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!

A pleasant change of events

And so the beginning of my holidays started off with a trip up north with my cousin!

The initial plan was actually to go to the Peak District in the UK... But there were a few things that went wrong with the trip that made us change our plans quite drastically. Not that we minded. It was a good holiday.

So we went up to Halifax to her bf's place on a Saturday evening. This was the Queen's Jubilee weekend. All we wanted to do was to escape the crowds in London.

It's a nice quite little town, though there's nothing much to do there at all (yes, this is where the Halifax bank was established).

So we went to bed, planning the day ahead at the Peak district.. But when we woke up it was raining pretty heavily. There was no way that we were going to be able to enjoy ourselves up high on a peak/hill, so we turned to look at each other, and I said, "Let's go to Manchester for some dim sum!"

And that's what we did. We went to Manchester for dim sum.

Thereafter we went to watch Prometheus - It was a really bad movie I must say.. I was terribly bored all the way through, and at the end of it, I still didn't feel fulfilled at all. But it was a nice change of events I suppose. It's a good thing that we didn't stay in London too - it rained throughout the Queen's jubilee parade down the river Thames. My flatmate says that it was pretty miserable waiting out in the rain to not really even be able to catch a glimpse of the boats that came by.

The next day we decided to go to the Yorkshire Dales, instead of continuing with our plan of visiting the Peak District. It was for the simple reason that this peak was so much closer to Halifax than the Peak district towns.

The meadows at Yorkshire Dales

We drove up, had a nice picnic up there, and basically walked all through the small little town of Grassington.

We bought stuff to eat from the Spar, and drove to the grassy fields, near the river, and sat there talking and eating and enjoying the sun.

The river

After our nice little picnic we gathered our things,  and walked through the town of Grassington one last time. We walked into the little shops to look at some knick-knacks, bought some sweets and chocolates and the like... It was good. Bought a bottle of jam for my dad. Funny thing about dad. He likes pretty jam bottles but he never really eats the jam inside.

Cute little shops, selling some cute little things

We then went back to Halifax for tea, and then cooked dinner for the night.

I was to go back to London on the very next day (Monday). I must say that I really enjoyed this little excursion.

See ya. :)

Grounded- but not for long.

And so for the past month (and more) I have grounded myself in my flat, studying.

Yeah, that's the bane of student life really - examinations. But we can't really help it.

Which probably explains my lack of things to do or say. But in any case, all I can do is to hope for the period after exams to be at least somewhat exciting.

I'm graduating this year. How scary is that?

My Favourite Coffee Haunts (thus far)

Kaffeine

I was just having a conversation the other day with SW, about our favourite cafes. And she asked me to rank my favourite few.

"It's actually quite hard to say actually, " I replied. "It all depends on what you want to go there for."

I know that there are so many around London. More than I can count. More than I could ever visit, but here's a short list of what I told SW.


If it's just purely for the coffee?
- Store Street Espresso
- The Espresso Room

If it's for the atmosphere, I would divide it into a few categories:
a) For BOTH very close friends and acquaintances (the two extremes)
- Notes, Music and Coffee (St. Martin's Lane)
- Fork, Bloomsbury

b) For friends
- Kaffiene
- Wild and Wood
- Fleet River Bakery

c) For Family
- Lantana
- Look Mum, No Hands!
- Tom's Kitchen

d) For serious conversations
- Milkbar
- Salt (Great Queen Street)

e) For inspiring conversations
- Flat White
- Look Mum, No Hands!

A nice and quite place to study?
- Bloomsbury Coffee House


Do try them out and tell me if I got them right.

Aberdeen, Scotland

Aberdeen - 

Below I have a picture of the University of Aberdeen. It really is quite a pretty university. Well, some buildings anyway. My friend who goes there just showed me 'the nice ones' apparently. Hahaha. 

Aberdeen University

According to her, the city of Aberdeen is a nice place to live in - but only for the company. I didn't get her at first. Not until I arrived in the city and saw it for myself. 

When I arrived, I hailed a taxi to take me to her student accommodation. And on the way there, I could not help but realise that every (I'm not exaggerating here) building was GREY. It was really rather perplexing. I thought I was imagining it at first. But she clarified with me that perpetually every building in this city is made of granite. 

The only saving grace she says - is that sometimes, when the sun actually does shine, it... sort of sparkles. 

Blows your mind doesn't it? ahahhaa. 

But it is a rather gloomy place. Grey cobblestones, grey buildings, grey sky.... EVERYTHING, is grey. And honestly, I think, during winter, it can be a little bit of a depressing city. The sun hardly ever comes out apparently. 

But I don't think that's all that there is to it. They do have a gem in the city:

Aberdeen beach

The beach. It's a fantastic place to hang out, to walk your dog, and the likes. I imagine having wonderful picnics here too. What's good about it, is that it is a sandy beach. My friend didn't really understand why I was so glad to see sand per se, but I basically told her that for most of England, the beaches are just rock beaches. I.e. that it's just pebbles. I don't know how to explain this exactly, but take a trip down to Brighton, and you'll get what I mean. 

Aberdeen.. I agree with her. Not a place to visit unless you have the company. There's nothing much to see in this place at all. 

Fleet River Bakery

Quite a number of people who work or study in London would have heard about this little place - Fleet River Bakery. It's situated in Holborn, near the London School of Economics and Lincoln's Inn. A little gem of a place, if I must say so myself. 

I must say that my whole experience studying in London wouldn't have been complete without this place. It's a convenient, and very nice place, to meet with your friends for a chat. You can stay and do a little bit of reading, you can have a good breakfast, and have some nice cakes and scones for tea. 

The scones, as my friends have dubbed it, are the MOTHER of scones. They are huge! And very well worth the price. The cream.. the jam.. the texture. Heh. 

There was once, when pouring the milk into my Flat White, the barista messed up the coffee art. 

There was nothing wrong with the taste, but I was pleasantly surprised when he said that he'd make me a completely new one. I didn't ask him to, and neither did I mind having coffee with sucky coffee art. But I guess, for the sake of trade and perfection, he did offer me a new one. 

And now that is what I call dedication and excellent service. 

Worth a visit, worth the time. 

And I can bet my undergraduate degree on that. 

Lisbon

It's been quite a long time since I posted.. As the previous post suggested, I went to Lisbon as the second part of my Portugal trip.

Lisbon: Shot taken with my Polaroid

This would be the one photo that I took that pretty much sums up my entire experience of Lisbon.

It's a powerful city. The people there are really nice and helpful. There's this intensity that comes with the city though. Reminiscent of the old. Statues and memorials and museums.

The best part of the trip though, was the trip to a small town outside the main city, called Sintra. It's sort of a fairy tale town. Reminds me of Disney. We were lucky to get there on a sunny day.

We stayed at this hostel: The Lisbon Lounge Hostel. By far, this is the best hostel I have ever stayed in. EVER. And I do pretty much like to think that I travel a lot, having been to about 15 cities in the past few months or so. They have excellent service, they do tours... they pretty much have a lot of activities lined up for you, in such a way that you would not have to plan anything for yourself. They have cheap (BUT EXCELLENT!) dinners at night too.

As much as we would like to think of Portugal as the land of Nandos, it also turned out that they don't really eat Piri-piri chicken all that much. But when you do find a restaurant that serves it, it's fantastic.

Oh, and the Portuguese egg tarts in Bellum. There's only one place that's famous there. Hard to miss. Pity I can't remember the name. Heh. But man, I'd fly back to Portugal just for those egg tarts.

As you can guess, no matter how majestic Lisbon/Portugal was, the only thing that really made it worthwhile to me was the food. Yup.