. This time we emerged at Government Center and went to check out Fanueil Hall and Quincy Market. On the way we stumbled upon Boston's famous Freedom Trail (subtly marked with a bright red line painted down the street), but our interest in early American history was pretty minimal, so we decided to give this "must-do" experience a miss.

Faneuil Hall was an interesting building but we weren't sufficiently intrigued to go inside.



Quincy Market looked much more enticing but I was still burned from my disappointing experience at the Brooklyn Flea and my expectations weren't particularly high.



Actually though? You've got to go to this place if you're ever in Boston, especially if you're looking for somewhere to grab a bite to eat. They've got every kind of food imaginable! Unfortunately for us we'd only had breakfast half an hour before but we couldn't just try nothing, so we bought cupcakes from a baked goods stall near the exit on the other side and grabbed a seat just outside to enjoy them.

The cupcake was far from the best I'd had on our trip (also a strange, sickly shade of pink because it had been the-day-that-shall-not-be-named the day before) but the birds pecking around our feet in search of crumbs seemed to like it well enough. There was also some kind of love-themed ice sculpture slowly melting in front of us, so it all made for a pretty surreal experience.

Next we decided that since we were now in the vicinity of the harbour it might be a good idea to check out where we needed to go the next day to book our water taxi and leave off our bags (the company offer to hold your baggage for you on your day of departure, which is nice of them). After a rather long (yet scenic) walk around Long Wharf, we discovered no straight-forward way to walk along the harbour from there to Rowe's Wharf, so we gave up, walked back to Atlantic Avenue and along to Rowes Wharf that way.

After what seemed like forever with my poor, sore hip and feet, we eventually got there and spoke to a nice man who told us to drop our bags off at 10.30am the next morning. We're glad we checked because apparently there isn't always someone in their office during the day and if we'd just rocked up at some random time, we might have been stranded with our three cases and two backpacks all day. Yikes!

Minds now at rest about our departure plans, I declared my urgent need for caffeine and we set about finding somewhere for a quick refreshment break. As we walked up back inland we came across an interesting deli type place. They had all sorts of different counters for different types of food and you got a buzzer to come and collect your order when it was ready. It was a bit confusing for a newbie but I think if I worked nearby I'd love going there for lunch. As it was I ordered a coffee and a chicken cutlet marinara sandwich, which was really nice, other than tasting slightly too much of tinned tomatoes.

The next bit of the day is a bit of a blur to me but I believe it involved some dillydallying en route to the Prudential Center. When we finally arrived there, I made my way straight to the nearest bookstore. You see, I had been struggling with what to buy mother dearest as a souvenir from our trip - she's difficult to buy for at the best of times but since she enjoys reading, I thought I would get her a book from one of her favourite authors that had just been released in the States but not yet in the UK.

Except it turns out that these days release dates on both sides of the pond are usually pretty similar, so both of my forerunning options had already been released in the UK. I considered dropping the idea but they had only just been released and I was coming up blank with other ideas, so I chose the one that had been released in the UK most recently, hoping she wouldn't have had the chance to buy it yet. Of course it turned out she'd bought it herself just before we got back! Doh! I wouldn't mind so much but have you seen how much hardback books cost in the USA?! No wonder everyone's jumping aboard the good ship Kindle these days!

Blissfully unaware of the futility of the contents of the bag in my hand, we set off to find the way up to the Top of the Hub. When I'd been researching Boston people kept mentioning Skywalk, which is the observation deck at the Prudential Center, but I'd also read a sneaky tip that you could save your $14pp admission fee for the observation deck and put it towards a nice meal in the restaurant on the floor below, Top of the Hub, which gives pretty much the same views. Bearing in mind that they have a three course set lunch for $22, the latter seemed like the best value for money to me and up we went!

The restaurant was pretty empty when we got there, with only a few other tables of diners around, but the views were indeed amazing. I'm happy to report that the food was also absolutely wonderful! We started with a lobster bisque with brie, which was really nice and came with a selection of delicious, warm breads. Next we had a chicken pasta dish, the flavours of which went perfectly with each other. Finally we had a crème brulée, which although not jaw-dropping was still as good as any other crème brulée I've ever tasted, with just the right combination of smooth custard and burnt caramel. Also, it was huge! The food and the views were both well worth the price and I would recommend it highly for anyone visiting Boston.



The only dampener on the experience was after our meal when I went to the back of the restaurant to look out of the windows there - just to see what was on the other side really - when a snooty member of staff rocked up and snapped that "this area is closed for the views" and stared at us until we left. Um, ok… I can't imagine how looking out of a window for a few seconds could do any harm whatsoever, especially when we'd already just given the restaurant our custom and a pretty big tip, but it just goes to show how one person with a bad attitude can tarnish an otherwise wonderful experience.

Back on terra firma we made our way up to Newbury Street. Our original plan had been to walk the full length of the street, which is famous for its shopping, but we were pretty tired and pretty much all shopped out, so we headed straight for the bus across the river and on to our next stop of the day… the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This had been on the Yorkshireman's bucket list for our trip. He'd read about an exhibit they had about holograms, which had made his inner geek giddy, so on the list it went. The only problem was that, since it had been one of "his" activities, I hadn't bothered to research where, other than "MIT", we needed to go when we got off the bus. Unfortunately neither had he, probably assuming that the itinerary queen had it under control. In his defence it was odd that I didn't.

But anyway, a bit flummoxed by the many buildings around us, we stared at the campus map for quite a while and then the Yorkshireman decided we would head to the MIT Museum building. Google Maps had been telling us that the place we wanted (with the holograms) was not the same place as the museum, but when we reached the point it had marked it turned out to be a warehouse, so I suspect they were a bit off with that one! Onwards to the museum.

Thankfully it was indeed the museum we wanted. We paid our admission and made our way up to the second floor (Museum Visiting 101, lesson number one: start at the top and work down). It was a small museum but it was actually really interesting!



I really enjoyed learning all about the various robotic technology that had been developed, not to mention the awesome kinetic sculpture displays (I really don't know how else to describe those but they're really cool) and, of course, the holograms.



I also enjoyed doing a spot of artwork where the challenge was to draw what you would like robots to do for you in the future.



Our visit ended downstairs where I sucked at, and was insulted by, a video game, which was ok because that was the point of the experiment.

By then I was pretty tired and my hip was starting to get sore, but the Yorkshireman declared that there was no need to get a bus or a subway back to the hotel - it was only a short walk. Well. A two mile walk might have been short for him but with my crutch it felt like an eternity and by the end of it I was spitting feathers. Again he had been misled by Google Maps (or rather the scale it showed) so he wasn't entirely to blame, but by the time we'd limped up through the hotel lobby and back to our room I was nearly in tears. The only plus point had been the nice views as we walked along the river but it was little solace by then.





