Montreal Part 1

Thursday, November 13, 2008: THE DAY HAS FINALLY COME!

After work, I headed up to Stephen's office. I was really early so I stopped by a Duane Reade to get snacks for the road trip. Steph hadn't been feeling well, and said to get anything but crunchy snacks. Naturally, I walked out with Pogos (baked potato sticks with white cheddar), soy crisps (ranch, cheddar), and chocolate chip cookies (he doesn't like cookies). Oops.

I got to his office and he showed me around and introduced me to his co-workers. I ket hearing positive things about Montreal, which got me even more excited to go. We had planned to take the 6:30pm Trailways bus to New Paltz to meet his friend, Bobby. Before we headed into Port Authority, we got dinner. I ordered a chicken schwarma, he a falafel. It felt like it took forever! The guy wasn't even middle eastern; I think he was Chinese, but he pronounced hummus as "hckhoomus", which I found mildly amusing. They sure packed a lot in there, and it was tasty. While waiting in line to board the bus, Stephen got us humongous Jamba Juices. We hadn't even left Manhattan yet, and already we were stuffing our faces with junk (including the donuts from this entry).

We rolled into New Paltz at around 8:30pm. Bobby was there with his friend Ryan. We stopped by one of their friend's houses to say hi, and hit the road in his Lincoln at around 9pm.

It was dark. We forgot to bring directions (Thanks again, Mom) and I was sleepy. What else is new?

The glorious Canadian Border came into sight a little after midnight. Border patrol was very easy. She asked a few questions and let us right on through.

45 minutes later...We found our way to the Holiday Inn Midtown:



our room

view from our room

After settling in (dropping off our bags, changing and brushing our teeth), we headed out to Saint Laurent to find a bar.
Note: Montreal's bar scene does not start on Thursdays, nor does it stay past midnight. Even though we were right next to McGill University, we couldn't find a place that wasn't a club. So we ended up going to the Hotel Bar. We toasted to our arrival and then went to sleep.

More next post!

Canada, here we come!

Stephen, Bobby & I are going to: MONTRÉAL!!!!!


Where to go? Where to stay? What to eat?!? I'll be doing my research for the next three weeks. Feel free to chip in.

(image source)

!!!

Guess what is happening on the evening of Thursday, November 13, 2008!!
We haven't even sketched out the plans yet, but 2 of the 3 people involved have taken off that following Friday. (I would take off of work too, but I don't have a job!)

I'll give you a hint.

Je pourrai pratiquer le français !

Boston, MA

Let me preface this with a story on how I even chose to go to Boston.
About 2.5 months ago, I heard about the cheap fare of megabus.com and how you can get a bus ticket for as cheap as free [with a $0.50 reservation fee). I needed to take advantage and bought tickets to Atlantic City. Now, making plans for any weekend for me as far as 2.5 months in advance is tricky. I'm a freelancer so who knows if I'll be working or not months from now. But since they were like $6 I figured if I couldn't use them, it wouldn't be a huge loss.

Another problem with this was:
1) finding someone to go to Atlantic City with me
2) what the hell was I going to do in Atlantic City when I don't gamble!

26 hours before I was scheduled to go, my [very dear!] mother changed my reservations upon my request. I exchanged those tickets for one to Boston since I knew a couple of people there I might like to visit.

Anyways, a few weeks later and I'm waking up at 7am on a Saturday to catch a 9:30am bus to Boston. Luckily, my good pal Ethan, let me stay with him in Cambridge. I got there without a problem and being the meticulous traveler I am, researched the subway system beforehand.

I got a Charlie Card (the equivalent to a metrocard) at South Station and was on my way to Porter Square. Easy as pie. Ethan was waiting for me at the station. After finishing our delicious pulled-pork sandwiches in his backyard, we headed into Boston to walk around. Passed by Berklee, Newbury Street, a park that I don't know the name of, and some other areas Ethan couldn't tell me diddlysquat about. I unfortunately lost a lot of photos from my camera unexpectedly and am still trying to recover them off my SD card. I don't really want to talk about it; I'm still upset.
In the meantime, I leave you with the following:

Thanks to Data Recovery II and an external media reader, I managed to recover some photos!!

Ethan and I walked around Boston and stumbled across this park.


me on what is supposedly one of the longest escalators in the U.S. (I looked it up and the one at the Wheaton Station in DC is the longest... another reason for me to go back to DC!)


We went to the ICA which is right by the water.


