Standing around in the cold watching a ball

This sounds all too familiar... A bit colder than the Australian winter, but standing around watching a ball sounds like something I would do...

Final 3 days in America, final 3 days of the year... Roll on 2015...

Monday

Leaving a place you adore is never easy... It is why leaving Adelaide for 5 months is so hard, but leaving it for a weekend away in Melbourne for the footy is so easy... Any place that you love is going to be difficult to leave for long periods of time... Adelaide is home... Boston is my favourite city in America... I will be back, hopefully to see some baseball, but who knows when that will be, so, until then leaving is the hardest part of it all...

I left the apartment and headed to South Station Bus Terminal, stood in line for 10 minutes, boarded and we were on our way back to New York City.  We got onto the Mass Pike, passed Fenway Park on our left, and then I fell asleep... I slept from Back Bay to the Bronx... Crossed Connecticut and I couldn't be raised from my slumber...

When I did awake in the Bronx, New York, I was pleased that we were close... However, it turns out that we were actually an hour away from our drop off point (which was somewhere near 28th street)... It took us an hour to get from the Bronx to midtown/downtown... Which was really, really frustrating... But, my frustrating day was only beginning...

I caught a cab to Flushing, even though it would have been markedly cheaper to go to Flushing on the train, with my bags upon bags of clothes and souvenirs (I kind of went a bit nuts shopping in Boston), I didn't want to have to walk down Subway steps and I didn't want to have to deal with crowds on the train... I also didn't know exactly where the hotel was, so, deciding it more prudent to have someone who knew where they were going I caught a cab.  The ride out to Flushing took about a half hour.  Passing Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, very late in the trip. 

The closer I got to Flushing the signage was more and more no longer in English, increasingly the signs were purely in Chinese characters... The cab driver commented to me that I may as well be stepping out of the cab in Asia, because there aren't any other ethnicities out in this part of the city.   True to his word, as I stepped out of the cab I was a head taller than everyone and I was the only white man in the area.  I don't think that The Nanny going to Flushing to the Sheffield's door would be quite so white in real life, I also doubt a semi-successful theatre guy would be living in Flushing Queens... Anyway...

I was staying at the Hyatt Place Flushing/LaGuardia... It would have been so much better if I was flying out of LaGuardia, but the flights had been sorted out before I sorted out accommodation, so it is really no one's fault except maybe my own... This was 3 nights courtesy of my 2 years of travel jobs at EY.  All of the accommodation in New York was booked out (such as the hostel) or at a price which counted me out entirely, so I burned 3 nights worth of points and got a nice hotel for the time there, albeit, at the very end of one Subway line (the 7 line to Main Street Flushing, Queens).

I was due to check into the hotel at 3 PM... However, this didn't take and is where the frustrating day continued... I arrived at 2:30 PM, was told to wait until 3 PM... 3 PM came and went, I checked with the front desk at 3:15 PM who said that as they were a LaGuardia airport hotel they had to look after flight attendants, some of which had decided to stay late and would not be leaving their rooms until 4 PM at the earliest... Waiting for the room to be turned over would be longer again, and I was told I would likely need to wait 2 hours after 3 PM before I was any chance of getting into the room.  To say my patience was wearing thin was something of an understatement, and I am pretty sure I cursed the plane to crash and burn under my breathe, but with no one hearing it I am not sure the curse took effect... I haven't heard of any airline disasters in the past few days (at the time of writing I am in JFK waiting for my flight to Milan via London... Perhaps I shouldn't be covering this topic right at this moment/time of writing).

I eventually got into the room at 4:45 PM, only a casual one and three quarter hours late... To ease my annoyance/pain I got to the room and found Law & Order on the TV... Not SVU... So, I got to see some soothing arguments by Sam Waterston and finally relax in some comfort.

I then had to get the Subway out to Brooklyn for the basketball... My final game of professional sports in the USA... So, I caught the 7 train to Court Square and then got the G train to Brooklyn.  I had to walk a few blocks down to Barclays Center, and getting in was a bit of a pain, but I got in, ate a Nathan's hotdog (when in New York!) and waited for Anthony and Danielle. 

The game was between the Brooklyn Nets (the 3rd time I'd seen them) and the Sacramento Kings (everyone's favourite no hope team)... Partially due to our horrible seats and partially due to the fact I had interesting people to talk to I spent most of the game chatting rather than watching intently... What it is is what it is...

Barclays Center

Nosebleeds for the final game in America

National Anthem

Kevin Garnett

Opening tip

Sacramento entry pass

The "Brooklynettes" - Originality of the name, original whilst not being at all original

I can't remember much of the game save for a few dunks and Mason Plumlee playing really, really well (the guy at the Hornets game would be rolling in his grave if he was dead).