Back at the hotel we decided now would be the ideal time to try out the spa. If a jacuzzi couldn't help soothe my aches, pains and temper, I didn't know what would. Luckily it was straight-forward enough to use the spa as a hotel guest and before I knew it I was sitting in the hot, bubbly water with the water jets massaging my tired feet. Bliss. After a while I even felt brave enough to try a little swimming in the pool and managed about 25 lengths before retiring to the jacuzzi again.

We made our way back to our room to get showered and changed and then headed across the road to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, where we enjoyed pizza with several pints of Sam Adams lager. Man did I need both by that point. The dessert menu didn't appetise me so I stopped by The Cheesecake Factory on the way back to the hotel and picked up a slice of Pineapple Upside Down cheesecake to eat in our room. Oh it was soooo yummy!

Now absolutely shattered and with the longest of days ahead of us, we retired to bed once again after The Daily Show and Colbert Report. Our last full day of our trip had been a mixed success but there were still a few activities left on our itinerary that we were looking forward to taking on before we flew home.

Oh my word, it has been ages since I last wrote. Sorry for the hiatus but as you may have read on the Yorkshireman's blog, we've been a bit busy of late... y'know, moving to the other side of the city, etc etc. There's been other stuff too like work being mega busy but it's all incredibly boring so I shall simply leave it at a simple halfassed apology and an intention to come back really soon to finally finish off those trip reports from our trip to the 'States in February (which I realise is like a whole lifetime ago in the online world) and get back to some good old fashioned waffling about life in general. Sounds like a plan. So...

I'm Shipping Up To Boston - Day Eleven, Part 2 - 14 February

A quick segue before I get on with reliving the first day of our trip to Boston... whilst researching a potential title for my Boston blog posts (I always like to use titles of songs about that place), I came across this one called I'm Shipping Up To Boston by Dropkick Murphys. I'd never heard of it and when I looked up the lyrics it wasn't familiar then either (although the lyrics are amusing). So I played it on YouTube. Sure isn't it only the song they play at Belfast Giants games that makes everyone go a bit mental?! Brilliant! I always wondered what that song was and now I've discovered it by accident. Amazeballs! Except judging from the 24 million plus hits the video currently has, I may be the only person on that planet who didn't know it. In fact even my fourteen year old brother knew it. Hmmmm. Oh well!

So, back to Boston (that's another song by the way!)...

We stepped off the train in Back Bay Station and my first thought (beyond "man these bags are heavy!") was that I liked the look of the strange double-decker train across from us. I've seen double-decker trains before but this one had a big purple 'T' on it, which I figured meant it was part of Boston's rapid transit system. How fancy!

Eventually we wrestled our luggage up to the lobby of the station and then contemplated our next move. We'd planned to just jump in a taxi to our hotel (the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge) but after considering the public transport options, we bought ourselves a Charlie Ticket and decided to brave the subway.

I'll be honest, the Boston subway system isn't quite as straight-forward as New York's subway system for a newcomer. We knew we wanted the green line and that we wanted to go to Lechmere. However we watched a few green ones come through the station (they're more like trolley cars than subway trains) but according to our map they didn't seem to be going in the right direction for our hotel. They also seemed to be filling up pretty quickly! Eventually, just as I was getting all verklempt, one rumbled into the station with "Lechmere" on the front, so we jumped aboard with all our bags, probably making ourselves deeply unpopular with our fellow travellers.

At Lechmere we disembarked and tried to figure out the best way to the hotel. By this point we were grumpy and tired and I was in no mood to put up with the Yorkshireman's attempts to save us some time and energy by finding a shortcut. Nope, Google Maps had said this was the fastest way to walk from the station to the hotel, so that's the way we were walking damn it!

As we rounded the corner past the CambridgeSide Galleria mall, we caught sight of our hotel just across the road. Just in time, because I was in pain and tired and grumpy and about to have a big strop right there and then outside P.F. Chang’s Chinese restaurant. We checked in to the Royal Sonesta quickly enough and went off to explore our room on the 5th floor.







We'd paid extra for a river view room but to be honest, half of the view was obstructed by the walls of the hotel and the remainder was pretty unremarkable.



We had not paid extra for the huge rumbling air conditioning unit on the ground outside our window though. Its dulcet tones (24/7) really did add something to the experience, but I'm not sure it was anything positive. I would have asked for a different room but we were tired, in a hurry and didn't anticipate spending much time in our room anyway.

There were some good things about this hotel but there were some bad things too. It was fine but it was by far my least favourite hotel of our whole trip. We'd clearly been spoiled by all the suites we'd been staying at because I found the room quite small. It was also very warm (the air conditioning didn't seem to work, which was ironic given the huge, white, growling machine outside our window, the noise of which also meant we couldn't keep our window open) and there was an unnecessarily complicated control pad for operating the lights in the room. Whatever happened to good old fashioned switches?

There were also crazy movement sensors on the floor, so if you got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you ended up blinded by a strange blue light. All very odd. On the plus side the bed was comfortable and the spa (one of the main reasons we went with the Sonesta in the end) was pretty good. But more on that later. At this point, we were in a bit of a rush.

You see we had tickets to go to another (yes, yet another) ice hockey game at TD Garden that night. We were going to be away fans for the first time, as the NY Rangers took on the Boston Bruins on their home turf. I was excited and nervous but also pretty hungry - the train picnic had been nice but not filling.

So we decided to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory across from our hotel. I have to say it was pretty good actually for a chain, and reasonable with it. There was plenty of choice on the menu too. In the end I went for a combo of Chicken Madeira and Steak Diane - the steak had the edge but they were both yummy. We didn't have time for cheesecake though, as we had to get to TD Garden for the 7pm face-off.

After dinner, we made our way back to Lechmere and the green line and made our way back to North Station. We eventually found our way into the arena ("Follow those Bruins!") and tried to figure out how to get to our seats.

As the Yorkshireman bought a programme, I got into a tussle with the Bruins' mascot, Blades the bear, as he flicked my NY Rangers scarf in disdain. I retorted that yeah, I was a Rangers fan, cos we were awesome and gave back as much 'tude as I was being given. The bear had a go at the Yorkshireman too but we weren't going to be that easily rattled! It's all cool because I can now legitimately tell people that on my holiday to America I'd been attacked by a bear!

After fending off the bear, acquiring our requisite beer and finding our seats, we settled in for the game.



It was a great game… if you were a Rangers fan. The Bruins fans just looked more and more depressed as time went on. The final score was 3-0 to the Rangers (woooooo!).



At the end of the game we took a few gloating photos of each other in front of the scoreboard with our Rangers paraphernalia on display and got heckled by some of the noisier Bruins fans who had been behind us. Their argument was that whilst we had won this game, they had won the Stanley Cup last year. Fair point but that was then and this was now. The dispute was only resolved when one of the Bruins fans insisted on being in one of my smug Rangers fan photos doing a "thumbs down" pose in the foreground. For the sake of getting out of there alive it was a deal! It makes me smile every time I look at it now.



