Ball Drop? What Ball Drop?

So I ended up leaving Dubai on New Years Eve around lunch time and arrived in New York on New Years Eve at 2pm!

Dan was also flying in that evening from his holiday in the Caribbean so we were both really looking forward to this particular New Years. We hadn’t seen each other since October so the two weeks we had together were very special.

the gang

Funnily enough, a bunch of people from my group at home were in New York at the same time – so after Dan and I went to a lovely dinner together at a fabulous Japanese restaurant we trekked it down to the Meatpacking District and met up with them on the street. They wanted to head in to a club, but the entry was around AUD170 (which included drinks) but I was so exhausted from traveling we opted out, we wished them all a Happy New Year and proceeded up to the Upper West Side to one of Dan’s high school friends house for drinks and nibbles. It was a perfect and civilised way to see in the New Year. I had never seen the ball drop before so was anxiously waiting after seeing Lady Gaga perform… we waited…4…. 3…. 2… and the TV cut out! We didn’t get to see the ball drop! They say how you spend your New Years is how you’ll spend the rest of the year… does this mean I’ll be surprised? We had a bit of a laugh, and not too long after the midnight celebrations, Dan and I bid Chrissy and Johnny a Happy New Year and departed.

The next day we met at a diner with all of my heavily hung over friends, (one even falling asleep with a sandwich in her hand! Ha ha) what a nice change it was for me to not be in the same boat! They all devoured greasy food and after they felt moderately better we strolled up to mid town and walked through Rockefeller Centre… MY GOODNESS it was packed with tourists! We had some great photo opportunities with everyone and as Louise, Dan and I had been to the ‘Top of the Rock’ previously, we chose to stay warm in a cosy little café a few blocks away.

We all ended up leaving and went back home to Dan’s apartment and then on to a Chinese restaurant close by – delicious! Unfortunately Jordan and Justin were departing the next day so it was a last supper, they both however fell in love with the City!

Dan and I spent the next couple of weeks just shopping and enjoying each others company, we went out for dinner, went to his friend Trevor’s one evening for a good ol’ fashioned game of beer pong. My skills were a little dusty, I hadn’t played this game since Summer Camp in 2007 so was fun to get back in to the American Spirit!

We strolled through the Park most days and we exchanged belated “Chrismukah” presents, a lovely compromise for both of us. The following evening we drove to Dan’s brothers’ house for a Hanukah celebratory dinner, they all exchanged gifts and it was lovely to see their family interact like ours would on Christmas day.

Dan had to work a couple of days whilst I was there, so I entertained myself by catching up on university work and met him for lunch most days down town. I’d then stroll through the streets of Soho and Canal Street picking up little bargains wherever I went. Another day I had stalked the cast
of Gossip Girl on Facebook and went to watch the filming again of the show!

A few days before my departure, Dan had organised for some tickets to see an Ice Hockey game – I’d never been to one before so this was super exciting! The game ended up going in to penalty time complete with fights and slamming bodies in to the Perspex windows. The highlight though was when the game went in to a penalty shoot out! I had mentioned to Dan I’d hope this would happy as I’d seen it in the ‘Mighty Ducks’ before! Ha. Clearly a rookie. Rangers had a fabulous game and ended up winning, it was bedlam on the streets, everyone was celebrating. We popped in to a neighbouring bar for a celebratory beer. I can now check that off my bucket list!

The temperature fluctuated dramatically, some days it was negative ten another day it was mild and sunny sitting at 19 degrees! Bizarre! We also met with Dan’s Mum (Mom) for a lunch as well as a dinner and she was lovely, even offering to help partially sponsor Dan’s trip to visit me in Australia: our next goal.

The two weeks we had together was just lovely and saying goodbye was definitely difficult however I’m looking forward to the next time we see each other!

A sandy kind of land

So 2011 marked a fortunate year in terms of travel. I was lucky enough to head back to the deserts of the Middle East – Dubai. My parents had relocated there at the start of last year, so packed my bags about a week before Christmas and jetted off to be met later by the rest of my family – my brother Brendan and his wife Nikki as well as my two nephews – Oliver and Fraser.I stopped in Singapore for 24 hours and stayed at the Swissotel (seriously amazing property) the staff were extremely friendly and the property is conveniently located on top of a mall – not a bad way to spend the 24 hours by myself! I arrived in the evening so it was naturally humid and raining. Singapore is actually one of my favourite Asian cities, it is extremely clean and the people are simply lovely. After having my fill of shopping I popped over to Raffles Hotel which was made famous by the ‘Singapore Sling’ Cocktail, in their ‘Sling’ Bar – definitely a highlight to add to your stay in Singapore! The bar has this amazing English-Asian influence and has beautiful palm frond fans floating gently backwards and forwards. This is also the bar they encourage littering at, they give you a whopping bowl of peanuts with their shells still on and as you eat them you throw the shells on the floor… I felt really naughty. A few hours later I was off to Changi Airport again, this time for my connection to Dubai, whilst waiting I had bumped in to an old high school friend on his way to London. Small world huh!

Arriving in the evening in Abu Dhabi my parents greeted their weary daughter with open arms and off we trekked to Dubai (an hours drive) after showering and settling down I was ready for my much anticipated sleep!

Dubai is a melting pot of races, nationalities, religion and beliefs. You walk through one of their many glitzy malls and you’ll hear an array of languages and accents. So, girls being girls Mum and I hit the shops fairly hard on my first day there, we were racing around and the sales had just started too as Dubai’s shopping festival (I know, right!) was just about to begin – this is where they import celebrities (Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and a questionable celeb – Kim Kardashian) to come and endorse shops and malls and funnily enough people travels from all sorts of weird and wonderful places to snap up the bargains!