Final, Brooklyn 107, Sacramento 99

After the game ended we all walked out of the arena and stood in the cold chatting for probably 15-20 minutes, until we all got too cold to continue.  During the conversation, which spanned travel, work, general bullshit and travel again, we decided to go to a Chicago Style Pizza Bar on Tuesday night... I was keen and they weren't going to Chicago, so it worked fine for all involved.

I headed back to Queens, changing from the G to the 7, and went by a pharmacy before I went back to my hotel room.  I bought some water, some Reese's and a Snack Pack... I watched a portion of the Law & Order marathon eating peanut butter cups and chocolate pudding... I am just getting purchase for my last days in the USA!

Tuesday

Nice hotel rooms generally have nice beds, and nice beds generally result in long sleep ins for me... That happened... Late wake up, and then flicking on the TV I found that the Walking Dead marathon had started and was due to run all the way into the new year.  This is how I spent my morning!


I then headed out into the cold and walked for about 20 minutes to get to the Bowne Street Laundromat.  This was basically the rest of my morning... Dealing with a little shit of a kid whose mother was not controlling him, watching my clothes spin around in a washing machine and then a dryer, folding them, walking back to the hotel and going back to The Walking Dead... Great use of my morning... Though, it was needed, I was out of wearable underpants...


I still had not completed my major shopping (i.e. buying some jeans that didn't have massive holes in the seat of the pants), so I headed down the road to a mini-mall, which just happened to have a Marshall's.  So, I bought some jeans, I bought some trackies and I bought a belt... Though, the actual purchasing of this was a clusterfuck, my travel cash card didn't work, my regular credit card didn't work, so I had to leave the items at the front counter (after lining up for 15 minutes), walk out of the store, go to an ATM, pull out the requisite cash (on the 3rd attempt) and then go back to the counter, pay and leave... It turns out that both my travel cash card and my credit card had been frozen by the Commonwealth Bank.  I had $50 in my pocket and $21 on the card (which, when you include fees at an ATM means it was useless), so, I had $70 to last two and a half days, and considering I had to pay for my share of dinner at the Chicago pizza place, a portion of that cash was no longer available... So, to have frozen cards was not ideal, given my dwindling funds...

I walked out of Marshall's and went through some shoe stores, and I found the exact pair of Reeboks that I wanted, but they were two sizes too big and were a clearance item, so I could not get them in another size... They would have replaced my old Reeboks of the same model nicely, and given I had previously bought the old Reeboks in New York City it would have been a fine end to their life...

When I got back to my room I had to call Australia and deal with the bank, thankfully they unlocked my cards and gave me enough money to get food (and to do more shopping if I so chose)... This was a bit painful to be honest, but what it is is what it is...

I was meant to be aiming to get to the Chicago Style Pizza place, Emmett's, at 5:30 PM when they opened, but dealing with the bank kind of put me well behind schedule, and then trying to find a Reebok store was another issue... I caught the 7 train to the F train, which stopped near the Reebok store on the Avenue of the Americas... Regrettably this was only NHL clothes, which I wasn't interested in, so I got back on the Subway and headed down to Emmett's.  I met Anthony, Danielle and Rosie (who I had coached playing softball back when I was a coach) and we entered the restaurant... It was a 45 minute wait for a table, and so we put our names down and headed to a nearby establishment where we drank booze or water depending on our desire...

Eventually we headed back into the pizza place and ordered our pies.  The Chicago Style Deep Dish pizza is like an upside down pizza... You start with the dough, which also goes up the side of the pan (creating a pie like entity), then you do the cheese, then the toppings, then a thick layer of tomato sauce on the top... It is cooked for a significantly longer period of time than normal pizzas, so we waited about 45 minutes after ordering until our pizzas came out.  Rosie and I shared a sausage and ham pizza, while Anthony and Danielle shared one with pepperoni, olive and something else which escapes me at the moment...

Chicago Style Deep Dish

Thick, hearty and beautiful

I don't think Rosie was as enthralled as me at this point...

I have tried to make Chicago style deep dish at home, and Chris (not sure if you're reading at this point) we should be proud because our attempt was pretty close to what I was tasting... I reckon next time we go a bit easier on the dough... Well played sir.

Probably a little odd that I would be sitting in a Chicago style pizza bar in New York City with people I coached once upon a time, but that is the craziness of all this... It was a really enjoyable night and the conversation and company was wonderful.

