US Graduation Trip - Part 2

Part 2 begins with our trip to Miami!

Lincoln Road Mall

The first thing that we thought to ourselves upon arrival, was how the Miami airport was so much better than JFK. Surprising in the sense that the buildings are newer, better maintained, and that there are more shops and entertainment stores in general. It's pretty dismal in JFK. Disappointing in the sense that it was the airport that welcomes quite a number of people into America. 

Anyway, we checked in to our hotel to offload our things. We stayed at Crest Hotel Suites. I do recommend this place. The people at the reception are really friendly. Not to mention that when you ask for extra towels to bring to the beach, they'd both give them to you, and give you extra towels upon your return for use in your hotel room. The location is perfect too - It has a CVS pharmacy (which houses ALL your needs available) nearby, and it's located really close to the Lincoln Road Mall, and it's just a stone's throw away from the clubbing scene. The last point is really important I think, because the clubs and pubs can get REALLY noisy at night, and this place is situated just far enough from all the commotion. It's also really near Ocean Drive- the main beach. 

We would then spend the next few days shopping (Lincoln Road Mall is somewhat like an Oxford Street of London), eating ice-cream, sun-bathing and watching movies. 

I loved the colourful umbrellas that people brought. So cheerful. :)

And then there are the cool stations - marking the streets. This is the 13th street station

Miami really is a place to just chill and relax. We didn't do anything other than that. But there are some amazing food stalls that I'm still thinking about up to now. It's really good!

The Meatball Joint

The Meatball joint. It's a new shop that just opened for 2 weeks when we got there. You get a choice between different kinds of meatballs, and what kind of dishes you would like to have it with (pasta, soup, etc). It's brilliant. They have a wide selection of  (alcoholic) drinks too. I ordered a Ginger Ale. Lol. 

The bar at the Meatball Joint

Then there was the 11th Street Diner. And holy moly, they have the best Southern Fried Chicken that I've ever eaten in my life. It's juicy, it's tender, it's tasty... KFC needs to move over. I'm not exaggerating this. 

T standing in front of the 11th Street Diner

How it looks like on the inside

It was a fantastic trip all right. Some would say that there is absolutely nothing to do in Miami. That kind of made me a little fearful about all the time that we would have empty and wasted. BUT, I must say, that it doesn't matter if there are little attractions besides the beach and the clubbing scene. T and I went for 5 days, and it didn't bother us. We went clubbing (or tried to, at least) for a night. But we spent the next few days running along the beach, swimming, sun tanning, reading our books, watching movies every night, eating really good food, talking, shopping... what more can you ask for really? The point of this being our graduation trip was that we were celebrating a few months of being able to forget our busy lives and just do... nothing. And Miami really does that for you. It's great. 5 days of oblivion? 

Perfect.

US Graduation Trip - Part 1

Booyah! We're all (my friends I mean) graduating this July! It's cliche, but it really does feel like just yesterday when I was a little fresher at the LSE. 

Anyway, my graduation trip was to the USA - in particular New York (yes, again) and Miami. Just because I took quite a number of pictures, I'll be splitting up my posts into 3 parts. 

At the airport

So we arrived into New York in good time. We rested for a while, then went out at night to watch Chicago. I've actually already watched this musical back in London, but since Tiff hasn't, and our host already bought the tickets for us, I went to watch it again. What's the harm? Especially since I'd then be able to compare Broadway Musicals with West End Musicals. 

And if you ask me, West End Musicals win hands down. The actors in Chicago were pretty good, don't get me wrong, but it's the articulation of their words, the expressiveness, and the portrayal of the characters that do not shine through in the Broadway ones. They slur through their lines, songs come out slurred as well, and they do not give proper effect to body language and to expressing emotions. They were like robots, almost. So we gave up halfway and went home (I was feeling really sick from the plane ride anyway).

The very next day we took a road trip to upstate New York. Our first destination was Lake George. But before we went to visit the lake, we went to check out Wal-Mart. 

Let me just tell you that we bought so much stuff (food) from there, that it wasn't even funny. Lol.

We then made our way to the lake area. It was really pretty, I must say. But to be honest, my attention was captured by all the biker dudes that were there. It just so happens that there was a Harley Davidson convention going on.

  

All I can say is, check out the bikes man!

And the biker dudes

After that, we headed out to look for dinner. We went to this very nice French restaurant in the area called Le Roux. We kinda got lost while looking for it, and in the process, stumbled across a little farm that had Llamas (random right??) and goats in a pen. We took pictures of that and drove on to find our restaurant.