Next it was yet another long wait for an elevator down to ground level again (seriously USA arenas, sort it out!) but this time we had company, as a pair of star-crossed lovers (one a Rangers fan, one a Bruins fan) were spending their valentine’s evening waiting with their Bruins fan friends for the elevator too. We had some great banter until we reached the lobby and went our separate ways.

We headed back to the green line, back to Lechmere and back to our hotel, making a short detour via the Cheesecake Factory for some, well, guess… The Yorkshireman went for a slice of Craig's Crazy Carrot Cake cheesecake and I went for Dulce de Leche Caramel. We consumed them on our comfortable bed, watching The Daily Show and Colbert Report on the big HD TV before going to bed, tired from our day's travelling and gleeful from our hockey win and late night sugar rush.

It had only been a few hours but New York already seemed so very far away, and the end of our trip was looming ever closer.

Hello Brooklyn - Day Eleven, Part 1 - Tuesday 14 February

Ah 14 February... our arch nemesis. Luckily we had the distraction of having bigger fish to fry.

We had packed the night before so there was no need to be up at the scrake of dawn on Tuesday morning. However there was still a free breakfast to be taken advantage of, so we popped down to the lobby, grabbed some bagels and beverages and brought them back to our room to chill out for a little while. Then it was goodbye to Nu Hotel and indeed Brooklyn, as we made our way back to our old and familiar friend, Penn Station.



It was a bit of a trickier journey on the subway this time though, as we somehow had to manage two backpacks and three cases between the two of us. I needed one hand for my crutch, so the Yorkshireman bravely took on two of the cases. It might not have been so tricky if the handle on our new Bed Bath and Beyond bag didn't keep trying to sneak back into the frame every time we stopped, but then what can you realistically expect for $19.95?

Eventually we made it, found the Amtrak departure gates and settled in to wait for our train to board. I left the hassled-looking Yorkshireman to bag-sit while I went and gathered a little picnic for myself for the train - we wouldn't be arriving in Boston until almost 3.30pm and then we'd have to go straight to the hotel to check in, so lunch was inevitably going to be a train-bound experience. I grabbed a ham and cheese croissant and a cupcake from Zaro's (I'd seen them every time we popped in and out of Penn Station over the last eight days so I was finally going to give one a try!). I also took one look at my poor overheated and overwhelmed husband and decided to buy him an iced tea to cool him down. He was irrationally grateful bless him.

Then soon enough we were wrestling our big bags on to the train and once again enjoying the views and the comfortable seats as Amtrak whisked us down the east coast where new exciting adventures awaited us in Boston. Although I must admit I did feel sad as the Manhattan skyline faded from view. It's still my favourite city in the world and if money and time allows me, I will definitely be back one day in the not-too-distant future.

Back on the train, I enjoyed relaxing and reading my book. I also enjoyed my picnic, although the cupcake tasted quite mass-produced and was definitely not going to be competing with Crumbs any time soon. There was a bit of a delay on the tracks about an hour away from Boston, but we arrived at Back Bay Station just after 3.30pm. Time to see what Boston had in store for us!

Hello Brooklyn - Day Ten - Monday 13 February

"February thirteen, two thousand and twelve!", a deep, American voice said in my head as I woke up. "Eeeeeeeee!", I replied to it. Today would herald one of my most eagerly anticipated activities of our whole trip, and I was so excited!

But first there were some practicalities to take care of. This was to be our last full day in New York and we had some luggage difficulties to take care of first. With all stuff we'd already bought and the intention of buying a few more things, there just was not going to be enough room in our two suitcases and two backpacks.

I hooked our laptop up to the free WiFi and did some research. It would be fine to take three cases and two backpacks on Amtrak to Boston. We were flying from Boston to London with Virgin Atlantic's Premium Economy (thanks to a nifty seat sale deal), which meant we could actually even take four cases there. When we landed in Heathrow, for cost and timing issues I won't go into, we had to catch a National Express coach from Heathrow to Gatwick, but that seemed to be fine too. One last hiccup though: flying back from Gatwick to Belfast with no-frills airline Flybe. We agreed it would be worth the extra £30 to upgrade one of us to "Go Large" (yes, they are the McDonalds of airlines), so we paid online and made a mental note to go and buy another cheap case later that day.

In the meantime we had some exploring to do. We'd just missed the free breakfast at our hotel, so we took a walk to a deli nearby and bought some food and drinks there. Fed and caffeinated, we headed to the subway and caught the F train all the way from Jay St MetroTech to Roosevelt Island.

When we got out at Roosevelt Island a very lost Asian man asked us for directions. I have no idea how he'd ended up where he was but I think we gave him the right advice of the two different trains he'd need to take to get where he wanted to go. Bless him, I hope he found his way!

We, on the other hand, had a walk around some of Roosevelt Island. I watched some boats travel up the East River and unabashedly waved back at the tourists on one of them, and the Yorkshireman took some photos of ducks. So, pretty standard stuff for us both.

Then we headed into the Roosevelt Tram Station. Last time we were in New York, the existence of the Roosevelt Tramway had completely passed us by, but I'd since read that it was a pleasant ride with nice views and, awesomely, you can ride it for free if you had an unlimited Metrocard. Excellent.



As we waited for the tram to come back from the Manhattan side, we watched an older native New Yorker in a wheelchair try to explain to a tourist who sounded like he was from Texas how to swipe his Metrocard properly. Texas guy's wife was already through but Texas guy himself was swiping much too fast, then much too slowly, then only halfway... it was a disaster. Part of me wanted to just go over, take it out of his hands and do it for him, but he was looking more and more irate.

Eventually, just as Texas guy finally got through (I resisted the urge to cheer), the tram touched down in front of us and on we all got. The view was indeed good but for me the fun was in knowing I was suspended on a giant pulley system across the river and streets.





I also liked checking out the Queensboro Bridge up close and personal. It's not the prettiest of New York's bridges but it's certainly one of the most interesting.

We emerged from the tram and walked for a while through the Upper East Side/Lenox Hill/Turtle Bay neighbourhoods. I noticed again how there was a completely different feel to this area than in the other New York neighbourhoods we'd visited. It's strange how Williamsburg, Lower Manhattan, the Upper East Side and Downtown Brooklyn are all completely different and yet each of them is so intrinsically "New York". So cool. You don't really get that here in the UK, where a row of terraced houses or high street shops looks pretty much the same in Belfast, Bradford or Birmingham.

On our walk we stumbled across another cupcake shop, Buttercup Bake Shop. It wasn't one I'd heard of but my rule remains that all cupcakes are eligible for the title of 'World's Best Cupcake', so I bought a 'Buttercup Golden with Vanilla Icing' cupcake and tucked it away for later.

