Let's hear it for New Yoooooork

Yes I did walk around the streets of Manhattan singing this song. Yes the streets made me feel brand new and if you ever get the chance to go, go! Miss Keys does not lie - the big lights will very much inspire you. After a few months in the deep south, NYC was a definite concrete jungle and really was a welcome change from the comparatively rural Columbia.

I don’t want this post to turn into a day by day description of what we got up to so here are just a few highlights….

Arriving in Central Manhattan to find it utterly deserted. Our bus got in to the Greyhound bus station at 5.45am and the walk up Broadway and through Times Square to our hostel was extremely surreal. You might think that Times Square is always busy and full of people admiring it’s mad stacks of glowing animated advertisements but it seems that no-one is quite bothered about it enough to be there at the crack of dawn. It was just us, the big lights…and the tramps. Lovely.
  
Wandering around SoHo pretending we were loaded. The Chanel store had a snazzy white Rolls Royce Phantom casually parked up in front of it – the people shopping in there meant business. In we wandered, kitted out in trusty primark and h&m, shamelessly playing guess the price for every item of meticulously arranged clothing. The prize for most hideous item – in terms of both aesthetic appeal and pricetag was this vicar/posh spice-esque dress, weighing in at a mere $14,000. I think if the shop assistants hadn’t clocked us as non-potential customers the second we walked in, my cries of ‘this dress costs the same as my degree’ probably did it. 

We also attempted to look cool just before dinner on the first night when we wandered into the opening for an art gallery. Although we did stick out a little bit in that we weren’t wearing suits/high fashion, a lot of the paintings were to do with the assassination of JFK so we could at least have a semi-conversation about them as people walked past us. It was all going well and the door out was in sight when I accidently kicked something (which I should make clear was lying in the MIDDLE of the floor). The people near me gasped and I looked down to see that I had kicked a giant gold thorny crown (think Jesus on the cross style) halfway across the room. I would say this was a low point of our forage into high culture as it was a scuplture and the artist had watched me kick it so after a seriously embarrassing attempt to apologise we quickly exited, gave up on being arty, and went back to talking about Ryan Gosling and how catchy Miley Cyrus' songs are.

The East River Ferry. Having walked over the Brooklyn Bridge we wandered around DUMBO (yeah i thought it was a pretty weird name too until I googled it - Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) but there wasn’t a huge amount to do there (although we did come across the nicest cupcake I’ve had in my life so it was definitely worth the visit) and we wanted to go up to the Kingdom of Hipsterville, Williamsburg. The subway between DUMBO and Williamsburg is dismal but with the help of wifi, which thankfully seems to be available for free just about everywhere here, we discovered that there was a ferry that runs up and down the river. For $4 we were able to experience beautiful views of both Brooklyn and Manhattan. Once it got dark we took the ferry again, back over to Manhattan. The view of the skyline at night was incredible, and was heightened by the reflections of skyscrapers in the river. Probably my best spent $4 ever.

Lush food at every opportunity. When we booked our 17 hour bus journey and the cheapest possible hostel we could find, we promised ourselves that the money saved on a comfy bed could be used for extravagant purchasing of food. We stopped for cakes and coffee at way too many opportunities but je ne regrette absolutely rien. My favourite food thing of all was a shared pumpkin and cinnamon whoopee pie cake from the Magnolia Bakery inside Bloomingdales. Thinking about this now, I’ve realised that although we were only there for three and a half days we visited 3 different Magnolia Bakery’s – proof of just how good their cakes are! Also I dropped both our cakes just as we paid for them in the first one we went in and they replaced them for free so they’re nice people too. For a free treat do as we did and visit the lindt stores (there are two basically opposite each other on 5^th avenue) and then visit them again….and again. Every time you go in you get a free lindt and for a true insiders tip, the first time we went in, we trampily asked how much a single chocolate was and they said just have it for free. I felt like a living lindt by the end of that day as we took full advantage of their generosity. Over the few days we had in New York we ate Italian, Greek and French food as well as a true New York burger at the dodgy looking but highly recommended Jackson Hole. Thankyou tripadvisor!

Talking to strangers. After our stroll-turned-hike around Central Park (much bigger than I thought and surprisingly easy to get a bit lost in) we finally made it out onto Central Park West and began to head southward to fifth avenue and the aforementioned free Lindts. A slightly straggly looking man suddenly appeared out of the bushes, and yes I did assume certain things about him, number one that he was homeless. He began to ask us if we needed help (at this point the map was flapping around in front of us, most probably upside down, and both Frankie and I were spouting out various combinations of avenues and street numbers: do we want 5^th and 34^th? Or park and 45^th? West on 3^rd or east on 3^rd? why is there no 4^thavenue? etc.) and we initially tried to play it cool and get on our way. However, he persisted and it was at this point that we noticed his hat identified him not as a hobo, but a park warden, hence his emergence from the hedge. Turns out his day job was actually a fashion designer, and that he had spent the previous summer in London working on Savile Row. He then told us about where to go and what to see and it was on his recommendation that we visited the Highline in the evening, which turned out to be one of the nicest things we did. Perfect example of why not to judge a book by its cover.