I said goodbye to them as they caught the C train to Brooklyn while I caught it to Times Square to connect to the 7 train back to Queens.  It took about 50 minutes to get back to Queens from downtown, and when I got home I went for more chocolate, onto the TV for some more McCoy magic on Law & Order and then went to bed super late... Not sure why considering the big day ahead on December 31st, but what it is is what it is...

Wednesday

I woke up late again, it was my final full day in America, it was the final full day of 2014, and it was hovering around freezing point all day.  I got up and continued The Walking Dead marathon (which had entered Season 2) before heading back into the city for some shoe shopping... Turns out that the Designer Shoe Warehouse that I used 4 years earlier to buy those favourite Reeboks of mine didn't stock them any longer, but I walked out of the store with two casual pairs of shoes which I got for the same price as I would have paid for a single pair at home... The shopping in America is really cheap!  Though I am in the habit of looking at it without converting back to Australian dollars...

So, after catching the train into the city and buying shoes I made my way back to Queens to drop my bags and steel myself for the afternoon in Times Square.

The 4 year worn Reebok shoes with no tread left on the bottom... And the successors...

I had done my research.  Times Square would be closed to the public at 3 PM, so you should get there some time after 3, but not too long after (the website I read had suggested that being around all day wouldn't be fun either given the cold), so I got on the train again and headed to Times Square.  The 7 train terminates at Times Square, so I expected it to be an easy run to enter the Square and get in for a spot in a decent position. 

I got to Times Square at 3:30 PM, and was told at 47th Street by a NYPD Officer that 'No one is getting into Times Square any more', which had me super worried considering how far I'd come... To be 30 minutes late and not have access to Times Square worried me considerably... 30 New York minutes is too late... I ended up having to walk to 49th Street, where they redirected me to 52nd Street and a screening point to enter the cordoned off zone... This was a painful experience, as hundreds of other would be revellers crushed towards the police barriers and tried to force their way through... I am not a small man, but I was picked up by the pushing crowd once or twice and had no control over where I was heading.  This was 4 PM... I had 8 more hours in the cold and crush...

The crush trying to enter the police zone

The line causing the crush

I got through the police check eventually and then had to deal with being herded into pens... I walked up two blocks (don't know how I managed, but I ended up on 7th Avenue at the corner at 50th Street) and we were penned in again.  Loudly a police officer shouted "NO PUSHING", but that was like trying to tell 100 four year olds to quiet down with The Wiggles on stage; the guy was fighting a losing battle...  

Empty pens on 7th Avenue

Massive crush of people trying to get through the second police checkpoint into the pen

Eventually I made it through this checkpoint and settled at 7th Avenue and 50th Street.  Only 7 hours or so to go...

My view for close to 7 hours

Intersection where I spent the end of 2014

Never, ever, ever complain about crowds or weather at New Years Eve ever again... Sure, it wasn't snowing or raining... But it was below freezing all night, and I stood out in the cold for 8 hours being jostled by random strangers and being yelled at by cops just for the privilege to stand 8 blocks away from Times Square and not hear any of the entertainment.

That said... I am very happy that I made the effort and went, I am happy I saw a New Years Eve at Times Square... But I will endeavour to never complain about an Australian NYE ever again... Apparently there were 1,000,000 people in Times Square and the nearby streets... Not sure if that is quite right, but there was a shitload of people!

To pass the time standing in the cold, on every hour a countdown was held, either to practice for the East Coast New Year, or to ring in the New Year at each place to the East of America... During my wait I rung in the New Year in Cape Town, South Africa; Cairo, Egypt; Istanbul, Turkey; Brussels, Belgium; London, England; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; and St. Paul, Newfoundland... This was a fun top of every hour but the time in between were bone chillingly boring... The only way to pass the time was to chat to people around me, which, thankfully was a wonderful way to go about it... I chatted to some people from Manchester, a girl from Pensacola via New Orleans (whose friends had gotten through the security cordon and then abandoned her 5 or so hours before midnight... Some may say they were the smart ones), and eventually a Pakistani guy living in DC, some Japanese girls and a couple of Mexican guys...

Practice run

Happy New Year Belgium!

We ended up playing games to pass the time, such as picking a letter of the alphabet and naming celebrities whose name began with that letter... Although, that game began to become a farce after I began introducing fictional characters and using the name of the Diner across the street from us as a celebrity.  We played another game which was called something like 'I went to the market', which was a memory game where you would need to repeat each item that had been said in order and then add something yourself, followed by the next person doing the same thing and adding something themselves... This was fun, but I kind of didn't take it seriously, so when I said 'a massive steak' it was a real ball breaker for everyone who didn't speak English as a first language...