For lunch I'd scheduled a stop at Ess-a-Bagel. As you may have gathered I'm a big fan of bagels, so I was eager to try what some New Yorkers say is the best bagel in the city. I figured I might as well go for the whole stereotypical experience and ordered my bagel with cream cheese and lox. For a bagel it was pretty expensive (over $10) but I have to say it was delicious.

In fairness I've never met a New York bagel I didn't like, even if it came from Starbucks or a hotel's complimentary breakfast. Most of the bagels we get in the UK are pretty stale in comparison - the only ones that come close are from Asda's bakery (which are really good actually).

Bagel experience complete, we walked down 3rd Avenue to 49th Street and caught the M50 bus along to 10th Avenue. We wandered up to 54th Street, turned a corner and there was our next photo stop of the day: the studio where they record The Colbert Report.





No sign of Stephen himself but we snapped a few photos as we avoided being randomly dive-bombed by about a gazillion birds who were hanging out in the trees beside the studio. Perhaps they're fans too.

Then it was on to 11th Avenue and back down to 52nd Street to join the line for the New York experience that had been making me giddy for weeks: we had tickets to go and see The Daily Show!



For months before our trip, I'd been regularly checking the ticket reservations section of the Daily Show's website to see if anything would pop up for the dates we would be in New York. A couple of weeks before, when nothing had appeared, I did a bit of research and it seemed that both The Daily Show and Colbert Report were going to be on hiatus on the main week we were there! Oh noes! Talk about bad timing. There was only one thing for it: keep checking back for the one date we'd be in the city where they might actually be recording the show (Monday 13 February) and hope for the best.

With only four days to go until our trip, I was half-heartedly checking for tickets at lunchtime at work. I'd switched to a different tab when I hadn't seen any available but when I came back about 10 minutes later, the page had refreshed itself and, oh!oh!oh!, there were two tickets available for our date! Quick! But it was too late, someone had already poached them. Doh!

I was disappointed but not about to give up completely - In my time of lurking on the tickets site I'd noticed some people seem to reserve the tickets but then don't confirm them, which means they go back on soon after. I sat for the next while hitting F5 pretty much repeatedly to refresh the page. And then suddenly, there they were again! I typed my details as fast as my fingers would let me, clicked submit and... yes! It had gone through! Quick! To the email to confirm!

I clicked the link in the email and there it was, with heavenly light streaming through a cloud on to my computer monitor and choirs of angels singing... "Congratulations! You have scheduled 2 tickets to the February 13, 2012 taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Yeah I have! Woooo!

So, less than two weeks later, we joined the line outside the studio to get our place in the audience. They give out more tickets than there are places to ensure there are definitely enough people in the audience, so you have to arrive early to reserve your place. Then they release you back into the city for a couple of hours and when you come back you have to go into a pen which corresponds with the number on your ticket.

We joined the queue before 2pm and they didn't start giving out the tickets until around 2.40pm, so it was quite a wait (especially with sore feet and a sore hip). However there was a convenience store on the corner where I got a cup of coffee to enjoy with my Buttercup cupcake. I have to say, it was definitely the sweetest cupcake I had in New York. It reminded me of butter tablet, such was the sugar content in the frosting. It wasn't half bad though; not the best I'd tried but if I lived nearby I'd probably be a fairly regular visitor.

Eventually we got our little yellow tickets with The Daily Show logo, a number and the date stamped on them and left the line. Not sure what we could do in the two hours before we had to be back in line, we decided just to jump on an uptown bus and go explore a little of the Upper West Side.

We hopped off the bus somewhere in the mid-70s near the Jewish Community Center on Amsterdam Avenue and wandered back south. We walked past one of those on-street second-hand book stalls that I've only ever seen on TV or in the movies. That wouldn't work in Belfast - all the books would be soaked in a sudden rain shower or blow away in the wind!

By this point we needed a restroom and a WiFi connection, so we called into a Starbucks, but it was only small and very busy. McDonalds it was. We used the restrooms and bought a couple of drinks and a small snack each but the place was absolutely packed full of teenagers having various melodramas, so we decamped to some benches in the middle of the street where Broadway meets Amsterdam Avenue.

Another couple about our age (who had been ahead of us in McDonalds) were eating their food on the bench opposite us, discussing how they'd always wanted to sit outside in the middle of a city; I wondered where they come from that they've never done that before. A homeless lady sleeping on another bench ignored us all.

We decided it was time to head back down to the Daily Show studio and found a bus stop which took us down Broadway. We jumped off that one and on to another M50 and right back over to the Daily Show studio again. We were a little early so we grabbed some refreshments from the shop on the corner (where a lot of our fellow audience members seemed to have congregated) and went to find our pen.

Happily we were numbers 72 and 73 so we weren't that far back. My feet and hip were sore again by this point and I was struggling to stay upright leaning on my crutch for support, but without me even saying anything one of the security guys appeared from nowhere with a folding chair for me to sit on while I waited. Awesome, thank you!

About twenty minutes after we got there, they started letting in the VIP guests from their pen. In the meantime we mere plebs were advised that if we wanted the restroom in the next two hours, now was the time to go, and were briefed on what we should expect from the whole experience. Twenty more minutes later and we were finally in the doorway waiting to go through security.

After my bag was searched and I hobbled through the scanner, I joined the Yorkshireman in the queue to find out where the producers wanted us to sit. Everyone in front of us was being pointed towards somewhere around the third row down in the middle section. Not too shabby! However the nice lady clearly saw my crutch, took pity on me and pointed us straight towards the front row. Wow! I was so excited! And thank you again!

We had to wait for another twenty minutes or so for everyone else to be seated and in the meantime we watched clips from the show on TV monitors suspended from the ceiling and listened to pop music over the speakers.
Then the warm up guy came on and was great. We were told that the audience mics are set at a much lower volume than Jon's and so we would really have to scream and laugh much louder than we usually would. I'm a "woo girl" - no problem.

Then there he was: Jon Stewart, mere feet in front of us! Eeeeee! He's just as cute and dinky as he looks on TV. He had a short chat with the audience, which was very funny, then he took his place at the desk and launched straight into the recording. Over the speakers came the familiar opening voiceover: "February 13, 2012... from Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

You can (for now anyway) watch the episode we saw online here, although if you don't live in the USA you might not be able to watch it unless by semi-nefarious means. Suffice to say it was very entertaining, even though our guest was a little dry. It met all my expectations and then some. And for free! What a bargain! Jon also did the whole thing in one take, which was amazing. On the other hand it meant we were finished, out the door and waiting on 50th Street for the M50 bus again by 6pm.

So, last night in New York. Obviously it would have been nice to go and have some fun - truly immerse ourselves in the city - but alas we had things to do.

So we bused and subwayed it down to 23rd St station on 6th Avenue. I was pretty hungry by then and intended to grab something from one of the street carts but the guy serving was taking forever to serve the guy in front of me, so I cut my losses and went to Hale and Hearty Soup instead for a small and overpriced cup of soup to keep me going. I also decided the perfect New York goodbye would be one final Happy Birthday cupcake from the Crumbs store which had been twinkling at me in the darkness, so we bought a cupcake each to enjoy later.