We went out for dinner a fair bit, the wide selection of cuisines are delicious and very healthy as they are heavily influenced by the Mediterranean style of cooking.

The rest of my family followed a couple of days later and we were very excited to see them all, they also arrived late in the evening so waking up to greet them was a lovely gift! I had also just received another shopping buddy – my brother! We visited Marina, Dubai and Emirates malls and even managed to squeeze in last minute shopping until 10pm on Christmas Eve. The first day they arrived we jumped on a ‘dow’ cruise and went up and down the waterways, taking in the skyline of the incredible Middle East!

Christmas Day was spent as a buffet feast at the Pullman Hotel – we had a lovely expat group with around fifteen of us Aussies all sitting together. The food was delish and as per normal a food coma had hit us, until we found the chocolate dessert room. Everything in this room, including the plates was made of chocolate – BLISS!

We spent the following day on the famous “Palm” in Dubai with a group of family friends and their extended group of Pommy mates they had met from their 12 months of living there too. We of course, had a Boxing Day test! The Poms ended up beating us and I soon realised that I unfortunately did not inherit my Dad’s or nephew’s cricket skills! Oli was in his prime, chasing after every ball and being a fabulous Wicky!

Apparently this was the active part of our trip! We did the Ski Dubai on the first day and then the two boys did Ice Skating the following evening in another mall! Definitely recommend doing the skiing – how many times can you say you played in the snow whilst being in the middle of the desert huh?

The following days we spent relaxing, shopping and eating! We popped down to Deira (Little India) and did a lovely day of cheap shopping (all of the knock offs are here, so it’s definitely worth a visit!) Another area to go to and is really interesting – Dubai Museum. After having our fill of shopping we jumped on another boat – this time an ‘Abra’ and off we went up and down Dubai Creek – this “creek” is bigger than the Brisbane River… Apparently there is no such thing as too big here!

A side of pickle, please!

As another overseas trip fast approaches and the length of time from my previous blog post. I realised it’s time to update the adventures I’ve had recently!

So, late September last year my girlfriend Cammie and I took off an adventure. Typically I like to travel by myself, but it was really great having a friend with me particularly on the long haul flight.

Off we set from Brisbane and landed roughly 24 hours later on the same day in JFK airport – NEW YORK CITY!

Now I realise that the last few adventures of mine have been to New York however I really can’t get past this city, no matter how many times one goes  (think this was my 6^th?) there is always something new to see and  wonderful to experience.

We were fortunate that my friend Dan was able to collect us from the airport and took us back to his lovely home on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Both Cam and I were feeling pretty grubby after traveling that far so we had a shower and to try and fit in with the time zone pushed on – popped out to a local diner and had a “Welcome to America” feast – hamburgers, fries and ketchup, with a pickle on the side… Pickles come with everything.... (I hate pickles)
The next few days we spent exploring around the East side of town – up and down 5^th Avenue and Madison too, Grand Central station, went out to local restaurants for delicious dinners and as far as China (town) for lunch. We peered over the Brooklyn Bridge, tried to get to the Ground Zero memorial but it was too difficult with the tickets. Went to the ‘Top of the Rock’ for some prime viewing (a suggestion made by a very dear friend – Larry) this is an absolute MUST in NYC the views are better than that of the Empire State.

We spent a couple of days up in the Hamptons which quelled my fascination with shows such as Gossip Girl, had ice cream on the pier and strolled around the cute little shops in Sag Harbour.

After coming back to the city after having a bagel and coffee (or hot chocolate in Cammie’s case) every morning we’d set off on our new adventure – Central Park. It’s hard to actually describe how sizable this park is and so beautiful – mind you filled with tiny, tiny dogs. Next stop was Times Square – boy is this place nuts. Crazy, naked cowboys, Broadway, characters and tourists run rampant! It really is a jungle. The following night we stepped out to the Empire Hotel - those who aren't Gossip Girl fans, a hotel which appears frequently in the show, so we stopped by and the bartender told us the next day they were actually filming, so off we went again and managed to see Lily and Rufus (see my actual photo taken below)

One night we went out to Alphabet City to sample the night life – now this was an experience. Alphabet City is filled with bars and clubs (and University students) for that matter. After getting three-for-one drink cards and advice on which places to visit from locals we departed and found another one a few blocks up. It was awesome; we met up with a group of great people and danced the night away. We left this particular bar after an hour or so and moved on to the next one. This bar looked like its theme was inspired by a Nelly film clip… exposed pipes and fire sprinklers. Kinda cool. In the morning Cammie realised she was down a phone and camera… not so cool.

We stayed at another friends apartment on the Upper East Side for a few days, so we lugged our bags (which had now grown exponentially) around 6 blocks away and set up camp for the next few nights. We had a lovely time and felt very at home.

The last two nights I was fortunate enough to have my parents traveling through New York (they currently live in Dubai) so was a fabulous opportunity to see them. We were staying in a hotel in Chelsea, which was a fun different part of the city than what we were used to… definitely a lot less peaceful and apparently Chelsea is the gay area of Manhattan – this turned out well for us as there were some

 great restaurants and nail salons!

Our two weeks there seemed so very short, we had many; many adventures and it lead me to go back for New Years Eve a few months later – story to come soon!