'I went to the Market' Chain of the Night
Sam: "I went to the market and bought some bread, milk, eggs, bagel, cheese, a massive steak, tomatoes, bacon, potato, ketchup, mustard, waffles, peas, bell peppers.... Uh.... Something else.... Something else again... Chocolate... Aaaaaaand, I'm going to say... Marshmallows..."

It passed the time brilliantly... Mostly because we were all as bored as each other and it was taking our minds off the cold and the nothing happening... I mean, I couldn't feel my feet by the 4 hour to go mark, and then the wind picked up and given that I was as tall as I was I didn't have anyone to block it, so I copped the brunt of it...

The international crew I spent NYE with

At 6 PM, the ball was raised... This caused a great deal of excitement in the crowd and caused much cheering and celebrating... We had been in the cold standing there for 2 hours... We had another 6 to go... After the ball was raised someone was on the stage performing...

Raising the ball

Fireworks for the raising of the ball

The most disappointing part of the night for me was not the cold, or the boredom, or any of that, it was the fact that the city of New York couldn't put some speakers on the corners in the police zone... We could see the screen and what was going on down in Times Square, but we couldn't hear any of it... The girl who sings Let It Go from Frozen performed, we saw it but heard none of it... It can't cost that much money to put shitty speakers up at various intervals down the street, at least it would have made the time pass a bit easier for us... Instead we were forced to listen to people behind us butcher songs by Journey and other party classics such as Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, Who Let the Dogs Out? by the Baha Men and I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys... It was a wide range of party classics, not going to lie... When they busted out Jingle Bells I kind of got tired of it... 51 weeks early guys, 51 weeks early!

The weirdest part of the night was when this random Domino's Pizza man walked through the pen peddling his pizza goods... If not for the fact that I had less than $10 in my pocket I may have taken him up on it...

Mercy!

Times Square 2014/15

8 hours spent watching the same ads... America Runs on Dunkin' don't you know?

I really do question my sanity standing out there for so long, my feet long since frozen, mercifully counting hours and chatting to the others to try to pass the time... At the 2 hour to go mark we got all up and about for some reason... I think our sanity had finally waned to a point where we were celebrating any little win... We had been there in 30 degree (F) weather for 6 hours, we still had 2 hours to go... But cheering! Only 2 hours to go!  I got some laughs when I screamed out "Will this horrible year never end?"... That line always works at least once every NYE...

At 11 PM Taylor Swift got on stage wearing not much more than a boob tube and performed, what I assume was music, I couldn't hear any of it... The question we were asking was not 'what is she singing?' is was exasperatedly asking 'how is she not cold?'... Though, I suspect she hadn't been standing outside like a chump for the preceding 7 hours...

Taylor Swift singing something, wearing not much, in sub-zero temperatures

As close to Taylor as I could get... 8 blocks away and viewing her through my camera lens viewing a video screen

The final hour roared by for the first half hour... Then as soon as it hit 11:30 PM time began to stand still again... I don't know if that was because we'd been there for 7 and a half hours in the cold and were so close to our goal, I don't know if time actually stood still, I don't know much, but the longest non-leap year year was finally coming to an end... It occurred to me that I got given an extra 15 or so hours as 2014 began in Adelaide, and was ending in New York, some 15-16 hours later than it should have... Though, that does mean that 2015 will be shorter than a regular year because I will lose that same amount of time if I spend my 2016 NYE in Australia (which seems likely 12 months prior to the date).

Mercifully the year finally ended with the ball descending and hitting 2015.  I spend many winter months in Australia standing around in the cold watching a ball in play, but this was something crazier again... A football obsession in Australia is so much warmer than NYE in Times Square!

There is a video on my Facebook page, for those with access to it, which shows the final 10-15 seconds of 2014...

48...

Ball continues to drop... 31...

Still going down!... 22...

All the way down... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thursday
Well, it was 2015... Now the arduous task of getting out of the pens and finding my way back to Queens. 

The crush getting in was bad... But the crush getting out was worse!  I literally had no control over my body for portions of my walk along 50th Street towards the Subway.  I had to ask several Cops where to go, differing levels of helpfulness, but I eventually made it to the C train, took it one stop to 42nd Street, where I transferred to the 7 train, and caught it the length of the line to Flushing.  There were some random characters on the train as well... Some drunken gay guy chatted me up for the one stop on the C train... He did say he wasn't hitting on me, but his eyes said something else...