Big Apple, little budget. We spent only 3 and a half days in New York but really crammed a lot in. Having said this, at no point did it feel like we were running around seeing everything. Manhattan is pretty compact and you can do a lot in one day. This was made a lot easier by where we were staying. Our hostel was amazing – seriously cheap, we had our own room, we were practically in Times Square (it really was about a 4 minute walk down the street) and it was extremely clean and friendly. I would highly recommend the Big Apple Hostel to anyone wanting somewhere cheap and central to stay.

SQUASH. At long last I have managed to become the proud owner of a bottle of squash. I simply don't understand how they don't have it here. After months of looking for it each time we visit a new supermarket (what a thrilling life I lead), finally, I have been saved. Not only is it apple and blackcurrant but the man in the wonderful Tea and Sympathy British corner shop in Greenwich Village gave it us for half price as it's nearly at it's sell by date. best purchase in America so far. If you are for any reason in New York and missing Britain, make sure you visit this place - it has a fish and chip shop on one side and a teashop serving full English roasts on the other, genius.

So those were some fave parts of our trip up north. I can't believe we've been home more than a week already, and definitely cannot wait to go back someday.

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Charleston

Our weekend to Charleston began with an uneventful greyhound journey followed by a ride in taxi driven by an extreme Anglophile. He’d learnt what ‘shag’ meant from his english ‘online lady friend’, he let us know that if any of our mothers were single then he’d be on the next plane over, and he finished his confession of love to blighty by saying that he would be willing to do just about anything if it meant he got to listen to an english accent. As you can imagine, we all remained quite silent for the rest of the journey.

Having arrived late to the hostel the next task was getting into bed. Not as easy as it sounds when bed means an unmade top bunk in a dark room with two already sleeping strangers in it, one of which is sleeping below you. Needless to say I lost the fight with the fitted sheet but was so tired by this point that I think I would have been able to get to sleep anywhere!

We awoke to a breakfast of bagels, nutella, jam, cream cheese, tea and coffee. What more do you really want in life? After taking full advantage of this, we headed into town where we then spent the following two days wandering around the colourful streets and alleyways of Charleston.

If you go to Charleston and you’re there at the weekend, don’t miss out on the famers market at Marion Square. Endless stalls of food, drink and gifts line the edges of the large park, bordered on one side by the old citadel and home to a massive statue of everyone’s favourite defender of slavery, John C. Calhoun.

We wandered down King Street until we reached the City Market. This was quite touristy but had the odd stall selling nice things, and the building itself is definitely worth seeing. Also they really go all out on free tasters here, something we all took full advantage of in the fudge shop. I also discovered pecan pralines which I think might be my downfall this year, or maybe even in life as they truly are my favourite thing ever. There’s a nut in there, I can count that as healthy.

Ever since we got off the bus we had all been sounding extremely OAP-esque and exclaiming about how we could smell the ‘sea air’, but it really was so nice to see the sea. I think being here is probably the longest I’ve gone in my life without going to the beach so walking down to the front and out along the pier was pretty good. Oh and the fact we saw a dolphin! I think if people hadn’t realised we were British by that point then the hysterical shouts of BLOODY HELL IT’S A DOLPHIN may have given us away.

Further south is the Battery, a park bordered by massive cannons and more statues of confederate soldiers. There was also a particularly good wedding going on; not only was their vehicle of choice a real life Cinderella carriage (which didn’t look tacky at all surrounded by the prettiness of Charleston) but they also appeared to have a dog as the best man.

We saw a lot of beautiful views over the weekend, peered into some of the nicest houses I’ve ever seen, and ate some amazing food (although I think I may soon turn into a shrimp) BUT the highlight of my weekend happened in an unassuming starbucks as I waited for my drink.

Apparently Flo, Frankie and Joey are not common names round these parts and the server asked us if we were from ‘out of town’. I said we were English and he asked whereabouts in England we were from. Usually this is the point in the conversation where I lie and say London. Back at Warwick half the people I know seem to think Norwich is up north somewhere so as you can imagine, I haven’t had much luck over here. However fate must have been watching over me as I decided to say Norwich. Turns out the starbucks man’s dad was from Wroxham. I left starbucks in a state of shock about just what a small world it is. He knew what Roys was! What a guy.