Me: "Alright guys if we see a big anchor i want to take a picture with it"
Eric & Ethan take a step: "Um, there's one"


James met up for some delicious lobster bisque :)


Ethan and Hayley:


So that Saturday night, we met up with Shaun and company at Charlie's Kitchen. I was the only girl and the only one who ordered food but not a beer. Sigh. Double Cheeseburger with awesome waffle fries. Or were they curly? Whatever, it was the best $5.25 I've ever spent. Moving along...
We picked Eric up at South Station and went to Cambridge Commons, a restaurant/bar where they serve beer punch-- that consists of lemonade, vodka, ice and a bottle of beer (i believe it was Sam Adams, what else).

Good Time

Good Time... ah where to even start? Ever since Ethan and I had run into his friend Leigh Saturday evening, all I had been hearing about was "Good Time". It's basically the largest arcade I've ever seen. Think about the last time you went to an IKEA, and remove all of the furniture and whathave you, dump in loads of ticket games, huge claw games, a [small] go-kart track, bumper cars, laser tag, 20 dartboards and beer, and you've got Good Time. Sadly, the night I went was its last and it is now turning into the IKEA you were imagining at first. And in case you were wondering, I redeemed my tickets for whoopee cushions and cheap hand buzzers.

The next day, Eric and I rode the bus back to NYC. Totally a fun weekend.

Long Overdue: Rochester, Virginia and D.C.

Rochester:


Susan B. Anthony's House.


family walking along the Erie Canal

Would I visit Rochester again? Um, probably not. But like with any city, it's nice to visit and get away from Manhattan's fast-paced, dirty, noisy ways and see what life is like to the rest of the world.

I got to meet up with a childhood friend (from junior high).

Peter has completely changed since I saw him last (it's been at least 4 years). But it was nice. He took me out to a sushi lunch and we got to reminisce and catch up on the college years.


Virginia:

Ronna, Mark, Derek & Izzy were gracious enough to let my mom and I stay with them for 5 days in Sterling, VA. It's been years and years since I last visited. My mom drove us down from New York. It took about 5 hours and was a fun ride. Though as soon as we got there, we had to leave to DC to go to the Nationals game against the Mets. Geared up in my Mets shirt, we braved the DC Metro which blows the MTA out of the water. Very rider-friendly, clean, efficient...

I invited Brett, another childhood friend, out to the game. He brought along his friend Ross. It was awesome. The stadium is new and really sweet. We got hot dogs. I was impressed the stadium had tables with all of the fixin's including minced onions!
I know... It's sad that condiments excite me :(

Here's Brett and I:


Trivia: Brett and Peter have known each other since they were in the crib.

So the rest of the week was spent eating REALLY well, going to little league games, playing video games and on Saturday I took a trip into DC to meet up with Brett. We went to the Museum of Natural History. Saw the Hope Diamond. Was terribly disappointed by the "diamond". But the exhibit with the Nature Photographs was awesome. I think the gift shop was my favorite part of all.

Then Brett took me out to Lunch at the Austin Grill and I got the dankest burger: the Hangover Burger. Though far from having a hangover, I devoured the fried egg topped burger with grilled onions and all of that goodness.

He left to go to work, and I went on a search for souvenirs. I don't know why I do this to myself in every city I travel to on my own. I raced back to the Natural History museum to get this bug candy that Brett tried to talk me out of buying. But I felt it wasn't sufficient enough. I finally found I ♥ DC shirts, old-looking postcards and tried to find Abe Lincoln things for Will. With my brilliant mind, I went to the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum, which luckily stayed opened late.

I got to see busts and portraits of all of our beloved (and not-so-beloved) presidents, and Nam June Paik's Superinformation Highway in the flesh!

and of course, the gift shop. I got Will a sweet Abe stovepipe hat which I later realized was annoying to transport. All in all, a successful vacation.


If my blog came in paper form back in the day, Abe Lincoln would read it!

Hey Ho, Let's Go...

to Rochester, NY?



Jesus, has it really been 8 months since I last stepped foot outside of New York City (not counting Monticello/Long Island)?

Ok, it's no Greece. Hell, it's not even San Francisco, but it'll do for now I guess.


Santorini, it is not.

I'm writing this now in case I do not survive this weekend; you'll at least know where I went.

Things I am looking forward to:
-Fresh air & Quaintness
-The Play/Toy Museum
-Catching up with my old pal Pete as he's moved there, (it's been about 4 years since I saw him last).
-Susan B. Anthony's house
-Woodside Mansion (??)

Also coming up...
-Orlando, FL's rain and warm weather will have to wait for me as I am going to Sterling,Virginia/Washington DC, yay!
...more on that in a few weeks.