Then we found our way to Sports Authority so the Yorkshireman could (finally!) buy the New York Rangers third jersey he had his heart set on. Very pleased with his purchase, we turned our attentions to looking for a cheap suitcase. TJ Maxx and Marshalls proved to be too expensive but we came across a wheelie bag in Bed Bath & Beyond for $19.99. However the Yorkshireman was concerned its dimensions might be too large for our airlines and we needed free WiFi to investigate. We couldn't find a Starbucks (in New York - is that possible?) so it was off to McDonalds again. A quick check later and it was confirmed: the size of the bag was ok.

By this time it was 8.50pm and Bed Bath and Beyond was due to close at 9pm. I hobbled as fast as my poorly hip could carry me and we raced into the store just on time to buy the bag. By then we were exhausted so there was nothing for it but to return to Brooklyn and get packing.

We were back in our hotel room by around 9.30pm so we ordered takeout via Seamless again and packed while we waited for it. Eventually, after everything had been distributed between the three bags and two backpacks, the food arrived.

We'd ordered from a diner-type place called the Park Plaza Restaurant but sadly it was mediocre at best. I had ordered matzoh ball soup to start (meh) and an "Angus Chopped Sirloin Steak", which actually turned out to be minced beef turned into the shape of a steak. Weird. My mashed potato tasted like Smash and the "steamed corn" was tinned sweetcorn. I felt somewhat misled. The Yorkshireman's fried chicken with vegetables was equally as underwhelming. Their sweet potato fries were ok though.

Full but with leftovers still on the table, we gave up on the food and instead turned our attention to the TV: our episode of The Daily Show was coming on! It was exactly as it had been live but it was nice to relive it when you've seen the sets and the people involved in person. I also thought I heard my high-pitched "wooo" near the start, which would make sense given that we'd been sitting directly under a mic and also that I'm pretty noisy.

After The Daily Show, we watched the Colbert Report and then went to sleep. Tomorrow we would be leaving New York (*sob*) and going to investigate another city: Boston.

Hello Brooklyn - Day Nine - Sunday 12 February

On Sunday morning I woke up fairly early and flipping starving - we hadn't eaten more than a(n admittedly huge) cupcake each since about 2pm the day before, which may have been a factor in the snarking match the Yorkshireman and I had had the night before. He still looked dead to the world and I knew he'd be grumpy if he was woken up early, so I got dressed and tiptoed downstairs to the breakfast bar in the lobby, returning ten minutes later with a toasted bagel with cream cheese and a takeout cup of coffee.

I had breakfast whilst reading my book in one of the comfy chairs in our room. I enjoyed relaxing in peace and quiet for a while but the food aspect was actually badly timed, since our first activity for that morning was to eat more food. However I wasn't planning on waking the slumbering Grouchosaurus for at least another hour and I was confident I could handle more food later that morning.

Eventually the Yorkshireman's eyes peeked open and he seemed to feel better for the extra sleep. We got ready and left the hotel, heading for the Lower East Side in Manhattan and to another place on my foodie bucket list, Katz's Deli.



For those unfamiliar with Katz's Deli, it's one of the oldest, most famous Jewish delis in New York. There are others that have great reputations too but when somewhere is so famous and yet the locals are still raving about the food there, you really have to give it a try. I think celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain explains it well. Katz's was also the location for Meg Ryan's famous fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally (there's a sign hanging from the ceiling to show you which table) and is often featured on shows like Man vs Food.



I'd read up on their ticket system before we went but it still confused us a little, perhaps because there was no queue when we got there and so no-one to copy! Still, we worked it out pretty quickly and remembered to tip the guy making our sandwiches when he gave us a sample of the pastrami. It was looking a bit hairy for a minute when I realised said counter guy had put mustard on my pastrami and rye when I'd said not to (I blame my accent, but come on!). Thankfully the Yorkshireman was happy enough to swap his non-mustardy piece of bread for my mustardy one. Phew - disaster averted!

It was still quite early for lunch (around 11am) when we sat down to eat, but there were a good few others already tucking in to their food, so we joined 'em. I have to say, the pastrami was as good as they say, and the sandwiches were as big as they say too. I just about managed mine (although I was approaching "meat sweats" territory by the end) but the Yorkshireman had to leave some of his.

I also had great fun looking at all the photos on the wall of famous people who had visited the Deli. I didn't know about half of them but there were some great ones. My favourites were the one of "Mr Big and Baby's Daddy from Dirty Dancing!" (Chris Noth and Jerry Orbach; clearly Law and Order kind of passed me by) and, of course, the photo of one of my personal role models in life, Judge Judy! I was so giddy about the latter I demanded to take a photo of the photo. The Yorkshireman handed me the camera and tried to pretend he wasn't with me.



All in all I really enjoyed going to Katz's (constant smell of pickled gherkins aside) and would happily return to try some of those other delicious-looking hand-carved meats... yum!

Still on a foodie kick, we made a stop a few blocks down at another contender for the title of 'World's Best Cupcake'. This time it was Sugar Sweet Sunshine, which everyone seems to rave about. We purchased two cupcakes for later consumption (a Sunshine cake (vanilla) and a Pumpkin one) and we headed back to the subway and uptown.

We popped back up above ground a short while later at 34th Street Herald Square (on 6th Avenue) and stumbled upon a mall (rare in New York City), funnily enough called Manhattan Mall. The Yorkshireman was still on the lookout for a reasonably priced New York Rangers third jersey and JCPenney said it had sports teamwear, so in we went. We couldn't find the teamwear section but we did find some great souvenir t-shirts for family and friends back home. The Yorkshireman also got a Thundercats one for himself. Bless.

Bags in hand we walked down 31st Street, past the Affinia Manhattan where we worked out which window we'd been looking out of most the week prior, and past the Hook and Ladder 24 firehouse where all those sirens had been coming from. We also found a NY Rangers merchandise shop but they wanted over $200 for the same jersey that was $125 in Sports Authority. No thanks.

Our next activity of the day was to watch yet another NY Rangers game, but this time we actually had tickets! Madison Square Garden, baby! Bring it on! The game had originally been scheduled for 3pm but was brought forward to 12.30pm. We had reworked our itinerary accordingly and it actually ended up working out better for us.

We entered the arena and although I was offered the choice of an elevator to our floor way up in the 400s (because of my crutch), I said I was good with the escalators. They also had a free giveaway and we got signs in the shape of the Rangers' badge, which had the badge on one side and said "Let's Go Rangers!" on the other. Nice.

The refreshment options on the top floor were a bit rubbish but a quick hobble down the staircase and I found my now-traditional beer and soft pretzel. Back up in the 400s we found our seats and settled in for the game.