Nearly everyone you talk to here seems to have some connection to England; a daughter studying at university, an old boyfriend, grandchildren and cousins. In Charleston we found ourselves wandering through the overgrown graveyard of the Unitarian Church. The doorkeeper was locking up but showed us inside the church and told us about its history. As a Unitarian church, they accept people of all religions, races and sexualities, which he said wasn’t exactly popular in a place like Charleston. He told us how he’d spent a few years at an RAF base near Chelmsford, and even joked that Helly’s mum might have been one of the girls who visited the night club there. They really go in for the mum jokes over here.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that Americans seem to think that the British are still hung up about the revolution. As far as I’m aware, most people don’t even really know what it was all about. I’m an American History student and I don’t really know what it was all about. People are definitely not still associating it with how we view America, but I think it’s assumed that we all have a rather large chip on our shoulders about losing to the US back in the day. When we went to the Old Exchange, the last government building to be built by the english in the states, the other people on the tour genuinely wanted to let us know that they hoped we had no hard feelings. So strange.

Sunday consisted of the best lunch ever, Huevos Rancheros followed by french toast made with a cinnamon roll, followed by a stroll through the College of Charleston campus which really was something else; it’s English department definitely put the warwick humanities building to shame. It was also the setting for some of Dear John, so combined with seeing the theatre out of the Notebook we had a very Nicholas Sparky weekend.

We headed back to the hostel via the biggest and most dramatic (old railway station, massive chandeliers and a balcony) Urban Outfitters I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting, and stopped off for a quick dinner at an Asian street-food place with free fro-yo tasters for dessert. I really do think I could successfully live off free tasters here.

One weekend in Charleston wasn't really long enough so hopefully we can visit again soon. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a place to eat well, shop to your hearts delight, look round some beautiful houses or just hit the beach.

TEA

Never did I think so much confusion could arise about a drink like tea but since arriving in the South, i have learnt that a good old fashioned mug-teabag-hotwater-milk combo is not the only way you can have your brew.

If you watch this video, listen carefully at about 30 seconds in. That's me everyday.

http://youtu.be/aJCUUbwNzAA

Here in South Carolina, if you ask for a tea and expect a steaming mug of tetleys finest you're going to be thoroughly dissapointed. What you'd get given would be a cold drink, usually with ice. It looks like the iced tea that I find myself buying only when I'm somewhere boiling on holiday. However, looks can be deceiving and try as I might I've been unable to find it anything other than absolutely revolting. To me it tastes like someone's half made your tea, forgotten about it, let it go cold, remembered it again but discovered they are out of milk and said sod it and given you it anyway. Not good at all.

However people here love it! As in really love it. If there's a ever a function on with free food the drinks offered will nearly always be water, lemonade and tea. You can even get it in macdonalds.

To make traditional sweet tea you boil a load of water, add tea bags, and leave for 15ish minutes. Whilst its brewing away, mix an absolutely ridiculous amount of sugar with some water (the recipe I'm getting this from suggests dissolving two or more cups of sugar into three cups of water - goodbye any healthy aspects of this drink) and then mix it with your tea. This for me is where things start to go really downhill because now you're meant to leave it to cool to room temperature and then put ice in it! And more sugar! Madness.I see this as downright wrong, but they go crazy for it in the south so there ya go. 

I've also had the (dis)pleasure of trying bubble tea. I know you can get it at home but I think it's more popular here - again I just do not know why. Apparently we chose bad flavours (I thought mango and green tea would go together quite nicely) but I'm not sure it's disgustingness can be entirely blamed on the flavour. I've never had a protein shake but it's tasted how I imagine they taste, kinda off-milky but then with the added weirdness of black chewy balls in the bottom of it, which every now and then suddenly sneak up the straw at a surprising speed and half choke you. All in all it was not a good drink.

I have had one good tea-related thing and this was a LatTEA which was basically a pumpkin latte with no coffee involvement! I wish Starbucks did more stuff like this as their special Christmas drinks always sound amazing but always have coffee creepin around somewhere in them. Alas, I've only seen this in one cafe so I'm not counting it as a viable replacement for my beloved tea!

So unfortunately, whilst you can quite easily get sweet tea, unsweet tea, bubble tea, LatTEA, Arnold Palmer tea (lemonade and tea), green tea, cinnamon tea and a seemingly infinite amount of weird and wonderful types of tea, unless you're willing to compromise and settle for earl grey (I'm not), in most cases you won't be getting your cuppa. 

(Good job I came prepared.)

xxxxx