EVERYTHING we ate and drank were really good!

The very next day, we drove on to Catskill Mountain. The very there was fantastic. We couldn't do much over there because we weren't equipped for hiking. Apparently, to see the really good sights, we have to go trekking into the mountain.

Prettyyyyy

And then we made out way back to the City. 

For the next few days we just walked around the city. There were a few times when we split up- this was because Tiff hasn't been to NYC before (and I have), and we both wanted to see different things. But these are some of the things that we did look at:

Washington Square. Random Pianist in the middle of the park

Occupy Wall Street

Wall Street

9/11 Memorial

Brooklyn Heights

There were a lot of things that we went to see and do. We went to Macy's, had coffee at Greenwich Village, went to Union Square a lot, walked around SoHo and etc. But what I do recommend, in this half of the trip, would be to go to go to the 9/11 memorial. It is worth going to both the museum and to the memorial itself. Very powerful place to be in. What really hit me while I was in the museum was the display of an airplane ticket from the doomed plane... 

As for restaurants, I'd truly recommend this place that Jamie brought us to (it was nice meeting up with that kid again). 

Gyu-kaku

The barbecued meat there is really good. That, and the salads (the Avocado one!). It may sound gross, but try the cow's tongue when you order meats to barbecue. It's really quite delicious. 

And in Brooklyn, PETER LUGERS. I'd warn you, you'd love this place to bits. The steak practically MELTS in your mouth! Holy. Oh, and the bread and flavoured butter there is to DIE FOR. I know they are just starters, but honestly, Tiff and I could eat just the bread and butter for our meal itself. 

The bread

The steak. LOOK AT THAT. 

The only problem though, with Peter Lugers, is that you'd probably have to make a reservation beforehand. If not, there's no way that you'd be able to get into this place for dinner (or lunch, for that matter).

For a quick fix, who can deny the loveliness of SHAKE SHACK! oh man. I'm hungry just recollecting those moments where I bite into my burger... and having those (damn) fantastic milkshakes. 

Not forgetting Serendipity 3 (yep, that place out of the movie, Serendipity) for dessert. I could die for these. I think this is what heaven's desserts would taste like. 

Pecan Pie Sundae!

Frozen hot chocolate

 Yum. I'm salivating already... But in any case, Part 2 will be about Miami!

The HighLine

In the last post I was talking about visiting the High Line in New York, and indeed, that's a very nice place to visit (and you should!). The only problem with that place is that there are no actual restaurants at the place itself, so it'd do you some good to eat before you go. There is a coffee stall (which I will talk about later), and an ice cream stall and one mini cafe that just sells cakes and sandwiches, but nothing substantial. 

We went to this Diner which is really close to the HighLine. I do recommend this place. It's really good, the portions are big, and the service is great too. The waiters are really friendly, and it's a A-listed restaurant. 

I promise you that this place, Star on 18, won't let you down. 

Now, the other thing that we did when we walked down the Highline was to stop by at the coffee stall. The name of the stall is Blue Bottle Coffee. Yes, it's the same one brewing at Brooklyn!

Their hot chocolate is really unique. It seems like you can really taste the dark chocolate (so in that manner, it's slightly bitter). It's not exactly very thick, but the consistency is just about right. It has right amount of milk, and just a whole mouthful of sinful melted chocolate. Sounds good no? 

Also, another thing which I find pretty funny about the American coffee places is that you usually have to ask for a double shot of espresso. I guess I'm too used to the ones in the UK. In that same manner, I keep forgetting to order double shots! And thus my coffee has less of a kick. Shame, because I can tell that the coffee is brewed really well. That's my fault. 

Ahhh.. Food and beverages. Who doesn't live for them? It should only be right that we live to eat and not eat to live. 

New York

And so I was in New York!

Some say that it is the city of...

It can also be a great place to chill out. Take Central Park for example. We also caught Shakespeare in the Park (T'was a bit strange though. We caught "All's Well That End's Well". So British, yet, spoken with the American twang. :S )

And you don't even have to travel all the way to Central Park. You could go to the Highline. Pretty place. It's a suspended park, built where there used to be suspended train tracks. Places to sit and chill, some nice ice-cream shops and a coffee cart and a restaurant (the restaurant is not really worth it though, if you ask me). Flowers blooming, butterflies flying. :)

New York is also the place where immigrants used to arrive with the hopes of a new and fresh start. Arriving in a boat from places far away to cry at the promise of freedom and democracy.