The NY Rangers were taking on the Washington Capitals, which made it the second Caps game we'd seen on our trip. This time there was no confusion as to who to support though - it was Rangers all the way. It was an interesting game, with a Rangers goal, then a Caps goal, then two more Rangers goals, leaving the Caps under pressure to score an equaliser before the end of the third period. Thankfully they didn't manage it and the Rangers won 3-2, which made us giddily happy!



Apparently they turn the escalators off after the game, so everyone has to walk down the steps to get out of MSG. Even if my dodgy hip had been up to the stairs, the pushy crowds made me nervous, so I waited with some other less-than-mobile people for an elevator. We ended up being advised to go down to the next floor to get one from there for some reason, which I was happy to do because it meant getting away from the shouty impatient lady who was pressing the call button repeatedly and ranting about how long she had to wait.

Back on the street but continuing the ice-hockey theme, we made our way to the NHL Powered by Reebok Store in search of a few hockey jerseys the Yorkshireman wanted. As well as being a fellow NY Rangers fan, he has actually supported the Dallas Stars for much longer. He wanted a specific jersey from each of his teams' current offerings, but the Rangers' jersey was more expensive than at Sports Authority and they didn't have the Stars' one he wanted, so we left empty-handed. Actually I tell a lie, we left via their hockey-themed Starbucks with a drink each.

We took our beverages over to the seated area outside the Fox News (*shudder*) building and enjoyed them with the cupcakes we'd bought from Sugar Sweet Sunshine earlier. I understood why they are so many people's favourite cupcakes - it wasn't so much that they were delicious (although they were - you could really taste the flavourings rather than just sugar), but they had also been a bargain at $1.75 each. That said, for texture reasons if nothing else, Crumbs still had the edge for me.

Next we walked over to the Rockefeller Center and found the entrance to Top of the Rock. On our last trip to New York we'd been to the top of the Empire State Building, but many people suggest that Top of the Rock is better because there are shorter queues and you can see Central Park and the Empire State Building itself from there. Always suckers for an impressive view, we were eager to compare the two experiences and up we went.

I have to say, the rumours about the length of the lines are entirely true. With the Empire State Building, we had to wait for about twenty minutes for an elevator to the observation deck (and apparently that's a short wait), whereas with Top of the Rock there were only two elevators' full of people ahead of us and they went quickly. The elevator ride itself was pretty cool too. I won't ruin the surprise, except to say "look up!"

There are three observation decks at the Top of the Rock. The bottom two floors (the 67th and 69th) have clear plastic panels to shield you from the wind a bit, but the top one (the 70th floor) is completely open. We tried all three of them and although my favourite was the 70th floor with its uninhibited views, it was absolutely freezing up there!





Literally freezing, as it turns out: as the sun set over the city and darkness started to fall, it brought with it a snow storm. We watched the grey clouds roll down over the George Washington Bridge, over Central Park, and then suddenly the swirling snow was whipping around us.



We were waiting for the Empire State Building to turn its lights on and it was a magical (if cold!) experience to watch the snow fall over the city as it steadily lit itself up for the night.



When the feeling in our extremities had gone from stinging to numb, we decided it was time to go back inside. We made our way to Starbucks in the Rockefeller Center for a warming drink. Well, I did - the Yorkshireman bizarrely ordered an iced tea (out of habit I imagine) and was bemused at his own choice. I hooked my phone up to the free WiFi to plan the specifics of our evening's activities - we had an idea of what we were doing but not specifically where and I was unwilling to wander the snowy streets without a specific destination to aim for. Strangely our evening ended up being completely different than we planned anyway, and all the better for it.

On our last visit we'd spent a fabulous evening at Duplex Piano Bar in the West Village but I'd also heard about another piano bar, Don't Tell Mama in Midtown and decided to try that one instead on this trip.

First of all we decided to go and see what the situation was with tables in a nearby restaurant I'd heard a lot about, Becco. After a lot of unnecessary faffing about with closing one door before you open another at the entrance to the restaurant, we eventually established that they had no tables available until 8.30pm, which was two and a half hours away. However last time we'd gone to a piano bar the time had flown by, so we made a reservation and then went out in search of an ATM so we'd be able to tip at Don't Tell Mama.

We did find an ATM on 9th Avenue but we also found an Amy's Bread there too. Amy's Bread was another competitor on my list for the title of 'World's Best Cupcake' and so I couldn't pass it by without purchasing one (yellow cake with pink frosting - as close to vanilla as possible). I tucked it away in my bag for later and we returned to Don't Tell Mama.

The Yorkshireman ordered us a drink at the bar while I went in search of a restroom, which turned out to be kinda gross. When I got back they'd served up my "Long Island Iced Tea but made with Diet Coke, not regular"... except I'd been given a Long Island Iced Tea (which tasted horribly of whiskey for some reason) and also a separate Diet Coke. Again, I get that there might have been confusion because of our accents, but no-one else has ever had a problem when I've ordered that.

I might have forgiven the drinks mix up but there was just something really off about the piano bar as a whole. The woman singing at the piano had clearly refused to use a microphone, the result of which was that only the table beside the piano could hear her at all. There were also precocious children getting in everyone's way, perhaps something to do with the Performers Theatre Workshops they were holding that day. I know it was still pretty early but there was none of the ambience I'd expect from a piano bar and we just didn't like it.

We finished our drinks (superfluous Diet Coke included) and went back on to the street. We had no idea how we could fill the hour and a half until our reservation at Becco so we decided to cut our losses with Midtown, cancel the reservation and go elsewhere for the evening.

When we thought about it, we knew what would really make us happy that night. First stop was a proper meal in the Malibu Diner, where we'd eaten a few times on our last trip since it had been close to our hotel. We each had a two course meal that seemed to contain all of the food groups and left feeling full and contented for $50 all in, including tax and tip. I had tried meatloaf for the first time ever (not really something we do in Belfast) and it was very nice - I can see why it's a favourite comfort food in the States.

Then we made our way down to the West Village again - Duplex, we were back! It was exactly as we remembered it and just as much fun. Shanna was still there singing and wisecracking through the night, but this time Brian was on the piano.

We wrote our request for two songs on a napkin and put a tip in the big perspex top hat. They were pretty obscure requests and I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd laughed them off, but with all due respect and gratitude to Brian, who is clearly as nutty as we are, he dutifully performed a song from Avenue Q (There's a Fine Fine Line) and one from Buffy Once More With Feeling (I'm Under Your Spell), explaining to the piano bar's customers what exactly was happening during the latter song in the actual episode. It was freaking awesome!

We also made a new friend at Duplex, who was as camp as all get out. Topics of conversation included how he could lose a stone and a half before his vacation in a month's time (apparently the secret is to eat nothing, only drink alcohol and then throw up), how big my boobs are (and he's "not even a boob guy!" - I would think not!) and how his boyfriend was too "boring" to come out partying with him on a Sunday night. We even got to say hi to said boyfriend on his cell phone (proof I'd had enough to drink - I have a big phone phobia). I love New Yorkers.