Arriving in Queens and my hotel kind of hit home that I was leaving the USA in a matter of 17 hours... So, like any responsible traveller I went back to my room, continued the Walking Dead marathon and ate chocolates whilst neglecting to pack.

I had a significant amount of trouble getting everything into my bags when I did eventually get into the packing process... Turns out I bought more crap than I had thought... I let go of my well worn Reebok shoes, I got rid of the pants that had seen me through the entire USA (and two years of Australia prior) which had great big gaping holes in the seat of the pants...

Served me well...

The rest of the packing was put off until morning... Like, morning after I'd slept... Given that toiletries had to be factored in...

I went to bed at about 2:30-3 AM...

I woke up at about 10 AM... My checkout time was midday, and my bag still needed packing... So, after watching some more Walking Dead marathon I got into the shower, threw away more clothes, and continued the packing process... I ended up getting everything into my bag except the new shoes and a pair of jackets I was wearing (and planning to disrobe when I got to the airport) which I put in a plastic bag obtained from the Red Sox Team Store. 

The original plan was to buy another bag to check... But I didn't bother... We will see how my travel with plastic bag skills are I guess!

I milked every last second of time at the Hyatt, leaving my room at 11:59 AM, and then waiting in the line to checkout behind a group of Asians who were as pushy as ever... Seriously, this family were rude as anything... My personal space meant nothing apparently...  I checked out, had the hotel call a cab, waited for 10 minutes and eventually got in the car and headed for John F. Kennedy Airport... We rolled up to Terminal 7 for British Airways about 20-30 minutes later and the driver was super annoyed when I asked to pay with a credit card, even though I'd flagged that at the outset.

I got into the terminal, checked in, checked my bag to Malpensa, and got an aisle seat for the flight to London.  I reckon the stop over might be a bit tight in London, but we will see.

Going through security was a pain as it always seems to be... Shoes off... Laptop out of bag... No jackets... I ended up having to use 4 plastic trays for all my crap! And it took me a further 5 minutes sorting myself out once I'd gotten through the actual checkpoint...

The last meal I had in America was also the first McDonald's I had in America... It is the same as Australia... We aren't missing out on anything...

I sat at the gate for a few hours and chatted to people up early at home and completed this blog post... At the time of writing this exact line it is about an hour before I am due to board my flight to London, so I will take this moment to reflect on the last two months...

I opened this post by saying 'Leaving a place you adore is never easy'... And that is absolutely true... I adore this country... The people are all so nice to me (perhaps it is my accent!), the historical sites are amazing, the sports are done so much better than anywhere else I have been (and I say that knowing that Australian Rules will always be number 1 in my heart) and the ridiculously grandiose food is brilliant times.

This is a wonderful country, full of wonderful people.  The friends I already had in America, Sarah in Los Angeles, and the countless new friends I made throughout my travels, made for a wonderful and enlightening stay in this country... Thankfully nowadays becoming Facebook friends with someone you just met is a lot more common than 4 years ago...

I went to Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, through Minneapolis to Indianapolis, Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Orlando for Thanksgiving, Tampa, the Space Coast, Miami, Key West, Charleston, Columbia, Charlotte, Baltimore, New York City, Boston, Foxborough, and finally back to New York... I saw some amazing things and met some amazing people! 

I don't think it is any great surprise that my favourite two cities in the USA were Memphis and Boston. 

Memphis is a hugely underrated city with amazing food and amazing sites!

Boston is an amazing city with so much history and a brilliant accent!

I saw games of hockey, basketball and football in California, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts... 

I saw snow in Indiana, froze my nuts off in Nashville and sweated it out in Key West... 

I fired several guns in Nevada and lost a shitload of money gambling and debauching myself... 

I learned that garlic butter dipping sauce can only make pizza better... Thanks Papa John...

I found out so many new interesting facts about history and the places I was seeing and the sites where I was standing...  

Know where you're standing...

The fact that 2 months have already passed is amazing to me... Time flies when you're having fun and all that, but really I stand by 'leaving a place you adore is never easy'... It could have been 2 months, 2 weeks or 2 years and I'm sure I'd be feeling just as sorry for leaving... I really do adore this country and the people and places...

I will be back again... Hopefully next time I can get a travel companion to join the party, but until then you'll just have to re-read this blog and enjoy tales of ribs, freezing cold weather in Music City, USA and of random shit that goes on on this side of the world...

As I am about to board my flight to depart the United States of America it seems like this is a fitting place to end this post.  I will pick this up when I arrive in Italy, where I will be going to school for 12 weeks to learn Italian... I hope you enjoyed Sam's America as much as I did...

Grazie e viaggi sicuri