And for the artsy kids too. There's really something for everyone. This picture below is of the MOMA. 

And there are lots of other things to do too! The Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Met.

There's the Meatpacking District. Greenwich Village with all the quaint little coffee shops and some nice bars and pubs around, Washington Square, Flushing. 

And for the shoppers? Macy's, Bloomingdale, 5th Avenue (the list goes on!)

(My favourite place was Greenwich Village). I didn't really get to roam around Brooklyn and Queens though. 

More about some New York shops later. There's a good coffee place and a good diner that I want to talk about. But as this is a post on New York, I'd like to sum it up. 

New York is a great place. Lots of things to do. Lots of sights to see. But when I listen to the song 'Empire State of Mind', where it goes:

"New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of"

And I can't help but think that there definitely is a charm to this big ol' city. 

But it's hardly a place where my dreams are made of. 

For me it's London. I just feel that there is no way that this American city can compare to Little Britain. It's the only place I want to be right now.

Can't wait to get back. 

Speedy

And so, 2 weeks ago we had a whirlwind trip to Washington DC (our hearts go out to those affected by Hurricane Irene).

A friend once told me that the city was one of the highlights of the east coast, the other two basically being Boston and New York. But to be honest, there is nothing much here. 

Well, you have the White House, lots of memorials and museums... but nothing much basically. Just a day trip kinda place. 

Although I do get bored with memorials, I think it's great how they put them all in one area. So you can sort of complete all of them in one sweep, and feel like you've done a lot for the day. 

Some places to go to:

- the memorial area (Jefferson, Lincoln, Vietnam War, Korean War, etc)

- the air and space museum

- ** The NEWSEUM! :D Best highlight of the state if you ask me. 

- Capitol Hill (really pretty)

- The White House (just to take a picture of it to say that you've been there. If it wasn't the administrative building of the country I wouldn't even have bothered visiting!)

Darwin's Ltd.

There are actually two of these places in Cambridge, MA. I happen to go to the one on Cambridge Street (and that's the one I'm posting about!). 

Darwin's Ltd. is a splendid little place. It's pretty spacious, almost always buzzing with life. They serve excellent sandwiches. It's rather cute too, how they name the sandwiches after the local street names around the shop. It would be for that reason that some people might find that their favourite sandwich has different names if they went to the other shop! (note: I took that last sentence and paraphrased it from their website. Just to let you know) I've never tried the daily specials however. Those are pretty interesting because they sell it by weight. You tell the server what you want, and how much you want, and they'll cut it up, pack it, and weigh it. 

They also have a wide variety of salads for those who are of the healthier sort. And if you're one for pastries, they sell some cookies, muffins and (i think they're called) whoopie pies!

Anyway, although the lines are always long, it doesn't actually take forever to get your food. You'd be quite certain, actually, to get your food within a maximum 20 minutes (unless there's some monster at the front of the line making it hell for the server of course).

Their coffee is nothing really to shout about. Their cafe latte is just so-so. BUT, for some reason, their iced latte is quite good! Funny. And if you come in the evening, where there's less of a crowd, you'd actually be able to see the staff joking around and having a great time. I shouldn't be eaves-dropping, but sometimes the conversations are pretty funny (and they talk quite loudly too!).

There are plenty of seats and chairs, and a good large sofa for customers to sit on. Wifi is free and they don't really chase you out of there. 

I suppose that can be a good or a bad thing. 

Good because you can sit there and do your work and get all comfy and... well, you get the gist. 

But well, if everyone is gonna do that, then pretty much.. You won't be able to find a seat sometimes. And that's possibly the only downer. It does tend to get overrun by people interacting only with their computer screens. 

But otherwise, I really like this place. It's my escape from the over-populated and gimick-y Harvard Square area. It has more of a local flavour, and the neighbourhood is just lovely. 

I'd give this place a B+. :)

(On a random note, I've noticed that I only write about places I like. I never have the urge to talk about bad places that I've been to. *shrugs* I don't see myself changing)

Summer School

I haven't gotten around to posting about it yet, but here I am, in Boston. I'm attending summer school in Harvard. Some people have asked me why I'm so willing to put myself through school and study during the summer, but hey, there's so many interesting things to learn! Learning is an adventure in itself.

So yes, I'm back to staying up late to finish assignments and with my cup of coffee. 

And I'm loving it.