Also? Duplex made me a "Long Island Iced Tea but made with Diet Coke, not regular" without a problem. And it was delicious. Yes, Duplex beat Don't Tell Mama hands down.

Buzzed from the beer and excellently performed live music, we made our way back to Brooklyn and into the bed cave. It had been an awesome day and tomorrow, if all went according to plan, had the potential to be pretty damn awesome too.


P.S. I don't actually remember when I ate the Amy's Bread cupcake but I remember that while it was nice, it didn't beat Crumbs, or even Sugar Sweet Sunshine actually.

Hello Brooklyn - Day Eight - Saturday 11 February

On Saturday we woke up surprisingly not hungover and intrigued to go explore our surroundings a bit more by daylight. We had an itinerary all planned but before we left we grabbed a bagel from the hotel's free continental breakfast. I might have had a bit more to eat but I was saving some room for our first stop of the day: the Brooklyn Flea Market.

I had actually wanted to go to Smorgasburg really, but it's closed in winter. However their website suggested visiting the Brooklyn Flea's food vendors instead and we figured, hey, why not. Skylight One Hanson was actually only a relatively easy walk from our hotel anyway.

It snowed as we walked along Atlantic Avenue and we saw some interesting stuff on the way, including a giant metal chicken!



For background information on why this made me completely giddy you must firstly submit to the genius that is The Bloggess, then read this particular post (which is, I think, one of my favourite blog posts ever) and then finally have a look at this Facebook page. All will become bewilderingly and awesomely clear. And before you ask, someone has already posted a photo of the Brooklyn Beyoncé on the Facebook page. I checked.

Shortly after our giant metal chicken sighting, we arrived at the Brooklyn Flea. Turns out Skylight One Hanson was indeed the tall building we'd seen repeatedly on the skyline since we arrived in Brooklyn the day before. I'll be honest, from some angles we'd thought it looked rather phallic.



Not so from inside (thankfully), where it was actually rather stunning.



Not sure where anything was, we decided our best approach was to just wander around and look at stuff. There were a lot of weird and wonderful things for sale, as well as, to be perfectly frank, some utter tat. It was actually more expensive than I'd anticipated too. I'd figured the prices would have been around the same as my favourite vintage shop in Belfast, where most of the revamped clothing is around £10-30, but the only dress I'd seriously considered at the Flea was $85 (around £55). A bit steep for my liking, especially for something second-hand and actually pretty flimsy looking.

However clothes were not the main attraction for me; I was looking for the food vendors. There had been a meat seller of some description and a mini cupcake seller by the main entrance, but I was not in the market for meat-based products and, even in spite of my love of cupcakes, I wasn't in the mood for mini ones after my Baked by Melissa experience the day before.

We wandered down to the lower floor and, although we did find some food vendors, they only seemed to be setting up for the day. I must admit this irked me a little. The website had said it all kicked off at 10am and it was already after 10.45am when we got there. I guess maybe you have to wait a bit longer for most of the food vendors to set up but it would have been helpful to know that in advance to stop us wasting our time. As it was I could only walk past the empty Dough stall (one I had particularly been looking forward to) and onward through the rest of the Flea.

In the end, to be honest, I didn't think much of the Brooklyn Flea. My only purchase was a (very cute) ring for my friend with a tiny little tea cup and saucer on it. Apart from that it just wasn't my kind of thing. Whether my opinion had been tainted by the much-anticipated food vendors not being open yet, my general "new is always better" attitude or even the rain outside, I don't know, but it was the one thing we did in New York that I wish we hadn't bothered to add to our itinerary. The Yorkshireman felt the same.

With only a kitsch ring to show for our morning thus far, we left the Flea and I demanded that we go to the Dunkin' Donuts I'd spotted nearby. If Dough were not going to meet the needs of my mid-morning sweet tooth, I'd find someone else who would! Also, I'd only had one cup of coffee so far that day and that's just not enough for an addict like me.

It was still snowing lightly outside so we sat in Dunkin' Donuts while I enjoyed my caffeine and sugar hit and we overheard the strangest conversation between three women sitting beside us.

Seemingly they were all frequent shoplifters and were discussing the audacity of the NYPD for arresting them for it. One of them, referring to her theft of 30 lipsticks, solemnly said, "I mean, I hadn't been arrested in 13 years. 13. Years! You think they'd cut me a break for that, but no, they arrested me!" Her friends agreed that this was totally beyond the pale. We tried not to laugh in case they shanked us but I did consider submitting it to Overheard In New York.

Bemused, we left and started walking back up Atlantic Avenue. We called into Walgreens and I picked up some Butterfingers and Mini Hersheys for people back home.

I then discovered a bakery not on my list, Betty Bakery, and of course had to buy a vanilla cupcake to try. All cupcakes are eligible for the title of World's Best Cupcake. Betty's wasn't the world's best, but it was actually very nice. The frosting was sweet and smooth, and although the cake was a little dry for my liking it tasted homemade. Very nice indeed, although their pies looked absolutely gorgeous and I wish I'd had time and space to try a slice of one of those too.

A few doors down we stumbled upon a Salvation Army thrift store. At home we call them charity shops and the Yorkshireman likes nothing more than a good rummage through a charity shop in search of hidden treasure. Unfortunately for him they had closed off the second floor, which was where they had all the menswear, so we left empty-handed.

We then decided to veer off Atlantic Avenue, since we'd seen it already on the way to the Flea, and wandered up Bond Street. Strangely enough we then stumbled upon a Goodwill thrift store. This one was huge! We both looked around for quite a while. I found some things I wanted to buy but I knew we had space constraints with our luggage so I left them on the rails. The Yorkshireman didn't find anything here either but we agreed it was one of the most impressive charity shops we'd seen.

We wandered the streets a bit more and stumbled upon the "Love Letter to Brooklyn" street art by Stephen Powers (aka ESPO) that we'd seen on one of our favourite New York blogs, We Heart New York.



Then eventually we found our way back to the MetroTech building, as we were off in search of some more show tickets at the TKTS Booth there. There was a longer queue at this one than we'd faced at the South Street Seaport one on Wednesday, but that wouldn't be difficult really. There were really only about 20 people ahead of us this time and the line went quickly.

As we moved up the line, we discussed our options. I'd really wanted to see How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying but Harry Potter and Blaine from Glee had both left and the protagonist was now being played by Nick Jonas. We hadn't forgiven Jonas (to be said with a slight hiss) for ruining the otherwise wonderful 25th Anniversary Concert of one of our favourite ever musicals, Les Misérables, with his irritatingly over-earnest, High School Musicalesque performance as Marius. I mean, I know the character of Marius is a whiney wuss anyway, but Jonas took it to a level where I had no empathy with him whatsoever... even during Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, which was just unfathomable to me. Michael Ball he is not.

/rant

We'd hoped to see Rock of Ages but there were only discounts for the matinee the next day and we already had something booked for the same time. In the end we decided that if the tickets were less than $70 for How To Succeed, we would attempt to overlook "the Jonas factor", but otherwise we would go for Sister Act.

When it was our turn at the window we discovered How To Succeed was going for more than our limit, so Sister Act it was. The tickets were $70.25 each and we were to sit in row J of the Orchestra section. Mission accomplished.

We then had a decision to make. You see, our itinerary said we should be heading over to Flatbush Avenue to a bar called Ocean's 8 at Brownstone to watch the New York Rangers play the Philadelphia Flyers at 1pm. However we'd grown very fond of the Flying Puck after our last two visits and quite liked the idea of being surrounded by fellow NY Rangers fans. After a rather dull morning we came down on the side of familiarity and headed down into the subway, Manhattan bound.

Emerging at Penn Station everything was just as we had left it the day before. We bounded into the Flying Puck and made our way to the table we'd sat at last time. This time one of the servers asked us straight away to move to a table for two. We looked around in disbelief at the mostly-empty bar, looked at her strangely and then said, actually, we would sit at the bar - we wanted to watch the game and if we sat at a table for two, one of us would be facing the wall, not the TVs.

At the bar we ordered our beers (the only thing I didn't really like about the Flying Puck was the lack of beer selection - Coors Light was the lesser of several evils) and since it was lunchtime we also looked at the menu again. We both ordered burgers, the Yorkshireman's covered with chilli and mine with bacon, cheese and caramelised onions.

My burger was so good. It was funny because the day before we'd been watching the "The Best Burger in New York" episode of How I Met Your Mother and now I thought I'd found mine. Move over Shake Shack, this was the real deal! The problem with burgers in the UK is that you're never offered a choice on how they're cooked. I personally like my burgers like I like my steak: medium, with a perfect line of pink in the middle. Here they're all just brown and chewy. The Flying Puck's burger was perfectly medium, wonderfully tender and so juicy. Yum!

The hockey was pretty awesome too. The NY Rangers won 5-2, including a hat-trick from Ryan Callahan, my favourite non-goaltender Ranger. And what was especially cool was that people actually threw their hats on to the ice in celebration.

After the game, we paid our tab and let the subway carry us back to Brooklyn. There was a few hours to go until the Broadway Theatre had demanded our presence, so it was time to go and have a real New Yorker experience in the meantime. Yes folks, we were off to the laundromat.

No, the laundromat is not the name of some underground club in the Meatpacking District - we were going to an actual laundromat. Including Washington DC and Boston, our trip was to be two weeks long and we were already one week in: we were running out of clean clothes. Me in particular, thanks to my inability to eat or drink anything without spilling at least some of it down my top. I'm classy that way.

There were two laundromats (can I start calling them laundrettes again now? I feel very faux American saying "laundromat") close to our hotel and we'd scoped each of them out on our walk that morning. The furthest one away was huge but seemed to have some kind of card system to work the machines - more complicated than putting quarters in a slot! So we opted for the one right around the corner from our hotel instead, Dirt Busters Laundry.

I was a bit wary in case these things don't work the same way they do in the UK but I needn't have worried. There was a machine at the back to give you change in quarters for the machines and they sold little boxes of laundry detergent and dryer sheets at reasonable prices. The Yorkshireman and I put our laundry in for a wash cycle and then nipped across the road to grab a drink. I quite enjoyed sitting on the plastic chairs at the front of the toasty warm laundromat, sipping my coffee and reading my book with the calming hum of the dryers behind me.

We emerged about an hour later, clothes clean, dry and freshly folded, and went back to our hotel room to get ready for our show.

By the time we caught the subway back to Manhattan and found our way to the theatre, there was only a short time until curtain up. However I had spied an old friend of mine in the vicinity and couldn't resist paying her a visit first. You may recall that on our last trip, Crumbs had claimed the title of my favourite cupcake in New York. It had also been hard to beat since, with only two contenders coming close to being as delicious. I hadn't intended to return on this trip but there it was, right in front of me. And we hadn't had dinner yet. It was fate.

I couldn't decide between two flavours and so bought both: a Happy Birthday cupcake and a White Hot Chocolate cupcake. The Yorkshireman decided to buy two for himself as well, which surprised me since he's not really into cupcakes. We didn't have time to enjoy them before the show, so we carried them in with us (eliciting a stern warning from a security guy that we couldn't eat them in the theatre... spoilsport). We found our seats easily enough and settled in for the show.

The show was great. I've watched Sister Act (as in the movie) about a hundred times and although I knew the score for the musical was different than the movie's soundtrack, I was pleased to see that the story remained pretty much the same. And also, the music was pretty good regardless. The songs in the movie obviously have a certain appeal because they're based on pop songs that you already know, but the original songs for the musical were equally and differently wonderful because they were unique and helped tell the story.

I've enjoyed other shows more (Avenue Q, Les Misérables and Wicked to name a few) but I would still recommend it highly. The highlights for me were the set (excellent throughout), Patina Miller's performance as Deloris, Carolee Carmello as Mother Superior and Sarah Bolt as Sister Mary Patrick, all of whom had fantastic voices and were wonderful comedy actresses.

In the end our hunger chased us out of the theatre in the interval to consume an illicit cupcake each on the street corner, amongst the smokers desperate for their own fix. I went for the Happy Birthday one and it went straight in as my favourite cupcake ever.

It brought me right back to when I was 11 years old and staying in Cortland, NY as part of a lets-take-the-poor-terrorism-stricken-children-out-of-scary-Northern-Ireland-for-a-break charity programme (with Project Children - belated thanks by the way!) and we had a celebratory picnic day thing. We all had cake and ice-cream, but this was no cake like we Belfast babes had ever experienced. Our birthday cakes back home, previously considered a wonderful treat, were now relegated to being merely dry sponge covered with sickly royal icing. This new wonder cake was moist and covered in creamy frosting. I've never tasted cake like it again... until Crumbs' Happy Birthday cupcake. It was just perfection. Also one of the cupcakes with the highest calories in the shop, but worth every bulging fat cell.

After the show had finished, we headed wearily back to the subway (trying to stay clear of the ever-luminescent Times Square) and back to Brooklyn.



P.S. Check out the yummy billboard of David Duchovny in the photo above. You're welcome.

Back at the hotel our tiredness led to a brief but terse argument. In need of some space, I descended to the lobby at around midnight, where I read the news that Whitney Houston had died. How very sad. Also strange - the last time we were away Amy Winehouse had died. I'm not sure when we'll next go exploring the world but we'll be sure to give the celebrity world a bit of a heads up.

With my own frustrations now put into perspective, I went back to our room and climbed into the bed cave and fell fast asleep within minutes. Just as well really - tomorrow would be another busy one.